TVSquad

First they saved the cheerleader, now they've given her a boyfriend.

Nick D'Agosto will join NBC's Heroes this fall as West, Claire's boyfriend. The show says he will have a "cool" super power. I don't know if that means the super power is interesting and neat, or if he can turn himself into a giant ice cube tray and make ice cubes for when the other heroes are hot and thirsty from fighting the bad guys.

D'Agosto has guest starred on several TV shows, including House, ER, Cold Case, Six Feet Under, Big Day, Without A Trace, and Boston Public.

I guess this means that we won't be seeing the gay/not gay Zach back on the show as Claire's boyfriend. He's too busy on another show anyway.

The Heroes controversy continues.

It has been reported that Thomas Dekker (who played Zach) and his management didn't want him to play a gay character, and that's why the character and the actor suddenly disappeared from the show. But now Dekker has said on his web site (horribly designed, and I can't find the posting) that it's absolutely untrue.

In fact, Dekker says that he has played a gay character three other times in his career, as a younger teen, and would have done it again. He says his leaving the show had nothing to do with the story arc for Zach, though he doesn't really get into why he did leave the show.

Producer Bryan Fuller said in an interview last month that Dekker left because the character was gay and they were going to explore that plot further in later episodes.

In an interview with Popgurls.com, Heroes producer Bryan Fuller discloses that, yes, the character of Zach on the show was indeed gay and they were going to follow the story through, but then negotiations with the actor's (Thomas Dekker) management got "ugly."

Fuller says that Zach was going to come out on the show and actually help Claire "come out" about her superpower, but then reps for Dekker said that they didn't want to make the character gay because it might hurt his chances of getting the role of John Connor in the new series The Sarah Connor Chronicles. So they took out a line that would have said that Zach was gay and never really got into it again, though in everyone's mind the character was still gay. Fuller, gay himself, says that he was hurt and insulted by the entire "debacle."

They had whole episodes revolving around Zach planned, but then his reps pulled him from the show completely.

Yesterday we told you about the controversy surrounding the change that NBC was making to the character of Zach, Claire's friend on Heroes that seemed to be gay. Now, creator Tim Kring has sent an e-mail to the web site that posted a long piece about the controversy that we linked to yesterday.

You can read his full e-mail at the link above, but it seems that he's saying that they did try to make the character gay, but that they didn't want to pursue that any further after some discussions with NBC execs. He says it was "too complicated behind the scenes to push this issue further," which I think is interesting. Some of the comments after the article show that some people are ticked off at this decision, especially if they have some plot where Zach's sexual orientation is changed because of the memory wipe he experienced in the fall finale. I can't imagine that happening. It's my guess that they'll just simply not mention anything he has said to Claire before or any other hints to Zach being gay and just leave it at that.

It's hard to say how long Thomas Dekker will stay with the show, since he has signed on to play John Connor in the Terminator series next fall.

[via TV Tattle]

Here's an interesting little tidbit from the world of Heroes: it looks like NBC has changed their mind about Zach.

It certainly looked to fans like Zach (Thomas Dekker) was gay, for four reasons: one, when Claire's nasty cheerleader friend made a remark about Zach, he said something to Claire along the lines of "I'm comfortable with who I am." Two, NBC's recap of that episode says he is. Three, the character's MySpace page lists his orientation as "not sure." And four, creator Tim Kring talked about the character being gay (and what happened with an NBC exec) in this interview.

So people are wondering: did NBC change the orientation of the character? Did Dekker? Did the writers change it? Here I was going to say "oh, it doesn't really matter if he's straight or gay," and if this was real life it wouldn't, but if someone actually changed his orientation for some reason (or reasons) on a TV show, that's worth talking about.

[via Pop Candy]

Here's the backstory you need to know going into tonight's episode of Lost: Claire is Australian. Claire was preggers. She was kidnapped by Ethan, who we think was one of the Others and whom Charlie shot dead. Then she had a baby. Then Charlie went a little nuts, she stopped hanging around him so much, preferring the company of Locke instead, then Charlie tried to steal Aaron from her, and Locke punched him, but Claire still decided to heed Charlie's warning and baptized her baby. Also, in the last episode, One of Them, the group caught one of the Others. (Yes, I know within the world of the show, it is still not clear whether he is an Other or not, but since the name of the episode was One of Them, I think that should be telling us something).

Caught up? Good. Here we go. The episode begins with Aaron crying with a rash and fever in the middle of the night, and Claire waking Locke to go get Jack. Danielle shows up saying, "You don't remember, do you?" and Kate shows up yelling for Danielle to go away. She asks Claire what happened and Claire says that Danielle said "there's something wrong with my baby." Cue Lost intro graphics.

More after the jump...

That's right ladies and gentlemen, there is a new episode of Lost on tonight and we'll find out all of the secrets from when Claire was captured last season by Ethan next to nothing, but it'll probably still be insanely entertaining. A lot of folks have been complaining about Lost's slow pace recently, but keep in mind, we're still barely halfway through the season, I think the crew knows what they're doing. Make sure you check back here at TV Squad at 8:00pm EST tonight, and that's when we will unveil the hidden location for the chat. Claire is looking for it out in the jungle at the moment. In the meantime, make sure that you have AIM or a compatible instant messenging system (GAIM, Trillian, etc) installed. I'll be in the room under the id TVSRyan and a couple other of the TV Squadders will probably stop by, so look for us. Will we actually find out anything tonight?  I don't know, but come join us tonight and we'll find out together.

UPDATE:
Come one, come all; here is the secret location for our Lost Chat! See you inside.

Disclaimer: All or parts of the discussion in this chatroom may be posted in a later column on this site.

OK, let me say right up front that I simply did not like this episode. Actually, I sorta hated it. No big plot developments. No mysteries solved or revealed. And then Charlie goes bonkers for seemingly no apparent reason, only to get his ass beat down my Locke. What's more, we have to wait until Februrary 8 for a new episode. Bummer.

Yes, it is over, as it was and is meant to be.

And what a worthy send off it was. Pure art, a thing of beauty.

The final episode of Six Feet Under started out with an arc of thwarted change...

Six Feet Under: Hold My Hand is very much about how much the family of Ruth's husband George Sibley has been affected by tragedy over the generations.

As we learn in the opening "death" scene, the darkness begins back in 1953, when a young George is talking to his mother - a deeply depressed and trouble soul who seeks and finds a final solution for the demons inside her. Because this particular death scene does not fast-forward to the memorial service arc most other Six Feet Under episodes do, the interplay between sensitive boy and suicidal mother is meant to provide the background for the mental tortures George will experience throughout his life.

This episode finds George slipping back into the darkness. Flashbacks of his mother's death haunt George at inopportune moments, rendering him unable to perform simple tasks like food-shopping. Ruth recognizes the returning episode by erring on the side of kindness, but we can see that she is really being tortured inside. Maggie, George's daughter, recognizes the onset of another "episode." Verbally and with much reluctance, she agrees to seek another round of electro-convulsive treatments for her troubled Dad.