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"Heroes" fans just got “sweeps-ed”If AfterEllen.com had a nickel for every time we wrote a blog post about lesbian plotline-turned ratings stunt, we’d be able to give every single reader ten copies of the entire L Word series and rent out U-Hauls for free. That’s a lot of nickels. Spoiler warning: If you haven't watched the episode yet, stop reading now. Appropriately, in a move that disappointed many but shocked no one — especially during sweeps, where networks try to get their highest ratings — Heroes’ potential lesbian relationship between Claire Bear and Gretchen disappeared before our eyes like Becky Taylor on the kill. Last night’s episode, “Shadowboxing,” opened with the aftermath of the sisterhood scavenger hunt gone Sorority Row and its repercussions on Claire and Gretchen.
Claire reasons, “Let’s just not tell anyone about this.” When she asks if Gretchen is OK, Gretchen snaps, “No, I’m not OK. Becky just tried to kill me.” Jeez, let’s not get so touchy with the hot blonde; she just saved your life. Gretchen bemoans, “Why does Becky Taylor want me dead?” Maybe Becky is secretly a lesbian, too, and her trying to kill Gretchen and harassing Claire is her fifth grade attempt of showing a pretty girl that she’s in love — kind of like a little girl pulling another girl’s pig tails or putting a frog in her desk.
Claire decides that she needs to go back to the sorority house to find Becky. Gretchen is scared to be left alone in the room; besides, Becky pushed Claire’s last roommate out the window and can only want the same fate for her. Claire tries to show mortal Gretchen some lame things she can do in case Becky is invisible in the room: baby powder sure does the trick. Instead of staying and protecting Gretchen from the bad guys, Claire won’t let Gretchen go with her and leaves her shaking in the room. C’mon, Claire, not even a hug goodbye for the terrified dyke in the dorm? Bad move.
At the sorority house, none of the sorostitutes remember the night before (“OMG, we’re gonna have a scavenger hunt?!”). Can you say memory erasing? We also find Claire Bear’s daddy, H.R.G., waiting for her and investigating this whole attempted murder at sorority row.
As they discuss what to do about Gretchen’s new knowledge, Claire screams, “You can’t erase Gretchen’s memory!” Papa Bear raises his eyebrows and says, “She must be a really good friend.” Is Daddy picking up on the lesbian subtext, too? He assures Claire that she can keep her new friend and isn’t going to erase G Baby’s memory. Phew! Claire Bear goes back to the dorm with personal bodyguard Rene in tow, only to find her lesbian lover packing. Is she going on vaca? Spring Break Cancun? No, it’s because she’s scared to death that a sorority monster is going to gut her. Claire tells her she’s handling the situation, but Gretchen retorts, “With what, baby powder?” Touché. I was thinking more along the lines of her long golden locks and luscious lips. But they can use baby powder too if it makes things interesting. In a moment of lesbian glory, Claire begs her not to go: “You’re too important to me. I just don’t wanna lose you.” Aww. Claire is fighting back tears and fighting for the one she loves. She’s so gay.
Gretchen apparently has no soul and says, “I’m sorry, I already booked my flight.” Claire tells her that she’s brought Rene, who can stop Becky from turning invisible. “I’m scared for my life.” Gretchen says Claire can’t possibly understand her fear because Becky’s after her, not Claire, because Claire can’t get hurt. When Claire tells her this happens all the time and it’s no big deal, Gretchen agrees, “This is everyday life for you, but it’s not for me. I’m just not like you.” What do you mean you’re just not like Claire? You’re both hot lesbians. You’re both roommates. You both want to jump each other’s bones. I can’t really find any dissimilarity, Gretchen. Without a hug or a kiss-attack, Gretchen heads for the hills. Blowing your chances with your hot roommate because some girl is trying to kill you? Wuss. Doesn’t Gretchen know that love is a battlefield? Claire Bear asks Rene the bodyguard to keep an eye on her boo until she gets on the plane. She shuts her door and transforms into a crying mess. I find myself tearing up, too, and just want my lesbian roommate back! Oh, I mean Claire’s fictional one. It’s not like this has ever happened to me, no. I don’t wanna talk about it. Claire’s sob sesh is interrupted by a creepy dude with a weird accent who is Becky’s “uncle” who knows all about Claire and tries to explain his family’s legacy. How can he explain his niece pushing Claire’s roommate out of the window, though? Well, “Becky is a very disturbed girl.” Uhh, yeah. Thanks, Sherlock. Meanwhile, Papa Bear is rifling through Becky’s sorority lair and forces Becky to materialize under threat of a high-voltage gun. We learn that Papa Bear killed Becky’s father when she was little and when he tried to kill her, she turned invisible for the first time, never to be found by Papa Bear. Becky is back with a vengeance and is seeking revenge on Papa Bear through Claire — take away all of Claire’s dreams like he took away hers. Daddy says don’t you dare hurt my daughter, but Becky assures him, “I’m gonna hurt you both.” Before any hurting can happen, Becky’s sorostitutes enter the room, baffled at the weird old bespectacled dude with glasses in their room. Claire tells the fake uncle about her missing her special friend through tears, “I didn’t send her away,” her lip trembles, “she left.” Claire looks like she really cared for the girl. Poor Claire Bear. Papa Bear storms back to the dorm to see his little girl with the creepy fake uncle, resists the urge to kill him, and arrests him. Mortals are so rash sometimes. Clearly the invisible niece knows of this, and tries to kill the daddy-daughter outing, but the uncle steps in, avoids arrest and takes Becky away.
After the day she’s had, Claire walks back into her dorm room hoping to see Gretchen, but all that’s there is a well-made empty bed. If only she could curl up in it with G baby. She says bye to her dad while holding back tears. I want my lesbian roomie back!
Late at night, Claire is lying alone in her room, unable to sleep because all she can think about is her BFF Gretchen. She looks over to where Gretchen used to sleep, hoping she’ll appear like Becky in baby powder. Nothing doing, Gretchen blew it. Becky really is taking away all of Claire’s dreams — especially the really good ones involving Gretchen in her jammies late at night. It looks like just as Claire was ready to make the leap from BFFs to GFFs, Gretchen abandoned her in her time of need. Boooo, Gretchen! And booo, NBC! The three-episode story-arc was really riveting and completely original. Thanks, Heroes writers! Lesbians love any insulting morsel you throw their way just to get a spike in the ratings. It’s not like we deserve any better, right? However, thanks to AE reader cbbread, we know that Gretchen is credited in episode 11, “Thanksgiving.” Perhaps this isn’t the last we’ll see her. I guess we’ll have to wait till next episode and see, but I’m not getting my hopes up just yet. What do you think of the bogus way the Claire/Gretchen relationship went down? Do you think Gretchen (and NBC) will have a change of heart and come running back into Claire’s arms? And how appropriate was the SNL skit about lesbian-ish roommates to Claire and Gretchen? Submitted by on November 10, 2009 - 4:00pm. |
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it's not over - thats all I
it's not over - thats all I will say.
If you want to know email me @ grevlismc@yahoo . com or im me on AIM @ gstringonair
I want to know!!!!
hi i've tried emailing you, but i keep getting an error thingy. any other options? help!!!!!! i also knew it wasn't over with claire&gretchen. i knew, know and we all did claire loves gretchen. it was all in her eyes. i was waiting for one of them to start kissing the other but of course no luck there. it's not just me that saw and felt the chemistry between those two. they're great together, and um we need more more more of claigretchen. <3 ;) so hit me bck when you get this. thanks and waiting to hear from you. :P People was that not the way we wanted that episode to go for Claigretchen?
:( It was so so sad, wasn't it? lastly i think claire has felt something for gretchen ever since gretchen kissed her. it's wht i saw and read from claire. any one else think that also?
I love reading your
um.. yeah it's not over.
Oh come on
This is actually kind of funny
Last legs?
Re
Annoying Gretchen
GRRR...
I wanted Claire to tell Gretchen something in the lines of 'I won't heal from this' as she was leaving :(
Also, WHY didn't you stay with your would-be girlfriend when she was all frightened and stuff? Stupid Claire....
Re-caps rock.
"Blowing your chances with your hot roommate because some girl is trying to kill you? Wuss. Doesn’t Gretchen know that love is a battlefield?"
Killing me softly, with laughter.
(What is this show about... ?)
On imdb.com it only says
5
She has only been in 6
oops
Thanks for the shout out!
Hah totally cracked me up
Really hope this isnt the end of this. They were soo cute together and Claire genuinely looked devistated that she was losing Gretchen =(
Come on Heroes writers! Do the right thing!
BOOO YOU GRETCHEN
~I couldn't let boys have all the fun ;)
I just have a feeling
I can't help but think this isn't over. It seemed to leave too many strings untied.
can't it be tuesday now?
if this is the end of the claire/gretchen relationship i will be mad. so i'm hoping that she will be back in the next ep. :D
http://ikkegoesblogging.blogspot.com/
She'll be back.
There was NO closure here. If they hadn't brought Nathan back this episode to give HIM some closure, I would say that the Heroes writers had lost it and didn't know what the word meant, but Nathan's back to finish up his story line and say goodbye, and Gretchen will be back too.
Not that I'll be happy about that. I LOVE lesbians on TV, it makes me feel validated, but this storyline was painful, and neither Claire NOR Gretchen validate me in the slightest. I think that maybe Heroes should forget romance, because they do it SO-DAMN-BADLY. God, I pity Emma if she ends up with that lout Peter...she was in Med school, for Christ's sake, and he's a troll. I watch Heroes for one reason, and that's Sylar. Otherwise, I really wouldn't care.
Claire/Elle
boooo
It will bother me if they don't conclude it only because they seem to be building pretty steadily to Claire being pretty darn gay. The conversations with Gretchen two weeks ago, and her inability to keep it together this week when Gretchen left? Yeah, not fooling anyone. ;)
It is sad that Heroes is kind of terrible at relationships, though, because I honestly don't see where this would go. Not because of them being gay, but just because relationships don't really fit into the show too well...
Lame......
but not even that, can get their ratings up. I never know when this show is on, and if it is on I watch something else so who cares at this point.
www.myspace.com/guitarrachica
oh great
Optimistic
While I'm not normally too optimistic about such things, I kind of am with this one. I get the feeling that this storyline isn't over and we'll see Gretchen again.
First, don't always believe
First, don't always believe what IMDb says - unless you have Pro-account. =]
2ndly - just say special day is coming up.
hmmmm
It made sense to me that
deleted
deleted
Uhmmm
How dare Gretchen leave the love of my life??????? That is just ridiculous!! She needs to come back and soon, she had no right hurting Clair in such a way.!!! I'm highly upset! :(
True feelings can never be put into words.
therfore when you can't explain how you feel about someone that's when you know..
Claire made me giggle this
Claire made me giggle this episode. I loved the look she gave Gretchen when they were making up what they had seen and she was like 'Yeah I saw you two making out'
Wouldn't it be insane if NBC actually gave us a decent lesbian plot? I think we would all die. Considering the amount of homophobes in the US that would complain though and the twitchy American networks, I highly doubt it.
Love the screen caps. Always makes me laugh when I pause something i'm watching and it ends up on someone pulling a really random face :P
Don't be silly
NBC won't do that. American networks aren't interested in appealing to a lesbian audience, they are just like that Australian tv networks.
What I think....
This is just a typical situation of you do not know what you´ve got till she´s gone. So I think that Claire will just realize now that the kiss Gretchen gave did more too her than she wants to admit...
Well I just hope it´s gonna be a good decent storyline and not an I was a lesbian for two weeks but now i´m straighter than straight (Remember Charlie and Joey) Ok that was a Australian show, but still it always seems to go that way. So keep Claire gay and let her explore the path to lesbianhood with Gretchen. You would make at least one person happy NBC.....:D
Well at least there is no
TISK TISK Heroes. My
TISK TISK Heroes. My disapointment would slap you in the face if it had hands. Oh wait. I have hands. *SLAP* Assholes.
We can't have a baby in the house! My sister's coming
Does she eat them?
she'll be back
gretchen will be back, they can't end this storyline like that.
i think gretchen is funny and i like the relationship with claire they built up...well till monday. shadowboxing sucked. i hope it is getting better and they will bring gretchen back soon.
Ok, stop with the jumping to conclusions...
Gretchen will be back for a few more episodes, and there are a number of possibilites that could occur. My hope, along with most of the rest of ours (it seems), is that she and Claire will finally become a couple. Having scoured the information released, I believe that Gretchen will be around a while, however, most of the evidence is heresay and inferences based on some of the casting. Madeline Zima isn't looking for work and isn't cast in anything besides Heroes at the time, IMDB Pro has eight episodes up for her casting this morning (so Thanksgiving and at least one after that).
Now, that doesn't mean she couldn't die in the last five minutes of Thanksgiving and still be there the next episode as a corpse, ala Tara in Seeing Red and Villains of Buffy. However, that would be kind of annoying, and it would definitely shift into plagarism of Whedon's work if it went that far...then again, they already kind of have for Claire's storylines, so what's new?
The third is we could actually get 'sweeps-ed'. I mean it's always a possibility, and unfortunately, it's a very high probability as well. However, if they do something like that, they should just end it now, and not formalize it, Claire has enough drama in her life at the moment with the Carnival and taking care of her dad, who obviously can't do so for himself.
Speaking of Noah/HRG...what the hell was Elizabeth Rohm doing in the last episode? I mean, yeah, it was awesome to see her in something I liked again, but for one episode? It seemed like they were doing something there. Oh well.
Back on topic, the writers have countless ways to deal with the relationship from here. Having her run away may be natural for the character. I mean, imagine being choked by someone invisible after you only because you're friends with your roommate. Then imagine they realized that the two of you were a couple. I can kind of understand that fear. However, hopefully the writers won't let that fear affect the relationship between the two characters, and Gretchen herself left it open. "I'm going home...maybe for good." She didn't say they were done, just that she was running for cover, maybe to process it all.
All we're doing right now though is speculating. There is no evidence one way or the other, and it would be bad for the characters to neglect finishing the storyline...however, it wouldn't be the first time. Anyone remember Caitlin?
-Sara
Just wanted to add...
The promo taglines for the first post Thanksgiving episode, The Fifth Stage, has been released.
"Unexpected visitors greet H.R.G.; Samuel's plan starts to come to fruition; struggling to accept the truth, Peter takes extreme measures to get what he wants; Claire's journey leads her to an unexpected destination."
Not sure what to take from that...but apparently both of the Bennett's seem to have the women they've shown interest in before appearing on the Thanksgiving episode. Elizabeth Rohm will also be back for that. Also back is Ashley Crow, aka Sandra Bennett. That's gonna be an interesting episode one way or another.
As for The Fifth Stage, no idea what it refers to or if it's going to be Madeline Zima's 8th and possibly final episode, but it seems like it may be a possibility given everything thus far. Then again, she could just be going to New York again.
-Sara
I LOVE your comments ... So true!
I havn't been a Heroes fan and don't know it's history but I have watched the 9 episodes from series 4, purely for Claire and Gretchen.
At first I wasn't sure about Madeline Zima being a love interest for Hayden's character because I originally thought Rachel Mevin's Annie would be. I loved Rachel in DOOL, so when I saw that Annie died in episode 1 it p*ssed me off.
Anyway, after a few scenes with Claire, I realised how sweet and adorable Madeline makes Gretchen. I hope that even if the writers don't continue a romantic relationship that they continue their friendship. It seems like Claire needs one person to confied in and even though Gretchen got scared and ran, it seems like she is it for Claire.
"Unexpected visitors greet H.R.G.; Samuel's plan starts to come to fruition; struggling to accept the truth, Peter takes extreme measures to get what he wants; Claire's journey leads her to an unexpected destination."-
Perhaps she goes looking for Gretchen? But who knows, all I can say is that you can only hope.
Oh and that baby powder scene was SO CUTE!! Haha *puff*. I loved it.
Yeah, that really sucked!
who saw carlease burke on heroes monday night?
wishful thinking maybe, but
Is it just me....or has
Is it just me....or has Elizabeth Rohm had some "Nip/Tuck' (good show) done to her face?
We can't have a baby in the house! My sister's coming
Does she eat them?
Expected
I'm gonna be seriously pissed..
..if Gretchen doesn't come back!
They're made for each other, for f*ck's sake!
They have such great chemistry together..the scissors scene, the trunk scene..not to mention this one!
Don't know about you but I had chills watching Hayden and Madeline in those, they were perfect!
Wow...
It's gotten so bad that we are relying on a terrible show like Heroes to provide us lesbian action. Am I the only one who feels used and dirty? Furthermore, why are people getting upset over something they clearly knew was not going to happen. Come on ladies and maybe a few gents, it's November Sweeps. If you want to watch lesbian relationships, I suggest you brush up on your Spanish or learn some British lingo. It seems as if Spain and the UK are the only countries brave enough to do lesbian story lines. Otherwise we Americans are left to Grey's Anatomy. And hell 5 minutes of nothing just isn't worth it. *Sigh* I'm not even wasting my time on the YouTube video search for these two. I repeat, it's just not worth it any more.
"Mother Chucker!" - Blair, Gossip Girl
this storyline is
misinformed much?
first off, the company responsible for storylines, characters and plot is Tailwind Productions. NBC is just the distributor with NBC Universal Television and UMS providing crew, studio, sets, etc.
secondly, the reason the storyline was so short lived was because the plot and direction of it wasn't supported by the fans - gay or straight - for varying reasons - and not the simple minded ones we can all think of.
if you want to see more (or hell, any) gay/lesbian characters on tv - then no matter whether its cheesy, stupid, great, emotional, real or stereotypical - you have to support.
or these same comments complained about over and over - will continue.
agree
Depressed.
I've been so depressed since Gretchen's departure. :(
She really irritated me at first but honestly, by the kiss episode, I was totally in love with her. Aww, cute, awkward, geeky roommate. And the cute blonde and geeky brunette pairing? Can anyone say, "Muchly over-done?" Soo the story of my life. And the story of "Wicked." Totally threadbare concept, but it never seems to get old/un-cute. :)
I really hope Gretchen returns. I mean, come on, the utter despair happening all over Claire's face? How could she forget that?! She'll be back.