Other Characters on
"The Pretender"

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This is Margaret, the person Jarod thinks of as his mother. We don't know much about her, except that she's never given up on her pursuit to be reunited with Jarod. She hadn't seen Jarod since he was four, but recognized him immediately when, for a brief moment, she was able to see him on a Boston street corner (before Centre operatives moved in to try to kill her). She escaped that attempt on her life and, on leaving, called to Jarod several times: "I love you. I love you." Jarod carries with him a photograph of her (given to him by Sydney) everywhere.

We know that Margaret had had difficulty conceiving when she was younger, and had gone to a natal clinic/ adoption agency called NuGenesis in Atlanta, Georgia in order to look for assistance in becoming pregnant. She and her husband, Charles, remained with the facility for about six months in the late 50's until Jarod was born.

It's most likely that Charles and Margaret were adoptive parents, since they'd spent only about six months with the NuGenesis program (too short a period of time to conceive and give birth to a baby), and no one had seemingly seen Margaret pregnant during this period. We know Jarod came to be with Margaret and Charles during their time with NuGenesis because, as an adult, Jarod was later given a photograph of himself as a baby, held in Margaret's arms as she stood on the front stoop of a cottage at the Oakview Lodge in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The photograph was gift to Jarod from Lewis, a caretaker of the Lodge, who had gotten to know Margaret and Charles while they stayed there (only a few miles from NuGenesis).

Once, when feverish and suffering from exposure, Jarod hallucinated about Margaret. Her image came to him with comforting looks and words of encouragement. Even after his fever broke, she came to him in a vision and showed him how to escape from a pair of handcuffs that were keeping him chained to a bed in an abdandoned warehouse.

We didn't see Jarod's father, Charles, during the first two seasons (except from the back in flashbacks, and as a shadowy figure in photographs and dreams). Jarod didn't remember what Charles looks like, and so in Jarod's dreams and imaginings Charles was faceless. We have learned that Charles was a pilot in the Air Force (probably a Major) and a flying ace who won a Distinguished Flying Cross medal (in what war, Jarod doesn't know) that was passed down to Kyle and then on to Jarod (from Kyle). Jarod carries the medal with him everywhere as well. Major Charles was apparently also known by a distinctive patch her wore on his air force uniform: that of a ring of fire. Viewers haven't yet been told what this symbol signifies, but it was also found on the gun that murdered Catherine Parker.

In the late 50's, during the winter, while Charles and Margaret were staying at the Oakview Lodge, Charles saved the life of Lewis (the caretaker) by pulling him from the lake when Lewis fell in. As with Margaret, we don't yet know if Charles is Jarod's biological father or not, but hints in the "Bloodlines" episodes, and facts already established in other episodes, suggest that Charles is not Jarod's real father.

Whatever Major Charles' relationship is to Jarod (natural father or adoptive father), his actions don't seem to coincide with Mr. Fenigor's assertions that "Jarod's father" was the murderer of Catherine Parker. Major Charles not only saved the life of Lewis the caretaker, he also (in the 70's) saved the life of a young Native American boy named Mike Bodie. In 1998 Mike found Jarod, and gave him a photograph of and information about Major Charles: a brave man who went a "dream quest" to find his son. Mike mentioned how much Jarod reminded him of Major Charles, but we're not sure if he was referring to Jarod's looks or Jarod's temperament.

In the "Hope and Prey" episode, Jarod went on his own"dream quest" to seek a connetion to his father's spirit. In a dream, Jarod found him in The Centre, looked into his face, spoke to him, and embraced him.

In "Bloodlines" we learned that Charles and Margaret had gone to NuGenesis in the late 50's. Jarod was born around 1959, and kidnapped by Centre operatives in 1963. During that 4-year period, Charles and Margaret were together, living in a rural area of Charlevoix, Michigan. Jarod later learned that the night he was kidnapped, Charles and Margaret "disappeared", their house was burned to the ground, and The Centre bought the deed to their property.

A few years later, the janitor at NuGenesis claimed he saw Margaret around the facility again. "She was scared, on the run," he said. Someone had stolen her son (Jarod). We don't know when, yet, or under what circumstances Margaret and Charles became the parents of Jarod's blood-brother, Kyle. But by the time Charles and Margaret arrived at the farm of Harriet Tashman to "hide out", they were still together, and had lost both Jarod and Kyle. This was in 1969. Shortly after their arrival at the farm, Emily was born.

In 1970 Catherine Parker was murdered in The Centre by a "man in a dark suit", whom Mr. Fenigor (a Centre "special expediter") identified as Jarod's father. We're assuming the killer may not be Charles, because Charles was in hiding with Margaret on the Tashman farm during this time. This leads us to assume that either (1) Charles and Margaret adopted Jarod and Kyle (who were blood-brothers), or (2) Margaret was the boys' biological mother, and the boys' biological father (perhaps a sperm donor at NuGenesis) is someone we haven't seen or heard about yet.

Charles, Margaret, and Emily lived in hiding at the farm of Harriet Tashman until they were discovered there in the late 80's. They then fled, and remained hidden until 1997 when, for an instant, they met Jarod in Boston. They are now in hiding again, and Jarod doesn't know where they are.

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