WARNING: This article contains spoilers about upcoming episodes of “Heroes.”
Claire finds her birth parents. Peter vanishes. Hiro’s father shows up and so does a startling new Israeli hero with high tech capabilities. But that’s not the biggest news in store for fans of Heroes as it continues its first season. Featuring four collectible “Heroes” covers (see below), the January 29 issue of TV Guide magazine (on newsstands January 25) reveals that one series’ regular is headed for hero heaven.
“Some people will be upset (when they learn who dies), sure,” says “Heroes” creator and executive producer Tim Kring. “During February sweeps we are going to kill off one of our regulars, someone who has been with the show from the very beginning.” Asked if that “regular” is one of the actual heroes, Kring responds, “You know what? I personally never use the term ‘hero’ because I happen to know that, ultimately, some of the seemingly heroic characters will not be heroic.”
Still he hints that we may not be seeing the last of whomever it is that is being knocked off. “But with the ability to bend time and change things, not all of those who are killed are making their last appearance on the show–and we actually do have plans for the character who’s dying.”
Kring also confirms that Claire will find her biological mom – played by “Nip/Tuck’s” Jessalyn Gilsig – in the January 29 episode. “Claire sets out to locate her birth mother and finds her living in a trailer park in an old Airstream. That’ll be a shock but the identity of Claire’s father will be a bigger shock,” he says. He goes on to hint that the revelation of Claire’s biological father just might be someone fans are already familiar with. “I’ll say no more about that except that the reveal will be a lot of fun for the audience…Claire has to go on the road to find him. Once she meets her true parents, it will become even more important for her to find other people like her.”
Continuing with the Meet the Parents theme, Kring says that Hiro’s father – played by George Takei – will also pop up on January 29. “It’s going to be blow-your-mind cool,” he says. “The character will provide a gateway into a whole world back in Japan that we will explore in Season 2–a story about Hiro’s family and his past.”
As for Hiro regaining control of his powers, Kring says, “He’ll be a little handicapped for a while. Hiro can’t be so powerful that he becomes a crutch for bad writing. That’s why we had him fail to save the waitress. We can’t have him go back in time and fix everything.”
What about the two series regulars – Simone and Mohinder – who don’t seem to possess a secret power? Kring says of both, “(There are) none yet and none planned…except (in the case of Simone) maybe the power of love. We want the audience to feel that the spark between Simone and Isaac might reignite. It was always intended to be a complicated triangle between those tow and Peter.”
As for Peter, Kring says, “He’s with our new invisible man, Claude, and no one will be able to find him for several episodes. Claude who has had his powers longer than anyone we’ve seen thus far, is a window into the truth about what’s really going on.”
