*WARNING! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW, DON'T READ ON!*

Charlie is powerless...literally.

It's an interesting wrinkle, because the "Hero" that will play the biggest, most selfless role in saving the world has no powers at all.

Here's how it works:

Hiro will go back again to see Charlie...it's a given.

Think back... Charlie mentioned to Hiro and Ando when we first met her character that she learned Japanese pretty quick because she got a Japanese to English book... What, she wouldn't remember that it was a gift from the Japanese guy sitting right in front of her?

Again, when she is given the book, she barely glances it over and she starts speaking Japanese...

You see, her power isn't that she's super-smart, it's just that SHE'S HAD TIME TO LEARN JAPANESE!

Hiro could have met her dozens of times before this!

(After all, she is being AWFULLY nice to him every time she "meets him for the first time")

But why does she play dumb...why does she still die?

She has to...to make sure that what's supposed to play out in the future actually plays out... and here's why:

Whether she has cancer or not is irrelevent, she's a selfless individual-- She knows that she must convince Sylar somehow that she's special... so that he goes after her before Hiro...

Why would she do this>?

Because she knows that if Sylar kills her, Hiro will go back to save her life... Sylar can't kill Hiro next if he can't find him, what with his future and present selves darting all over the place between now and then, US and Japan...

Ultimately, it's a heroic, selfless act from a "powerless" hero that allows Hiro and the Gang to do what they have to do to save the world.

umm thats a bit of a stretch..how would she also know about the crossword puzzle stuff with the cops? those were some hard answers she gave, mrs google

It is intriguing...Hiro tells past Charlie how and when she will die so she will feign ignorance to distract Sylar from killing Hiro.

Only thing is, both he and Charlie don't know what we know, that Sylar's ultimate ability is to sense Heroes. So all Charlie knows is that Sylar's coming for her.

So doesn't hold up. But I do think Charlie's the type that would sacrifice herself for Hiro as she was in love and was dying.

IT DOES HOLD UP!

It does... Hiro doesn't know now, of course!

But he will...just like he will go back again to see her... eventually she tells her... Whether he comes up with the plan, she does, or they both do, this is what happens.

yea and since he senses heroes, he sensed her since she has a power

Typo there...meant to say, "Eventually HE tells her"

Wasn't she on that list on the computer?


Seriously, I remember somebody saying something about it because the saw her name and it said DECEASED by her name, and they were like, "how does a computer know if she's deceased that quickly for a database like that."

Getting on that list would be the best way to get to Gabriel... You have to remember, we don't know yet how the list was created and how specific names got on there...

this falls apart on too many levels. sorry

primarily, you're ignoring the first and foremost thing Hiro learned tonight: he can't go back and change stuff

i simply disagree that it's a given Hiro goes back to see Charlie. in fact, i think it's a given that he does not

he tried, and ended up hurting them both more, because he cared for her more. you don't ignore a lesson that painful

Charlie hadn't known Hiro for months when they first met, only *after* the point when Hiro left for the past. she's still dead, she had powers (she *is* on Chandra's map, don't forget), and Sylar still has her brain

I disagree that Hiro cannot go back and change stuff.. If this were true, why in the world would Furture Hiro with Sword ™ even come back to tell Peter to save the cheerleader? He should know by then that it is futile, but he comes back anyway.

I don't believe your theory, but maybe you have something about the biggest hero is the one without powers. The preview said that a hero will die next episode - my bet is on Ando. He'll do something very heroic to save one of the others.

Well, we already kno Isaac dies...so why not next episode... It's too confusing to get the only hero with no good guy vs. bad guy skill to move on with the story... plus... Peter loves his gf, PLUS maybe the cheerleader, so getting Isaac involved complicates it to the point of soap opera status... hes off.

Then why is she on Chandra's list? Why does Sylar kill her? Why does HRG have a dossier on her?

She happened to know the answers to the cops questions? She has no powers, but was taught Japanese by a time traveller and also coincidentally knew the Oscar winners for 1984? That is a stretch. I'd say it's possible that Hiro goes back and sees her again at some point, but the whole Charlie not having the encyclopedic mind doesn't fit into the equation.

She can do everything that you suggest that she does and still be selfless. It's not any more or less of a sacrifice if she has an uncanny power of memorization or not.

This is just my theory... technically, yes, this whole thing could still play out whether she has powers or not (although its much cooler if she doesnt)...

But her answers to those questions could be explained by the tumor... the knowing japanese? Again, shes had A LOT OF TIME TO LEARN IT SEEING AS WE DONT KNOW WHEN SHE FIRST REALLY MET HIRO

I don't think that he senses powers. I think that he's just going by the list from Suresh. He certainly didn't know that Claire was "special" (or the other girl wasn't) even though she was right in front of him.

Here's why Hiro has to keep going back and back and back into the past to try to save the girl (which he must have done numerous times)...

If he keeps going back to the same point, he's going to run into himself trying to save her... he has to go to a point before that so he wont run into himself... or after, but hes only got 6 months to work with...

This is dangerous because it can alternately effect everything that happens after setting the whole thing into a brain fart...




His LAST jump back to the past would have gone further in the past than anything to tell her about Sylar and what she must do save the world... Not unlike him going back to tell Peter the same thing...

Her job was to act like she doesn't know Hiro every time he comes to "meet" her...

As for risking a rift? By going that far in the past before EVERYTHING, again, he risks setting the whole thing off tilt, like her just moving to Aspen to enjoy the wine and the free flocking women like the salmon of capestrano (sp?)... and just totally screwing up the whole space time continuum... everything has to work out perfectly to make everything that is supposed to happen, happen.. To set all the dominos in their place...

1 question how did she find out about sylar?
2 she was on the list..her name wastnt there but mandesa texas was and thats where she lives!
3 ok first time she met hiro was the prestent day...then hiro went back in time and changed the PAST he was in the photo and people new him that wasnt suppoed to happen...then when she met him 6mo. ago thats when she got the book and started to learn at a faster compasity to remember things...so she did have powers
3 hiro can change the past...he traveld to the future..and went into the PAST to change it
4 above applies to future hiro going into the past to tell Peter to save the cheerleader...if peter never new he prolly wouldnt have gone to all the trouble

we already know when Issac dies. The day after the election.
How about we dont need HRG anymore why not kill him off.
Claire knows what she is and what she has to do now.

If Sylar does have a way to gain abilities and Charlie had one... try this: he does whatever he does to gain her ability - and winds up with her tumor (correction: blood clot) as a parting gift (because they are connected). Count the days till he falls over dead from stupidity (er, I mean greed)... Boo-ya!

I think the theory is partially right though. Charlie does have powers, but I think she (after seeing Hiro for the second time) pretended not to know him so that he wouldn't try to save her and get himself hurt, or so that he wouldn't screw up time. Otherwise, the time Hiro came back to would have totally been screwed up. And the reality in which Ando was waiting for him, wouldn't have existed.

This is actually a very clever theory. Even if it doesn't prove to be true at the very least it proves that some people are actually thinking about the show's implications. That Charlie knows about the Heroes (as well as THE Hiro) would make sense if she is protecting Hiro and playing the decoy. Since she knows that she has little time left because of the blood clot getting Hiro to jump back and forth in time is a way of hiding him from Sylar. And, then logically, the reason that Charlie was killed in the cafe was she somehow made herself known to Sylar because Hiro was in the same room and Charlie needed to save him.

Kudos to the author of this well-thought out theory!

no when hiro first meets her in the begining of the episode she just meets him for the first time because hiro hasnt gone back yet...when hiro does go back she meets him in april...the proof is there..when charlie dies you see her birthday picture..then hiro goes back then hiro appears in the picture

another thing charlie would have died either way i believe the anurisum is a result of hiro altering the past..we dont know if he did change anythig some say yeah because otherwise cops would close the cafe for investigations

and someone said that she knew sylar was there...no no one knows about sylar except for a few heros and the fbi...and hrg

i guest u do make sense but then again she did know other information that had nothin to do with the japanese language

I agree about her already knowing a good deal of Japanese from 6 months with Hiro...but she definately had SOME power because Sylar is searching for people using Chandra's list...which is only of people with some disposition to having powers.

Anywho check out my theory on Hiro's time traveling for some support for some parts of your theory.

I was thinking Ted dies... nuclear explosion and all.

Too far. Calm down and get real.

has no one paid attention to the whole sylar thing... he can sense when something is "broken" he was able fix Chandras watch that is his power. And the reason he takes the brain is cause he knows that is where the "problem" exists. also he wants to be the only "special" person in the world... the real reason that Charlie dies is cause he thinks that she is "special/ broken". That is what I at least learned from the episode. So I think the theory of Hiro going back is very possible. Also lets remember that Hiro loves Charlie and Charlie loves Hiro so she is going to try everything possible to save him even if she knows she has to die... hey in her thought process she is dying anyways right.

I like this theory...

Charlie learned Japanese really quickly just days or hours after receiving the book from Hiro (shown in 6 months ago), she obviously had powers.

I think DL isn't going to make it

insert 2 pennies



She started reading the book and started speaking japanese right away.

That's exactly what I was going to point out.

Problem is Sylar does not seem to know about Hiro, so he doesn't need distarcting from Hiro. Sylar is working from a list that he took from Sheresh. He is traveling around the U.S. killing people who are on the list. These are not random killings. He is looking for the people he kills. If Sylar was after Hiro, he would have gone to Japan to find and kill him, not Texas. The fate of these others "Heroes" going to save the Cheerleader, that Sylar wants to kill, is what pits them against each other.
The Charlie has no powers idea; interesting, but... no matter how many times Hiro goes back in the past, and teaches Charlie Japanese, or trivia, or whatever, it doesn't explain why she therefore didn't recognize Hiro when he walks into the diner. If Charlie could remember the Japanese, she'd remember Hiro also.

I like this string...

Hiro said that he teleported back and forth trying to save her. This shows either that he can't change the past/future, or that he can change it and He and Charlie are working together on a plan. Future Hiro came back to talk to Peter, so I'm guessing he can change the past.

Hiro can Bend space and time, therefore he has as much time as he needs to get Charlie to learn Japanse...and Hiro to learn English. Even if he can't directly talk to Charlie, he can leave hints, books, and other things in various points of her life to get her to learn Japanese.

As far as her power goes...it could be irrelevant. If she remembers things, then that's fine. If not, Hiro already knows what questions she's going to be asked that day, so he could have prepared Charlie for them in advance.

It's a great thread, I'm not sure if we'll ever have the answers though..

The reason Charlie didn't remember Hiro is because the first time they met was the actual first time they met, Hiro had yet to jump to the past. Someone else actually gave her the Japanese book, but when Hiro jumped back he changed that to him giving the book to her. It's kind of like the Butterfly Effect, one minor change and the whole future changes. But we never got to see what happens after Hiro goes back to try to save her but right before he teleports. If Hiro went back he obviously changed the past and the future afterwards, meaning that the future of Hiro & Ando meeting Charlie would be different from what we saw. So we never got a chance to see Charlie remembering Hiro.

Sylar presents an interesting case study. Exactly how is he assimilating powers. I agree that he is not eating them (as some would imagine) and I also agree that he needs to study them. But what is the catalyst that allows him to take on someone's uber-ability?