Lesbian kiss episode
| Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) and Gretchen Berg (Madeline Zima). Gretchen kisses Claire and confesses to having a crush. Panettiere, who has acknowledged "experimenting" with female friends as a teenager, persuaded the creators to include the storyline. Zima's character was a recurring role. Heroes had previously planned a lesbian cheerleader character in 2007 but the actress took another job after just one episode and the part was not re-cast.