Matt used his powers in a different way this episode. He was able to break away from his dad's nightmare and it seems that he was able to send thoughts to Nathan. Crazy! I wonder what the extent of his powers are. Was his dad really a mind reader and his powers extended to the nightmare thing?

Did he project his thoughts into Nathans mind?

This pretty much explains the whole "two powers" issue. They don't have two powers, but instead, they are able to expand and develop their powers to do so much more.

He's a sender and a receiver. I was hoping they would expand his power. Great power.

Yeah that's what it seems like. Kind of like when Ted learned to make an EMP.

More Evolution

Did it look like Matt communicated with Nathan using his mind to snap him out of it?

Obviously, his dad said he's going to be able to do more.

Do you think we'll see others get more advanced abilities?

See... if they would just channel their powers, chances are they could do much more than they think they can.

I think it was most certainly implied that Matt and his father started out with the same power. Perhaps the choices you make can expand your power into a positive or negative way. In Maury's case, he read peoples minds to screw them, and when his power grew, he was able to taunt and "trap" people in their own minds.. and then rob them while their out of their minds.

Matt is a telepath. Telepathy is a two way street AND has more options as developed.

Claire's parents can fly and make fire, and she turned out to have regeneration. Micah's parents can phase and have super strength, and his power is technopathy. Matt is the first person to (sensibly) have a power like his parents.

I like the idea of being able to expand powers to do more. It seems like the next "evolution" for Matt's powers...he's slowly becoming "Professor X".

You have no idea how excited I am about this. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better! Ever since Matt and HRG worked together to break out of Primatech, the idea of Matt communicating telepathically has always been lingering in my mind. I never thought it would actually happen! I thought what you saw was what you get. But even powers can be more than what they seem on Heroes! Gah! I'm so excited! Can things possibly get more cool?

I did like the idea that Matt was able to send a message to someones mind (I hope that's what he did). His father seems to have the power to show you what you fear or hate. It's like an illusion slash telepathy thing. I remember someone else having this power in a comic but I can't remember right now.

I wonder if he is going to teach himself how to do what Molly does sooner or later. Then again, the show is more about the people than the powers. Probably why we have seen so few graduale gains, just leeps and bounds like Peter and Sylar.

Do you think that maybe Matt will be able to save Molly with his power now?

His father is kind of reminded me of Shadow King from X-Men. From the little exposure we had of him. Anyway, this was an awesome, AWESOME way to show Matt getting better at his power! I loved this episode and this was one of the main reasons why

I think that's who I was comparing him to. I also think there's another.

i think it makes perfect sense that matt's power to project thoughts got activated during a "fight or flight" survival scenario (if he didn't send his thoughts to nathan, nathan could have killed him). maybe the expansion of his powers is dependent on situations, which fits in w/ the whole evolution theory.

also, i think it's pretty much confirmed that matt's powers will expand. this is the writer's response when someone asked that question from this weeks behind the eclipse:

"Are you reading our mind Saruvian? Or are your projecting your thoughts into our head? Hmmmm. Answers on this tonight!"

Well, I have to say that I like the way they did it... Matt in a life-or-death situation learns to project thoughts just like he hears them... cool.

But I have to say it's a terrible terrible idea. In a Universe like heroes where powers and souls lie all in the brain, givng someone full telepathy is basically giving them all powers over powers. If Peter gains powers by Empathy (copying things from others brains) there's nothing to stop Matt from doing the same if he 'expands' his telepathy. If the Haitian blocks powers by erasing memories, there's nothing to stop Matt from being a power blocker as well... and, as Papa Parkman put it "so much more." We've already got two or three uberguys (Peter, Sylar, Hiro) running around... making Matt one of them is silly to me.

I loved the way they were taking each part of "X-Men Style" Telepathy (which is way too uber to make sense in any conflict... how Jean Grey EVER ends up in a fight is rediculus) and splitting it up and then attatching it to superpower manipulation. It was innovative, forward thinking and generally just a cool new thought that hasn't really been done before. I feel like they're throwing all that out the window just to make one of the favorite characters uber and that just disgusts me, especially doing it in such an uncreative way as to simply make him a full telepath with opportunity for "So much more" a "nightmare man" in the making or what have you...

I feel (further) betrayed.

Claire grows a toe, Matt is able to project thoughts, Micah (maybe someday) doesn't need to touch a device to interact with it.

It's all about the evolution of these characters. I think the device the writer's are using is a smart one. Leaves opportunities open for them. As time goes on and they struggle with the every-changing world, these people must overcome their powers. What's not to love about that? And as far as uber-ness goes, both Peter and Sylar have seen what happens when you grow too much too fast, so I think any future instances with these characters will have a much less 'Godlike' influence over things. But as for everyone else, they are learning more and more about what happens when they consciously use their powers to their advantage.

Matts father reminded me of Mastermind from the X-men comics. The illusionist that made illusions stratight into your mind. He really messed with Jean in the original pre-dark phoenix arc.

I like the comparision of Matt to professor x with his father being the evil mastermind (they did a sorta version of mastermind in the x-movies)

But what im curious about is Nathan.
If his powers expand, which way will they go?
Perhaps superspeed? basicly a quick levitation?

I didn't notice that Matt projecting his thoughts into Nathan's head was anything abnormal - until I just read it in this thread and realized that hey, Matt just projected his thoughts. lol... Anyways, this is getting pretty cool - Matt could seriously mess with some people's heads this way. Seriously cool.

Can I say something here? Matt being able to prject his own thoughts is kickass, really it is. Maybe he can gain the ability his father has. Now think about this, Nathan has the ability to fly. Now let me explain this, don't you think if he is allowed to he could project his ability onto objects or people and make them float? that be kickass.

how cool would it be to see a matt square off against his father? teehee!

Would it be a "think off"? Matt already tried to read his father's mind, and got some serious feedback. I think that they're powers are going to continue the grow, the more that they use them and learn about them. Most of the heroes don't even know what they are fully capable of yet.

Wow, whine much? Nathan just barely heard one of Matt's thoughts. That isn't anything to complain about. And it isn't 'uber'. If Matt gets close to even Professor X type power than you can whine... but not now. Come on man, communicating telepathically with someone 2 feet away makes Matt uber? Hells no. It makes him very slightly better than before.

Justin, did you ever think that maybe the writers are trying to level the playing field, seeing as we have 2 "gods", a walking plague, a Power Negator/Memory Eraser, and even had a Nuke man, and an Illusionist.

seems like Matt still has a ways to go before he becomes even 1/2 as Uber as The Haitian, and even the Haitian isn't too "out there" in terms of power. I always felt Matt was underpowered (same with Nathan), so I really enjoyed this, he is growing into a hero, yay!

yeah.. HRG told TEd last season that they all could do way more than they thought, and the company knew all about what they could do, more than they did.

This is the beginning of the cute chronicle of Matt the Wet Dream Man. I remember speculating about Matt's power developing in this direction as my first post in this forum.

powers getting better is the same as growing up...it's time for Matt to do big boy stuff

Matt and Maury have the same power, but Maury's had decades to become more adept at it. He's right, Matt's capable of so much more than just reading minds. He could have all the basic attributes of telepathy:

Mind reading
Thought Projection
Astral Projection
Illusion Casting
Mental Communication
Mind Control

His father has demonstrated three of these.

Astral projection is an actual practice, not a power, where the person makes their spirit leave their body and go other places. It was quite popular during the early 70's. Even had songs about it (Dream Weaver by Gary Wright) Just wanted to clarify.

I have always liked the Matt Parkman character from the beginning. Not only do I like his ability, but the actor who portrays Matt does an excellent job. It was also interesting seeing Matt and Maury (his dad) interact with each other for the first time in decades.

Maury is a very powerful man. But I have a question as it pertains to his ability. Now, it appears he is a very strong telepath making people see things that aren't actually happening. Presumably, he can use this ability from a distance (i.e., Molly Walker). But when Maury said he "had something to show Matt," and Matt followed, did those doors physically close, or did Maury just make Matt think the doors closed? I only ask because if the doors did actually close, then this would imply that Maury also has some sort of TK ability too. I'm pretty sure the doors did close, because Nathan was not in the "nightmare" yet until he broke down one of the doors. What does everyone else think?

Also, I found it interesting that Matt, in an act of desperation, realized that he was fighting with Nathan and communicated to him telepathically to stop. Like his father, Matt's power is becoming stronger and stronger.

He's going to be a badass soon...

I know what it is, I'm just saying that it's part of a telepath's repetoire as well.

I've been waiting for Matt to start projecting his thouhts. He ought to be able to rescue Molly, now.

I'm also waiting for Claire to start healing others, like Linderman.

I wonder if Monica will be able to imitate powers she watches others use.

Maybe Micah will be able to fix people, like he can machines, as he's already tried to do to Monica.

That's what I would distinctly NOT like to happen, for powers to become OTHER powers.



It's quite obvious that they're trying to level the playing field, and that's what I disagree with, the idea that giving someone more power makes them more of a hero is rediculous and only works in comic books. The thing I like about this show is that it tries to create an illusion of reality and throw out stupid comic book contrivances out the window while keeping the superpowers, that's extremely refreshing. Why does Matt have to be on their level? How come he can't get by with his wits, his little simple power and a gun, THAT makes for an interesting character...



Well, Papa Parkman made it pretty clear that they had the same power, that Matt's power could expand to be, and I quote "so much more" before demonstrating on their behinds and leaving them to kill each other. That means that Matt's power is no longer "hearing people's thoughts" that it is now, full blown telepathy, including manipulating ALL sensory input and even bringing out deep inexpressible things like "your worst nightmare." That's uber, and that's what Matt's power is now, even if he doesn't know how to use it yet.

Also note that it wasn't that before, because after five years of using it rigorously in 5 years gone, he was still only a thought-hearer. That makes me think they changed the storyline to cater to Matt, cuz everybody likes him, and that the show is worse off for it.

Regardless, telepathy is one of those powers that cakes all others. It doesn't matter if you can split molecules and bench press planets... I'm in your head and I say you think you're in Never Never Land. That's a way to make a character UNinteresting.

It wouldn't have been so bad if they had suddenly decided to change a non-telepathic power... like if Micah suddenly didn't have to touch stuff, or Niki had super strength AND super agility... but using telepathy just makes it that much worse. Matt may not be uber now, but changing his potential to a full-telepath means that his character development is heading towards uninterestingville. There's a reason they had to kill off Jean Grey and sideline Professor Xavier. They had to kill Psylocke and Betsy Braddock and keep Rachel Grey's telepathy weak. Writing for telepaths is insane because, logically, not much should challenge them.

So as it seems Matt's powers have expanded. However it's also evident that we cannot expect any sort of x-men psychic overpower to result. This series has thus far done an exceptional job of putting the people before the powers. Matt has been a great example of that. Every use of his powers has been for some good he wanted to accomplish in his life or for someone around him. (ie: better officer, family man, protecting others with powers, taking down the company, saving molly) This characters strong moral compass and obvious distaste for the perversion of his fathers power will serve as a cap or a limit to his activity and advancement of his power.

Also to be considered however is that now in my opinion there are 4 different powers and 5 different people who could potentially eliminate the threat of Monroe/kensei. Matt could render him comatose similar to Maury and like Molly was. Also Nathan could reasonable strand him somewher that even his power wouldn't allow him to return from. Hiro could lose him somewhere in time perhaps similar to Caitlin's current situation. Also it may be possible that mya's power could be effective against the regenerative powers. Considering that the oil like substance doesn't do any direct physical damage it may be similar to fossilizing him and unaffected by his ability. The fifth potential person is all to obviously Peter...He does what he wants.

come to think of it maybe Bob could turn him into a golden statue...unreasonable but would be interesting dynamic to consider. molecular rearrangement vs. spontaneous regeneration.