Theory:Exposed future

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The following fan theories are about exposed future.

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Theories

Theory	Citations	Notes
The "exposed future" is not avoidable this time.	None	+ Future Peter has changed too much in the past, unlike Future Hiro and thus made it impossible to correct everything. - Changing the past is what could prevent the "exposed future". - Hiro and Peter have been able to change the past before. • Maybe they will realize that every time they change the future the next one is worse. • The only reason the virus wasn't released was because Kensei's plans were diverted by a nuclear explosion which put the nation on high security. The only reason the Exposed future wouldn't have happened was because Kensei successfully released the virus, killing off most of the world. This is not escalation in the same sense as fate. The five year mark in the future had a bundling of evil plans coming together at once, the latter plan only prevented by the former plan's execution. Assuming that is the case, by destroying that bundling the world would be saved. + In the very beginning of Heroes, it was said that the evolved humans "will not only save the world, but change it forever". It's just the matter of time when people discover that there are special individuals among them, but the world will be saved, not destroyed. It's Heroes, you know. + In the exposed future, some evolved humans are hunted down and persecuted. This is also happening in the present day. - The government is targeting nearly all evolved humans. The exposed future government allows abilities to be given to the general public. - Both the formula and the catalyst have been destroyed.
Noah Gray is the child of Sylar and Elle Bishop.	None	+ Sylar and Elle could bond over having problems dealing with their powers, as they did in the present day. - Elle also died in the present day. + Sylar and Elle might have produced Noah the child in an alternate timeline, a timeline where Elle didn't die. After all, Sylar only reverted back to his old self after Peter interfered in the events that took place. - We do not know what happened to Sylar between One of Us and I Am Become Death in the Exposed Future timeline. Elle did not appear in the future; Sylar could have killed her anyway.
Noah Gray's mother is Sandra Bennet.	None	+ The Grays are living at the Bennet house in Costa Verde. + Maybe Noah Bennet dies and Sandra discovers that she was pregnant with his child and later dies in child birth. Sylar then adopts him.
Peter is the source of the explosion.	Peter has already exploded once in How to Stop an Exploding Man.	+ Peter absorbs lots of powers and being part of an army of powered people might overload him. + Peter has been directly tied to three bad futures: the "explosion future", the "outbreak future", and the "exposed future". - Future Peter was killed by Future Claire.
Peter is a catalyst for time's rifts.	All the dark futures have been indirectly Peter's fault.	+ In the "explosion future", Peter is set to explode (How to Stop an Exploding Man). • If Peter hadn't exploded, Sylar would have. + In the "outbreak future", Peter assisted Adam in releasing the virus (Powerless). - Peter was also the only person capable of stopping the vial from shattering at the time. + Future Peter's interference with the past (The Butterfly Effect) seems to have caused the "exposed future". - Future Peter came from the original "exposed future". - Although many of the future catastrophes appear to be caused by Peter, they are also stopped by Peter. Because Peter was exploding instead of Sylar, Nathan flew off with him and saved New York. Kensei was going to release the virus with or without Peter's help. Because Peter had Sylar's telekinesis, he was able to stop the vial from shattering. - Nathan caused the world where Future Peter came from to occur by revealing his powers.
Sylar took Claire's ability in Future Peter's timeline.	None	- Angela blames this on Future Peter. - Future Peter did not point out that it would have happened anyway. + In this timeline, Claire practically quotes Sylar, saying she's "different" and "special". • When Sylar tortures people, he always mentions somebody or some ability being different/special. He especially considers himself and Claire to be above average. Were Sylar to torment Claire in another way (maybe killing her father), those words would still be traumatically engraved in her memories. + In this timeline, Claire works for Pinehearst. The writers say that seeing Peter fall out the window "averted or delayed" Future Claire's employment by Pinehearst. This suggests that Future Claire's recruitment happened when she and Elle came to the Pinehearst building, which they did because Claire had lost control of her ability when Sylar attacked her. - This could also suggest that Future Claire was recruited at some other point, but crossing paths with Peter's incident prevented this. + In the I Am Become Death timeline, Future Claire works for Pinehearst, even though she had reason to go to Pinehearst with Elle. - It could be both that Claire going to Pinehearst was caused by Future Peter's intervention, and that Peter's incident at Pinehearst was caused by his knowledge of the future.
In the "exposed future", the planet will be shattered by an evolved human with the power of earth manipulation.	In the "exposed future," as seen in I Am Become Death, we saw a newspaper which said, "Man causes earthquake in Australia", killing hundreds of thousands.	+ It will require a tremendous power to split the whole planet in pieces. An ability like earth manipulation would do the trick. - Not even the most destructive ability introduced so far has caused enough damage to destroy a planet. + That's because Stephen Canfield wasn't a villain. If he were, he could have inflicted far more terrible harm than killing a man once in his lifetime. + He would gain nothing by destroying the planet. • Peter and Ted Sprague had induced radioactivity and used to lose control over it, thus putting towns and cities in danger. If the same happened to Canfield, his ability would be powerful enough to destroy the world - but not in the predicted way. • Stephen had a control index of 60%, a good one compared to Ted (12%) and Peter (27%), though not as good as Sylar (76%). + BTE said the cause of world destruction are an "earthquake guy" and "red lightning".
If Hiro (or anyone with space-time manipulation) decided to go to the past to change the future so the world wouldn't explode, his goal would be not to let Sylar take Claire's ability - again.	None.	+ If Sylar hadn't obtained regeneration, he would never dare to assault Primatech. Thus the twelve villains would never be unleashed. - Sylar would have been more discreet, but he still had reasons to seek revenge against Primatech and Noah Bennet. Being seduced and used (Villains), held prisoner (Fallout) and experimented upon (Godsend) would not go unrequited for long. • With Arthur dead and Hiro powerless, there are no more known characters with space-time manipulation. • Hiro has back a portion of his powers now. ("Cold Snap")
In 2011, world destruction will be inevitable. Even if they stop this future from coming true, there will always be something new.	None	+ In both the explosion future and the exposed future, 2011 is dark. No matter how many times they save the world, something else happens. Maybe they just can't fight the future. • Stopping the explosion might have only been a portion of what Hiro meant when he said, "Save the Cheerleader. Save the World". - In the explosion future, the world wasn't destroyed. + In the explosion future the world may not have been physically destroyed, but New York was destroyed, the president was a psycho killer, not to mention every evolved human was going to be murdered, it's possible to call that pretty dire. In the Outbreak future, 2011 was not a noted time, however by that time, the world must have been wiped out. 2011 doesn't look good. • All disasters stem from the same source - the evolved humans. • All disasters are also averted by them.
The "exposed future" happens now in a similar way.	None	+ Nathan "exposed" the evolved humans at the beginning of Fugitives. - The formula has been destroyed. + We know there is at least one vial still in existence - the one Angela "confiscated" from Rachel Mills. - Angela said herself that was an uncatalyzed vial. + It wasn't destroyed before a number of humans received it. One of these powers could be the cause of the world exploding. + Nathan has convinced the government to conduct a program that could cause a similar 'war' as anticipated by Pinehearst's augmentation of marines.
Sylar stole precognitive painting from Usutu in the exposed future.	Sylar could paint the future in this future. (I Am Become Death)	+ It would appear this future involves Adam Monroe and Maury Parkman running free, but Arthur kills them in the new version of it. This suggests he wasn't either a) present at all or b) not as prominent, meaning he wouldn't have killed Usutu. + After Peter returned from this future, Arthur took his powers and used them to teleport to Africa and murder Usutu. + The Pinehearst team was radically different, and if Hiro and Ando (or at least Ando) had joined judging by Future Ando's Pinehearst pin, they must have succeeded in their mission to capture Usutu without going on a spirit walk which got Hiro sacked by Arthur. This means Usutu would have got to Pinehearst, and Sylar would have likely paid it a visit at least once, and perhaps decided to take a few powers too. - Why would Ando get the same assignment Hiro got in the new timeline? - Ando with a Pinehearst pin was only seen in the timeline where Hiro had not witnessed his own death. Sylar's new precognition was only shown in a timeline where she had.
Sylar killed Arthur Petrelli in this future and stole at least precognition and induced radioactivity from him following his theft of them from Peter.	I Am Become Death, Dying of the Light	+ Arthur is nowhere to be found in this future. + Sylar must have killed to get these powers, as he hid them from Noah Gray. + Arthur stole both these powers from Peter. He had both as seen throughout Season Two when he painted for Caitlin and destroyed Strain 138 of the Shanti Virus in Powerless. + Why was Pinehearst so angry with Sylar? Perhaps Knox, Claire and Daphne allowed his son's murder because he killed their leader. - Peter still had powers in Resistance. - A "controlled" Sylar could easily have figured out his ability to empathically gain abilities and could have acquired both of these from spending so much time with Peter.
Gabriel became Sylar again in this future following his rage-induced explosion which killed Knox, Daphne, Mr. Muggles of 200,000 other people.	None	+ Gabriel looked very Sylar-like when he saw Knox kill his son, and then battered Knox to death. + Sylar would have survived the explosion easily. + If he still had some humanity wouldn't he simply break Knox's neck with telekinesis rather than brutally murder him.
Samuel Sullivan was responsible for the destruction of Tokyo that Hiro witnessed.	None	+ Samuel's power is amplified by the presence of other ability users. + In this future, abilities were widespread and common, potentially amplifying Samuel's terrakinesis to untold heights.