When Peter injects himself with the formula (what a stupid expression. He injects himself with a serum derived with the help of the formula), he can fly. He knew the chances for this were rather good. If he got his own EM back (which would be the logical way), he would immediately absorb flight so he could get Nathan to safety. Nice side effect: By absorbing Flint's ability, he'd be immune to the fire.

The second option is that he got a sort of custom-made flight injection, of the sort we (and he) saw a lot in the future. I wouldn't entirely rule that one out either. In that case, he flew through the fire fast enough so he didn't get hurt.

I have a huge problem with the first option - I can't imagine they're giving him back his old power which caused so much trouble. With the catalyst-perfected formula, it can't really be faulty. So if he's back to absorbing everything he comes in contact with, they'll soon face an overpowered Peter again, since they can't keep him away from most of the other specials. I always thought that, when Peter regains his powers, he would get a scales down version of his EM, if he got it back. (And wasn't he supposed to not get it back at all this volume? Who said that, Kristin? )

I'm actually starting to like the idea it was just flight he got. It's a great power, both defensive, offensive (as Nathan demonstrated with Baron Samedi), and immensely useful for getting from A to B. And it doesn't turn him into a superman again.

I think he got his EM back. Arthur said something about him regaining his original power if he were to be injected. It's written in the DNA!

I may be one of the few who think this way.. but I don't think a Superpowered Peter is a bad thing. Sure, he has the capacity of causing problems, he may not be the most decisive person here & thus "waste" his powers away, but ultimately, it's part of his character & personality. We'll see.

I assumed that Peter simply got back his old ability. I thought that everything that we've seen so far, and the whole conversation between Daphne, Ando and Matt, was to reinforce the concept that people are predisposed to a specific ability within their genetic make-up / personality, and nothing else. But then, you are completely right. I thought the whole idea was to reduce Peter's abilities.

Perhaps, having this ability robbed the way it was done by Arthur, it doesn't return to how it once was. Perhaps now he goes back to how he was in the first volume, and is only able to use abilities via proximity.

That would explain that he braveheartedly jumped through the flames to rescue Nathan without getting burned.

I think it's definetily EM, not flight. If they put a restrainer on him we will have to see. I hope so.


I actually would not like if flight was what he got. It would mean that powers are just random. I like the idea that the powers match the person. Even though I see the problems with EM, I still think it's what belongs to Peter.

Arthur told Pete "I can give you your powers back." so I think he has them all again.

same ole powers for Pete, but I think he had his reset button hit, like Sylar earlier in the season.

Arthur said that he could give him all of his powers back because if he game peter the formula and he was with arthur, then he would have them all back
but now that arthur is dead he only has flight, pyrokenisis, and possibly mohinders ability, which we dont know what that is yet

I'm with you. There's not a dang thing wrong with a superpowered Peter. I think it was obvious that Peter got his empathy back and I'm glad.

i think he got some his old power back with a seid affect ..now he cant keep his powers thats his around ... only temp. keeping them.

I definatly dont agree, i think that he got the same abilities back with the same extent. people are always trying to play down peter and make it seem like the writers tried to make him less powerful, i think he has the same powers, and to the same extent as before

Let's hope it's mentioned on-screen this time, with more than "I lost everything that made me feel special."

Good point about daddy.

I agree that people give Peter little credit. His mild nature is what makes him the perfect character to have such a strong ability, he just needs to grow a pair, so to speak. Remember the very first time they had a future-sighting, Peter was a total badA. He's starting to figure out how to step up to the plate. He will likely play a huge role in Season 4.

Huh? We're not trying to actively make it 'seem' like the writers are neutering Peter ... they actually are. In the first volume, Peter had limited control over his abilities, especially when he got some that he simply could not understand or control (like Ted's ability). In the second volume, Peter lost his memories, and so, access to most of his powers. In this third volume, Peter had his abilities actively taken away.

That's pretty strong evidence if you ask me.

I'm just hoping that Vol 4 will live up to the old Sylar line
"Brother versus brother, its biblical"

He won't be as powerful as he was before: Hiro has lost his ability = no Space - Time manipulation, Niki is dead = no super-strength, D.L. is dead = no Phasing, Sylar has lost a lot of his original powers, Linderman is gone = no healing (doubtful whether he had it or not, but still), no Invisability (as Claude is, for the moment, gone), no Precognition, as Isaac is dead, and no Induced radioactivity from Ted.

Well, its the obvious concern that those powers are lost forever but I doubt it. If the writers wanted to they could just introduce a new character who happens to have a power we've seen before. After all, the future versions of Peter and Sylar had old and new abilities they just got over time

I never liked the idea of custom made powers. They barely had the formula, when would they have time to refine it to that point?

People powers are based off the true selves. Peter's emotional connections, Ando being a massive tool etc...


So Peter has back his EM, flight and pyrokenisis. Notice his scar didn't heal. But it is different from f-Peter's scar, interesting.



As sad as it sounds we are back to a super powered arms race between Sylar and Peter. Since Sylar can now heal he is almost unstoppable. All he needs is a nice armor plated turtleneck collar.


Here is my question. Once Peter hooks back up with Claire (eww) he will once again have healing power, after that can he give Hiro a shot of healing blood with a touch of the catalyst. Will that bring Hiro's power back?

A touch of the catalyst? The catalyst is gone. Claire's blood would just heal Hiro, I don't see it bringing back his powers. Hiro possibly got his powers back by being super charged by Ando, or he just needs to inject himself with the formula

This is how I interpreted it, as well. That the formula would give Peter his original "empathic absorption" (mimicry, whatever) back. Peter could then absorb all of his previously absorbed powers from Arthur himself, since he took all of them.


I agree.

Maybe he got the power to make a correct decision!

I'm fine with him having the EM back, as long as they limit the time he can keep each power (sort of like Rogue, minus the "if I touch you, I drain you" quality) to me that'd make an interesting character, a character with limitations. Super Peter with unlimited power has ZERO chance of being an interesting character to me. It's incredible that I liked Peter again the moment they depowered him, so I honestly hope they do the smart thing this time and put an expiration date on his powers.

There is nothing wrong with having some of the characters way stronger then others. Look at any comic book world and there are characters that are almost gods. Look at Reed Richards son. He is as strong as the celestrials. Look at Galacticus. In DC look at Superman with only 1 weakness. Most heroes in the comics are not really that strong. But some are astronomically strong like the Phoenix or even Charles Xavier if he wanted to be. Its not the power of the characters that make the story...It is the story writer.

ITA, given tghe fact that Peter would never abuse his powers because he's just not that type of person so I reallt never saw a problem with him being uber-powerful. He just need more time and training to get a handle on his abilities.

As for abilites I want him to reacquire: healing is a must. I want him to get electricity again since he was quite fond of that one and TK is a must also.

My problem isn't that Peter is going to be irresponsibly using his power, I think we've come to know the character enough to know what drives him, and just what a good caring person he is. But I keep going back to the same point, the hero needs to have some form of challenge for his journey to be interesting. Uber-powerful characters are usually not the main character of their comics, they're peripheral characters who might save the day once in a while, Peter for all intents and purposes is the main character of the show, he needs to have some form of challenge. Absorbing every power in the world forever not only makes the other characters' powers redundant, it makes him a walking deux-ex-machina and an unchallenged and uninteresting hero.

I agree. Except that Superman has more than one "weakness". He has one true vulnerability -- kryptonite. But, he also looses his powers under the effect of a red sun. His true other "weakness" though, is his character (admittedly, some would call this a strength). The drive to be virtuous and act in the interest of others is a classical weakness of Superman. He gets attacked numerous time through the people he has gotten close to. This is also a potent "weapon of mass distraction" which his enemies use to prevent him from effectively fighting them. Of course, there are also a number of villains which have matched Superman in terms of strength and ability throughout his stories.

Even full strength Peter did not have to be a liability. He has had equally strong enemies (Sylar, Arthur). He has a very strong sense of compassion. He has loved ones who are, at least in part, known to his enemies. He feels the need to protect innocents as well.

All of Peter's misadventures with powers may not have been the best writing, but they can all be tracked to story and character, not purely for the purpose of conveniently de-powering him. Just about every character struggled with their emerging powers in Season 1, whether it was acceptance, control, etc. And Peter had the most elusive power of everyone. Also, if Peter were fully powered, he would not have had to make the choice to shoot his father in that way. He would not have had to face powered enemies in such a state. I think his story can still be tied to his growth into the powerful, decisive person we've seen glimpses of as fPeter. But we've always known he had a long journey to get there. Maybe I'm giving the writers too much credit, but that's OK too. If I'm going to watch something, I might as well enjoy it

My only problem with Peter having too many abilities is that it makes him seem like an idiot when he can't get out of a situation, like "why didn't he just teleport!" "if he is so worried about the future why doesn't just use Isaac's ability?" While I want him to be a good oponet for Sylar, I do want some limitation on his EM. He just gets abilities too easily.

Now that being said I don't think this will be a real problem next volume, limitation or not, because I think his time depowered taught him the importance of using his brain and having a plan.

The problem with that is Peters powers have already been drawn out. They cant change them now or in the future they can just rewrite anyone's power and the show will make no sense.

I could see synthetic EM and natural EM being different, because natural EM is just so chaotic- constantly rearraging DNA to the closest Special, always on.

A better reason: I know Arthur said Peter would get his ability back if he was injected and Mo said the formula reacts to a person's unique DNA, but isn't self-casuality a factor? As in your personality and what you need at the moment. Maybe Peter becoming more rational and less ruled by his emotions when he was depowered changed his personality so he can now turn his EM off or on. He would have to make a concious choice what to absorb.

...But I don't think that will happen because it would make me too happy.

I'm pretty sure peter got them all back. watch the episode again, peter kind of spazzes out (sorry, couldn't think of a better word) and you hear a little bit of several sounds that go along with each power, like the mind-power sound matt makes when he reads minds. If peter got matt's power back and matt wasn't anywhere near him I think that means he has his EM back and anything he got before (and like arthur said, he can get his "powers" plural back). getting just flight wouldn't make much sense. like ando showed, you don't get exactly the power you want at that moment when you inject yourself. I think everyone is predisposed to get a particular power based on their personality. Like daphne is an athlete, a runner, so she gets super speed. matt always wants to know what's on other people's minds so he gets mindreading. Tracy is unemotional and cold so she gets freezing. dl was an escape artist and he gets phasing. hiro wants to see the world and escape japan, and he always wants to undo bad choices he made in the past, so he gets time/space travel. ando is always helping other people, being a sidekick, so he gets a power that enhances everyone else's powers. Knox is a rough guy from the streets, so he gets strong off everyone else's fear. Isaac and the african were artists who believed in fate so they can paint the future. arthur is a control freak so he can take other people's powers. you get my point. Anyway, so peter is empathetic and can understand other people, so he gets EM. It's the right power for him.


anyway, I personally never cared that he was "too" powerful. I think it's not really a huge problem. this may be a bad analogy that people are going to scream at me for, but think about the matrix. Neo always kicks ****** and it never gets boring. same with peter. besides he just spent a WHOLE SEASON (pretty much) not being very powerful so we're done with that now, hopefully.

The Matrix analogy isn't bad considering Peter is a hero in the Jesus/Neo mold.

My problem with Peter being uber-powerful is that he doesn't kick ****** when we all know he can. If he did consistently kick ****** I wouldn't have a problem. I think he will in Vol. 4, based on his confident demeanor in the promo.

I mean, seriously, do you HONESTLY want Peter to not have any challenge whatsoever? I mean, what type of stories would they write for him? What type of conflicts would happen to him when he can solve ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING without so much as a thought? And then, if he DOESN'T solve any conflict with full simplicity, people will come here and whine about the writers sucking!
I mean, I can't believe just how people sabotage the show that way, it's a lose-lose situation. If he's impossibly powerful he'll solve anything immediately and be impossible to write for and uninteresting, and if he doesn't solve anything the writers suck because they didn't have him solve anything immediately.

I'm pretty sure Peter got his EM back, but not all the powers that he had attained before. If you notice, his cut hadn't healed. Starting over again is good; it eliminates time travel, that's one less person who can heal,and Peter would probably have to learn how to tap into the powers again.

Yes, yes! While I can understand some of the Peter bashing that goes around, what I don't understand the most is how people have issues with Peter when he possesses superpowers. Viewers berate him for being stupid & indecisive - yet I think it might be appropriate to point out that in an emergency, we might not act in the most rational or easy manner either.

Furthermore, though I acknowledge that it may be me being biased, it's interesting to see someone of Peter's personality own a wide array of abilities, compared to someone a lot more decisive & domineering (on the surface at least) like Nathan.

Personally I believe Peter has his EM back. However, I don't believe he has all the previous powers back. He just happened to receive flight since his brother was there. I don't know about pyrokinesis. He might have absorbed the power, but this is not set in stone. I figure he would, but flying through fire and not getting burned doesn't mean he absorbed pyrokinesis. Finally, others have said Peter doesn't have all his previous powers since his scar hasn't healed (he had regeneration previously thanks to saving Claire). However, future Peter had regeneration and his scar never healed, now did it? NO! Because we saw him with a scar constantly. All in all, I think he has EM, but he doesn't have his former powers (but not just because his scar remains; it's due to other facts/beliefs).

Come on guys, it's an old superhero rule that the villains should be mightier than the heroes or it gets boring. That's why DC comics are so lame (sorry DC fans ) and that's why in the Marvel universe a character like the Sentry doesn't work well.

With this kind of character it's always difficult to create tension, because they simply can overcome anything you throw at them. That's why the writer's isolated Peter's storyline in S2. That's why Neo is sent to the middle of nowhere twice in the Matrix sequels. The writer's sooner or later will run out of excuses why Peter doesn't save the day with one his billions of powers. That's why me and so many others here want his powers to be restrained.

Don't get me wrong: I love Peter, his one of my favourite characters on the show and I also love how has this special potential that even makes him different from all the other evolved humans. I would not have wanted him to get any other power from the serum, cause EM is what suits him best. But I also want good and tense storytelling and an overpowered hero makes that difficult.

Uh right..the show WILL make no sense. Like it makes any sense now.


I'm sorry but any real writer knows that Peter, a character who can absorb anyone's ability, can never be "drawn out" as unlimited possibilities actually means something to someone who has an imagination.

I also think he got his EM back, and without Hiro's power there will be alot less problems! I think the curious thing would be if Peter gets Ando's power..could he use it on himself?

Yes, that's my main concern. I like a gentle-natured character with an extremely powerful ability which he won't willingly abuse. But the problem is, and we've seen this, that Peter is damn hard to write. There are situations in every episode where Peter does this but could easily have done that, or that, OR that, or maybe even that, and by not doing all of those, he keeps appearing like a dunderhead.

Most of us, even those who really thought that Peter was a dunderhead and were being quite vociferous about this, liked him while he was powerless, because he was heroic. From a storytelling point of view, I can't understand why the show creates such a powerful character who constantly has to be neutered (by inability in season 1, by amnesia in season 2, by being trapped in another's body AND loss of all powers in volume three, and now they're giving him back his powers just like that (reset or no)? I still think we might see a scene next episode in which Peter realises that his powers don't work quite the way they used to, because of the way the formula works.

I agree that he most likely got his EM back fully. Like one poster said, I think his mind spazzing out a bit after the injection was the sign of this. I just think that this time Peter will start gaining much better control of his abilities and will eventually get to the point where they don't take such a toll on him.

I have no issue with his ability overall. I just feel that it would have been better if the progression of him learning to use it and gaining others' powers would have been much slower. Seriously, by the end of Season 1 alone, he pretty much had everything he would ever need (healing, flight, TK, invis), and he gained even more in the second season. I understand the circumstances though. Originally, the cast was supposed to be ever-changing each season, so I'm sure the writers just figured they might as well advance Peter's abilities as far as they could go. By the time they realized that the cast would stay the same, they probably already had problems with how to deal with Peter's numerous abilities. Thus, they resorted to things like him losing his memory in Season 2 and him losing his ability in Season 3.

If they could go back and do it over again with the knowledge that Peter was in it for the long haul, I'm sure they would have drastically slowed how quickly Peter learned to absorb and use others' abilities.

You hit the nail on the head.



That was my impression as well.

peter didn't regain all of his abilities. that makes absoultely no sense; the logic behind that idea is flawed. his primary ability is EM, all the others he absorbed are secondary. it would be completely different if his abilities were SUPRESSED (like with the haitian or the eclipse) but his abilities were completely LOST. here's an analogy for those who can't seem to grasp this:

you are playing a video game. if you pause the game, you can't play it until you unpause it. then you can pick up where you left off. but if you turn off the game, you can't play it until it is turned on again.. and you have to start over from the very beginning (unless you saved, but in real life there are no save points).

all right, all right, I get that you can't have peter be too powerful for the whole show b/c it will ruin the plot and whatnot. But can't we PLEASE have him be super powerful for a little while? Even when he had all his powers he never exactly overpowered anyone. Think about it...the Sylar duels were all a draw in S1 and in S2 he was being misled by Adam so he changed his mind about overpowering people, then in S3 he got the hunger and then he lost his powers...so he's never actually been too powerful so far..I guess I'm still waiting for him to fulfill his potential...again to carry on with the Matrix analogy we've never seen that level of kick ****** from Peter yet (picture Neo surrounded by approximately 100 Agent Smith's, beating all of them and then flying away) so I am hoping it happens in volume 4.

Oh, and also, another problem with him losing his old powers is that he may not be able to get them all back and they were cool powers. Like what about the invisibility, that was awesome and how's he going to get that back?

My problem isn't him being kick ******, I would love to finally see that come to fruition (let's face it: in S1 he's understandably overwhelmed, in S2 he has amnesia, in S3 he gets 'the hunger" and then Papa Petrelli's hug of dooooom.)

Its just that if he has a lot of abilities he will look like a ****** when he can't get out of a situation. Then all we'll hear on the boards is "why didn't he teleport! Why didn't he just do this or that!" The writers need to be creative and clever enough to avoid these situations and it will be okay. (I hate to be a hater, but cleverness and creativity has kind of been lacking...)

Maybe the spazzing was just a way to show that he was getting his EM power back, and one can say he was absorbing the powers of the people around him. Like previous posters have said, his father told him that, because his father had all his powers, if he got his EM back via the formula, he can absorb all his powers back from his father. If he had gotten his absorbed powers back, he could of stopped time/teleport. He should of healed from his cut, etc.
So I think he just got his EM back, nad mimicked Nathan's powers, and probably the other guy.

Im glad that Peter got his powers back, because who's going to stop Sylar in Fugitives?

I think Peter also absorbed Mohinder's power. He smashed through the wall using the enhanced strength, otherwise Nathan could have just saved himself. Awesome power for him to have! Can someone just check if he smashed through a wall to confirm this?

There's a difference between the character being hard to write, and the writers not writing the character well.




I thought he just flew through the window.

Were there any windows in the lab?

I have to disagree here. Having him regain all his powers makes just as much sense as him starting over from scratch. Here's one way you could explain it:
Peter's DNA alters itself when absorbing abilities, Arthur's ability doesn't alter the DNA for abilities but "unmanifests" the abilities in a way that leaves the body thinking it is still manifested so it wont remanifest on its own, Peter injects himself which remanifests all the abilities collected in his DNA. In fact in this example it would make sense if Peter's entire collection was now as "primary" as the empathic mimicry.
I'm not saying this is what happened or even that Peter regained all of his abilities but Arthur saying "I leave nothing behind" is not a detailed description of what the formula does and does not do.