I have read comic books for too damned long for my own good.
Somewhere in history around the beginning of season 6 of Buffy (in a post I can not find) I wrote about the upcoming season 6:
It’s gotta be Willow this year. She’s just too damned strong. But something is going to drive her over the edge. Probably one of the 3 geeks will injure/kill tara. We know how well Willow deals when she loses someone… It’s usually magick and it’s bad. You’ll get some killer Buffy vs. Big Bad Willow stuff going on. Now if I were writing it. I’d have Xander be the one who saves the day. Not buffy. He’s known Willow the longest. He can get right into the core of who she is no matter what they do to “big-bad-ify” her.
This little pronouncement got me invited at my first DragonCon to sit on a few Buffy panels concerning Story Arc.
Currently, my favourite show hands down is Doctor Who. This post. Has nothing to do with Doctor Who.
My second favourite show, on the other hand is “Heroes”
Heroes has some amazing writing that just happens to be all interwoven sooper sekrit arc.
Today after being given a small hint… My mind blew up and I came up with some very strong theories.
If you are not watching Heroes… (Well you should)… If you are watching it and don’t like spoilers/theories… you really don’t want to click ahead… But in general… I have an idea.
NBC has running web comics that compliment the show’s story-line. The current story is called War Buddies. (Flash chapters 1, 2, 3, 4)
In short… During Vietnam there was a covert operation which had 5 operatives that were so deep they had no personal effects or identities beyond code names. Two are Dallas and Austin. It turns out that Austin has special abilities and can heal. Three (Loredo, San Antonio, and Amarillo) are all killed shortly after we meet them. Whether or not Dallas and the three that are dead had abilities… has not been revealed. San Antonio was a Heavyweight Gold Glove champ… so… there’s a piece more information.
So the story is an interesting read. It’s obvious the government knew something was special about the team. It’s probably why the file is still considered top-secret.
THEORY/SPOILER TIME (Last warning)
In the latest issue there is a picture of Austin and Dallas (Austin is on the viewer’s left)
Now… I’m still going to put in spoiler space here because putting two images side by side with this starts the theory:
The picture on the far left is a fairly famous press shot of Malcolm McDowell at age 28 in Clockwork Orange. The picture on the right is a promotional shot of Adrian Pasdar as Nathan Petrelli.
Now, while Linderman, is definitely the right age to have been late teens early twenties in Vietnam… Nathan would have been about -10. However, there’s no saying that a father and son might resemble each other at similar ages. (And I should know this)
So, from this we can theorize that Linderman and Nathan’s dad go waaaaay back.
This also suggests that Linderman has the special ability to heal others.
Now, this got me thinking about Claire. Well, talking to shimmeringjemmy got me thinking about Claire when she posed the question: which begs the question of is he related to Claire?
In the comic Austin heals Dallas. I contemplated if Linderman’s abilities get leached into his patients.
And then I saw it.
Is Angela Petrelli, originally, Angela Linderman, sister to Mr. (First name with an A perhaps) Linderman.
We don’t know whether or not Angela has any abilities but we do know that Linderman can heal others. So how would Claire wind up with an ability that is in the same area as Linderman’s?
Where would Petrelli most likely meet a future wife?
We do not know what genetic information siblings might share. Was Nathan’s father, the one with the abilities? The comic seems to indicate that Dallas has none. Was Angela also a healer? The comic indicates that Austin ran away at a young age when his powers manifested. It doesn’t indicate that there wasn’t a sister.
So, if Angela is linked to Linderman, this could be the source of a healing gene passed on from clan Linderman to Nathan to Claire.
It might also suggest why Angela Petrelli has not only a vested interest in Claire, but the ability to over-ride Primatech which theoretically spawned from Linderman.
So.. this is my current theory for fun… Comments welcomed.
Somehow you lost me there. It’s been a while since the last episode, I’m foggy.
How would this suggest that Linderman has the ability to heal again? Leached into his patients..refresh me, which patients? Why would they get leached?
Who is Angela now?
Why do we care where Peter would meet a future wife?
to clarify 🙂
It’s been a while since the last episode
NBC has been doing a series of online comics to add side stories to the universe. Similar to the Animatrix. The links in the post are to the comic book story that explore the characters of “Austin” and “Dallas” who I think are supposed to be Linderman and Nathan’s father in the past.
How would this suggest that Linderman has the ability to heal again?
If the perception from the photos is correct that the comic character of “Austin” is Linderman, then we now know that Linderman has healing abilities.
Leached into his patients..refresh me, which patients? Why would they get leached?
In the comic, Dallas (who we believe to be Nathan’s father… thus Claire’s grandfather) is “Magicly healed” by Austin (Linderman?)… One theory is that the healing power would become part of the patients healed (leached) and passed on to descendents.
Who is Angela now?
Angela Petrelli is Nathan and Peter’s mother. The matriarch of the Petrelli clan. She is last seen in the series berating The Hatian for allowing Claire to escape. Angela is also Claire’s grandmother.
Why do we care where Peter would meet a future wife?
I was actually referring to Peter’s father meeting a wife. Suggesting Angela as a sister to Linderman.
Re: to clarify 🙂
oh oh oh!
Ok, I get it now.
Good god, too complex. 😉
Well … if Linderman is Austin, that would probably explain why he’s not afraid of people trying to kill him, assuming that he can heal himself as well as others. And we do already know that he and Nathan’s dad go way back; they talked about that in one of the earliest episodes.
However, the dynamic between Linderman and the Petrelli family really doesn’t seem to be family. If they were close enough that Mr. Petrelli was Linderman’s lawyer (I think that’s what it was) for years and years, surely the kids would have referred to him as “uncle” even if the relationship between sister and brother was rather adversarial? Given that they don’t refer to him as Uncle, either he isn’t, or they had some deep reason to pretend that he & Angela aren’t related at all BUT stay involved in each others’ lives in a fairly significant way.
As for where Claire got the healing gene … from everything we’ve seen, the genetic tendency itself is heritable, but the specific talent is not. Claire’s parents fly and make fire, and Claire can’t heal others, only herself. And we’ve also seen that Micah’s talents aren’t at all related to his parents’.
Now, as you point out, the government was aware of and taking advantage of the special talents, which would seem to indicate that they had some system of identifying and coordinating them … and it’s not at all unlikely that Petrelli would have met Angela that way. She seems to have been highly involved in Primatech at some point, but also seems to have broken with them over some deep differences–maybe something to do with the death of her husband? And Primatech may or may not be aware that she’s working against them–either they haven’t figured it out yet, or there’s some reason they can’t touch her.
Oh, and as for why Angela has a vested interest in Claire … she’s her grandmother! I will admit that it’s interesting that she apparently knew about Claire’s continued existence–which Nathan apparently *didn’t* know–and was willing to have her adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. It’s an interesting dichotomy–she didn’t want to be at all involved in Claire’s life, but wasn’t willing to let Primatech have her and is taking some apparently significant risks to make sure that doesn’t happen.
So… in response Part 1
First off,
Killer comments. See… now this is how you can flirt your way into my heart. 😉
Well … if Linderman is Austin, that would probably explain why he’s not afraid of people trying to kill him, assuming that he can heal himself as well as others. And we do already know that he and Nathan’s dad go way back; they talked about that in one of the earliest episodes.
However, the dynamic between Linderman and the Petrelli family really doesn’t seem to be family. If they were close enough that Mr. Petrelli was Linderman’s lawyer (I think that’s what it was) for years and years, surely the kids would have referred to him as “uncle” even if the relationship between sister and brother was rather adversarial? Given that they don’t refer to him as Uncle, either he isn’t, or they had some deep reason to pretend that he & Angela aren’t related at all BUT stay involved in each others’ lives in a fairly significant way.
Given the Austin/Dallas issue, there may be a huge risk in them staying in contact and keeping the relationship ‘professional and out of the family.’ Also concerning the degree of covertness of Primatech and what seems to be an almost kwizach-haderach goal of family cross breeding, it seems plausible that the children be kept from meeting Linderman. We know that it turns adverserial towards the end (Six Months Ago) or at least we know what we are told by Angela who is at least obviously involved.
The degree of Angela and Linderman not protraying a relationship could also be traced to this covert behaviour by the larger ‘them’ as well as the general estrangement suggested by Austin’s backstory.
As for where Claire got the healing gene … from everything we’ve seen, the genetic tendency itself is heritable, but the specific talent is not. Claire’s parents fly and make fire, and Claire can’t heal others, only herself. And we’ve also seen that Micah’s talents aren’t at all related to his parents’.
Agreed on every point. But we also have seem many cases where a child may not resemble their parents but be the frighteningly accurate clone of their grandparent/great aunt. So.. while the genes (the symbol has 4 prongs) may not pass identically from parent to child… it’s not impossible that recessives and dominants could copy over multiple generations. We only have so far Parent/child to confirm how powers travel.
(Comments continued in next comment because I overran LJ’s comment buffer)
Re: So… in response Part 1
Given the Austin/Dallas issue, there may be a huge risk in them staying in contact and keeping the relationship ‘professional and out of the family.’ Also concerning the degree of covertness of Primatech and what seems to be an almost kwizach-haderach goal of family cross breeding, it seems plausible that the children be kept from meeting Linderman. We know that it turns adverserial towards the end (Six Months Ago) or at least we know what we are told by Angela who is at least obviously involved.
Yeahbut … are you suggesting that the government wouldn’t know that Angela was Linderman’s sister??? The same government who apparently had Linderman in a top-secret cut-your-throat-before-telling program? (Hmmm … maybe Primatech started out as a covert gov’t research operation masquerading as an NGO, but was taken over by a different branch of the gov’t that wants to use it as a weapon? But how does Hiro’s father’s involvement fit in?)
Also, Nathan & Peter were clearly aware of Linderman; Peter & Angela obviously considered Nathan’s involvement with him to be dangerous and stupid, although perhaps for different reasons. And don’t forget that Linderman tried to have Nathan killed.
The amount of apparently deliberate cross-breeding does seem a little odd, particularly combined with a few random facts like:
–Angela, high up in the ranks of Primatech, obviously disapproved of Claire’s mother as a match for Nathan, and yet it happened anyway?
–Hiro’s father is another higher-up in Primatech, but appears to be a normal?
–Hiro’s sister is also apparently a normal?
Then there’s also Mohinder’s father’s research. Supposedly he’s identifying the non-normals by using the human genome project … but if they’re being deliberately bred, wouldn’t that completely throw his calculations off? And he’s keeping his database on a laptop??? (I uploaded a virus to the aliens’ computer, using my Mac!)
Re: So… in response Part 1
Also, Nathan & Peter were clearly aware of Linderman; Peter & Angela obviously considered Nathan’s involvement with him to be dangerous and stupid, although perhaps for different reasons. And don’t forget that Linderman tried to have Nathan killed.
Okay.. now here’s an interesting squeaker. I really need to go back and watch about 6-10 of the first episodes. We know Nathan thinks it was Linderman. I want to rescrutenize those episodes to make sure. It’s very easy to make someone into an apparent guilty party in order to hide the real guilty party.
I’m not saying that Linderman is a saint… but I think there is much more involved in the Petrelli-Linderman relationship.
Re: So… in response Part 1
Okay, just read all the background stories.
–Angela *can’t* be Linderman’s sister, because she & “Dallas” were already married and Nathan was an infant when Austin & Dallas met. (see the last few chapters; note the letter Dallas was sharing with Austin when he was shot)
–Nathan apparently takes after his dad in a lot of ways.
–P-tech obviously has some way of identifying who is going to manifest, and apparently also has some way of triggering manifestation.
–DL and Niki met, were married and had Micah several years before either of them manifested (or at least before DL manifested).
–Most people are apparently being caught and “tagged” by The Company around the time they manifest, which would seem to bring into question whether there is an actual “breeding program”.
–Is Hiro’s talent possibly a result of mutation due to the radiation from Hiroshima? (His maternal grandfather was there.)
I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps most of the people who are manifesting aren’t just people they chose at random and artifically triggered. After all, why would they want to study Claire’s DNA if she wasn’t different somehow from everyone else they’ve been working with? And given that almost everyone else–well, everyone but Hana (who worked for them) and Sylar (who is a homocidal maniac)–are released again after just a couple days, why would Mr. Bennet be freaking out about them taking Claire?
So… in response Part 2
Now, as you point out, the government was aware of and taking advantage of the special talents, which would seem to indicate that they had some system of identifying and coordinating them … and it’s not at all unlikely that Petrelli would have met Angela that way. She seems to have been highly involved in Primatech at some point, but also seems to have broken with them over some deep differences–maybe something to do with the death of her husband? And Primatech may or may not be aware that she’s working against them–either they haven’t figured it out yet, or there’s some reason they can’t touch her.
Agreed. This is a possibility. We also don’t know how attached Linderman really is to Primatech at this point. A frightening supposition could then follow:
Petrelli was the normal partner in ‘the company’ (we know they pair normal to special)…. maybe it was Petrelli that was getting to big and threating to out Linderman. We know that the company started changing the mission. Claude got out when things turned ugly for the specials. Could he have been hiding the fact that Angela or even Linderman was getting out? Could Linderman and Angela have agreed that to try to prevent things from getting out of hand it was necessary to kill Mr. Petrelli and let Linderman’s ‘mob connections’ take the blame for it?
Oh, and as for why Angela has a vested interest in Claire … she’s her grandmother! I will admit that it’s interesting that she apparently knew about Claire’s continued existence–which Nathan apparently *didn’t* know–and was willing to have her adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. It’s an interesting dichotomy–she didn’t want to be at all involved in Claire’s life, but wasn’t willing to let Primatech have her and is taking some apparently significant risks to make sure that doesn’t happen.
This first off supports that ‘what you know about your family’ isn’t necessarily what you think you know. It’s obvious that Nathan doesn’t know the true details about his father, his father’s death, or involvement with Linderman.
Further this does suggest the divide between something happening at Primatech being coupled with the split between Linderman and Petrelli as well as possibly Claude’s betrayal of the Company.
Again… Awesome comments!