Victoria Pratt says "I knew blowing your head off was the only way to be sure." to Adam.

If she knows this, why doesn't the rest of the founders? Or at least Bob who runs the company?

Adam says that they would have killed him if they could, but couldn't, so they locked him up and threw away the key.

But seems they can and one of them knows how as well!

On a side note, they had Adam locked up for 30 years. Why didn't they draw his blood and stockpile it, instead of running to find Claire when they finally needed it. With the operations they run, surely they would think Adam's blood would be handy.

Adam said that "once your head's gone, there's no coming back". Not victoria...i think...
Plus, i dont think the company knows about the beheading part...maybe adam found that out himself in his 400 year time!

Victoria said that while she pointed the shot gun at Adam, before Peter saved him.

... but wouldn't it really suck if they blew his head off, buried him, and found out later that they miscalculated and he was back, on the loose - and had been for several years? He could do a lot of damage. Maybe they figured it'd be easier just to keep an eye on him. And besides... his blood CAN heal... perhaps they thought it best not to burn all their bridges.

The real answer? No flippin' clue. I hope we find out though.

As to why they locked him up instead of killing him...

I mean, he did bring all the founders together, and was their kinda-mentor. I believe it was sentimentality that kept them from killing him. They believed instead that they could just lock him away and be done with it.

Linderman was his disciple...so not all wanted to lock him!
Maybe he helped Adam escape?

Well, i think they know that Linderman was his disciple only later, almost after the fact as it were. Kaito doesn't believe whats-her-face when she says Adam must have had help. Now, i don't consider Kaito stupid by any means, and the fact that whats-her-face left is a sign that she just may well be a great deal more intelligent than the others =P

So i think Linderman and them hid their utter support of Adam, and once he was put away, decided to keep his plans going, but in the shadows, without having to release Adam himself and give themselves aways.

Flimsy, kinda, but i'm ok with it. It assumes a lot of things that we know nothing about.

I think Adam was just supporting that rumor to keep Peter in a sort of scare-check so he was afraid of Victoria, and Adam could get away with killing her.

If Adam's blood can heal by itself, it isn't something his mind could do. I think if his head got blown off, even without his concious healing ability his blood would restore his head.

"I knew blowing your head off was the only way to be sure."

I don't think so. Adam was blown to pieces in ancient Japan and he was able to regenerate that, too.

Well, he may have been blown up back in 1671, but we don't know for sure if his head was blown to pieces.

... but what about in the future when Sylar takes Claire's power?

Surely if you got a spoon and stirred around in there, their power would cease to exist?

'cause I don't think Claire would be OK just letting Sylar take her power- and it's seen in Season 1 that when something is lodged in their brain, their powers cease to function...

Thesis: Stab Adam in the head and THEN cut him to shreds

No he wasn't blown to pieces...
You saw his badly burnt body lying there still in one piece...

Maybe it is a hint on how the likes of hiro and peter are going to stop adam in the finale next week. Blow his head off lol.

Maybe he dies if he catches a flu virus... like in War of the Worlds... joke LOL

OMFG>..those aliens died of a flu?

lmao not exactly, the died from exposure to Earth's microbes in general. Apparently, on Mars, they didn't have them creatures

Wow, them aliens aint so tough

hmm MAYBE if they behead adam, clair or peter their body will grow back.. their entire body will grow out from the head! haha! or if they blow their head off they'll grow a head back..

When Adam and Hiro are fighting in White Beard's camp, he tells Hiro "stop time. Kill me. Cut off my head." (Which of course Hiro refuses to do.) So Adam knew what would kill him even back then.

Not sure why the other founders wouldn't know or just try it. But for some reason they decide not to kill Adam and not to destroy strain 138.

In talks of the future, interesting enough that Adam wasn't shown in "the future."

It's really tough to say but it is a possibility that if the head is cut off then the body doesn't regenerate. But in the first season Peter was killed by Sylar when a piece of glass was lodged in the back of his head right at the brain stem, so it seems likely that if the brain is damaged then regeneration is not possible. Peter only came back to life once Claire pulled the glass out of the back of his head. I guess we will have to wait and see.