It's funny, because there's a direct correlation between:

Tracy has never had great control of her ability, has she? I'm not surprised it went off.

and:

I was also saddened by new boss lady being so quick to throw the Constitution away.

Fear makes people irrational, and can push people to make bad decisions. And to be honest, I find it disheartening when viewers demand that characters act rationally when they're clearly in irrational circumstances. Tracy reacted out of fear, in an almost mirror of the first use of her powers that we saw. Abby, likewise, acted in the same manner. I think it's easy to get jaded when you watch SF TV & movies and read comics, it's easy to forget that this shit would freak you the hell out if you saw it for real.

I'm curious to see if Abby recurs, because I think it's interesting that they've set up a mechanism to shut the operation down. And I'm also interested to see what happens when she hears the counterargument. Of course, that'll probably come from Peter of Claire, which will make the situation worse.

Ultimately, I think the operation's Nathan's to shut down, and 'm curious to see where they go with him.

In other thoughts, I'm wondering if Rebel is someone we've seen before. A couple thoughts spring to mind, Micah most prominently, as it's within his power and he'd ttotally go for the cool codename. Hannah Gittelman comes to mind, too, who's supposed to be some sort of ghost in the machine, now, according to the comics. And of course, in the comics, she was still talking online with Micah.

I like the Micah idea because it leaves a door open for Monica to come back. She'd be great in this story.

I see what people are saying about Tracy reacting in fear, but she had such a satisfied look on her face when she froze the guy, and she deliberately shoved him against the wall, knowing that he would shatter. Plus, she was choking the guy with her chains, so she shouldn't have been surprised or reacted with fear when he tried to grab her arm after she released him. She grabbed his arm to freeze him.

Fear makes people irrational, and can push people to make bad decisions. And to be honest, I find it disheartening when viewers demand that characters act rationally when they're clearly in irrational circumstances. Tracy reacted out of fear, in an almost mirror of the first use of her powers that we saw. Abby, likewise, acted in the same manner. I think it's easy to get jaded when you watch SF TV & movies and read comics, it's easy to forget that this shit would freak you the hell out if you saw it for real.

Fair point.

I'm curious to see if Abby recurs, because I think it's interesting that they've set up a mechanism to shut the operation down.

It'll be interesting to see if we get an ongoing Constitutional discussion here. It would be AWESOME... but I bet it won't happen.

I have to agree with Vortex. Tracy looked deliberate and angry when she iced the guy, not scared. It didn't sit right with me, either.

ION, my favorite moments from this episode stem from mini!Sylar, so he's growing on me. He forces Sylar to confront himself (almost literally given the kid's history and proclivities), which cracks me up. "OK, so* technically* I'm a serial killer" may have to be my new tagline, though "You really have to stop trying to be my friend, or I'm going to have to kill you" is right up there. And yeah, Psychokiller on the radio combined with the kid's snorfle and Sylar's sidelong glance actually did make me LOL. No, really.

I love the idea of Micah being Rebel! Very cool, and it would make sense that he's one of the only ones out there who could actually figure out what's going on and then get the word out.

Agreed with Vortex that it just looked too deliberate. She really should have gone with, "this hand is loaded and I could... ice ... this guy if you don't back off."

I had a different interpretation of Tracy's actions - not that she reacted in fear - but that she now wants it exposed that there are "heroes." I think she deliberately wants their plight to be out in public consciousness and hiding who she was wasn't going to get her anywhere.

My second thought is that the writers are trying to do "character development" and show that circumstances of torture can turn a "good" person "bad."

I totally forgot yesterday was Monday! The three-day weekend threw me off.

Same here. Will have to watch later. The day just didn't have that Monday feel.

I love the idea of Micah being Rebel!

Oooh, that would be awesome.

Ok, I'm really not buying the idea that Peter, Matt, and Mohinder are outwitting HRG. I mean...no. Really, no.

I also didn't see fear in Tracey when she iced the guy. It looked very deliberate to me, so it was either a bad acting decision or a bad character decision.

I like the idea of Sylar having a sidekick. It's a good outlet for his Daddy issues and gives him someone to talk to other than people he's about to kill (or vice versa). I'm not crazy about the actual sidekick himself yet, but he fills a good niche.