Theory:Exposed future

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The following fan theories are about exposed future.

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Theories

Theory	Citations	Notes
The "exposed future" is not avoidable this time.	None.	+ Future Peter has changed too much in the past, unlike Future Hiro and thus made it impossible to correct everything. - Changing the past is what could prevent the "exposed future." - Hiro and Peter have been able to change the past before. • Maybe they will realize that every time they change the future the next one is worse.
Noah Gray is the child of Sylar and Elle Bishop.	None.	+ Sylar and Elle could bond later over having problems dealing with their powers.
Noah Gray's mother is Sandra Bennet.	None.	+ The Grays are living at the Bennet house in Costa Verde. + Maybe Noah Bennet dies and Sandra discovers that she was pregnant and later dies in child birth.
Noah Bennet is killed by Knox.	None.	+ Noah and Sylar were hunting down Knox in present time. - Why would Claire be allied with her father's killer? + Claire specifically stated that Sylar took everything from her. She might not believe that Knox did it, but instead may be blaming Sylar for it. + Knox wants revenge against Noah for locking him up.
Peter is the source of the explosion.	Peter has already exploded once in How to Stop an Exploding Man.	+ Peter absorbs lots of powers and being part of an army of powered people might overload him. + Peter has been directly tied to three bad futures: the "explosion future," the "outbreak future," and the "exposed future." - Peter has lost all of his powers. + Peter might be able to take his powers back from Arthur.
Peter is a catalyst for time's rifts.	All the dark futures have been indirectly Peter's fault.	+ In the "explosion future," Peter is set to explode (How to Stop an Exploding Man). + In the "outbreak future," Peter assisted Adam in releasing the virus (Powerless). + Future Peter's interference with the past (The Butterfly Effect) seems to have caused the "exposed future." - Future Peter came from the original "exposed future."
The "exposed future" is going to happen anyway, no matter how many heroes try to stop it, and even because they are trying to stop it.	None.	+ After Hiro watched his death by the hands of Future Ando, he started acting coldly with Present Ando. Because of that, the two of them almost ended their partnership, which could be one of the reasons which led Future Ando into killing Future Hiro. - Ando seems to have regained Hiro's trust. + After Sylar's attack, a consequence of Future Peter's actions to stop the "exposed future," Claire starts to search for answers, and she's getting very close to Pinehearst. Future Claire was a Pinehearst agent. + After seeing Sylar in her dream, Angela brought him to the Company and led him to believe he could be a better man. Future Sylar was a normal guy trying to control his dangerous ability. - Angela's dream is very different from the "exposed future." In the "exposed future," Hiro is killed with Ando's ability, Peter is killed with Claire's gun, and Claire lives to adulthood. + Sylar's attack to the Company, a consequence of Future Peter's actions to stop the "exposed future," ended up with the escape of several evolved humans of Level 5, Knox among them. Afterwards, Knox started working at Pinehearst. Future Knox worked for Pinehearst. - Knox working for Pinehearst is probably not a defining part of the "exposed future."
Peter and Hiro must work together to stop the "exposed future."	None.	+ Hiro and Peter went to the future separately, but both saw the "exposed future," indicating that neither stopped the "exposed future" without the other.
Sylar took Claire's ability in Future Peter's timeline.	None.	- Angela blames this on Future Peter. - Future Peter did not point out that it would have happened anyway. + In this timeline, Claire practically quotes what Sylar, saying she's "different" and "special." + In this timeline, Claire works for Pinehearst. The writers say that seeing Peter fall out the window "averted or delayed" Future Claire's employment by Pinehearst. This suggests that Future Claire's recruitment happened when she and Elle came to the Pinehearst building, which they did because Claire had lost control of her ability when Sylar attacked her. - This could also suggest that Future Claire was recruited at some other point, but crossing paths with Peter's incident prevented this. + In the I Am Become Death timeline, Future Claire works for Pinehearst, even though she had reason to go to Pinehearst with Elle. - It could be both that Claire going to Pinehearst was caused by Future Peter's intervention, and that Peter's incident at Pinehearst was caused by his knowledge of the future.
In the "exposed future," the planet will be shattered by an evolved human with the power of earth manipulation.	In the "exposed future," as seen in I Am Become Death, we saw a newspaper which said, "Man causes earthquake in Australia", killing hundreds of thousands.	+ It will require a tremendous power to split the whole planet in pieces. An ability like earth manipulation would do the trick. - Not even the most destructive ability introduced so far has caused enough damage to destroy a planet.