While I tend to love the television program "Heroes," I have long been dissatisfied with the show's handling of time travel.
Yes, it's just a television show. Perhaps I shouldn't let it get to me. But I can't help it, because the issue interests me in terms of logic. Once a character like Hiro visits a given future, it appears to confirm that the future he visits is
real. The people he meets and the things he experiences are to be established as part of Hiro's immutable past.
And that's where the problem comes in. You can't coherently talk about "changing the future" if the future exists in a given state. If the future exists in state A then it exists in state A. Nothing can change it. Perhaps it is possible to bring about an alternate future none-the-less, but that must be a different thing from changing the future. For example, if you have a future here Sylar is the rehabilitated Uncle Gabriel, that future is stuck in reality. There's no getting rid of it. The program tends to suggest that those alternate realities can no longer interest us once events in the past have changed so that such a future is averted. Suppose that Uncle Gabriel's existence is thwarted, and Peter cannot have the opportunity to acquire his powers. How do you acquire powers from somebody who does not exist anywhere in time or space?
I had also feared that the writers would keep multiplying alternate realities to the point where the story became incomprehensibly convoluted. But I'm happy to see from last week's episode that the program probably will not head in that direction. I expect that once the character said to be manipulating the others comes to light we'll see a hard limit on the number of alternative realities/possible futures, at least in terms of the plot.
Don't read further if you fear a potential spoiler based on my guessing.
And who is the mystery character prefigured in the scenes-from-next-week? I have no insider information, but my guess is that Mr. Petrelli, father of Nathan, Peter and perhaps even Gabriel (Sylar) will turn out to be the guy pulling others' strings.
Why would I guess that? Quite simply, Mr. Petrelli is the most important character in the overall flow of the plot about whom we know the least. The lack of information creates a hole in the plot just waiting to be filled in future episodes. I expect we'll learn much more about Mr. Petrelli and what he's up to in the coming weeks.
