Claire Bennet
Name: Claire Bennet
Portrayed by Hayden Panettiere
Superpower: Spontaneous Regeneration
Age: 17
As stated by Claire's adoptive father, Mr. Bennet, to Isaac Mendez in the episode "Seven Minutes to Midnight", Claire's biological mother died during an "accident" fourteen years before the series began. Bennet and his wife, Sandra, were having trouble conceiving a child at the time, so they happily adopted the toddler Claire.
Six months prior to the start of the series, Claire was preparing to become a cheerleader at her high school and living an active but normal life. Jackie Wilcox, another cheerleader, befriends Claire and helps her join. Though Claire is "popular" like Jackie and others, she tries not to "be a bitch", unlike Jackie.
In the pilot episode, set several months later, Claire has recently become worried and frightened after discovering she is virtually indestructible, due to a healing factor which enables her to recover almost instantly from any injury. To help cope and test her powers, Claire confides in Zach, a high-school classmate who videotapes Claire testing her regenerative power by attempting to injure herself. Zach thinks Claire's powers are the "coolest thing to ever happen in [their] town"; Claire believes they make her a freak and is afraid of being discovered. Her younger brother, Lyle, also discovers Claire's powers after finding the tape Zach filmed. Claire swears him to secrecy.
Despite wanting nothing more than a normal life, Claire has been through her share of harrowing experiences. In the pilot episode, she saves a fireman from a burning train wreck. The credit for the rescue is later claimed by her friend Jackie. Wishing to avoid publicity, Claire grudgingly stays silent while Jackie takes the credit. Also, a burgeoning romance with Brody Mitchum, a quarterback from the school's football team, goes horribly wrong when a drunken Brody tries to date rape Claire. The encounter ends after she is "killed" when he knocks her down on a pile of wood, a branch rupturing the back of her neck, embedding itself into her skull. Claire later revives on the autopsy table when the branch is removed. She manages to escape when the coroner steps out of the room. Brody is stunned to see Claire alive at school the next day, but apparently decides he misremembered the incident due to his drunken state.
Discovering she isn't the first girl Brody assaulted, Claire decides to take revenge. She asks Brody for a ride home and then to drive his car. During the drive, she confronts him about his behavior, but Brody is unrepentant and indicates he'll continue assaulting girls. Claire then purposefully crashes the car into the wall of a building at high speed. They're both taken to the hospital, even though Claire is unhurt due to her powers. When her father comes to visit her, Claire breaks down and tells him of Brody's assault.
After several requests from Claire, Mr. Bennet arranges for Claire to meet Hank and Lisa, a couple that is presented as her biological parents. She tries to subtly pump them for information about her superhuman power, but they seem unaware of anything abnormal about Claire. In line with what Mr. Bennett revealed to Isaac about Claire's biological mother, a later conversation between Mr. Bennet and them implies that Hank and Lisa were imposters appearing on request from Bennet.
After the first four episodes of the series, a story arc called "Save the cheerleader, save the world" began. Claire's ultimate fate was implied to be tied to the fate of the entire world. A future version of Hiro Nakamura told Peter Petrelli: "Save the cheerleader, save the world." In a painting Peter Petrelli finished for Isaac Mendez, a cheerleader is seen dead, with her brain removed from her skull. Isaac also experiences a vision of Claire being chased at her school. In the episode "Seven Minutes to Midnight", Mr. Bennet tells Isaac that Sylar will kill Claire at her school's homecoming game, and he needs Isaac to help him prevent the crime by completing a painting of Claire being murdered.
In the episode "Homecoming", Claire was elected homecoming queen after her friend Zach campaigned for her, persuading all of the school's unpopular students to vote for her. Claire punches fellow cheerleader Jackie after Jackie taunts Zach about his sexuality. Claire's father grounds her, ostensibly for punching Jackie, but really intending to keep her out of harm's way by preventing her from fulfilling Isaac's "prophecies." Zach persuades Claire to sneak out her bedroom window and go to the game anyway.
At the game, Claire meets Peter Petrelli, but after seeing the newspaper article where Jackie took credit for the fire rescue, Peter believes Jackie is the cheerleader he is there to save. An argument between Claire and Jackie in the school locker room is interrupted when the lights suddenly turn off and Claire hears someone approach. Claire tells Jackie to run, but Sylar catches them and cuts Jackie's scalp telekinetically and throws Claire against a wall when she attempts to intervene. Claire, splattered with blood, quickly recovers from her broken bones and recovers her sight, gets up, and runs away from Sylar, who notices her regeneration and realizes he has made a mistake as Jackie dies from massive blood loss. 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, but then turns back to find him laying in a pool of blood. 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, who says the police will handle things at the school. He also says she is lucky to be alive, leading Claire to admit that her survival isn't due to luck.
In the episode "Fallout" Claire's father informs her that he has always known about her powers and has done things he isn't proud of to protect her. He tells her Sylar has been taken care of, but warns Claire not to tell anyone about her powers because 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, 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 to meet someone who also has powers like her own. She tells him he is "totally [her] hero." Claire later discovers that both her brother and Zach no longer remember what she told them about her unusual healing abilities. Claire panics and calls her father, frightened that someone has also wiped his memory. Mr. Bennet reassures her that he remembers and everything will be alright. 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 Lyle, Brody and Zach. The Haitian even states that he had to mindwipe Claire's mother multiple 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 just before the scene cuts off.
