Then I got nuthin’ 
I guess he really can will his DNA not to abandon whatever ability he has if he thinks the replacement won’t be as useful as per** DigitalC** 's thinking. For some reason that bugs me - it seems cheating somehow on a story level.
ETA: I liked the idea of him having to run the risk of losing a fantastic power for say, Alex the Aquaman’s through carelessness
Well, flight IS pretty useful when you’re on the run from the shadow ops people, that’s for sure. Wouldn’t want to give that up for fish telepathy anytime soon.
Yes, that was my point too. So having it be involuntary would have added a bit of drama to it all. Obviously, he would want to keep a power that was useful and also one that wasn’t easy to get back (because it isn’t like he could go and ask Nathan for it back because he accidentally lost the power of supersonic flight but can now breathe underwater)
The sheer “D’OH!” factor would have been hilarious and of course, potentially dangerous if a new ability were to get absorbed whilst thousands of feet in the air. Still, I’m sure they know what they’re doing.
That would be great for a comedy spin-off.
Peter tries to fly away from trouble, instead lets out an extremely long, melodious belch.
“Dammit, BurpBoy! Why do you keep following me?”
You know, I guess the only way to be 100% sure is to comb back through the eps, but are you SURE there’s been power transfer through clothes? The more I think about it that seems to break all the comic book rules. His DNA recognises that under wool there is a power to be got? All he should really be absorbing is anything the sheep might have had.
Well, he did absorb powers through skin-on-skin contact with Mohinder and Tracy (just watched the relevant portions of the episode) BUT it certainly appears that he “zapped” Nathan’s flight ability through his clothes; the only place where there was a possibility of skin-to-skin contact as he held Nathan hostage was their faces, but the little electrical “zap” was shown on Peter’s hand, which was not in contact with Nathan’s skin.
In any case, before he didn’t even need to touch someone to gain their powers; so if his power is keyed into other powers, then what does the sheep matter, unless the sheep has a power? Also, he had Claire wake Mohinder up before he took his power, which may imply that he needs someone who is able to use their powers to absorb those powers. Or maybe not. I dunno.
Yeah, I was just making a (tiny tiny, really pisspoor gag 
) that really if the power transfer *could *work by Peter grabbing hold of people through their clothes, then that was crazy. And that unless said clothes just so happened to have been fashioned from a super powered sheep or cow (or whatever) the clothes were fashioned from, I wasn’t buying it. Or iow I was pointing out the premise was just absurd- if they are going to have the big difference be that Peter needs to touch the person to get their powers, for heaven’s sake have him actually make contact. Otherwise it is just a scaled down version of the ‘close proximity’ thing of old.
I am suspecting that we are given to imply that it works via skin to skin touch if they went out of their way to show most previous efforts worked this way but who knows? I guess we will see for sure one way or another in future eps - thanks for looking!
When they were on the plane, Peter inadvertently switched Nathan’s flight for Tracy’s freeze-touch, after touching her. Later, on the ground, he explained to her that he’d only been able to “hang on” to one power at a time since Pinehurst – indicating that he’d tried… and hence, had been practicing.
Since then, he’s been a few days on the run; not really enough time to suddenly master the intricacies of his power and make it fully voluntary-only. It’s not like Hiro’s dad is around for a training montage, anymore.
Ah, but as we all know (all too well), the Heroes universe follows cheesy comics tropes.
So, if you are a character on Heroes, and learn you are someone’s girlfriend… better start picking out the fridge you’ll be buried in.
And if you have the lame power of breathing water… you can be sure, every week, that there’ll be a water obstacle to make you relevant and save the day.
So if Peter is on the run from Hunter Dude, with only water breathing to save him, we can rest assured there will be a sudden, unnoticed canal for him to swim to freedom in!
Don’t forget the risks of being Hero While Black*
*offer void in Haiti 
As far as Pete’s get one/lose one; I’m not over thinking it; just rest assured the next gal he gets the hots for will be some special with a horrible ability. And he can never touch her lest he get the coveted ‘convert gold into drywall mould’ power.
That last bit is what immediately came to mind: Peter, holding on to Matt, suddenly discovers that he’s absorbed Matt’s ability. Then, he can very usefully read Matt’s thought “oh shit!!” as the two of them plummet to the ground.
Maybe they’ll save that for the series finale.
That was just about the longest, boringest ep yet. As soon as Matt said “I’m going in,” I thought “uh-oh.” Flashbacks are never good. Also, why the hell isn’t Matt using his illusion power?
But, I got my Ambiguously Evil Dad back! “I’ve always been comfortable with morally grey.” Woot.
They really saved a lot of money not paying actors this week. I really wanted to see Sylar and his new side-kick. Has a villain in comics ever taken a side-kick?
Mohinder still has super strength? I thought he lost that.
“Not a creature of the air, is the sheep. It’s more of a plummet, actually.”
They did show somebody specifically taking Tracy’s oven mitts off, and Peter grabbed her hand. He also had serious problems in the first season controlling newly-acquired powers (almost blew up when he met Ted, for instance), but once he had a chance to work with them, he did better.
My guess is he has super-healing.
He totally should suspect something is up. In addition to all the stuff Annie and** enalzi** have pointed out, there remains the fact that Peter is zipping about the place using a power no target in their files is listed as having. They know he gets them from touch (presumably) so Danko really should be querying how on earth Peter is doing this. Unless Nathan has foreseen this problem and scribbled in pen “…and also he can fly sometimes” at the end of the bio in Peter’s dossier or something.
And yeah, it’s sweet how all the others are too much in the way of good sports to rat Nathan out. Even sweeter that his plan appears to be counting (successfully so far) on everyone he’s trying to imprison doing precisely this.
Where’s the Haitian these days? It occurs to me he’s the only one who could potentially make all this go away: there must be a limited number of people involved in the Heroes-hunt, and if could get to them all, he could make them forget the whole thing.
Though, realistically (good luck using that word about this show) how long could the presence of people with real superpowers remain a secret?
When Matt and Mohinder were trashing their hotel room, then looked over to find that Bennett had escaped, I used one of my girlfriend’s late dad’s phrases: “These geniuses could fuck up a two-car funeral.”
Surely he knows Peter has powers. What he doesn’t know is Nathan can fly.
But like I said, judging by his lack of fear of being killed, and his lack of reaction one minute after being shot, I’m guessing he shares Claire’s power.
Though I’m probably wrong.
Interesting, GuanoLad, I hadn’t thought of that. I just thought Danko really didn’t care about dying – or else had read Peter’s profile and knew he wasn’t a killer. (So we’ve been told, although he did pull the trigger on his dad.) I thought Danko was essentially calling Peter’s bluff – and once you’ve established that somebody’s not going to kill you, it becomes ridiculous for them to keep pointing a gun at you. I don’t know what exactly Peter’s plan was.
Well, he seems well briefed about everyone else’s powers - he even knows about Claire’s vulnerability to her healing factor. So it seems reasonable to assume he know Peter’s absorbs the powers of others, one at a time. Now as he knows no-one on that crashed plane could fly from their files, Danko really should have been querying where that borrowed ability comes from. And that points back to Nathan as being in close proximity each time he’s seen him use it.
It’s an interesting theory about him having healing powers himself (which I guess will be solved one way or another if Peter ever grabs hold of him if nothing else) but I would point out not even Claire could laugh off being shot in the head at point blank range. I am voting just basically badass and reading that Peter was bluffing.
There was a shot with a strange emphasis on Peter touching Noah’s wrist to feel his pulse that made me think he’ll soon try to fly and find he couldn’t, having taken some power from Noah without knowing which one – I thought that would’ve been kinda cool, but it was not to be.
Given that they deliberately show him later, talking to Noah, with his arm in a sling because of the gunshot wound in his shoulder… seems really unlikely.
Also, Noah makes a point of reminding him that Noah had managed to keep men like him from finding anything out about the superpowers, until Nathan spilled the beans. Hardly have been a revelation had he already had powers, himself.
Frankly, the entire plotline is sending up the shrill overreaction of OMG!Terrorists!!1! that may have been relevant a few years ago during the Bush administration, but seems increasingly dated now in the Obama era. Nothing new with this show, being stuck in its own past, though.