So, this is a new paradox that Heroes hasn't covered yet. It's already shown that time-travel is possible, and that the timeline can be changed.

Now, what happens to someone stuck in one of those timelines that are no longer going to happen? Caitlin is stuck in the Shanti Virus Future, but with that strain destroyed, it won't come to be ... yet, that's where she is. What happens to her?

she is destroyed with the timeline i think

Score, I always hated her. My friend Tak will be happy.

I think it's kind of dumb not to include Peter's entire inspiration for his involvement with the Shanti Virus arc in the Volume (and potential season) finale. It makes sense that she would be destroyed with that future, but it just leaves an uneasiness with me if that is the case. It seems like these last few episodes have been really sloppy, I'm sorry to say.

I don't care if Caitlin stays a main character, or alive for that matter, but I want some closure to her character's story.

No one, including the greatest minds in the world knows what happens during "time travel" since it's all theory. This gives the writers the possiblity to do what ever they want. Right now the only hint that has been dropped on Caitlin's fate is by Greg Beeman (Director/Producers) who name dropped Back to the Future 2 as a guide to time travel. In that the lead Marty had to leave his girlfriend Jennifer in an alternate present and go back to the past to change the future. When he returned she was still in the spot he left her while the "future" changed around her leaving her untouched.

I hope this is a sign that Caitlin will be okay. I thought she was the one new character that had the hugest potential and she brought out an interesting aspect to Peter's character. First she is like the only new character that was introduced without powers. And secondly she has now experienced something completely unique... which I hope opens the door for further exploration as the writers have done so wonderfully with HRG & Mohinder. Both characters weren't well liked in the beginning and because they were expanded on they have become fan favorites (although Mohinder is back in the hated zone presently). Also, the non-powered characters add something special to the show and Caitlin has been set up perfectly to be the female part of that equation.

And if they want Peter to remain a "hero" they're going to need him to start doing more heroic things... like cleaning up his own mess. It will greatly hurt Peter's character if he simply forgot about Caitlin or gave up on saving her without ever really trying. Also, killing off another girlfriend just so Peter can angst about it is to cliche... saving her and her being changed by the furture hurt by it in some way is a better story to tell.

Well, that could mean that he'd have to wait until at least the summer of '08 to get her back, or he'd have to time-travel to get there (which if he stick around with Hiro, Hiro would try to prevent him from changing the time continum any more).

And if they kill off another love interest for Peter, what's that make it? 3?

Maybe Caitlin will be transferred back to the present (since the future she was in, no longer exists) but with no recollection at all of Peter and the "future" and everything that has happened. Just a thought. Would suck though for her, since she doesn't "know" her brother had died.

As huge time travel nut, even before Greg said this, this was always my assumption, so I never questioned it, I was very surprised when I went online and saw the huge debate.

Yeah, that's how I saw it.



And so is usually the fate of a hero...and James Bond.

I assumed she'd still be living stuck in that timeline and still thinks the shanti virus thing happened

oh god, when they ended the season without getting her back from the future, boy did i laugh.

I hope they bring her back though somehow.
She wasn't all that bad. I mean, she and her brother did save peter after all..

She's as forgotten as Claire's magic blood. We won't be seeing either again.

In Five Years Gone and I Am Become Death, Hiro and Ando, and Peter, respectively travel a few years into the future. When they get there, it is confirmed that they have existed in the past few years. This means that they had already traveled back to there own time and changed the future, but they showed up in the new timeline. Therefore, the same should happen to Caitlin: even though Peter has already gone back to his own time and changed the future, past Peter and Caitlin should show up in the new timeline come 2008. (Heroes is still taking place in 2007.)