a pair o' ducks

I am a freak for time travel shows and movies. I don't know what it is about them, but when time travel is involved, I almost always have to see it. This kind of weakness has forced me to view movies such as "The Butterfly Effect", "The Butterfly Effect II" and "Millennium". So I was really excited about last night's "Heroes." The teasers all week promised a "what if" style of episode, that is, what if the explosion in New York wasn't stopped. What if the bad guy doesn't get caught. In essence, what if Isaac Mendez's visions come true. And it was everything I had hoped it to be.

Basic premise is, Hiro found his sword, grabbed Ando and transported both of them 5 years in the future. New York has been devestated. Nathan Petrelli is the Prez. Hiro heads to Isaac Mendez's studio not knowing that just before he transported, Sylar opened Isaac's head and had a little snack. While in Isaac's studio, Hiro runs into....Hiro.

WARNING: If you TIVOed this, or if you watch it Fridays on SciFi network, don't read any further.

Most time travel stuff deals with people from the future heading into the past. These actions can create a paradox. The problem comes because one never really knows what actions lead to other actions, which lead to other actions which lead...you get the picture. It is called the butterfly effect (not the movie). It is the notion that a butterfly beats it's wings in China, causing air
movement. This air movement causes some other action, which cause something else to occur, and the next thing you know, you have a monsoon in Hawaii.

So here is my paradox for this time travel adventure that I am guessing will never be answered, and that the writers are hoping doesn't get brought up much (yeah, like geeks don't watch this show. puuuuhleeeeeze). Ok, so future Hiro recounts his battle with Sylar, and how Sylar didn't die because he had the cheerleader's regenerative powers. But as we know the Claire was alive and well and working in a diner in future-Hiro's timeline (at least until Sylar - in the guise of President Nathan Petrelli - kills her). That means that Sylar did not kill the cheerleader in the past, and did not have her regenerative powers during his battle with future-Hiro. So in the battle with future-Hiro, Sylar should have died. But he didn't because he had killed the cheerleader and had her powers, but he didn't kill the cheerleader and take her powers because past-Hiro caused Peter to save her, thereby denying Sylar her powers, but he had her powers because future-Hiro could not kill him.

See how that all works into a nastly little loop? That is the paradox created when the cheerleader did not die. So by saving the cheerleader, it should have allowed future-Hiro to kill Sylar. Still would not have saved the world because it was Peter that destroyed New York and not Sylar. But that is something different completely (probably, future-Hiro did not know it was Peter and not Sylar that was the destroyer).



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