do the things Isaac painted always come true or can they be changed? Will Mohinder have to inject the Haitian with something 5 years down the road no matter what?

I think he paints futures possible. Maybe the most likely future possible. Though I'm trying to think of a painting of his that hasn't come true and drawing a blank.

One other note about the future--Sylar could have taken on Nathan's face at any point in the following five years. It doesn't necessarily have to occur that Nathan is killed in the explosion and Sylar takes his form then. He could have waited until Nathan was poised to run for/become the President and killed him at that point, which would have been a sensible move for Sylar (he doesn't have to campaign or make policy or actually *be* a senator; since he knpws [roughly, anyway] that Nathan is going to make it to the white house, he might as well let Nathan do all the work. It's not like it's easy being a Petrelli, either) and allowed a larger window of time (in the context of the future we saw in this episode) for him to meet and kill Candace. It's possible that the thought of taking over Nathan's life wouldn't occur to him until he took Candace's power, because there wouldn't be a way for him to do it effectively. Unless they introduce Candace to Sylar next week, which is of course another possibility. But it's interesting to think about the ways in which Sylar might have waited to overtake Nathan, rather than making everything rest on the bomb and its aftermath.

It's possible that the thought of taking over Nathan's life wouldn't occur to him until he took Candace's power, because there wouldn't be a way for him to do it effectively.

Now with the painting power of precognition, he might be able to find out about Candace with a few dozen strokes of paint.

Oh, yeah, if I were him I'd wait to become Nathan until after he was elected president.

Tom Scola: I finally read the link you provided upthread and am more confused than ever. That's a parody where someone changed all the dialogue, right? Still don't see how it's similar to this week's comic, sorry!

Yeah, that's Chris Bird's (friend of mine, actually) parody of "Civil War," which was hysterical, but the point is, the "heroes having to be registered" and choosing sides against each other had a distinct "Civil War" whiff.

Actually, it was much better ...

Still don't see how it's similar to this week's comic, sorry!

You mean the part where the Heroes went to prison to bust out some other Heroes, only to be ambushed by some Heroes?

The more I think about it, the more I just loved last night's episode. It did such a fabulous job of setting up sweeps, without feeling like too much -- if anything, I could have happily spent the entire three hours of last night's NBC primetime lineup in the future. But, then again, I do love this show.

It was just so tragic in so many ways. I had been wondering who they'd cast as a teenage Micah, and then, lo and behold, Micah's dead. So now the boy practically has a target on him, which made the tyke seem even that much smaller and more vulnerable during that snippet in the preview, where he's scurrying along in a big hall, presumably being manipulated into badness by Linderman.

And then there's poor Nathan, who just last episode told Claire people usually think the worst of him -- and he usually gives them reason to, or however he phrased it. In the future, his daughter has grown to despise him, as do, presumably "heroes" across the country. And it's not even him. Poor Nathan is dead somewhere, and no one knows where or how or when.

And I also loved how they set things up but don't even have to say things. There was so much going on that it didn't even register until later, when I was on the treadmill, that D.L. was dead, if SylAn was reaching through walls to grab at people.

I *heart* this show. I was remembering way back at the beginning of the season how Ando was justifiably wary of his friend's sudden insistence that he could bend time and space. And now, he's gone jumping through time and learned of his potential fate. I also thought it was interesting that this is the first time we've really seen Peter and Hiro together, and it's their future versions. I'm assuming they must meet up soon, if Future Peter can remember hopeful Hiro, since that guy went away after Ando died in the explosion.

You mean the part where the Heroes went to prison to bust out some other Heroes, only to be ambushed by some Heroes?

Oh, that part.

Loved, loved last night's episode. But I was wondering why Matt, in the five years he worked for and with Sylar as Nathan never picked up any hint that Nathan was really Sylar. I mean, he picked up the Linderman info from a stray thought running through Evil Eric Robert's head. Was Sylar just that careful all those years? Or does Matt have to be physically in the same space with folks to read minds? Maybe he only talked to Sylar as Nathan by phone?