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Hayden Panettiere says she asked for her lesbian storyline

The Heroes lesbian storyline between Claire and Gretchen is still in the process of limping to the starting line, but word has it that it was Hayden Panettiere, who plays Claire, who introduced the idea of the lesbian story arc to the writers.

The actress said she suggested that her character of cheerleader Claire Bennet fall for her college roommate [Gretchen, played by] Madeline Zima in the forthcoming plotline. “I kinda threw it out there,” she told the Daily Express. “[The writers] put you in relationships and I was like, ‘Can I just be with a girl or something? Let’s do that.”

“So they took it and ran with it. She’s a great girl … and we have a blast.”

Ladies, take note: It was Hayden who wanted to kiss a girl in the show. If it weren’t completely age inappropriate for me to say the following, I’d say that “Claire bear” just got a whole lot hotter.

So this is where we are so far after the first few episodes.

Claire’s roommate, the competitive and abrasive Annie, who makes Election‘s Tracy Flick look like a slacker in comparison, mysteriously fell out of a window. Pop culture pundits initially thought Annie would be Claire’s love interest, but unless Annie also has Claire’s regenerative abilities, it looks like Annie has joined and is jostling for first place in the great Guitar Hero tournament in heaven.

Gretchen (Madeline Lima), who recognized Claire’s name from the murdered cheerleader incident in Odessa, Texas, began popping up in front of Claire like a smiling whack-a-mole target. After suspecting that Annie may have been pushed out of the window, Gretchen suggested that she and Claire solve the mystery of Annie’s death by getting a dummy or cadaver and throwing it out the window to see where it lands. No, this suggestion doesn’t sound normal to me either.

Run, Claire, run!

Later that night, Claire decided to use herself as a dummy and threw herself out of the window. She determined that Annie did in fact kill herself, snapped her bones back into place, and looked up to see Gretchen waving at her with misty eyes. Did Gretchen tag Claire with a GPS device? Ok, Claire was in her dorm room, but still. Creeptastic.

What should Claire do now that her powers have been discovered? On one hand, Gretchen is somewhat off and is clearly obsessed with her, but on the other hand, Gretchen doesn’t care that Claire is a human Gumby. Claire did a cost-benefit analysis and determined that she and Gretchen should be friends and move in with each other.

Later on, as Claire and Gretchen were lounging around in a couch wearing the lesbian uniform of choice – white tank tops – Gretchen asked to see Claire’s ability in action.

As Claire reached for the scissors, Gretchen undressed Claire with her eyes, clearly wanting more than just flirtation with sharp objects.

Is this what South Park meant by “scissoring”?

Yesterday’s episode was devoid of the Cletchen storyline. Instead, the entire cast suffered existential crises and gazed at their navels for an hour, but judging from the previews, it looks like next week Gretchen will attempt to convince Claire that she isn’t creepy and that she isn’t a stalker – and then plants one on Claire’s lips.

 

Not the smoothest of moves there, Gretchen. But as Panettiere said in the interview with the Daily Express, Claire and Gretchen eventually end up together – at least briefly – and have “a blast,” so maybe Gretchen has a superpower after all.

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