|
|
|
|
Song Choices: "Scars"
Papa Roach - in honor of Peter's future
scar Sources:
Peter's
Journey:
In the breakout
episode, Peter
Petrelli is a hospice nurse living in New
York City. He provides
hospice care for a man named Charles Deveaux. He is sensitive
and compassionate, wears his heart on his sleeve and is described as
a "dreamer". Peter is also defined by his complex relationship with
his older brother, Nathan, to whom he feels very close, even
claiming he has a sort of metaphysical connection that allowed him
to know immediately when Nathan suffered a serious accident in the
past. Differences between Peter and Nathan, an ambitious politician
who is so focused on his congressional campaign that he shows no
compassion when their
mother is arrested for
shoplifting, have caused tensions between the
brothers. These tensions are exacerbated
when Peter starts having extraordinarily vivid dreams of flying. He tries to confide in Nathan, but
his brother tells him that the dreams are a sign of psychological
distress. Peter's suspicions are fueled when he sees a painting of
himself flying (this portrait drawn by the precognitive painter
Issac Mendez). Eventually Peter summons Nathan to witness as
he jumps off a building to prove he can fly. However, it's Nathan
who flies, catching Peter as he falls. The brothers lose their grip
on each other, and Peter wakes up in the hospital with muddled
recollections of what happened. Nathan claims neither of them flew
and that Peter simply jumped and landed on a nearby fire escape,
nearly killing himself. Between this and his mother's revelation
that Peter's late father had been mentally unstable as well as
suicidal, Peter is led to believe he's going
crazy. Drawing a crude stick figure
image with one figure levitating a few feet above the ground, Peter
gets an idea. Attempting to discover the truth, Peter stands on the
edge of another rooftop later that evening. Nathan arrives, and
Peter threatens to jump if Nathan doesn't tell him what really
happened. Nathan admits that they both flew: Nathan first caught
Peter, lost his grip, and then Peter flew some way down to the
ground before falling. Peter at first doesn't believe it, thinking
Nathan is only telling him what he wants to hear, but then Nathan
points out to Peter that Peter is levitating as they argue. Peter
then drops to the ground and the brothers embrace. However,
when Peter trys to fly without his brother in close vicinity, he
falls. Peter decides to quit his job as a nurse, saying that he no longer feels right "trying to save the world one person at a time" but is meant for something more. As he is leaving, he confides to Simone Deveaux, the daughter of the dying man Peter has cared for, that he has loved her ever since he first saw her. The two of them spend a night together, even though Simone doesn't know how she truly feels about Peter, having just broken up with Isaac Mendez, a tortured painter addicted to heroin. When the two kiss under a red umbrella in the rain, they mirror a protrait painted by Simone's ex. The first hints of Peter’s greater destiny come when he is contacted by a future version of Hiro Nakamura, a man with the power to manipulate time and space. This visit occurs when Peter is riding the subway, and all the other passengers are frozen in time. Hiro has come to give Peter a message: "Save the cheerleader, save the world". He urges Peter to be "the one we need", saying this was what Peter always wanted to hear, while also noting that Peter looked different "without [the] scar". He finally tells Peter to go and visit Isaac and to tell the present Hiro where to meet him when he calls. "Save the cheerleader,
save the world."
Peter visits Isaac and
convinces him to see past their differences. He learns that Isaac
has predicted a nuclear explosion will happen in ML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1
/> In the episode "Nothing to
Hide," Peter has a
dream about Simone's ailing father. In the dream, he tells the sick
man that he can fly. Simone later comes to his apartment and tells
him that her father has died. Before he died, her father told her
that he had dreamed of flying with Peter and is worried about the
state of the world. However, Peter told him that there are people
who care and who will save the world from destruction. Simone then
tells Peter that she has sold an important
precognitive painting by Isaac to a
man named Linderman in
Peter goes to Nathan's house,
hoping that his brother can help convince Linderman to give him
the painting. When he arrives, he finds Nathan, their mother, and
Nathan's family attending a brunch with a newspaper reporter. Peter
joins them and is surprised when the reporter implies that Nathan
may have cheated
on his wife, Heidi, with a
blonde in
In "Homecoming", Nathan destroys the missing painting
created by Isaac
Mendez, which depicts
a dead Peter. He intends to stop Peter from going to the homecoming
game and getting killed. However, Simone shows Peter a photograph of
the painting and has taken the liberty of tracking the school down
for him. Peter goes to the high school in
The episode "Six Months
Ago" reveals why
Peter believes he has a metaphysical connection with his brother
when, during a dream, he sees Nathan and Heidi get into the car
accident that paralyzes Nathan's wife from the waist down (a scene
which also shows Nathan using his ability to fly apparently without
meaning to do so). Peter proves there is some hint of a brotherly
connection to Nathan when he asks the latter about "the other car"
involved in the accident, a detail no one else knew except for
Nathan, Heidi, and any persons riding in the other
car. In "Fallout," Peter is in jail when he has a
vision in which he is visited by his brother, who apparently
metamorphoses into Sylar, causing Peter to wake up violently. This
conversation is about power. Later, Peter finds himself using
the telepathic power of LA cop Matt
Parkman during an
interview regarding Sylar's attack on Union Wells High. Parkman's
telepathic abilities are detrimental against Peter, as Peter absorbs
the ability and they both get headaches. Peter tells them
Claire Bennet was the real target, and after they interview her she
visits Peter, believing he shares her powers. Peter confesses to her
that he had no idea he would heal himself. However, after
Claire's visit, Peter's health deteriorates for unknown reasons.
Claire leaves Peter's cell, telling him that he is her hero; a short
time later, Nathan gets Peter out of jail. On their way out of the
building, Peter passes out and has a vision in which he sees the
other main
characters in a city
street just before beginning to ignite. As his brother walks up to
him, he begins to yell out and explode. After recovering from the
vision, Peter tries to explain it to his brother, but stops
breathing and falls unconscious. Waking
up
Soon, Peter becomes comatose. His family watch worriedly by his
bedside, and two weeks later he has only gotten worse. As Nathan
fears the worst, Peter continues to have the same vision, with some
variation. Eventually, a
new face appears in
his dreams. This man, a tall Englishman in need of a shave, is shown laughing as the events
unfold. Another new scene and a separate painting by Issac indicate
that Peter may be mimicking Ted
Sprague's radioactive powers (an unstable ability).
Eventually, Peter wakes up, and decides that his next destination is
"the desert". Out at night, he uses a cell
phone and makes travel
plans, looking for a place where nuclear
testing has been done.
Las
Vegas is recommended.
As he's put on hold, he notices the Englishman from his dreams
stealing from a purse. Peter confronts the man, who is
shocked that someone can see him. Soon, the man accosts Peter, and
tells Peter to leave him alone. Instead, Peter tracks the man, who
jokingly called himself "Claude
Rains", and asks
"Claude" to teach him. "Claude" declines, and
tells Peter to stop following him. Peter returns to his apartment to
pack his things. Mohinder and Nathan come in before Peter can leave.
Mohinder believes that if he is allowed to test Peter he can help
him. Peter says he doesn't have time to be Mohinder's guinea
pig. Nathan is
insistent that Peter not go running off again. Both Nathan and
Mohinder are anxious to try to find a "cure" to avert another one of
Peter's comas or, unbeknowest to them, nucleur disaster. To
get away, Peter pretends to reconsider, then runs out the door.
Pursuing him into a hallway, they see an open window. Mohinder and
Nathan run down the stairs to catch Peter in flight, however,
this was further misdirection, as Peter is actually hiding invisibly
with Claude. Claude had opened the window. Claude agrees to
train him, but tells Peter that it won't be
easy. Training
The lessons commence in "Distractions". Claude tells Peter to separate himself from his loved ones. Peter fiercely disagrees, but Claude says that caring about people—particularly Nathan—is holding him back. To instill this point, Claude takes Peter to invisibly spy on Simone. When they find her, she is in a romantically ambiguous embrace with Isaac, after telling him that she believes in him. Later that evening, Claude reminds Peter that he must learn to harness the powers he's previously mimicked intentionally, and without their inherent users present. Then, Claude pushes Peter off a tall building, and tells him to fly. Peter falls onto a taxicab and suffers seemingly fatal injuries (he is impaled throught the chest), but survives by remembering Claire Bennet and mimicking her powers. Peter is both angry and happy, as he believes this new realization proves Claude wrong. Peter realizes that he does not need to push people out of his mind; he just needs to remember how those people made him feel to regain use of their abilities. However, he starts to lose control when he begins to think about Isaac and others, leading Claude to knock him out. While Peter is training, in Texas it is also revealed that Nathan Petrelli is the real father of Claire Bennet, thus making Peter her uncle (though it is doubted that Peter even knew that Nathan had another child). *Sorry to the fans who thought that Peter and Claire would be romantically involved...Incest is frowned upon* In "Unexpected", Peter is shown to have more control
over the abilities he has absorbed. During a sparring session with
Claude, Peter uses telekinesis to shield himself from a blow, which
puzzles Claude since none of Peter's acquaintances has that power.
Peter surmises that he must have picked it up from the man who
attacked him in Peter then confronts Isaac
about his betrayal but Isaac is adamant that what he was doing would
save the world from destruction. Peter concludes that Isaac is
jealous of Simone and him and wants to ruin their relationship. When
Isaac tries to shoot Peter with the gun Peter becomes invisible and
starts hurling objects around the room. Isaac becomes so spooked by
Peter that he accidentally shoots Simone twice in the chest when she
suddenly arrives to see him. Peter cradles Simone in his arms as he
and Isaac watch her die. In "Parasite", Peter goes to see his brother, who makes an anonymous call to the police about Simone's death and suggests that Peter go to see Mohinder Suresh to discuss his future. When Peter arrives at Mohinder's apartment, he is attacked by Sylar, who begins to slice open Peter's head in the same way as his other victims. The last frame shown revealed dripping blood from beneath Peter's flailing suspended legs and a lock of black hair falling to the ground. Many fans have made angry remarks that Sylar would mess with Peter's trademark hair. Powers and
abilities
Peter has been described as an
empath by Claude,though that term may be a
misnomer, as empath means that you know the feelings of
other. He has shown the ability to mimic other powers.
According to Dr. Suresh, Peter's DNA resequences itself to mimic the
abilities of those around him. He is not conscious of this process,
and whenever he is near someone with an ability, he absorbs it "like
a sponge." When he acquires these abilities, he does not appear to
acquire any of the mental limiting factors that other characters
might possess. For example, when Peter first met Isaac, Isaac needed
to take heroin to induce his precognitive visions
(although he was eventually able to free himself from this
limitation). Peter was able to have the visions immediately without
using heroin. Although originally Peter had
to be in close proximity to the person whose power he was mimicking
in order to exhibit those powers, he has learned to recall any
ability by focusing on his feelings regarding the people the
abilities originate from. He and Sylar are the only people shown to possess
more than one power. As a result of his training with Claude, as
seen in the episode "Unexpected", Peter is able to consciously use any
of the powers he has previously been exposed to by thinking about
the person he received it from. Abilities Peter has
demonstrated to date include flight, precognition
(expressed through paintings and drawings), spontaneous
regeneration,
telepathy, invisibility, and telekinesis. Visions
Peter has also had several
clairvoyant visions. The first two were related to
his brother's flight ability, in which Peter himself was flying. He
also saw Charles
Deveaux in what
appears to have been a shared dream, right before the elderly man
died. A more recent vision shows Peter exploding in downtown
Side
effects
Sometimes, when Peter acquires
an ability, it can cause negative effects. When Peter mimics
Matt
Parkman's telepathy in
"Fallout", they both get acute headaches from
the sudden ability to hear each other's thoughts, similar in
principle to audio
feedback. Mohinder Suresh stated in
"The
Fix" that "If he
absorbs too much or comes into contact with an unstable ability
then" Peter would be very dangerous. This has been shown when, after
being in close proximity to a variety of characters with abilities,
Peter was comatose for two weeks, as well as the heavy
foreshadowing that Peter will involuntarily cause a
nuclear
explosion after coming in contact with Theodore Sprague. In
"Distractions," after learning he can mimic powers
less passively, Peter has trouble controlling them. If he thinks of
too many people at the same time, the recalled powers can overwhelm
him. Claude tells him in this episode that his inability to control
them all is what could cause him to
explode.
|
