MikahIt’s nice to see some lingering humanity in our favorite villain. He’s still a monster – but apparently he’s got a code of ethics, such as it is. Sylar kills the other Specials, takes their abilities, because he views them as being unworthy. He sees himself as the only one worthy to carry all these abilities and use them – though to what purpose and end we don’t know. But, when faced with the prospect that he may end up destroying millions of ‘innocents’ who have no special abilities, he hesitates and wrestles with the illogical nature of this seeming moral quandary.

Sylar still loves his mother, and in fact, seeks her approval. She herself seems to be the sort of self-involved woman who is utterly incapable of dealing with reality as it is. She has to create a fiction in her mind, both for herself and for her son, a sort of watered-down delusion of the way _she_ thinks things ought to be. She wants her son Gabriel to be special, to be something more than he is – while he wants nothing more than to be normal again.

Sylar’s RegretFor the first time, we realize that Sylar is actually caught in a dilemma. He has suddenly found himself to be Special and is _compelled_ to become even more special. We find in this episode, though, that this compulsion is driven with the power of an obsessive-compulsive. It seems that, all things being equal, if Sylar had the power to do so he would change things so that all people could be normal again, equal again, if only so he himself could find inner peace.

Sylar’s view of the other Specials seems to be mixed – at times he almost seems to harbor some small amount of guilt over his killings, but at others he sounds both vengeful and justified in them. And his reticence to kill millions of innocents adds another layer to his character that begs a question – were he to acquire _all_ of the specials of _all_ the Specials out there, what then would he do? Would he then use them to ‘protect’ those selfsame innocents through ruthless dictatorship? This is a question that we will likely never see an answer to. For now, Sylar himself may not know the answer to that question. He is simply driven to acquire more power from those too unworthy to carry them.

Peter’s HandsWe continue to drive relentlessly toward the climax of the season. The heroes are gathering in New York, and we are left with Peter beginning to absorb Ted’s power. Hiro’s sword has been broken, though it seems to work every bit as well to help him focus his power. Mikah is in New York – for whatever Linderman’s purpose is for him; Niki and DL are looking for him. Parkman and Ted are with HRG now, as well as with Claire and Peter. And Nathan is being asked by his mother – who is apparently one of Linderman’s inner circle and who may herself possess some sort of ability we have to see – to allow the bomb and restore hope to the world in the aftermath. The plot thickens, as they say, and we can only speculate as to what will happen next.

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