So... if Peter prevented to future post-virus world, does that eradicate that timeline? As in, does that mean his lady friend also disappears?

thats what ive been thinking about for the past few episodes.. but.. in the episode.. they had the mentality that if they destroy the virus.. that future of her being trapped there will never happen... (really really really stupid way of thinking) in my point of view

Can Hiro go back in time, when Peter and Caitlin were in Montreal, and steal Caitlin to bring her to... present time?

In Volume 1, Hiro explained pretty clearly that Time, in the Heroes universe, is more like a circle than a straight line. And in fact Hiro witnessed the explosion, and he and Ando went to devastated New York --- if straightforward time paradoxes were impossible in this universe, this would not have been possible, as he could only have gone back to a past (the present of Volume 1) where the explosion was inevitable...

Same for Peter going to the 93% dead world, but then coming back to destroy the virus.

Also, Peter says he KNOWS that he could save Caitlin by destroying the virus. I trust this, and I trust Peter's instincts --- and it remains a fact that she travelled one year into the future from 2007. This fact has not been altered by the destruction of strain 138, and there are several Laws to prevent her from simply vanishing from out of time :

1) Newtonian thermodynamics and conservation of energy prevent Caitlin simply going nowhere

2) It is established in Heroes that the future can be changed : Caitlin is in the future

3) The Laws of Narrative, and the overall optimism of the show --- Caitlin HAS vowed revenge on Elle, which needs payback ; Peter has Isaac's ability to see the future, as well as Shaft's presumed visionary ability, and IMO destroying the virus in the present was probably the only means to save Caitlin from the same virus in the future that they visited, and that she's marooned in ; Peter's main ability is the power of saving people

This, to me, is a whole lot of speculation. We have no idea if any rule, Newtonian or otherwise, applies to time travel as its purely theoretical and likely impossible. In any event, I'd prefer it if she were last into time anyway.. she was kind of a drag.

And Pete's got bigger fish to fry... namely himself... IN THE FUTURE... WITH LIGHTNING BOLTS!

After he nuked the virus, I was sort of expecting Peter to warp into the future as soon as possible and save Caitlin. I mean, she was his personal motivation for preventing the damn outbreak in the first place. But no, he had to hang around for his brothers murder to catch him and add dramatic effect. I hope we don't have to keep hearing him whine about his poor girlfriend next year...

My personal thought...

Caitlin is currently in the future. Now that the virus has been destroyed, that potential future will simply shift around her (ala Back to the Future Part II), and the rest of us will need to "catch up." So, I think it's safe to say that, once we do catch up with Caitlin sometime next year, she'll be fine. Caitlin herself wouldn't simply go poof because, well, she's an anomaly in that future and she can't simply blink out of existence.

Maybe Peter will bump into her in New York. She'll be disoriented, but alive.

Or something like that.

This is a really touchy subject, because so many people have different opinions.

I, myself, have been going back and forth about it.

While it would seem the only answer is that she's gone, I like to think of it as lost.

You can't die from that future, you simply get lost.

Also, you have to think... if so many timelines are present, what are the chances that it's just alternate? As in: yes, Peter just stopped the virus from being released, and it would supposedly kill the timeline of the virus released.

Or maybe, rather than think of it as a dead end, look at it like a path with two choices. Left being virus released, right being virus stopped. Paths are still there no matter what.

So while she's lost in the timeline, I don't consider that timeline to be "dead".

This is the most likely but on a comical note...If she were on the boat to Ireland or a plane to Ireland (since she was being deported) then with the future shifted around her she would either A. Drown or B. Fall from the sky to her death.

^^^ That would suck. LoL.

I wonder if they'll maybe ever tell what happened to her?

That really would suck.

I hope they at least make mention of what happened to her. We dont have to see it but they should at least tie it up.

Well, I don't think it would be wise to just let this storyline die without telling us anything...

She should appear sometime in the future a changed person. Maybe gone crazy or vigilante or something. Maybe she'll be angry at Peter and become a villain. Or hunt Elle for revenge.

Make it something interesting...

Maybe they left her story open purposely?

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought "What happened to Kaitlin?" And as ColorMeToxic has so succinctly pointed out to us, the writers may have indeed left this open.

Honestly, we still have no idea what "physics of time" the writers are going to use. Kaitlin was left in "the future" or "a future". Take your pick. When Peter destroyed strain 138 (we all noticed the 'f' right?) that timeline as best as we can tell either ended or did still continue? Peter felt that if he stopped the virus he would save Kaitlin. He could still- in a weird comic book sort of way - still save her. He could go back to a time before he destroyed strain 138 and then jump again to just after he left her.

Does that make your brain hurt? Yeah I thought so.

Well, I made my brian hurt some more when I thought of this.

If time is linear there can only be one time line. If you are in the present and you jump to the future and leave something there it "should" be there when you catch up to that time. So, Peter stopped the future of "93% of all mankind dying" from happening. Kaitlin is an anomaly at that given moment in time. She's going to experience something but what?

Also, wouldn't that mean Peter's future self should be there to meet Kaitlin? Afterall, he's alive and his now existing future self will remember that he's going to show up in Time Square at a given date in time.

Aaaaa... I don't want to think about it anymore. The writers can have the headache.

temporal

Bare in mind: they could very well leave her story dead.

Yeah. I don't think we'll be revisiting Caitlin's story. With how complicated it would be to get her back and explain it, I don't think the show would waste time on it, especially since Caitlin isn't especially cared about by a lot of the viewers. How many people would feel at a loss if we never see Caitlin again?

I really wish somehow later (either volume three or comic or some heroes 360 explain what happen and where is Catlin.

Catlin! Catlin! Catlin!!!!!!!! *imitates peter*

Yeahh, maybe a GN or something like that. It could wrap up her story, and wouldn't waste any airtime.

I would feel terrible if I never saw Caitlin again. I've always had a soft spot for girls with Irish accents.

But I do feel that she is still in the future and that the future has just changed around her.

How exactly would it change around her?

Say she is standing in an abandoned street, but then it suddenly becomes crowded because the virus was stopped. I know it's a little rough to wrap your head around.

No, I get it.

It just sorta, for some reason, makes me think of:

*Caitlin in the Future*

Caitlin: Where's Peter? I don't need to be deported! *Piano Drops on Her*

Idk... that just... *sigh* I don't like that theory, for that reason... LoL. ((Even though I've thought of that theory myself...))

How would time decide an exact point of the future to make it shift? Wouldn't it at least become always changed around her? And if time did warp around material displaced, what would this mean since the molecules that make up a person are constantly undergoing change?

Umm... Kurt, can you maybe dumb that down? LoL.

Yea, even I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that. It would suddenly change for her, but the future would technically change at the moment that Peter caught the virus and from there on out.

I can try.

If time does shift around stuff that doesn't belong in the time, there must be some specific point in time where that shift occurs, or the shift occurs in all times. There is no logical reason for time to shift around Caitlin all of a sudden in the future. The only logical point of shift to me is the point in time where the change occurred. Because of this, Caitlin should have never experienced the future with the virus if this is the case.

Also, I'm suggesting looking at a molecular scale as to what time would consider out of place in time. The out of place particles would be the ones that Caitlin arrived in the future with. Over time, the particles that make up a person do not remain constant. What happens if time shifted when a lot of the initial particles that make up Caitlin have changed?

Sry guys, I'm thinking about a chemical equation. Damn Chemistry.

Think of it like this:

Caitlin gets lost in the future, but that future is stopped...

Caitlin + Virus ----(this represents the change of future)---> Caitlin.

If we're gonna look at it scientifically, Newton's Law of Conservation of Mass would have to be brought into this.

You can't just take the virus out, she has to still be stuck in that timeline.

I'm not sure how conservation laws apply (though actually mass isn't necessarily conserved. It can be converted into energy.) between times. But I agree that it doesn't make sense for all that Caitlin mass to suddenly be added to the timeline out of no where. I think Caitlin being lost in an alternate timeline makes the most sense.

The Law of Conservation of Mass has nothing to do with it, really. Just an analogy, so you can see what I mean.

And yeahh, that's basically how I explained Alternate timeline.

*sigh* I love timetravel, but this is making my head hurt.

Unfortunately, it's something we'll never figure out.

It's not like anyone of us is gonna be time traveling anytime soon.

It could have changed before that because Nathan told his mother Peter was alive and she thought he was dead.

What do you mean?

I'm time traveling right now, Toxic, and so are you. In fact, everyone is time traveling.

This is post #35. If I go forward and edit post #38 did I go into the future?

Yes. We are all constantly moving to the future. But time traveling back to the past of the future (present) is something we can not do. And we can't just skip time to get to the future.

Haha. Funny.

Ok... "I don't think any of us will be bending time and space anytime soon." Happy?

This is post # 38. If I go back to and edit post #35 did I go into the past?

I did it!

Not really. LoL.

That doesn't really count as bending time, Ren.

But these time travel debates are getting old. Let's just wait and see what the show shows, though it has been a bit inconsistent with it's views of time travel. I still think the idea of Caitlin shifting is unlikely and I think she's lost in time, though.

But if I go back to edit my other posts all of your replies will be meaningless. Sort of like when the future morphs around Caitlin.

Here's an obvious possibility that nobody has mentioned. There is a Peter one year in the future now in that timeline. He can start dating her then or he can bring her back to his one year younger self. I would opt for one year older Peter keeping her because she will always be a year younger that way. That is, of course, if the future morphs around her Back to the Future style. I was the originator of this topic back in the episode where she first was left there. The topic was "Where's Caitlin?: Forever lost in time? I personally think she's lost but as themightytruk said it pointless to debate it.

If everything did go back to normal around Caitlin then the worst that happened was that she lost a year of her life. It certainly is a time paradox if you really think about it, without the virus getting loose Peter and Caitlin have no place to arrive to in the future, so how does she get there?

I certainly hope they're not just going to drop it

I think she gained a year. She didn't age. On her birthday in 2008 her birth certificate will show her as being a year older than she actually is.

It's a grey area, and very difficult to get my head around. LoL.

Caitlin & Peter should appear in about a year in New York, and to preserve the current reality someone (most likely the Peter who lived through the intervening time) needs to be there when they arrive, and the memories that Peter originally experienced implanted in the arriving Peter's mind, at which point he would be sent/taken back without her to live out the rest of the timeline as he "originally" did ...

Look, clearly all Peter has to do is learn how to air guitar Johnny B. Goode and make sure Caitlin doesn't kiss Bifflar Tannen at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. The only real question is how in the hell is he going to find a Delorean and the 1.21 Gigawatts needed to power his flux capacitor when they're not exact selling them at every used car lot nowadays. And lets not kid ourselves, Mohinder is no Doc Brown.

God I wish I had a Delorean.