Claire Bennet
| Claire Bennet | |
|---|---|
| |
| Portrayed by | Hayden Panettiere |
| First appearance | Genesis |
| In-story stats | |
| Known ability | Rapid cell regeneration |
| Aliases | Vivian Lewis, Claire Butler, Bonnie Monaco, Jane Doe |
| Nicknames | Claire Bear, the Cheerleader, Little Miss Miracle Grow, Robot, Barbie, Dorothy, Defensive Player of the Year |
| Gender | |
| Home | formerly New York City, NY, formerly Odessa, TX, Costa Verde, CA |
| Residences | Single-family home in Costa Verde, CA |
| Occupations | College student, former Sam's Comics shopkeeper;, former cheerleader |
| Significant other | formerly West Rosen |
| Parents | Adoptive parents: Sandra Bennet, Noah Bennet Biological parents: Meredith Gordon (deceased), Nathan Petrelli (deceased) |
| Grandparents | Paternal grandparents: Angela Petrelli, Arthur Petrelli (deceased) Maternal grandparents: Flint Gordon, Sr. (deceased) Adoptive grandparents: Unnamed grandfather |
| Siblings | Younger adoptive brother: Lyle Bennet Half brothers: Simon Petrelli, Monty Petrelli |
| Other relatives | Uncles: Peter Petrelli, Flint Gordon, Jr. (deceased) Great uncle: Tim Petrelli Great aunt: Alice Shaw Paternal great grandparents: Mr. Shaw (deceased), Mrs. Shaw (deceased) |
Claire Bennet is a college student and former cheerleader, adopted by Noah Bennet and his wife, and is the biological (and illegitimate) daughter of Nathan Petrelli and Meredith Gordon and niece of Peter Petrelli and Flint Gordon. She is an evolved human with the ability to rapidly heal from any injury.
About
Claire lived a normal suburban lifestyle in Odessa, Texas, until her ability manifested and her entire world was effectively turned upside down. Initially keeping it a secret, Claire's power was eventually exposed after her experiments with testing her ability's limits were discovered. Because Claire was actually being monitored for years by The Company, she was forced to go into hiding with her family from Company agents seeking to make Claire the subject of brutal biological experimentation into her ability. Recently, Claire and her family have come out of hiding.
On a personal level, Claire loves her adoptive family very much, but still remained curious about her origins, until she finally discovered her biological parents and the rest of her extended family. Claire has a kind, yet courageous, nature, but for a time was insecure about her abilities, leading her to be insensitive. With time, Claire accepted her power.
Her ability is considered to be the most valuable and powerful in the world, and as such Claire, and by extension her family, has been targeted by villainous individuals seeking to acquire it.
Character History
Season One
For an episode-by-episode summary, see Claire Bennet: Season One History.
Claire, having discovered that she has the power to rapidly heal herself, asks her classmate Zach to video her jumping off an abandoned gravel plant and surviving. Walking home, the two come across a train wreck, from which Claire rescues a trapped man, but never takes credit for the incident. Meanwhile, Claire finds herself attracted to Brody Mitchum, though their relationship quickly turns sour when he tries to rape her and inadvertently kills her when she is impaled on a tree branch. Claire is taken to a coroner, but revives when the branch is removed from her brain. To avenge Brody's wrongdoings, Claire causes Brody to have an accident, though Claire walks away unharmed.
At her high school's Homecoming, Claire is pursued by Sylar, but is ultimately saved by Peter Petrelli, though her friend Jackie is not. After the tragic events at Homecoming, Claire decides to tell her father about her abilities. However, Claire is surprised to find that those around her are mysteriously losing their memories, and learns that a Haitian man, under the orders of Mr. Bennet, is responsible. The Haitian befriends Claire, and tells her what little he says he knows of her past, including the fact that her mother died in a fire fourteen years ago. After some research, Claire finds Meredith Gordon, her birth mother, and learns that Nathan Petrelli is her birth father, both of whom are evolved humans.
Life changes for Claire when Matt and Ted take her family hostage, her home burns, and her powers are discovered by Thompson. Claire is forced to go into hiding from the Company. Eager to be normal and find out about her biological family, Claire travels to New York City and meets the Petrellis. After saving her uncle Peter's life, the two team up to help stop an impending explosion.
Season Two
For an episode-by-episode summary, see Claire Bennet: Season Two History.
Claire attends her first day of classes at Costa Verde High School, and is assured by her father that she'll be fine, who also warns her not to stand out, or else the Company will find them. At school, she meets a boy who can fly and connects with him. When talking about their abilities, Claire notices marks on his neck, and he recalls an experience with a man with horn rimmed glasses. To hide her relationship with West, Claire lies to her father and tells her that she has joined the cheerleading team. However, her plan backfires and when she doesn't make the squad. To pay back Debbie Marshall, Claire and West play a prank on Debbie while she drinks, causing her to get kicked off the team, and leaving a spot for Claire.
Claire and West continue their relationship and he meets Sandra. As the two spend time, West sees Noah and tries to leave, but Claire tells him that he is her father. Thinking it is a trap, he flies away. Noah shows a newspaper article about her prank, and warns that the family it is no longer safe and that they must move. Claire tells him that if they do, they are leaving without her.
At school on her last day, she is contacted by Bob at her cheerleader practice. He slips up and calls her "Miss Bennet", and Claire runs home. When she arrives home, she sees her father's laptop open with the image of the Mendez painting that shows his death. Claire then warns her mother that her father was right and they need to leave town immediately, but Bob shows up with a gun, and surprisingly, Sandra recognizes him as the Regional Sales Manager for Primatech Paper. Bob takes Claire with him, and conveys to Claire how valuable she is to them, and takes some blood from her. Bob takes her to switch for his daughter from Noah. Once she reaches her father they hug briefly then he pushes her into West's arms so he can fly her to safety. Unfortunately, Elle is able to zap West and Claire, which sends them plummeting to the earth. Mohinder shoots Noah in the eye and kills him. Claire tries to run to her fathers side but West intercepts her. They land at her house and Claire is left with the task of telling her mom that her father has died.
Bob delivers an urn with Noah's ashes to the Bennets. Claire, her family and West scatter the ashes into the sea. She tells her father that she should have listened to everything he said. When she sees Elle in a car spying on them, she confronts her, punching her hand through her car window and threatening to expose the Company. Claire goes through Noah's paperwork, preparing to go public with her ability and expose the Company's secrets. While packing up her father's files to bring down the Company, West arrives and tries to stop her from revealing his secret. Angered, she gives him his file, and tells him "there is no 'us' to worry about anymore." Afterward, Noah returns home, revealing to his family that he is still alive, thanks to Claire's regenerative blood. He tells Claire not to expose the Company, and informs her that he has made a deal, and will again be working for them. In exchange, his family will be left alone to lead normal lives.
Season Three
For an episode-by-episode summary, see Claire Bennet: Season Three History.
Claire learns that Nathan has been shot and rushes to try and help him. Before she can leave, Sylar arrives and begins to terrorize her with his only remaining ability. Claire manages to stab him but Sylar pins her to the wall and slices her skull. He copies her power and then allows her to regenerate before he leaves. Claire discovers that her ability has changed and that she can no longer feel pain. Once again, she tests her limits by trying to be hit by a train. When the prisoners from Level 5 escape, Claire begs Noah to make her his partner, but Noah instead reveals that Meredith will be protecting the family.
Meredith teaches Claire how to fight and ends up torturing her inside of a shipping container. Claire lies and says that she will not hunt villains, but soon leaves to bring in Stephen Canfield. Upon learning that Stephen is not a monster, Claire helps him find his family. Later, Claire is shocked when Noah treats Stephen like a tool, and she is briefly tricked by Sylar into believing that Noah hates all evolved humans. Claire returns home and teams up with Sandra to find Meredith. She defeats Eric Doyle and, after returning home, runs into Elle. She and Elle travel to Pinehearst to fix their malfunctioning abilities but upon arrival, they find Peter, who is now powerless. Claire helps Peter and then tells Nathan and Tracy where Arthur is.
Pinehearst soon begins looking for Claire, who is believed to be the Catalyst. Claire becomes protected by The Company and Noah takes her to the Canfield home to properly train her. Elle and Sylar come looking for her and Claire ends up being shot. With the eclipse in place, Claire does not heal and actually dies. She regenerates as soon as the eclipse is over and is then rescued from a home invasion by Hiro Nakamura, who takes her 16 years into the past. Claire convinces past Noah not to take Claire back to the Company and successfully saves herself from becoming the Catalyst. Arthur tracks them down and sends Claire back to the present where she, Angela, Noah and Meredith prepare to bring down Pinehearst. Sylar intervenes and holds all four of them prisoner with Primatech. He attacks all of them until Claire manages to kill him.
Two months later, Claire lives with the feeling that Sylar is still alive and killing. She overhears a conversation between Angela and Nathan and learns that the government is rounding people up. She warns Matt Parkman, but both are quickly captured. Claire is given a free pass by Nathan, but she still gets onto Flight 195 and frees the prisoners. After the plane goes down, Nathan sends Claire back home, where she is contacted by Rebel. She is given the mission to protect Alex Woolsly from Noah and she hides him in her house. As Rachel Mills and Jason Pierce search for Alex, Claire and Sandra manage to send him out of the town. They return home and find Eric Doyle, who has received a message from Rebel instructing Claire to help him.
Claire gets a cover job at the comic book store before saving Eric from Rachel. She gives him a new identity and is soon saved by Nathan after her free pass is taken away. The two of them fly to Mexico, where they bond as father and daughter. They are contacted by Angela, who asks to meet with them at the Coyote Sands. Nathan and Claire arrive there and help Angela, Peter and Noah dig up the bones of the prisoners that were once kept at the sands. Angela explains what happened in 1961 and privately tells Claire how much she admires her. After the incident with Alice, Claire and the others decide to form a new Company together.
When the family learns that Sylar has taken Nathan's form, Nathan rushes to Washington to stop him. Claire, Angela and Noah attempt to drive there but they are stopped by Noah, who suspects the government is close. Claire and Angela escape capture and arrive at Washington, where they part ways. Claire goes to who she thinks is Nathan, who turns out to be Sylar and captures her. Sylar attempts to remove Claire's hatred for him but ends up throwing her away. Claire is unable to help when Peter and Nathan arrive to fight Sylar, and, after Nathan and Sylar fly away, she goes with Peter to save the president. Claire later attends the funeral of "Sylar" and expresses her shock at the fact that he is really gone.
Claire returns home to Costa Verde and continues working at the comic shop. She briefly ventures to Lyneboro, where she helps Rachel deal with Kelly, a woman who is manipulating the entire town. Claire returns home and begins helping former Building 26 fugitives return to their normal lives. Rachel shows up one day and after Mensen is killed, Claire learns that a dangerous group believes she has information on a woman named Sabine Hazel. After a run in with Markus Gaines, Claire enlists the help of the Rebel team and together, they drive the dangerous faction out of town. Claire then learns that she has gotten into college.
Orientation
Claire goes to her new college room and meets her roommate, Annie. She sees that Annie has all of her stuff set up and Annie explains that she thinks the two of them should be friends. When she learns that Claire got into the school with a GED, Annie offers to help her, as she does not believe Claire will excel on her own. Claire reluctantly accepts her help and later joins her in Professor Fenton's algebra class. Claire has a nightmare in which she is attacked by a DHS agent and awakens. She leaves and declares that the class is not for her. On her way through the campus, Claire meets Gretchen Berg who recognizes her name as a survivor of the Homecoming Massacre.
Claire returns to her room and finds Noah talking to Annie. When she and her father are alone, Claire reveals that she believes telling the truth could be a way of reinventing herself. Later, she, Annie and Gretchen go to a mixer and play Guitar Hero together. After the party, Claire returns to her room and discovers that Annie is not there. She goes to the window and looks out, discovering Annie's dead body lying on the ground, having died from the fall.
Jump, Push, Fall
In her college dorm, Claire is interrogated about Annie's suicide by a detective. After the interrogation, she is too shaken to stay in the dorm and decides to stay with Sandra for the night. Upon her return to college the next day, Claire is questioned again, this time by Gretchen, who debates over whether or not Annie's suicide was actually a suicide or a murder and wonders why Annie would map out her whole life only to end it. Seeing that Claire is unsure, Gretchen meets her in the campus cafeteria with a pile of forensics textbooks and explains the "jump, push, fall" test that she had learned about from an episode of Crossing Jordan. Gretchen wants to recreate Annie's "suicide" with a dead body dummy, which later that night gives Claire the idea to recreate it herself, but with herself as the dead body in question. Relying on Gretchen's explanation, Claire hurls herself out of her dorm window and lands in the spot where Annie's body was, and comes to the conclusion that Annie had, in fact, committed suicide. Claire puts herself back together and slides her ribcage back into place, only to discover that Gretchen had been watching.
Ink
Claire initially ignores Gretchen, who knocks on her door repeatedly in an attempt to talk. Later, Noah comes by and invites Claire to lunch. When Claire goes to the bathroom to prepare, Gretchen corners her and asks if she's a vampire, an alien, or a government experiment. She follows Claire back to her dorm room and takes advantage of Noah's visit to get herself invited to lunch. At the lunch, Gretchen drops a variety of hints about Claire's powers and her secretive nature. When they have a moment alone, Noah offers to call in the Haitian but Claire says she will handle it on her own. She invites Gretchen to ask her anything and reveals her power. Later, the two girls chat and Claire explains that her power makes her immune to the effects of alcohol. Noah calls to apologize. Claire gives a prepared speech about living on her own and father and daughter end the call on amiable terms. She then lets Gretchen cut her hand to show her how her ability functions.
Acceptance
Claire goes to visit her father and bumps into Peter. They hug and Peter tells her that he needs to leave for work. Claire is confused, as Peter works in New York. He smiles at her and speeds away. Claire enters her father's new home and decides that she will help him find a new job. She runs a mock interview for a lumber company but Noah fails miserably at that. Claire tries to help him more but he tells her that his single greatest strength is his loyalty to the Company. Claire reminds him that he is a hero, not an agent, and that he has saved countless people including her. She tells him that he needs to remember who he was in order to become who he is going to be.
Hysterical Blindness
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Evolved Human Abilities
Claire exhibits the power of rapid cell regeneration, a trait that allows her to recover from almost any injury in a matter of seconds. She also feels relatively little pain from even serious injuries, including burns and compound fractures, although she did grimace when her hand was damaged while retrieving a class ring from a running garbage disposal. She has not yet reached a limitation in her powers. Along with the injuries stated above, she suffered an injury where her neck was broken and turned around 180 degrees. This would be fatal for most humans. Indeed, between her tolerance for pain and seemingly unlimited healing potential, Claire is somewhat similar to the X-Men character Wolverine. Panettiere herself even loosely compared Claire to that same character when explaining her powers during an interview.
Apparently, Claire cannot heal an injury if a foreign object is obstructing the wound. This is true of other characters with healing factors, who can still heal incorrectly, incompletely or not at all if certain conditions are not met, just like normal humans. For example, in the first episode, the bones of Claire's ribs were sticking out at one point. After a comment from Zach brought this to her attention, Claire had to move them around a bit before they would heal properly. The injury she received in One Giant Leap was billed by a TV Guide article as an extreme test of her powers. In this incident, she was clinically dead for hours, only to revive when the tree branch that killed her was removed. Her healing powers restored her to health despite the destructive biological processes that happen to bodies immediately upon severe trauma or death (brain death, lividity of blood in the tissues and coagulation of same, etc.). Still, as stated before, there were still limitations. Her upper torso had still been spread open from the classic "Y Incision" made in the chest of autopsy subjects and she had to close the flaps of skin back into place manually before they healed.
In Lizards, Claire cuts off her small toe with a pair of scissors only to see it grow back. This suggests that Claire is able to regrow a body part even if it is completely removed.
In Kindred, Claire tells West that she does feel pain, she just recovers from it very quickly. However, in The Second Coming, Claire loses the ability to feel pain after Sylar takes her ability, though in One of Us, One of Them she appears to feel her hands burn when touching the side of the heated container.
In Cautionary Tales, it is heavily suggested that Claire's blood will heal any wound in any person if it is introduced into their system.
A painting by Isaac Mendez and Peter Petrelli showed a cheerleader's body dead at the feet of a shadowy figure, with her head sawed open and her brain removed. Once thought to be Claire, it was theorized that such an injury might well be fatal. Future Sylar was able to take Claire's ability Future Claire by telekinetically sawing her head open, and in The Second Coming, Sylar removed the top of Claire's head and stole her ability without killing her. Her skull and scalp healed as soon as Sylar put the displaced part back where it was supposed to be. Although Sylar told her that she's special and couldn't die, it's unlikely that Claire could survive complete brain removal or decapitation.
In Into Asylum, when Claire consumes a mass amount of alcohol to win a game, her competitor comments on how she doesn't even look drunk. She later admits to Nathan that her liver heals itself, resulting in everlasting sobriety.
Equipment
- Activating Evolution--Chandra Suresh's book on the emergence of extraordinary abilities, given to Claire by Zach
- Her necklace--a necklace given to Claire by her biological mother, Meredith Gordon
- A tape--Zach's documentation of Claire regenerating
- A wind chime--a set of wind chimes Claire used as a signal to the Haitian that she needed to see him
- Her uncle's gun--a gun given to her by Peter who instructs her to shoot him in the back of the head if he begins to explode.
- Claire's Nissan Rogue--a car given to her by Noah Bennet who was originally planning on giving it to her as a surprise, but gave it to her on her first day at her new school in Costa Verde instead.
- Primatech's fingerprint files--prepared as evidence against the Company, later used to find Level 5 escapees.
- A taser--used on Level 5 escapees.
- A glass shard--used to temporarily kill Sylar.
- Multiple mobile phones -- used to contact various others.
- Heart pendant necklace--a necklace given to Claire by her foster father, Noah Bennet, and later sold. Nathan buys it back for her.
Memorable Quotes
"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)
"Haven't you heard? I'm the defensive player of the year."
- - Claire ( to Knox and Flint) (It's Coming)
"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."
Notes
- 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. 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) (It's Coming). In Exposed, Sandra explicitly said Claire was 17.
- 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).
Trivia
- Claire collects teddy bears from all around the world. Her father brings them back to her from his "business trips". (Six Months Ago)
- The Odessa Register calls Claire a "Mysterious Good Samaritan". This is a reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Bible (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus told the parable to demonstrate that mankind should show compassion for all people.
- Claire's phone in Season 1 is a pink T-Mobile Sidekick II.
- Claire appeared in every episode of Season One.
- Her first name, Claire, is of Latin and French origin. It means "famous" and is also known as "bright" and "clear".
- Her last name, Bennet, is a variant of "Bennett", meaning "blessed".
- According to Brody, Claire never drinks plain milk--just chocolate. She draws mermaids in the margins of her notebook. She puts crackers in her sandwiches to make them crunch. She's usually the first person to laugh at a joke. (Collision)
- According to Pinehearst's file on Claire, she weighs 109 pounds and has green eyes (see file) (It's Coming).
- During most of the third season, Hayden Panettiere had to wear a wig because she cut her hair short in real life.
See Also
- For other uses of Claire, see Claire (disambig).
- For Claire Bennet's history in the "explosion future", see Claire Bennet (explosion future).
- For Claire Bennet's history in the "exposed future", see Claire Bennet (exposed future).
- For images of Claire, see Images of Claire Bennet.
- For articles related to Claire, see Related Articles:Claire.
- For other members of the Bennet family, see Bennet (disambig).
- For other members of the Petrelli family, see Petrelli (disambig).
- For Claire's parents, see Claire's parents (disambig).
External Links
Fan Theories
Please refer to Theory:Claire Bennet for fan-created theories and other speculation.