What's the biggest plot hole in Heroes?

jor el

One thing has annoyed me about Heroes since the first series, and it is the healing ability possessed by Claire and Adam. The powers possessed by all the characters are manifested by using their mind, this was the theory brought forward by Mohinder, and his father before him. It's also pretty much confirmed by Sylar, who opens people's heads to look at their brain to see how their power works.

When Claire got stabbed through the brain, with a stick, in season 1, she could no longer heal. Not until the stick was removed did she come back to life. Same thing happened with Peter and the shard of glass through his skull.

So, the power comes from the brain. This always seemed to fit nicely, as all the other characters powers come from some development in their brain too.

Move on the season 2, and Adam uses his blood to heal Nathan of his burns. Claire's blood is also used to bring Bennett back to life, after he was shot in the head. So, it's the blood that heals, not the brain. So why didn't Claire's blood heal her when she had the stick through her head?

If it requires a combination of special blood, and brain power, then surely the blood alone would not cure anyone? Also, Sylar wouldn't be able to heal just by figuring out the brain side of it, he'd need the blood too. Also, Peter and his father wouldn't be able to absorb healing powers, as their blood would be normal.

Over everything else in Heroes, this is probably the biggest plot hole, and it's something that stands out over and over again as a major flaw in the story, to me anyway.

sixpack's little hat

People having superpowers

monkeyfudge

Within the context of the show I can accept that people have super powers and that how those powers work my not necessarily be consistent.

But the show is still set on the planet Earth... and I simply can't accept the never ending eclipse and how the moons shadow somehow has a magical ability to block powers... but only sometimes.

leninbenjamin

jor el wrote: »

When Claire got stabbed through the brain, with a stick, in season 1, she could no longer heal. Not until the stick was removed did she come back to life. Same thing happened with Peter and the shard of glass through his skull.

So, the power comes from the brain. This always seemed to fit nicely, as all the other characters powers come from some development in their brain too.

Move on the season 2, and Adam uses his blood to heal Nathan of his burns. Claire's blood is also used to bring Bennett back to life, after he was shot in the head. So, it's the blood that heals, not the brain. So why didn't Claire's blood heal her when she had the stick through her head?

there's a constant reference to the 'back of the head', which i've always understood to mean the brainstem, which would make sense imo.

destroy the brainstem and your brain can't communicate with the rest of the body. so if Claire's healing power is in the blood, but the healing needs to be triggered by the brain; if the brainstem is damaged or obstructed, the healing isn't triggered.

but anyway, the biggest plot hole so far is

how Authur Petrelli from the followed Hiro to the past and THEN stole his powers... it's by far the worst of all the mis-handlings of the concept of time travel

challengemaster

leninbenjamin wrote: »

but anyway, the biggest plot hole so far is

how Authur Petrelli from the followed Hiro to the past and THEN stole his powers... it's by far the worst of all the mis-handlings of the concept of time travel

He obviously got that power from Peter when he took all the powers that Peter had obtained.

Fysh

The eclipse, the crummy way in which time travel is handled, the handwavey approach to both how everyone has developed their powers and how they work, the motivations and behaviour of the main characters beyond series one...all of these are candidates.

Personally, I think stuff like characters behaving in ways determined by the plot's requirements rather than by what has been established previously or having an eclipse last a stupidly long time is actually worse than the hokey science behind the time travel or the powers. In order to accept fantasy in a dramatic context, it needs to be grounded in reality - so if everything else about the show feels real and then one fantastic element is introduced, you can accept it. If you stop keeping everything else grounded, that suspension of disbelief will disappear because if you get to the point of questioning a character's behaviour, you'll probably also remember that you've got questions about how he can fly/move things with his mind/read minds/whatever...

jor el

leninbenjamin wrote: »

destroy the brainstem and your brain can't communicate with the rest of the body. so if Claire's healing power is in the blood, but the healing needs to be triggered by the brain; if the brainstem is damaged or obstructed, the healing isn't triggered.

Which is what I was thinking, except then, how does the blood alone cure Nathan's injuries, and bring Bennett back to life? For me, it has been the biggest problem with the story, which is based on the theory of people's brains evolving to develop super powers. The blood show play no part in it.

I had thought, during season 2, that Claire would actually be able to heal other people, using her mind. This would seem to be in line with the story, to me.

An eclipse, where the moon slowly and consistently moves across the suns path, only to stop for several hours, and then slowly move away again, was plainly out of touch. It being a full eclipse in so many parts of the world, far away from each other, at the same time, was also stupid.

Ivan

I always assumed it was because her powers could only heal physical wounds. Not like wolverine, who's healing type ability could force bullets out of his body. Claire had to manually reset her shoulder, push her ribs back together, and have a stick pulled out of her brain... in order for them to actually heal.

But yeah, the whole eclipse affair, the "catalyst" and numerous other aspects of the show are very flaky, but I do still enjoy it

unreggd

Its one of them things you just cant get your head around, like John Connor sendin his Da back in Terminator!!!

My theory of it is:
The Healing power is unique, and works from the blood, automatically

It heals physical injuries, but not if something [bullet, glass shard] is still stuck in the brain; it needs to be removed so the blood at the wound can heal it, thus bringin the person back to life

Our organs dont need to be conciously functioned, so thats how I c it!

StiLL-TrAiNinG

This is one that has been bugging me for a while now, maybe it's a pretty big plothole or maybe I just missed something.

Back near the start of S3, when Nathan gets shot by future Peter, he is supposedly healed by Linderman. However a few episodes later we find out that Linderman is still actually dead and it was Matt's father all along using the image of Linderman. How did Nathan heal from being shot several times in the chest?

kayos

StiLL-TrAiNinG wrote: »

Back near the start of S3, when Nathan gets shot by future Peter, he is supposedly healed by Linderman. However a few episodes later we find out that Linderman is still actually dead and it was Matt's father all along using the image of Linderman. How did Nathan heal from being shot several times in the chest?

Yup that's one big pink elephant in the corner that everyone seems to ignore. The only healers alive were Peter (not sure would Peter's blood do the same job), Claire and Adam. And none of those 3 went near the body. If Daddy P had some elixir of healers blood knocking about the place surely he would have used that on himself.

Jay Ru

its not a plot hole, but one thing thats got me wondering ever since the first time we seen him is, how did the Hatian discover his powers. i'm Nathan discovered his powers when he flew above the craching car, Hiro discovered his when he stopped time and so on, so what would the Hatian have had to do to discover he cud block the abilities of others for the first time or even erase peoples memories.

Goodshape

Jay Ru wrote: »

its not a plot hole, but one thing thats got me wondering ever since the first time we seen him is, how did the Hatian discover his powers. i'm Nathan discovered his powers when he flew above the craching car, Hiro discovered his when he stopped time and so on, so what would the Hatian have had to do to discover he cud block the abilities of others for the first time or even erase peoples memories.

That was in one of the comic books around season 1 iirc.

Something along the lines of - the Haitian's father had powers and was using them to protect the village. The Haitian snuck out to see his father fight but ended up blocking his powers and getting him killed / wounded.

Fysh

The comics on the NBC website from back when series 1 was airing had a 4-part storyline describing the Haitian's discovery of his powers. It was pretty good as I recall. (Checking the list on Wikipedia, the comics are 35 to 38, "It Takes A Village" parts one through four).

Jay Ru

thanks guys

Sofaspud

In the season finale,

I can understand how Ando supercharging Daphne's speed could send her back in time, but how the hell would it bring them forward, to the present?

challengemaster

Well, it's impossible to say what direction in time you can travel if you exceed the speed of light (because it hasn't been done yet). So going by the fact that it's unknown, the writers are just using it to their advantage at a guess