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"Save the cheerleader, save the world!"
Hiro Nakamura[src]

Claire Bennet was one of the main protagonists in Heroes. Was a college student and former cheerleader, adopted by Noah Bennet and his wife, and was the biological (and illegitimate) daughter of Nathan Petrelli and Meredith Gordon and niece of Peter Petrelli and Flint Gordon. After the defeat of Samuel, she revealed her secret on live television, exposing the existence of "evos" to the entire world. Four years after her reveal, she was killed in an apparent terrorist attack at the Odessa Unity Summit, an event meant to celebrate peace between humans and evos in her hometown, despite her ability. In Heroes Reborn, she was the biological mother of twins: Tommy Clark and Malina Bennet. With the help of Quentin Frady, her father Noah embarked on a mission to uncover the truth behind Claire's death and the people responsible for it. Noah eventually learns through time travel that Claire had died giving birth to twins Nathan and Malina after Nathan inadvertently stole her power who's destiny is to save the world from a coming disaster. Unable to save Claire, Noah instead sets out to protect her children. She was an evolved human with the ability to rapidly heal from any injury.

History[]

Early Life[]

Claire is born to Nathan Petrelli and Meredith Gordon, two people possessing abilities. When Claire is 18-months old, Noah Bennet and his partner, Claude Raines, agents of the Company, arrive at her mother, Meredith's, house to abduct Claire. Claude proceeds inside to "do the heavy liftin'" while Noah waits outside until Meredith combusts and blows the door open. Noah runs inside, finding Claire and carrying her out of the burning house. Noah and his wife, Sandra, later adopt her. In the graphic novel Elle's First Assignment, which takes place before the series begins, Bob gives Elle her first assignment, which is to track and follow Claire, posing as a student at Union Wells High School. Elle is reluctant, but Bob informs her that Claire will be important to the Company. Claire is unaware that Elle was following her.

Six months before the start of the series, Claire had just become a cheerleader at her high school, with the help of her friend Jackie Wilcox. During an argument on whether or not she wants to be a cheerleader with Jackie, Claire crashes into a glass case, cutting her hand. When they show Claire's parents, her mother, Sandra, suggests Claire might need stitches. After Claire, Jackie, and Sandra leave for the hospital, the phone rings, and Noah answers. It is Chandra Suresh, a scientist who studies paranormal phenomena, informing him of Claire's power. Several days later, Noah asks if he can see her hand with the stitches. When they unravel the cloth around her hand, they are both surprised to see not even a small scratch.

Heroes[]

Season 1[]

After discovering this abnormal ability, Claire decides to test her healing powers by trying dangerous stunts. She has her friend, Zach, videotape her stunts to document her healing ability in action.

Season 2[]

To Be Added

Season 3[]

In Volume Four, Claire learns that her other father, Senator Nathan Petrelli, is heading a government operation to round up people with special abilities when she overhears Nathan telling her grandmother Angela that they must keep Claire home and far away from this entire operation, having ordered immunity for Claire. 

In the process of trying to warn Peter and Matt about this plan, Claire manages to find Matt. However, upon arriving at his apartment, Matt is captured and Claire is mistakenly taken by Emile Danko's team and hooded as well. Claire is brought to Nathan, who unhoods her and has her released into his custody, sending her back home. Nathan explains he has given Claire a free pass. It is revealed Claire is exempt from this operation due to being under the protection of both her fathers, Noah and Nathan, as Noah is revealed to be also involved with this program. She strongly disagrees with the operation and defies both her fathers.  

However, the operation spins out of control when Danko exposes Nathan's ability, prompting the end of Claire's free pass but Nathan rescues Claire before agents can take her. Her strained father-daughter relationships with Noah and Nathan are mended by the end of this volume.  

Season 4[]

To Be Added.

Heroes Reborn[]

In "June 13th - Part One", it is revealed that Claire attended the Odessa Unity Summit. However, she left and later gave birth to twins. During childbirth, Claire dies from cardiac arrest. Her grandmother, Angela Petrelli, and her adoptive father, Noah Bennet, each name one of Claire's twins. Claire's son is named Nathan by Angela after her deceased son, Claire's biological father. Claire's daughter is named Malina by Noah after his mother.

In "June 13th - Part Two," Angela realizes that the reason Claire died was due to her son having absorbed her power during childbirth. The father of Claire's twins remains unknown.

Powers[]

  • Regenerative Healing Factor: Claire could spontaneously regenerate any tissue in her body, allowing her to recover from almost any injury within seconds to minutes — though she does need larger objects, embedded foreign objects (such as a branch or a shard of glass) to be manually removed from her body, or bones pushed back into position for the wounds to heal properly, bullets can automatically remove out of her body and heal quickly without other things help. Although Sylar, after studying and taking her power, remarks that he wouldn't be able to kill her even if he wanted to and that she will never die, writers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite have confirmed that methods such as decapitation or incineration would indeed kill her. On the other hand, she has survived nuclear explosions.[1][2] In addition to simple healing, Claire has been shown to regenerate at least small extremities. She has experimented with the limits of her powers by cutting off a toe. A new toe rapidly grows into place.[3] Later, Claire can continue regeneration even after being accidentally frozen by Tracy Strauss; she thaws out and her frozen foot, which had broken off in Tracy's hands, is replaced with another foot that regenerates, going beyond Claire's experimentation in which she cut off her pinky toe from the same foot.[4] The dark-future-Claire can regenerate her entire right arm after detonating a grenade during a terrorist raid while working as an HLS agent. [5]
    • Healing Blood: When her blood is injected into others, they are also healed, even if they were dead for a while, with no apparent ill-effects. It is revealed that her injected blood cannot cure tumors; her rapid cell reproduction would accelerate a tumor's growth due to it being living tissue.[6]
    • Contaminant Immunity: With the temporary loss of her powers, it is shown that Claire's abilities protect her from diseases, although this also leaves her natural immune system weak, as she has not built up a resistance to any sickness.[7] Claire reveals that she cannot become intoxicated. She has a drinking contest with a man to get more money for her and her father, Nathan. She drinks over 20 shots and does not demonstrate any signs of being intoxicated. She pretends to be drunk to hide her ability from the man. She later points out to Nathan that her tissue regeneration extends to internal organs like her liver.[8]
    • High Pain Tolerance: Thanks to her power, she has an incredibly high pain tolerance; Claire states that, when injured, she feels pain just as severe as anyone else who was injured in such a way, but her power quickly deadens the pain.[9] When asked about this, series writers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite would only comment that she "feels pain, but not the way most of us do." Claire, describing her response to pain to West, says "I feel pain; I just get over it quickly." Between her tolerance for pain and seemingly unlimited healing potential, Hayden Panettiere compares her character to the X-Men character Wolverine, although she is "less hairy and without claws." Since having her brain examined by Sylar, Claire has stated that she no longer feels any physical pain of any kind.
    • Immortality: She is immortal because she cannot be killed on injuries or diseases, this makes her still exist in a future timeline.

Memorable Quotes[]

"I walked through fire, and didn't get burned."

- Claire, to Sandra (Genesis)


"Your 'gift'? Is that what you call it?"

"What do you call it?"

"My own private freak show."

- Claire, The Haitian (Godsend)


"Nothing is inevitable. The future is not written in stone!"

- Claire (to Angela and Nathan) (How to Stop an Exploding Man)


"Why do you wanna stop bad guys?"

"To help people."

"I don't believe you. You tell me why!"

"...To hurt him, okay?... to hurt him for what he did... he hurt me!"

- Meredith, Claire (One of Us, One of Them)


"You're just giving him what he wants. Attention. He's like a child throwing a tantrum."

"Well I'd like to give him a good spanking."

- Angela, Claire (Dual)


"I heal. It's like what I do."

- Claire (to Tracy) (Brother's Keeper)


"I like to think of myself as just a girl who happens to have powers. And it's just one thing in a list of attributes—loyal, friendly, regenerative, good skin, you know."

- Claire (to Gretchen) (Pass/Fail)


"My name is Claire Bennet and that was attempt number...I guess I've lost count."

- Claire to news cameras (Brave New World)


"Blood?"

- Claire's last word (Save the Cheerleader, Destroy the World)

Notes[]

  • Claire learned she was adopted in 2003 (Company Man), though she once said that she had learned she was adopted when she was "very young" (One Giant Leap).
  • While looking on Gretchen's laptop, Claire's birthday can be seen as August 8 on her "sign up" profile. (Hysterical Blindness)

Claire's Age[]

There are conflicting references as to Claire's age and birthdate. Before production began, a press release noted her age would be 17. In the televised episodes, a newspaper article reported Claire's age as 18 months during the fire on February 28 1992, which would put her birth in August of 1990, and her age as 16. In The Fix (which takes place in October 2006), Claire says she is "almost 16"; this would suggest that her birth was in or after October of 1990. Also, in Building 26, Claire notes that Noah has been telling her that Sandra and Lyle are safer knowing less, since she was 15. Given this would have taken place in 2006, this places her birthday around 1991. Further, Claire's birth mother tells Nathan that their daughter is now 16 (Run!), and later (in March 2007) she calls Claire a "seventeen-year-old girl" (One of Us, One of Them). Claire is a junior (Distractions, Four Months Later...), and most juniors are 16 or 17. Claire's MySpace page indicates her zodiac sign as Aries (which would place her birthday between 21 March and 19 April) and places her birth in 1989. In the commentary for Godsend, Jack Coleman states that Claire has just turned 16. In an interview Tim Kring stated that Claire is 16. At the 2007 San Diego Comic Con, Hayden Panettiere said her character is 15. Incidentally, Claire does drive (Collision); and the legal driving age in Texas is 16, though a driver can obtain a permit at age 15. In March 2007, Mr. Bennet gives Claire a Nissan Rogue for her birthday, which they note is "next month" (April 2007). A fake prop driver license auctioned by NBC lists her birth date as March 10, 1993 (though it should be noted that the license never appeared in any canon source, and lists false information for Claire). Pinehearst's file on her list her birthday as January 11, 1991 (see file) . In Exposed, Sandra explicitly said Claire was 17. Further, Claire attends college during Season Four, implying that she is eighteen years old. This means that Claire was born anywhere from 1989 to 1991, depending on when the season is set.

Trivia[]

  • Claire reveals she discovered her ability the summer before season one on the day of her adoptive mother's, Sandra, birthday on June 8 through a deleted scene from Nothing to Hide (released on the DVD). She wanted to surprise her mom with brownies when she accidentally cut open her thumb with the knife. And by the time she ran over to the sink, it had regenerated itself.
  • Claire learned she was adopted in 2003 (Company Man).
  • Claire meets her biological mother, Meredith Gordon for the first time in (Distractions).
  • Claire gave birth to a set of twins.
  • Claire nickname her twins "Muffin and Squeaker" (Save the cheerleader, Destroy the world).
  • It is unknown who the father of Claire's twins is. Based on the final episode of Heroes Reborn, some viewers believe it was implied this man is evil.
  • Claire dies from cardiac arrest. Due to her son's power manifesting in the womb, her regenerative abilities were absorbed and she wasn't able to survive the heart attack.
  • "Save the cheerleader, save the world" means save Claire ("The Cheerleader") so that she can shoot Sylar as he is about to explode.

Gallery[]

References[]

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