| It is possible that Mr. Petrelli had super powers. |
Mrs. Petrelli said that his depression involved delusions of grandeur. His sons are evolved siblings. He worked for Linerman, who was to some degree aware of the recent evolutionary developments |
|
}
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
| Peter's power may be empathy. This would give him the ability to channel powers and would explain his prophetic dreams about Nathan, and explain how he knows what he felt. |
According to Tim Kring: "Peter’s [power] is based on his empathy and his ability to connect with people and when he’s around them." |
This would also match the theory that their abilities are based on their personalities...or personality on abilities. Peter became a nurse to help people, so gaining empathy would just further his wanting to help.
|
| Peter has some unknown additional power that is or causes these dreams and blackouts. |
|
According to the writers, each character has only one innate power.
|
| Peter's impending explosion, foreseen in Fallout, may be caused by the proximity of many other evolved humans, whose power he absorbs all at once; it's too much power for him to handle. |
After being in close proximity to several others in a short time, Peter appears weak and sickly. (Fallout) |
|
| Peter's vision of himself exploding may not be a prophecy; it may be form of empathic communication, like some of his other dream experiences seem to be. |
His dream about Charles Deveaux was not prophetic |
If so, Peter is wrong to think he will be the cause of the explosion. Also, Claire is alive in the vision, implying that this cannot be the actual end of the world.
|
| Peter may use the vision as a warning that he needs to learn how to better control his powers in order to prevent a disaster like the explosion. He may now start making an effort to learn to control his powers in order to prevent the explosion from happening or to limit it's destruction. |
Spoilers indicate he will gain a mentor who helps him control his powers |
|
| As seen in a painting in the background of Isaac's room at Primatech Paper Co, Peter could evolve into something akin to the Human Torch. |
Isaac's painting |
|
| If Peter's power is mimicing/copying the special abilities of others, why did he stick just to Claire's healing power when he was very close to Sylar (and a bit farther away from Eden and the Haitian)? |
|
We don't know how close Peter has to be to another superhuman to duplicate their powers, or how long he has to be near them. Also, he may be unable to duplicate the acquired powers of Sylar (as opposed to his innate power of intuitive analysis). Also note that Sylar used his acquired ability of telekinesis to launch lockers that did not hit Peter. It is possible that Peter unknowingly used telekinesis to prevent damage to himself. This was suggested in the Q & A session with the witers. It also looks like the lockers are just flying around him. It is probable that Peter had access to all of Sylar's powers, but did not know how to wield them.
|
| In the vision, Peter explodes from mimicking too many powers at once |
|
From the way the other heroes are responding to him, this seems most likely. Claire says she is sorry, Simone is running to him, Nathan is walking towards him determinedly, etc... The dream may also not be prophetic in nature at all, but merely a means for his body to explain its dilemma; that it cannot mimic so many powers simultaneously, probably causing damage similar to what is occuring to Sylar. It would explain why Peter suddenly "blows" when his brother gets too close. The New York setting as well as serving the content of Issac's painting may be his subconcious linking real life events to a dream. This would also explain the shorter Nathan/Sylar dream, though it doesn't explain how Peter could render images of Micah, Nikki, D. L. and Hiro whom he has never met, as well as Sylar, who he had seen very briefly. It also doesn't explain the other Heroes' reactions to him in his dream.
|
| In the vision, Peter sees himself as Theodore Sprague who is the one that loses control of his powers and goes nuclear. |
|
|
| In the vision, Peter sees himself as Sylar, who loses control of Theodore Sprague's power after stealing it. |
His trench coat and watch are similar to Sylar's |
Peter has been shown to wear a trench coat since the beginning of the series, and many characters wear watches. Peter's watch in the vision is not broken and is a different shape than Sylar's.
|
| Peter is manifesting the abilities of a female human torch whom we have not yet met |
"A new female hero is joining the cast for a mini arc, and this person's power is unlike anything we've seen on the show so far. All I'll say is, she'd come in very handy on Survivor." Source: Ask Ausiello @ TV Guide) |
In Peter's vision, the others act afraid of him, even before anything happens. If they knew he was going to "explode", they would be running away a much faster.
|
| Peter exploding may be a self-fufilling prophecy |
Some of Isaac's paintings have happened because the paintings were seen |
Peter will contact the others and tell them he is the one who is going to explode. Theyll believe this because of the exploding man painting and barracade the city, etc. Then since he will be by all of them at once he will explode becuase of it. And he would not have if he hadnt contacted them all.
|
| Peter's Regeneration after his encounter with Sylar was incomplete. |
When we see Peter in Fallout, he is coughing and sickly. It would appear that he did not heal completely. |
Peter's illness could also be attributed to overuse of his powers or coming into contact with too many other heroes in too short a timespan.
|
| Peter can still duplicate powers that he has copied, even when the original source is gone. |
In an interview, Tim Kring has implied that Peter may be able to reproduce powers that he copied previously. |
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
| Hiro may have experienced a rift in Six Months Ago, when he tried to go back in time to prevent Charlie's murder. |
In the episode, they had just confessed their love for each other and were about to kiss when Hiro abruptly and unexpectedly jumped through time to the present. He later told Ando that he tried repeatedly to go back to save Charlie, but couldn't. |
In theory, space-time spontaneously corrected itself to keep Hiro from creating a causality paradox; he could not do anything in the past that would keep him from having a reason to go to the past.
|
| The T-Rex in Isaac's latest painting (Fallout) may have appeared in the present because of a temporal rift, or Hiro may have entered the past because of one. |
Both Hiro and Future Hiro have mentioned the possibility of causing a temporal rift with their powers. Exactly what they mean by a "temporal rift" is not yet clear. |
The setting in which Hiro will encounter a T-Rex is undefined; we don't know if it occurs in modern times or in the distant past.
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
| Micah will build a suit similar to Iron Man's. |
None |
There's no evidence that Micah's abilities extend to building new technology. He's only been shown repairing existing technology.
|
| The most likely power that Micah was exhibiting is known as technopathy, or the ability to control technology with one's mind. |
His repair of the payphone fits with other depictions of this power. |
However, all we've seen so far is the temporary repair of existing devices (motherboard, telephone).
|
| Micah will build a cybernetic limb, like Forge and Cable; a time machine like Forge and Cable; an evolved human tracking or detecting device. |
None |
There's no evidence that Micah's abilities extend to building new technology. He's only been shown repairing existing technology.
|
| Micah will become a first-class computer hacker. |
None |
His abilities shown to date are all hardware, not software, related.
|
| Micah is unusual because he exhibits powers as a child. This is because both of his parents are also evolved humans. |
Micah used an out-of-order pay-phone to call his mother. |
The next youngest character to have powers is Sanjog Iyer -- who seems to be Micah's age -- followed by Claire Bennet, who is about 17. Both of Micah's parents are evolved humans; at least one of Claire's biological parents was evolved; nothing is known about Sanjog's parents. All other powered characters did not become aware of their abilities until well into adulthood.
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
| Niki has Dissociative Identity Disorder and Jessica is her alternate personality. For some reason, only Jessica is able to tap into her powers for now. |
Apparently all superhuman powers a based in the brain, including Jessica's superhuman strength. Since the power is in her brain, not her muscles, it is plausible for only one personality to be able to access it. |
If she in fact has DID, or any sort of disorder, it would appear she also has some form of schizophrenia as well, due to her ability to speak to and see Jessica.
|
| Niki had control of her powers at one point, but HRG captured her, and had The Haitian wipe her memory. Her old personality, that The Haitian erased might not have been fully erased, which explains her alter-ego. |
Other characters that the AWI has studied (Ted Sprague and Matt Parkman) have a distinctive mark, and Jessica has a tattoo of the Symbol. |
This hypothesis does not explain why all of her friends/family know her as Niki and not as Jessica.
The mark and the symbol are not necessarily connected.
|
| Niki will go to the "dark side". |
None |
|
| Niki's other personality is actually her sister Jessica, who may have had an ability before dying and somehow came to take over Nikki's body so she could continue protecting her. |
The Jessica persona definitely believes it's the dead sister. In "Six Months Ago", the way Jessica (Personality) speaks is as if she is Jessica. |
|
| Niki is a medium. She can talk to the dead but has so far only had contact with her sister Jessica who takes over Niki's body when she has things to take care of. |
|
|
| Given that Niki is a close analogue to Marvel Comics' Incredible Hulk, if this homage continues, we may see an even stronger rage based personality or a full integration of the two (via hypnosis?) in the future. |
Both characters were abused as children, have physical and personality changes brought on by stress, and powers only accessible to one personality state |
|
| Niki can theoretically tap into the same power, but doesn't know how. |
The source of Jessica's superhuman strength is somehow a part of her brain, as are the abilities of other evolved humans, and the personas share a brain |
|
| Jessica is a sleeper agent for the Yamagato Corporation's Genetic Research Division, which is headed by Hiro's Father (played by George Takei in a January 29th episode). |
Niki Sanders is the quiet little web-stripper from Las Vegas whose marriage has gone sour and has left her stranded, alone and desperate...or is she? Niki Sanders may be a sleeper agent for the Yamagato Corporation. Since it is possible that Hiro receives his Katana from his father, it is also likely that the symbol on the handle of the sword (the RNA symbol) is the Corporation's Genetic Division logo, who has a hand in the creation of the evolved humans, or at least funded Suresh's research and used the logo after it appeared in repeating patterns in the results. The logo also appears on Suresh's book, which supports this theory, since the financial backers would probably want themselves included on the cover.
When Jessica appears, the same symbol appears on Niki's back, tieing her to the source of the symbol in some way. The ink used to make this tattoo could be temperature controlled, and when the personality switch occurs as an identifying mark, Niki's body temperature increases or decreases causing the mark to appear. Like all sleeper agents, Niki likely has a trigger that switches her from suburban stripper mom to super hero assassin. Someone like Niki should have no knowledge of where to find or how to opperate military hardware. Jessica, however, was precise in her shooting of DL Hawkins- she knew where to find/buy weapons off-the-market and how to conduct herself on a hunt. If Niki were exhibiting schizophrenic behavior, there still would be no way for her to know about all these things.
With the stress of her sister's death, Niki's trigger seems to have been damaged, and the layers of mental conditioning and brainwashing that she has undergone has eroded, allowing her to switch from Niki to Jessica in moments of duress or pressure. Jessica knows about her powers, has had obvious combat training and knows about the Niki persona, while Niki had no knowledge of her alter-ego until recently- all of these things are charactarisitic of a sleeper agent. But why would Niki choose the name of her sister for her sleeper persona? It is possible that Jessica is the real personality, and used her twin sister's name as a cover- since Niki could get close to someone as an unassuming woman, where Jessica's name could be recognized.
|
There is no indication that Yamagato Industries has a genetic research division.
There is no evidence that the Symbol is in any way associated with Yamagato Industries.
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
| Theodore is the source of the explosion in New York. |
Ted says he doesn't know what would happen if he were shot, that "Maybe I'll wipe out this whole city like an atomic bomb!" |
Ted being the cause would be consistent with Isaac's "Exploding Man" painting.
|
| Theodore is the bomb. Peter absorbs his power to contain radiation. Peter then becomes the bomb. |
As above |
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
Sylar is Mr. Linderman or works for him. |
None |
Sylar is Gabriel Gray. He seems to be working alone.
|
Similarly to Peter, Sylar has the ability of absorption. However, Sylar has found a way to prolong the effects indefinitely, through Chandra Suresh's research. He knows that if he eats the brain of someone with abilities, he is able to control those abilities. |
This is the reason why the heroes must Save the Cheerleader. If they don't save Claire, then he will gain Rapid Regeneration and will become almost unstoppable. |
Sylar is absorbing powers, but he is not a power mimic. He was able to discover how to absorb powers without Chandra's help.
|
Sylar was a test subject of Chandra Suresh who manipulated his genes to give him all of the researched powers. This manipulation, however, has had a terrible side effect which causes his split personality (like Niki) to be extremely violent. |
Sylar's message |
Sylar discovered how to absorb powers without Chandra's help, and his insanity, while probably exacerbated by his new powers (according to Mr. Bennet in Fallout), predates it.
|
Sylar might have every power the heroes have combined. |
Sylar seems to exhibit multiple powers |
While Sylar is confirmed to have multiple powers, he'll only have the powers of all the heroes combined if he kills them like his other victims.
|
Sylar is Peter |
None, apart from similar powers |
Sylar is confirmed to be Gabriel Gray
|
Chandra Suresh moved to the United States to further his research; He joined forces with Mr. Bennet to perform this research, which involved the testing of Sylar. Chandra and Mr. Bennet became divided over ethical approaches, and Sylar, without help or containment found that he could gain others' abilities if he ate their brains. |
None |
Mr. Bennet and Chandra Suresh were not working together before Sylar began killing. (Six Months Ago) Sylar did develop the ability to absorb powers independently, but there is still no evidence that he eats brains.
|
It's possible that Sylar is not absorbing the heroes' powers, but is only a powerful telekinetic. |
All powers exhibited initially could be explained as telekinesis |
Sylar's telekinesis is itself absorbed. (Six Months Ago) Mr. Bennet confirms that Sylar has multiple abilities. (Fallout)
|
Sylar is dying because he attained his powers unnaturally or because his mutation ("power") was fatal, and the only way he's staying alive is by consuming the brains of other evolved humans. |
None |
While it's possible that either Sylar's power or his acquired powers are damaging him in some way, there's no evidence to support such a conclusion. Additionally, it's confirmed that he is taking (but not necessarily eating) brains to absorb powers.
|
| Sylar's powers have something to do with emotion, due to what Chandra says to him and his intonation in Six Months Ago. |
None |
Sylar may have some sort of emotional power in addition to his others, but there's little evidence to support such a theory.
|
| Sylar can alter his brain by studying the physical characteristics of other brains, which is why he is able to alter his own abilities. |
Sylar's gift of fixing objects and the profound instance when Sylar noticed his first victim's 'defect' supports this theory. Sylar can fix intricate devices, and brains, specifically his own. Micah seems to have a similar gift. |
Sylar's Intuitive Aptitude was confirmed in Fallout, but there's no clear evidence how he absorbs powers. Knowing how things work and being able to alter his own brain seem like two distinct powers. He has not yet fixed anything, mechanical or biological, other than manually. In Fallout, Mr. Bennet said it was his DNA he was altering.
|
| Sylar takes the brains and somehow figures out how to take the parts with the ability and place it in his brain. He has convinced himself that either all the Heroes are broken or incapable of their abilities, or that he needs the powers just to satisfy his hunger for power. |
Sylar's Intuitive aptitude |
His comments to Mr. Bennet in Fallout support the idea that he is acquiring powers to be more "special".
|
| Sylar believes all the Heroes need to be "fixed". |
Sylar's Intuitive aptitude
Episode 13 is titled The Fix |
To get "a fix" is also a term used by drug users, meaning to satiate their need for their drug of choice. This could be a reference to Isaac or perhaps Sylar's own need for power.
|
| Sylar may be heeding to the Evolutionary Imperative to kill dying Heroes and augment their powers to his for the sake of efficiency. |
This would explain Charlie, who is dying from a blood clot, and possibly Brian Davis. |
However, Evolutionary Imperative doesn't state anything about greed, so he might kill people out of his lust for being "special"
|
| Sylar may also be a thematic foil to evolution itself. |
His profession of watchmaker is often used as an analogue to an intelligent designer. Rather than following an Evoltionary Imperative, he appears to be redesigning himself using existing powers as a template which he then improves upon. |
|
| Sylar is meant to be Peter's literary/thematic antithesis. |
He has a similar motivation (to be special), similar looks, (perhaps) similar powers, and both men have even talked to a Suresh who ultimately gave up on him before he could prove that he was special |
|
| Sylar is suspected to have learned one or more of the following powers from his victims: cryokinesis, regeneration, super-jump, or flight:
|
- Molly's father is frozen solid while eating dinner, mid bite, with the top of his skull removed. (Don't Look Back)
- After being hit by several of Matt's bullets, Sylar rises a minute later, almost "lifting" himself from the floor, seemingly unharmed. The sound of metal hitting to the floor is heard, as if Sylar was able to shield himself from the bullets. (One Giant Leap)
- Sylar escapes, possibly by leaping up the wall or flying. (One Giant Leap)
- Sylar is relatively unharmed after a fall which badly mangled Peter. (Homecoming)
|
Syler could have used his telekinesis to stop the bullets, lift himself up (giving the appearence of flight), and could have possibly protected himself from the fall with the same power.
|
| Sylar may have unwittingly gained Charlie's blood clot when he killed her to acquire her power. |
None |
Given Sylar's ability to understand complex systems and repair them, he would probably have detected the clot and not duplicated it in himself.
|
| Sylar is the anti-Chandra, much like he would be the antithesis to Peter. |
He finds the special people, much like Suresh did. He has a map like him. He even worked with him. |
While Chandra found the special people and helped them harness their own abilities, Gabriel would steal their abilities to become even more one of them.
|
| Even if The Haitian were to remove the memories of Claire from Sylar, Sylar would not be effected because of the memory power he gained from Charlie. |
|
There is no reason to think that Charlie's exceptional memory capacity would grant special resistance to the Haitian's power to erase specific memories.
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
| Sylar also possesses the power of cryokinesis |
James Walker was frozen. (Don't Look Back) |
Mr. Bennet confirms Sylar has more than one power. (Fallout) However, he hasn't shown any sign of using it since James's murder.
|
| Sylar is stealing the brains of evolved humans in order to incorporate their abilities into himself. |
Most victims whose brains have been removed have been evolved humans |
Sylar has corroborated this theory with his own statements. (Fallout)
|
| Sylar may need to physically see the functioning brain (or believe he does) in order to give himself that power. |
He is removing and taking brains, not merely observing their owners. |
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
| Is meant to resemble RNA, which is where the abnormality lies...or just to indicate something to do with the abnormalties |
Symbol directly resembles RNA, but missing a rung....which might be the actual genetic abnormality. |
Sylar was noted to be messing with his DNA and probably RNA as well...RNA is also in the brain, which would make sense to this theory.
|
| The Symbol is the logo for Yamagato Corporation’s Genetic Research Division. |
On January 29th, George Takei will join the cast of Heroes as Hiro Nakamura’s father. Hiro’s father is supposedly one of the richest men in the world, and the head of Yamagato Corporation (who supplies Hiro’s Blog with translation software and is where Hiro and Ando worked). The sword that future Hiro has is obviously a katana, and there has been some talk about him getting the blade from his father, since Takei has a ten episode deal with NBC.
The symbol is also found on Niki’s back, around the neck of the Haitian, who is obviously not allied with Mr. Bennet (aka HRG) and on the front cover of the Suresh’s book jacket. Niki’s mark is likely because she is linked to the company, and she is possibly a sleeper agent. The Haitian is possibly also an agent of the company and the logo itself is possibly taken from the code that Suresh broke (the super-power-genome). It’s within the code as a repeating pattern, and if the company did indeed supply money for his research (more likely than Linderman, since Yamagato is located in SE Asia) then they would want their logo on the cover.
The symbol is the third faction, the first being the Heroes, and the second being Linderman’s initiative, employing Mr. Bennet.
|
No confirmation is yet available about the length of Takei's story arc, his possible role as the head of Yamagato, or Yamagato's as-yet hypothetical genetic research division.
There is, as yet, no association between Yamagato and the Symbol.
Other published spoilers indicate that it's possible Hiro obtains the sword in a museum, not from his father.
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
The missing painting in Isaac's wall-sized comic may be one of his paintings of the derailment or Claire inside the train car |
This could potentially lead the Heroes to Odessa. |
The missing painting was revealed in Homecoming
|
| The train may have been derailed in order to steal nuclear material |
According to the newscast Isaac sees, it was registered to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. |
See In His Own Image
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
| He is actually a depiction of Sylar or a symbol thereof. |
His being invincible would have to do with the rapid regeneration ability he was planning on taking from Claire. It could also depict how his hunger for power will spiral to massive proportions |
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
James Walker possessed the power of cryokinesis. Sylar killed him and removed his brain to obtain his power, then tested the power on his body |
James Walker's body was found frozen, with his brain removed.
|
| James Walker was killed using cryokinesis before his brain was taken. |
James was frozen in mid-bite while eating breakfast; he would not be in this position if he wasn't frozen before his brain was taken. |
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
Molly is Claire at a younger age (assuming the Matt storyline is in the past). |
None |
Matt's timeline was conclusively established in Fallout
|
| Sylar believes Molly is an evolved human |
It's not yet clear what Sylar's interest in Molly or her parents is, or whether any of them are evolved humans. However, since the only other of Sylar's victims shown with their brains removed have been evolved humans (Isaac Mendez in the future, Charlie) or believed by Sylar to be an evolved human (i.e., Sylar thought Jackie Wilcox was Claire Bennet), it's quite likely that at least her father, who was on the list, possessed superpowers.
|
| Molly might have the ability to amplify powers, thus making her a highly desirable target for Sylar. |
This would explain Matt's ability to hear thoughts from well outside the house, at a time when his powers were new and unfocused. |
|
| Molly may have the power of cryokinesis. |
The only times victims were frozen are when Sylar was trying to get to Molly. She may be attempting to freeze Sylar (intentionally or by instinct) and Sylar may be avoiding or deflecting it causing her to accidentally freeze innocent people. |
|
| Molly definitely has power |
Sylar came back for her |
Sylar didn't cut her head open but tried to drag her out of the room. Why? It's possible he could have been taking her somewhere to take out her brain in seclusion and away from security.
|
| Theory |
Evidence |
Notes
|
Zach is Sylar. |
None |
Sylar is confirmed to be Gabriel Gray
|
| Zach has an unknown ability. |
None |
|
| He is killed because of Claire. |
None |
He no longer remembers Claire's power or friendship, having been mind-wiped by the Haitian in Fallout.
|
He is gay. |
Confirmed by NBC as not gay. |
Confirmed offscreen by Tim Kring in an interview with Out magazine.
|
| He has deeper feelings for Claire. |
None, except that he seemed to care for her a great deal before his mind wipe |
|
| Zach will be the one who eventually saves Claire, possibly with his theoretical ability. |
None |
Claire has already been saved once, by Peter Petrelli in Homecoming
|
| Zach is actually Claire's twin brother. He knows it, but she doesn't. |
He won't date her and yet tries to be very close to her. |
|
| He will be curious as to why Claire was acting the way she was and will eventually rediscover her power. |
He "campaigned" for her to become homecoming queen, so when the two suddenly become distant, everyone may start asking why. Zach may at first think this is part of the "prank" that the other cheerleaders are playing on him, but eventually, it may occur to him as illogical that the unpopular kids(who supported Claire over Jackie) would be in on the joke. |
He is seen in the preview for the newest episode, filming and talking to Claire.
|
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