# Heroes 10/20/08 "Dying of the Light" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830 "2008-10-21T01:22:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Grapefruit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@Grapefruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grapefruit)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/61 "2008-10-22T17:22:18Z")
The Haitian had side projects for Angela the whole time he was Noah’s partner. Law of parsimony suggests that he let Nathan go in that flying away incident. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/62 "2008-10-22T17:24:38Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > I think Daddy Petrelli was just neutering Peter, who could have been a thorn in his side. I’m also going out on a limb and guessing that he only absorbed Peter’s original power, not all of them. That seems to be how they write the show. No, he got them all. The first thing Peter tried was TK, and he didn’t get that until later. **Half Man Half Wit** mentioned the blue fizzle too, and that was later. The effect better be reversible though. I want Adam & Peter back. Hope someone sweeps up Adam and keeps the ashes. Nitpik, but if Adam’s power was what was keeping him from turning to ash, then taking Peter’s healing power should also have undone everything his healing ability ever did, and Peter would be looking pretty messed up right now, besides dead. Adam should have lost his healing ability from now forward, rather than having its past effects undone. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/63 "2008-10-22T17:28:48Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Adam should have lost his healing ability from now forward, rather than having its past effects undone. Agreed. Apparently last season it was foreshadowed that it would instantly kill him, but it still sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/64 "2008-10-22T18:25:30Z")
God damn, it’s like this show is wondering whether or not we get the fact that all the characters are idiots and is trying even harder to cram their brain damage down our throats. Mohinder… seriously? She shows you her power like 30 minutes ago and you still hold her hand? This may be #1 of a long, long list of Mohimbities. Claire… you read his file and you warn him before shooting because… uhm… you like looking threatening more than actually BEING threatening? It was still the most entertaining episode in a long time (loved the stupid Hiro subplot + creepy Matt and his Hi-Fiving turtle friend), but I can just feel brain cells melting away… ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/65 "2008-10-22T18:35:25Z")
Dang. I liked Adam Monroe. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/66 "2008-10-22T19:17:45Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > Dang. I liked Adam Monroe. Me too. He was my favorite character. Last season when Peter was locked up next door to Adam Adam had calimed that the company had tried everything to kill him but couldn’t so they just locked him up. So I wonder if Arthur had tried his stealing power before on Adam and Adam turned to ash only to eventually recover from it. I hope that is the case and Adam comes back and that Arthur’s taking of his power only heals him back to being normal and that he is not immortal from now on. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_Lurker)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/67 "2008-10-22T19:29:33Z")
> [@Tahssa](#): > > So I wonder if Arthur had tried his stealing power before on Adam and Adam turned to ash only to eventually recover from it. Adam was pretty freaked out when he figured out what Arthur was going to do. If he knew it to be temporary, that reaction would have been inappropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/68 "2008-10-22T19:39:25Z")
You’re right. So Adam probably is gone for good and that sucks. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/69 "2008-10-22T21:00:22Z")
> [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](#): > > Adam was pretty freaked out when he figured out what Arthur was going to do. If he knew it to be temporary, that reaction would have been inappropriate. You’re almost certainly right, but I dread going to the dentist even though I know I’ll live and everything will be okay afterwards. Just being immortal doesn’t mean getting ashed and possibly resurrected later isn’t a horrible thing to experience. Adam hated Hiro for a couple different things, but I’m sure one of them was being burned to death. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/70 "2008-10-22T21:07:51Z")
We don’t (yet) have an equivalent of Uncle Ben, so there’s no reason to assume that anyone’s who’s dead will stay that way. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/71 "2008-10-22T21:14:28Z")
> [@Windwalker](#): > > Mohinder… seriously? She shows you her power like 30 minutes ago and you still hold her hand? This may be #1 of a long, long list of Mohimbities. > > Claire… you read his file and you warn him before shooting because… uhm… you like looking threatening more than actually BEING threatening? Not-Niki showed Mohinder that she could frost over a random piece of lab equipment. _We_, the viewers, know that she can freeze someone solid and shatter them. Mohinder did not know that. (and, really, he was not the worse for finding out, was he? able to throw desks around just fine, and it is not as if Not-Niki and Nathan got away by her little stunt) Claire didn’t shoot first because… uhm… (1) she’s not her father, (2) she’s not trained at this, (3) she only has the file to go on in understanding Puppeteer’s powers, and who knows how detailed or accurate _that_ is, and (4) the guy was walking in with her mother hostage. That was what you could call a “rookie mistake”. It is a plot element commonly used in shows to demonstrate that someone is a rookie. So… she’s a rookie. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/72 "2008-10-22T22:48:07Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > You’re almost certainly right, but I dread going to the dentist even though I know I’ll live and everything will be okay afterwards. Just being immortal doesn’t mean getting ashed and possibly resurrected later isn’t a horrible thing to experience. Adam hated Hiro for a couple different things, but I’m sure one of them was being burned to death. I presume that would be dust, not ash. Hope they don’t somehow have Adam return; I can suspend my disbelief for quite a while, but it’s a little tough accepting a world in which the right sequence of nucleotides in somebody’s DNA allows him to resurrect himself from a pile of dust. (Actually, I’ve always wished they’d not even mentioned genetics in the show; I’d prefer if nobody had a pseudoscientific explanation for the abilities. Also, they wouldn’t have to work so hard to avoid saying the word “mutant”.) ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/73 "2008-10-22T23:13:15Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > Hope they don’t somehow have Adam return; I can suspend my disbelief for quite a while, but it’s a little tough accepting a world in which the right sequence of nucleotides in somebody’s DNA allows him to resurrect himself from a pile of dust. For me, it’s not different than the magic physics that would make him turn into dust that quick, upon the removal of his powers. It’s all magic at this point and I stick my fingers in my ears and chant “la, la, la!” whenever they mention genetics or mutations or science. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/74 "2008-10-24T03:10:56Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Nitpik, but if Adam’s power was what was keeping him from turning to ash, then taking Peter’s healing power should also have undone everything his healing ability ever did, and Peter would be looking pretty messed up right now, besides dead. Adam should have lost his healing ability from now forward, rather than having its past effects undone. Didn’t they already say that Adam was basically constantly regenerating now, and that’s what kept him from aging to death? So remove the regeneration, and you have a 400+ year old man who can’t stop himself from being physically 400 years old. I don’t think his loss of ability “reversed” what it did before, it just stopped doing what it’s been doing on a full-time basis for a few hundred years now. I’m glad that Claire appears to be somewhat less whiny now, and seems to have learned that she’s not quite the bad-ass she thinks she is (which will ultimately help her an awful lot to actually become bad-ass, eventually, maybe). The whole PuppetMaster sub-plot was seriously inspired writing and makes me feel like things are (finally) going to be coming back together a bit better again. I was also pleased that they included the bit where Mohinder admits that the more he tries to make things better, the more he messes them up. It makes his arc into villainy a bit more believable. Last season he ended up smack in the middle of the moral grey area – should he be working with the Company or with Bennett? Kidnapping Claire is wrong, letting Niki die is wrong… So now he’s slipping more toward the black side of grey, through a combination of not having any idea how to undo what he’s already done, and what looks like some mental addlement coming out of his transformation as well. Mentally he doesn’t seem quite all there since the sticky scaly crap started growing on his back (aside from his congenital stupidity). It’s like he sort of just forgets to be horrified by the whole cocooning thing. I love how Hiro is such a naif. Yes, go get completely sidetracked by bringing an innocent man into the clutches of your enemies. This will absolutely help you to get the formula back. Sure, you can rescue him when you bust out later. Because you guys are just _so good_ at highly complex plotting and execution. 😃 (I do wonder what Angela was thinking though. He’s the only one who can stop this? He was the one who practically handed over both halves of the formula to the Big Bad Dude to start with! You really want him to continue messing around in there?) ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/75 "2008-10-24T03:22:47Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > I’m glad that Claire appears to be somewhat less whiny now, and seems to have learned that she’s not quite the bad-ass she thinks she is (which will ultimately help her an awful lot to actually become bad-ass, eventually, maybe). Noah (dad) is completely bad-ass without any powers. Hopefully, that’s what she’s learning. That thing between your ears? It’s a brain. No, you’re not supposed to just get it squished occasionally. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/76 "2008-10-24T12:54:01Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > (I do wonder what Angela was thinking though. He’s the only one who can stop this? He was the one who practically handed over both halves of the formula to the Big Bad Dude to start with! You really want him to continue messing around in there?) I think that Angela was thinking that (1) she needed Adam Monroe back, for whatever reason, and Hiro was the only one who knew where he was, and (2) she needed Hiro doing something harmless, under her control, instead of mucking things up even more. She _would_ have accomplished these things – for once, she’d actually _persuaded_ someone – except that Hiro got immediately sidetracked (as he is wont to do), and buggered off onto something else. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/77 "2008-10-24T16:23:00Z")
Angela can dream the future, so she probably foresaw that things would turn out okay if she did what she did. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/78 "2008-10-24T16:53:03Z")
> [@cuckoorex](#): > > Or Hiro’s mother’s power (assuming she had one?) You mean, Mama Petrelli? She can see the future in dreams. What, you weren’t thinking this? > [@Morbo](#): > > Having just watched this again, I’m not sure how Peter even lost his powers to his dad, since he would have absorbed his dad’s power. And I would sure expect his dad to know this. Peter’s been pretty consistently stupid about inability to control new powers. See: Ted, subheading: boom. Yeah, this show is pretty inconsistent about its lethality. Claire was right there at the end of season 1 with an unconscious Sylar and a fully-loaded gun. Could have saved a lot of trouble. > [@Morbo](#): > > Well, except for that time he was going to shoot Nathan with the Haitian standing next to him, but instead Nathan flew up into the air and went supersonic. I guess the Haitian was having an off day, power-wise. > > > [@Baldwin](#): > > > > Can’t believe that never occurred to me, all this time. Was that before they established what the Haitian does? What the Haitian does is, he works for Nathan’s mom. It’s a lot easier for him to have to look at Noah and shrug than it is to explain to Nathan’s mom how Nathan ended up on Level 5 with a radioactive marker in his blood. That’s gotta look bad on the annual review. > [@Long Time Lurker](#): > > Adam was pretty freaked out when he figured out what Arthur was going to do. If he knew it to be temporary, that reaction would have been inappropriate. Maybe it really hurts… and, it’s gotta take a while to regenerate from a pile of dust. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_Lurker)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/79 "2008-10-24T17:06:09Z")
> [@The\_Controvert](#): > > Angela can dream the future, so she probably foresaw that things would turn out okay if she did what she did. We’ll have to see where it goes, but it seems to me that she basically put a plot in motion that fed Adam to her ex[?] husband. Did he serve any other purpose? Presumably if she foresaw a need for Adam, well, what could it have been other than that? ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830/80 "2008-10-24T17:31:44Z")
> [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](#): > > We’ll have to see where it goes, but it seems to me that she basically put a plot in motion that fed Adam to her ex[?] husband. Did he serve any other purpose? Presumably if she foresaw a need for Adam, well, what could it have been other than that? She is clearly terrified of Arthur, and she can see the future, so 1\> she had to have known that digging up Adam would put him straight into Arthur’s clutches, if she’d dreamed about Adam’s role in all this, and 2\> why would she want to do that? She just made this terrifying man even _more_ unstoppable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-10-20-08-dying-of-the-light/468830.md?page=5)