It seems there is something wrong in the force. All of the heroes' abilities seem to be undergoing some sort of evolution/malfunction.

Any ideas on what's causing this?

Nothing is wrong. Elle is a person who has never experienced the outside world on her own and has just lost her father. Emotions trigger the abilities, so her shorting out all the time is expected.

Claire actually has nothing wrong with her, as she still feels emotion. Sure she moans she can't feel pain, but hey she had no problem becoming plane buddies with Elle. So its not as bad for as shes making out and tbh its more a case of finding out who you are with Claire.

Nope, that's too good an explanation

I think there should be a metaphorical ticking clock somewhere, a d-day looming in the distance, war drums telling of impending doom

I find it interesting that both girls had their heads sliced (only a little bit for Elle, all the way off for Claire) by Sylar and both are reacting to that. Is this a reaction to him and his power? Peter is the only other person who survived a near-sylaring, and that was in the first season so some canon was\had not been established.

That's the connection I made between Claire and Elle and their power problem; both have been partially Sylared. I thought that was the reason.

Well no Elle's power knocked out Sylar from examining her brain so it was nothing more then a surface wound. Whereas Sylar perhaps did something with Claire however, like he said he could not kill her even if he wanted to as she is 'special'.

Like Gibby said Elle is an emotional wreck which in turn is wreaking havoc with her ability, losing her father and other such things are bound to effect her. Like on the plane scene her current flows increased through stress and only relaxing negated it.

Nothing is wrong with either just reacting to trauma's in different ways.

Nothing is wrong with Claire?

You are *SERIOUSLY* mistaken

Claire, whether you guys like it or not, could be considered the biggest masochist ever. She valued feeling pain because it made her feel alive. This is why people like myself and other i know have slight to extreme masochistic tendencies, it actually feeds the body a rush of adrenaline and your body likes that.

Claire valued that pain more then anything

And now she can't feel pain anymore

they just took away a serious masochist's ability to feel pain (the girl reached into a pot of boiling water for the heck of it last season...)

Believe me, thats not pretty

Or, she stuck her hand in the pot because she's curious and was constantly testing her limits.

Not that your explanation is invalid, it's certainly interesting and could be true. I just took it differently. She talks about it making her feel 'human'. I figure, since pain is one factor that connects us--we all feel it, no matter who you are--she's feeling more like a 'freak' than ever now, and fears she's losing touch with her humanity. Can't feel pain, was told she can't die, etc. Those are both universal truths for human beings. She also mentions fearing she won't feel anything at all anymore.

I see the issues Claire and Elle are experiencing as sort of a methaphor for the trauma rape victims face. For Claire, she was completely violated by Sylar and has become numb, an emotional issue common among rape victims. Elle had just lost her father, putting her in an extremely vulnerable state, then was subject to a horrific attack, which possibly has more weight than we even realize (according to some spoilers I peeped over in the Unknown Chapters section). That type of experience will put a glitch in anyone's circuitry, "special" or not.

At a time when so many viewers are criticizing the lack of "humanity" on the show this season, I applaud the writers for going down this road, even if it is somewhat unintentional. I just hope they DON'T have some big apocolyptic reason and let it play out in a more human way.

about claire and not feeling pain..
the reason why we fell pain is because it acts as a reflex for the body to move away from the thing that is harming us, so we dont bleed to death and die or something. claire heals anyway, so there no point in her feeling pain coz she cant die. i think its just her body's way of adapting to her ability. she will still be able to feel everything else

i know who causing all these changes.
the writers

Its pretty clear that the base of the powers is in the brain (hence the Sylaring of ppl with powers)
So maybe when Sylar tried cutting Elles head open, he touched the part that controls the power
With his newly acquired immortality he could have been too overconfident and not been careful when he cut her head
That could have helped her set off the huge electric shock
But as a result it could have screwed around with her power
In Claires case Sylar touched something in her brain which could have stopped the feeling of pain but that might not have damaged the brain
As it is not damaged it will not heal
Remember Sylar only cuts the top of a persons head he does not cut their brains (as we can see when he Sylars Claire)
Peter healed up from his head being cut but his brain wasnt affected because Sylar couldnt get at it

Or shes just an idiot!

Reflex or not, there is a strong psychological reaction when this biological response is taken away. Claire also mentioned that there may come a time when she won't be able to feel anything else.

Guess its the best answer, really made me smile

@unsung.

I was a bit shocked when I read ur post, watching the scene (where elle is attacked by sylar) again with that in mind put a whole new (uncomfortable) slant on it.

I'm a bit ambivalent about Claire's inability to feel pain. On one side, I can get why that's such a big deal to her, because pain is a very human thing, so not being able to feel pain makes her feel less human, and she's always tried so hard to just be normal. But on the other side, she moans a bit too much about it.

I was hoping she would become crazed and arrogant about her invincibility ("Claire Bennet isn't afraid of anything"), diving headfirst into things, doing reckless things because she knows she can't get hurt. I loved it in this episode when Elle is firing wave after wave of electricty into Claire, and she's just standing there smiling

Elle's loss of power control was really sad actually I mean, she can't sleep, eat, be around normal people, just live any sort of life outside of the Company. I felt especially sad when Claire walks in, and Elle's sitting there on the chair, trying to look calm, but her face is just filled with sparks

I agree i felt really sorry for elle. which is strange cause i dont usually feel anything toward ficitonal characters.
i could imagine having such amazing power and somewhere to be (the company) and then in one day she loses her
only family and subsequently losing her place within the company. Then finding out the one thing that makes you
more spectaculer than any other human being in the world is killing you. malfunctiong to the point that it does to
you what you have done to so many others withou a second thought.

She must be going through torture. Kristen(kirsten?) bell really pulled off the tortured girl very well.
And i know that if i was on a plane (which im terrified of anyway) with malfunctioning electricity flowing from me
i would reak the f**k out...more along the lines of what she did to sylar than those small outbursts she had.



Awesome.

@Nexus.

Definitely, I think claire is undergoing a massive change, physically and psychologically. She seems somewhat jaded by the whole powers thing. Her character is getting darker too, which I guess is reflected in the flash forwards we see. It's all part of her journey I guess.
And I did feel a bit sorry for Elle, she doesn't know what to do. She's got no-one and has only known one thing for her sheltered life. When she needed help she didn't turn up at the Bennett's and say look I'm really sorry for everything but I need your help, she handled it like she would have any other situation, "home invasion".
It could have been a good opportunity for them to bond and for elle to get some of that support she needed but I wasn't surprised when she walked into Pinehearst.

i know elle was desperate but i thought that walk into pinehearst was a bit random.

i mean i know she's desperate to stop from electrocuting herself, but i thought she still wanted her power?
and she just goes running in when she's told that they take powers away.

i was a bit confused at her thought process there.

Why would she want her powers when she's no longer working for The Company?

Just some thoughts.

I guess being electracuted every few minutes would take its tool. Better powerless than dead.

I think with Claire we need to understand the difference in feeling pain and not feeling anything.
When the glass was stuck in her hand she did not feel anything! Not feeling anything would be a scary prospect. Think of being juiced up on an anesthetic not a nice thought.

I too can accept maybe this had something to do with Sylar or maybe events have happened where another virus / mutation has been release.

In season one and now in season three Peter has had the scar in the future, so it does indicate that me must loose his power and regain it again??

Yeah that was kind of random, I agree I think she still wants to keep her powers.

She is seen holding a gun in the promo shots for an upcoming episode. So she loses her powers,.... either from Arthur/Sylar or the eclipse.

I can't help but taste that this issue with Claire is somehow linked to everything Kito told Hiro in the 1st eps of the season, the whole 'light to safeguard against the dark' thing... Adam had the same ability as Claire (at least as far as we, as fans, were told), Adam also died in the episode "Dying of the Light." Something tells me that people with Claire's ability are targets for Arthur's (the same way precogs are), possibly because they can undo the results of the formula.

Kito also has a connection with Claire because he was the one to give her to Noah (HRG), its like he made the cake and gave it away not telling / knowing what it had in it. Kito said, "If she manifests, [return her]" when giving her up to HRG. And don't even get me started on HRG issues with giving away his "daughter" to any of these company people, just look at the way he handled Mohinder taking Claire's blood... like HRG knows more too.

However if she is the / a key to this whole problem how is the plot dynamic any different that Season 1's "Save the cheerleader, save the world," scheme, except this time its "use the cheerleader to save the world."

Wow thanks lots!! I finally understand understand what Claire's going through. It would just be so weird all the time, as if something was missing. I mean, it's not as big a deal as being electrocuted 24/7, but her fear about not being able to feel anything is pretty justified. It would be quite scary

Well, Elle and Claire are connected to by the trauma caused to them by Sylar. Although Claire was put through a lot more in terms of Sylaring, Elle also had to deal with the death of her father and her expulsion from the company. You can expect that those all those things would just completely destroy Elle's control over her power