Sylar

Sylar
Portrayed by	Zachary Quinto, Maurice LaMarche (voice for Sylar's message)
First appearance	One Giant Leap
In-story stats
Known abilities	Intuitive aptitude Known powers gained: Telekinesis, Cryokinesis, Enhanced memory, Liquefaction, Enhanced hearing, Precognition, Induced radioactivity
Formal name	Gabriel Gray
Aliases	Gabriel Sylar, Drew O'Grady, Dr. Suresh, Zane Taylor, Isaac Mendez
Gender
Home	New York, NY
Residence	Sylar's apartment
Occupation	Timepiece restorer
Parents	Unnamed New York City watchmaker (father), Virginia Gray (mother)

Sylar is a serial killer who sometimes removes the brains of his victims, primarily those he believes to be evolved humans. Chandra Suresh identified him as Patient Zero in his research. Before adopting the name Sylar, he was known as Gabriel Gray.

About

Born Gabriel Gray, the son of a watchmaker always dreamed of bigger things, of being "special". Adopting the name "Sylar," he becomes a serial murderer, targeting evolved humans with abilities, but doesn't discriminate against killing anybody who stands in his way. Having the power of intuitive aptitude, Sylar is able to see how things work and use that to take the special powers of others after killing them. The FBI has categorized Sylar as a suspected serial killer. His suspected victims are sometimes seen with their heads sliced open horizontally at the center of their skull and their brain removed. Other victims are pinned to wall, frozen, or beaten. Sylar is hunted by the FBI, but has successfully eluded and taunted them, growing stronger and more powerful with each victim.

Character History

Season One

For an episode-by-episode summary, see Sylar: Season One History.

Mohinder Suresh discovers that Sylar was involved in his father's research, and potentially his father's death when Chandra decided he wanted nothing more to do with Sylar. Meanwhile, Sylar is on a quest to gain as many powers as he can--he kills the Walkers in their own home, then murders Charlie Andrews where she works. At Union Wells High School's Homecoming, Sylar fails at capturing Claire Bennet's power when Peter Petrelli intervenes. Instead, he is captured by the Company and temporarily imprisoned at Primatech Paper Co. until he escapes, killing Eden McCain and others along the way.

Six months prior, Chandra Suresh meets Gabriel Gray and helps him discover his potential by telling him about his research. Gabriel kills Brian Davis and takes his power of telekinesis. In the present, Sylar takes Zane Taylor's power of liquefaction by impersonating Mohinder Suresh. He then impersonates Zane to gain Mohinder's help. Mohinder discovers Sylar's identity, but not before Sylar kills Dale Smither and takes her power of enhanced hearing. Mohinder tries to sedate and shoot Sylar, but fails.

Sylar then kills Isaac at his apartment and gains Isaac's ability of precognition. After seeing an explosion in a vision that he believes he causes, he visits his mother. Although Sylar accidentally kills her too, she helps him to realize that he could do anything, even become president if he wanted to. Sylar kills Ted Sprague and takes his ability of induced radioactivity. He then confronts Peter Petrelli, Matt Parkman, Niki Sanders and Hiro Nakamura at Kirby Plaza. Hiro appears and seemingly kills Sylar by running him through with Ando's sword, but Sylar's body disappears, leaving only a trail of blood that leads into a manhole.

Kindred

Sylar awakens on a beach with a redhead. She explains that she can cast illusions, and that he shouldn't move or he may tear his stitches from the operation on his stomach. She tells him that she "dragged" him away from New York and that the people that she works for fixed his wounds. Sylar asks to see what is real, and "Michelle" reveals a crude medical facility. When he recovers enough to move, he tries to use his powers, but finds himself unable to. Candice tells him that she will help him gain new abilities "by making it easy," and demonstrates her ability. Intrigued, he interrupts her plan by striking her in the head with a mug. He proceeds to kill her and attempts to take her power, but cannot use it. He then leaves the building for the first time and discovers that he is in the middle of a tropical jungle with no other visible human habitation.

The Kindness of Strangers

In Mexico, Derek, Maya, and Alejandro discover Sylar lying in the middle of the road. They take him into the car, where he tells Maya and Alejandro that he knows Chandra Suresh. He introduces himself as Gabriel Gray.

At a newspaper stand, Derek notices a newspaper that shows Maya and Alejandro as wanted murderers. Sylar tells Derek to call the cops, but when Derek goes into the back room, Sylar follows him and kills him.

Back in the car, he confronts Maya, showing her the newspaper. When she says it wasn't her fault, Sylar claims Derek is calling the police, causing Maya to begin crying, which activates her ability. Sylar begins to sicken but Alejandro is able to reverse the effects of his sister's ability. Sylar recovers, and says he can relate to them and takes off with them in Derek's car.

Powers

Sylar's original power is intuitive aptitude — a superhuman ability to determine exactly how things work.

Sylar appears to have used his innate power to discover how to take the superpowers of other evolved humans. The exact mechanism by which Sylar gains these powers is not at present known; however, he believes that Chandra Suresh is correct that the abilities are based in the brain, and several of Sylar's victims have had their skulls opened and brains removed.

Acquired Powers

With Sylar's ability enabling him to take the abilities of others, he has acquired many abilities.

Before he was infected with the Shanti virus (Kindred), he had acquired the following abilities (in chronological order):

• Telekinesis (One Giant Leap) from Brian Davis (Six Months Ago)
• Shattering from Trevor Zeitlan (Villains)
• Freezing (Don't Look Back) from James Walker (Behind the Eclipse)
• Melting from Zane Taylor (Run!)
• Enhanced hearing from Dale Smither (Unexpected)
• Precognition from Isaac Mendez (.07%)
• Induced radioactivity from Ted Sprague (Landslide)

Sylar originally stole enhanced memory from Charlie Andrews (Seven Minutes to Midnight). However, in Once Upon a Time in Texas, Hiro Nakamura went back in time, preventing the event from having happened. Thus, in the current timeline, Sylar never acquired the ability.

When he was infected, his intuitive aptitude and telekinesis were suppressed, and his other abilities were permanently lost.

He has since recovered from the virus (using a cure in Powerless), and subsequently demonstrated his original ability and telekinesis. Since that time, he has acquired the following additional powers:

• Rapid cellular regeneration from Claire Bennet (The Second Coming)
• Alchemy from Bob Bishop (The Butterfly Effect)
• Clairsentience from Bridget Bailey (One of Us, One of Them)
• Sound manipulation from Jesse Murphy (One of Us, One of Them)
• Electric manipulation from Elle Bishop (It's Coming)
• Lie detection from Sue Landers (Our Father)
• Imprinting from Joe Macon (Out of Town... On Business)
• Shape shifting from James Martin (Into Asylum)
• Disintegration from Tom Miller (I Am Sylar)
• Flight from Nathan Petrelli (An Invisible Thread)
• Empathy from Lydia (Let It Bleed)

During their conversation, Sylar and Mr. Bennet confirmed that Sylar has multiple abilities (Fallout); however, apart from telekinesis, the Company was unable to identify what these powers were (Godsend). Based on Mohinder's statement to the authorities (Fallout) that at least six people from his father's list have been murdered by Sylar (prior to Zane Taylor), it's likely that Sylar has at least ten acquired powers: the six Mohinder mentions, plus those of Zane, Dale, Isaac, and Ted. He attempted to take an eleventh power from Candice, but so far hasn't been able to use it.

Sylar has demonstrated the ability to use at least two of his acquired powers at the same time. (The Hard Part)

Telekinesis is Sylar's most commonly observed acquired power.

Memorable Quotes

"When I was a kid ... I used to wish some stranger would come and tell me my family wasn't really my family. They weren't bad people, they were just ... insignificant. And I wanted to be different. Special. I wanted to change. A new name, a new life. The watchmaker's son ... became a watchmaker. It is so futile. And I wanted to be ... important."

- Sylar (to Chandra Suresh) (Six Months Ago)

"That sound in your heart, what is it?"

"Murder."

- Dale, Sylar (Unexpected)

"This is usually the part when people start screaming."

- Sylar (to Isaac) (.07%)

"Mom -- Mom, don't. Don't, it's just... maybe I don't have to be special. That's okay to just be a normal watchmaker. Can't you just tell me that's enough?"

- Sylar (to Virginia) (The Hard Part)

"You? How are you gonna help? You going to make me some more eggs?!"

- Sylar (to Candice) (Kindred)

Notes

• In an interview, Tim Kring responded to the question "Are Sylar and Claire's father connected?" by saying "There is a connection between the two, which will become clear in later episodes."
• Kristin Veitch of E! indicates that Sylar's character "is the opposite of what you'd think it would be."
• In an interview with Wizard Magazine, Tim Kring states "Sylar's storyline is much cleaner line than a lot of people think. He's literally just a character who wanted to be special and he gets kind of f--ked up and becomes a serial killer. That's all it is."
• When the apparently dead Sylar revives in The Fix and in "The Kindness of Strangers", the familiar "tick-tock" can be heard, perhaps implying he has used his power.
• The fact that Sylar survived being shot (by Matt and by Mr. Bennet) and that he walked away from a serious fall at Homecoming led to speculation that he possessed some kind of superhuman endurance. However, Aron Coleite and Joe Pokaski stated in an interview that much of Sylar's apparent invulnerability is a product of his telekinesis. Sylar's resistance to bullets was specifically shown to be a specialized use of telekinesis in Parasite.
• Sylar seems able to levitate himself somehow. He seemingly did this to elude capture (One Giant Leap) and to approach Dale Smither without her hearing any sound of footsteps (Unexpected). He also escapes Virginia Beach police by propelling himself into a tree (Road Kill). Jason Badower stated that the script for Road Kill specifically states that Sylar uses telekinesis to escape the crashing Northeast Brewing Company truck. Whether or not the other instances are also a specialized use of his telekinesis is unclear.
• Sylar introduces himself to the trucker as "Drew O'Grady", apparently taking the alias from two headlines in a newspaper he had seen shortly before meeting the trucker. The headlines read, "President drew fire for welfare comments" and "O'Grady Farm to be purchased back..." (Road Kill). This is in keeping with the way he acquired the "Sylar" alias, taking the name from a watch as he meets Brian Davis (Six Months Ago).
• In an interview, Aron Coleite and Joe Pokaski explain that, although unusual vocal effects were used for both Sylar (Distractions) and Peter Petrelli (Unexpected), both were for "coolness factor", and were not an indication that either was using persuasion. They later reiterated the point in reference to Sylar's voice in .07%.
• The address Mohinder discovers for Sylar in his father's journal is 1146 Trenton Place APT 1B, Queens, NY 11011. (One Giant Leap)
• In an interview, Zachary Quinto said he purposely chooses to take on the characteristics of Sylar's victims. "[Distractions] was the genesis and then it continued for me as an actor to draw on the characteristics of the other characters that I was killing. There were choices I made in scenes to bring echoes of those characters to what I was doing."

Trivia

• A photograph on NBC's Heroes site shows a birth announcement for a "Paul E. Sylar", dated June 11, 1962. The announcement appears to be pinned next to the map in Chandra Suresh's Brooklyn apartment. However, the casting of 29 year-old Zachary Quinto seems contrary to this information, as does the revelation that "Sylar" is an assumed name. In all likelihood, since the announcement only ever appeared clearly in promotional photos, the character concept has changed since the original announcement was designed and there is no "Paul E. Sylar." This is a remnant from the original cut of the pilot episode (In His Own Image). In that version, the conversation on the Sylar tape can be heard, but it is a conversation between Chandra and Paul E. Sylar.
• The role of Sylar was originally offered to Christopher Eccleston. He declined the role because he thought it was a cliché for European actors to play villains in American culture.
• In the first draft of the pilot, Sylar was supposed to appear in an Italian prison. According to Greg Beeman's blog, this version of Sylar was supposed to have long claw-like nails and sharp teeth. He was also supposed to be "way weirder and more monstrous — like Nosferatou."
• Ando tells Peter that Sylar is like okage which he translates as "boogeyman" (Homecoming). Molly Walker also refers to Sylar as "the boogeyman" (The Hard Part).
• Sylar taking his name from a watch mirrors one theory regarding the Zodiac Killer who killed several people in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 60s. One suspect was allegedly given a "Zodiac" brand watch that had the same logo (a crossed circle) that the killer used to sign his letters. Also of note, before one alleged victim died, she was followed by a suspicious man wearing horn-rimmed glasses.
• Before the airing of Six Months Ago, the theory that Sylar is Peter had become so stale at 9th Wonders, the semi-official Heroes fansite, that it has inspired a drinking game: whenever someone brings it up, drink.

See Also

• For articles related to Sylar, see Related Articles:Sylar.
• For images of Sylar, see Images of Sylar.
• For Sylar as he appeared in the dark future, see Sylar (future).
• For other uses of Sylar, see Sylar (disambig).
• For other uses of "boogeyman", see boogeyman (disambig).

External Links

• Sylar's Blog (Fan site)
• Sylar's Army (Fan Group)

Fan Theories

Please refer to Theory:Sylar for fan-created theories and other speculation.