Claire Bennet:

Portrayed by: Hayden Panettiere


Character Relations:
Nathan Petrelli (Father), Meredith Gordon (Mother), Noah Bennet (Adoptive Father), Sandra Bennet (Adoptive Mother)

Background:

Claire was born to Nathan Petrelli and Meredith Gordon, two people possessing abilities. Noah Bennet and his partner, Claude, who are agents of the Company, arrive at Meredith’s house to abduct her. Claude goes inside to “do the heavy liftin’ ” while Noah waits outside until Meredith combusts and blows the door open. Noah runs inside to find Claude on the floor. Claude then tells Noah to find Claire. Noah finds her and carries her out safely. 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 is important to the Company and that her blood may become important. Claire never realizes that Elle is following her.

Six months prior to the start of the series, Claire had just become a cheerleader at her high school, with the help of her friend Jackie Wilcox. During a playful dispute with Jackie, Claire crashes into a glass case cutting her hand. When they show Claire’s parents, Mrs. Bennet says that Claire might need stitches. After Claire, Jackie, and Mrs. Bennet leave for the hospital, the phone rings and Mr. Bennet answers. It is Chandra Suresh, a scientist who studies paranormal phenomenon, informing him of Claire’s power.

Several days later, Mr. Bennet 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.

Powers and Abilities:

Claire can spontaneously regenerate any tissue in her body, allowing her to recover from almost any injury within seconds to minutes — though she does need larger, 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. 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 would indeed kill her.

In addition to simple healing, Claire has been shown to regenerate extremities. In the second season episode “Lizards”, she experiments with the limits of her powers, cutting off a toe. A new toe rapidly grows into place. When her blood is injected into others, they are also healed, even if they were dead for a while, with no apparent ill-effects.

Thanks to her power, she has an incredibly high pain tolerance; Claire states in “The Butterfly Effect” that, when injured, she feels pain just as severe as anyone else who was injured in such a way, but her power quickly deadens pain. 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 physical pain of any kind. With the temporary loss of her powers in “The Eclipse”, it is shown that Claire’s abilities protect her from diseases, although this also leaves her immune system weak as she has not built up a resistance to any sickness.

Character History:

Genesis
In the pilot episode “Genesis”, set several months later, 16-year-old Claire has discovered her power. Frightened as to what it means, she confides in Zach, a high-school classmate who videotapes Claire testing her regenerative power by attempting to injure–and even kill–herself. Her younger brother, Lyle, also discovers Claire’s powers after finding the tape Zach filmed, Claire swearing him to secrecy.

Despite wanting nothing more than a normal life, Claire has been through her share of harrowing experiences, including an attempted rape, being murdered during the attempt, and reviving during an autopsy. Claire is also consumed with curiosity about her birth parents, having been adopted when she was a year old.

After the first four episodes of the series, a story arc called “Save the cheerleader, save the world” begins. Claire’s ultimate fate is implied to be tied to the fate of the entire world. A future version of Hiro Nakamura cryptically told Peter Petrelli: “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” Isaac Mendez, a drug-addicted painter in New York paints a vision of Claire being chased at her school. He also paints a picture of a blonde cheerleader with the top of her skull removed.

In the episode “Homecoming”, Claire is elected homecoming queen with the help of her friend Zach. Claire’s father grounds her, intending to keep her out of harm’s way by preventing her from fulfilling Isaac’s “prophecies.” but she sneaks out her bedroom with the help of Zach.

At the game, Claire meets Peter. However, since he saw the newspaper article where Jackie took credit for the fire rescue that Claire did, Peter believes Jackie is the cheerleader he is there to save. Sylar catches the two girls in the locker room and cuts Jackie’s scalp telekinetically but Claire manages to escape. In the hallway, she finds Peter and the two of them flee the building. Claire takes Peter’s advice to run toward the stadium full of people as he tries to fight Sylar. In the end they fall off the roof and Peter dies, as Sylar tries to escape. As Claire approaches Peter she is then astonished to see him heal himself just like her. As Claire goes to get help, she runs into the arms of her relieved father.

When the story continues in “Fallout”, Claire’s father informs her that he has always known about her powers and has done things he is not proud of to protect her. He tells her Sylar has been taken care of, but warns Claire not to tell anyone about her powers, claiming there are others who would want to harm her. Claire recovers the remaining video tapes depicting her powers from Zach and destroys them. She warns Zach not to tell anyone about her healing abilities. Claire and her father are interviewed by law enforcement officials, including Matt Parkman, but Claire tells them both she and Peter must have been “just lucky” to have survived Sylar’s attack. Claire later meets with Peter alone and is fascinated when he tells her he risked his life to save her (as he was not sure in advance if he had adopted Claire’s healing factor).

Claire later discovers that both her brother and Zach no longer remember what they have seen regarding her unusual healing abilities. Claire panics and calls her father, extremely frightened. Mr. Bennet reassures her that he remembers and everything will be all right. The Haitian then appears out of the shadows and covers Claire’s mouth with his hand. He tells Claire that Mr. Bennet sent him to wipe her memory of the preceding events, just as he has wiped the memories of Brody, Lyle, and Zach. The Haitian even states that he had to mind wipe Claire’s mother “so many times” in the past. However, the Haitian then said that there is a reason Claire must remember and asks her if she can keep a secret.

Two weeks later, Claire is struggling with being alone again since the Haitian did not wipe her memory. She tries to reconnect with Zach, but between his lack of memory and resentment over the way their friendship ended in grade school, he is not interested. Desperate, Claire meets with the Haitian to discuss her options and the state of things. She mentions “save the cheerleader, save the world,” wondering what it means and if she is even “saved.” The Haitian states that she has been saved for the time being. He also rebuffs her request to see Peter, stating he is being watched by her father. She asks the Haitian to give Zach his memories back, as she does not want to be alone, but he tells her he cannot. Before leaving, the Haitian also recommends she respect her abilities more, rather than see them as an affliction.

In “The Fix”, Claire and Zach search for information on her biological mother. Their search leads them to Meredith Gordon, a woman reported to have died in a fire along with her eighteen-month-old daughter. They believe Claire to be Meredith Gordon’s reportedly-dead daughter. When Claire contacts several people with the surname “Gordon,” she finds a woman who identifies herself as Meredith.

The woman is shocked to hear that Claire survived and is revealed to possess the ability of pyrokinesis. In “Distractions”, Claire and Meredith meet, sharing their powers with each other. Later, Meredith telephones Claire’s biological father, who is revealed to be Nathan Petrelli, informing him that their daughter is still alive.

In the episode “Unexpected”, Claire finds that her mother, Mrs. Bennet, is showing signs of temporary memory loss, at one point even forgetting the family dog, Mr. Muggles, only to revert to her normal self a few minutes later. Later on, Mrs. Bennet collapses while in the kitchen and is rushed to the hospital. When Mr. Bennet arrives, Claire is unable to suppress her anger against him any longer and admits to knowing about the repeated memory wipes that Mr. Bennet has had done on her mother. After this, the family returns home, where they are confronted by Ted Sprague and Matt Parkman.

In “Company Man”, Claire and her family are held captive by Sprague and Parkman. After a botched attempt to free the family by Mr. Bennet, Claire and her father convince Matt to shoot her to get Sprague’s trust. She attempts to free her family after she regenerates, but is captured by Sprague in the attempt. After Sprague is shot and his radiation powers go violently out of control, Claire uses her regenerative powers to get close enough to tranquilize him. However, Claire is seen healing from severe radiation burns by one of Mr. Bennet’s superiors, who insists that Claire be turned over to their employers. In the end, Claire is given to the Haitian, who is to keep her safe from Bennet’s company.

In “Parasite”, she is supposed to go with the Haitian to flee the country but manages to slip away from him by stealing his passport at the airport. She then goes to Peter Petrelli’s apartment, regarding him as the only person she can trust in the current chaos her life has become. However, she finds his mother, Angela Petrelli, there instead, and Angela reveals that not only is she Claire’s grandmother, but that she and the Haitian have been corresponding for some time in order to protect Claire.

In “.07%”, Claire learns that her grandmother, Angela Petrelli, knew of her existence all along, even though Nathan thought she had died in a fire as a baby. Mrs. Petrelli tells her that she still needs protecting and the two of them will be going to Paris until after the election. When the seemingly dead body of Peter Petrelli is brought to his mother’s house, Claire comes downstairs to see Peter for herself. Claire finds a huge jagged shard of glass penetrating his skull. When she pulls it out, Peter comes back to life. Later, Nathan, realizing he cannot afford to have her in the city in the days leading up to the election—to avoid any scandalous issues and possibly to get her out of the way of Peter’s nuclear explosion—asks Claire to go to Paris. Claire reluctantly agrees to go with Angela, and the two of them embrace warmly.

In “The Hard Part”, two days before the bomb, Claire is still staying in the Petrelli mansion. She watches as Nathan greets his wife, Heidi and their two boys Monty and Simon, upon their return to the mansion, although Claire is not introduced to them. Later, Claire and her grandmother, Angela Petrelli, begin packing her bags for Paris. Peter walks into the room and talks to Claire about destiny, although she is convinced the best way for Nathan to protect her is to fly to Paris. Claire tells Peter about Ted Sprague, a man who can manipulate radiation after Peter reveals he will likely “go nuclear” and destroy half of New York.

Peter and Claire confront Nathan about Ted; with someone else capable of manipulating radiation, Peter is hopeful the explosion can be prevented. Nathan remains doubtful, pointing out that Peter’s vision was of his own explosion. Peter reminds Nathan that he had a vision of flying as well, despite the fact that it was Nathan who could fly – a fact that impresses Claire. Later, Peter and Claire go to the Petrelli campaign headquarters to meet with Nathan. Upon arriving, they see Nathan talking with Thompson, whom Claire recognizes as her adoptive father’s boss and the man she is running from.

Peter gives Claire a handgun, telling her she is the only person who can get close to him if he begins to explode. He instructs her to shoot him in the back of the head, a spot she knows will prevent him from healing. She reluctantly agrees to carry the weapon. The pair recognize a location from one of Peter’s drawings of Ted, and decide to look for him. While waiting for Ted to appear, Claire and Peter discuss how their powers have changed their lives. Claire then sees Mr. Bennet walking with Ted and Matt Parkman. She runs to her adoptive father as Peter and Matt acknowledge each other. Meanwhile, Peter notices his hands begin to glow as he absorbs Ted’s power.

In “Landslide”, Mr. Bennet orders Claire to leave the city with Peter and Ted. They are making plans to make their way out of New York to Nebraska when Peter hears Sylar’s thoughts and they hide in a building upon realizing he is nearby. When they re-emerge, Ted is arrested by the FBI. Whilst on his way to a holding facility, the FBI truck transporting him is made to crash by Sylar and Ted is subsequently murdered; his abilities having been absorbed by the villain.

Upon receiving this news in “How to Stop an Exploding Man”, Mr. Bennet requests that Peter stay with his daughter at all times and he agrees. Claire, however, feels betrayed when, instead of finding Sylar on their own, Peter drives them to a parking garage where Nathan is awaiting their arrival. Firm in her belief that they cannot trust him, Claire sneaks out when Peter leaves her in the car to speak with his brother, only for her to run into her grandmother, Angela Petrelli. Angela and Nathan have plans to leave the city with Claire to Nantucket but when she finds out that they have known about the impending explosion all along and are willing to let it transpire, she jumps out of Nathan’s office window after bluffing them that she has accepted the situation. Rapidly healing after her fall, she runs off to Kirby Plaza where she catches up to the scene just when Peter is about to explode.

Mr. Bennet hands her a gun to shoot her uncle just as she had promised before, but Claire hesitates, pleading with Peter that there must be another way. Nathan flies down in between them at that moment and agrees with his daughter. Claire, along with Mr. Bennet, Molly, Micah, Mohinder, Matt, Niki and D.L watch as Nathan flies away with his brother high into the air where Peter then explodes, saving New York City, but possibly sacrificing her birth father and uncle’s lives in the process.

As the first season ends, Claire reconciles with her adoptive father and they make plans to reunite with the rest of their family.


Generations
Four months later, Claire and her family have moved to Costa Verde, California, where Claire starts her first day of 11th grade in Costa Verde High School under the last name of “Butler”. She quickly meets West, who nearly runs her over when she accidentally runs in front of his car. Following her father’s advice — “Be entirely unextraordinary” — she does nothing that makes her stand out.

In “Lizards”, Claire, curious about the extent of her abilities and whether they could be used to help others, cuts off her own toe to see if it grows back. It does, but West, watching through the window, catches her in the act. Claire tries to keep him quiet about it, so he reveals his power, the ability to fly, to her. When Claire notices a two-line scar on his neck, he explains that he was “abducted by aliens” just after meeting a man with “horn-rimmed glasses”, revealing that he was one of many caught and released by Claire’s father.

In “The Kindness of Strangers”, Claire pretends to make the cheerleading squad in order to have time to date West. Though the cheerleading squad leader, Debbie, will not let her join, she and West manage to get Debbie kicked off the team by abusing their respective powers.

In “Out of Time”, West comes to Claire’s house unannounced to bring breakfast. Despite her efforts, West discovers the identity of Claire’s father and refuses to talk to Claire about it. At the same time, her father discovers the news report about the drunk cheerleader — vague details of Claire and West’s prank are given — and insists on moving again. Claire strongly refuses, saying that she will not go with them.

In “Cautionary Tales”, Claire takes a stand against her father’s paranoia regarding the Company, claiming that this was all about him. At school, Bob Bishop broaches the subject of underage drinking to her, but slips up and calls her “Miss Bennet,” tipping her off to who he really is. Claire dashes home and discovers the painting that sent Noah into a paranoid frenzy (Noah’s death) before she is abducted. After they take her blood, Bob, Mohinder, and Claire meet Noah, West, and Elle for a hostage exchange: Claire for Elle. As Claire and West fly away, Elle zaps them down. Noah shoots Elle, but is shot by Mohinder, devastating Claire, who breaks the news to Sandra and Lyle.

In “Truth & Consequences” a heartbroken and devastated Claire, who does not know that her father has been revived by the Company, scatters what Bob led the family to be his ashes at the beach. After doing so though, she quickly discovers Elle Bishop observing her. Claire runs up to Elle and tells her that due to what the Company did to her father, she will reveal her power. Claire then punches through Elle’s car window and says, “You’ll be the ones running” and walks away.

In “Powerless”, Claire is confronted by both her mother and West about her decision to reveal her power to the world. She and West fight, she breaks up with him and after he flies off, her father appears, effectively halting her plans.


Villains
In “The Second Coming”, Claire, now 17, witnesses the shooting of Nathan on television, and calls Peter to ask about his condition, offering to give Nathan a blood transfusion to save him, though Peter tells her to stay put. She instead packs a duffel bag, apparently planning to go back to Texas to save him, only to find a newly-empowered Sylar outside her bedroom, much to her horror and surprise. After a chase through the house, Sylar slices into her skull and examines Claire’s brain. When Claire asks if Sylar will eat it, he states that the very idea is disgusting. After poking around, Sylar finds the source and gains the use of Claire’s power. He then simply replaces her disembodied skull cap, which immediately reattaches to her body. Before Sylar leaves, he says to Claire that she’s “different… special… and [he] couldn’t kill [her] if [he] wanted to”.

In “The Butterfly Effect”, Claire discovers that she no longer feels pain, which saddens her deeply as she states that pain was the only thing that kept her believing she was human at all. Clearly distressed by this discovery, she resolves to experiment on herself to test her new-found ability. During one scene, Claire begins to videotape herself as she is about to step in front of an oncoming train. By labeling it her “seventh attempt”, Claire is picking up where she had left off in “Genesis”, where she had initially halted her experimentation at attempt number six. [1] However, she is saved from getting hit by the future Peter, who she confides in about Sylar’s attack and asks him to train her in her powers. Peter merely states that he can’t and teleports away, leaving her by herself on the hill. At home, Noah Bennet, greatly relieved to see her still alive, shows Claire some files on several of the Company’s escaped villains, stating his knowledge of their abilities and capabilities. When Claire inquires about the possibility of being attacked by any of these villains at home, Noah tells her he had thought about that idea and then reveals that he and Sandra Bennet had called in Meredith Gordon (last seen in Season 1′s “Run!”) to protect the family in Noah’s absence.

In “One of Us, One of Them,” Claire enlists Meredith to teach her how to fight back, to no longer be “the victim.” However, when they leave to do so, Meredith “tortures” Claire by superheating the air in the building they are in, reducing the level of oxygen (this shows that while Claire is virtually immortal, she still may be vulnerable to asphyxiation). Eventually, she forces Claire to reveal the real reason she wants to learn how to fight: to get revenge on Sylar for what he did to her. Afterwards, a guilt-ridden Meredith apologizes to her at the Bennet household, and Claire leaves for an apparent cheerleader meeting; in reality, she has stolen some Company files that Noah had left on the counter and gone to track down some of the Company’s escapees.

In the episode “Angels and Monsters”, Claire has begun her mission to recapture the Level 5 escapees. Using the information from her father’s files she tracks down Stephen Canfield, who has the ability to mentally create powerful energy vortices that act as miniature black holes. She finds Canfield, stuns him using a Taser, and explains to him that he is evil and how he must be brought to justice. However, much to Claire’s surprise, Canfield is remorseful about the death of his neighbor (whom he accidentally killed after a heated argument over a lawnmower). He states how he just wants to be reunited with his wife and kids. Upon hearing this, and convincing Canfield that she was not with the Company, Claire agrees to help him locate his family using the information from her father’s files. Shortly thereafter, Noah and his newly assigned partner Sylar (much to Claire’s horror) interrupt her mission. Believing that Claire had set him up, Canfield opens up a vortex and escapes; Claire is very nearly sucked in, but is saved at the last minute by Sylar, who attempts to convince her that he is genuinely sorry for what he did; unsurprisingly, she is unwilling to forgive him, and Noah emphatically tells him to shut up and never to talk to Claire again. Claire tells Noah that Canfield is truly sorry for what he had done and that the murder was an accident. Noah assures her that he would not place someone in Level 5 who didn’t belong there in the first place, and agrees to talk to Canfield. That night, Claire meets Canfield at an amusement park, where it is revealed that his family never came. At that moment, Noah shows up and attempts to force him to kill Sylar in exchange for his own freedom against Claire’s protests, but Canfield uses a vortex to kill himself instead. Later, Noah and Sylar drop Claire off at home. Sylar tries to sway Claire over to his side by claiming that Noah doesn’t see people with abilities as human and never will, but Claire refuses to listen. Inside the house, a relieved Sandra asks about Claire’s well-being, and is relieved that Meredith found her, at which point Claire realizes Meredith went out looking for her and hasn’t come back.

In “Dying of the Light”, Claire has decided to search for Meredith. Despite the tension between Claire’s mothers, Sandra does not object, and insists that she comes along, reinforcing the Company’s “One of Us, One of Them” policy. Using Noah’s files, they track down Eric Doyle’s location. Sandra creates a diversion to buy Claire some time to rescue Meredith by telling Doyle that she is planning a birthday party for Lyle. However, the plan falls apart, and Sandra and Claire end up captured by Doyle. Claire is then forced to play a demented version of Russian Roulette; Doyle has placed the mothers-daughter team under his power and set a gun loaded with only one bullet on a table. After first using his power to control Claire’s aim of the gun between both of her mothers, he forces her to shoot Meredith, but the chamber is empty. Meredith pleads to Doyle to release Claire, but he ignores her and continues his game. Next, Sandra is forced to aim the gun at Claire. Doyle releases his power over Claire’s mouth and asks her if she has any last words. She reassures Sandra that everything will be okay and asks her mother to shoot. Her mother pulls the trigger until the live round fires, wounding Claire. Believing Claire to be dead, he releases his control of Sandra, which allows Claire to knock him unconscious, releasing the others. Noah later comes and sedates Doyle and takes him away. Claire is still angry with him over his partnership with Sylar and the Stephen Canfield incident and leaves the puppet emporium, followed by Sandra who attempts to calm her down.

In “Eris Quod Sum”, Claire and Sandra return home from the emporium. Claire inquires about their situation (“We just starred in a human puppet show, my dad’s working with a serial killer, and I can’t feel pain”), but Sandra remains proud of her teenage daughter because of the latter’s unwillingness to buckle under pressure. They exit the vehicle, and their house lights start flickering. Once inside, they discover Lyle on the floor groaning in pain; he alerts the women that “the bitch is back.” Claire then traces the source of the electrical shortages; it is none other than Elle Bishop, who is sitting at Noah’s computer desk. After a brief showdown between the two in which Elle’s power proved useless against Claire’s ability, she is stopped by Lyle who short circuits her body by throwing a pail of water on her. Elle then reveals that since her firing from the Company by new CEO Angela Petrelli, she has nowhere to go and come seeking the assistance of Noah Bennet. She then admits that she is losing control of her ability ever since the Level Five incident and that Pinehearst Industries may have the answers to helping her. Claire, who can identify with power mishaps as her own powers now negate pain, agrees to go with her. While taking a flight to Pinehearst, Claire taunts Elle over her hatred of heights. Elle fumes about her life under Primatech and believes Claire is an “idiot” if she wants any part in that life. Elle loses her temper, causing her body to overload uncontrollably, releasing electricity into the plane which nearly causes it to crash. Claire tells her to project all of her excess electricity into her body, knowing that she would not be harmed and thus saving the plane. Once they arrive outside Pinehearst, Elle apologizes to Claire for being “nothing but a bitch” when Claire was “nothing but sweet;” Claire, however, says she should thank Elle for convincing her not to give up, and Elle expresses her relief that Claire is “just as messed up as [she is]“. As they make their way toward the building, they witness Peter Petrelli getting thrown from a seven story window. Claire goes to her uncle’s aid, and to the shock of the ladies, he had survived the fall, yet his body is not healing. Claire asks Elle to help her carry him to the car, but Elle abandons her and heads inside Pinehearst in hopes of being cured. Claire then calls her biological father Nathan Petrelli at Mohinder Suresh’s laboratory loft (formerly Isaac Mendez’s loft) and alerts him to the day’s events. Later, she and Peter meet with Nathan and Tracy Strauss, and Claire reveals to him the information (“Pinehearst”) he needs to track down his father, Arthur Petrelli, whom Peter reveals is still alive.

In “It’s Coming”, Peter and Claire get into an argument about the future that Peter witnessed in “I Am Become Death” in which Claire becomes a ruthless killer herself, with Claire trying to prove otherwise. They are accosted by Knox and Flint (who is still unaware that Claire is his niece through Meredith). Believing them to be after Peter, Claire tries to hold them off, until they reveal that they actually came for her. Claire is surprised that Knox knows her name and ends up captured by the two villains, but she is saved by Peter, who overheard her shouts: Looking at the gas pipe, which was leaking, Peter warned Knox and Flint that he didn’t need his powers to stop them, and provoked Flint into unleashing his pyrokinesis, which ignited the airborne gas, buying Peter and Claire time to escape. The biological uncle-niece team later arrive at Primatech, where Matt Parkman attacks Peter for teleporting him to Africa. After Peter convinces Matt (via thoughtspeak) that it wasn’t him, but rather Future Peter, Matt and Daphne Millbrook take them to Angela Petrelli’s room, where she is awake. Nathan arrives a few moments later, and Angela reveals that even though Pinehearst has both halves of the super-ability formula, a third element is needed; “a catalyst hidden in the blood of a human host,” as Angela puts it. Claire recalls Sylar’s attack on her and points out that Sylar had called her “different…special” after noticing something unusual about her brain; using this information, Claire theorizes that she is, in fact, the catalyst.

In “The Eclipse, Part 1,” Claire is told by Angela that she must go into hiding to avoid Arthur gaining the catalyst, she is taken to Level 5 where she finds Noah Bennet waiting for her, he takes her to the house of Stephen Canfield. When they arrive there, he starts to teach her how to fight properly, as she struggles to fight him at first. Sylar and Elle are ordered to retrieve Claire for Pinehearst, but when they arrive they find that their powers are not working. Noah easily defeats the now-depowered Sylar and Elle, but Claire is shot by Elle when she throws herself in front of the gun to save Noah. Claire finds that after she is shot, she is not healing. Angered and worried, Noah takes Claire back to her home where Sandra and Noah try to treat her wound; Noah decides against taking her to a hospital, believing that the wound is not that serious and also because he doesn’t want to risk Claire’s power being exposed to the public should it return. Claire remarks that not being able to heal has finally allowed her to feel pain once again, and that even though it “sucks,” it feels great. Sandra later returns to Claire’s room with dinner on a tray, only to find Claire unconscious on the floor with blood pooling under her, showing that she was more severely injured by Elle’s gun than Noah originally thought.

In “The Eclipse, Part 2,” Claire is rushed to the hospital, where it’s discovered that her entire bodily system is battling an infection. The nurse suspects Sandra of lying since Claire had never gotten sick in her entire life, as the infection is potentially lethal. When she is stabilized, Claire works up an apology to Sandra for everything that has happened since the events of Volume One. When police arrive to talk to Sandra (calling her “Mrs. Butler,” as they are still living under the assumed surname), Claire falls into septic shock and ultimately dies of the infection. The hospital staff cover her body. Sandra uncovers Claire’s face just as the sun pours in, and she is startled when Claire’s wound heals and she abruptly wakes up. At home, Claire is still very angry with Noah for abandoning her again in her time of need, and explains that Noah still sees her as an “assignment.” Following a suspicious though, Noah and Claire head downstairs to find Sylar and Elle holding Sandra hostage. When they explain their mission, Claire hastily agrees to go with them so that they will leave the family alone. Sylar and Elle refuse to relent until Hiro Nakamura teleports into the Bennet home and sends Sylar and Elle away. He then returns and teleports himself and Claire to Manhattan, 16 years ago. Claire reads the words in the comic’s speech bubbles out loud (“I don’t think I’d be a very good father;” “Once again, not a request;” “Don’t get too close”) and hears them repeated back in Japanese by Noah and Kaito. She realizes that they teleported back to the day that Kaito Nakamura gave 18-month-old Claire to Noah on the Deveaux building rooftop—a scene first shown as a flashback in season 1′s “Company Man”.

In “Our Father”, while in the past, Hiro and Claire make their plans; Hiro is going to try to get his mother to heal him and gain the catalyst from her in the process, while Claire is going to try to convince Noah not to take the phone call from Kaito Nakamura. They lay out their plans to each other together in a rather humorous exchange, as neither of them understands what the other is saying. When Claire sees a slightly-younger Sandra struggling to support everything outside the Bennets’ apartment, she introduces herself as “Bonnie, the neighbor’s niece” and offers to help her. Claire proves to be very adept at handling her 18-month-old self, and tells Sandra to never let the baby out of sight. Claire’s ruse is exposed by Noah, who is immediately suspicious of her. When the phone rings Claire, knowing who is calling, stops Noah from answering. She tells Noah that the Company will need to “borrow her for a bit,” knowing that they plan to instill the catalyst into her past self. While fighting back tears, she tells him that the baby—his “Claire-Bear”—is “fine just the way she is.” With a smile, Noah finally believes what “Bonnie” is telling him, and hangs up the phone. That night, on the Deveaux building rooftop, Claire meets again with Hiro, who, in English, tells her that he has been instilled with the catalyst. At that very moment, Arthur Petrelli appears behind Hiro and absorbs Hiro’s powers as well as the catalyst, then telekinetically throws him off the roof. Arthur approaches Claire next and, before sending her back to the present day, tells her to relay the following message to Angela: “It’s over; I’ve won.”

In “Dual”, Claire, Noah, Meredith, and Angela, are trapped in the Level 5 facility by Sylar, who initiates the lockdown mode. Sylar attempts to strike a deal with Claire, agreeing to let her, Noah, and Meredith go if she kills Angela, but Claire refuses and, after helping Noah escape from a trap, “kills” Sylar by stabbing him in the back of the head with a piece of broken glass. Claire goes back for Meredith, who has lost control of her pyrokinesis after being injected with adrenaline by Sylar, but is persuaded to leave her behind, telling Meredith she loves her and escaping with Noah and Angela as the building goes up in flames. She is then comforted by Noah as she mourns her biological mother’s apparent death.


Fugitives
In “A Clear and Present Danger”, Claire is once again staying at the Petrelli mansion in New York City, going over college brochures since she had earned her GED. Angela enters the room and presses that getting an elite college education is Claire’s best shot at a normal life; an agitated Claire disagrees, as she has a gut feeling that Sylar is still alive. Angela counters this argument by telling her granddaughter that they were witnesses to the destruction of Primatech, and Sylar most likely didn’t survive. Claire tells Angela of Noah’s recent so-called “business trips” and of a news article she found of a man in Memphis who went missing and vows to go after Sylar herself. Later on, as she is leaving the mansion with her stuff, Claire overhears Angela on the phone. Picking up a nearby cordless, she eavesdrops and discovers Angela is talking to Nathan; she is telling him about Claire’s suspicions of Nathan’s plan to round up and capture people with abilities when Nathan names Peter and Matt as two of his next targets. After being spotted by Angela, Claire hangs up and dashes out. She calls Peter to warn him of these plans, then dashes over to Matt’s apartment to warn him as well. Matt shows Claire some drawings he made using his newly-discovered power. They are examining a drawing of themselves when Matt is tranquilized from behind. A team comes in to apprehend them. Claire is brought semi-conscious to Nathan, who puts her in a car out of the hangar, but on the way out she regains her composure and knocks out the driver before exiting the car and making a mad dash for the plane. She sneaks on board and unmasks Hiro and then Peter, who distracts the guards to buy her time to get to the cockpit. She threatens the pilot with an “unexpected landing”, only to discover Noah is also in the cockpit. However, the “unexpected landing” comes to pass after Peter accidentally unlocks Tracy’s power and freezes a hole in the plane.

In “Trust and Blood”, after the crash, Claire and Peter attempt an escape while she reveals Noah Bennet’s involvement in Nathan’s plans. They are accosted by Noah right then, but he lets Peter go and takes Claire to Nathan with plans to get her home. While Noah and Nathan converse in secret, Daphne Millbrook speeds into the tent and takes Claire to the crash site, where Hiro Nakamura, Ando Masahashi, Mohinder Suresh, and Matt Parkman are waiting. Daphne is then shot by The Hunter, and Claire is riddled with bullets until Matt manipulates one of the men to turn on his comrades. The Hunter then threatens Claire with a shot to the back of the head, but Nathan angrily stops him and takes her to Noah, who puts her in a car to take her home to Costa Verde and “live that normal life” that she used to long for. As Claire is sulking on her bed, Sandra enters and asks Claire what her college plans are. Claire tells her that she wants to stay close to home and get a part-time job. About a moment after Sandra leaves the room, Claire receives a mysterious text message from someone named “Rebel” telling her to hold out hope and fight back.

In “Building 26″, Claire is texting “Rebel” at the dinner table at home. When Noah and Sandra discuss Claire’s college trip, they decide that a community college would be better for her to take some of the pressure off. When Lyle asks Noah about a consultant’s job, Claire leaves the dinner table, disgusted. Noah then asserts his authority over Claire, starting with having enrolled her at Costa Verde Community College. After Noah leaves, Claire receives a text from “Rebel” to warn an Alex Woolsley at a nearby Sam’s Comics. When Claire goes to warn him, he thinks he’s being pranked, until Claire demonstrates her ability. They then hide from Noah, who finds Alex and makes up a story to get Alex to go with him, but while Claire distracts Noah with a phone call, Alex knocks over several comics toward Noah to buy himself and Claire time to escape. When they find themselves far enough away, Alex reveals to Claire that he can breathe underwater, which he discovered while on his high school’s swim team. Claire then notices a car in the rear view mirror that has already passed them twice, and she and Alex ditch his car and escape as Nathan’s agents arrive at the scene. The Hunter tells Noah that they found Claire’s car parked nearby. Noah goes to confront Claire about the lie; she retorts that she learned from “The Master” Noah. He maintains that bad things will happen if he can’t control Claire anymore, but she asserts her independence from him and drives off. At home, while Noah is out, Claire tells Sandra the truth about Noah and his mission of capturing everybody with an ability, including Matt, Mohinder, and Peter, and eavesdrops as Noah and Sandra have it out, with Noah turning the subject to make it about Claire. Noah later tells Claire that Sandra had kicked him out of the house for a while, and then says he wants to change and not keep so many secrets. A tearful Claire realizes how far she took the truth and hugs her father. Claire takes a sleeping bag to Alex, who is hiding in her closet, after Noah leaves.

In “Exposed”, Sandra discovers Alex hiding in Claire’s closet. After berating their actions, Sandra decides to help them. When two of Nathan’s agents search the house to find Alex, Claire and Sandra manage to get rid of them after convincing them that Alex wasn’t there, when in fact he was hiding in Noah’s secret crawlspace. That night, Sandra and Lyle “go out to a movie” to distract the agents to buy escape time for Claire and Alex. With the agents on their trail, Claire and Alex hide underwater in a neighbor’s pool, where he kisses her to give her some oxygen. After Alex escapes, Claire and Sandra congratulate themselves with popcorn and a “sappy love story,” as Sandra describes her movie choice. Claire goes to get the popcorn, only to find the microwave empty and Eric Doyle standing in front of her. Doyle explains that he needs Claire’s help, as “Rebel” had texted him, too: “CLAIRE WILL SAVE YOU.”

In “Shades of Gray”, Claire debates the idea of helping Eric Doyle escape the government agents. She applies for Alex Woolsley’s former position at Sam’s Comics as a cover to help more people with abilities to start over. As she leaves the store, Rebel sends her a text message telling her that Doyle was presently being captured by the agents. Despite reservations, she helps him and gives him a chance to escape. This, however, endangers her status with the government agents. Later that night, Rebel warns her that her free pass has been revoked (presumably since Danko now knows of her biological father’s flight ability) and that the agents were going to capture her. She is saved by her biological father, Nathan Petrelli, and they are seen floating together outside of her house as agents search it.


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