Does anyone outside of California have pink bakery boxes?

Washington State.

I think the only time I'd refer to a highway with the definite article is if I were calling it by a name, not the numerical. "The Dan Ryan," for example.

The series of 8 described in Wikipedia:

"Lizards" A painting which depicts the death of Kaito Nakamura. It was said by Noah Bennet to be the first of eight painted before Isaac's death that hadn't come true at the time.

"Kindred" A painting which depicts the death of Noah Bennet while a blonde stands nearby with a man in shadows. This is the final painting of the eight that has not come to pass.

"The Line" The rest of the Series of 8 are shown. Claire Bennet lying on a staircase; a man holding a vial of clear liquid; a blonde woman hitting a matalic surface; Peter Petrelli and an unknown man stan(d)ing together, (a biohazard symbol is at the bottom); Hiro Nakamura and Kensei sword fighting; Mohinder Suresh after firing a pistol.

Screencaps of the paintings.

especially since the witchy cheerleader wasn't physically hurt during the prank.

No, but Claire WAS, given that even if one survives falling twenty feet and breaking multiple bones including one's neck it can be presumed to cause pain. And I'm deeply bothered that the show chooses to depict such things as if they aren't problematic. Didn't HRG say he wanted to save her from suffering precisely those kinds of injuries because he didn't want them to push her past her pain threshhold? Turns out he needn't have bothered.

eh. I mean, I guess I can just read it as Claire is deeply fucked up, but then I can't also be expected to see her as the engenue anymore.

I think Claire is - or was - only moderately fucked up. Flyboy is leading her down the path to deeply.

Didn't HRG say he wanted to save her from suffering precisely those kinds of injuries because he didn't want them to push her past her pain threshhold?

Ok, she did cut off her own pinky toe and only flinched and hissed a little. One could presume that her pain tolerance is higher than average humans, and so "pushing her past her pain threshold" probably amounts to extreme torture, not just a short drop and sudden stop.

(Not that I don't think it's kinda fucked up, but y'know... superpowers + questionable teenage ethics could = fucked up.)

Well, the adage is that teenagers think they're invulnerable ... and here you have one who KNOWS she is.

the prank: they achieved the aim of public humiliation, sure, but not before they also achieved psychological and emotional trauma. I hope at the least the show acknowledges this and follows through on it, because while Claire was upset afterwards, I can't remember if it was for the right reason. It was like countering a knife with a tank.

Parish: now that scene in K-ville (die!) makes sense! I thought they were referring to a town or something that had "Parish" in the name.

The one thing is that West continues to ping me as a probable psycho. He said something along the lines of "We're better than everyone because we have powers." (That was from memory, so not an exact quote.) This along with the whole "Aliens and Robots" thing makes me think he sees everyone without powers as things. He is well on the road to Sylar's attitude. OK, he still sees those with powers as fully human; but he is only in high school, and he already manages to be pretty patronizing to Claire. If I had more faith in the writers, I'd assume this going to payoff down the road West turning to extreme evil. But it is possible they see this as normal sensitive teenage male angst.