Why is he helping the government capture super humans?
Discuss.

because it's all he knows

His excuse for everything he does, to protect his family, especially Claire!

He's morally gray. And I wouldn't be surprised if he was blackmailed into working for the feds as well... especially because of Claire.

Noah has always believed that the world has needed protecting from the dangerous specials. There's not another, more selective round-up team for him to join, so he joins this one. Maybe he figures they'll screen the harmless ones out later. Either way, the really dangerous ones are being taken off the street. He's making the world a better place (in his own eyes).

Well he spent the last 17 years bagging and tagging specials so it's not a leap to believe that he would agree with keeping them confined and away from the general public.

Its pretty cool how that first future we saw seems to be coming true in a way. About HRG i could see it being any of the reasons above.Maybe hes just working for the feds to further his own agenda.

I'm guessing he's eventually going to realize that what he's doing is wrong. Maybe when innocent people start getting killed.

That'll lead him to become the Noah we saw in FYG, protecting and hiding the specials.

But if he knows the difference between who is good and who isn't then why did he take down Peter?

I was about to say exactly this, but part of me would like to think that he's working for them just to try and take them down from the inside. That would be a very Noah thing to do.

I think it has something to do with Claire ultimately, Nathan clearly wants her out of harms way so he can utilise Noah's expertise on how to capture people with abilities and perhaps the deal for that to happen was to protect his Claire Bear

Double agent. I'm calling it now. (Think about what he was doing in Five Years Gone...)

Because, Tommy Lee Jones wasn't available? I keed.

Doesn't matter what or who he was then... the future was changed.

At least his "protecting the family" excuse is running thin. Sandra and Lyle are pretty much nonexistent until someone decides to stop by good ol' Costa Verde. I hope the specials get a hold of him once the plane is down and have a chat, especially Matt, Mohinder, and Peter.

I wanted Claire to tase him on the plane.

I wanted her to give him a blood transfusion and throw him off the plane. Over land. I don't care what his agenda is. The sneaky b******d needs a lesson.

I think Bennet just wants to capture Sylar to keep Claire and his family safe. Though the "protect my family" schtick is getting old. I am hoping there is more to it than just that.

Even I hated his character in this episode because it showed that after so many years his stubborness is still there and he doesn't do anything against it, it might be the case that he and Angela are pulling off their own thing by letting Nathan believe that they are on his side only so they can take him out from the inside.

The reason why I believe this is because I think that if HRG would have to choose between Angela and Nathan he would rather go with Angela and that for many reasons.

I think Noah's first priority is to keep Claire safe, and helping Nathan was part of the deal to keep Claire away from Nathan's work. And also, Noah knows Sylar's out there and we know how much Noah wants him dead. Noah probably sees Nathan's team as a way of taking down Sylar.

And yeah, seeing Noah help take down good guys was a surprise to me too. I don't think he's totally sided with them, though. And now that Claire's seen him, things'll certainly shake up.

That was my first thought, he's using Nathan's plans to segregate to bring them together for his purposes.



But he hasn't, and the round up IS happening, and it would stand to reason that he'd follow the same path this time as he did that one.

This is exactly what I was thinking. I just didn't want another "Daddy issues" scene to erupt in the middle of the great escape.

I Love Noah with a capital L, but I think he's a member of Nathan's take-down team because he thinks it's the right thing to do. For now. He knows he has to take down some good guys in order to get to the bad guys, and he's willing to do it. I'm reminded of the reason he went back to Primatech after the villains escape. He told Claire something along the lines of "I'm one of the only people who knows enough to stop them." I think it's even more true now, since Primatech and Pinehearst have both burned. Noah is likely the only person still alive who has any experience finding and trapping specials. I bet he's not only a member of the take-down team, but that he's leading it.

I think he just wants to protect Claire. He probably made a deal with Nathan of some sort. He helps Nathan take down the others, Nathan leaves Claire alone. I also think that's why Nathan didn't want Claire to be on the plane and spared her. HRG's obviously keeping up with his end of the bargain, so why should Nathan break his?

This and Sylar is out there.

Considering the title A Clear and Present Danger be imaginitive a bit and think HRG in place of Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan who gets suck into the world of intrigue by a terrorist that hurt his girls and by the CIA who sees talent in him.

Yes. Because copying a best selling novel (for the record, you're thinking of a completely different novel- Ryan wasn't even in CPD, at least in novel form) is so imaginative.

When I was watching the episode, I was thinking, "please don't let that really be HRG!" So maybe it isn't...
This probably isn't right, but maybe the HRG we're seeing is an illusion or a shapeshifter. Just throwing that possibility out there.

naw its HRG, its very simple, like he has always said I do what i do to keep my family safe.

Nathan offered the job to HRG, "look noah, i need someone like you to bag and tag, in return i spare claire from the prison camps"

HRG "you better not betray me petrelli"

nathan "is it a deal?"

HRG "anything to keep my claire bear safe"

and thats how come he is apart of DSHI (Department of Super Human Inprisonment)

So do we think he's head of DSHI-bag operations?

I wouldn't say he's the head of bag operations, as Nathan already knows he is too unreliable due to the claire facter, but he probably is in charge of training, and facilitatiing their transfers to prison.

Personally, yes. I absolutely do think he's running everything. I don't think he's making the choice of targets, but everything else I think he's in charge of.

Noah was most likely brought in by Nathan due to his bag-and-tag experience. With the trade of keeping Claire out of the operation, HRG was to work for Nathan with the DSHI. It's clear that the Hunter is the head of the DHSI. HRG may have been recruited later on to train the n00bs.

*evil snicker*

so i suppose we all agree to use my DSHI credentials as the official defact name of the bag and tag ops for the US government until we get an official agency on screen?

Snickers

I know what DSHI stands for (in this thread, at least), but I keep reading it as another somewhat derogatory word that typically precedes the word "bag," which is making this funny for me.

I still think that Noah is acting as a double-agent who will eventually wind up being one of the "good guys" who helps to dismantle Nathan's regime. What better a way to bring down a regime than from the inside out?

ETA:
Just remembered the details. Ryan was in the story, so I'm sorry for being mistaken about that part. You were still thinking about a completely different novel though. (Patriot Games if I'm not mistaken.)

That was my first idea.

That, or protecting Claire again...

"..but Clair, I did it to protect you, to protect this family"

And that bit will only work for soo long,

Sure it's justification for HRG

but his justification only hurts his daughter even more.

eventually he will understand that his daughter will not allow this bag and tag ops and he will have to again flip sides.

He really didn't needed to protect claire since Nathan and Angela wanted to keep her out of there to say the least.
Angela would also do whatever possible to keep peter and claire out of nathans madness for sure so in my opinion she doesn't even know yet that nathan got peter bag and tagged.

I'm kinda sure she will majorly ****** about this and I can't wait to see her bring it against nathan soon.

Sylar really isn't a big threat to Claire anymore. He certainly wouldn't bother going out of his way to harm her since he already has her power. Neither does she pose much of a threat to him, or no more so than any seventeen year old who wants to shoot him. Sylar is a huge threat to Angela and Nathan however, which is why they want him dead. Noah hates Sylar and wants revenge for all he's put his family through. Noah probably sees himself as enough of a humanitarian not to want Sylar running around murdering other specials, or other specials running loose doing harm to non-specials- which is how he is justifying his current actions to himself. I think these goals are why he's alligned himself once more with Nathan and Angela. Why Noah wasn't there to take down Sylar is a huge question mark. He'd be all about following Nathan's orders and shooting Sylar like Old Yeller.

I'm thinking Nathan doesn't have as much control over what is happening as he thinks he has. Maybe the Powers That Be are using Nathan too. He can be their political fall-guy when one is needed. That would explain why HRG wasn't there, why Sylar didn't get the bullet but the same take-down as the masses (with a few more guys on hand to do it.) Maybe the Powers think Sylar is too valuable to let Nathan call the shots. Sylar obviously would be a tremendous weapon were he to be controlled successfully. In Star Wars terms, he'd be the one for the Emperor to clone for the clone army. He'd also be the most interesting of all specials to study. I'm looking forward to seeing where they take the show this season.

^ Responding to Raekon:

Nathan told Angela that he wanted Claire out of the way when they "take down Peter and Parkman." So she knew that a Peter bag-n-tag was planned. I agree with the rest though--neither of them actually wanted Claire involved. I can't see Nathan threatening to imprison Claire unless HRG agrees to help, even as a bluff.

Claire is almost 18, the "FAMILY FAMILY FAMILY!>8O" excuse is really starting to look like lazy witting. Looks like when it comes right down to it, Noah has no spine. If he rely wants to protect his family he needs to stand up to all these shady groups and say "Leave us alone, I'm trained to kill. Leave us alone, and I'll leave you alone."


At this point his character irritates me and is a waste of screen time.

Really? I feel sorry for you. My family would literally do anything for each other. Noah's mantra is completely understandable.


If you know about the existence of this type of group, the "leave us alone and I'll leave you alone" idea doesn't work. You're with them, or you're, at best, captured.
And the fact that he's trained to kill is, essentially, meaningless. He's still 1 man, no matter how BA he may be. They have dozens, hundreds, of people to throw at him.

Noah has proven that he has and will do absolutely ANYTHING to protect Claire. He'll do that whether she's 18 or 38.

I don't think that is what he's doing now, exactly, (or at least not directly) because I don't think Claire was ever meant to be endangered by Nathan's scheme. I can't believe Nathan is dumb enough to threaten Claire's safety to blackmail Noah into assisting. Why make an enemy of Noah, who would hold a huge grudge forever against anyone who threatened Claire? He might be a Senator; but all he can do is fly. Peter already shot him once. I'll bet the farm HRG is a better shot than Peter.

No, far more politically savvy to swear that Claire is exempt, offer Noah a fat paycheck, and appeal to the daddy in Noah by pointing out how capturing the other specials and segregating them from the rest of society- is helping to protect Claire and society in general. It's not hard to justify either, as even the most well meaning specials can cause death and destruction, like Maya for example, or Peter nearly blowing up New York City.

I don't think Noah would need much convincing that Nathan's plan is a good idea. He's seen the absolute worst of specials. He's always believed in the need to take those extreme measures to keep specials in check. I do think this is another opportunity for him at getting close enough to Sylar to kill him. I don't imagine anyone, even Claire, Angela, and Nathan, want Sylar dead as much as Noah does. That has more to do with avenging Claire than protecting her or society. As I said, Sylar isn't much of a threat to Claire anymore. Because of her ability and the fact he already has hers, she's the one person on earth who is safest from Sylar.

I'm glad that somebody threw this joke in because it describes exactly what the volume is going to feel like. Only this time, their not running because they killed Nathans wife or something, their running because of their abilities and I don't think Tommy would be interested. So again HE HE HE HE

I posted elsewhere about this already.
Baiscly, I do not believe that Noah is a badguy gathering up those with abilities.
Nathan has something over Noah's head, and its not Claire. Noah would probably be rounded up himself even though he is not a special. The Company itself put Noah in a level 5 cell.

Noah has no reason to take down all the specials.
He's just biding his time until he can start hiding them.
Noah can be patient.

He is working for them because he will do whatever it takes to keep himself and his family safe and whatever he does, he does in their interest no matter who else gets hurt. Think back to Five years gone when after finding out Hiro was the one who saved Claire he still stabbed him in the back and led them right into a trap.

No reason at all. After all, he hasn't seen that these people can be dangerous in any way. He has absolutely no reason to distrust them.

In the only future we've seen, which is, admittedly, not entirely relevant any more, he was shown to be working under the table for the government- he hid the innocent, non-dangerous, Specials, and turned in the rest.
I see no reason to believe he's going to be operating under a different concept now. Noah is awesome, but he is not and has never been a hero.

So, if HRG is Morally Gray, that must make him Sylar's dad!

Thank you. Thank you. I'll be here all week.

I've always thought that protecting the family isn't the only thing keeping Noah going (even though he keeps saying that).. I think in the larger picture, he believes that the planet and humanity isn't safe with all the dangerous specials running around who can (and many would) use their powers for their own gain... (which is, afterall, probably why he even joined the Company in the first place...)

As for why he was agreeing to round up those he knew to be too ethical to use their powers for evil, such as Peter, it's because he knows that if people like Peter would surely jump in and form some sort of resistant against them if they ever hear of the black-ops hunting program (and their fears would be right, given how Peter and Hiro acted in 5YG)... So in order to ensure the effort to keep the world safe from the dangerous criminals and from those who accidentally destroy it would go smoothly, it would be necessary to take out the "good guys" too so that they won't be fightling against them... Noah has always looks to me to be a "the end justify the means" person to agree with such a scheme...