The character I had the biggest issue with in the flashback was Elle. She was actually a caring, functional human-being, which is drastically at odds with the Elle we were introduced to in Season 2 and I'm not sure how exactly she gets from Flashback!Elle to Season 2 Elle.

So sad that the African seer is dead. Also not thrilled that Hiro is looking to lose his powers too (No way they're going to kill him.) At the rate of theft, I'm wondering if there's going to be some handwavium thing that gets everyone's powers back out of Mr. Petrelli and back into the original characters.

At the rate of theft, I'm wondering if there's going to be some handwavium thing that gets everyone's powers back out of Mr. Petrelli and back into the original characters.

Of course there is. It was obvious there was going to be from the moment he took Peter's.

I don't know if all the new character spins fit, but definitely food for thought.

I think they work pretty well, although I agree there's obviously more to Elle's story. The Sylar bridge makes a bit of sense (and I like the bridge to the heretofore kinda unexplained "I'm sorry" written ad infinitum in blood all over Sylar's walls in the first season, when really, we never saw a trace of that remorse again.

And I have to say the Linderman revision worked well, too. There were some cracks in the original story: Linderman wanted to kill Nathan! No ... wait ... Linderman wants him to be president! Finding out that there was another angle smooths things over a bit.

Nice to see Eric Robets again (and sort-of hear about Claude being nearby, invisible.) His releasing Merideth is a bit at odds with his being down on HRG for covering up Claire's powers, but eh. I can live with it. People are often harder on others for flaws they see in themselves.

On the whole, much, much improved. Hope the staff shakeups get things moving again, and don't just end up derailing them, because I'm seeing hope again for this show.

It was obvious there was going to be from the moment he took Peter's.

I had brief hopes that he just absorbed all of Peter's mimicked powers and set his inventory back to 0, but no way in hell does Hiro lose his powers permanently.

On the whole, much, much improved.

I agree.

Hope the staff shakeups get things moving again, and don't just end up derailing them, because I'm seeing hope again for this show.

Thing is, according to EW, Loeb and Alexander's reign extends all the way to episode 17 of this season. So maybe they were just really bad at starting the season, and they hit their groove after a few episodes.

IMO, I think they should take Hiro's powers. It isn't like he uses them a whole lot anyway.

Of course Hiro gets his powers back -- we saw in the future that he kills Ando, right?

The more interesting question is how African Seer Guy (who never had a name that I can remember) got jumped by Mr. Petrelli, who made it to Africa in record time, considering it was JUST as Hiro learned enough to need to tell somebody....

ZOMG THE STUPID IT BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNS.

Did any of the writers think to rewatch S1 before they wrote this? Or at least skim the TWOP recaps, maybe?

All in all, that was a pretty long walk to get to "Hiro realizes Papa Petrelli's alive just in time to get brainsucked."

although, the one useful thing about the ep (there is probably more than one, but let's go with one) is that Angela perhaps did have a freak out when Gabriel was born, but her husband wiped her memory clean.

Apart from Elle's crazy-obotomy, how do we get from Nathan the Asst DA prosecuting Linderman to Nathan The Candidate With Fully Functioning Campaign office in the space of what is apparently a couple of days? And WTF makes Nathan think his father committed suicide???

I do wonder if Mama Petrelli was originally the one with the full-on mind powers, but PP stole them and then erased her memory. It would explain a LOT about how she acts around people.

I wasn't paying too close attention to the captions, but it seemed clear that some of that was meant to be intertwined with the premier, and some was meant to be intertwined with the episode "Six Months Earlier." I don't know why people keep saying it was meant to be all consecutive, unless they labeled it wrong. (Which, if they did, is lame.)

But handwaving that away, we know that Arthur "died" six months before the first episode, and that Nathan built his campaign in that time.

I do wonder if Mama Petrelli was originally the one with the full-on mind powers, but PP stole them and then erased her memory. It would explain a LOT about how she acts around people.

Arthur does seem to have some combination of the pusher powers, and it's never explained where they come from (as he seems to steal powers, rather than copy them.) In any case, Linderman clearly states that her memories have been messed with repeatedly.