Hayden Panettiere on HEROES 4.11 “Thanksgiving” Recap

Have you noticed just how beautiful Hayden Panettiere was in last night’s HEROES episode? Hayden was glowing! (Check out photos here!) She was just stunning; kudos to her make-up artist for making her more than perfect! I couldn’t help but just stare at her… (sorry, I’m gushing so much…) anyway onto the recap of last night’s “Thanksgiving” episode.

Dad Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) hosted a thanksgiving dinner at his apartment and invited ex-wife Sandra, old Company partner Lauren (guest star Elizabeth Rohm) and of course, Claire. Claire arrived first and she was about to tell her dad something when the other guests flocked in. Sandra came with a not-so-bright date named Doug Douglas and that was just too much caricature to be funny. So it was an awkward dinner with the ex and an old girlfriend, but everyone was trying to be nice. Well, Claire just about had it so she blurts out that she’s done with college. Immediately, Noah jumped in to ask if this was about Gretchen and Becky and Samuel. Claire wants to explore her other options – maybe travel to Europe, or find out where she belongs. With her anger boiling, Claire blurts that she’s a freak and she just wants people to accept her. Doug tried to appease Claire that everyone feels like a freak sometimes, but of course he doesn’t know anything. So Claire makes her point by slicing her arms with a nice, and having it heal right before Doug’s eyes. Ha.

While Doug was still unconscious (yes, he fainted!), Noah showed Claire the news items he gathered about the Carnival and warned her about associating with Samuel. Noah showed her a compass that had piqued his interest. A doorbell rings, and in came Gretchen! Claire was more than happy to see her old friend, although I wasn’t sure if there was some girl-crush going on there. Oh well. If Noah thought that bringing Gretchen back into Claire’s life was going to make her want a normal life, he doesn’t know his daughter too well.

So, after everyone has left Noah’s apartment, Claire decides to go find Samuel, and asks Gretchen to tag along.

The Bennet storyline was good enough, but it wasn’t all that great. Claire was the central character (and did I say how beautiful Hayden looked?) I guess the whole point was Claire getting the compass that would lead her to the Carnival. Overall, the HEROES episode was great and revealed a lot of new twists:

• Samuel did kill his brother Joseph. Thanks to Hiro’s sleuthing time-traveling abilities, Lydia and Edgar know about this now.
• Sylar finally got out of Nathan’s mind. The psychopath killer was about to kill Angela when Nathan (surprise surprise! he’s spirit/soul/essence was still inside Sylar) stopped Sylar from slicing his mom’s head open. And then Sylar turned back to Nathan again.

So that’s it about “Thanksgiving”. Next week’s even more exciting – Claire finally arrives at the Carnival.