Headscratchers / No Ordinary Family

Stephanie's super speed eating.

Doesn't using your super speed to eat muffins to fuel your super speed seem a bit circular and defeats the purpose?

• Considering how many calories are in a muffin and how little energy it takes to eat (even at super speed), it probably works out the way she intends.
  • She must also have got the power of super-digestion along with the speed. Piling a plate of muffins into your stomach isn't the same as digesting and getting energy from said muffins. I can totally buy the idea that she needs mass quantities of food to fuel her body, but not that she has endless room in which to put it.

Super Speed Cleaning

How does Stephenie's power effect the speed of the vacuum?

• It wouldn't but vacuums don't work based on you pushing them. They work based on creating a vacuum to suck stuff up. What would be affected would be the spinning comb that kicks up stuff for the vacuum to suck in.
  • The vacuum still needs some time to suck up the dirt before moving on to the next spot. Zipping it around super fast would not allow for that. It's just something fancy for us to look at and not think about too much.

Super Speed Phone

How does Stephenie get a cell signal going 600mph?

• Doesn't cell signal (electromagnetic waves in general, in fact) travel in the speed of light? Worst that can happen is she getting away from the signal area before that.
• The only major delay would be the towers being able to transfer from one tower to the next fast enough as well as the delay of the transmission software doing stuff. But considering that passenger planes can travel about as fast as she and receive transmissions, there's not much issue.
• The real problem if anyone looks, is that she's changing towers too quickly with no explanation. No plane ticket or flight plan going along that path. Ground transportation can't go that fast. Running through an open desert, which really shouldn't have any reception, was a good plan given what we've seen before.
• See, this troper was wondering about Stephanie's perception while in superspeed. Doesn't she experience things as slowed down? How could she handle a conversation with her regular speed husband if she's perceiving everything in hyperspeed?
  • She can turn her Super-Speed on and off.
• But she was still running. She can turn off her superspeed perception while still running at superspeeds? No wonder she fell.
  • The show is somewhat bad at being clear on this. When the slow-mo effects happen, notice that we also see -her- in slow mo. When we see things at speed, she's also at speed. At any rate, moving at 600 MPH wouldn't really cause an noticeable amount of time dilation. More than that, it's not as if all things are 'moving' in the same manner - driving your car faster doesn't make your radio work any differently.

Det. Cho's Death

Really? And the best she gets is to die on all fours with a "Please... someone help me..." (BANG)? I know we're trying to be like the comics and all but maybe just a -little- less disposable?

• We don't know for sure if she's dead yet, as the shot was fired offscreen. Since the villain was outside the room, he wouldn't be able to aim correctly is she ducked or rolled over.
• The impression I got was that he was holding her in place with telekinesis.
  • Of course, we can't know for sure.
• To be fair, if you are facing your own death, not to mention murder at the "hands" of a being with powers way beyond your own, how would you react? In any case, we didn't see the death on-screen...who knows what could have happened?
  • The thing is, it's not about the reaction. That's actually understandable. It's that she's shown to be a reasonably strong person (plus, ya know, a COP who faces life threatening situations every day) and yet crumples like a piece of paper; imagine Jim getting caught (say by Galactus) and suddenly whimpering in the same way. A similar reaction would be understandable... but it only does negative things to his character. It's that she seemingly set up to be somewhat relevent. It's that she was one of two minority characters on the show as well as a nice female character. It's bugs me because it's got Unfortunate Implications all around which are doubled up precisely because she's an Asian female (ie it's more than that she's a minority, it's more than that's female, but also because there's that stereotype that Asian females are wimpy passive things designed to serve and please you). And because, hey, I'm not Caucasian so it'd be refreshing to have some sort of mildly prominent story-relevant character that I can actually describe as "Mighty Whitey didn't have to save their rear this week!"
    • Okay, she's a cop. This obviously means she's used to facing down guys with friggin' telekinesis. I don't fault her for being scared out of her mind.
    • Not to mention the fact that she at least managed to look her attacker in the eye and believably lie about the fact that someone else has powers/knows about people with powers.
    • As opposed to... I don't know... Katie and George who's first reaction to practically any other super is "Ohh shiny powers! I want to know more!" Or any sort of danger for the matter. Who aren't cops and usually don't face life threatening danger and the horrible things people do to each other every day. If there were a little more diversity in the cast so it didn't feel so token, then it'd be a bit better because it's less implication-y.
    • When Katie and George see someone using powers, they see their friends using the powers, which would obviously make it less threatening. Det. Cho saw a stranger using the powers to kill her.
• She is dead, either he was holding her down with telekinesis, or she really is that disposable
• It was confirmed in an interview with the show's producers that "her current story arc is over" but also that "she might come back in a later episode." Of course, that could mean a flashback sequence.
  • Shapeshifting, or possibly somebody with the power to to revive people. Maybe even a zombie attack?
• Am I the only one who thought, although it's a shame that someone has been killed at all, at least it's the idiot who tried to stop Jim from being a superhero?

Why the lack of masks?

Seriously. Jim goes around lifting cars and tossing people off buildings, and thinks that nobody will recognize him? Sure, the two people who could incriminate him are dead now, but still. And Stephanie. Infiltrating a high-security building. Sure, she can run 600 mph, but what if a camera caught her somehow? She'd be screwed. Why couldn't she think of wearing something to cover her face?

• Because the studio executives think it sells better, apparently. Still, I bet the viewing public would forgive Stephanie wearing a ski mask for a break-in.
• At least for Stephanie, her assistant handwaves it with a "If you slow down, you get seen on camera" and the episode does show that there is evidence. As for Jim... no handwave there other than maybe people's weirdness censor.
• And let's not forget Jim's not been wearing gloves either. Hello? Fingerprints? You'd think someone who works for the police would think about that.
  • While true, to a certain extent, he's safe in that the things he does usually wouldn't make people look for prints. For instance, when he flips the van, would someone really think to dust the rear bumper for fingerprints on a flipped over van? Granted, this doesn't make him not using gloves any less silly and stupid, but there's some possible explanation why he's safe (for the moment).
• On the other hand, Stephanie is even worse than Jim. At least Jim and George keep the more overt things on the downlow and avoid saying certain things when around others. Stephanie? She jogs at superspeed around a busy super-store.
• No Ordinary Mobster addresses this (sorta). Apparently when it comes to really bad guys, Jim wisely goes for a mask. Though also played with in that the mask easily comes off anyway.
• Jogs around the store? How about this one. In No Ordinary Accident, there is a point where she is in her lab talking to Katie and has to leave to get some laboratory stuff from home, to research Jim's power loss. She blurs right out of the lab, then comes back about 30 seconds later. Sure she can do that in front of Katie, but the room she was in has glass walls on all 4 sides, and there were a good dozen people walking around, some in the background working on things on the other side of one of these glass walls, thus with their line of sight going RIGHT into Stephanie's lab. Even if no one can see her when she's moving, certainly SOMEBODY should have noticed Doctor Powell seemingly teleporting out of and back into her lab. To horribly maim an old saying, supers in glass rooms shouldn't use powers.
  • Stephanie really is letting her brain slide, it's really stupid how often she blurs ou of a room with people all around and 4 glass walls
  • Yeah, even considering a Weirdness Censor (and let's face it, even in real life, we have a pretty good one), her uses are so out in the open, she's just -asking- for trouble. As for Jim, in "No Ordinary Sidekick", there's a brief note in the starting sequence where George tells Jim to get away before the cops show up and then when George leaves abruptly, starts muttering to himself about George not taking the pipe he used to beat up the bad guys due to fingerprints. So apparently, they -are- paying attention to that sort of thing at some level.
• No Ordinary Animal adds in going at super speed literally in front of a crowd of people and stealing something from the hands of someone.

Super brain equals Super sports???

JJ might make a damn good coach, but I don't care how smart he is, practical aplication of knowledge of physics doesn't translate to perfect hand eye coordination and physical strength. pleanty of poeple understand the theory behind throwing a football,doesn't mean if they try the actually can throw it with perfect accuracy,and then add to that the sudden strength to actually get the ball down field?no. I'm sorry but I just don't buy it.

• It's less of a problem if you assume that he's factoring in his own physical shortcomings in his calculations.
• We also don't know how his powers affect him completely. We assume he has more neurons and connections in his brain to handle all the processing it does. This may have gone on to affect his entire nervous system which allows for somewhat precise motor control. I'll give you the strength. We can give him a slight increase due to effects to the nervous system, but if you can't throw it three feet, it's not going to go 100 yards.
• Even if the super brain somehow does make him bullseye, there is a lot more to sports than throwing a ball well (without wondering as to how he can throw it far) he'll eventually have to run the ball, not to mention he'll take a hit sooner or later,and small as he is,that would not end well at all. I just really don't see how they come up with genius = sports star, if that was at all plausible, physicists and other nerds through the decades would have had much easier childhoods.
  • Considering said nerds don't have Super-Intelligence?
• At this point in time, JJ is second string quarterback. So 1) He's not going to participate in the whole game 2) Most of the QB's job comprises of throwing the ball, so he'll rarely ever need to run, 3) if he needs to run, he can look around the field and calculate how fast the enemies are coming at him, and use that to dodge.
• He could be using his powers to show himself how to throw the ball while also using them to show where and whatever. And maybe JJ does have enough strength or skill to throw it but needs his intelligence for whatever else.
• The major problem, athletic component aside (I think everyone will agree that playing a sport requires some level of athletic training to be good at no matter how well smart you are), is that just being 'smart' and knowing movement/how to throw does not translate one of the major components of any sport or game: strategy. Yes, you can throw very well and see what's happening right now, but that doesn't tell you anything about the meta-game going on. And there are many cases where a QB's ability has nothing to do with the play succeeding (in so far as a catch) - receivers may be covered, someone may be blitzing, etc. This is less of an issue as he gains experience, but it's silly when he runs out on the very first time and nails a big play.
  • True, but the only reason he nailed that big play was because of a strategy. He wasn't just showing himself how to throw the ball, he was showing himself where to throw it in relation to everyone on the field. In other words, a plan. And everyone complaining must be glad to know that he now realizes that a super brain doesn't equal super sports and that football is not all math.
  • It's not that he has a plan. By definition, running a play -is- a plan and it doesn't take a super brain to do that since most quarterbacks can do just fine without. There's nothing wrong with having a superbrain in that regard or using it in sports (most quarterbacks tend to score higher than other positions in football). It's that there's a lot more to a sport than just 'a plan' since there are factors that JJ would overlook due to inexperience or outright lack of knowledge. The sort of defense being run and how to properly respond to that especially once you take into consideration player tactics designed to confuse the quarterback or individual player ability on both sides of the ball. Even the best NFL quarterbacks tend to have at most a 75% completion rating in any given game (assuming significant number of throws) and a good number of the incompletions are not because the plan didn't work but because there just wasn't anyone open to recieve the ball, because there was an unexpected pass rush that the linemen didn't pick up, a reciever becomes outclassed by a more experienced cornerback, or what have you. And on the shows part, JJ has been shown to easily make mistakes and screw up despite (and because of) his superintelligence; so him realizing that knowing the strategy (which would make him a good coach, if anything) is not a "Told you so moment". Rather, it's natural that hey, he probably makes for an awesome coach... but he's a kid of average height who hasn't particularly engaged in a lot of exercise no matter -how- smart he is. So really, jocks aren't dumb/easily distracted by shiny things, J Js smart but learns to recognize he's smart but that doesn't make him better or 6 feet tall and 210 lbs of muscle, and that's okay.

Comparison to Heroes

What bugs me is everyone comparing this to Heroes. I liked Heroes (well the first season anyway) Just because there are superpowers doesn't make them anything like each other. Now it is very similar to The Incredibles though.

• I agree. It's nothing like Heroes, save for the people with powers.
• People are only comparing them because No Ordinary Family started around the same time Heroes ended.
• There seems to be an Evil Supers Conspiracy going on, which is another parallel to Heroes (though also common enough in the genre to be justified. So far.)
• Heroes and NOF are pretty much the only modern superhero TV shows in a very long while. There's not a lot of players on the field so the comparison, even if it isn't the best one, is one of the only ones.
• What, Smallville doesn't count?
  • Nope, not in this context. Because it's not a story about superheroes. It's a story about people and the powers are just vehicles for something else. Here, the powers are an essential part of the show. And Smallville, due to sticking closely to the source, also has more of a 'classic' comic book feel compared to the more modern style of Heroes and NOF. They're all superheroes, but their series depend on different things to drive their stories.
  • Yeah, Smallville is sticking as closely to the source as you'd expect . . . from Valley Girls . . .
  • Put it this way. Smallville without superpowers wouldn't change the core themes of the story. Might be less interesting but Smallville is mostly about how a boy turns into a world famous celebrity. Heroes and NOF, without superpowers, would not have a story at all.
• OK NOW the show is turning too much like Heroes. Manipulative boss? Check. Charismatic/creepy powerful killer? Check. People's minds getting erased? Check. Body count rising? Check.
  • The last one is especially egregious. I mean, I thought this was a family show, how many more supporting characters are going to be murdered!?
  • To be fair, a lot of family shows are like this; they basically use non-main cast members as bait for the Aesop of the episode. On the other hand, most family shows also don't depend heavily on any sort of storyline and such so NOF might be writing itself into a hole.
  • Only like 2 supporting characters (Yvonne Cho and Dr. Chiles) were killed. And it's not really a family show, just a comedy/drama/sci-fi show about a family. As for all the comparisons, I could find any of those things in any show (not just one about superheroes or whatever) except maybe the mind-erasing, and even that was solved in only one episode. I mean, just look at Criminal Minds...
• You guys act as if Heroes was the first show to do these things. I mean, I get how No Ordinary Family is a Spiritual Successor and all but come on.
• This troper doesn't understand how it counts as a Spiritual Successor though. They have different tones and are in different genre, family versus ensemble/action show. They only seem to have in common the superpower aspect and an arc mystery/villain but what show these days doesn't?
• Similar to The Incredibles? Not bloody likely. The only thing those two have in common is the family theme. On the other hand, more similarities to Heroes have been seen, as stated above (the mysterious killer with mind powers for one).
  • But why compare it to only Heroes? As was also stated above, Heroes isn't the first show to do these things. Some of the things NOF does have in common took Heroes 4 seasons to establish. NOF isn't even done with it's first one yet. The only reason for the comparison is the fact that NOF started after Heroes ended, again stated above.

Jim's superpower allergy

So I can understand that a chemical in the lip gloss could cause an allergic reaction that temporarily disables Jim's powers. But why doesn't it affect the rest of the family? Stephanie obviously had contact with it, and she probably kissed the kids on the cheek when they left for school.

• Lip Gloss generally isn't made to be absorbed into someone's skin. Furthermore, pouring a chemical directly onto a flower is totally different from putting something on someone's skin. It only affected Jim because it got in his mouth (and thus his bloodstream) when he kissed her. As long as Stephenie had no cuts on her lips, it shouldn't affect her.
  • If the lip gloss is on Stephanie's lips, some of it would get in her mouth when she kissed Jim, not to mention how it would get in her mouth from eating, drinking, etc. But this isn't the biggest problem with this plot point. That stupid flower demonstration ruined it. There is no way that pouring something on a flower will instantly make it shrivel to blackness only to have it fully recover a few hours later. I can pretend that she has superspeed, but I just couldn't for the "look at what our computer can do!" gratuitous special effects.
• On top of that, just like any other allergy, it varies from person to person. Genetics, even between parents and children, can still have a lot to do with it.

Jim Stops a train. What?

• Okay, how long did it take Jim to stop a car? Wouldn't it take at least a little practice to stop a freaking train?! Is anyone else's Willing Suspensionof Disbelief damaged after that?
• 1): He had a lot more space to stop it, and he had practice with the cars. 2): The conductor could have been hitting the brakes (or an emergency brake cut in). There were definitely sparks flying up from where the brakes should be.
• Also, remember how a few episodes ago, he was able to stand for a reasonable amount of time against the shockwave woman? That probably helped somewhat.
• I agree with the WTF up to a point but in the past he always gut pushed under the car, that's not possible with the train so it's straing against a several ton brach grinding tracks in it's path i can see how that could work, but if he tries to catch a Plane next i'm out of here!
• Well if you accept that he can use super-strength to stop a car, you kind of have to just handwave that he can stop a train. Since being strong doesn't mean anything other than preventing him from getting run over by car or train; he still weighs the same and since he's getting pushed back, the most he's doing is acting like an extra pair of brakes.

OK what happened with the characterization in "No Ordinary Sidekick?"

Not so much with the sidekicks quitting, though that felt forced. Suddenly Jim's police rival turns into his adoring fan?? JJ not only gets a girl to notice him but she KISSES him??? How about taking a little more time to make those changes believable?

• Cordero becomes an adoring fan because he's under the (correct) assumption that Jim saved his life. After all the crap that he put Jim through beyond that. That really changes your opinion of someone, y'know. Also: Some girls are just that fast.
  • The problem isn't why, it's how fast. Pacing is important.
    • Jim would seem to agree, Cordero's sudden hero worship seems to have made Jim a little uneasy around him as well (at least at first)
  • Well, it's not as if he hated him in the first place. And Jim saved the man's life. I can understand why he becomes an "adoring fan" as you put it, even though he seemed more thankful and apologetic than adoring.
  • So true. Lets put this in perspective, you work with a guy for years, looking down at him because he is "just a artist" only to find out that this guy not only saved your life. He did it by risking his own, AND doesn't even take credit for it. Think about that for a minute. Imagine if the guy who refills the Vending Machine at your office saved your life and didn't even take credit for it.
    • Not only that but Cordero is aware that he gives (gave) Jim crap and, to him, that makes it a stronger reason. To Cordero, the car wreak was a What You Are in the Dark moment for Jim. Jim could have taken credit. He could have private approached him and told him it was him. He could have used it to guilt trip him into things. Jim could have just left Cordero there to die (or whatever). But he doesn't. And remember, the whole reason Cordero was finding out who it was was so that he could thank the person in the first place. While the episode was pretty quick and fast about the sudden character change, the show does give a lot of reason why it happened.
  • And as for JJ's girlfriend (or ex, I should say), she was shown having problems with the relationship soon after the kiss.

Daphne's Memory Loss

• Daphne severely loses her memory after gaining superpowers and her scientist mother doesn't think it has any connection? She contributes it to stress, what? I mean I know it has nothing to do with her powres but rather with Joshua/Will's interference but still, they should be far more worried than that.
  • What we should be worried about is the illogical and offhand way they dealt with this dramatic plot point. Daphne could have got caught up on what had happened in her family's lives during her memory loss, but how are we expected to believe that she suddenly remembers about everything that happened in her own life? Are we supposed to believe that she suddenly remembers all that she's learned at school and all of her social interactions? Also, the physical touch part of her power seems to just give snapshots of memory, but we were expected to believe that she was back to her old self (minus the memory of Joshua) in a few seconds.
  • Take into account that the family (and Katie) know that Daphne can access the memories of others. The unsaid implication was that whatever "stress" Daphne was under somehow stopped her from accessing her own memories.
  • While I can agree that there should be much more concern for the memory loss, the reason they come up with the stress excuse is because it is the most plausible since they have no reason to believe there is anyone else with mind-related powers (for now) and no reason to believe that they would erase Daphne's mind. Plus, her powers include reading memories—amnesia could be a side effect of any stress (which she is shown having) she experiences.
  • In addition, since step 3 of their problem solving was to have her use her touch telepathy to essentially re-acquire most/all of her memory, they might not have been very worried unless that didn't work. If she'd lost her powers or couldn't get her memory from that, then they might have panicked more. Perhaps it's mostly a fault of the show since the show made it out to be a lot more serious than it was ie next episode it's fixed and never mentioned again.

Steph's speed limit

Not so much a JBM so much as a big sigh. I wish they'd keep some consistency as to how fast Steph can go. In one episode, she has to take 4 hours or so to run to Mexico (from California). In another, she can run to Miami... in just under 8 minutes.

• Okay, I don't remember the running to Miami in 8 minutes thing, but assuming that's real, then we can easily say that their powers are improving.
  • She didn't run to Miami but during the episode where Katie is offered a job in Miami, Katie mentions that even though they're far apart, they can still have lunch together since Stephanie could run there in 7 minutes 30 seconds. I'd have chalked it up to bad math but that's not really any better. And I don't mind them getting better (or tweaking it to suit the needs of the plot) but that sort of speed increase is multiple orders of magnitude greater. And it's a little annoying that they try to justify it with specific numbers rather than simply gloss over it and handwaving it/leaving it to fanwank. At the start of the show, she's clocked at around 600 miles per hour max (her trip to Mexico being about this fast, give or take) or less than the speed of sound (768 MPH). But to do San Fran (give or take) to Miami in 8 minutes (little bit more than 3,000 miles)... at that point, she'd be going at 375 miles a -second- or 22,500 MPH or Mach 29! That's... quite the difference.
    • Uh, maybe it was a joke?
    • That's why this is in the JBM section and not another.
  • Different theory (I was the one who suggested it was just a joke, which it probably was): Steph's powers aren't increasing; rather, it's all in her head. Basically, her top-speed increases the more she accepts the fact she can really move at Super-Speed.
    • Well now you're sounding like Max Mercury, resident Obi-wan of DC speedsters.

Steph taking Victoria's place

I didn't just make up the subplot where Steph is masquerading as a shapeshifted Victoria to Dr. King, right? So why are they still talking to each other as if Steph is Steph? Even in private? Have they all just forgotten? This comes from the most recent episode where Dr. King tells Steph Joshua is "one of Dr. Chiles' more successful experiments," and Steph acts all surprised. But Victoria already knows where the powers come from. Extremely irritating to say the least.

• Wasn't it implied by King and Steph's conversation that "Victoria" was going to head off to Brazil to investigate where the Powell's powers had come from? King probably still thinks this, hence, why him talking to Steph like she's Steph and not Victoria.
  • It was. Effectively, for King, Victoria was put on a bus.

Super-Intelligence sucks at 5 card draw?

Shouldn't his super analytical powers still be able to give him an edge based on probabilities gleaned from his own cards? And even if he can't magically psychoanalyze his opponents, he should still be able to intuit some basic betting strategies and signals, instead of only being able to use what's right in front of his face - at least to the point where he's not getting completely cleaned out as portrayed.

• That's not nearly good enough. He studied 7-card stud. 5 Card Draw is something totally different in principle, with different card-counting algorithms that he didn't prepare for, as well as the added penalty of not being able to see what the other cards were.
• It would give him an edge in the long run, but he would likely lose at first while he was analyzing people's betting strategies and tells.
• Also, cards are still a (mostly) random game. You can know the probabilities and what have you, but having a pair of kings is still having just a pair of kings. As much of the game is a game of people and irrationality and until, as the above noted, JJ was able to learn how people react and play, he'd do as well as anyone else. Even once he did, there's no guarentee he'd do good on any one hand (though he'd likely do well in the long run). And, of course, someone playing randomly or in such a way that JJ couldn't gather any information would still match up evenly against him. For instance, someone playing without ever looking at their cards would provide no information at all for him to work with.

JJ's Supergenius Sight

• So Apparently JJ has microscopic vision too, how else could her identify the bacteria on Stephenie? (haha Steph had Staph)
  • Staph causes some visible symptoms, like swelling and discoloration.
  • Yes, but for him to know exactly what species of Staph is ridiculous.
  • Ridiculous for our puny mortal minds, sure. This is a kid who can learn a language in hours and instantly commit anything to memory for an extended period of time. He doesn't think like anyone on the planet. We literally have no idea what kind of logical process he uses, so of course it seems ridiculous to us. If that doesn't help, I like to think that JJ's power is really the ability to understand things. He notices that Daphne used her Compelling Voice on him. He can see blockages in car engines and pipes in hearts. He can see physics itself.
    • So... you're saying he's Sylar. Greeeat. As if Watcher on his own weren't bad enough. :P
    • Their son in Sylar and their daughter is The Watcher....
    • ... I now have desire to write a fanfic where JJ rips peoples' skulls off and takes their powers.
    • And Daphne erases the memories of anyone who gets in their way as his Dragon?

The season finale (this is probably going to be just a blank paragraph because of all the spoilers)

So maybe it's because they're not sure if the series is going to be renewed, and because it got cut down from 22 to 20 episodes, but the finale was just awful, not the story per se, but the editing, all those Off Screen Teleportations, Doctor King going all doctor Jekyll on them. And just how the hell does he gets all their superpowers besides his own of not dying?. And why on Earth doesn't Josua just calls the damn paramedics to deliver Katie's baby? Had that baby died for real, that would have probably been criminal negligence or something. So yeah, it gives closure, just in case, but there were so many idiot balls bouncing around that... Gah! A guard finds George hiding behind some crates, talking on his cell phone, and the guard of the evil CEO just assumes he is one of the prisoners and puts him in the empowering plane without asking his evil leader? Sorry, but that was just a lazy way to promise a Super George if the series is renewed.

• Why would Joshua Call the paramedics to deliver what he suspects is a super-baby? It would totally break the Masquerade right open if that suspicion came true.
  • How would it break the Masquerade? We've already seen doctors work with supers already. If they haven't noticed anything by now, it's doubtful the baby would help. Besides we know by the end of the episode that the government has finally figured it out.
    • I don't know, it depends on what the baby's powers are, and what control (i.e. NONE) the baby has over them. For all he knew, the baby would cry and blow something up, or telekinetically throw something or someone across a room. Better safe than sorry.
  • Why would Joshua Call the paramedics to deliver what he suspects is a super-baby?, oh, I don't know, maybe because it is his own child? Seriously, would The Masquerade be that important for a guy if he has to choose between keeping it and the life of his son? If The Masquerade was the reason, instead of bad writting, then the whole redemption thing Joshua seems to have going on would be pointless.
• Dr. King getting all of the family's powers actually makes sense, because he wants, more than anything, to be with Stephanie and be a part of her family. Just like Stephanie wanted more time to spend with her family, Jim wanted to protect and fight for his family, JJ wanted to be able to learn, and Daphne wanted to know when people lied to her. Or maybe just because otherwise the whole fight scene would be "let's hit Dr. King with stuff, but nothing will happen to him because he's friggin' immortal" until Stephanie runs in with the antidote. His immortality never went away until he got injected with the Antidote.
  • Yeah, that was probably it. It was just jarring how sudden it all was, and how convenient it seemed, but it kinda makes sense with the theme of getting the powers according to your shortcomings.
• Your last point? The guard had every right to assume George was a prisoner. Because he was sneaking around, as if trying to get away from something.
• I actually agree with you about the Off Screen Teleportations and Dr. King getting everyone's powers. I also hate how They're making George a super. I liked that he was one of the normal characters.
• Also, criminal negligence doesn't mean what you seem to think it means.
  • That is very likely. How is it called when one is responsible for the death off a newborn because of failing to procure appropriate medical care? Seriously, I don't remember how that is called, or if it even has a name. Criminal negligence just kinda sounded right to me at the moment.

JJ's Learning Disability

• In the first episode it is stated that J.J doesn't do well in school because of his learning disability. Having a learning disability doesn't make you stupid. I should know I have A.D.D. and I get straight As. They never specify which disability J.J. had and after he gets his powers its NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN!
  • 1: Your own experience with a learning disability is not everyone else's.
    2: Do we really need to know what the learning disability is? Whatever the disability was, it got removed by the Trillsettum, and it's never mentioned again because he doesn't have it anymore.
  • Also, it was the Jerkass teacher who basically said JJ was "stupid". Nobody else said that his pre-super self was "stupid". Of course, he probably felt like he was, which is why he kept his Super-Intelligence a secret from his parents at first.
  • Fridge Horror: If the Powells are ever cured JJ will go back to being "stupid" just like Dr. King went back to cancerous...
  • The fact is, the reason they didn't mention what disability he had is because the writers properly didn't want hate mail from it being portrayed wrong. And since it was cancelled out by his powers, they would have got more hate mail due to the Unfortunate Implications of him suddenly being cured of it despite there being nothing wrong with him.

Cancellation

• It just bugs me why this show only lasted for one season while similar themed but inferior quality shows like Heroes and Smallville lasted for much longer.
  • Oh look, an opinion.

JJ's Teacher

• I know JJ's teacher is a Jerkass, but why didn't he test JJ's abilities by doing something like giving him an alternate test, or do the Good Will Hunting thing by writing problems on the chalkboard and seeing if JJ could solve them? I mean, there's being a dick, and then there's being stupid.

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