Explaining the Season 1 Prophecy in Heroes

Ever since "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" was introduced into the mainstream last fall at the end of the fourth episode, 15 million fans watching the show as well as millions more world-wide have speculated on just what the heck it meant.

Tonight, everything finally made sense. With just one chapter left in the season, all the questions have now been answered. Like a light turning on inside, it hit me. Now I can clearly see that everything, the prophecy, the explosion, the future being changed, it's all been connected.

Before, I thought Tim Kring had riddled the show with plotholes, but now I realize that there are absolutely none. Everything makes perfect sense once you get past the sheer complexity of the situation.

Now, if you would, allow me to explain in detail what this entire season has been building up to:

Key points (not the full explanation)

I cannot stress this one enough: If, like me before tonight, you thought that this whole "exploding man" storyline was just one plothole after another, you're wrong!

"Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" is complete crap. I am now sure, without a doubt, that Future Hiro's theory that saving Claire to stop Sylar would stop the explosion is complete and utter garbage (no offense, Hiro). Future Hiro was right in assuming that saving Claire would mean Sylar could be stopped in the near future; however, in thinking that doing so would mean stopping the explosion, Future Hiro was dead wrong.

The String Theory is wrong (at least as far as Hiro's interpretation of it goes). Cutting Sylar's black string doesn't eliminate all of the other negative strings b/c there are strings in play that Future Hiro never took into account. (explained below)

Sylar was still alive and well in "Five Years Gone" because Present Hiro had traveled five years into the future, and therefore he wasn't THERE to kill Sylar five years ago. Although Sylar being alive in the future now has absolutely NOTHING to do with the explosion itself.

The very moment that Peter saved Claire at Homecoming, the future was changed. You think it's a coincidence that Peter was with Claire at the end of "The Hard Part" when he finally met Ted Sprague? Nope. Future Hiro traveled back in time (as we now know) in order to deliver the message to Peter. In saving Claire at Homecoming, Peter changed the circumstances that would lead to the explosion, but not the end result.

Peter receiving the vision at the end of "Fallout", only just after he had met Claire at Homecoming, is key. Why did he receive the vision then? Simple. After rescuing Claire, the timeline changed. Sylar was the exploding man no longer, because this now meant he would die at the hands of Hiro. But the explosion would still happen ... the new exploding man ... is PETER. The explosion in New York? Still gonna happen. The end result has not been changed, and killing Sylar is not going to do diddly.

FULL EXPLANATION:

So to recap? When you look at the big picture, it seems quite simple. In the ORIGINAL timeline (which we were never shown), Sylar was the one who was originally supposed to explode in NYC, wiping out .07% of the world's population, obviously after taking Sprague's power. In this timeline, Peter would never have met Claire, and therefore (as we saw in the final scene of "The Hard Part") would theoretically never have come in contact with Sprague at all. In this timeline, Isaac's drawings showed Hiro what he needed to do, to kill Sylar in order to stop an explosion. However, Sylar could not be killed, because he had already taken Claire's powers, and thus he regenerated and the explosion happened.

Five years later, Future Hiro goes back in time after identifying the key events usings his misguided String Theory, gives Peter Petrelli the message of "save the cheerleader, save the world," and puts him on a futile mission. Peter comes into contact with Claire, saves her from Sylar, and immediately changes the future.

Peter gets the vision in "Fallout" (only after having just met and saved Claire) b/c he has now shifted the responsibility of "exploding man" from Sylar to himself. When Future Hiro returns to the future, he finds that seemingly nothing has changed. Although he is wrong. Because Present Hiro traveled five years into the future, he was not there to kill Sylar in his own time, which is why Sylar is alive and well in the future. This, however, changes nothing regarding the explosion.

The bottomline is, although Hiro doesn't realize it, him killing Sylar now will do absolutely nothing in regards to the explosion, only eliminate Sylar from the future, because the moment that Peter saved Claire, HE became the one to explode, and not Sylar.

The explosion still happens. The circumstances are changed, but the end result remains the same. Destiny and fate are inescapable.

So now, with only one episode left in the season, the question is simple. Will Peter explode in NYC and kill millions of people, and create the future seen in "Five Years Gone" (with or w/out Sylar, which is dependent on whether or not Hiro kills him, but now has nothing more to do with the explosion), or will something unforeseen happen?

If Tim Kring does this right, then the explosion HAS to happen. In order for the future to be changed, something in the past must be changed. Killing Sylar won't change what's going to happen, so unless someone else from the future intervenes, the explosion occurring is an event that is literally written in stone.