The preview for tonight's episode that has been playing all weekend on NBC says "see why the heroes were chosen"

Could this mean that there is an intellegence, human or otherwise, behind the "Activated" evolution?

p.s. - first thread on the Episode 10 forum! Woo hoo!

my take was that not everyone with a power was "chosen"

Charlie, for example. or Sanjog

in any case, i'm not expecting a literal answer. they needed something to say after "save the cheerleader" played out, heh

on the NBC site for a time the tagline was "Are you on the list?" same deal

Hmmmm... that's intriguing. I'd prefer that it's just evolution- but that wouldn't add up. I mean, adults and kids getting the powers at the same time?


... I wonder if any older people have powers.

If it's a higher intelligence I'm gonna be a little... eh. I dunno lol

I am curious about the explanation of "activating evolution"..

I think what that is going to mean is that some kind of traumatic event in somebody's life is what triggers the latent powers. I'll almost bet that the person's personality will have a role in what kind of power they have.

Look at Nathan with the ability to fly. Maybe his guilt over his wife's accident was the driver. She can't walk anymore and he was at the wheel when it happened so maybe all he wanted to do was get away, fly away and be free.

Peter was always empathic. He is really good at knowing others. Maybe that was why he became a mimick.

What about Nikki/Jessica.. Nikki was always very submissive and weak. Maybe with the manifestation of Jessica she found out that indeed it was strength that she had. Maybe her power was strength because she was always so powerless to control anything in her life.

And what about Matt? Wouldn't mind reading be the ultimate power of any cop? Maybe something happens with him.. Maybe if he knew somebody's thoughts he could have saved somebody when they infact died. Perhaps that event was so traumatic to him that it "activated" this latent power.

I mean these are just examples but it just occured to me.. Activating evolution and this 6 months ago episode. Maybe this is what it means.

I've never believed that this had much to do with why the abilities started to manifest. The idea of "Instant Evolution" seems like a cop-out. Plus, Chandra wrote that book long before he came to New York (remember the early copy that Mohinder found?), or even wrote that program. As several others in the forum have suggested, it'd be nice if we could see what lies within the book.

Well one thing we know is how much in this show is connected to something else. I find it likely that the types of powers these people have is tied into who they are, as in their personality and life experiences. In comic book terms every hero has some kind of trial they have to endure that shows them the way. Look at Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne, Frank Castle...

I still think they were born with it but I think the traumatic event in their life is what determines how it manifests, how it "activates".

For instance there's the clip in the preview of claire bleeding and she didn't heal right away. Perhaps she sustains this injury and it's traumatic enough for her body to manifest the regerenation power because she never wants to get hurt like that again.

I don't know.. It makes sense to me. That's what I think is going to happen. We'll see after tonight.

I think evolution is a red-herring. Young Suresh believes it's evolution because that's what his dad said. But his dad was a part of something bigger. I think his dad was making these "leaps" happen.

I think that "choosing" the Heroes is more of a Darwinian thing than an intelligence or secret organization. Time will tell.

I don't think the tramautic event is necessarily a catalyst, though it makes sense that it could be in some cases. I've seen no evidence of a tramautic event for Hiro, Micah, MBG, Issac. Certainly some cases like Claire, possibly Niki, possibly Nathan, Eden etc. seem to lend crdence to this theory. But it might not be a universal requirement.

Looking forward to tonight's episode, as always. I think things will be a touch slower tonight.

I would like to believe that Chandra came across something while doing his research on his own daughter that triggered his belief in this "Activating evolution". as he says, a scientist must have a heart of stone, so, he hasn't struck me that he would be the kind of person to go off on a tangent without a lot of empirical proof. It's also interesting to me that Mohinder is a geneticist, probably teaches it, and that his "girlfirend?" Mira" who works for a "company" that specializes in genetics.. sounds awfully convenient.. and who's to say that Linderman is not behind it all, he has lots of Political power, money, certainly has little in the scruples department. what better way to control the world's economy than by using "genetically superior" staff? think about Gattica and correlate back to this.. yeah, they are 'activated" then chosen, and the ones who are not useful are exterminated. why not, and maybe that's where Sylar comes in, cuz it's hard to have a hitman who isn't "immune" to the others' powers.. maybe his cries for forgiveness is his humanity crying at the work he MUST perform.

Or Claire always hurting herself, so she can regenerate.

She could just be clumsy... We just don't know...

That was a very interesting article.

The idea of the "Heroes" getting their powers because of tramatic events seems a little silly to me. I can't imagine someone like Issac getting their powers this way.

I agree with that completely, it seems to have just arisen in some of them and I guess tonite we will figure out why hopefully.

It seems that the group is coming toghether bicouse some heros got the power to know the future, so they know who they need to save the world.