Everybody here thinks they just know everything there is to know about how TV shows are supposed to work.

Well, FYI, you don't know everything. And you guys think your finding plotholes? No, your not. Certain things have to happen in order for the story to get told, and if the writers have to over look a couple of minor details like "Why didn't Peter just phase through the door?". You want to know why he couldn't phase through the door? Because if they had, then Nathan and Matt couldn't have convinced Peter that Adam was evil.

You see, certain things MUST happen in order for the story to get told. The plotholes your finding aren't plotholes, that's called storytelling. If you keep insisting that the writers are making mistakes "Big enough to drive a truck through" Then you are wrong*. You simply don't understand storytelling.

(Flame shield on)



* I'm not saying that the writers are perfect, but they know what they are doing most of the time.

I just added the poll.

Well said, Joe

Of course there is always another alternative as to how something gets explained, but if something gets done the easy, conventional way (in this case, if Peter were to phase instead of TKing the door off), then all the loose ends get tied up way too quickly. Sometimes I forget that, myself.

Thank you.

Good storytellers don't need plotholes. Plotholes indicate poor storytelling. Contrivances are the last thing you should rely upon as a good writer. Leave these guys alone; you're the one lacking in understanding here.

I tend to agree with you on this one. If everyone on the show (especially Peter and Hiro) all of a sudden came into a mastery of their powers, this show would die. If they did everything that seemed logical and used their powers to solve every problem in some comic book (X-Men) style fashion - this show would be cancelled. It would get stale and predictable. It is the flaws in these people and yes, sometimes their stupidity that keeps us coming back for more. Not to mention posting on his board.

This show needs the support of more than just comic book and sci-fi/fantasy fans. It needs the mass audience to get the numbers to keep getting picked-up. Its the humanity in this show that is keeping those people watching.

There were other ways to get around the Nathan helping Peter thing. Peter not phasing through the door is a plot hole whether you choose to acknowledge it or not (which would be denying the truth). In fact, it's a pretty big one. The writers probably hit a snag while writing the episode and decided not to correct it for time's sake or something, but it still stands as frustrating and obvious.

The lack of plot holes is evidence of good writing, and Heroes hasn't always had the best.

The thing is though... none of these things are the result of character flaws. They're simply the result of poor writing. This is a huge difference. You're very right its the humanity of this show that brings its viewers. That makes it that much worse: they're not using their humanity to tell a story, but rather using their 'humanity' as an easy out for when they write themselves in a corner. This isolates the very fan base you're talking about.

Exactly. Write a story within the world you've created. Don't just stubbornly say, well lets make Peter use his telekinesis to tear down this wall because it would be cool and add dramatic effect! We'll have him conveniently forget he could just walk through it! Shoot, we'll just have him do that and and then let "questionable intent" Adam go grab it himself! It'd be great! So much tension!



Just because this is an unrealistic fictional world, don't let the writers get away with doing unrealistic things within the context of that world. Good writers will find a way to develop a good storyline organic to the world they've created.

You wouldn't apologize if Jack Bauer decided to do something decidedly unrealistic like nuke the entire city of New York in order to kill one guy, just because it would add dramatic effect. Why do that here?

Shoot, if they wanted to do have him do that, it'd be easy enough to have make it sensible by implementing GOOD storyline. Just something like, have Peter about to walk into the vault, only to be stopped by Adam who lies and makes up some ****** reason like "no no, we better pull the door off... the vault dampens abilities and you'd be stuck in there." Instead they have him pound Hiro against a wall? That makes sense?

They weren't trying to build extra dramatic effect. They were telling the story. Buy having Adam go inside the vault by himself, Peter got to stay outside, and Matt and Nathan convince him that Adam is evil. They couldn't have done this if Peter and Adam had just walked through the door.

How is building dramatic effect somehow unrelated to telling a story? The fact is they used a shortcut to get a outcome they wanted and did so by relying on contrivances and obvious plotholes. Thats poor storytelling... its not realistic to the world they've created. You're right they couldn't have done that if they had just let Peter walk in... they could have done it with a BETTER plotline. Or, they could just manned up and realized that outcome was impossible under the world they created. Instead they just flubbed it. Thats the point you seem to be missing here.

By your logic, if I wrote a story about a superhero team of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and a cybernetic FDR fighting NAZIs in a medieval Japan ruled over by a despotic Kevin Federline, it'd be completely cool and free of plotholes just because I WANTED to tell that story.

Roger Ebert critizes what he calls "Idiot Plots": stories that would be over in 5 minutes if the characters were not idiots. The following Season 2 plot developments are all part of an idiot plot:

*Mohinder not telling Bennet more about the virus.
*Bennet not telling Mohinder more about the virus.
*Maya not Googling "Gabriel Gray" herself.
*Maya believing whatever Sylar tells her uncritically.
*Maya not taking Molly and getting the hell out of the hostage situation.
*Monica not running out of the gangsters' house the same way she came in.
*The Haitian not showing up for any critical climactic battles, ever, even when he knows lots of the people involved.
*Bennet leaving his fingerprints in the Ukraine (this one, I still do not understand at all - Bennet being dumb enough to leave fingerprints? How the hell does that happen?)
*Peter not picking up a damn phone and calling his brother when he gets his memory back.
*Peter not trying to read Adam's mind (Note: It's not a bad story if he tries and fails. That's OK, because there are plenty of reasonable explanations for why it might not work. But it makes Peter look like an idiot if he doesn't even think to try.)
*Peter TK'ing the door open instead of phasing through (this one isn't so bad IMHO, because if Peter had "instinctively" used his TK instead of phasing, that's not inherently a bad decision).

I don't mind plot holes like "How did Nathan grow a beard and develop a drinking problem in 1 week?" or "How did Ando go back to Japan and get his old job back so fast?" Because to me, these don't make any sense, but they don't really require stupidity on the part of the characters. The true problem is when the writers have characters run around like headless chickens in order to keep the story going. Yes, that is technically "storytelling." But leaving loose ends like these is the difference between telling a good story and telling a bad story.

Add to that anyone not yelling "MEDIC, get some Claire blood over here!" Anytime someone gets a fleshwound. That decision is really going to haunt them.

You guys expect way too much.
This show is supposed to be about ORDINARY PEOPLE (people like you and me) with extraordinary abilities, let's not forget that.

Hindsight is always going to be 20/20.
I'm sure if your life were caught on camera, you'd watch it and be like, "Oh my god, why didn't I just do that instead? That woulda saved me a lot of trouble later on!"
We are human. The characters are human. We make stupid mistakes, we do things that don't make sense.

I have enough faith in humanity to think that most ordinary people aren't that stupid. If my little time-traveling Asian friend who helped me save the world just a few weeks ago and who I had total and complete reliance upon not too long ago came up and said:

"Hey, that blonde guy is a little evil, I kind of went back in time and saw him try to steal it before. I did this same thing and told you to save a cheerleader before I even met you and you totally believed me then. Now that you know I'm good for it, why won't you give me the benefit of the doubt. Especially considering you already know this guy and he just blew away some milf for no apparent reason."

Here, since we can both stop time, we don't we just sit down, talk a little and hash this out. Better yet, we don't we both just time travel back to the exact moment that I did earlier and watch Adam do his thing. Its not like Adam will know, we're already frozen in time together. Its that JUST A LITTLE more sensible that me going ahead and drawing my sword and you getting all sparky on me? In fact, we've already established that I came to grips with Sulu's passing, so its not like I'm too blinded by bloodthirst and vengeance to sit down with my favorite non-Nathan Petrelli. Afterall, thats hardly in my very timid nature and totally against character anyway, as is you so willingly electrocuting me and then pounding me against a wall with your telekenetic abilities. Yeah, I thought so too."

I believe what people are calling a "plot hole" here in this particular case is really an alternate solution which was crude in comparison to another alternate solution (namely tk versus phasing). Both strategies get the job done. And, while phasing is the more elegant of the two, tk is the more familiar (and more comfortable) power strategy for Peter (but not the most efficient in this instance).

Having said this, the story is best served with the most emotionally intriguing situation, which is what the writers are attempting to give us (according to Tim). I can accept this.

Creator

Ok, but then isn't the phasing idea a plot hole? Doesn't Peter have superstrength? He could have just ripped the door off..

Oh, wait, the strength idea is a plot hole. Peter can teleport. Uh, oh, plot hole..

He can melt things. Should have just liquified the door. Oops, plot hole..

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Him not phasing is not a plot hole. You accuse the writers of choosing the wrong power, any of these powers was the right one. Whether you choose to accept it or not.

I'm more annoyed by a lot of the other 'idiot plots' as mentioned above. The phasing thing is just the most recent.

Its not a plothole for him to use TK over the other powers, but it is for him to not mention WHY he's doing over the others. Especially since he had such a damn hard time doing it. You're right, he could have chosen from many many different options, most of them easier. But with ANY of those, they should have explained why this and not an easier solution. Its their failure to even address it, along with the entire Hiro-Peter debacle, that I quibble with it.

Your faith in humanity doesn't change the fact that ordinary people are stupid.
Peter and Hiro have their own motivations. Sorry if Peter's a little biased and wants to side with Adam, but he kinda saved his brother's life. Not to mention, he got Peter to remember his life after he had amnesia.
Let's see you get amnesia and then we'll see if you trust the same people you once did before.
And a lot of people can't just sit down and talk to solve problems. People tend to act irrationally, especially people who are about to kill someone out of revenge, and Hiro is no exception.
And like I said, it's all hindsight bias.

If he fully recovered from his amnesia I don't see how that makes any difference. And I understand he has reason to trust Adam, but reason to trust him over Hiro? Thats a stretch. Even if 'people act irrationally', its completely out of character for these two, especially Hiro.

The fact that there are so many people who passionately feel there are plot holes and mistakes proves they have a point. Go watch the first Die Hard some time. There is not one part of that movie where someone could say John McLane should have done this instead of that. There a bunches of TV shows and movies that can't be torn apart like this. If Superman doesn't use his X-Ray vision when it would be the obvious choice the writers would point out the walls were lined with lead. Then there would be no discussion about why he didn't use that power. Thousands of viewers shouldn't have to make up excuses to explain things to thousands of other viewers who say it doesn't make sense. The last thing the writer of the episode wanted was half the viewing audience to sceam at the TV "Why don't you phase through the wall you idiot?" Storytelling is supposed to move you through their world seamlessly, dropping clues, weaving a mystery and get you hooked. It is counter productive for them to write scenes that cause us to argue about it and scream at the TV. The very fact that so many people feel this way is proof they may have a point, not that they don't understand good storytelling. By the way, storytelling is just that. Telling us a story. If we don't follow it or think something is a plot hole then it's not good storytelling. Heroes lost some viewers this year. If it were great storytelling they wouldn't have. Now on a site of dedicated fans, half of them think the story telling is lacking. What that says to me it the audience is going to shrink even more because there are more than a million viewers that don't visit the site and half of them probably didn't think it was great story telling either. Don't get me wrong. I think the show is great and I'll watch it until it is no longer on. This show just needed one extra sentence and most of the arguements wouldn't have happened. "Peter you can't phase through Titanium doors". I can overlook the empty casket that is six feet under the ground. I know he teleported him there but why there is no body. This could be good storytelling still but if they never explain it I'll put it in the bad writing file.

I am in COMPLETE agreement with Ravenclaw here, very well said !

The abilities are only a part of the stories in Heroes ; the stories themselves are character driven.

You guys would do well to use your invention and energy to understand the overall themes of Heroes, and the theme and subject of each individual episode, instead of nitpicking every detail --- it is also a fact that if you look for flaws in something, you WILL find them.

---

And, so what ?!

Tyrell34.

I'm uncertain just why you seem to take offense to my comments, but I'm not finding fault with the writers or the fans. I'm attempting to understand where each is coming from.

The two powers that were up for discussion are the two that I focused on, quite simply. Plus, I'm am very aware of Peter's arsenal of powers. But, given a choice between just those two, I can understand the reason Peter (and hence, the writers choose Tk). Peter is very comfortable with his tk and the writers were writing for maximum emotional effect and to create a compelling story.

And, I can understand why the fan would have chosen phasing and why they might see that not being selected as being a "plot hole" (which if you re-visit my comments you will see I don't interpret as such).

Creator

We probably understand those themes as well as, if not better, than you. Its not as if Heroes has tremendously deep themes to begin with. Why such avarice for pointing out a few annoying gaps in logic? You act as if forcing the writers to avoid plotholes would leave them with absolutely no capability of crafting a story. Why so apologetic for them? Most of these quibbles could be offset by a little preemptive dialogue. You really should be insulted that they didn't expect more from their audience.

And I swear to God if one more person asks Micah "You just... told it to?..

Since to reply well I would have to quote almost everyone on this thread and that would make a HUGE post on my part so I will keep it small and clean by saying that I fully agree with the posters that say that the second season was full with weak writing.

No matter if the heroes are "normal people" with abilities or not, there is no other explanations or excuse of all of them being as dumb as they were in the whole second season after they accomplished things at least partially in a more decent way in the first season.

Plot holes are there, many mistakes and weak writing included! Many excuses, many "Secrets" we never get revealed, many changes that had nothing to do with the writers strike! Poor development, poor writing and many changes of heart.

plot

2. Also called storyline. the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plot

Story
1. a narrative, either true or fictitious, in prose or verse, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader; tale.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/story

When Peter and Adam arrive at the door, Peter asks what now? Adam says "I guess you will just have to pry it open with that brain of yours", Peter responsed that hes not sure he has that kind of power.

So why didn't Peter just phase through the door?

Adam wanted the door open and phasing wouldnt have done that

Peter and Adam getting to the door and then realizing that peter should open it is part of the plot, the how, why, when, where, and what they were doing to get to that point is part of the story.

Peter and Adam could have phased to the floor where the virus was being stored, Peter could have broken through the floor of each level and jumped down to the level below until reaching where the virus was, he could have nuked the way to where the virus was, he could have even teleported to where it was. But they didnt do any of those things because the plot points didnt call for them.

A plothole would be peter destorying strain 138 of the virus but then it still getting out from primatech and nathan getting it.

I know what a plot or a storyline is, however for everything you write, there is a base you have to build up and to have a konsistant good storytelling, you need to recall that base once in a while so you won't lose the focus and mess everything up.

Not teleporting in there makes sense since peter doesn't even know where this is.
Except if you mean after they were in front of the door but even than, Peter couldn't use this power well so far so the excuse was good.

Phasing in the other hand could had been used after all since adam wanted to take the virus out of there anyway.

So all they had to do was to phase in together, get the virus, phase out and see that the others are waiting for them so the confrontation takes its place

OR while they just phased in there Hiro teleports in there and surprises them (confrontation in the vault) while the others are trying to break in (Matt and Nathan)

OR Matt attacks adam with his power immediately, peter counters him, Nathan and Hiro comes into play and the confrontation gets carried over.

There were tons of other possibilities to make this scene better but they just took the "fast food" way.
So what we saw at the end was weak plotting.

A few other things:

- Hiro wanted Adam dead but when he had the opportunity he didn't do it
- Adam wanted Hiro dead and even he had the sword on hiros neck, he didn't killed him. Instead he started a chit chat with him even he knew what hiro can do.
- Hiro can teleport someone with him only if he teleport with that person.
Can anyone tell me how both of them fit into that coffin? most of all since Hiro is a little rounded/"big" person?

Of course we can fit those things by speculating ourselves on what MIGHT have happened and WHY the persons didn't do what they did or did not.

Though it's actually the storytellers job to let us know not ours. It's their story we are following after all.

That's the thing that messes up this show in my opinion, too many untold things.
Speculation is good but confirmation is better!

I hope they don't attack you with the "we don't need to be spoonfed everything!", "too much exposition is boring", "there's no time to show that stuff", or the "you have no imagination" argument, like they did me

Because personally, I find those to be very weak arguments.

I also want to say, I've worked as a writer. And if the readers are asking THIS many questions about the most BASIC plot points and characterization... you've messed up somewhere.

Personally I think they were just desperate to get 11 episodes completed before the writers' strike happened, and they got sloppy. It's forgiveable. I'm hoping they do better when the strike ends and the insane time pressure is off.

It could also be that some of these episodes (especially this one) might have been written while the writers weren't at 100%. If you knew you were going on a writing strike in a couple of weeks (or days), you might have a lot on your mind and not pay full attention to the thing you were doing. Kind of like how your mind begins to wander as you get close to Christmas, spring break, or summer break when you're in school (not that a strike is enjoyable like a break by any means). Just a thought.

Yep... senioritis I know it well.

I'm experiencing a variation of that right now... my presence on this forum exemplifies that. Senioritis, a worthy foe...

Senioritis in combination with insomnia = deadly.

Sidenote: I'm writing for games.

As about the desperation, I would buy that if it would affect the last few episodes after the strike had started but not for the whole season because the strike wasn't there when they started and the hiatius was big enough to come up with some decent writing to cover up until the season started in my opinion. :/

However, even I'm quite dissappointed, I have high hopes that things gets better next season.

Are they paying you for posting this?

Well, fortunately it is not as if the creator of the show has admitted to having done things wrong.

I can see your point here but you need to also realize that some people on fan boards will have 10 page threads about why a character walked left to right in a room instead of right to left. Some live to nit-pick over everything.

I understand there is a certain level of stupidity that is accepted in entertainment, but when the story is done well, most of the time you can't notice (many classic films are this way). The plot hole deals not mainly with Peter's lack of phasing, but rather Adam's explanation that that was the only way they could get through the door. The prying open of the vault could have taken a minute, but instead it was drawn out to create tension and to remedy some plot points.

The main problem is that Peter is overpowered, and stupid.

Go over to the boards about Dexter and there is no nit-picking. There is no discussion anywhere about anyone turning left or right when entering a room. I know you were using hyperbole but if there are 10 pages of complaints about the phasing and there are millions of people who watch the show and don't come to boards then it's reasonable to say there are hundreds of thousands or more people that thought the same thing. In a show with lower ratings it's second season that isn't a good thing. I'm sure the writer regrets not addressing why he didn't phase at this point. The "nit-pickers" are fans too. That is an unfair arguement to compare a valid observation to a rediculous scenario you made up to try to make a point. The writer should try to avoid this sort of thing. He could have solved all of this with "I can't phase it's too thick".

I agree that alot of the complaints have something to do with the storytelling style, but I think the heart of the matter is it's kind of clunky. I mean, sure, all stories have little tricks they pull so the villain loses, or a moment that adds dramatic tension..but it shouldn't be so obvious to the viewer that it pulls them right out of the story.

There's may be Deus ex Machina but the viewer should be going 'oh, wow, the guy's flying out of danger just in the nick of time;, not 'Oh, wow, I see the flimsy wires'. O_O; It seems like last season there was alot of thematic tricks and dramatic moments, but they were well designed not to just be beyond belief. It seemed to flow naturally.

Just an opinion.

-BB

phasing is a girlie power, he's peter petrelli not shadow kitty, a wimp would phase through a door leaving it unharmed, a man would rip the door off. Go watch reruns of casper the friendly ghost if want characters moving through walls. There was no plot holes(regarding peter choice of powers at least), adam said rip the door off with your mind, peter did what his manipulator said. Bad writing would be two characters standing aroud discussing what powers would work the best.

Hahaha! That is a great example of why I have been frustrated with this season. We should role play some of the other 'idiot plots' just to illustrate how illogical they are.



Who can really connect with characters who are so inconsistent? In some episodes, they appear to be so real and exciting. But then when I watch the very next episode, they end up doing something so contrived. Those plot devices (as mentioned by Marzipan and others) pull me out of the story to wonder "The character that I know would not do that... so why did the writers decide to have him/her act that way?" I rarely thought about the writers during Season 1. But in Season 2, there are far too many things that make you say "...wait, WHAT?"

If I were to diagnose the problem, I would say that the writers were not able to see the 'complete picture' during their writing process. Too many cooks in the kitchen? Maybe they were in too big of a hurry? I do not claim to know the process they take, but I hope that they are able to coordinate better in future episodes. A universe like this requires it's own set of governing rules (or core values/facts), so maybe they just need to keep a running list of principles that they MUST abide by. Shouldn't there be a script editor or someone to make sure that all the scripts fit seamlessly?

Alright...

I write a fan fic on here...

It is VERY easy to mess up a few facts here and there. Who wants to go through and read EVERYTHING they've ever done, to make sure they don't miss a few things?

With how many episodes of Heroes there are, that would be quite difficult.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, isn't it a team of writers, and not just one?

If you have a team, it is more likely that you will have issues within a storyline.

About the storyline: I never found it to be weak. Anything Heroes gives me, I take it as well as I can. While there are some inconsistencies, they've never truly bothered me.

You have to remember, writers are human.

Just as you may not remember what you put in a term paper a few weeks ago, you might not remember what you put into a script a few months ago.

Even the best of them do it.

This is why in shows they have writer's bibles to explain what each character can do and not do. Each writer should have this. If they change writer's every two weeks and the one two weeks later doesn't know what the guy just wrote last week that would be a stupid way to run a show. After all, we watch it every week. They have to be fans of their own show, otherwise, it's just another job.

When I said a team, I didn't mean like... one writes one week, the other the next.

I meant they all get together and summarize it, before writing.

Though, it would definitely help if they kept a book on each character, and just put in the facts.

But sometimes, it really honestly doesn't work that way... there are plotholes in almost everything... some are just easier to catch than others.

I buy that more for a show like Lost where theres so many details and connections among such a small group of people. Plus its been on longer and had more time to accrue a 'world history.; Even if they make about 5 continuity errors a show in Lost now, I'd still put them at about 90% coherent with the storyline.

In a show like Heroes, there isn't NEARLY as much accumulated history. Its been on for a shorter time period, the characters aren't as connected and the plots are much more straightforward. Its not excusable for them to mess up about 5 times a show, which they do or more, when they don't have near the amount of content to be truthful to. Its not like these guys are forgetting small details like didn't "Peter make an off-hand comment to Simone about distrusting blondes in the Season 1, Episode 5..." this is fundamental. They're mixing up things like key character relationships... its inexcusable to not give more respect to Peter-Hiro's trust or things to that nature when that relationship was a KEY element to the plotline.

I agree that they use a team of writers that work on the episodes. But, I gather from Greg Beeman's blog that there is a different main writer every week. For instance, when he writes "Tonight our eleventh episode aired...It was written by Jeph Loeb...", I assume that he means that Jeph either wrote the whole thing or took the lead on it. And it is a different name almost every single episode.

It would be a daunting task to keep everything straight, but I feel that it is absolutely necessary for this series.

Well if there are more than one writers there HAS to be enough documentation that gets updated after or before EVERY episode so the next one know how far they can go and where they can head to.

That's called organization and teamwork! It's as easy as that!

In my project, I have profiles about every character, skills, backgrounds, purpose, relationships, connections and everything else! Detail is your friend and helps when it comes to save time and energy. Yours as also of others.

According on many interviews, the actors go to "work" get a script in their hand about what their character has to do in this episode, learn the lines and there they go.

Yes it's exciting to work like this (last minute tasks) and makes the whole thing more flexible.
However, it also provides confusion and inconsistencies in many ways.
Most of all when you are adding like 5 - 10 "secrets" into the show in almost every episode, leaving them behind for many episodes only to forget many of those at the end and never reveal them. Of course you can hope that the fans will forget somehow and don't ask questions after quite some time has passed but someone who thinks like this, underastimates the fans a lot in my opinion. ^^

I don't have time to read this whole post, but I agree. And also I think people need to realize that this season had to basically abruptly end thanks to the strike

Episodes for many series' could continue being shot and and filmed as long as they had completed scripts, even after the strike. They shot an alternate ending but in both endings he TK's the door without explanation. If they had the entire season written they would still be filming now. That episode wasn't rushed any more than any episode of any season.

One of my jobs is for an author who writes novels. It is my job to find discrepancies in the stories and let him know before he presents his story to the editor. It is really a lot of fun but it does take time. For his third novel I had to reference back to earlier parts of the story as well as to the first 2 novels. With out this type of person on staff it can get very confusing. Many authors have at least 3 to 5 people who do this job independently to close all the gaps.

On a show like Heroes they should have at least two people on staff that it is their job to keep discrepancies out of the writing.

Heroes is a very "Heady" show (need to think show) and season 2 has been more of an entertainment for entertainments sake show. I know that appoligies have been made and look forward to season 3 being just as good if not better than season 1.

The person whose job title is "Continuity Editor" does exactly that. But you shouldn't even NEED a continuity editor for things as huge and basic as Peter or Mohinder's personality/intelligence. These are main characters!

Which reminds me of a hilarious Mystery Science Theater episode, when they were going through the credits. "Continuity Editor, Beth so-and-so. Can she be legally arrested?"

Well said.

Plus something keeps bothering me when people call them "plotholes." I always thought plotholes were when something completely unexplainable happens. You may not have LIKED that Peter used TK instead of phasing, but that's the route they went.

A plothole would be Peter suddenly having the virus without us having any idea when and where he got it. Plotholes are when things go completely unexplained that would require explination.

So Sylar escaping after season one. There could be a lot of reasons for him surviving. Does it matter? Kinda, but I can live knowing that he survived somehow. Use some common sense to fill in the holes.