Pretender: Other Characters

Other Characters on
"The Pretender"

TERTIARY Characters

The Janitor at NuGenesis, now DECEASED
Lewis the Innkeeper at Oakview Lodge, still EMPLOYED AT THE LODGE
Argyle, WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN
Mr. Hollace, STILL RESIDING IN AN ARIZONA TRAILER PARK
Dr. Shafton, STILL PRACTICING PSYCHIATRY
Sonny Herbert, RECUPERATING FROM BURNING "ACCIDENT"
Mike Bodie, STILL LIVING ON TRIBAL LAND NEAR DEER CREEK

Janiot at NuGenesis with Jarod

The janitor at NuGenesis: He had been at the facility since the 50's and recognized Jarod's photograph of Margaret. Although he knew that NuGenesis was responsible for the testing and experimentation on children, he kept his mouth shut about it because Dr. Boris Haring had been paying him off. After Dr. Boris died, the janitor stayed on with the facility. When, in 1988, Jarod arrived at the facility to search for clues about his past, the janitor recognized the photograph of Margaret and assisted Jarod in thwarting a joint Centre/NuGenesis plot to abduct another child (Davy) and turn him into a Pretender like Jarod.

The janitor said he remembers seeing Margaret shortly after Jarod was born, and expressed how happy and fulfilled she seemed to be. He saw he again, later, after Jarod had been kidnapped, and grieved with her over the loss of her son. (What Margaret was doing back at NuGenesis after Jarod's kidnapping was not explained. She might have been looking for clues about his kidnappers... or she might have been there to adopt Kyle, but those scenarios are both SPECULATION at this point.)

The janitor was shot by Gar, and presumably killed, when he interfered with Gar's attempt to recapture Jarod at the NuGenesis facility.

Lweis delivers a photos to Jarod as Miss Parker watches

Lewis: A caretaker at the Oakview Lodge in Stone Mountain, Georgia, he was around when Margaret and Charles stayed at the Lodge while they spent six months trying to get a baby at NuGenesis. When Jarod arrived at the Lodge looking for information about his past, he showed Lewis a photograph of Margaret. Lewis reacted immediately, "Oh, my lord, you must be baby Jarod!" Lewis explained to Jarod how he had come to know and like Margaret and Charles, and how Charles had once saved his life.

Lewis also told Jarod that Jarod didn't look anything like Margaret or Charles, but added that they loved Jarod very much. He gave Jarod a photograph of Margaret and baby Jarod in which Charles is seen as a shadowy out-of-focus image reflected in the glass of the windows behind Margaret.

Argyle looks over a feverish and hallucinating Jarod

This is Argyle (with Jarod), an impoverished but wily opportunist, he found Jarod suffering from exposure in the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. Jarod had been struck unconscious by some drug-running truckers and left to die in the parking lot in the cold of night. Argyle's dog, "Dog", found Jarod and alerted Arygle to Jarod's whereabouts.

Believing Jarod to be someone with a "big brain" who was certainly valuable to someone else, Argyle nursed the feverish and (temporarily) amnesiatic Jarod back to health... after he stole all of Jarod's money, went through Jarod's personal items, and absconded with Jarod's cell phone. After watching some of the DSAs in Jarod's Halliburton case, and linking "The Centre" images on the DSAs with the telephone number for "Sydney" or Jarod's cell phone, Argyle called The Centre to see if they were interested in getting Jarod returned to them. Jarod in Argyle's custody

The call to Sydney was intercepted, however, by Brigitte and Mr. Raines, who offered Argyle the pitiable sum of $10-thousand in exchange for Jarod. Not knowing any better, and ignoring Jarod's warnings that Brigitte was an assassin, Argyle agreed to turn Jarod over to Brigitte. When Brigitte arrived at the warehouse with a pair of Sweepers, she saw to it that Arygle was stuffed into the trunk of her sedan and left orders with Willie the Sweeper to kill Argyle as soon as she had Jarod in custody. Jarod lets Argyle out of the trunk but takes back his PEZ

Jarod managed to escape from the warehouse, overcome Brigitte and her Sweeper Team, and let Argyle out of the trunk of the car. Jarod did not, however, allow Argyle to keep the $10-thousand. Instead, he donated to the local humane society in Dog's name.

Argyle's whereabouts are not known at this time.

Mr. Hollace: A landlord at a trailer pak near the Skyvionics Testing Ground in Arizona, he was once involved with The Manhatten Project and the bombing of Hiroshima. A borderline paranoid, Mr. Hollace envisions all sorts of "conspiracies" around him. He believes, for example, that the spraying of malathyon in California was not intended to kill or render sterile the pesky "med-flies" that were contaminating crops in the state. Instead, he believes that the government used the med-fly story as a cover-up to hide its illicite halcyon gas experiments on the general population. Mr. Hollace also believes that the government can watch civilians through their television sets with "reverse imaging devices", and can subject civilians to hypnotic suggestions through "subliminal messages" sent through the TV. Although many consider Mr. Hollace a somewhat harmless "kook", Jarod believed much of what Mr. Hollace told him... and gave Mr. Hollace a map showing the precise location of The Centre. Jarod told Mr. Hollace that The Centre, too, was a secret government-funded installation where illicit experimentation was taking place. "People should be made aware, if you know what I mean..." Jarod said. "I'll spread the word," Mr. Hollace promised, and Jarod told him, "I'm counting on it."

This is Dr. Shafton. She was introduced to viewers in the "Unhappy Landings" episode of the first season of The Pretender, and is Sydney's psychiatrist. Shortly before the shooting of Mr. Raines' oxygen tank in Boston, Sydney had disclosed to Dr. Shafton that he often fantastized about murdering Raines. Dr. Raines had destroyed every subject he came in contact with at The Centre, Sydney claimed, and Sydney didn't know how much more of Raines' unethical dealings he could stand. Sydney also confided in her that he was often frustrated and angry with Miss Parker because she, like her mother, pried into things that didn't concern her. And he admitted to Shafton the wrong he did in helping The Centre keep Jarod a virtual prisoner for 30-years.

Sydney confides in Dr. Shafton

In the second season episode "Hazards", Sydney mentioned going to a comedy club with Dr. Shafton one evening to relax. He came back to The Centre with the joke: "How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb?" [[Answer: Only one. But the lightbulb has got to WANT to change.]]

Jarod with Davy (blond, center) and other child geniuses

DAVY SIMPKINS: Was a vital character in the "Bloodlines" episode of the second season of The Pretender. Davy, like Jarod and the other "Unlucky Ones", was a child genius. Dr. Raines and Dr. DeWitt (of NuGenesis) were hoping to be able to use Davy to re-establish the Pretender Project. Davy was in foster care, but no mention was made as what had happened to his natural parents. After Jarod rescued him from Angel Manor, where Davy was being held before being transported to The Centre, Davy was then turned over to the Brewsters, and adoptive family whom Jarod had met while working briefly at NuGenesis himself. Jarod provided the Brewsters with the cash they would need to start a new life under assumed names, and to set up a trust fund for Davy.

Davy and Jarod It's unknown at this time if Jarod and Davy are genetically matched (i.e., if they have the same familial or even parental lines), but we know they both carry the "anomally" in their blood that predisposes them with "the gift" to be pretenders.

In the image to the right: a recovering Davy relaxes against Jarod's body on the front porch of the Oakview cabin. --->

SONNY HEBERT: In the 1960's, Sonny was a private investigator in Louisiana who specialized in finding missing children. After Jarod was kidnapped, Margaret and Charles commissioned Mr. Herbert to find him. Sonny was not successful in his search for Jarod.

After Jarod escaped from The Centre, however, Sonny Herbert suffered one of the "convenient accidents" that seemed to plague anyone even remotely involved with Jarod and his family. Sonny was severely burned when he supposedly fell asleep smoking a cigarette. This "accident" was refuted by Sonny's long-time (retired) secretary, who informed the authorities that Sonny was an insomniac and couldn't never have fallen into a deepenough sleep to have resulted in his tragic burning. The authorities, however, dismissed the secretary's worries stating that there was no record of insomnia in Sonny's health files.

Immediately following the "accident", Sonny's Lousianna office was invaded by a group of men whom the property manager described as "vending machines with heads"; he especially noted a weird-looking bald man who carted around an oxygen tank behind him. The manager said then men had told him they looking for Sonny because he owed them money. They were in such a hurry to look through Sonny's office, however, that they neglected to check through the records in the basement.

In 1996, Jarod -- following a photographic clue FAXed to him from The Centre by Angelo {see image above}-- found Sonny's office, but discovered that the records in the basement didn't include information on Jarod himself. Jarod later located the ex-secretary, and she told him Sonny was still in hospital recovering from his "accident". Jarod went to visit Sonny in the hospital, but found that the man -- severely burned and living in an oxygen tent -- was unable to communicate. The medication he was on for the pain he suffered because of his burns made him drift in and out of consciousness; and when he was conscious, he wasn't lucid. It's unknown at this time if Mr. Herbert has fully recovered from his injury, or if Jarod has ever made a return trip to visit him.

This is Mike Bodie, a Native American man who linked up with Jarod through an internet website, and supplied Jarod with information about Jarod's father, Major Charles. Unlike the image of the murderous man painted by Mr. Fenigor, Mike told Jarod that his father was a hero who had once saved his life. Mike gave Jarod a "dream catcher" that had been hand-crafted by Major Charles, and showed him the cave in which Charles went on a "dream quest" for find his missing son. Major Charles was also known to Mike as "Soaring Eagle" (because he was an air force pilot, and because the "eagle" dominated Charles' dream quest).

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