Rickey had this to say in regard to last week’s review:
Sylar lost all of the powers he stole in season 1 after he was “killed” except for his telekinsis
I’m not quite sure which “death” Rickey is referring to, but this is simply incorrect. Since the beginning of this season, he’s used his healing ability, his shape shifting ability, his ability to fly, and his ability to learn the history of items just by touching them. Hell, in this episode alone he shape shifted and flew. Sylar innately uses his telepathic ability, but his full resume is far more impressive.
Anyway, within an hour of posting my column last week, it was confirmed that Adrian Pasdar, who portrays Nathan, is officially leaving the show. I’ve discussed this at length on my blog. The first post provides my in depth thoughts on this matter, while a second column lays out what I feel would have been a far superior plan (using my own special ability: hindsight). I propose that the show would have really benefited from killing off Sylar at the end of season one. Give it a read for my reasons why.
When I read the story about Nathan, I figured the last time we saw him was when he was shot in that shallow grave. So I was pretty thrilled to see him appear tonight, even if it’s just to offer the character some much-needed closure. Honestly, between Sylar back to his physical self (but still thinking he’s Nathan), and Sylar now controlling Parkman’s body, it really felt like Sylar overkill.
I will say this, though: This current story with Sylar is undoubtedly the most interesting that has happened with Parkman in, well, forever. I actually enjoyed their game of one-upmanship, with Sylar using “the world as his hostage”—essentially threatening to kill innocent people (using Parkman’s body) if Parkman didn’t spill the goods on where his body is. In retaliation, though, Parkman used HIS ability to put “Sylar” in precarious situations. It culminated in a pretty neat moment, with Parkman seemingly sacrificing his life so that Sylar couldn’t harm anybody else. A LARGE part of me felt that this death should have stuck, but I do understand why it won’t. From a story point mechanism, this was just a tease. It’s just a vehicle to reunite Sylar’s mind with his body. But it still pains me that Nathan’s being written out and Parkman’s reign of boredom forges on.
For people who clamor on and on about how wonderful season one was, and use it as a comparison for how terrible they believe this season is, I provide you with this example: Compare the immensity of season one’s “Call me Noah” to this week’s nonchalant “Come on, Rene.” When Claire said that, I had to rewind it to see if I heard correctly. Even after a second time I convinced myself that she said, “Come on with me.” It wasn’t until the introduction to Gretchen that I said to myself, “Really? THAT’S how you’re going to tell us the Haitian’s name????” Like I said earlier, the revelation of HRG’s first name – a relatively minor tidbit of information, if you think about it – was this mega-climactic moment, one that many fans (including the author of this review) still allude to.
Besides, after introducing the incredibly humorous and clever expression “Going Haitian,” I’m sort of disappointed to find out his first name at all. But, nonetheless, it’s always incredibly awesome seeing HRG and the Haitian together (and similarly, the Haitian will ALWAYS be “The Haitian” as far as I’m concerned).
There isn’t a whole lot to say about the Claire stuff other than the fact that I genuinely appreciate the fact that the writers have refrained from rehashing the old HRG/Claire “I can’t trust you!” routine. They’ve had numerous opportunities to resort to this crutch, but instead they correctly responded with HRG showing compassion while Claire showed maturity. For the most part, I stand by my assessment that these two are a pure and consistent highlight of the show.
Cringe-worthy stuff, though: The preview of next week, with an exasperated Mohinder proclaiming, “I’ve made an incredibly discovery!” Good to see the writers came up with some new material for this character during his hiatus.
Matt Basilo has been writing for Inside Pulse since April 2005, providing his insight into popular television shows such as Lost, 24, Heroes, and Smallville. You can visit his blog at [a case of the blog].
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He was assumed dead at the end of the first season, and was mysterically healed, but powerless at the start of the second season. When he finally got his powers back he restarted with just his normal ability and telekinesis. The other powers he had collected from the first season were gone.
Again, while this is assume, it is incorrect. When Peter went to the future and saw a reformed Sylar, Sylar used Ted’s radioactive atomic bomb ability after his son was killed. Even as Nathan, this power (with the mini-explosion hands) made a brief appearance this very season.
Also don’t forget that Sylar has constantly made use of his hyper hearing to “hear the clock ticking” or listen from far away. And at various other points throughout the season 3 & 4. The only power Sylar lost was Charlie’s perfect recall ability because of Hiro’s changing the timeline.
The show definitely indicated that Sylar lost all of his season 1 abilities when he was injected with the Shanti virus in season 2. When he used the syringe to cure himself in the season 2 finale, he was then able to use his telekinesis, which is apparently considered his primary ability, (along with intuitive aptitude) even though it wasn’t his power to begin with. Heroeswiki’s Sylar page here: http://heroeswiki.com/Sylar includes this claim, as well as a link to this Behind the Eclipse Q&A with the show’s producers: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18281 They confirm that he did lose all of his season 1 powers except for the telekinesis, and claim that he kept that because of an empathic connection to Brian, who was his first kill and the one he took the telekinesis from.
Now there are clearly problems with this explanation, as this chat took place mere weeks before the season 3 episode “I am Become Death”, which is where Peter goes to the future and finds Sylar in the Bennett home in Costa Verde. There he not only “goes radioactive”, as Matt has alluded to, but also uses Isaac’s precognition to paint the future. Another “Behind the Eclipse” chat (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18423) claims that he must have reacquired those abilites between season 2 and that future, but it seems more likely to just be lazy screenwriting/continuity.
I was also wondering if anyone thought that the “glowing hands that were seen this season could have possibly been from Elle’s lightning power, rather than Ted’s radioactivity, but I can’t specifically recall when that scene took place so it may have been quite clear that it was the latter.
Hopefully that clears up what that initial commenter was referring to, and what he based that claim on. One word of warning: if you intend on reading that Sylar wiki page, feel free to take some sort of motion sickness pill beforehand, as reading a summary of all Sylar’s changes in direction/motivation/allegiance in season 3 alone could very well cause nausea, seasickness, and possibly epileptic seizures in mere mortals like us.
The future Gabriel also had the ability to “paint the future” which he hadn’t been using since the first season. In that season, Sylar learns how to take powers without killing, basically Peter’s ability. It is quite possible that meeting with Peter allowed the powers he lost to be used once again (and it’s possible that those powers had been aquired from Future Peter)
I don’t recall the mini-explosion hands … I know he’s used lightning quite frequently.
There are a number of abilities that Sylar has collected and rarely ever uses, which is part of the problem. Season 2 he spent most of the season without any powers. The start of this season he’s basically Peter at the start of Season 2 … he is only manifesting some of his powers because of memory loss. Still, there were a number of first season powers, like freezing, he never used since getting his abilities back.
In my quick skimming of the recaps for both parts of Season 3 (chapters 3 and 4) I don’t recall him using any old power. He doesn’t even use some of the powers he aquires (Bob’s alchemy, Jesse’s scream) very often, but lightning is up there with telekenesis on “most used”. And healing of course.
I was a bit rambly there, I’ll try to be more precise.
His dying had nothing to do with it, between Volumes 1 and 2, he lost his powers to the Shanti Virus. At the start of Volume 3, he had his power (and telekenesis) back. Outside of his appearance in the future, he hadn’t shown signs of regaining his original season 1 powers.
The hearing ability did seem to come up, but it was originally shown to be a passive ability that had to be controlled to not become problematic, while the recent situation only came up in a situation that caused Sylar’s primary ability to come up. It is possible that he could actually hear the clock and watch normally, it just happened to drive him crazy not because his hearing amplified it, but because he could tell they were out of sync.
I may have missed something (and it’s possible that the writers have just forgotten that for most of volume 3 and 4 they had kept Sylar from using Season 1 powers) but most of the powers that Sylar manifests are from Season 3. I was responding to the first point made in the article which says it’s simply incorrect that he lost all the powers from Season 1, but only lists powers that were not taken until Season 3.
That is actually a great theory that Walter had, that future Gabriel could have accessed his former abilities because he was with Peter, who also had radioactivity and painting the future in his repertoire. I bet the show’s producers would have loved to have come up with that themselves. Of course when that episode aired, they man not yet have known that they were going to have him learn to copy powers using empathy like Peter. It seems to me like they already had the first several episodes of season three ready to air, including those future scenes in Costa Verde, when they did that Q&A and said that Sylar lost all his abilities from season 1 except for the aptitude and telekinesis. Then when they realized they screwed up by having him use season 1 powers in the future, they claimed that he must have reacquired them sometime in the intermittent years. They may have then decided to avoid showing Sylar using any of those season 1 powers anymore, in an effort not to contradict themselves any further. That does still leave the glowing hands from this season unexplained.
The real answer to all of these question is probably that different episodes are written by different people, and even if they all work together at times, it’s probably hard to keep track of everything all the other writers have the characters do, not to mention every statement made on the internet by any of the shows writers, producers, directors, actors, etc. I’ve always thought that was one of reasons for the roller coaster ride of Sylar’s character throughout season 3, when he changed allegiances, motivations, and/or personalities almost every week. I agree with Walter, this stuff is very hard to explain (even to myself) without rambling on for about 12 paragraphs.
These are some great, insightful comments. Let me copy and paste what I said in response to a comment on my blog:
To me, though, it boils down to lazy and inconsistent writing.
For the most part, the main argument people have is, “He lost all his powers, except for the ones he still has.” There’s no rhyme or reason, really. Nobody disputes that he still has his original ability, as well as his telekinesis. Why would he still have those and not the rest of the powers he acquired? For that matter, the Haitian also suffered from the Shanti virus, but upon receiving the vaccine, he was right back where he started. Therefore, there’s no indication that the Shanti virus brings you back to square one.
The way I see it, the burden of proof is on the writers to show me that yes, he did lose those powers. Until I explicitly hear otherwise, I’m going to continue to believe the he has all of his original abilities, but chooses to only use a select few.
In week 1 of Behind the Eclipse, in which writers/producers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coliete answer fan questions, this very issue was discussed:
Q: “In ‘The Second Coming,’ Sylar says to Claire, ‘You see, I lost everything that made me special.’ Does Sylar mean that he permanently lost all of his acquired powers except for telekinesis? Has his slate of powers been ‘wiped clean’ and does he have to start all over again?
A: Nope that’s right. Sylar’s starting over. Getting a whole new slate of powers as he goes.
Then in week 7 when the devastating impact of Gabriel’s first kill is revealed, the writers explain why his telekenisis, acquired by Brian Davis, is the only acquired power he retained: “Brian was Sylar’s first kill and his power is connected to emotional empathy.”
Sylar’s telekenetic power has become a part of him almost as much as his original power, much more so than any other power he’s attained. That is why when he recovered from the Shanti virus he retained only this acquired power. All the others were lost because they weren’t as much a part of him.