A passing Heroes thought ...

[apocalypsos]

It hadn't even occurred to me until I was writing up my Heroes version of that "my personal canon" meme, but ... okay, so they're supposed to be sending Claire to Paris with Mama Petrelli until after the election, theoretically because of the political fallout if somebody finds out Nathan's got an illegitimate daughter before then. And ... what? She can't spend the time between then and now at Mama Petrelli's in her PJs eating cereal and watching Lifetime? It's two days at this point. She can always just tell Heidi she's the daughter of an old family friend or something. They don't even have to get into the illegitimate daughter issue right now.

Whatever. The point is that it's more like a getting-you-out-of-the-country-for-your-own-safety kind of a thing. More to protect her from the Company, obviously, but partly (well, come ON) from the explosion.

Because, really. At this point Nathan believes that explosion will happen. Claire and Mama Petrelli will be going to Paris (and wouldn't that look even more suspicious, I would think, that the mother who was so involved in his campaign lately would up and leave the country?). Peter has Claire's powers and will survive the explosion. Great, so everybody in the Petrelli family is safe from --

Wait, what do you mean, what about Heidi and the boys?

Okay, they can't really leave with the election at hand. Nathan counts on winning. If he does it's going to look really fucking strange if his entire family isn't there. Mother's in France with some strange girl, wife and kids are missing, and all that's left is Peter? Yeah, okay, there might be questions. However:

1. Heidi is in a wheelchair and up until that one interview at the mansion wasn't exactly in the spotlight. It would be easy enough to say she was tired and the boys were asleep and that's why they weren't at the celebratory party, and then as far as they know the explosion is the next day. At that point who's going to give a damn?

2. So Nathan would have to come clean with Heidi to get her out of the city with the kids. Wouldn't you come clean with your wife if it meant saving her life and the lives of your sons?

I don't get this. I don't get why they're still in town when they don't have to be -- there are viable reasons for all three of them not to be there for the election, the boys being very young and Heidi's health being an issue. And I can only think of two reasons why Nathan hasn't shown any indication of getting them the hell out of Dodge as well:

1. He plans on sending them out of town as late as possible. He thinks he can get away with getting them out of town at the last minute so as not to raise suspicion.
2. If he loses them in the explosion he gains sympathy from the voters and his plans for the Presidency get a pity boost.

Now, that second option is so freaking awful that I don't even want to think about it. But has there been any mention of Heidi and the boys going with Claire and Mama to France? Has there been any mention of them going ANYWHERE? I can't remember any, and even if there were I find it really weird that he hasn't ALREADY sent them away considering just how dangerous things are getting.

At this point, Nathan knows there's going to be an explosion. It's not even a question of "if," but "when" and Nathan doesn't even have to ask "when" thanks to Peter's premonitions, Isaac's paintings, and Hiro's time-traveling. The day after the election -- boom!

It's one thing if Nathan were planning on that explosion happening or needed it to, which is still really fucking creepy. However, I don't care if you're running for All-Holy Grand Poobah of the Known Galaxy. I would think that even the most selfish guy in the world would at least tell his family, "You know, maybe you might want to take this weekend off and go to Atlantic City to play the slots." Something, ANYTHING, to get them out of town.

Claire and Mama Petrelli are leaving. Peter can survive the explosion.

But Heidi and the boys are still there.

Comments

[the-grynne.livejournal.com]

I can actually imagine Angela Petrelli and Linderman factoring in Nathan's wife and children's deaths into their plan - I just don't see Nathan going along with it.

So, either he has really no intention of following what his mother and Linderman want for his grand destiny, and is just pretending until he can see a way to stop the bomb, OR it simply hasn't occurred to him yet...which seems rather far-fetched.

Or it could be the writers forgot about Heidi and the boys too. Which would be hilarious if their lives weren't at stake.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm really hoping this is a sign that he's just faking all of this so he can try and stop the bomb, because otherwise the fact that he's either forgotten about his wife and kids or is intentionally keeping them in town is just wrong.

And frighteningly enough I can see them factoring in the death's of Heidi and the boys as well, although I'm not sure if Angela would balk over having the boys in the line of fire or not.

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be surprised if the writers forgot Heidi and the boys.

Women in general tend to get screwed over on this show a lot. But...

Nathan's playing both sides, I think. He's sending MamaPetrelli and Claire to Paris but he's still trying to find a way to stop the explosion.

All things being equal, though, it'd be simple enough for him to have a limo waiting at 5 am to take the boys to Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ as a "surprise". It'll get them out of New York, it's a very plausible "celebration" activity, and it doesn't look suspicious, like he knew about the bomb.

Metawise, I think it'd offend too many people's post 9/11 sensibilities to blow up NY. You notice Hollywood has pretty much shied away from anything cataclysmic happening to NY since then. Hell, for a while, they even shied away from showing the buildings in movies at all.

I figure they find some way to stop the bomb at the very last second. Nathan could fly the one about to blow into the ionosphere and then fly out of range [given he can at least break the sound barrier]. If it's Ted, too bad. If it's Peter, he'll regen.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I doubt they'll really blow up New York in the end. I think in the end the big problem that this whole thing will do is out the superhumans to the rest of the world. After all, it'll be a little hard to handwave that explosion when there's no evidence of a real bomb being involved.

I'm hoping what we get next week when Peter doesn't overload on Ted's powers (and really, how can we have two more episodes if he explodes in the first few minutes of next week's episode?) is Nathan finally realizing, "Uh, yeah, now might be a good time to send the wife and kids to Six Flags."

I'm not sure if the writers forgot about them, though, if only because if you're going to drag them to Mama's for no other reason than for Claire to see Nathan with them and pine, I'd like to think there was some thought of why they were there and what they were going to do with them now that they had them there.

[fyrdrakken]

The writers can't have totally forgotten about Heidi and the boys, since in the last ep we got to see Claire lurking and watching as they came home and Nathan went out to greet them. But, yeah -- I'm reminded of the Smiler in TRANSMETROPOLITAN, whose habit of causing deaths to garner sympathy and votes met its zenith when he had his wife (who was about to go public with what an asshole he was in his private life) and children killed in a "car accident." And I don't see Nathan as agreeing to that, and I'm not quite seeing Ma Petrelli as being willing to throw her grandsons away even as a political ploy. Linderman would probably gladly do so, though.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I don't think they would have shown Heidi and boys coming in the door if Nathan was going to let them be blown up - he'll either get them out of town or prevent Bad Things happening and save them, is my bet. (Though it wouldn't surprise me if Mama Petrelli was going to let Heidi get blown up - there's one hell of a sympathy vote!)

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

It just bothers me that the option hasn't been put forth, that Nathan hasn't even mentioned, "Okay, that's you here in New York, Claire and Mom in Paris, and then if I have to I'll send Heidi and the boys to the summer house/amusement park/moon." There's been no mention of a backup plan for them, and yet every mention of Nathan knowing exactly what's going on with everybody else in his family.

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

...Do we know that the boys don't have superpowers?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Nobody's said they have yet.

Personally I think they do. If Nathan's got one kid with superpowers it seems to me there's a good chance the other two have inherited them as well. (It hasn't been explicitly stated that if you have superpowers all of your kids will have them too, but it's certainly starting to look that way.)

[mayatawi.livejournal.com]

I'm partial to the idea that both parents have to be superpowered for the kids to be, though. Like it's a recessive gene. Claire's got Nathan and Firemommy, Micah has Niki and D.L., and I assume both Molly's parents were Special too, 'cause Sylar ate both their brains.

Then again, that would mean all the adults' parents should've both been superpowered too, and there's no evidence of that, so maybe I'm just talking out of my ass here. It's been known to happen!

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I don't know, though. I'm still thinking that Matt's kid is superpowered -- there's really no other reason for Janice and his son to go into hiding in the future otherwise -- in which case that's only one superpowered parent.

[spyderqueen.livejournal.com]

I think the dialogue pretty much stated that Matt's child is in fact superpowered.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Well, they didn't explicitly state, "Your kid has superpowers," but they definitely implied as much with the comment about them both hiding "children of interest" as Matt's seeing the picture his son drew.

[pescivendolo.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that, but that would mean that Sylar's mom had a power, and I'm finding that hard to believe. Speaking of Mrs. Sylar, I'm also more than a little offended at the Ambitious Mother=Murderous Psychopath Son point they were trying to hammer home this week.

[mayatawi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, then it gets complicated, with the what part is genetic mutation, and what part is genetic inheritance? Maybe superpowered people are just more likely to be drawn to each other, like a pheromone thing. Maybe one SP parent makes inheritance a possibility, two makes it definite. Maybe I'm just thinking too much about the science when I barely understand the basics myself.

It's fun, though! Like, Generation A (Mama P, etc.) is the first occurrence of mutation; maybe it's strong enough at that point to pass down to the kids through one parent (hence Peter and Nathan). And then it gets... diluted in Gen B, and needs two to pass down to Gen C? Does that make scientific sense? Meanwhile other first-generation mutations (Sylar, Mohinder's sister) crop up as well?

Of course, Occam's Razor says no. BUT YOU WILL PRY MY HALF-ASSED THEORY FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

maybe it's strong enough at that point to pass down to the kids through one parent (hence Peter and Nathan).

Actually, I've been suspicious for a long time (pretty much since we discovered both Peter and Nathan have powers) that Papa Petrelli may have had some abilities of his own that led to his eventual death (whether from suicide like we've been told or just as a side effect of whatever he could do).

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

It could've been PapaGrey who transmitted the powers to baby Gabriel.

And I don't think she was an ambitious mother. I think she was a loser-dreamer [witness house full of snowglobes, rather than doing things to enable her to see the world herself rather than just through snowglobes] who wanted her son to do great things, but really he was no greater than she was.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

I could be wrong but I had the impression that Nathan doesn't live in Manhattan. Since that's obviously where the blast will take place, his wife and children are safe. Remember, it only takes out part of the city.

Which suggests to me that the real reason for taking Claire away is to keep her from doing whatever it is she does to "save the world."

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

He might not, but his mother seems to live pretty damn close. And it just seems to me that if it were my wife and kids it wouldn't even matter if it were Manhattan or whichever borough -- I wouldn't even want them anywhere near the city at ALL. They have no idea how wrong this can go. I mean, even if Nathan is secretly trying to stop the explosion they have no clue where this is going to go. What if it isn't Peter who explodes? If it's Sylar or Ted they have no guarantee that they won't end up somewhere else, especially considering where they didn't even know where either one of them was as of the beginning of that last episode.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

That's all quite true, but I have to say that overthinking this show doesn't always pay. *g* Actually, I think that Mama and Linderman proceed as if nothing is going to go awry and have both assured Nathan that his family will be quite safe. He'd be kind of foolish to believe that, but who knows?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I can't help overthinking this one, I guess. ;)

It throws me that they would focus their entire plotline for the first season on this explosion. They have their characters converging on the city right now, so they have to know damn well where everybody is. And yet they still have Heidi and the kids in the city? Something about that just doesn't feel right to me.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Possibly he'll send them off in one of the last two eps. I sort of had the feeling that the reason why we saw them in this one was to underscore the fact that while Claire is his daughter she's not really part of his life.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I don't doubt that's why they were there for a minute, but they couldn't have done that by showing her watching Nathan saying goodbye to them as he sends them out of town instead of greeting them as they come into Mama Petrelli's house?

I just can't see Nathan taking a chance with his wife and children at the very, very, VERY last minute.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

There's also the point of - a) how do they know how big the explosion is going to be? b) how do they know how far out the radiation will go?

Really, I'd think anyone who knew about it beforehand would want to get as far away as possible.

[fyrdrakken]

Which suggests to me that the real reason for taking Claire away is to keep her from doing whatever it is she does to "save the world."

Actually, I'm suspecting it's the other way round, in that by this point Claire's connection to "saving the world" seems to be established as preventing Sylar from taking her power and making himself unkillable -- so Ma Petrelli is getting Claire out of the country to keep her away from Sylar at this crucial juncture. (Though, yeah, I think it's also established that Ma Petrelli and Linderman are missing some crucial info with regard to how the future as shown in Isaac's paintings really plays out -- most notably the part where "Nathan" is replaced by Sylar and no longer working to their agenda.)

[medie]

In theory the writers could've forgotten about getting them out of town, but then the big point of bringing them back for Claire to see would seem to counteract that. I'm hoping that them not going anywhere is part of Nathan's belief he's going to stop the bomb before it goes off. Otherwise, *damn* that's cold.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

The thing that bothers me about Nathan keeping them there because he believes he's going to stop the bomb is that Nathan's too realistic to take that chance. I have a really hard time believing that Nathan has so much faith in his ability to stop the bomb that he's willing to wager the lives of his wife and sons on it. Hell, I have a hard time believing that out of anybody.

And the writers having forgotten about them is just starting to work less and less the more I think about it. I know this show has some timeline problems now and again but I can't see how these writers could be so very precise about every damn detail of this explosion and know where every single character will be when it goes off and yet forget about these three characters whose lives are so closely intertwined with their main family dynasty of superheroes.

[medie]

*nods* point. Given his attitude about the whole thing all the way through, it doesn't fit. I'd like to believe it on some level but, *handwave* it doesn't fit. The last minute escape plan makes some sense, the timing would be close which makes it risky and that's unlikely given Nathan's level of skepticism before now. If the explosion is supposed to be caused by Ted or Peter then the timing can't be nailed down as easily as if it were a set bomb. He waits too long, something goes wrong...It doesn't fit with Nathan to be that reckless.

And no, it doesn't fit with how detailed the writers have been about it so far. They've shown themselves to be fairly methodical about the details of who is where., they've hit a few bumps but Heidi and the boys aren't that easily overlooked. Them coming home when they did suggests they haven't forgotten them and that they there for a reason that's more than just giving Claire a moment of Emo. It's puzzling.

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Wait a sec... Claire can survive the explosion, too, and Mama has to know this, so why get her out of town at all?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Because she's a minor, the Company is looking for her, and what the electorate thinks of Nathan's having an illegitimate daughter is nothing compared to what the dissection-happy Company will do to her if they see her on the six o'clock news. (Granted, that would make it pretty difficult to make her disappear but why take the chance right now?)

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Since I always had the impression that The Company was also Linderman's work, I don't subscribe to the idea that Mama wants to get Claire away for that reason.

As for Nathan, maybe he just believed Mama if she said nothing would harm his family. She's cold as ice. And perhaps he did try, but Heidi insisted on being with him for the election. She is a political wife. He can't very well tell her about the explosion after all.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Well, we know that the Company and Linderman have close ties, but how much does Nathan know? And Mama's not telling much of anything until she absolutely has to. (I don't think it's for that reason either, but I think that's what she's got everybody else convinced of as to why she wants to get Claire away. I have this suspicion that if Claire left for Paris with Mama Petrelli she'd never get there, although I'm not sure what the hell would happen to her then.)

I can't see them having Nathan having a discussion like that with Heidi and not showing it onscreen. And considering how much Mama's covered up and kept from him the last few weeks, why would he trust her if she told him that his family would be safe? I don't even get at this point why he's trusting her with the safety of his daughter. She's spent the entire season showing herself to be cold, manipulative, secretive and lying, even going so far as to give Nathan the impression that his daughter was dead for fifteen years even though his parents knew that wasn't the case. If I were Nathan and my mother told me my family would be safe I'd say, "Okay, Mom!" and then send them to Madagascar or Abu Dhabi or something.

I think for a situation this disastrous I would either try to break the news to her gently -- Heidi does seem like she's got a solid head on her shoulders -- or lie to get her out of the city. "We're holding a celebration of my victory in Jersey Connecticut Disney World some place that's not here! Wanna go make napkin swans?"

[dargie.livejournal.com]

I dunno, everyone seems to have some hidden agenda here. I'm not even 100% convinced that Linderman & Mom do want the explosion to happen. I have this idea that perhaps there's some event connected to it that is important to them.

And maybe next Monday Nathan will wake up and say "ZOMG,Heidi and the boys!" and ship them out on the next plane for Disney World.

[them0rgue.livejournal.com]

Up until the most recent episode, I actually thought that Kring had forgotten about Heidi and the boys--but then they made a POINT of showing them so that Claire could get her creepy jealous face on. I'm with you on this one. My roommates and I were sitting around my computer going, "Nathan's just going to let his kids die?" I can't figure out if it's a major oversight on the writers' part or if there's some greater plan at work. If they were my kids, I would have shipped them out of the city WEEKS ago.

[storydivagirl.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping/thinking it's that Nathan isn't completely sold on going along with this plan as much as he's leading others to believe. I think he's trying to come up with a way to prevent it AND still be President someday.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I think so, too, but if I were him I'd still send my wife and kids to Buffalo just in case. I mean, it's a human being who blows up, but it's also a nuclear explosion. The blowing-up part's only half of it -- there's no telling where that much radiation will end up.

And if he were trying to make Mama and Linderman believe he was playing along and would let the explosion happen, why keep his family there? As far as they think he's going to emerge from the rubble and lead people into a new future. If he keeps his family in the city they have to be getting the impression that he might be leaving them under that same rubble.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing that they're out of range of the explosion, but he'll probably send them away anyway. If he tries to get rid of them before the election...Heidi won't go. It'd probably be easier to get her to take the kids on a last-minute trip to Disney World or something after the election. But it's cutting it pretty close.

Although I'm not sure that just losing a brother would be enough to make a huge difference to his political career...

Assuming that they did survive, it's a good thing Heidi's in a wheelchair. Otherwise she'd've ended up having sex with Sylar-Nathan. Ick.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I don't take it as a good sign that in the future Nathan was never shown with Heidi or his sons and never even mentioned them.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's why I think it's more likely that they're alive. People would be mentioning them left and right if they'd died in the explosion, the martyred family of Saint Nathan. Politics, you know.

Maybe Heidi divorced him and took the kids. That'd be awesome. But still, he doesn't mention them all that often now, and Sylar wouldn't likely bother mentioning them at all.

Besides, (assuming it wasn't Candice) Angela may be willing to let a lot of people die, but not her own family, I'd think. Which strongly favors the Candice hypothesis, actually. Random New Yorkers, maybe, and maybe Heidi, but Peter and her grandsons? Doesn't make a lot of sense.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Of course, that could probably be because Sylar killed them, but for some reason I find that hard to believe.

[rayden54.livejournal.com]

I thought Mama Petrelli worked for Linderman and they wanted Claire away so that she can't stop the explosion.