Spontaneous Regeneration (Season 2 Discussion)

[Kenny]

SEASON 2 SPOILER WARNING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which should be obvious at the start of the second paragraph anyway, before you even read any more... but anyway...

 

 

Well, I apologise if this has been brought up before, and I'm sure there are plenty people here who have replied to similar things on other discussion boards in the past - which is a good thing, you're more likely to be able to put this to rest quickly.

 

I was just watching S02E09 Cautionary Tales, where Noah is shot through the head, and is brought back to life by Claire's blood. I've watched it plenty times before, but this time I suddenly thought... 'Isn't a bullet through the head meant to kill people with spontaneous cell regeneration (SCR)?'

 

That episode is pretty much canonical proof that SCR can heal a bullet through the brain - presumably the bullet was removed (or had exited the skull upon impact) before the blood was infused.

 

So I can only think of a couple of explanations, based on what we've seen and been told, which is:

 

1) A foreign object in the brain prevents regeneration.

2) A shotgun blast to the head will kill someone with SCR.

 

1: Well, we know this is the case. It is also proof that damage to the brain does not hamper regeneration - the brain can be damaged but still heal. Presumably the brain is the first part of the body which heals, and if it cannot, the rest of the body cannot.

 

2: Well, the brain's a big thing with a large surface area, Victoria Pratt was going to use a shotgun which would annihilate the entire brain, and she was an expert - presumably a certain percentage of the brain has to be intact for regeneration to occur? Difficult one though, as Kensei was at the centre of an enormous explosion which would have blown his brain matter to kingdom come. Maybe we can only assume that part of his head survived and he regenerated from that?

 

Either way, surely it's a given that a certain amount of the brain mass has to be destroyed before a person cannot regenerate?

 

Perhaps I'm just rambling.

Edited April 1, 2008 by Kenny

[Lizzy]

omfg spoiler warning for those who haven't seen S2 please! That'll seriously ruin it for someone!!

 

Nooo, warning in the title! People may go straight to the middle! Do you seriously not think the people in the UK who haven't seen S2 are going to be pleased reading this with on real warning?

[Kenny]

omfg spoiler warning for those who haven't seen S2 please! That'll seriously ruin it for someone!!

 

Well, I've added an explicit spoiler warning at the top, but let's be fair, the first line of the second paragraph states that it's talking about season 2, and there's no spoiler before that, so... unless people are idiots they'd stop reading then...

[Lizzy]

As I said when you posted at the same time, people skim read and may miss its "S02Ep..." You really can't post stuff like that, its incredibly unfair with no spoiler title.

[Kenny]

As I said when you posted at the same time, people skim read and may miss its "S02Ep..." You really can't post stuff like that, its incredibly unfair with no spoiler title.

 

I skim read, extremely quickly, but I pick up on everything relevant and have always managed to pick up on the fact that a spoiler might be ahead.

 

Perhaps I'm just a superior reading specimen.

 

Makes sense. I'll change the heading to cater for those inferior models.

 

Edit: I don't seem to be able to, so I've stuck a stupidly big space in instead.

Edited April 1, 2008 by Kenny

[Lizzy]

... and i don't think most people would appreciate being called inferior...

[Kenny]

... and i don't think most people would appreciate being called inferior...

 

Well you're assuming that 'most people' would skim over the spoiler warning I initially had - mentioning that it was season 2 I was talking about before talking about anything in it. I personally think that the majority of people have better reading skills than that, so the majority of people have nothing to worry about.

 

I might just have too much faith in the general state of literacy in people though. I hope not.

[DavidB]

There you go, just in case

[Oregon-snowglobe]

Just a quick question ....can we discuss this now? or has it got to go somewhere where there's S2 spoilers?

[DavidB]

it's fine now, go ahead

[mousybrown]

Thanks for permission

 

I actually NEVER thought about HRG being healed and this regeneration shiz.

That does bring up a number of questions regarding SCR which youve already mentioned. Im going to have to go away and (attempt to) think now.

[Krypto]

kenny is there any need really ?.....all you had to do was simply write spoiler and make a few gaps that was it....but naturally you had to have a go at people for not reading as fast as you think you do....and for the record the element of heroes you failed to fully understand .regeneration can only occur and is explained several times within the television show....within several long scenes.....for example claires scene with the wooden steak and peters glass in his head....regeneration can only occur once the foreign object in the brain is removed once the object is removed regeneration can occur....this is why HRG was able to regenerate because the bullet must have passed clean through.

Edited April 1, 2008 by Krypto

[Kenny]

and for the record the element of heroes you failed to fully understand .regeneration can only occur and is explained several times within the television show....within several long scenes.....for example claires scene with the wooden steak and peters glass in his head....regeneration can only occur once the foreign object in the brain is removed once the object is removed regeneration can occur....this is why HRG was able to regenerate because the bullet must have passed clean through.

 

Well, that's what I said, I even numbered it as an important point:

"1) A foreign object in the brain prevents regeneration."

 

The actual point I was making was that it's been stated more than once that a gunshot to the brain will kill a person, totally preventing regeneration from occurring. The reason Claire is to shoot Peter in the head in "How to Stop an Exploding Man" is because it's meant to totally kill him. Later, Angela Petrelli tells Parkman that a single bullet to the head would permenantly kill Peter. Adam said that there's no coming back from a gunshot wound to the head. Yet we see HRG come back using SCR after... a gunshot wound to the head.

 

That is the point, that is the topic I believe is worth discussing.

 

*snip flame*

Edited April 1, 2008 by Kenny

[Oregon-snowglobe]

I see your point, kenny .... there is an inconsistency with the facts about regeneration, perhaps it's the do with the mixture of blood.

 

......and I'll leave a space in case anyone tells me off for spoilers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Sylar wanted to be cured of the virus, I believe (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), that he said to Mohinder something along these lines....

SYLAR: Apparently, Mohinder, your blood is the answer to my ills.

 

MOHINDER: Not always, there are many different strains of the virus.

 

SYLAR: But when you mix it with a certain cheerleader's blood, it changes, doesn't it?

 

SYLAR: And it heals anything. Isn't that right, Doctor?

 

 

So.....perhaps HRG was given a mixture of Claire's and Mohinder's blood therefore becoming a new strain of regeneration.

 

Just my thoughts ... or it could just be that there are inconsistency's in the storyline

[Kenny]

That's an explanation that didn't occur to me - it does make the most sense given the data we've got, I like it a lot.

 

It really has to be either that or... the writers messed up

 

Unless anyone else has other theories of course.

[Oregon-snowglobe]

Nope, none from me - I'm all 'theoried out' for today

[Lizzy]

Depends how far in his brain he went. A bullet to the head (As with JFK) will for the exit wound, blow a great messy hole. If it only goes in a little, no exit wound, it won't blow a great big hole, therefore the brain won't be in lots of bits. Going thru the eye prob slowed it down n therefore didn't do that.

[lovbug]

How come west said that Noah had the HRG years ago, but in season one we saw Claire pick them out for him not very long before we first saw them.

[Phoenix Will Rise]

Was I the only one who thought the whole "Claire's blood can heal dead people" thing was an AWFUL twist...

 

Sure, we didnt want HRG dead, but I would of actually been more shocked if he was dead... Bringing him back to life just opened a big messy can of worms for the show... I hope they rectify this in the next season... I hate the fact that they can use false deaths so easily now with this blood thing as an escape clause...

 

I remember when Eden was killed in Season 1, THAT shocked me... then Charlie too... man, another excellent death....

HRG's death in S2 was filmed excellently, then ruined by bringing him back a few minutes later.. (at least leave him dead for a few episodes, and then do a flashback later or something)

[mousybrown]

I agree it wasnt a great twist, we could've guessed that if we wanted.

I love HRG, hes one of my fav characters but if he had died then i thought it would have been fantastic. I was upset when i thought for a bit he was dead but it kind of took all that sad emotion away when they were like 'okay so hes back alive now'.

Same with Maya. I was like 'omg shes dead' then shes coming back. Hopefully in seaosn 3 there not going to keep killing off people then just brining them back.

[DavidB]

Yeah, that's my main concern - that they have this 'out' that means they don't necessarily have to kill anyone off, and it NEEDS to happen sometimes. They can't save everyone.

 

I'm kinda hoping they come up with another twist that somehow eliminates the possibility of regeneration for good.

[mousybrown]

Same. I'm also hoping that Claire won't live forever like Adam, because he started with just healing abilities didn't he.

Im not sure how long i could live with 'save the cheerleader, save the world for the hundreth time'.

 

Im really hoping season 3 wont play on this regeneration. I'd like to see some major deaths.

[Kenny]

Depends how far in his brain he went. A bullet to the head (As with JFK) will for the exit wound, blow a great messy hole. If it only goes in a little, no exit wound, it won't blow a great big hole, therefore the brain won't be in lots of bits. Going thru the eye prob slowed it down n therefore didn't do that.

 

While I agree that the possibility of regeneration occurring is dependant on the amount of brain matter left intact, I don't agree with the amount of damage you're positing happened to HRG's brain.

 

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION BELOW

 

 

 

 

 

When a bullet enters a person's head, it is spinning rapidly and changing direction as it passes through the brain matter, literally tearing it apart in a wide diameter as it passes through.

 

The internal pressure of the person's skull increases sharply, effectively shoving the brain out in all directions against the skull, crushing and squishing it further.

 

If the bullet doesn't have an exit point, it's because the bullet didn't have sufficient velocity to exit the skull, hit the skull and shattered into dozens, if not hundreds of fragments which then reflect back internally, lodging throughout the already shattered brain. This is consistent with a .45 gun as Mohinder used, they don't often have exit wounds from the head, one might even posit that this is why the company uses them as standard.

 

If anything, shooting through the eye should have made sure the bullet had even *more* kinetic energy upon reaching the back of the skull than if it had entered through any other part of the head (eye == squishy, skull == hard and crunchy), but as we see no blood spatter from an exit wound when HRG is shot, it can be taken that the bullet fragmented on his skull and lodged throughout his brain.

 

It makes sense that this would cause irrevocable death to people with cell regeneration, as each of those many, many, many tiny bits of shrapnel would need to be removed before regeneration would occur which is a pretty enormous job, and that's assuming that the initial pressure-increase-crushing and bullet-spinning-tearing wounds don't cause too massive damage to the brain.

 

Which is all fine and dandy, and explains happily everything about why a bullet to the brain works to kill them and all that... but still not why HRG could regenerate.

 

If only they'd given him a blood spattering exit wound, it would be so much easier to dismiss:(

Edited April 2, 2008 by Kenny

[Lenatalia]

You think that's an inconsistency? What about the end of season 1? Why didn't Peter just fly by himself?!?!111

 

 

 

I am joking, by the way. I just can't believe the amount of people who have asked that question on different forums or asked me directly. When I see the question now I just unplug my internet.

Edited April 1, 2008 by Lenatalia

[Zarina]

You think that's an inconsistency? What about the end of season 1? Why didn't Peter just fly by himself?!?!111

 

 

 

I am joking, by the way. I just can't believe the amount of people who have asked that question on different forums or asked me directly. When I see the question now I just unplug my internet.

I know you´re joking but just for everyone else; Peter literally says: "I can't control it! I can't do anything!" He's either freaking out too much to control his powers or there's another reason they control him and not the other way around, but he can't use his flying ability at that time.