Sylar

Template:Heroes character box Gabriel Gray, more commonly known by his assumed name of Sylar, is a fictional character and one of the main antagonists on the NBC drama Heroes. Portrayed by Zachary Quinto, he is a superpowered serial killer who targets other superhumans in order to steal their powers. Sylar serves as the primary antagonist of the first season of the series.

Concept and creation

The original concept of Sylar was of a killer who ate his victims' brains and "digested their power"; however, in order to avoid the potential silliness and zombie associations, the producers deliberately made this fact vague in the series. In the season three premiere, he acquired Claire Bennet's ability after opening her skull and using his intuitive aptitude to analyze her brain; when Claire asked if he was going to eat it, he replied, "Claire, that's disgusting".

Prior to Quinto's first appearance in the episode "Seven Minutes to Midnight", the role of Sylar is played by stunt doubles, with the character's face being obscured by shadows. Sylar's voice during a telephone conversation is that of voice actor Maurice LaMarche.

Personality

Sylar was raised as the son of a watchmaker, but always felt that he was special and deserved more in life. This and the "evolutionary imperative" to acquire new abilities are what drive him to kill the victims with powers. Taking the name "Sylar" from a watch brand, he has shed all connections to his former life as Gabriel Gray, to the point of becoming angry when called Gabriel (with the exceptions of his mother and when he temporarily lost his powers). Quinto has said of his character,

"The sad part is, he's initially well-intentioned. He wants to improve his life. He wants to make a difference. He wants to matter. Through the process of realizing how to do that, he gets blinded and loses himself in the pursuit of it and goes a little crazy—'a little' being an understatement."

Quinto also observed,

"He's definitely somebody that has been overcome by a hunger and overcome by a pursuit for power and for importance that did start a little more innocuously than it evolved into."

When asked if he thought Sylar was irredeemable or not, Quinto responded,

"I think there's a certain point at which you cross a line and it's sort of irrevocable.... I don't know what the writers have in mind, but it would probably be kind of a challenge at this point, you know?"

Character history

Genesis

File:Heroes Sylar2.jpg

Sylar was originally portrayed by stunt doubles before the casting of Zachary Quinto, as evidenced in his appearance during "One Giant Leap".

The episode "Six Months Ago" reveals that Sylar's real name is Gabriel Gray, a highly talented watch repairman. He encounters Chandra Suresh, who tells Gabriel that he may be an evolved human with superhuman powers. Gabriel eagerly submits to testing. After being rejected by Suresh because the test results are indeterminate, Gray contacts another person on Suresh's list, Davis. Gray discovers that he himself has the power of intuitive aptitude, and murders Davis for his telekinetic powers. After returning to Suresh, he becomes "Patient Zero", and continues to work with Suresh until Suresh realizes that Sylar is murdering the people that they meet. He kills Suresh soon after.

Sylar is first referenced in season 1, episode 1, when Mohinder Suresh finds a cassette tape labeled "SYLAR" on both sides in his dead father's New York apartment. His character is next mentioned in the series as a mysterious serial killer sought out by the FBI, whose existence is completely speculative. Appearing as a shadowy figure, he attempts to obtain Molly Walker's power after failing the first time, obtains the power of Charlie Andrews, and attempts to obtain Claire Bennet's regenerative abilities, but is stopped by Peter Petrelli. He is greatly injured and is captured by Eden McCain and the Haitian to be experimented on. After various experiments, Sylar manages to escape, but he is again repelled from an attempt to obtain Claire's power.

Remembering Suresh's list, Sylar makes his way to Zane Taylor, and by posing as the person Zane was expecting, Mohinder Suresh, he kills him and obtains his power. After Mohinder arrives, Sylar poses as Zane, and convinces Mohinder to take him to help convince other people with special abilities that Mohinder’s research is real. After meeting and obtaining enhanced hearing from a woman named Dale, Mohinder discovers Sylar's identity and manages to incapacitate him with drugs. After experimenting on Sylar to create a new list of people with special powers and attempting to kill him, Mohinder is captured. After Peter shows up and is temporarily killed by Sylar, Mohinder knocks him out, but ends up leaving Isaac Mendez's address on the ground.

After meeting Isaac, and being told that his fate is to die at the hands of the other heroes, he takes Isaac's power to paint the future. He soon finishes a painting depicting himself about to kill and acquire the power of the radioactive Ted Sprague, and believes himself to be the "exploding man". Believing that only those that "don't deserve" their powers are the ones that need to die, he doesn't want to kill innocent people. After attempting to confide in Mohinder, he returns home to his mother in the hope that she will tell him that it is fine not to be special and live as a normal watchmaker. She tells him that he can be anything, including the president, causing him to demonstrate his powers and accidentally injure her. This causes her to panic, which eventually leads to her death, and Sylar deciding that his path is correct.

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Sylar being stabbed by Hiro Nakamura.

After acquiring the radioactive powers of Ted, Sylar paints a picture of himself facing off against Peter Petrelli at Kirby Plaza. Realizing Peter is part of his final destiny, Sylar prepares to hunt him down. Before he can leave, Ando Masahashi arrives to kill him, though Ando is easily thwarted. After Sylar discovers the comic depicting his death at the hands of Hiro Nakamura, Hiro appears and rescues Ando. Sylar sets off for Kirby Plaza to wait for Peter. After a struggle involving Sylar, Peter, Matt Parkman, and Niki Sanders, Peter begins the process of exploding, showing Sylar that he is not the exploding man. Soon after, Hiro arrives and stabs Sylar as the comic depicts, which causes him to collapse.

Generations

Sylar is rescued by Candice Wilmer, who uses her powers of illusion to make Sylar disappear. After undergoing eight surgeries, he eventually awakes and realizes that he cannot use his powers. Though Candice promises that they will come back eventually, he kills her and attempts to acquire her power in order to start over. After realizing that it also doesn't work, he attempts to leave, though he realizes that he is in the middle of a dense jungle in Mexico. After wandering for three days, he is rescued from the brink of death by the passing-by Maya and Alejandro Herrera. He introduces himself using his real name, and eventually finds out that they are in search of Chandra Suresh to help control Maya's power. He tells them that he knows Suresh, and that he will take them to him.

He continues to travel with them, and while Alejandro becomes more distrustful of Sylar, Maya becomes more trusting of him. After teaching Maya to control her powers, he convinces her that her brother hates her and that in her heart she wanted to see his wife dead. Convincing her to send Alejandro away, Sylar is eventually confronted by Alejandro, he kills him, but states that he would have let Alejandro go had he not come back. Soon after, Maya confesses her love for Gabriel, and they reach Mohinder's apartment. Sylar attempts to obtain a cure for his condition, later revealed to be the same strain of the Shanti Virus which Niki was infected with. Upon finding that Sylar cannot use any of his obtained abilities, Mohinder attempts to kill Sylar, causing Maya to find out Sylar's true intentions. Sylar then takes Maya, Mohinder and Molly hostage, later forcing Mohinder to give Sylar the cure. He escapes with the cure, however injured due to an attack from Elle.

Villains

At the start of Volume Three: "Villains", Sylar injects himself with the cure, healing his wounds and regaining use of his telekinesis. He tests this out by summoning a can to his hand, ominously remarking, "I'm back."

Sylar makes his way to California and not only takes Company files on several high level superhumans, but also gains Claire's ability of regeneration, though he does not kill her in the process. He remarks that Claire's ability is different from other superhumans, saying he could not kill her even if he wanted to. He is later confronted by Company agents Bianca Karina and Gael Cruz, but easily disposes of them.

Sylar later manages to get inside the Company headquarters, kill Bob Bishop and acquire his power. He then confronts Elle and Noah Bennett on Level 5, where Elle had just released Noah to hunt him down. Though Noah shoots Sylar several times, Sylar regenerates and mocks Bennett before telekinetically tossing him. Sylar then attempts to steal Elle's power, but is thrown back and knocked unconscious by the violent electrical burst she discharges in reaction to the pain. The discharge also disables the security system and allows a dozen dangerous inmates to escape the complex. Before Sylar can regain consciousness, he is sedated and his powers are neutralized.

Sylar is held in a Level 5 prison cell, where he is visited by Angela Petrelli, who tells him that she is his mother. She then introduces him to Bridget, a girl who can see the history of an object by touching it. Angela tells him Bridget is there to "feed" him, and Sylar subsequently kills Bridget and takes her power. When Noah Bennet returns to The Company to hunt down the escaped villains, Angela assigns Sylar as his partner, sending the two out to confront the villains and save the trapped Peter Petrelli. Sylar shows a new side, wanting to prove that he is not just a killer, to both himself and Bennet. Sylar subsequently saves Bennet from Knox and Jesse using his telekinesis. However, his "hunger" reinstates itself. He locks Noah out of the bank and kills Jesse for his power, allowing Knox to escape. Afterwards, Sylar is placed back in his Level 5 cell.

Powers, abilities and skills

Chandra Suresh described Sylar's original power as "intuitive aptitude", the ability to know almost instantly how things work by looking at them and to manipulate patterns within complex systems (shown as a flashback in "Six Months Ago"). This ability made him a natural at restoring timepieces. In "One of Us, One of Them", Angela Petrelli tells Sylar that his original ability makes him crave new powers. After meeting Brian Davis, he learns to use this ability to locate the source of power in his victims' brain, enabling him to acquire their abilities. He cannot acquire an ability from a dead person.

Although the original concept was that Sylar ate the brains of his victims to acquire their powers, it was later changed, and what Sylar did once he removed a victim's brain was left intentionally ambiguous. When Tim Kring was asked if Sylar eats brains, he replied, "That's the popular speculation. There is a connection between the powers and the brain - and Sylar has found it." Mr. Bennet mentions that Sylar's powers are a product of using foreign DNA to alter his own. In "The Second Coming", the question is resolved on-screen when Claire asks him if he is going to eat her brain; he responds with disgust at the idea. To acquire her ability, he simply studies her brain for a short period, and upon discovering the source of her power is able to use it himself.

Of all the powers Sylar has acquired, the most prominently used is telekinesis. In contrast to the limited abilities that Brian Davis displayed, Sylar's skills are far more advanced; he exhibits both fine control (precisely cutting open the skulls of his victims) and sheer force (flipping a police van), in addition to using it to enhance his own strength to superhuman levels. Tests done on Sylar by Bennet's associate Hank show no overt signs of powers other than telekinesis, though he has all of his acquired powers. In "The Hard Part", Sylar demonstrates he can use at least two of his acquired abilities at the same time.

During the first season, Sylar acquires or displays the following abilities:

• Telekinesis from Brian Davis (Six Months Ago)

• Cryokinesis from Unknown (First seen in Don't Look Back)

• Enhanced Memory from Charlie Andrews (Seven Minutes to Midnight)

• Liquification from Zane Taylor (Run!)

• Superhuman hearing from Dale Smither (Unexpected)

• Precognition (expressed through painting) from Isaac Mendez (.07%)

• Induced radioactivity from Ted Sprague (Landslide)

When Sylar was infected with the Shanti virus, all of his powers were suppressed. The only powers he acquired before the infection that he has demonstrated since recovering are his original power and telekinesis. He has acquired the following additional powers since recovering from the virus:

• Rapid cellular regeneration from Claire Bennet (The Second Coming)

• Alchemy from Bob Bishop (The Butterfly Effect)

• Clairsentience from Bridget Bailey (One of Us, One of Them)

• Precognition (expressed through painting) from Isaac Mendez (I Am Become Death)

• Sound manipulation (expressed through voice) from Jesse Murphy (One of Us, One of Them)

Reception

Sylar was named one of the best new villains on TV by Entertainment Weekly. Sylar was also named the best villain of 2007 by IGN.

Appearances in other media

Zachary Quinto provides the voice of a Robot Chicken-parodied Sylar in the episode "Bionic Cow". In it, he kills a man named "Uncle Glen", who is apparently able to remove his fingers, failing to realize that this is a simple sleight of hand trick to impress young children. He instead inherits Glen's power of "explosive diarrhea," remarking that sometimes his power backfires.