Hi new to the site but not to the show, I have been a loyal view since the begining. One thing has been racking around in my head for the past week since the season premiere, Are Samuel and his family going to be heroes in the sense that whatever he has planned going to benefit the world or become a villian and satisfy his own personal agenda that only benefits himself and leaves disaster in his wake. Let me know what you think.

It's up in the air right now. The show hasn't indicated for certain which side the carnival will come down on.

However, I'm getting a distinctly Linderman-esque vibe off Samuel. I think I'm safe saying the Carnival will, ultimately, be villainous.

When the guy in charge of the carnival blithely interferes in the flow of time without any regard to what it might do, right after being told how BAD the results may be, that is NOT the action of a good person. It appears, so far, that the rest of the carnival people are more or less neutral, but a bad leader that threatens/hurts his own people to get what he wants spells trouble down the line.

Judging by Tim Kring's comments, I'd say that Samuel is this season's "Big Bad", but I'd say that Lydia (tattoos) and Edgar (knives) show some signs of making a Heel Face Turn at some point.

Samuel's talk of "family" and bringing them together seems, on the surface, not villainous. However, we don't know why he wants to, what the end is. That's an unknown that could very well turn out to be villainous. Assuming the end is heroic, I think it depends on how he's willing to do so, to what extent he's willing to do so, etc. Would the end justify the means, for example?

Otherwise, I'd say that a lot of it depends on the rest of them. Edgar, for example, doesn't seem all that loyal to Samuel, and vice versa. Samuel had to threaten him to get him to do what he wanted and we saw Samuel slap Edgar in the GN. We don't really know about Lydia's loyalty, yet. Given the last GN, I'd say that Edgar's far more loyal to Lydia, and Lydia and Edgar obviously have their own history. So... in typical Heroes fashion, I'm expecting - at least hoping - that there will much diversity from one to the next. That it's not a simple matter of "heroes" vs "villains".

I love Samuel. His character is amazing and his acting brilliant. I hope the writers develop his character in to more than just the typical bad guy schtick. The scene where in anger he destroys the cop precinct out of revenge for a fallen brother (mutant? not sure what to call them) was amazing. For me that was the best scene of the season so far.