9 Stupidly Risky Plans From TV's Most Notorious Villains

6. Emile Danko Throws A US Senator From A Window €“ Heroes

It's safe to say that Nathan Petrelli is something of a turncoat. Despite being an evolved human himself and originally believing them to be an extension of God's will, after his family's plans to synthetically give humans evolved abilities fails, he blows the lid off this species living any sort of a normal life by unveiling their existence to the President. Consequently, he sets up a taskforce to capture any folks who showcase similar abilities and put them in places they can't do any harm. Heading up this snatch operation is one Emile Danko, who reports directly to Petrelli as the Senator in charge. What with this being a drama (and at this stage of the game, a good one), it's never quite as simple as that, especially with Nathan being evolved himself. So over the first season, Danko steadily unravels, seeking to execute superhumans and butting heads with the boss he slowly becoming more suspicious of. This culminates in the episode Shades Of Gray, when the former Homeland Security agent puts two and two together (Tracy Strauss's testimony and the fact everyone else in Nathan's family has powers) and comes to the conclusion that Nathan must have powers. To test this, he shoves the Senator out of a window to see if he can fly. Just for a second, imagine if Danko had been wrong. He doesn't have categorical proof of Nathan's evolved status, just a lot of clues that point to a likely conclusion. But that's all this conclusion is €“ likely. There's still room for doubt €“ Tracy recanted her earlier statement and Nathan's mother said she doesn't know if abilities are hereditary €“ and even if there wasn't, Danko can't even be 100% certain that his boss acquired flight as an ability, and not something else. If he'd been wrong €“ and there was sizeable chance he could've been €“ Danko would've just thrown a US Senator from a window, and would be going to jail incredibly quickly. Luckily for him, Nathan exonerated his underling by having the good grace to fly off, and saves the unhinged spook a long, long spell in prison.