| Virginia Gray suffered from schizophrenia or some other mental illness. |
None |
+ Her insistence on how 'special' Gabriel was may have been a delusion of some sort.
- • She and her husband bought Gabriel, suggesting they weren't able to conceive on their own. In her own way, healthy or not, he was special, at least to her.
- + Virginia's first assumption when Gabriel showed off his abilities was that he was a demon. That seems highly illogical, given the lack of religious icons in her home.
- - Lack of religious icons does not automatically denote atheism.
- - She may have been using the word demon colloquially, more or less calling Sylar evil.
- + The word "demon" has not been used colloquially in any period of known history. In the Middle Ages, its usage generally ended up with the person in question being executed. In more modern eras, it has been seen as an outdated noun, and has been replaced by terms such as "psychopath" (as well as a large number of less-printable words).
- - Not everyone uses the same syntax.
- - When confronted with the level of horror she witnessed, calling the perpetrator a demon may be the perfect label.
- + All she had witnessed was her son making snow, creating a telekinetic bubble, and then moving a few snowglobes with his mind. That is not "horror".
- - They're certainly not expected, and quite terrifying if the person doing it is assaulting you while grinning sadistically.
- + Sylar didn't hurt his mother deliberately; he simply wasn't very mindful of where he was moving the snowglobes.
- - There was no need for him to move the snowglobes in the first place, and as mentioned above, Sylar had a sadistic grin.
- + His expression was more sinister than sadistic, and a grin requires exposure of teeth and full retraction of the lips. Also, if he didn't deliberately target her with the snowglobes, than he wasn't assaulting her, period.
- - She couldn't have known that it was an accident, and the word "grin" was being used colloquially.
- + She had no idea how Gabriel acquired his abilities. Taking that into account, her response to his new powers (deciding that he is a demon wearing her son's form) makes little sense.
- - She wouldn't need to know how he acquired them. She only started calling him a demon after she saw Sylar's rather sinister expression, and after he hurt her.
- + By that logic, assuming that all serial killers are possessed by demons and must therefore be exorcised is a perfectly reasonable concept. In reality, such a person would be called a lunatic.
- - One illogical thought process does not make one a lunatic. As said elsewhere, people often think illogically when afraid.
- - It actually makes complete sense. She was confronted with something terrifying and unknown; most people would (at first) believe it to be the work of the devil.
+ Unless she had just time traveled in from the Middle Ages, her reaction would not make any sense at all. The only people left on Earth who would immediately assume that Sylar was possessed (without being mentally ill) are followers of orthodox religions. Since most members of those religions are very devout (and since most old forms of religions have strict rules), Virginia's behavior and decor make that unlikely.
- + Also, she didn't just think he was evil; she didn't think that the man in her house was Gabriel at all. Being terrified is understandable; acting like your son is a replicant from the Planet of the Body Snatchers is abnormal in the extreme. In fact, there are real-world people who suffer a psychosis which makes them convinced that one or more family members have been replaced by impostors. It's called Capgras delusion (and, coincidentally, is most commonly seen in female schizophrenics).
- - People often act illogical and without sense when they're sufficiently terrified. Had Gabriel walked in complete benign, that would be a fair point. However, she had just seen her son create a snowglobe and throw objects without touching them without any kind of explanation. In that context, her reaction is completely understandable.
- + She did not act illogically; she acted in a highly bipolar and unstable fashion. Minutes before, she had assured Gabriel that he "could be anything he wanted to be", and obviously cared for him. Then she decided to order Sylar to leave. When he failed to comply, her first response was to attack him with a pair of scissors. Sudden aggression and abnormal behavior are not seen in mentally stable individuals.
- - That's incorrect, plenty of people believe in demons who are not orthodox. Keep in mind that a "demon" is not a purely theological concept, even someone who doesn't follow an organized religion may still believe in evil beings.
- + Actually, demons are a theological/spiritual concept when they are depicted as assuming material form.
- Most mothers want their children to be special. There's nothing unusual about that.
- + She was perfectly willing to purchase a random toddler from a very shady man, who managed to commit cold-blooded murder before he had even left the premises. That goes above and beyond most mothers' desire for their children to be special.
- - She purchased her brother-in-law's son (not a random toddler) before he killed his wife. She may not have known what he was fully capable of.
- + Samson was a sociopathic monster, and not particularly good at hiding it (judging by Martin and Luke's reactions). Even if they never found out about what he did, a sane person would still have realized that he was dangerous and looked elsewhere.
- - She didn't do it in a desire for her child to be special, she just wanted a child at that point.
- + Virginia wanted a child, yet purchased a child illegally from her husband's older brother. This would imply that she was unable to adopt. The most likely reason why she couldn't adopt would be failing the competency exam. Since she had (at the time) a steady income and proper dwelling conditions, she would have had to failed the psych eval in order to be barred from adopting a child.
+ In A Clear and Present Danger, Martin Gray referred to Virginia as a "sick, infantile woman". Since Virginia was neither sadistic nor an invalid, it is most likely that the adjective "sick" in the sentence refers to some form of mental illness.
- - Or he was simply using negative adjectives to insult her, due to the probable animosity in their past.
- + It wasn't animosity; he was simply tired of putting up with her. "Sick and infantile" lacks the venom which surfaces when people discuss unhappy, dysfunctional relationships.
- + The English language is extremely complex; a synonym for a word doesn't necessarily have the same meaning. For example: a leader who refers to his soldiers as "warriors" inspires radically different responses than a leader who refers to his soldiers as "minions". A journalist who calls a politician "fanatical" is not conveying the same message as one who uses the word "dedicated" to describe that same politician. Thus, analyzing Virginia's choice of words (and the subtext thus conveyed) is vital for determining her mental health and state of mind.
+ Virginia had very little tone variance in her speech, as well as a "feathered" quality more commonly seen when soothing someone. A common symptom of scizophrenia is "flattened" speech.
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