How Do Heroes Become Villains?

Previously on Heroes: This week’s episode of Heroes was a journey back in time to discover the origin of villany among our characters. What was it that made some do good and others evil? The answer, according to the creators, is simply a single wrong choice that led them down a path of destruction.

All men start out good and morally upright, the creator’s suggest, but are driven to villany by a series of wrong choices that they cannot escape from. Take, for example, season one’s master villian Sylar. Sylar, also known as Gabriel Gray, was a good, kind, sweet, and scared young man who wanted to be special. He had no desire to be a supervillian serial killer. This week we found out how he became such a man. He had killed one man to take his powers but had no desire to continue this trend. What compelled him? Elle, working for the company, sets a trap and tempts him to steal the powers of another “special” person, he succumbs and is lost in a sea of confusion and lust for more power.

A similiar situation happens to Angella Pitrelli who has a sweetness about her in this flashback episode. She loves her family and believes that her husband’s plans must take a back seat to the safety of others. But when backed into a corner, forced to chose between Mr. Petrelli’s plan and her son Nathan’s life, she kills her husband.

Heroes is a show about choices. In season one Niki gives up the life of a stripper and mercenary to save and protect her family. But in this season what we are finding out is less than Biblical. All men are not born pure an innocent. They are born evil, with sinful hearts. Every man is a step away from villiany.

Angella may have been forced into a corner where her situational ethics allowed her to take the life of her husband but she and Sylar cannot escape the reality that all men are born in sin. The real truth is that even our favorite real life heroes are just as likely to become supervillians as anyone else.

In fact, the Bible tells us we are all sinners in need of that one Hero who can never become a villian: Jesus Christ. Villany is in all of our hearts, but thanks be to God (as the apostle Paul would say) that the Hero of heroes can transform our hearts.