Nathan Petrelli

Nathan Petrelli
Portrayed by	Adrian Pasdar
First appearance	Genesis
In-story stats
Known ability	Flight
Gender
Residence	Nathan Petrelli's home
Occupation	U.S. Congressional candidate
Significant other	Heidi Petrelli
Parents	Angela Petrelli, Father (unnamed, deceased)
Child	2 sons (unnamed)
Sibling	Peter Petrelli (younger brother)

Nathan Petrelli is a poltician currently running for election to the U.S. House of Representatives. He lives in New York with his wife and two sons. He discovers he has the ability to fly.

Character history

Genesis

Nathan is approached by his brother Peter, who tells him that he has been having strange dreams and believes he can fly. Nathan is unconvinced. Eventually, their conversation is interrupted by the news that their recently widowed mother has been arrested for shoplifting. Nathan, still primarily concerned with his candidacy, cuts his mother no slack and soon leaves her at the police station with Peter. Afterwards, Nathan watches from an alley as Peter jumps off a building in an attempt to fly. As Peter falls, Nathan flies into the air and grabs his hand, surprising them both. A cliffhanger ensues as the brothers lose their grip on one another.

Don't Look Back

Peter wakes up to find Nathan at his bedside in a hospital. Oddly, Nathan denies that he flew and tries to explain away what happened as if it were simply a failed suicide attempt by Peter. Much later that night, Nathan is on a rooftop watching as Peter threatens to jump off the edge of the roof unless Nathan says that he flew. Nathan eventually admits that he did fly. Peter fears that Nathan is lying, but both brothers soon learn that Peter can fly as well when he begins to walk on thin air.

Hiro Nakamura, a character able to manipulate time, travels to a possible future five weeks ahead where Nathan wins his race by a landslide.

One Giant Leap

When approached by Peter with information from Chandra Suresh's book, Nathan is still more focused on his campaign and says he has a family to take care of. That evening, Nathan holds a press conference where he broaches the subject of depression. He reveals that his father suffered from it, and that it was the cause of his death, and also claims that Peter attempted suicide, causing his brother to leave. Later in a parking lot, Nathan is getting into his car when a furious Peter assaults him with a punch to the jaw before being overpowered by a number of bodyguards. Although he is called an SOB by his own brother, Nathan calmly retorts, "careful, Pete, that's our mother you're talking about". Nathan tells Peter that he had to say those things before the press made up their own notions about him. Nathan exclaims that Peter should understand why he made the choice to tell everyone, but Peter merely shrugs and leaves.

Collision

Nathan is being "harassed" by Mohinder and refuses to listen to him. He prepares to leave for Las Vegas to meet Mr. Linderman. There, Nathan encounters Niki Sanders who is supposed to sleep with him by the order of Mr. Linderman. She refuses at first for respect for Nathan's wife but once her alter-ego kicks in, she returns to his hotel room and sleeps with him. They are shown later sleeping and being watched by Mr. Bennet and the mysterious man. He orders the mysterious man to "take just the one."

Hiros

Nathan has been captured by Mr. Bennet and the mysterious man. When Bennet's phone rings, Nathan attempts to escape, but is cornered at a fence. As the men close in on him, he shoots up into the sky and flies away at extreme speed.

Landing in the desert near a diner (and scorching his feet with the speed of his landing), Nathan walks in wearing only his pyjama bottoms. He asks to borrow a cell phone and for a t-shirt. While he waits for his aides to pick him up, Hiro comes over and begins telling Nathan that he saw him fly and that he, too, is special. Nathan dismisses him, especially when Hiro tells him about an explosion in New York he witnessed in the future. Before he leaves, he asks Hiro if he remembers the outcome of the election, and Hiro tells him he won in a "mudslide".

Arriving back at the casino, Nathan bumps into Niki, who tells him she doesn't remember the night before and that the whole thing was a set-up so Mr. Linderman could blackmail Nathan the way she had been blackmailed.

As Nathan checks out of the hotel, Miss Sakamoto, the hotel manager, checks on him. He tells her he knows he's being blackmailed and she assures him it's a debt he can repay later. Nathan suggests she give him the four million dollars he's come to get, even though Linderman had only promised him two million. Nathan reasons that if it's so important that Linderman have him in his pocket, then it's just as important that Nathan actually win, and he figures four million will do it.

Powers

Nathan has the ability to fly. It is currently unknown how he propels himself or what speeds or altitudes he is capable of achieving, but judging by the sound of his flight when escaping from Mr. Bennet, he is quite fast, possibly supersonic.