Heroes Debate Rages on the Identity of Sylar

The brilliance behind Tim Kring’s “Heroes” is that there is no clear cut good or evil. Just shades of gray, and that’s the way we like it. So, let’s take a brief pause from the obvious. Everyone seems to think Sylar’s evil. Let’s say he’s not. We all know Hiro travelled forward in time and witnessed the destruction of New York. We know Isaac painted it and it came true. And finally we know that Nathan Patrelli is “destined” to win the election.

What don’t we know? Who is Sylar really and what’s his power? Why does he scalp people? What exactly happened to Molly Walker’s parents? One died of frost the other of nails. How the heck did Sylar clear out his apartment so fast between Mohinder Suresh’s visits? The latest Buzz is that Sylar may be Peter Petrelli, an interesting concept. Let’s examine. If anyone would be a clear cut good guy at this point its Peter, but Kring doesn’t deal in black and white. He deals in gray. What do we know about Peter?

Let’s take a look at the character’s personality and powers:

• He likes to sleep with other people’s women (Simone the Super-powered groupie). Simone then pushes him to the side after she has her little rebound fling with our super-powered star. He’s an underdog, that takes a backseat to his brothers.
• His brother, Nathan Petrelli, betrayed him by telling the public Peter tried to commit suicide - their mother obviously condoned this by not condemning it. Nathan seems especially comfortable and not at all concerned about “discovering” his “new” powers. Is it possible that Nathan knew he could fly long before his brother did? That would explain Nathan’s sound barrier breaking take to the skies in ep. 5. Who makes a sonic boom the second time you fly?
• Everyone loves a good underdog, cause we can identify with him. But What if being an underdog for so long forced you to the “dark side.”

Peter can absorb people’s powers temporarily, much like Rogue from the X-men. But what if Peter could absorb powers for longer? “With great power comes great responsibility.”

• Future Hiro knows Peter, does that necessarily mean they are friends?

Why does Sylar scalp his victims? His powers range from disappearing acts to mind control - pretty wide ranging. Maybe Sylar acquires his powers from his victims and for some reason he needs to get to the brain to do that. Who else has the power to absorb other powers - Peter Petrelli. The key seems to be Claire. She can’t die. Or can, she? What if her head gets scalped? So maybe, just maybe - Sylar is Peter traveled back in time. Except now with the powers of all the “Heroes” he’s beaten. Far fetched? Possibly. Of course then comes the paradox of Peter now fighting his future self.

On the other hand this could all be an elaborite plot by Chandra Suresh, who really faked his death. There was no body found, just some ashes and an urn in the mail. Chandra did have the key to Sylar’s apartment. Let the Bag Man know what your take is.