One of the bigger mysteries on Heroes that's always bugged me is whether specific powers are inherited from a person's family or if they're completely random. Throughout the series we've seen conflicting reports: Matt Parkman and his father have identical powers, while Nathan's flight is in no way related to his family.

Perhaps the biggest clue to answer this question came earlier in the season, when Nathan and Tracy stumbled on a doctor who injected three little identical triples with powers. They later learned that Nathan was also a product of induced powers, making their lack of same-powered relatives understandable.

For everyone else, powers almost have to be genetic. Aside from Parkman and his dad, last night's episode clued fans in to some other family secrets. Meredith, Claire's mom, is the sister of Flint, the Level 5 escapee who shoots blue flames. This is the perfect example of similar powers among siblings, with both possessing the ability to shoot fire.

In the Arthur Petrelli backstory, we saw more about his powers of persuasion, and back in the present he stole Hiro's powers. This second power is the one that matters, because it's quite similar to the powers of two of his sons. Peter can absorb other people's abilities, and Sylar can take their powers. These are both close enough in purpose to Arthur's powers, while Nathan, who was given powers through other methods, shares no such similarity.

The interesting part is about Arthur's other power, the one that allows him to force his thoughts into someone else. That is an identical power to Maury Parkman, suggesting that the two may be related. As a fan of complex family trees, I appreciate the fact that, if this were true, it would bring the heroes closer together.

The only conclusion I can draw is that powers are only passed on when both parents are naturally imbued with powers. In other words, mudbloods don't have powers related to their parents. Since Nathan is Claire's dad and Niki was Micah's mom, it would make sense that neither child shares an ability with either parent.

Using this theory, Hiro remains a mystery, Based on the extras from the Heroes season 2 DVD, we know Kaito's power was to predict all possible outcomes of a given situation, so when it comes to Hiro, there are three possibilities:

1: His mother did not have a special power or her power was not natural.
2: Hiro's mother had some form of time travel abilities.
3: Hiro was not born with powers, but rather given them via the Formula.

Whether this theory is true is still a mystery, but it would certainly make sense. If not, and the assignment of abilities is random, then Parkman and his dad, Meredith and her brother and Arthur and his children are all coincidences.


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)