What’s Going on With Ali Larter’s Character? - SPOILERS
By Sam | September 5, 2008 (1:06 pm)
So what’s Ali Larter’s Niki/Jessica Sanders (or is it now Tracy Strauss?) character been up to on Heroes? It’s probably not a stretch to say that the entire Sanders clan didn’t exactly have a lot to do in Season 2, with Niki mostly spending her time in New Orleans daydreaming about her dearly departed hubby D.L., a man with the power to phase through any object, but for some reason forgot to use it when someone shot him. (Yes, that was very convincing, writers of Heroes.) Of course, we can explain away Ali Larter’s lack of activity in Season 2 to Ali’s burgeoning movie career, as she had roles in not one, not two, but four movies in 2007 alone. So what can we expect from Ali Larter and her characters in Season 3? Let’s see what we know already… SPOILERS BELOW.
Niki Sanders is gone, metaphorically “killed” in that fiery inferno we saw at the end of Season 2. She has since been replaced by a new personality — Tracy Strauss, pictured below.
What do we know about Tracy Strauss? Rumors indicate that she has no awareness of her previous life, or other identities, and has since become the mistress to the New York Governor (played by Bruce Boxleitner).
We also know that Tracy Strauss won’t just be a sexy toy to the NY Gov, she’ll also be something of a political confidant. Or maybe just a very good manipulator, because future storylines will include Tracy trying to get Nathan Petrelli a cushy Government job. We already know that Nathan and Tracy will be working very closely together in future episodes.
But Tracy won’t be the mastermind here — that role will belong to the supposedly departed Mister Linderman (Malcolm McDowell), who is scheduled to make his return in the Season 3 premiere. I suppose it was too much to hope that a man who can heal anything and anyone could be killed by a punch through the skull?
Speaking of Linderman’s healing powers, what exactly is Tracy Strauss doing to this rose…? I seem to recall in a previous Season 1 episode where Linderman demonstrates his power to Nathan Petrelli by performing something similar to a dying flower…
So what awaits Tracy Strauss? Will Ali Larter finally be brought back into the Heroes fold and made important again? We’ll have to wait and see.
Heroes Season 3 premieres September 22.
Update 9/8/08: More information about the Tracy Strauss character have surfaced in this article.
hey everyoen i was just dropping in and im kinda loving elles story and all that .
does anyone ...
Lame 
Maybe that was the eclipse that gave Adam his powers. Besides, anything Hiro is involved in requires a question mark. ...
I always thought D.L. didn’t phase because the bullet would go through him and kill Nikki. That’s the point of taking a bullet for someone.
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In season 1 that was the case but in season 2 she was standing to the side of him and the bullet would have just gone into the stairs.
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Niki powers are hard to explain Jessica had superstrenght, Gina had….. and now Tracy has plant manipulation, healing or cyrokenesis
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in regards to “cat” he didnt do that to take a bullet for her… because he can make other people phase through objects as well! so ultimatley…that was just a quick way to get rid of a character!
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Whoever posted this seems to think Tracy is another personality like Jessica or Gina, since they write: ’she has no memory of her previous life’. This is because she is NOT the same person who was Niki. Tracy is not simply another personality in the same body, she is an entirely different person. She was killed more than ‘metaphorically’, because in the ’sneak peek’ we see Tracy open a coffin to look at dead Niki.
Also, DL was standing in a crowded stairway when he was shot. For the same reason he didn’t let the bullet phase through him when Linderman shot him, it would’ve hit the people behind him.
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Remember, Niki had a sister…if Niki had a power, isnt it safe to say that her sister did too?
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Dude, that was Jessica, she is dead.
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The speculations listed in the article was culled from all the spoilers that have shown up online. If you have any evidence that Tracy is Niki’s sister, I would like to see it. Link to a source, unless you’re just blowing hot air. As to the DL issue, the gun came out of nowhere, DL would have just a split-second to react. Definitely enough time for him to phase, but NOT enough time for him to consider or even mull over the idea of sacrificing himself to save everyone in the stairwell. It was either bad writing or a major conceit on the show’s part.
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yeah killing D.L was lame they should have killed him off a better way like falling off a building somehow and then he phases into the ground below and gets stuck never to be seen again a gun shot to the gut is stupid as weve seen him phase that sniper shot from niki
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One thing to bear in mind is that Linderman had been watching Niki a long time (DL too). Exactly how long or what caused him to take an interest, we’ve not yet been shown. That rose picture is important. Also I like how they give you enough info to stay interested and speculate but don’t actually spoil anything.
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Nikki/Jessica/Gina/Tracey just got even mre interesting !!! but im just worried about Micah for the reasons to that tracy doen’t remember anything about her past and if Monica’s gonna be leaving , who’s gonna be and take care of Micah ?
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I think that Micah will leave the show at the same time as Monica. I thought that Tracy would have Cyrokenesis because of the promo wallpaper, but when I saw the promo I thought Telekinesis. I think that Tracy would be a lot like Emma Frost from the X-Men Comics. Niki and Jessica shared the Super Strength, it was her way of getting the power like drugs was Issac’s was to get his. After seeing a promo I think that Tracy is a separate person from Niki, but if Tracy looks down at Niki, why isn’t Niki burnt?
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It’s clear that this person called Tracy is actually Nikki’s twin sister, whom Nikki thought was dead, remember she went to visit her grave! Nikki and her split personalities of Jessica/Gina are dead and that only leaves the real Jessica who has some sort of memory loss/amnesia and thinks shes called Tracy Strauss and can’t remember her twin sister, but as we see in the spoiler, she will see her in a coffin. Pretty cool because all these 4 characters have been played by Ali Larter.
Mr Withaz
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Why IS Linderman so interested in her and her different personalities? What did she do to get his attention when she was younger for him to have such an interest as to put her whole life on a path of his choosing? Are they maybe related in some way? And has there been any mention of her mother or her mother’s powers? I don’t remember there being any.
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Hopefully they will show us. I do recall in season 1 when DL and Niki went looking for Micah they found files on themselves that Linderman had been keeping for some time, though no reason for him to have taken an interest was given at that time other than Linderman saying he’d wanted DL and Niki to marry and have offspring.
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Im thinking that the founders of the company including Linderman know what two people with powers wil have what kind of off spring,
theyve known about powers for a very long time and its not a stretch that they would know the genetics behind it i think that why he got Niki and D.L married he probably knew Phasing plus super strength = technokenisis and he needed Micah to rig the election for nathen it was a big elaberate plan to get nathen into office make sence?
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I don’t think that they could know just through genetics that when two people have offspring what the result would be. For instance when they have more than one child. There’s a different result each time such as Peter and Nathan. Peter is the most powerful of them all while Nathan only flies. Maybe one of the founders power is, or was, to know who develops what power without having to be near them. Sort of a human genetic data base. How else could Linderman know about DL and Nikki and whoever else he had tabs on?
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or maybe they had a guy that has what sylars original power is and he looked at DL and he looked at niki and figured out they would have a kid that has teknokenisis, why else would linderman want them together, and then again on my genetic theory mohinders dad figured out thru genetics who would have powers thru the markers and such so its a far stretch to know what the offspring would have, especially if you’ve been “researched”
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How did Papa Suresh come up with this list of names anyway? It’s not like there’s a list compiled of everyones blood out there for everyone to see.
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yeah but he had the list it was one of the shows plots points
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Yes, but how did he compile the list? It didn’t come out of thin air.
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He got it from the human gene project thingy, Its the people who had abnormalities in their DNA, obviously all heroes arent on it because not all of them were involved in the project, but thats how he got the list.
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You state that as if everyone on the list came to Suresh and have him their blood for the project. I know what has already been stated on the show. My question was how did he get the DNA for the project. The people he contacted afterwards hadn’t a clue who he was for the most part so…..
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Perhaps the scene we see in one of the trailers, were Tracy opens a coffin an sees herself, wich may be Nikki, if she really died in the explosion then she should have burns of 3rd grade, but maybe that scene is in her mind, the personality if Nikki perhaps is dead, or in a deep sleep. Ali Larter’s character for now is one of the most strange and interesting now, my tought is that she is not ill in a physicological way, but instead that is her power, to have different personalities, like cloning, but instead her souls, and very different from each other, and perhaps her ability, and maybe she will have Linderman’s personality, because he is dead, and maybe like Jessica, Nikki or Tracy will now be Linderman.
For now the ones that involve Larter’s character most are Nathan and Linderman, perhaps she and Nathan will work to discover more about their abilities, but Nathan for her to remember, because it couldn’t be a coinsidence that someone he already knows doesnt remember him, since Nathan know of her multiple personality desorder, and the rose scene may show her ability, my guess is FREEZING, since in her new artwork promo, show her in a snowing street, or raining perhaps but prefer snowing, since is soo white, and maybe she freeze the rose in that scene.
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Yayyyy Linderman her real DADDY, not the misfit guy fro9m season one!
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Hey everybody, I was wondering why nobody has discussed Nikki’s other physical strengths. Her superstrength would apply to her bones and skin as well as her muscles. If her muscles are strong enough for her to punch through a heavy wooden door then the bones in her hand and arm would have to be strong enough not to shatter on impact. Her skin would also have to be durable enough to not tear or rip apart. Perhaps this is why the woman in the coffin wasn’t burned?.
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nice idea Rightprice, though the only problem is that Niki was infected with the modified Shanti virus, which is supposed to take away powers (in addition to being ultimately fatal) though perhaps it didn’t affect /everything/ just yet.
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yeah I think Niki dying in the fire is a way to kill off the virus as well because the virus probably wouldnt survive the fire either, as for her to come back as someone totally different I think its kinda weird but there are such things as dopplegangers its very very rare but if thats the case then why would she be looking at a coffin of someone who looks exactly like her but isnt her and has no connection to her? ‘Heroes youve got some splainin to do
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this is one damn hot show
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People seem to be taking the Niki/Jessica character looking at herself in the coffin scene too literally. As in Season 1, when Niki kept seeing Jessica in the mirrors, a lot of what transpires with Niki/Jessica takes place in the mind — i.e. Jessica wasn’t REALLY hiding in the mirrors. Likewise with the coffin scene, I surmise. My guess is that it’s Tracy figuratively burying Niki and taking over the personality. Of course, it’s just speculation, but unless someone can link me to a source that says otherwise…
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You could be on to something there, Sam. If it’s metaphorical rather than actual that would definitely explain why the woman in the coffin isn’t burned.
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My thoughts exactly on the whole coffin scene. We saw numerous metaphorical scenes of her personalities. I wonder exactly how many personalities they are going to create for her character. It seems that the possibilities are endless but wouldn’t it be a bit boring after a while to keep up with this multiple personality disorder?
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yes but why would they change it from mirrors? to her actually seeing it happen? i think theres more to it
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Ali Larter is so HOT!
She is the best actress in the show!
Wonderful charactere!
I think that Tracy is a sister of Niki!
Maybe Niki Mother has a power of babys multiply same like twins.
Tracy power is catch habities for people died.
AMAZING!!!
She is so myst!
I Love Her!
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Ali Larter is okay but Niki has kinda been sucking it up so I hope she is dead! Now if we could only kill off Micah, and Monica all would be right with the world!
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I don’t think she acquires any new powers. Everyone has taken the coffin and rose way out of context. She could be just touching the rose or something because Linderman had just healed it.
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I have an theory. Perhaps linderman heals nikki and brings her back to life after she is killed in the fire. When he does this a new personality (Tracy) emerges and is in control. Tracy for some reason doesn’t have access to nikki’s memories, either because she has amnesia, has had her memories removed, or is unconsciously suppressing them. Any way, she may feel indebted to linderman for saving her life while at the same time not remembering all the harm he has done to her and her family. Linderman bends her to his will and uses her to gain influence or control over the new New York congressman by having her become his new mistress, either to blackmail him or just to have someone he controls close to the congressman. While this goes on Linderman tries to bring Nathan back into a position of power in order to continue the plans he had, which involved nathan, before he was seemingly killed.
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im not sure but i think niki did actually die wich would kill the virus she had because it would be really dumb if she survived and had the virus still even tho the virus kills quick and she realy wouldnt have time to survive i just hope its not nikis body because it wojuldnt make sence unless linderman was following her the time with the anitidote or bob was following her with it, to me survivng the fire and the virus consecutivly is just crazy lucky
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another thing is that if linderman is alive then where was he during season 2? theres a whole lot of explanations that need to be ironed out still i love this show and i dont think they can screw it up the writers are amazing
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Theory: Jessica isn’t in her grave. If Linderman had been following Nikki for so long, maybe he actually healed Jessica when she died and has been using her also. So much has been left out and left to speculation with characters dying and coming back. It’s going to be a season of revelations that’s for sure.
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if Niki and Tracy is the same character why would Tracy have a new power because Jeph Lobe did say that Jessica and Niki power is the same and Jessica was Niki’s drugs, note that it is a nod to Issac and his power.
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Niki is dead please let it stay that way lol if I didn’t love the show so much I would just tell myself season 2 was the end so I could go on thinking that she died in that explosion! Aw who am I kidding I have to watch! DEATH TO MONICA, NIKI, and MICAH!!!
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maybe while niki was in the fire her personality changed and she bacame tracy who doesnt have the virus and has healing powers or wat meredith has
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NavyGater, SHUT THE F*** UP!!!
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AWWWW did you get upset hahahaha
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Hey little Isa um if your done throwing a tantrum do you have anything about the show you would like to say I don’t think I have ever seen you post before….. or are you just some angery teen in your mommy basement. DEATH TO MONICA!!!
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