This does still leave a few problems. If Peter blew up then he had to have met and saved Claire in order to regenerate and survive the bomb. But if he saved Claire then Sylar cannot have had regeneration and could not have survived Hiro’s attack, which future Hiro says will definitely lead to the bomb going off.

So either the whole “save the cheerleader” thing was not as critical as Hiro believed (which would just be annoying considering how central this was in the early plot), or Claire cannot possibly still be alive in any timeline in which the bomb goes off!

I love the show (as you an see from how much thought I’ve given it), but I would have been more satisfied if the writers had dealt with this issue explicitly, because it’s just about the most important plot line in the whole of series 1! The problem is that time is inherently paradoxical!

Well, Dan…that is one of those things about which we are not supposed to think. *laugh*

It all depends upon one thing–can the Haitian’s blocking ability block itself? The easy answer is “no”; in this case if Peter and the Haitian meet then the Haitian couldn’t erase memories while Peter couldn’t use any mentally-based powers because both are blocking each other.

The difficult answer is “yes”, because this would set up a self-referential loop with one blocker blocking another blocker but being blocked themselves by a blocker–ugh. Headache.

There are actually 3 time-lines.

timeline A is the one where Hiro hasn’t interfered atall.
Claire is dead at homecoming, Peter doesnt have healing powers. Peter gets his scar and cant heal from it. Thats why he has a scar, and Future Hiro (FHiro from now on) would expect him to have a scar.

timeline B is the one where FHiro started interfering.
This timeline is the timeline of the episode “5 years gone.” ie this one.
Claire survived (until the end of this episode), Peter *should not* have had his scar!! because he saved claire! this is an inconsistency. Even though, it is in the past, this timeline exists only because Past Hiro (PHiro) hasn’t lived his future yet. So as he hasnt gone and stabbed Sylar, (yet!) then the future cannot yet be different. This is a time-line seen from PHiros perspective, it is the only timeline that PHiro can *go* to.

Timeline C is the one we are watching in the show.
it is the one where presumably Peter is stopped from exploding, and Sylar is killed. (presumably).
It is the one where Hiro will stop the events of Timeline B from occuring.

Timetravel stories are confusing. Especially for the writers, because they need to keep track of alot of different things. They often aren’t perfect because its very hard to spot those inconsistencies when you are in the story-writing loop.

PS. this episodes special effects were really disappointing. really put me off watching how un-spectacular all of Peter’s telekinesis was, and how unspectacular the peter/sylar fight was. (turned into a bucking door and light show? zzz)

i like claire’s character and i hate to see it if she dies in this series

Every character experienced timeline A… except future Hiro. He is the only one that remembers what happened in timeline B before he went back and changed the course of events. Everyone else had their memory retroactively changed. For example, HRG doesn’t remember Sylar killing Claire at homecoming because in that timeline it never happened. I guess part of Hiro’s power is that he can remember what happened in the previous timeline which is why future Hiro is the only character in this episode that remembers timeline B.

So to answer Fuxsiloh’s question, Claire is dead because they are on timeline A.

i hate the fact that sylar can change shape. its soo hard to tell if its the real person or not !

arghh this show makes me think toooo much