So...

We had to have all seen that part where he looked in the mirror, and looked.. well... messed up.

Wonder what the deal is?

I think that was Peter. He feels guilty about Peter.

I thought that was him thinking of Peter...

It was Peter.. burnt, because of the Emo hair.

it looked like how Claire looked after she got eaten alive by radioactivity. just a flashback/lingering bad memory.

IDK...it was quite weird.

Yeah... I think I'd have to agree with that too...

I think that's how he thinks he's supposed to look...again, guilt.

Yeahh, that's what I was thinking.

But... he looks in the mirror, and we all see it, you get a second look, and it's gone.

Maybe it's his guilty conscience?

I second PirateQueen. This is quite the different story line from Nathan's last year, isn't it?

If it wasn't Heroes I would't look into but..

I'm not sure exactly. It was weird. Maybe it's from some sort of mental scar. Maybe he sees himself that way.

my first thought was that that's what he should look like because of you know...all the deadly deadly radiation he was exposed to, and that someone had fixed him to not be burnt to a crisp and this was a hint at that...but guilt over Peter is much more likely

Guilty conscience of what?

I also wondered that.

Maybe it's how he sees himself because of everything that's happened?

I talked to my friend, and he thought something about Candice, but Idk... I don't think so.

I really wanna know what's up with it though.




Everything?

Think about it...

He wasn't the best man. Sure, he stepped up in the finale, but it didn't totally redeem him, did it?

Peter was everything to him, and he didn't know where he was. I'll bet, in a way, he feels the guilt, because the explosion was supposed to make Nathan the man, you know?

Sure, he stepped up, but he may still have that lingering guilt.

i think he feels responsible for Peter's "death"

or read what toxic wrote lol

I think he feels guilty because he listened to his mother and let Peter die...

hes an alcoholic. i mean after a few drinks you start seein sh*8..

long way to go in seasson 2 who knows what it will come next monday

You really didnt say anything. What did Nathan do wrong?

Look at what I said a little closer.

The explosion was supposed to bring Nathan to the front of the line. It was planned that he would end up "ruling" afterwards.

Sure, he stepped up, and took Peter into the sky.

But the fact is, it is what others wanted for him... he has a lot to do with it.

Wow, my first thought was that wasn't Nathan, but Candace, seeing herself in another reflection, and she is playing the Nathan part since Nathan is dead. (At least he should be since, well, you know---ka boom and all that), but I'm sure it has something to do with guilt over Peter "dying": which of course he didn't.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that sorta wondered about Candice.

He listened to their mother and Linderman, and nearly let Peter die because of it.
If he had intervened earlier, he might have been able to help Peter get things under control, instead he had to rush in at the last minute.

Since he saw that when he looked in the mirror, I am wondering if this is some kind of dual personality thing emerging, like with Niki/Jessica.
It is possible that this may be a theme with certain heroes when they are having a hard time coming to grips with certain things in their lives.

ahhh first post after the long break between seasons!
I agree that Nathan was just feeling guilty about Peter. Plus, he seems to have gone from powerful politcal figure to guilt-ridden alcoholic. He might have been drinking to much.

What a load of crap. His biggest crime was that he didn't do anything much. And that's because he didn't know what he could do to stop the bomb. It's not like he actively engineered Peter to explode. Peter was solely responsible for that because he can't control his own power. I mean what else could he have done in his power? He asked Peter to go to Mohinder but he refused and when Peter did go there, he met Sylar.

My idea kind of goes along with the guilty thing. I think that Nathan flew Peter up there and then flew away, and the last thing he saw of Peter was him being all contorted as seen in the mirror. So Nathan survived and feels guilty because he things Peter is dead.

ALTERNATE THEORY: Same as before, except Nathan knows that Peter is alive but doesn't know where in the world he is, so he still feels guilty. However, this is less likely than the first because Nathan would probably put in a bit more of an effort if he knew Peter was alive.

Ok I read what you wrote, if he kept Peter from exploding in the city, regardless of what other people wanted and he saved millions. What are you saying hes exactly guilty for? He didnt let anyone die. He knew when he took Peter up in the sky they both were probably gonna die. Are you saying hes guilty for letting his brother die? Or something else?

Idk if it's the alcohol.

Something tells me there's something behind it.

OK, I'm probably going to get jumped on for this but...

... to me it looked exactly like what someone else on this series has been seeing for a long time... like maybe...

Niki!?

I'm just sayin', OK? Just sayin'.

I'm sure I'm wrong. I'm definitely wrong. But I'm just sayin'.

Was it just me or was that mirror broken? Seems a little symbolic to me.

OK, I'm leaving before everyone tells me how stupid I am.

I thought his reflection was what he thought he should have looked like after the explosion. Although after reading through the posts and a lot of people were talking about how it could have been his guilt over Peter, I definetely would not rule that out, either.

I kind of thought it was him seeing Peter, or at least what he thinks Peter would look like.

No worries, dood.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Some other people said the same thing...

I'm even considering it myself.

Gonna have to crank out the DVR...but I'm thinking that's our next baddie, played by David Anders.

EDIT: Read the Beeman blog, and that's obviously pulled my theory to moot. But now I'm even more intrigued. Now we've got a charred up Nathan and a clip that shows Nathan in what appears to be nuclear snow in the previews? Is the Dark Future still looming over us?

No, it's Nathan seeing himself. Greg Beeman confirms this:

Bear in mind that we don't actually know what happened up there. Maybe Nathan dropped Peter off in the atmosphere, perhaps faced with the last minute reflex of self preservation I mean... how DID he survive? If he was with Peter as he exploded, he wouldn't have. Just an idea.

No telling what really happen until it comes out in the show.

In one of Peter's dreams last season, we see Nathan come out of his campaign headquarters when Peter is about to explode. Nathan's face is partially blown away from the explosion so I'm assuming Nathan has a beard now because he has extensive facial burns. When he looked in the mirror he was remembering what he looked like after the explosion. The beard could be fake since if he has burns he wouldn't be able to grow hair on his face.

Yes, but within the storyline, it is not US that see it, it is Nathan.

What I mean is, we don't see him like that throughout the entire show. It is something he saw for a brief moment, so I'm thinking it's not that he IS like that...

well, i think that thats what he wouldve looked like if he wouldnt have thrown him up before peter went radioactive, but now he just feels upset, and down

Bham! Here's what is going to happen:

We're going to find out that Peter before being flown off into space, took Niki's power (inadvertantly and since her's is always sort of active he picked it up) Right before he explodes he put a part of himself, personalities, powers, into Nathan (so he can survive.) Peter comes flying down to earth, without his memory, but with his powers, winds up in a Ipod shipment, the rest is history.

OR

That's how Nathan really looks, and how everyone sees him, they're just cheaping out on the SFX because no one would want to apply that kind of make-up every day for a 15 minute shoot.

Two options:

It's Peter inside Nathan
or
It's actually Nathan's real face.

Anything else is too much of a metaphorical stretch. Everything in Heroes usually ends up meaning something and I seriously doubt such a powerful and meaningful shot like that would just be, "Nathan's Guilty Conscious."

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Well... I think the guilty conscience thing could be it. I mean... I've seen things when I felt guilty.

Not like that, but I saw things.

I think that this all ties in with the other 5 older "Heroes" and their plan. Kaito said he was being targeted because of him helping Hiro save the world. He also asks the targeted Angela what she did to encourage her sons.

I think that Peters mind was erased by the Haitian and Candace is helping to torture Nathan for their parts in the "Save the World" from the bomb.

9 minus Kaito, Angela, Mr. Petrelli, & Linderman = 5

Takezo isn't a bad guy.

Ah...so it's Nathan...*looks around confused*.
It made so much more sense when I thought it was Peter.

after reading this entire thread I'm glad to see someone shares my same thoughts...I remember at the end of Season 1 the little girl (sorry I'm not that "in tune" to the character names) that Parkman is raising at the moment was scared of the guy that can look back at her. It wouldn't surprise me if that's him in the mirror.

even now, after reading this whole thread, I feel like its just a reflection of how nathan feels inside. although he did the right thing in the end, he allowed the bomb plot to go on way too long. now his brother is dead because of it (or so he thinks).

I would agree that the reflection in the mirror is simply a reflection of what Nathan feels like following the events in Kirby Plaza. It's Survivor's Guilt. He's asking himself "Why am I still alive?", "Why didn't I do more to stop this?" etc...and this guilt is eating away at him and driving him into a deep depression. He has somehow survived something that a normal human being could not have possibly survived and though Nathan is not what any of us would classify as "normal" we also know he doesn't any sort of spontaneous regeneration ability. This begs the question though..did Nathan abandon Peter and flee to safety or did Peter, either hoping to save at least one of them or possibly holding on to the slim chance that he could survive the blast with his healing ability, actually push Nathan away from him. Either way, the last Nathan saw of his brother was seconds before the explosion and then...nothing. For all Nathan knows Peter is dead and knowing that he could have done more to prevent that is tearing him up inside.

Just my two cents...

-DR

IDK what it was, but it freaked the h3ll out of me when I saw it,lol

What exactly happened hasn't been explained yet...so ideas tossing around aside, I'll go with the guilt part. Nathans alive, and to his and Angela's best knowledge, Peter's gone. So he's tearing himself over what happened 4 months prior...

I imagine that during the flight, in order to save himself and not be killed by the explosion, Nathan threw Peter away from him. And that now Nathan believes that that is the reason that Peter is "dead" because he didn't hold on. And that if he had held on to Peter all that would have happened (in his mind) would be that he would have been horribly disfigured.

Of course the explosion would have done much worse, so my theory is rather bad.

I think it must be the guilt. The first season it seemed that Peter couldn't survive without Nathan, and now that Nathan thinks that Peter is dead, he can't seem to survive. He's pushing everyone away, drinking alone. Did anyone else notice that Ando runs into Nathan on the street in the beginning, but doesn't recognize him? Did he resign from Congress, or hasn't stepped into his position yet? Or like most politicians, once they get elected, they sit on their butts and do nothing