Cockroaches are tied in with the concept of another species the heroes being more evolved or superior to humans from Mohinder s opening speech They also are linked to the idea of a divine plan at work as they are proposed as the true image of God If they had just appeared randomly without introduction I would agree that they wouldn t deserve the status of recurring element However their being mentioned the very first time we meet Mohinder combined with what he s saying about them puts cockroaches in the status of recurring element at least in my mind Perhaps future episodes will help clarify one way or the other