If you remember back to the first couple episodes of Season 3, Sylar had Elle pinned on the ground and tells her she more than anyone else is to blame for how he is.

At the time, that little piece of information was confusing for most of us.

Then, a few episodes later, we went back in time 6 months to when Sylar had just killed the original telekinetic, Brian Davis. He was struggling with the guilt of his recent actions -- remember the suicide attempt Elle ended?

We all know how this played out, Elle and HRG played around with Sylar (I forget the kids name, the goth-looking dude with the glass popping power.) and set him down the path to doing devilry.

So, why is this episode set 3 years ago?

Is it too much to ask for a little consistency?


(If I am incorrect about any of the timeline, I apologize.)

no, you are 100% correct... S3 had proper flashbacks (6 months ago, 1 year ago) where S4 has completely screwed up the amount of time passed.


It would have made way more sense for it to have taken a year for Peter to get this into being an EMT, for Sylar to emerge in Matt, for Matt to have a nice home life and career with Janice again, for Nathan to start noticing his powers, etc...

The biggest mistake was setting the start of this year only a few months after the finale.

Not only that - they said in this episode that no one knows what Sylar looks like???

Hello - didn't HRG help Elle become his girlfriend before he even took his forst power? Wouldnt she know what he looks like , or HRG for that matter.

I was under the impression that they thought Sylar at the time was a different person to Gabriel.

well thats just silly, they had undercover vans outside his apartment, they knew where he worked and elle had dinner dates with him. for hrg to say he didnt know what he looked like is just stupid.
and didnt elle have a hidden camera on her when he was at sylars place?

but was gabriel going by sylar then? i thought he didnt start going by sylar until after he killed chandra suresh.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that they only knew him as Gabriel Gray, and didn't make the connection until later.

I don't understand how they couldn't make the connection when Gabriel Gray's signature move is slicing open the head (remember when Elle brought in that emo special that blows up glass). So if the new killer named Sylar is slicing heads too, wouldn't anyone make that connection?!

I don't know, I just thought it was really stupid for Noah to say nobody knew what Sylar looked like..but then again, that would make Noah/Eden etc stupid for half of Season 1...for not knowing who Sylar is.

Wait, we now have three different Sylars running around on the show which one are we talking about?

Present Sylar, Past Sylar or the Past Pluperfect Sylar?

He could have been lying you know. "Oh hey, btw, its all my fault that this crazed super powered serial killer is on this murderous rampage. I could have stopped him when I had the chance or heck I could have helped him, but instead I am responsible for Sylar. You still want to give me a motel key and do it?". Noah lies, its what he does best.

Unless I'm mistaken I don't think they are after anyone in particular. He only has that painting of a cheerleader lying in a pool of her blood to go by and is looking to Isaac to give him more clues, he doesn't know it is Sylar who is going to attack Claire.

I could be mistaken though as it has been a while since I last saw Season 1.