Speaking of which, why didn’t Mohinder move in season 1 after he found The (Phone) Company guy wiretapping his phone? Yeah, his neighbor was hot, but that’s no good reason to stick around when people are threatening you.
(Okay, it totally is, but he still should have moved the second her body hit the ground.)
He couldn’t save her because, it was implied, Time Itself prevented it. He had convinced her to leave town with him but was suddenly and uncontrollably flung back to Tokyo in the present day. She was still killed by Sylar, not by her brain anyurism (as demonstrated by the use of the identical footage used for her “second” death).
Have you tried the animated versions? They have them now in a convenient video version, without the constant screen loading.
Then why did she have the Kensei tattoo on her back when she was Jessica, but not when she was Niki? They’ll probably never resolve that one…
Blame it on the eclipse-which-means-nothing.
I know how Groundhog Day ends! Hiro could have done something!
Why on Earth would her powers do that? We have not one example of anyone’s powers being linked to that “godsend” glyph.
We have many examples of the Company being linked to the “godsend” glyph. Jessica knew Linderman. Linderman was in (or, was) the Company. Probably the Company got a hold of Niki/Jessica and put the tattoo on her. Hence my earlier allusion that the Company (Bob, really) already knew about Niki’s MPD problem before he offered to cure her.
But, yes, it’s probably Heroes’ equivalent of the Cylon Spine of Glowing Sex.
It seemed originally that her power involved physically replacing one person with another in the mirror. They seemed to reinforce that by showing that only Jessica had the tattoo. Remember in the episode “Run” Jessica even tried to cover it up with makeup and Niki trapped in the mirror said something like “that won’t fool D.L.” - so even Jessica/Niki knew that only Jessica had the tattoo.
Now that they’re saying it was all in her head, there’s no logical explanation for her tattoo simply disappearing when she changed personalities.
I was (am!) hoping to see some in-show follow-up on the girl who wound up as a ghost in the machine–I think she was Israeli? She made it into an episode or two, and then abruptly disappeared into the comix. (By abruptly, I mean that I recall her being in the end of one episode. The next week’s beginning mirrored it, except that she had vanished from the scene.)
I haven’t been keeping up with them lately, but when I was, I downloaded them all from this site, which has links to each page of each comic in jpg format. So far as I know, it’s still kept up to date.
I didn’t think that it ever seemed as if her power involved physically replacing each other in the mirror. Lots of people apparently thought so, but as that turned out to be wrong, it seems pointless to continue making assumptions based on that. This program really seems to have a problem with fans who come up with wild theories unsupported by the show, who’re unwilling to give them up once it’s obvious the writers went a completely different direction.
Of course Jessica covering up the tattoo with makeup wouldn’t have fooled DL – every time DL identified Jessica, it was because of how Jessica was acting. Niki was right; covering up the thing that was not related to how DL identified Jessica, would do nothing to prevent him from identifying Jessica.
And “they” have never said that the tattoo is all in Niki’s/Jessica’s head. That’s another assumption unsupported by the show. If the tattoo was put there by the Company – a reasonable assumption, supported by that symbol being connected with the Company elsewhere – it could certainly be/have been observably present when Jessica was around. And the Company apparently has an unknown number of people with powers who’re shy about showing them on-camera. Any one of them could’ve had an oddball tattoo-related power. Certainly no weirder than the guy who could liquify metal, or super-hearing Dale, or eidetic memory Charlie. Or, heck, “I know what makes things tick” Gabriel.
I’m not saying the tattoo was in her head, I’m saying that the other personalities were in her head. Of course the tattoo was probably put there by the company. But why does it vanish when she’s Niki? They went out of their way to show that the tattoo disappears when she’s Niki, and there’s no way to explain that now. I think they wrote themselves into a corner on that one.
I have no cite on this, but I remember reading a story about studies of people with MPD and each personality within the same body could have it’s own physical traits, i.e. one personality was left-handed, the other right-handed or one personality was violently allergic to strawberries, the other personality ate them by the bowlful. It isn’t that far a jump to one personality manifesting a tattoo. Or is it?
I think it is. Being able to switch hands seems a small trick indeed for a brain that’s able to switch entire personalities. The allergy thing is a little more peculiar, and I certainly don’t know enough about the brain’s immunosupression abilities to comment. But neither has much in common with a tattoo. Now, tell me that they’ve found an MPD-affected person whose personalities have different scars, freckles, or birthmarks and we’ll talk.
Niki’s abilities have always been (IMO) the most poorly explained on the show, and at this point, I think the only reasonable explanation for the relationship between her different personalities and her powers is “Yeah, we didn’t really think that all the way through.”
I never thought the mirror thing was anything more than a dramatic device ripped off from Lord of the Rings - in one of the movies, Gollum argues with his reflection in a pool of water. Heroes took it a step further with Niki getting trapped in the mirror, but that’s just a visual shorthand for Jessica taking over control.
As for the tattoo, it’s probably just sloppy writing.
Folks, this is a comic book story being told in tv. Comic book whackyness is going to happen. I cannot fathom how someone can accept superstrength and people flying at supersonic speeds and shooting lightning that does not follow the laws of physics, yet be bothered by one stupid tattoo.
Nonetheless, the tattoo shows up when Jessica is there, and apparently does not with Niki. The rubber science physics of the damn tattoo have been more consistent than either Ted’s or Elle’s powers, so if it’s still bothering you, Heroes may not be the show for you. Worse is sure to come.
Correct, it is a comic book story. But even in comic book worlds there are certain rules. Just because Superman can fly doesn’t mean everyone can fly. Within the rules of Superman on must be from, uh, Superman’s planet (I’m not much of a comic book guy) to be able to fly.
In the Heroes universe certain individuals have extraordinary abilities that are impossible by any stretch of the imagination. So, Niki has some stupid power that is completely worthless so far. That fits within the Heroes universe. But that they specifically show her tattoo appear and disappear…why? If part of her super power is that she can make one specific tattoo vanish and come back on a whim, that fits within the Heroes universe. But I doubt that that was the writers’ intention. So, what was their intention?
I don’t think anyone is going to give up on the show over this. It’s simply something to ponder in a mindless action comic book TV show.
Jeff
Why does everyone keep thinking that it has to be Niki’s power making the tattoo disappear and reappear? There could be some schmuck off-camera whose amazing power is to create flightly skin art.
Since the tattoo is the “godsend” symbol of the Company, it is most likely something that was done to, not by, Jessica/Niki.
Oh, c’mon. It’s not bothering me that much. But ditto what GildedLily said. Once they set the rules of their comic book world, especially in a show where they drop tiny little clues and reward people for paying close attention, it’s mildly irritating when they get sloppy with one of those clues.
Was I upset when Nathan pajama pants didn’t come flying off when he flew away? No. (But I know some regular posters to this thread that probably were :)).
Would I be upset if in the next episode Claire got stabbed in the head and regenerated instantly with no problem? Yes.
You should only get upset if Claire gets stabbed in the head and the implement is left in and she regenerates. She can recover from severe head trauma, just not if the thing causing the trauma is still lodged.
Lightray, lighten up a little. We all get that it’s a superhero comic on TV. You don’t have to condescendingly remind us of it in every post. I have no idea if you’re a comics fan but if you are then you know that comics fans tend to pay attention to continuity and have fairly long memories for details. As fane of the show. we’re engaged in it. We want it to be internally consistent and we enjoy taling about it when it is or isn’t. Your constant throwing up of hands and clucking at us about it is not going to stop us from doing it and is only serving as an annoyance.
Don’t forget, Linderman had been tracking Niki and DL for a long time. Ever since they showed up in Isaac’s paintings.