I am lead to believe that her power was something more or a bit different than what we are seeing now based on what Noah said to her. "the human brain (or body?) isnt designed to handle that much electricity from testing..." (not a perfect quote but close enough). We know she set her grandma's house on fire and took out 4 blocks of electricty, but I still think its something slightly different than what we are seeing now...

It appears that nobody has mentioned this so here goes. Why on god's green earth didn't she use her powers to zap HRG when they were doing the switch? She didn't have a pan with water under her feet and she can conduct electricity form anywhere( Peter's electric kiss) and Noah was holding her. Helllo plot hole...

I don't see why the pan of water would work on her in the first place. I thought that any part of her skin could probably shoot electricity/conduct if she wanted to... how come she can shoot it, but the water makes it affect her... what? wouldn't she be touching the electricity any time she used her power? She was never shocked then...

AAgh, I'm overthinking this, I'm sure.

Think of it as bio-electrokineses instead of any other EK. Her body produces it, so when she goes to use it.. BZZZZRT

I'm guessing they are working under the reasoning that she takes measures to not ground herself, or to keep her shooting hand dry as to prevent a premature grounding like what happened in this show.

Remember that not only were her feet in water, he wet her completely with the sink sprayer thing, allowing the electricity to more easily move through the water on her skin and metal of her cuffs to the ground rather than through the air (path of least resistance.)

I don't think she can harness and shape and directly manipulate electricity, more over just produce and project it (she couldn't say form a lash or bat out of electricity or encase and hold someone in electricity), but it's still electricity and victim to the laws of physics.

On a side note, and my own over-thinking, did anyone else get the impression that Elle's powers might have been created somehow by the company? A force evolution or sorts, hmm I dunno it just sounded like that's where the conversation was going with the "normal girl", unicorns and all and then what there was now.

Hmm... Prob just imaging things.

I think, she was taken by the company after "blackout in 4th counties" incident or her parents went scared and gave her away.And she was just little girl who had no idea what was happening with her.Then Company tested limits of her power. After that The Haitian cleared her memory and Bob did the rest of the job.

The way I interpreted Noah's little speech there was to say that the company had forced her through it's tests to generate more electricity than her body and brain could endure (kinda like Peter generating so much radiation he couldn't contain it till he went nuclear). Thus I took the entire "normal girl" thing to be a comparison to her present condition (which is definitely not "normal"), showing how the company's tests had twisted Elle into being the psycho that she is.

I got the impression that she didn't want to, after what Noah told her about her past.

the reason she didnt zap hrg imo is that she was still stewing over the memory-wipe story he had told her. if you noticed, she was glaring pretty damn hard at bob, and then something just "clicks" in her facial expression and she broke lose and fired at west.

the real question is: why did they keep noah alive? wouldnt it have been less trouble to leave him dead from the company's perspective?

Who says the Company knows Bennet is alive? (Dun dun dun )

My money is on Elle.

I can't see how she could electrocute herself. She must be somehow immune to the effects of the electricity that she generates, or else she would electrocute herself everytime that she generates a charge. Whether or not she is in water, she should be immune. At worst, the water would short her out, since there is no 'out' for the electricity--no grounding.

I also don't think that West should have any effect from the electrical blast, if it truly is electricity that she is shooting. Ok, say that she somehow has solved the riddle of projecting an electrical charge through the air. (Nicoli Tessla never figured out how to do that, sacrificing most of his life trying, but ok, I'll bite). So, since West wasn't grounded, how could the electricity go through him? Take for example large passenger jets. They get struck all the time by lightning, but it has no effect on them while in the air, but no damage done. The plane isn't grounded. Same thing with West. Perhaps someone more schooled in electricity can better explain this, but it should essentially be the same.

I took Elle not zapping HRG was because she some what respected what he was doing to protect his family and Claire. Plus, if she did zap him before Bob and Mohinder got there, then HRG wouldnt of gotten shot in the eye, thus making the audience hate Mohinder.

And this is my first post after reading this site for a while. Forgive my noobness..

Ditto.. I agree totally.

Here's my crazy rationalization: Mr. Bennet clearly criss-crossed Elle's wrists behind her back. Since she channels her powers mostly through her hands, he crossed the streams. Her possitive terminal was connected to her negative terminal and so she couldn't use her power.

Ahh good ol' Total protonic reversal.. Just imagine time stopping and every proton in your body expanding away from each other at the speed of light,...
Igon was the man

Well she could have gotten free of the tape like she did during the exchange and then zapped them...

she projects the electricity from her body, it comes out of her fingertips and goes to her targets. it touches her internally (well, you'd assume so) but never externally. but after noah had soaked her in water when she tried to project it out from her body it went out and then came back because of the water, touching her externally. hence the shock.

Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of human biology, knows that the human body is mostly composed of water, with electrolytes, and the body itself emits weak electrical signals. (ex: EKG ).

In reality Elle would be committing suicide each time she makes an electrical discharge, it's a fictional show so personally I wouldn't bother thinking about physics that don't exist in real world.

I didnt read through every post, but she seemed ****** at Bob at the end, so maybe thats why she didnt zap HRG until she walked away, and maybe why he was bought back to life

as for her powers, I started to get the feeling she was "made" that way by The Company

I am thinking more of Suresh, he felt bad in shooting HRG and betraying him. He is stupid sometimes but not bad.

It's been mentioned by a few characters (can't think of any right now because my memory that far back is terrible) that they didn't manifest their powers until after their field trip to the Company. So apperently, they have methods of identifying those with hibernating powers and waking them up, so to speak. Then, the testing.

um cause if you watched the seen at the house with the pan of water he sprayed with water so she would shocked her self.