Claire Bennet

Claire Bennet




Played By: Hayden Panettiere
Ability: Rapid Cellular Regeneration (Healing)
Age: 15

Biography:
Claire Bennet lives in Odessa Texas and is a cheerleader for Union Wells High School, the Trojans.

Known Relatives: Mr. Bennet (adoptive father), Sandra Bennet (adoptive mother), Lyle Bennet (brother), Meredith Gordon (biological mother), Nathan Petrelli (biological father), Simon and Monty Petrelli (half brothers), Angela Petrelli (grandmother), Peter Petrelli (uncle), Heidi Petrelli (stepmother)

What We Know

Episode 1x01 - "Origins"

* Claire has been performing experimental trials on herself recently to discover what happens to her body when she gets injured.
* She wishes to be "normal" and is not at all happy about her ability. She has the big game next week and the SATs are coming up soon.
* We learn that Claire is adopted but does not know who her real parents are.
* Her adopted family consists of a younger brother, a somewhat eccentric mother who shows dogs and a father who we will refer to as HRG (Horned Rimmed Glasses) who just returned home from "work". HRG's work as it turns out, has something to do with tracking down Mohinder because of his father's research.

Feats : Surviving the following; falling 80 feet, sticking hand in garbage disposal, rushing into a burning building and rescuing a man.

Episode 1x02 - "Don't Look Back"

* The train fire made the front page of the news paper, Claire reads it and asks her father is she can find out who her real parents are, "who they are, what they can do"
* Claire seems interested in the high school football team quarterback.
* The police chief and sheriff come to question Claire about the train wreck, but Jackie another blonde on the cheer squad steps forward and takes credit for saving the man.
* Zach tells Claire that the tape of her "experiments" is missing.

Feats: Claire is accidentaly tackled on the football field and her neck is snapped 180 degrees around. Of course she has no problems getting up and tells everyone that she is ok.

Episode 1x03 - "One Giant Leap"

* Claire Bennet and her father take a paper-mache effigy of a bear in a football uniform out of the trunk of their car. There’s a pep rally night, and Claire won’t be home until close to midnight. They pass Brody, the quarterback, and Claire’s interest in him is obvious enough that her father picks up on it. Jackie, another cheerleader who has taken credit for saving a man from a train fire, stops them. She announces her intention to run for class president, and Claire rolls her eyes.
* Claire’s ready for the rally, but Zach, her videographer, is worried about the tape they made of her regenerating after an 80 foot fall. He can’t understand why she doesn’t embrace being different. She can’t understand why anyone would.
* Jackie tells others made-up stories about the fire rescue. Claire watches the bonfire nearby on which her effigy burns. Brody approaches. He’d have stuffed the head with firecrackers, and he’s wondering why she hasn’t been herself lately. Claire doesn’t understand how he would pick up on that when he doesn’t know her. Brody lists details of her habits and personality that make it clear he’s been watching her closely. The effigy’s head explodes. Brody had stuffed it with firecrackers in order to make Claire laugh. He kisses her, offers her a drink from a keg someone’s brought, and they head off into the night. A girl, clearly anxious, watches them go.
* Claire and Brody make out on the bleachers. Brody tries to go too far, and Claire fights him. Brody forces her, making it plain that he’s not going to stop and there’s nothing she can do about it. Clair wriggles out from under him and tries to run, but he catches her and throws her against the dugout fence. She tumbles to the ground onto a sharp stick, which penetrates her skull, killing her. Brody backs away, terrified.
* In a morgue s
* omeone pulls the stick from Claire’s head while Mohinder’s voiceover talks about life, death, and evolution’s disinterest in individual lives. Claire comes to on an examining table. She’s been cut open from neck to navel, her skin peeled back to show ribs and muscles.

Episode 1x04 - "Collision"

* Claire Bennet gets opened up on an autopsy table, where we learn that the no-good Brody, captain of the football team dragged her from the scene of his crime and dumped her into the river. She wakes up after the branch, which killed her for those few hours, is pulled from her head, pieces herself back together, and presumably runs back home, without being seen by the person who was performing the autopsy.
* Claire, after finding out that Brody is a womanizer and has hurt others before, asks Brody for a ride home and if she can drive his car. He agrees and after a conversation where Brody tries to blame Claire for what happened, Claire slams the car into the side of a wall.

Episode 1x05 - "Hiros"

* Hospital room, Odessa. Claire lies on a bed. Her father enters and sits by her side. She lost control of the car; at least that’s what she told her mother. Mr. Bennet closes the door to the room. Claire ran the car into the wall on purpose, but she wasn’t trying to kill herself. With a little prodding from her father, she tells him about what happened at the bonfire. Brody threw her down; she hit her head, and woke up somewhere else. She wasn’t the first that he’d tried to rape. She doesn’t want anyone to know what happened. Mr. Bennet promises that no one will know.
* Brody lies in a hospital bed bruised, bloody, bandaged, wearing a neck brace and hooked up to an I.V. Mr. Bennet enters and draws the privacy curtain before sitting down on the bed and introducing himself. Brody knows who he is and intends to sue because the crash was no accident. Claire isn’t human she’s a freak. Mr. Bennet brings up the rape, and Brody denies it. Bennet believes his daughter, and when Brody tries to end the conversation with a call to the nurse, Bennet pulls his hand away from the button and puts a hand over his mouth. Bennet knows Claire is special and going through a difficult time. She doesn’t need a punk like Brody complicating things. Bennet could Brody him, but he’s decided to give him a chance at starting over and making a good life. He gets up and pulls open the curtain to reveal the Haitian. Bennet tells the Haitian to hollow Brody out, to take everything, then leaves the room. The Haitian draws the curtains closed.
* Claire walks into Brody’s room to talk. What Brody tried to do to her was wrong, but what she did was wrong too and she’s sorry. Everyone deserves a do-over. Brody doesn’t know her. He doesn’t recognize her name, and he doesn’t realize that Brody is his. Claire stares at him in surprise.

Episode 1x06 - "Better Halves"

* Claire and her mother, Sandra, bake cupcakes with red and white icing for the school bake sale. Sandra natters on about her dog, a Pomeranian named Mr. Muggles, with a poodle. Claire pulls a tin of cupcakes from the oven, severely burning her fingers. When her mother smells something and wonders if they’ve burnt the cupcakes, Claire tells her they look fine. Mr. Muggles hates poodles since “that incident at the dog park.” Sandra thought “that big dog” was going to tear off Claire’s hand, ending her cheerleading career. Claire’s cheerleading career is not going well anyway, but the discussion is interrupted by the arrival of Mr. Bennet. He’s been on the phone for an hour with Claire’s birth parents. They want to meet tomorrow, if Claire’s ready to meet them. Claire is excited and apprehensive, but believes she’s ready.
* Zach and Claire walk home after school. She’s trying to figure out how to ask her biological parents whether they have the same power she does. Zach hopes they don’t. He likes the idea of her being unique and special. Claire thinks he’s flirting with her, but he denies it and wonders if she’s ever going to tell her adoptive parents what she can do. Claire dismisses the idea. Her dad’s a simple guy and he’d never be able to handle it.
* Bennet house, Odessa. Sandra greets Claire’s biological parents at the door. Zach, who gathers up his backpack to leave, offers to push them into something on his way out so that Claire can see whether they heal like she does. Claire laughs and declines.
* Claire and her parents sit awkwardly on a couch facing her biological parents on another couch. Claire has her father’s nose, and wonders what else of theirs she might have. Silence falls. Sandra offers them lemonade. Soda. Cupcakes… making them is a “thing” she and Claire do. Bio mom and dad accept the lemonade offer, and Mr. and Mrs. Bennet leave the room to get it. Claire looks like she’s been left to face the lions. Her bio father wants to know what else they can tell her about themselves.
* Claire’s bio parents aren’t together any more. They had split up before graduation, after her bio father found out that her bio mother was pregnant. He wanted to keep the baby, but bio mom didn’t. Mr. Bennet eavesdrops on the conversation from a nearby room. Sandra walks in, complaining that the awkwardness is giving her lip sweat. She starts to chide her husband for listening in, and then joins him. Claire presses her bio parents for more information about any medical conditions. Bio mom has diabetes. Bio dad has a history of cancer and heart disease. Claire tries not to show her disappointment. Mr. Bennet’s cell phone rings, revealing him and his wife. He apologizes before taking the call. It’s work, so Sandra leaves him to it.
* Claire and Sandra clean up after their guests. Mr. Bennet is walking her “bio parents” to their car. Sandra finds the term both cold and fitting. Mr. Bennet exchanges pleasantries with the bio parents until they reach the car. Then bio dad changes to a serious tone, making it clear that much of what went on in the house was an act. Things went well. If Bennet needs anything else, he’ll let them know. Inside, Claire’s disappointed at the interview. She was hoping her bio parents would be able to tell her who she is. Sandra’s surprised at how easily Mr. Bennet found the bio parents this time, given that they couldn’t be found the first time the Bennets looked for them. When Claire was a baby, they thought she had something wrong with her chromosomes and tried to find Claire’s bio parents to see if they were carriers. Claire’s upset by the revelation but hides it and tries to find out why they thought something was wrong with her. Sandra dismisses Claire’s concerns, since all she had at the time was a cough. Mr. Bennet enters, and father and daughter console each other after the experience of meeting the birth parents, which terrified both of them.

Episode 1x07 - "Nothing to Hide"

o Zach shows up at the Bennett house to tell Claire that he found the tapes under his bed. Claire slaps him, "Didn't you look there before? Zach mentions he did several times, but he looked earlier in the day and they were there.

o Lyle gets ahold of the tapes and watches them. Claire walks in and tries to blow the tapes off as special effects. Lyle doesn't look like he buying the story. He staples Claire's hand. Claire responses in pain, but after removing the stapple, she is not able to stop Lyle from seeing how quickly she healed. Claire begs for Lyle to keep the tape a secret. But a scared Lyle makes a run for it.

o Claire chases Lyle across the lawn and gets Zach to help her corner him. Lyle locks himself into the family car. Lyle suggests that Claire and Zach are aliens. Zach plays along and Claire tells Zach to stop because he is scaring him. Lyle wants to sell the video on Youtube, but Zach reminds the moron that Youtube is free. Claire finally convinces Lyle not to tell the family because she fears that their parents would regret adopting her and that they will not be a family anymore.