I didn't notice that accent, but that might just be because I have enough troubles understanding everything since English isn't my first language. Still I'll pay attention to it next time.
I think that the new guy Samuel isn't a completely bad person. He believes in the right things but he uses wrong methods. If you ask me, Sylar is going to get his body back and he is going to use Samuel as his wing man.
But in the end I think that he might be a good guy.
I'm very curious to how the deaf girl is going to fit in the picture. I think that she will be close to Peter as it seems that he can see the color-sounds as well, but I'm not sure about that last part.
I hope that Gretchen won't cause too much troubles, but she talks a lot so I think that there is going to be some sort of betrayal or something which will cause Clair troubles.