Hey,

I love the show.
I read the board but didn't join today cause i've noticed people are missing things that i've noticed upon second viewings...

The Haitian wipes Matt's memory
(Puts his hand on his head)

Wipes quarterback
(Hand on head)

Drops Sylar
(Hand on head)

(Also when Matt wakes, HRG is clear to state his powers won't work "with my friend here".)

I think the Haitian needs to actually "touch someone" to "take them down" or "wipe their memory"...

WHICH MEANS: He didn't drop Nathan because as he was closing in to "touch" him... he FLEW!

Everything you said is right and has been explored before with Nathan... they didn't know his abilities or how advanced he was so MBG's gaurd was down...

exactly, as the haitian was closing into touch him, he flew off.

I just kept seeing so many posts with people cliaming the Haitian can only stop "mental powers", etc... They are all mental (from the brain).

But in order to KO someone he's got to touch them. Him blocking powers I think is involuntary and is something that just naturally emits from him.

If he naturally emitted this "field" of power blocking, then how did Nathan fly away?

if the base of power is in the brain, than ALL powers could indeed be considered "mental"

however, some powers affect the mind (telepathy, command, etc), while other powers affect the body physically (TK, radiation from hands, flight)

the Haitian can apparantly only block powers that affect the mind

so read "mental power" as "power that affects the mind in a nonphysical manner"

PERHAPS NATHAN IS SOMEHOW IMMUNE TO THE Haitian.

OR... THE Haitian WANTED NATHAN TO FLY AWAY

[font=Arial]Hello All! New to the forum even though I've been watching since episode 1. Just wanted to comment on the Haitian and his power. I'm sure it takes some type of effort to use one's power. In other words, it's a voluntary action, not involuntary. So if the Haitian wanted to use his power on Nathan, he would have had to have made at least the slightest effort to knock him out (put his hand on Nathan's head or whatever). Since Nathan flew off and Bennett and the Haitian weren't expecting that, they never got a chance.

Anyway, I saw this topic and thought I would try and make my first posting. Looking forward to many more!

I have to stand with MM on this one...

remember, the Haitian is about to share a "secret" with Claire that is "very important" she remember...

perhaps he has a deeper, more broad-ranged goal with Claire and the others than HRG.

and, plot hole: Why didn't HRG just have the Haitian wipe Claire's memory before things got out of control, if he's willing to have it done now? He apparently has no real love for his family, what with having the Haitian fiddle with his wife and son's minds...

just pondering...

-S

I was wondering about that myself. He should have had the Haitian dude wipe her mind the moment he found her videotape.

I agree that the Haitian most likely has alot more depth to his character than just being Mind Wipe Boy, but I think it's likely that he was caught off guard by Nathan flying off rather than wanting him to escape. Remember, when he and HRG had ahold of Matt, Matt was able to pick up on the word "Claire", which surprised both the Haitian and HRG. Perhaps there are those heroes who have more power than the Haitian is able to block.

Also, I don't think it's accurate to call HRG coldhearted, because all of his actions thus far speak of an overprotective father and husband to me. He most likely didn't have the Haitian wipe Claire and the rest because he was always off dealing with the other Heroes in their storylines. Not to mention, Claire will discover her abilities over and over again, seeing as how it's rather hard to miss seeing a cut heal automatically every time you get injured. If I were the Haitian, I'd quit if asked to wipe Claire on a regular basis.

That isn't really a plothole.

The Haitian says that he has wiped Mrs. Bennet many times but he doesn't give us a timeframe of how long he's been doing it. Maybe many times is 10 times in the past 14 years. Bennet doesn't arbitrarily have memory wipes ordered necessarily.

I'd say it's quite the opposite. He is a very hard hearted person by nature but nothing is more important to him than his family. He probably sees it as protecting them. He didn't want to wipe Claire's memory but now he feels he doesn't have a choice. He's trying to eradicate all memory of Claire's recent life from just about everyone who knows anything about her powers. It seems that he's even hiding her abilities from his higher ups.

We also don't know how much fine control the Haitian has over his power. So we don't know exactly what he was supposed to wipe out. Perhaps just the events that involved Zach and Lyle so she wouldn't necessarily not remember discovering her power. We never really see where she discovers it. The video she has Zach film starts with attempt 6 and it seems like Zach has never seen her heal before. I'd imagine she is alone when she actually discovers it. What has always been in the back of my mind is that she calls it "attempt 6", as in suicide attempt. How exactly did she discover she can't die and why is she calling them "attempts"? Depressed much maybe?

i thought that too. But then the Haitian would quickly become a house guest for dinner as i'm sure he'd be wiping claire's mind on a weekly basis, whenever she cut herself, stubbed her toe, broke something (her neck).

I'm sure HRG would get tired of constantly wiping her, and it would come more frequent.

Wonder if there's long term effects to constantly being wiped?

While we do see the Haitian touching people when erasing or wiping their memories there are at least three occassions when he uses his abilities without touching someone. In the bar with Matt he causes him to pass out from across the room. The same may be true for when he abducted Ted. In the police station he is not even in the same room but blocks Matt from reading Claire and HRG's thoughts when they were interviewed by Audrey Hanson. And he blocks Eden's ability from affecting HRG when she is first caught. While it may be necessary to touch someone to erase their minds he can certainly use his abilities without it. The reason that he did not black out Nathan is that he was surprised by how quickly he flew out of range.

And don't forget that when Matt was trying to read their minds in this episode (had to try so hard he got a nosebleed!), that the Haitian wan't even aware he was trying!
I think this is an inate ability, sort of a cancelling field or aura surrounding him.
The reasons Nathan was able to fly away is:
1. They weren't close enough for the field to work effectively, sort of on the outer edge of the field
2. Nathan's powers were far more advanced than they thought.

Obviously since Matt was able to get even a single word-thought, and Nathan could fly away, then people whose powers have reached a certain level are able to overcome the Haitian's powers.
That is probably one reason Eden had to distract Sylar with her voice while the Haitian snuck up on him from behind...

that makes no sense, you just said that he blocked the power without trying, some gibberish about a field or aura...yet Nathan was about 3 feet from the Haitian when he flew away.

Mat was about 30 feet or more in a parked car, but yet by your logic he was within the fields limits?

Might wanna rethink that one.

Good point, Matt could have had problems due to the distance. We've only seen Matt reading minds of people in the same room. Plus he would have had to filter out anyone elses thoughts in the area.

Some powers are voluntary and some are not. Claire heals without thinking to herself "I'm going to heal now." I think MBG needs to assert his powers for them to work too.

The scene when Matt is in the car with Audrey, MBG's dampening power is on even though it doesn't look like he's aware he's being watched. I guess MBG tries to have the psychic static up as much as possible.

Interesting point about touch being needed to actually erase someone's memory.

He did NOT cause Matt to pass out, Matt passed out due to having to read too many minds at once, the radio feedback from trying to read the Haitians, stress, ect. ect.

i'd say the Haitian had been caught and kept by HRG and i would assume is going to start undermining HRG and Linderman, my feeling is that the Haitian will be the inside man the Heroes need.!

How do we know that MBG or HRG even knew about Nathans power? That?s only an assumption. Maybe they needed to take him in figure it out only Nathan was quicker to act. They may only have a list of the gifted heros and not a list of powers. Then again if they had him out of bed why didn't they try to render him powerless.

Just add it to the list of mistakes in the series. I have not done the work but the Timeline is a bit off... Since episode 1 Consider when Hiro went to the Future the Eclipse and when Hiro went into the past to save girlfriend was that before or after eclipse? she obviously had some power in the past. The director can always correct it that by saying Hiro's traveling through time affected the Time continuum.

The question I have is, how is HRG controlling MBG to do his dirty work? I believe HRG is just as bad as Sylar. He is trying to figure what makes the Heroes Tick and then wiping out their memories. However now that EDEN is done for will he still be able to control MBG or what power does HRG posses that we do not know of yet. Why didn't Slyer break HRG's head through the glass?

Yes, you start baby talking to dogs.

Agreed, the list doesnt describe what each person can do, it just has their names. I also find it weird that they didn't just knock him out like they did to everyone else they captured, never even thought of that. Like you said, just a minor detail though.



1) What about the timeline is off to you?

2) Many of them displayed special abilities before the eclipse... Niki/Jessica, Nathan, Sylar, Brian Davis, Eden, Matt, MBG, Peter (if his dreams really are an ability).



1) I don't think Bennet is forcing or controlling MBG at all. MBG works for the same people that Bennet reports to. I never got the sense the he was forced against his will to do anything... he follows the orders he gets from Bennet who follows orders himself (we still don't know who was on the phone yet). They are clearly part of some kind of organization with a hierarchy, where Bennet is the head of his group.

2) Bennet and MBG are only wiping out the memories of the capture and the tests that they performed on them... if they were truly that evil, they could have erased a lot more. This leads one to believe that they are simply trying to keep their organization secret (think Men In Black with their memory neuralizers) and not trying to erase lives.

3) If Bennet possessed some kind of ability, don't you think he would have used it to help/save/protect Claire? Instead, he captured mutants to help him do that instead... leading one to speculate that he doesnt have any abilities himself. But, just because we havent seen him display any abilities doesnt mean he doesnt have any.

4) We havent determined why Sylar didnt crash Bennet through the glass as yet. Bennet seemed to think Sylar's powers wouldnt work in that room which means that there had to be a system in place that was designed to block powers (either another person blocking powers or technology that blocks powers). So, in whatever form it takes, the power blocking system was not "on" when Eden entered the room.

No, that's not quite right, either. When Matt first encountered the Haitian, Matt passed out as a result of his beer being drugged (HRG mentions it clearly in "Collision"). During "Hiros," he did pass out from getting too many thoughts in at the same time when he prevented that robbery at the convenience store.

Now, I remember when the Haitian said he had to wipe Claire's mother's memory so many times. I wonder if by chance that makes Mrs. Bennet sound more like an airhead around the family!

eden enters a different code when she enters the room, so that she can use her powers. causing sylar to realize the block isn't up anymore.

I re watched the episode at nbc.com

That makes alot of sence. He is more then likely allready getting sick of it. Every day all the time haveing to go and remove peoples memories from them it would start to wear on any one.

And about the long term effects it may have on people... look at Claires mom she does seem alittle spacey at times and not really all their.

Excellent! I didnt even notice that but I rewatched myself and you're totally right!

It is simply because MBG wasn't around when Sylar was talking with Eden...

He wasnt around for a lot of the time Sylar was there. What's your point?

I was thinking along the lines that the Haitian is like a "black hole." His power is similar to Sylar or Peter, except instead of mimicry or outright theft of power, he's more of a well. He can't use the powers, but absorbs and nullifies them.

Here's my logic:

It fits with the mind reading, according to HRG, Matt couldn't read HRG's mind "while my friend's here" in refrence to the Haitian.

Eden's voice wouldn't work on HRG with the Haitian there.

Sylar nullified could also be the same, not sure on that one though, still could be mechanical or other effect "in the room."

Mind-wiping requires touch, because memory/thinking is not a directed power.

Now, the reason Nathan could get away is that his power is self-focused rather than directional. All other powers that Haitian blocked needed to be focused outward, in other words attacked with. He would have had to touch Nathan in order to affect him because his power is focused inward instead of outward. I think same would apply to Isaac, Nikki/Jessica, and D.L. I'm undecided as to whether Hiro's powers would be nullified.

Does this make sense to anyone else?

I totally agree with you on the black hole bit... only I think his powers affect other mental powers specifically (telepathy, telekinesis, hypnotic suggestion, etc.). I don't think he negates all powers.

I thought the Haitian was able to put up a barrier around HRG's mind so that it was protected from Matt reading his mind or when Eden tried her power of persuassion on him. I don't think he actually stopped them from using their powers, I think his power works both ways as a way to strengthen some peoples minds to avoid the intrusion as well as intruding on peoples minds when he touches them.

I hope this makes sense.

Thus far, we've seen the Haitian block powers that affect other people, e.g.: Matt's mind reading and Eden's suggestion.

According to Matt in the last episode, he couldn't read Bennett's or Claire's thoughts because of some sort of interference or "static", which we attribute to the Haitian's presence nearby in both cases where Matt attempted to read Bennett..

Nathan's ability affects only himself, which might mean that it isn't affected by this "interference"... Thus far we've seen only one example of this, and it appears to pan out... A better test would be to see if Jessica is super strong around the Haitian, or if Sylar's telekinesis affects him directly...

I suspect that the Haitian snuck up on him because, while he may be able to prevent Sylar from lifting him and wrapping him around a tree, it might be a bit more difficult to stop Sylar from lobbing a boulder at him, in much the same way that it would be difficult to prevent Sylar from physically picking up a rock and throwing it at him... Or perhaps he needs to be able to know what he's up against for it to work... If he were to confront Sylar outdoors, he might be able to prevent attacks that he knows are coming, but he could still get caught off-guard by a tree limb from behind, or a fistful of gravel moving at bullet speeds...

The possibilities are endless and Sylar could go at him for several episodes before every aspect of the Haitian's abilities are fully explored, and that's just one superpower...

The bottom line is that nobody's abilities have yet been fully explained, so not even they know exactly what they're capable of, or how to deal with every situation...

Another question nobody seems to be asking is why, if the Haitian supposedly "Hollowed him out", is Brody not crapping himself and crying for a bottle?

Call me sadistic, but if he'd tried that crap on a daughter of mine, I'd make sure the Haitian left him with the mental capacity of cauliflower...

Still, I think a refresher course in toilet training would have been quite character-building for Brody... Or better yet, Have the letters "p" and "f" switched in his vocabulary...

"Can I have another fillow? This one's a bit lumfy... What? Did I say something punny?"

Didn't HRG say he wanted to giev him a second chance to be a good guy? That wouldn't be very easy living life as a cauliflower. I think he took out all the personality stuff but left him whole physically b/c (1) it would be cruel to do otherwise, and (2) people at the hospital had already spoken to him and tested him to see the extent of his damage. It would certainly look a little odd to have him degrade so extensively after he had been stabilized and moved from ICU to a normal room, no?

As for the Haitian, I'm quite excited to see lots more of him (and not like that, pervy people). He's just so darn mysterious and well-dressed.

I think that Mr Bennett was going to do have Claire's mind wiped. Recall when he saw the tape of Claire's "6th attempt" he said "...it breaks my heart..." and he was probably referring to '...it breaks my heart to have your mind wiped.'

At this time Mr. Bennett was busy capturing Nathan (he mentions he's got a flight to catch for business) and used the Haitian to get capture him there. Also the Haitian then before this the Haitian went to was in Los Angeles? to the bar where Matt was so Mr. Bennett could capture him. I think the timeline would agree that there just wasn't a chance for the Haitian to go to LA then go to Las Vegas. Not that many days have passed. So when the Haitian finally got to Odessa, Texas we had the capture of Sylar and the rescue of Claire as well as Mr. Bennett possibly needing protection from Peter Petrelli (that is if he knows Peter has an ability).

So it's not out of the question that there just wasn't time for the Haitian to mind wipe Claire (and her brother, and Zach) somewhere safe.

And as a side NOTE: I realize now why people think Mr. Bennett could be Mr. Linderman. He's in Nathan's hotel room with Niki/Jessica (you choose) sleeping in the bed. The Haitian is with him. How could he have just strolled in the room with the Haitian and the hidden camera which would have created a lot of commotion (OK, maybe the camera was off)? Things that make you go hmmm..

Sorry, I'm replying to this message a bit late. I haven't had a chance to read the whole topic, but I would also agree the Haitian must make contact to "take them down" and to "mind wipe". However, he also has an innate ability to keep someone's ability from working if it is perhaps a mental ability. EDIT: we haven't seen any physical attacks. Though we have been questioning whether these abilities take a second to two seconds to be concentrated on as to "activate" them. SOmeone here dod mention the "static" that Matt encountered. Another hmmm...

So when Nathan was captured was that Mr Bennet's way of getting Nathan to use his power? I'm not sure. Mr. Bennett definitely knew Matt's ability was telepathy (to read minds). How did he know this?

Oh! One more thing about the Haitian. When Matt was reading everyone's minds in the bar Matt focused on the Haitian there was just emptiness; not static. It seemed to startle Matt probably because of the absolutely silence. Then he passed out. That wasn't from the Haitian. Mr. Bennett tells Matt who is lying on the table something like 'Sorry we had to drug you.'

Ok, apologies for possibly rehashing what someone might already have said.

temporal

Yea, it must make an otherwise normal adult woman talk in baby-talk to show dogs RE: Claire's mom in episode 1...

Hmmm... Speaking of memory wipes, check out post #21...

Why does Eden say this in Fallout:

"And if that Haitian could talk, he'd agree with me too!"

Personally, I found his talking to Claire to be a shock, given that line. Eden clearly believes he cannot speak.

Also, I think they wouldn't have erased Claire's memory of her abilities, but her memory of the Sylar event.