Re: the timeline for Sylar taking over Nathan's role, that's a fun bit of guesswork, because how do we actually know Candace was Candace when last seen? Because, consider: Future!Hiro names DL, Candace and Molly Walker as three people he brought to Bennet for safety. DL and Candace BOTH were definitely killed by Sylar. However, why would Candace need Hiro or Bennet to hide to begin with? She doesn't need anyone. She could be anyone. So "Candace" could already have been Sylar, out accumulating more victims before he had Matt delivering them to him free of charge.
(Sidenote: a lot of people during the first broadcast missed what kind of deal Matt and Bennet struck, i.e. that Bennet could keep the "harmless" specials but would deliver all the "dangerous" ones.)
My own guess as to the when and how etc. was firstly that Nathan didn't become elected directly (even with an instant boost of popularity post explosion, rising from junior Congressman to President in five years is a bit too much), but that he was someone's Vice President and that that President then died; also that Sylar didn't take over while Nathan was still in Congress (can't see Sylar doing Congress work), but did take over shortly before Nathan went from VP to President (simply because of the security question; the one for a President is so tight that he'd hardly get Nathan alone in order to make the switch). Which, yes, means real!Nathan would have been culpable for the explosion cover-up (naming Sylar instead of Peter), would have been part of the legislation afterwards (called the Linderman bill, after all), and would have been part of the administration proposing the initial round-up. Which yes, all ties with the earlier tidbits you name; 5YG is the worst extreme for most characters (not Bennet, but most of the others), and that was Nathan's worst.
I hadn't been spoiled, but cadesama when watching the trailer for this episode, which showed "Nathan" telling Claire "I'm the most special person there is" AND with Sylar's President Petrelli painting in mind predicted that Sylar would be Nathan via Candace's powers, because that statement was pure Sylar, not Nathan. (Who has an ego, but not that particular kind.) So I wondered whether she was right; what settled it for me before the big reveal was "Nathan" using the touching for Mohinder. Because being obsessed with Mohinder is Sylar's thing, not Nathan's, and Nathan uses that kind of body language only for family members (and Hiro).
Peter saw what his brother did with power and lost that aspect to his idealism, weirdly discovering Natahn was dead brought him back to life in some sense.
That made sense to me, because the moment he discovers that this is Sylar, not Nathan, he a) instantly jumps to the conclusion that it was Sylar all along, which means he can go back to the old relationsship with his brother, only he can't, because he b) realizes this means Nathan is dead. Both bringing Peter's passionate nature back when previously he was numbed. Oh, and observe the priority statement. "You'll pay what you did to Nathan! What you did in his name!" (One would think planned genocide and tyranny before that would outrank one murder, but nooooo, not with the Petrelli brothers.)
Oh, and one little detail: when Sylar taunts Peter, he says "but we know what really happened, don't we, Pete?" The only one on this show to call Peter "Pete" occasionally is Nathan. No one else does. So how did Sylar know this was an intimate nickname, given that Peter obviously left Nathan shortly after the explosion? My own guess as to the answer was my very first Heroes fanfiction. (That's a very short ficlet; I later wrote a lengthy exploration of the 5YGverse, "Through a Glass Darkly", but that one has spoilers for episodes you haven't seen yet.)
Future!Hiro's statement to Ando: I will always love the show for showing Future!Hiro not as a desirable, "cool" state of existence for Present!Hiro but as someting to be avoided, something neither we nor Hiro want to happen. More on this in a Hiro-Ando conversation in the next episode.
no subject
(Sidenote: a lot of people during the first broadcast missed what kind of deal Matt and Bennet struck, i.e. that Bennet could keep the "harmless" specials but would deliver all the "dangerous" ones.)
My own guess as to the when and how etc. was firstly that Nathan didn't become elected directly (even with an instant boost of popularity post explosion, rising from junior Congressman to President in five years is a bit too much), but that he was someone's Vice President and that that President then died; also that Sylar didn't take over while Nathan was still in Congress (can't see Sylar doing Congress work), but did take over shortly before Nathan went from VP to President (simply because of the security question; the one for a President is so tight that he'd hardly get Nathan alone in order to make the switch). Which, yes, means real!Nathan would have been culpable for the explosion cover-up (naming Sylar instead of Peter), would have been part of the legislation afterwards (called the Linderman bill, after all), and would have been part of the administration proposing the initial round-up. Which yes, all ties with the earlier tidbits you name; 5YG is the worst extreme for most characters (not Bennet, but most of the others), and that was Nathan's worst.
I hadn't been spoiled, but
Peter saw what his brother did with power and lost that aspect to his idealism, weirdly discovering Natahn was dead brought him back to life in some sense.
That made sense to me, because the moment he discovers that this is Sylar, not Nathan, he a) instantly jumps to the conclusion that it was Sylar all along, which means he can go back to the old relationsship with his brother, only he can't, because he b) realizes this means Nathan is dead. Both bringing Peter's passionate nature back when previously he was numbed. Oh, and observe the priority statement. "You'll pay what you did to Nathan! What you did in his name!" (One would think planned genocide and tyranny before that would outrank one murder, but nooooo, not with the Petrelli brothers.)
Oh, and one little detail: when Sylar taunts Peter, he says "but we know what really happened, don't we, Pete?" The only one on this show to call Peter "Pete" occasionally is Nathan. No one else does. So how did Sylar know this was an intimate nickname, given that Peter obviously left Nathan shortly after the explosion? My own guess as to the answer was my very first Heroes fanfiction. (That's a very short ficlet; I later wrote a lengthy exploration of the 5YGverse, "Through a Glass Darkly", but that one has spoilers for episodes you haven't seen yet.)
Future!Hiro's statement to Ando: I will always love the show for showing Future!Hiro not as a desirable, "cool" state of existence for Present!Hiro but as someting to be avoided, something neither we nor Hiro want to happen. More on this in a Hiro-Ando conversation in the next episode.