I agree that Sylar merely used telekinesis to control Claire, after all that is the dictionary definition of TK - to move objects (the human body counts) with the mind. The limbs of the human body are physical objects as well, so there should be absolutely no difficulty accepting that TK was at play, not necessarily puppetry.

The way I see it, telekinesis forces the body to move physically (like grabbing someone else's hand), while puppetry controls the victim's muscle movements. By the way Sylar was controlling Claire, by the way his hand movements roughly turned her around for example, really hint that it is TK.

Personally, I can overlook the shapeshifting clothing aspect just like I can overlook flight without wings. Not attacking or complaining against anyone at all, but the point behind shapeshifting is for the user to disguise themselves as another flawlessly, in the physical sense anyways, and since it does what it is intended to do (as opposed to using the ability to replicate powers) I can accept this stretch of the imagination.

[but I could have sworn that someone asked Peter if he absorbed all of Sylar's powers, and Peter replied affirmatively.]

In my haste to write down my first reply, I forgot that the only ability that Peter showed after the encounter with Sylar was shapeshifting. I may be wrong, but I could have sworn that someone asked Peter if he absorbed all of Sylar's powers, and Peter replied affirmatively. If someone has a better memory than I, feel free to correct or confirm what I said.

There has also been discussion going around why Peter doesn't replace Nathan instead of Sylar. At first I did think it was a cheesy way to keep Sylar's character around. But after some thought, Sylar already has much more knowledge about Nathan than anyone due to his Clairsentience ability, and I mean knowledge about Nathan that nobody else knows, and this is what lets him be a better Nathan than Peter.

HRG asked Peter "Did you take his power?" to which Peter replied "Yeah". So I'm pretty sure that Peter's still limited to just one ability at a time. Which the writers had better fix by the time Sylar's Nathan-ness wears off. Actually if they don't fix it eventually...I'm out.

As for Peter playing Nathan instead of Sylar; I'm sure that you're right that Sylar would be much more convincing, but as we all know he's a ticking time bomb. And it's only a matter of time before he explodes in their faces. And Peter would have Angela and HRG to coach him on how to act, and what to say to the president.

Besides once he did talk to the Pres. and got his support for the new company, Nathan/Peter could retire from the senate, and the public eye...

I know it's not nearly as interesting as Tim Kring's way, but it would be a hell of a lot safer....

Thanks a ton for the clarification, it gives me renewed hope for Peter's character. Kind of anyways, as long as Peter doesn't use Sylar-Nathan as his personal bank of abilities.

I also can't wait to see Sylar's inevitable return once Matt's work starts to fade. The USS Sylar will live on. 

In my haste to write down my first reply, I forgot that the only ability that Peter showed after the encounter with Sylar was shapeshifting. I may be wrong, but I could have sworn that someone asked Peter if he absorbed all of Sylar's powers, and Peter replied affirmatively. If someone has a better memory than I, feel free to correct or confirm what I said.

There has also been discussion going around why Peter doesn't replace Nathan instead of Sylar. At first I did think it was a cheesy way to keep Sylar's character around. But after some thought, Sylar already has much more knowledge about Nathan than anyone due to his Clairsentience ability, and I mean knowledge about Nathan that nobody else knows, and this is what lets him be a better Nathan than Peter.

Creepiest. Episode. Ever.

Although I'm sure I can pick out a few things I didn't like about this episode in a few moments, I'll start positive by talking about what I did like. The Hiro & Ando business was a little less laughs and more serious business which I like, plus I was really worried that Hiro might have been the one to die. That would have pissed me off majorly as Hiro & Ando are my favorite two characters, second to only Sylar.

On the topic of Sylar, his TK-puppetry with Claire was extremely creepy and had me cringing the whole time. On a side thought, I've never seen Sylar use his TK with such fine control before. I was also spot-on perfect about predicting one tiny little thing: Sylar shapeshifting Claire to play mindgames. +1 bonus point for me.

So after the Peter & Nathan vs. Sylar battle, I'm guessing Peter absorbed every single one of Sylar's abilities. I so did not want this. And now that Peter has Sylar's Intuitive Aptitude again, does this mean he will go berserk and go on a murderous rampage again? Anyways, I didn't like that Peter suddenly got all of Sylar's abilities fed to him with a silver spoon. Does this mean if Peter absorbs another person's abilities, Sylar's ability set is erased and replaced with the new person's ability? If Peter's ability replication works the way it has been shown to work, then this is what should happen.

Nathan's death: so predictable, and slightly disappointing. Not to mention kind of disgusting - throat slit by TK? It was painful watching Angela react to Nathan's death in the sense that I had a tear in my right eye at that moment, I've never seen her lose her composure like that before. And there was a kind of poetic justice when Matt "reprogrammed" Sylar into Nathan, followed by an incredible feeling of creepiness when I see Nathan, knowing that it's Sylar behind that face. How many people know that Sylar now thinks he's Nathan? Let's see: Angela, Matt, Noah come to mind. I forgot if Peter and Claire were witnesses.

I was kind of saddened watching Sylar's life flash by as his previous memories were suppressed/erased, he was my #1 favorite character & villain. But at least this makes things interesting in the next volume, where we already see that Matt's work was not perfect: hints of Sylar are already slipping through.

Overall, satisfying episode for a finale. However, very disappointed that Peter was handed Sylar's entire arsenal of powers.

And major edit because I forgot a major detail. Tracy's return: while incredibly predictable (Ali Larter is permanently superglued to the Heroes studio), but during the few moments she was on screen, her presence kind of hinted at her now being a villain. The question is why? What's her motive? Did her reformation mess up her brain or something?

The "Claire's going to be mad at me" line particularly stands out to me as it can mean a lot of possible things...

1. He kills Nathan
2. He shapeshifts into Claire and plays his usual mindgames on the Petrellis
3. He kills Peter (who will later be revived through Claire's blood or somehow triggering Peter's ability absorption to copy Claire's regeneration)

Either way I'm predicting a lot of mindgames played though Sylar's shapeshifting ability.

Shoot, I had hoped to be the first to post on this episode! BTW- wasn't that bald guy Ron Howard's brother?
Also, that Eric Doyle thing is some kind of mini-episode on the Heroes site (I guess, I can't access it from my house as I'm still stuck with a 56k dail-up modem. Which also may be the reason why I wasn't the first to post!) It looked like Heroes meets The Office.

The Eric Doyle thing is weird. It's called Nowhere Man and can be watched at NBC.com/heroes. In it, DOyle is called Jerry for some reason. I watched one preview episode and it was silly-funny.

I just watched it last night, it was pretty great. Doyle's actor is really great with that wide-eyed dopey expression of his. Best memorable line was Doyle's reply of "parched" to his boss's sarcastic comment of having to be thirsty for success.

Also, Jason is Doyle's new identity, his boss mis-calls him Jerry just to be an a-hole.

Shoot, I had hoped to be the first to post on this episode! BTW- wasn't that bald guy Ron Howard's brother?
Also, that Eric Doyle thing is some kind of mini-episode on the Heroes site (I guess, I can't access it from my house as I'm still stuck with a 56k dail-up modem. Which also may be the reason why I wasn't the first to post!) It looked like Heroes meets The Office.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up for me. I'll definitely have to check that out sometime.

And now that I've calmed down over tonight's episode, I think I can give a few things that I didn't like about the episode.

1. Sylar's shape-shifting now includes clothing? Add Sylar's explanation that he can absorb other people's DNA to the confusion, I'm not aware that clothing has DNA. If it does, I highly, highly doubt that you can clone up a suit with a spiffy tie from a travel toothbrush. And the touch requirement of shapeshifting is explicitly explained now, but that kind of brings up new questions while answering an old one. First, the confusion from the 1961 episode: Sylar picked up Nathan's DNA from the toothbrush, as opposed to simply shapeshifting. But a new question, how would the original shapeshifter obtain Sylar's DNA? Pretty damned risky to get close enough to Sylar, much less touch him for a DNA sample.
2. Micah can warn others about incoming agents just seconds before they bust in, but has no idea about a truck of agents heading his direction? Even though they cut the power, Danko and the team were extremely close to Micah before that happened. I can kind of understand Micah suggesting Sylar becoming Nathan and President, is that really necessary? Can he really trust Sylar being President of the U.S.?
3. Where was Peter when Nathan met Sylar? I suppose it was sloppy script writing to allow the Danko vs Sylar scene. Peter better be off doing something useful while his flyboy brother is going face to face with a superpowered killer.

I'd like to start off by saying I was totally caught unprepared for tonight's episode by the relative calmness of the last one. This was a mindblower. Point-form review as usual:

1. This is probably the second time we see Sylar experiencing difficulties with a newly acquired ability, this time it's a problem from the inside. It's kind of relieving to see Sylar's imperfections at times.
2. At Baldy's (I forgot his name) house, Sylar does his "sudden appearance" trick again. Although this time it's much clearer that Sylar simply knows how to sneak around unnoticed. (ie: He can not teleport, he's just badass)
3. I didn't really see the point of Sylar acquiring a new ability. Apparently the writers didn't either, as they fed Sylar an ability he didn't really need. It wasn't as dangerous as Baldy made it out to be. I mean, can you accidentally rub your fingers while concentrating an an object? I suppose the free ability had to be somewhat useless or else everyone (maybe even me included) would complain about needlessly further overpowering Sylar.
4. Sylar meets Micah: I pretty much already knew that Micah wouldn't die. As a rule, children don't die on TV. By that I absolutely do not mean I would like to see children dying (I do not), but that knowledge kind of kills any suspense that we were supposed to experience. Kind of strange to see Micah regarding Sylar as a potential hero from the viewer's point of view, but it makes sense. Ability-wise, Sylar is a walking tank that needs to be put to use. But this makes me think about Micah's suggestion that Sylar mimic Nathan to become President. In this timeline, could Sylar masquerade as President Petrelli without being a villain, as opposed to the fake Nathan we saw in Five Years Gone? At the moment all signs point to no, but Micah's suggestion for Sylar to help the "specials" by becoming President seemed to perk Sylar's attention.
5. Sylar shapeshifting back and forth between his mom and himself: really creepy, but also kinds of shows his repressed side in a really creepy split-personality kind of way. Thanks to this ability, we can really see into Sylar's (twisted) mind.
6. Hiro and Ando: I was so relieved to see the two on the show again. Again the partner vs partner rivalry comes up, which is still potentially leading to the future where Ando attacks Hiro. And I say "attack" instead of "seems to attack" because Ando was firing his red lightning in the style which he used to attack the agents in a few episodes back, also Hiro was pushed backwards by the force of the beam. And didn't Hiro stay lying down while Ando picked up the formula and left? If Ando was supercharging Hiro, he would have grabbed on.
Anyways back on track. Kind of neato to see Hiro learning how to freeze time while leaving some people unfrozen. One step closer to becoming Future Hiro. And it's becoming really obvious that Hiro should never ignore Ando and should never leave him to be a sidekick, as Hiro's original plan of pretending to be an agent (with glasses?!) would have backfired horribly. Good call for Ando being quick to react before Hiro got tasered. And what's up with Hiro's ability suddenly causing a bloody nose? 
7. There was a commercial with Eric Doyle (apparently) using his abilities on people in an office building he appeared to be working with. What was that about? I wasn't paying attention.
8. The episode's ending: oh boy.... Danko is fu..... (hint: rhymes vaguely with 'firetrucked'). +Bonus points for Danko's "Ooohhh... sh-" expression.
9. I think it's pretty sure that Nathan will die next week. Which kind of shoots down my hopes of Sylar becoming Nathan with good intentions.

<snip>
I would have to say that the thing I liked the least was the end, showing Sylar acting as Nathan.  First, Sylar has never touched Nathan as far as I know, making it impossible.  Next, can we just please get through a season with Nathan not being in mortal danger.

Woah slow down there. I don't think there was ever a touch requirement to Sylar's shape-shifting. You must be thinking of the T1000 from Terminator 2 or shapeshifting from another show/movie. From what's seen on the show so far, the user of the ability can simply look at their target then shape-shift to mimic them.

Unless I'm wrong.

[knew]

I knew there was going to be a fight scene between Claire/Nathan and the group of guys, I had that feeling the first time the guys showed up on screen. I was waiting for it - just had this hunch that something was going to happen, but was kind of bummed when nothing did. Now, I can rest easy knowing that my prediction was right.

And yes the scene was incredibly hilarious. 

Charles` powers does definitely resemble Persuasion, but at the same time it's clear that he was able to read Angela's mind. So Charles may be one of those two people with dual abilities, in this case Persuasion and Mind Reading, or maybe is a telepath just like Matt and Maury except he uses his abilities with such finesse that it looks natural and effortless, unlike Matt who needs to visibly strain himself to use his ability.

This episode was a nice break from the action-packed, abilities-flying episodes that we've seen before this. Weekly opinion in random order:

1. Charles Deveaux's ability seems to be mind control/telepathy. I love how his ability was first explicitly shown on screen.
2. With Peter learning to trust Nathan again his powers will soon be changing, probably back to what it was before.
3. Strong theme of forgiveness throughout the episode. Forgiveness between Alice and Angela, Nathan and Peter, Mohinder and himself.
4. Just when I was kind of disappointed with no Sylar in this episode (although still very satisfied with the episode itself), it was an utterly freakish feeling when "Nathan" showed up on the TV screen, and Sylar's theme chimed as the news report went on. It's definitely a Five Years Gone future. Kind of freaky how despite everything that's happened since the Five Years Gone episode, we are still heading towards the future we thought our heroes prevented. I love that.
5. You can see how isolated Alice must have been since childhood to her present age. The way she acted was not much different from the 1961 Alice we saw. I can only hope we see more of her again, but only if Alice can ever forgive her sister.

["Sylar Conquers the World"]

<snip>
Oh and by the way Emiko, would you prefer that they change the name of the show to "Sylar Conquers the World"?

Yes actually, because I know full well that no matter what happens, the Villains never win. But its fun to see it while it lasts. If the Villains clearly outpower the Heroes, then the struggle for the Heroes to win will be what makes the show worth watching. If the Heroes have the obvious advantage, there is no point to watching the show. No cliffhanger, no willingness to watch the next episode.

Although I do admit being somewhat of a Devils Advocate when it comes to Hero vs. Villain type of shows. I want to root for the opposite for once, just to make things interesting. Peter was too much of the perfect White Knight in Shining Armor who saves the day while trumpet fanfare plays in the background kind of character. Now, he's been toned down to be more of an equal among the rest of the Heroes.

The reason why I like Sylar so much more is because of his complexity. Peter's a pretty simple. Pure hearted guy who always wanted to be a hero, got his ability(abilities), became a hero, saved the day, saved the world, yada yada. On the other hand, Sylar's origin is much more twisted and less cut-and-paste. Used to be a simple watch repair guy, wanted to be special, became consumed with his hunger, conflict between his inner hero and inner villain, villain side won. I think I derailed my train of thought but hope my point gets through.

Borrowing a line from Sylar: I hate [stereotypical] heroes.

But I still love Hiro because although he's a clear hero, he makes us all laugh while he does his Hero stuff.

An alternate timeline's heroes/villains interacting with the present timeline. Not just Future Peter running around in present day, but add in Future Claire, Future Hiro, Future Ando, Future Sylar ( ), Future (you get my drift). It will be confusing as hell but I'd really, really love to see that. Probably won't.