Save Cheerleader Save World
PATTERN CHECK-IN // 20-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Heroes At 20: The Eclipse, The Cheerleader, and the Irish Thread
20 years ago, in 2006, a very famous TV show began: Heroes.
Heroes is a show having an eclipse as a major element of the plot. We just had a major eclipse very recently.
The Premise: Evolved Humans
The show's main premise: a segment of the population with abilities called "evolved humans" are targets of secret government agencies hunting them and hiding their existence, while quietly working to pacify them behind the scenes, outside public awareness.
Claire Bennet - The Cheerleader
Claire can heal rapidly, and she wants the truth about evolved humans revealed because she believes people are ready to know.
She's the centerpiece of season one, known for the famous line:
"Save The Cheerleader. Save The World."
Hiro Nakamura & The Catalyst
That phrase comes from time traveler Hiro Nakamura's future self, who visits Peter in the underground New York subway to warn him. This ties Hiro directly to Claire - he's the source of the quote that defines her arc.
Both Hiro and Claire also carry "the catalyst" - the season 3 plot centerpiece, a rare energy signature used as the final piece of a formula that could give ordinary people powers.
"...the final piece of The Formula ... used for giving special abilities to people who don't have them naturally."
Two readings here: the negative version is about power handed out without being earned, through artificial means. The positive reading points to a source code already inside people that can help others evolve.
Hayden Panettiere - The Real-World Echo
Claire's life meant the world's survival in the show. In reality, Hayden Panettiere - the actress who played her - recently passed away, shortly after going public about the dark side of Hollywood.
The Finale: A Brave New World
Throughout most of the series, Claire wants the secret out - that people with powers, and the hidden groups controlling the world, exist. She gets there in the final season, built entirely around an evil carnival. In the closing scene she reveals the truth to the world live on the news, at the carnival. That's the final scene of the original series: "A Brave New World."
This situation can be seen as a symbolic marker that this circus show is soon coming to an end - with a brave new world dawning, one where rapid healing occurs as a result of the truth about secrets coming out.
The Irish Thread
The eclipse that just happened passed just outside the waters of Ireland.
Carnies are notoriously of Irish descent ->
Sydney Sweeney is Irish -> her early break in Hollywood was that very same carnival season of Heroes.
In Season 2, Peter is in Cork, Ireland, with an Irish love interest.
Sullivan is an Irish surname.
The actor who plays Sylar is Irish.
Greg Beeman - The Shared Director
Also worth noting next to a director named Beeman: in the show itself, Isaac Mendez's comic "Bumbledrum" - featuring a bee - gets read on screen.
Greg Beeman directed the first three seasons of the original Heroes, then came back to direct for Heroes Reborn.
He's also known for directing Smallville - another major show built around someone with powers hiding who they are.
Smallville has its own real-world echo too: co-star Allison Mack was later prosecuted as a co-conspirator in the NXIVM sex-trafficking case.
His wife's surname is Sullivan - she runs an art site at sullivanbeeman.com ->.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Married to Greg Beeman since 1986. Her recurring heroine subject is typically "accompanied by a force she calls a daemon."
Her recent work leans heavily on bees - "Bee Girl," "Bee Girl Too," bees again worked into "The Flowers We Find."
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