# Heroes 11/20 - "Homecoming" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 21, 2006, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234 "2006-11-21T02:05:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/161 "2006-11-22T19:55:56Z")
Here’s a prediction that a co-worker came up with: Hiro will tell Charlie everything in the past, and urge her to be somewhere else when Syler comes for her. She will read lots of books on the physics of time. Using her super-brain, she will realize that making such a change will mess stuff up completely, maybe endangering the existence of the universe. She’ll tell Hiro he needs to take off, and she needs to preserve the timeline by allowing herself to get killed. While it would sadden me 'cause I like Charlie a lot, it has some things to recommend it. Hiro can greatly improve his English, he can gain an understanding of his power that he seriously lacks now, and he gets the emotional effects of knowing there are people he cannot save. It also will make Charlie a heck of a hero in her own right. It will make Hiro easier for the writers if he knows that he can’t do ‘do-overs.’ Of course, he needs to be able to change things from the future, or NYC is toast. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/162 "2006-11-22T19:58:03Z")
Cool, a hero is from Vermont! We never get awesome stuff like that! I doubt that person will make it onto the show, though. They do have a large cast as it is. So unless they start killing some people, it seems doubtful. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/163 "2006-11-22T20:17:49Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] Cool, a hero is from Vermont! We never get awesome stuff like that! I doubt that person will make it onto the show, though. They do have a large cast as it is. So unless they start killing some people, it seems doubtful. [/QUOTE] Depending on how long the show lasts, I’m sure they’d get around to Maple Syrup Man (or whatever his/her power will be). All these extra superheroes are like the kids away at boarding school in soaps-- there for when the writers need a new storyline. But seriously, why so many Americans? ---
**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/164 "2006-11-22T20:19:06Z")
Great ep, if a bit of a let down. I was hoping for a big ol’ fashion duke out! I dont understand why AED didn’t just let Claire go, and have pixe girl follow her. Obviously pixe had no problem with taking him down, seems like it would have been easy. Which makes me think that AED is not evil and really loves his kid. I mean, what kind of father would put his daughter in that kind of danager knowingly? p.s does anyone else feel guilty watching this show? I mean I love it and all, but lets face it, it ain’t “Gone with the Wind” ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/165 "2006-11-22T21:14:04Z")
[QUOTE=Santos L Halper] Except for Hiro, they’re all from the US as well, so there could be many more from the rest of the world. [/QUOTE] I’d really like them to eventually give us a reason for the USA-centrism of the list. Maybe Chandra’s program was working off data gathered in the US, and for some reason Hiro was in there. Maybe he was born in the states to Japanese parents? I also notice there seem to be a lot more men than women. Wonder why? Last thing: Eden may be on there, and she may be listed as deceased. If you’ve read this week’s comic chapter you know why. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/166 "2006-11-22T21:46:08Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] Cool, a hero is from Vermont! We never get awesome stuff like that! I doubt that person will make it onto the show, though. They do have a large cast as it is. So unless they start killing some people, it seems doubtful. [/QUOTE] I’m a little worried about that. Mind you, I’m still loving this show. But what happens season two? This first season we’ve got “save the cheerleader” and “save NY.” The show’s been great about introducing mysteries then giving you satisfying answers in a reasonable timeframe. I don’t want it to become Lost and pile on mystery after mystery with no intention of ever resolving them. But I also don’t want it to become an episodic hero/villain of the week show. Then again, if they stick with the comic theme, there’s no end of the stories they can tell. [QUOTE=Saltire] I’d really like them to eventually give us a reason for the USA-centrism of the list. [/QUOTE] Well, it’s just the one list and Mohinder said something to his dad about “we can use the human genome project to locate people!” Okay, okay. Once you stop laughing let’s just imagine that the records from this “human genome project” are USA-centric. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/167 "2006-11-22T23:25:38Z")
[QUOTE=crazyjoe] Isn’t this show produced by Brian Fuller, the same guy who did Dead Like Me? If so, I’m not surprised that the music is good. The music in DLM was pretty awesome. I haven’t noticed it quite as much in Heroes, but it’s still good. [/QUOTE] Yeah, primarily Stewart Copeland. My favorite part of DLM. BTW, Wendy and Lisa of Prince and the Revolution fame are the only credits I see at IMDB for soundtrack so far - “Genesis”. Episode 1? ---
**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:** [November 23, 2006, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/168 "2006-11-23T17:26:06Z")
**Hentor the Barbarian:** > [@](#): > > Wasn’t Peter cutting it close to go to Midland just an hour before he knew he had to find a specific high school in Odessa? How far apart are those two cities anyway? As I recall from my Texas days, they’re only about half an hour apart, on I-20. Quite a coincidence that two of the Heroes live so close together, but then the show is full of coincidences used as a story-telling convention, so no problem. (It’s entirely plausible that there would be several Heroes in NYC, given the population density.) Poor Ando; he must be feeling really lonely at this point. I’d love to see him do something majorly heroic, showing that ordinary people can change the world. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/169 "2006-11-23T17:39:49Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Quite a coincidence that two of the Heroes live so close together, but then the show is full of coincidences used as a story-telling convention, so no problem. (It’s entirely plausible that there would be several Heroes in NYC, given the population density.) [/QUOTE] Well, depending on how insular the breeding population of Midland-Odessa is, it’s not too terribly unreasonable to think that there could be a common ancestor recently enough in the past so that Charley and Claire are sufficiently related to have the “hero gene” or whatever in common. That of course presumes that Claire was born locally. Since she was adopted she could be from anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/170 "2006-11-24T00:53:44Z")
I just watched the episode again. I’m wondering about Mohinder’s friend (the guy with the bow tie and glasses, and I think is named Nirand). He seemed anxious to talk both Mohinder and his father out of investigating this. So is he working in cahoots with the group that Eden works for? Or is he not involved at all? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/171 "2006-11-24T01:26:27Z")
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn] I just watched the episode again. I’m wondering about Mohinder’s friend (the guy with the bow tie and glasses, and I think is named Nirand). He seemed anxious to talk both Mohinder and his father out of investigating this. So is he working in cahoots with the group that Eden works for? Or is he not involved at all? [/QUOTE] I think he’s just the friend who tells you “don’t pursue this foolishness” thereby guaranteeing you will pursue that foolishness. Then again, he _is_ rather involved in the Suresh family _and_ he wears a bow tie. Hm. Mohinder’s ex-girlfriend OTOH; “Come work for our profitable company as long as you promise you won’t pursue that foolishness.” _That’s_ suspicious. Almost seems like a payoff. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/172 "2006-11-24T01:58:32Z")
Re: The nicknames; We’ve had this out in a previous thread and I believe the nicknamers won and has been explained as we learn the names we tend to drop the nicknames except once in a while for fun. However, I propose a compromise, since the persons who usually start the thread include the rules on spoilers and such, how about also copying and pasting a nickname reference list everytime we start a thread. Then if people still can’t follow the nicknames, it’s their own damn fault. Now, can we stop hijacking these threads with these nickname and ear tangents? Re: Eden and Haitian guy; how did they just happen to be in the right place at the right time to catch Sylar? It seems to me they were in a wooded area outside the school, how would they know he’d go that way? Wouldn’t they have been better off patrolling inside the school? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/173 "2006-11-24T02:13:19Z")
How do they know where any of the Supered are? They clearly have a detector of some kind, probably supernatural, that helps when a superpowered person is nearby. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/174 "2006-11-24T05:40:49Z")
What would Bennett gain from scaring Mohinder off? It wasn’t him that killed Mohinder’s father. The preview for next week suggests that Bennett was actually working together with Mohinder’s dad in finding all the supers. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/175 "2006-11-24T09:15:26Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I’m a little worried about that. Mind you, I’m still loving this show. But what happens season two? This first season we’ve got “save the cheerleader” and “save NY.” The show’s been great about introducing mysteries then giving you satisfying answers in a reasonable timeframe. [/QUOTE] Well, I’ve seen quotes from the creator on Wikipedia and Television Without Pity that states that (1) he’s going with Lost as an example of how NOT to write in the answers to his mysteries, and (2) he’s got the next five seasons of story arcs plotted out. If you believe such, then he knows what he’s doing. It may not be a good plan, but he’s got one. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/176 "2006-11-24T11:08:55Z")
[QUOTE=Lissa] Is Ghost Dad toast? [/QUOTE] His best defense is that Nikki is a terrible shot. They showed her testing the rifle before she bought it, and from about 10-15 yards, supported, on a bipod, with optics, she made 2 shots about 3 inches apart. That’s really horrible shooting - any half-decent shooter could put 20 rounds into one hole with that setup. A good shooter wouldn’t leave a hole any more than a tiny bit bigger than the initial hole. Of course, I doubt this was used as an in-show way of showing she was a bad shot. She’s supposed to be a bad ass with fighting and weapons. More likely, it’s the result of ignorant writers thinking that’s actually good shooting (like when on the news they report shooting someone at 100 yards with a rifle as a “sniper shot” and impressive piece of marksmanship), or because showing the second round go through the same hole isn’t as visually interesting. [QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] There’s no way they’re killing off such a major character that easily. Besides, he has the power to phase through objects. Shouldn’t he be able to pass through a bullet, if he was on guard? [/QUOTE] The bullet will arrive before the sound does. But I’m not sure how the bullet speed would compare to nerve transmission speed - maybe he would reflexively phase after it was only an inch or two deep in him? [QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] Did the scene with Sylar standing in a doorway looming over the body of a dead cheerleader come true tonight? [/quote] I’d say so. There’s about a half-second shot that they framed intentionally to be at the same angles and such as the painting. [QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian] How are they going to resolve the apparent fact that the Mnemonic Waitress is still dead in Ando’s time? [/quote] Well, a logical explanation would be that it wasn’t just enough for her to not show up that day, but that she’d have to go missing to avoid Sylar. Maybe that’s what happened to her - they were mourning her after weeks of mysteriously dissapearing. [QUOTE=cbawlmer] I don’t think Peter can automatically sense other powered people. Otherwise, he would have known that his own brother was powered before jumping off a roof assuming he could fly on his own. [/QUOTE] That he thought he could fly is an indication that he can sense powers, rather than one that he couldn’t. Otherwise, why would he feel like he could fly in the first place? I’m guessing he gets a vague impression of what he’s capable of when he’s leeching powers, and so that way he can tell if a hero is nearby. [QUOTE=Archergal] I’m surprised that nobody has commented on Nathan’s assholiness in throwing paint on that picture. I actually shouted “NO!” at the tv when he did that. [/quote] I thought maybe it was altruistic either in that he wants his brother to avoid his fate if he belives it, or if he thinks it’s silly, he wants to stop giving his brother leads to chase. Of course, it would be a lot easier to understand his skepticism, and even scoffing, if, he couldn’t, you know, **FLY**. That would certainly tip me off that there’s something unusual afoot, and I might be more receptive to strange sounding things. [QUOTE=kingpengvin] Isn’t it great you asked that here? Here’s what ol uncle Cecil has to say on how bullets kill [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_203b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_203b.html) [/quote] That looks like a poorly researched article. Assuming the last line about “hollow nosed” bullets is meant to be taken as accurate, it sounds fairly uninformed. There are some specialists in the field of the medical effects of terminal ballistics who feel that hydrostatic shock is a pretty minor factor - that most tissue in the body is stretchy enough to accomodate the temporary compression and not suffer significant damage. Bullets generally kill the same way that, say, stabbing someone with a sword does - cutting arteries leading to fatal bleeding, damaging the central nervous system severely, or other such things. > [@](#): > > Essentially unless Ghost dad’s powers are automatic he would be killed the second the bullet hit him: High power rifle+speedy bullet+hydrostatic shock= real ghost dad. Yeah but it’s not like rifle hits are always fatal in the real world, which this sentence seems to imply. [QUOTE=Lissa] Is AED immune to Eden’s powers? She argued with him about Isaac rather than just looking at him and saying, “You don’t want me to do that.” [/QUOTE] Presumably they’re on the same team, he’s her boss, and she wouldn’t want to screw with him in that manner. Besides, he’d probably recognize what she was doing, and use his ambiguously evil hookups to do bad things to her. By the way, is there any remotely plausible way to explain how Mohinder’s dad compiled that list? Mohinder makes mention of the human genome project - but it’s not like every person’s genetic code is stored in some massive library somewhere to search through. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/177 "2006-11-24T14:55:11Z")
> [@Dob](#): > > I dont understand why AED didn’t just let Claire go, and have pixe girl follow her. Obviously pixe had no problem with taking him down, seems like it would have been easy. As far as his daughter knows, Bennett works at a paper company. For him to send along his assistant to chaperone Claire might be kind of feasible if a little weird; for her to _shadow_ Claire would be deeply weird to Claire if she spotted Eden. > [@SenorBeef](#): > > By the way, is there any remotely plausible way to explain how Mohinder’s dad compiled that list? Mohinder makes mention of the human genome project - but it’s not like every person’s genetic code is stored in some massive library somewhere to search through. Chandra literally wrote (a) book on the human genome. It’s not unreasonable that he’d have access to a subset of the data; this would also explain why all his hits (except Hiro…) were in the U.S., and the kid in Chennai wasn’t on the list. I’m thinking that the current Shrine of Charlie in the diner isn’t a memorial–she’s left on her round-the-world tour or something that’s taken her out of Texas, and they put up a bunch of pictures of her so they don’t forget about her. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/178 "2006-11-24T15:05:51Z")
But this is TV! _Everyone_ gets their DNA sampled, analyzed and stored in a massive database that can be searched through on PubMed. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/179 "2006-11-24T15:17:31Z")
[QUOTE=Saltire] I’d really like them to eventually give us a reason for the USA-centrism of the list. Maybe Chandra’s program was working off data gathered in the US, and for some reason Hiro was in there. Maybe he was born in the states to Japanese parents? I also notice there seem to be a lot more men than women. Wonder why? Last thing: Eden may be on there, and she may be listed as deceased. If you’ve read this week’s comic chapter you know why. [/QUOTE] Maybe they were just on a section of the page with more USA locations. Hiro’s seems to be a native Japanese, judging from how he was named after the atomic bombings and the online comic about him honoring his forebears. As for the perceived gender imbalance… perhaps your own perceptions are coloring the facts? I count 34 names on the list. Of them, 2 are known female (Niki, Charlie); 9 are probably female: Tracy, Paula, Teresa, Linda, Michelle, Candace, Jess, Sue, Pam; 5 are ambiguous: Pankala, Leonie, Sparrow, Amid, and Abu. If the ambiguous names are female, or some of the “male” names are actually female (i.e. Charlie, Frank, Harry)… I’d say that’s easily within standard deviation for a random sample. 16 out of 34 is 47%. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234/180 "2006-11-24T15:23:08Z")
[QUOTE=Saltire] Here’s a prediction that a co-worker came up with: Hiro will tell Charlie everything in the past, and urge her to be somewhere else when Syler comes for her. She will read lots of books on the physics of time. Using her super-brain, she will realize that making such a change will mess stuff up completely, maybe endangering the existence of the universe. She’ll tell Hiro he needs to take off, and she needs to preserve the timeline by allowing herself to get killed. [/QUOTE] I don’t think so. Charlie’s power is super-memory, not super-comprehension. She can read all the books that she wants, but this does not necessarily mean that she will gain rapid comprehension of graduate-level physics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heroes-11-20-homecoming/381234.md?page=10)