Heroes: The Five Years Gone route

[Joe Washington]

Temis the Vorta: so you don't see Peter ending up with anyone in the end of the Five Years Gone version of Heroes in a romantic way? Is he destined to be a loner after Simone's death?

And what do you think of this idea: what if while the heroes are struggling to have normal lives in Season 2, the Founders of the Company are plotting to unleash the Shanti virus onto most of their kind. The virus would kill them but it will also eliminate all signs of their abilities so the government wouldn't know that they were metahuman when they are found. The Founders want to do this because the Kirby Plaza incident has already caught the eye of the government including Sylar's murders and some of the Company's activities that weren't coverd up very well. The Founders feel the time has come for to eliminate the source of the problem to prevent their exposure to the public. Of course, each of the Founders would be given a cure to the virus to protect themselves from its deadly effects.

Angela is aganist this plan, finding it too unsettling even to her taste so the Founders replace her as the head of the company after Linderman's death and puts Bob in charge instead. Bob's first order of business would be to assign his daughter Elle the lead in the search for the Invisible Man Claude. Claude is the only one who knows where the source of the Shanti virus is since he was the one who hid it from the Company which he suspect had dark intentions for it (remember the flashback of HRG and Claude on the bridge in Company Man). We won't know until mid-season that the source of the Shanti virus is Maya, the troubled sister of Alejandro who's friends with Peter in Season 2. Alejandro and Peter met each other in the paramedic training they are attending. Maya told her brother that she came to New York to see him but Alejandro senses that she ran away from Mexico because she's in serious trouble.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

so you don't see Peter ending up with anyone in the end of the Five Years Gone version of Heroes in a romantic way?

The show never trotted out any girl who I thought had adequate chemistry with Peter. Except for Claire, but ugh we shouldn't go there. And Elle, which was frakked up in a completely different way.

Okay, fine. He gets obsessed with Elle. It's the sicko dominatrix thing. We have to face facts, Peter has a masochistic streak a mile wide. Heroes doesn't have to go the cable TV route, but it needed to be less shy about its characters' foibles.

And what do you think of this idea: what if while the heroes are struggling to have normal lives in Season 2, the Founders of the Company are plotting to unleash the Shanti virus onto most of their kind. The virus would kill them but it will also eliminate all signs of their abilities so the government wouldn't know that they were metahuman when they are found. The Founders want to do this because the Kirby Plaza incident has already caught the eye of the government including Sylar's murders and some of the Company's activities that weren't coverd up very well. The Founders feel the time has come for to eliminate the source of the problem to prevent their exposure to the public. Of course, each of the Founders would be given a cure to the virus to protect themselves from its deadly effects.

I like!!! It makes good sense for the Founders to want to do that, and it will focus the drama on just the few family & friends who retain their powers, and thereby make them seem more special.

Alejandro and Peter met each other in the paramedic training they are attending.

That's a good idea, too. Let's assume Peter has gotten healing power somehow. Why wouldn't another metahuman with the same power have the same notion about a good career move. It would be fun to see two meta's who are hiding their abilities from each other.

 

[Joe Washington]

And I'm thinking the Shanti outbreak would be the thing that convinces Nathan to go to the President to authorize a hunt for potentially dangerous metahumans since it was metahumans like the Founders who caused such a mess of dead bodies.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Or the Shanti virus doesn't kill them but just depowers them. Nathan's motive should be some catastrophe that is caused by well-meaning meta's who simply can't control their powers like they arrogantly think they can. That's the theme of the show - that humans cannot responsibly control godlike powers.

 

[Joe Washington]

Temis the Vorta: What if Peter and the others try to stop the Shanti outbreak with their powers by the end of Season 2 but their way just creates a bigger mess of the situation? Like Peter suffering another explosive power overload only Nathan isn't there to stop him. Or maybe this is when Arthur Petrelli comes out of the shadows and ends up manipulating the situation into becoming the catastrophe that kills a number of innocent people because he knows that it will result in the government seeking out and hunting down the metahumans with Nathan's help making the frightened metahumans on the run ripe for his picking.

I'm also thinking Sylar shouldn't be around for an almost entirety of Season 2. Instead, he makes a surprise return in the Season 2 finale as Arthur's right-hand man. We would have to wait until Season 3 for an explanation over how he went from being stabbed to death in the Season 1 finale to being the second-in-command of Nathan and Peter's presumed dead father.

Maybe Arthur uses Sylar to kill the rest of the Founders except Angela who ends up escaping somehow. Then Arthur launches a takeover of the Company. Elle survives the bloody takeover on Arthur's order since he believes she could be an asset to his plan. He partners her up with Sylar so he can keep a close eye on her. Sylar and Elle develop a sick, twisted romantic connection which stirs up the jealousy of Candice. Candice has been acting as Arthur's double agent after Linderman was killed and was waiting for Arthur to take over the Company so his plan can really begin and she can spend some more quality time with Sylar who's been acting as Arthur's go-between in the time before his return to the land of the living. Candice has fallen for Sylar but now has to play real dirty to kick Elle out of the way as a rival for Sylar's affections. And Elle, as she grows increasingly close to Sylar, isn't going to let him go without a fight.

What do you think of that?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

What if Peter and the others try to stop the Shanti outbreak with their powers by the end of Season 2 but their way just creates a bigger mess of the situation?

That could work.

I'm also thinking Sylar shouldn't be around for an almost entirety of Season 2. Instead, he makes a surprise return in the Season 2 finale as Arthur's right-hand man.

Yes - rather than kill Sylar, just have him drop from sight for long periods of time. The only way he'd be working for Arthur is if he were actually working for himself, and that makes sense only if Arthur actually is his father, and is testing Gabe to see if he has what it takes to take over the "empire" one day.

Nathan and Peter would also be candidates but both are too alienated and skeptical of Daddy so maybe Gabe is the better option. Being a Petrelli fulfills his need to be "special." Otherwise, he'd be nothing but resentful towards the whole family and would attack them, not cooperate.

 

[Snaploud]

so you don't see Peter ending up with anyone in the end of the Five Years Gone version of Heroes in a romantic way?

The show never trotted out any girl who I thought had adequate chemistry with Peter. Except for Claire, but ugh we shouldn't go there.

It was clear they had chemistry prior to the "they're related" plot-line. Personally, I could have done without the "Claire is Nathan's daughter plotline." It's not like they ever really bothered to explore a relationship with Claire and Nathan. A romance with Peter would have given her a more interesting role on the show (couldn't hurt, anyway).

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I liked what they did with Nathan and Claire in Mexico, etc. that long-delayed relationship between a grown man and his teenage daughter, who already has another "Dad," is interesting and unusual territory to explore, and I wouldn't sacrifice it for Yet Another Romantic Entanglement. I also like Peter and Claire as uncle and niece (albeit with an age gap that makes them more sibling-like) better than I would as a romantic couple. Basically, I'm just skeptical about TV romances because 90% of the time, they're botched and I want them to just go away.

 

[Snaploud]

^I don't think the writers could have stopped themselves from giving Claire romantic partners. They might as well have paired her with Peter. Claire had enough daddy-issues with HRG (no need for Nathan).

 

[Joe Washington]

Temis the Vorta: do you see a Buffy/Spike relationship happening between Peter and Elle in the Five Years Gone version of Heroes? They have a burning hatred for each other but they can't seem to get themselves out from under each other's skin when it comes to the sexual attraction between them. The relationship is almost self-destructive.

I'm also thinking there should be a storyline for Claire's brother Lyle like maybe he meets a metahuman in the high school he and Claire goes to after the Benetts relocate while hiding from the Company. The more he gets to know about what means to be a metahuman beyond what little his sister said to him about it, the more passionate he becomes for the metahumans' plight when fearing for the hatred for people unlike them. Somewhere along the way, Lyle gets involved in the Shanti outbreak crisis and gets killed. Lyle's death creates a serious rift between Noah and his wife and Noah ends up leaving home to give his wife space and to take on the fight aganist the Company personally. Lyle's death also affects Claire deeply, making her quit trying to live a normal life and become more involved with her ability and how to use it for the public good. Maybe it's her attempts of doing that which inspires a group of people to create a cult around her. What do you think?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Temis the Vorta: do you see a Buffy/Spike relationship happening between Peter and Elle in the Five Years Gone version of Heroes? They have a burning hatred for each other but they can't seem to get themselves out from under each other's skin when it comes to the sexual attraction between them. The relationship is almost self-destructive.

Works for me. And poor Lyle needed some kind of plotline - I felt sorry for him, ignored like that!

 

[Joe Washington]

Temis the Vorta: Do you think Peter, taken over by the insanity caused by Sylar's ability, would kill his own father at the end of Season 3 to stop him without Sylar being there to help him? How would it affect him from that point on?

I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before a rift develops between Peter and Noah during their partnership when their approaches to protecting the metahumans begin to differ dramatically.

And I'm thinking the Peter/Elle affair should happen in Season 4 because Elle would feel like her needs aren't being met with Sylar being consumed with running the Company and the distance between them widens further when Sylar begins to work with Nathan Petrelli and submits himself to Mohinder's formula that suppresses the metahuman gene. Peter would be struggling with his hatred towards Nathan and aching for an outlet to the crap he's going through. Elle would end the affair when Sylar falls off the wagon and decides to take Nathan's political power and life for himself. Elle is happy to see the Sylar he has fallen in love return. Obviously, she keeps her affair with Peter a secret from him.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I think that even without Sylar-insanity, Peter could have ended up killing his dad. Guy was evil.

 

[Joe Washington]

Temis the Vorta: I just got an idea. What about instead of Peter falling for Nikki, he falls for Nikki's alter ego Jessica? It would happen like this: Nikki dies in the end of Season 2, sacrificing her life to save her son from the Shanti outbreak. After Arthur Petrelli takes over the Company, he gets Nikki's body shipped to Company headquarters as a part of some mysterious plan of his. It is only after Candice gets killed by Sylar who takes her shapeshifting ability, that we find out what that plan is. Arthur took Nikki's body so he can resurrect her one day as Candice's potential replacement and her superhuman strength makes her a formidable force which Arthur intends to use to his advantage. When Arthur resurrects Nikki somehow, the process of resurrection destroys Nikki's consciousness and leaves only the Jessica persona in Nikki's body. So Jessica joins Arthur's Company but nearing the end of Season 3, she switches sides going over to Peter's group when she feels she needs a change after having enough of the craziness of Arthur Petrelli and Sylar. For the rest of the series, Jessica is trying to adjust to being her own 24/7 person with Nikki no longer in the mix while dealing with Nikki's son Micah who can't help seeing her mother in her and her developing relationship with Peter. We also get to see her jealous when she learns about the affair between Peter and Elle in Season 4.

Jessica is an interesting character with an element of unpredictability.

 

[Aragorn]

Jessica no longer exists. They renamed her Barbara for no real reason, remember?

 

[Joe Washington]

This is an alternate version of Heroes. Not the original. There is no Tracy Strauss or any other alternate personality of Nikki's.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

United States of Ali Larter.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Temis the Vorta: I just got an idea. What about instead of Peter falling for Nikki, he falls for Nikki's alter ego Jessica?

Either way, the problem remains that the characters are played by non-actress Ali Larter. Recast the role with someone like, say, Kristin Bell, and you might have something there.