The genetic trace thing for Sylar makes me think he actually did eat and assimilate that first guy's brain, before figuring out that consumption was unnecessary.

Since that explosion was so way beyond anything Ted himself ever did even when shot, I think an overload chain reaction among Peter's various powers with each augmenting the next might be at least partly at fault. I wonder if his being in physical proximity to so many powered people at once (and both Sylar and Hiro have TONS of power) means his own native power is scanning/absorbing from everyone at once, starts building up to a ka-boom, and it just looks like Ted's power going haywire because that one is radiant energy-based?

The reason I think Ted's power is key here. Peter ALWAYS has all those powers. (Though in all fairness he did get a bunch of new exposure all at once: Nikki, DL, Molly, Nikki+DL's kid...) Ted's power always did seem more unstable and less under control than most of the power the Heroes have. I think it interacts with Peter's other powers in a particularly nasty way.

In terms of the explosion having come from overuse of powers, in the dream sequences about Peter exploding when it was first revealed that Peter was the exploding man, I think they hinted that was true.

I disagree that an "overload of powers" has anything to do with Peter's explosion. I think Ted would have had just as big of an explosion at Claire's house if she hadn't managed to sedate him.

The only "hint" that your theory is correct came from the characters themselves -- I think Peter believed that his explosion would come from an overload. But the characters have been wrong before. Remember that Matt & Ted both thought that their powers were given to them by HRG as part of an experiment.

But the hint was from Peter's dreams. And in turns out that the power Peter got from his last patient was *prophetic* dreams. Now it is also true that those *prophetic* dreams need to be parsed very carefully-lots of stuff that is not literally true. So it is not a slam dunk. But it is a reasonable interpretation of a semi-reliable source of information. I wonder if the writers have made up their minds on this ye.

What in his dreams specifically hinted that it was his powers overloading (as opposed to being unable to control his pick-up from Ted)?

Yeah, but I would imagine the pick-up from Ted bears some responsibilty for the response to overload being an atomic explosion. Especially since atomic man powers seem to be some of the least controllable powers in the heroes verse.

In terms of limitation on Peter's power: the whole "exploding man" thing could be that limitation if the writers want. If Peter overuses his powers, Peter goes boom.

That smakes perfect sense to me--Peter was on the verge of overloading once or twice before (and during) his time with Claude. I actually expected *that* to be the bomb, and not one (or more) people getting Ted's power.

Since that explosion was so way beyond anything Ted himself ever did even when shot, I think an overload chain reaction among Peter's various powers with each augmenting the next might be at least partly at fault.

Oooh. Yeah. This.

As for the dreams coming true: Well, Claude wasn't standing there laughing at him in the finale like he was in the dream. (...or was he??)

We didn't see Claude, but he could have been there!

Peter could survive being ground zero for a nuclear explosion. Surviving the splat from a 50,000 foot fall seems trivial compared to that-especially given TK and flying abilities both to break the fall.

I think the point is more that, working on the theory that he can't use two powers at once, will be be able to use the regenerate power after the big boom power?

Of course, the regeneration is apparently unconscious reflex, but it's a thought.

And in turns out that the power Peter got from his last patient was *prophetic* dreams.

Yeah, but the dream he had when he thought stuff was going to explode wasn't the same as the sort of go-back-in-time kind of setup with Charles. It would be a nice little plot clear up if that was so, but I don't think I'm convinced.

I dunno. The more I think about it, the less satisfying I find the conclusion. Too much of it doesn't make sense, particularly Nathan's rather unnecessary sacrifice. Plus I'll be annoyed when Sylar returns not dead.