Other Characters on
"The Pretender"

All unwilling participants in the PRODIGY experiment.
ANGELO: Remains at The Centre
MR LYLE: is Back at the Centre
DANNIE: is Confined to a Mental Institution

This is Angelo. Once believed to be something of a "sponge" who had no individuality or personality of his own, he's now recognized as an acute empath.

We learned in the second season episode, "FX", that Angelo was once a child named Timmy. His empathic abilities only came about after he was subjected to neuroelectric shock treatments and "brain wave manipulation" experiments by Mr. Raines. On the day of her death, Catherine Parker found out what Raines had done to Timmy and had threatened to expose him. Timmy, watching from the security of an air conditioning vent, later saw the "man in the dark suit" murder Catherine Parker.

A Cracker Jacks fan, Angelo is also a computer whiz who keeps in constant contact with Jarod through FAX and e-mail transmissions. He also kept in contact with Kyle when Kyle was in prison, sending him letters and photographs. At one point, Angelo had attempted to Federal Express information about Jarod's parents to Jarod, but the shipment was intercepted by Miss Parker and destroyed. On another occasion, Angelo saw to it that Jarod was linked up with information about Private Investigator Sonny Herbert, and that Sydney went to a Twins Convention in Minneapolis to meet with the Piltcher twins and learn more about his brother Jacob.

Angelo is also the self-appointed guardian of reams of paperwork and files on the children used in the Pretender Project, including Jarod, and keeps the records safe from Mr.Raines (or anyone who would try destroy them) in the bowels of the air conditioning vents and conduits of SL-27.

We also found out in the "Bloodlines" episode that before Mr. Raines had destroyed parts of "Timmy's" brain with neuro-electric shock therapy, Timmy was an accomplished pianist... and he liked tea.

In 1998, Jarod established a serotonin therapy for Angelo that, if it had been carried out to its intended conclusion, would have restored the damaged neuro-pathways in Angelo's brain and turned him back into Timmy. The treatment was working well, and the Timmy personality was re-emerging with all of its talents and capabilities, until it became necessary to provide a similar treatment to young boy named Davy. The only available serum was Timmy's last dose. Without even thinking about it, Timmy gave up the serum to Davy... and regressed back into the withdrawn, empathic persona the staff at the Centre knew as Angelo. Because the therapy had been interrupted before it was concluded, Angelo's state is now irreversible. Although he lost his true identity and his musical talent, Angelo has regained his empathic abilities (which regressed when the Timmy personality re-emerged).

It was hinted that Angelo might be Miss Parker's fraternal twin, but that possibility was nullified in the third season premiere episode "Crazy" when viewers discovered that Mr. Lyle was her twin. Miss Parker was with Angelo when he made the sacrifice of his medication to Davy, and she wept over the loss of "Timmy". She told Angelo, "I wish I had known you... the real you." Angelo responded that hewished he had been able to know the real Miss Parker, as well.

Angelo aided in a child's (Davy) escape from The Centre's henchmen by attacking Willie the Sweeper with a hypodermic needle, and by interfering with Miss Parker's attempt to shoot Jarod. Jarod was able to whisk Davy onto a Centre-owned jet and fly him to safety. Angelo was later returned to the custody of The Centre.

This is Mr. Lyle (portrayed by Jamie Denton). When Mr. Parker "disappeared" for a while, Mr. Lyle received permission from The Centre's Triumvirate to assume Mr.Parker's position and head the search for Jarod. Smiling and baby-faced, Mr. Lyle took over Mr. Parker's office even before anyone knew what had actually happened to Mr. Parker. "Possesion is nine-tenths..." he reminded Miss Parker.

During Lyle's "reign" in The Centre, Jarod managed to bilk The Centre out of millions of dollars ... and once donated some of the stolen funds to charity. In response to the donations, grateful recipients sent Mr. Lyle "thank you" cards and flowers. Lyle growled that it was bad enough that Jarod had stolen the money from him, he didn't need to rub Mr. Lyle's nose in it.

Mr. Lyle eventually overstepped his boundaries, though, when he involved The Centre in a murder and kidnapping plot that formed an uncomfortable (and temporary) allegiance between The Centre and the Japanese Mafia (yakuza). When the plot failed, The Centre's Triumvirate distanced themselves from Lyle and the yakuza hunted Lyle down. It was believed that the yakuza had killed Lyle, but he re-appeared (less one thumb) in the episode, "A Stand Up Guy".

In that episode, Lyle entered a Centre satellite office and executed everyone there in order to get his hands on a computer chip that held secret genetic codes (believed to be linked to Jarod). He intended to sell the codes to the highest bidder (for no less than $20 million). Before the sale took place, however, Mr. Lyle was intercepted by Miss Parker at a dock side, and was later believed to have been killed by her -- She shot him when he pulled a gun on her-- but the body that was recovered from the water later (although missing the requisite thumb) was minus its head and most of its limbs; so, is Lyle really dead this time... or not? Apparently not.

In the "Crash" episode viewers learned that Mr. Lyle was once a young high school student named Bobby Bowman, and had been a part of the school's "Farmers of Tomorrow Club". Bobby had been adopted as a child by Lyle and Martha Bowman, farmers in Nebraska. For most of his childhood Bobby was a sweet and affectionate child to the Bowmans, but his character changed suddenly, drastically and for the worse when, around the age of 15, the agency that had overseen his adoption supposedly sent a "counselor" over to the Bowman farm to visit with Bobby. (The Bowmans found out, too late, that the counselor actually had nothing whatsoever to do with the adoption agency.) Seemingly, The Centre had promoted the adoption of Bobby by the Bowmans, and the counselor was a Centre operative.

Under the guidance and tutelage of the counselor, Bobby Bowman went berserk. His behavior became so violent that his step-father, Lyle, (who demanded that Bobby refer to him, not as "Dad" but as "Mister") often locked Bobby in a small tool shed on the Bowman farm.

Around 1982, Bobby was out hiking with his friend Jimmy Radloff. Bobby returned home, but Jimmy was never seen again. Jimmy's family accepted the fact that Jimmy had gotten lost in the woods, and died there -- even though Jimmy's body was never recovered. Shortly after Jimmy's disappearance, Bobby became so agressive and so hostile that he even attacked Lyle Bowman with a shovel. This, the authorities believed, caused Lyle Bowman to kill Bobby. That same year, a headless corpse was found one afternoon in the bed of Lyle Bowman's pick-up truck. Even though it could only be identified by its clothing -- as it had no head, and had decomposed to such an extent that it was impossible for forsenic experts to get any fingerprints off of it -- the body was believed to be that of the Bowman's step-son, Bobby. Lyle Bowman was convicted of murder, and sentenced to life in prison in Topeka, Kansas, where he is to this day... locked in a cell that is the same size as the tool shed in which he had often imprisoned Bobby. Once a month he receives a paper padlock in the mail from an anonymous sender; padlocks which precisely match the large metal padlock on the door of the tool shed at the Bowman farm.

Martha Bowman, Bobby's step-mother, still lives at the Bowman farm... and is insane: living alone with her grief and fear, and tending to dogs that don't actually exist. Jarod also discovered that Martha kept Bobby's bedroom just as it had been before he "died", as though she expected him to come to it any moment, and their lives could resume again as though nothing had happened.

Putting together the clues of Bobby Bowman's "murder", Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots came to realization that Bobby, aka Mr. Lyle, had faked his death (by using Jimmy's body as the requisite corpse) and framed his step-father for its murder. Mr. Lyle then went on to become a favorite among the Triumvirate members of The Centre.

It is now understood that Lyle faked his death a second when, in 1998 at Hillman Marine in Connecticut, he was shot and supposedly killed by Miss Parker. The body which was identified as his was headless (just like the body in Lyle Bowman's pick-up truck), and no positive identification through DNA matches could be done because The Centre had seen to it that the body pulled out of the water at Hillman Marine was cremated immediately after it was discovered.

Lyle reappeared in the "Red Rock Jarod" episode during which he lured Jarod to a small desrt town with a fake e-mail transmission, imprisoned Jarod in a junkyard compound, and then made plans to re-enter The Centre by returning Jarod to the Triumvirate. To prove that he had Jarod in custody, Lyle took several Poloroid photographs of Jarod (handcuffed in the compound), and even attempted to remove one of Jarod's thumbs (as physical proof of Jarod's identity). Lyle's plans were thwarted, however, by Jarod's brother Kyle, who arrived just in time to stop Lyle from maiming Jarod.

While in the desert compound, Jarod learned that Lyle was deteriorating, mentally and physically. Lyle was typically his charming/violent self, but was making no attempt to care for his health or the hand that had been maimed by the yakuza. The most disturbing image of Lyle in the "Red Rock Jarod" episode was that of Lyle with his hair askew, his clothes filthy, his bandaged hand discoloring and dirty, as he attempted to tie a ragged necktie around his neck, and make himself look "professional" for the Centre big-wigs he was hoping to meet. Although he could see himself, dirty and disheveled, in a mirror, Lyle was seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was entirely unpresentable to anyone anywhere. Jarod told Mr. Lyle, "You're insane," and Mr.Lyle rolled his eyes, affected a demeanor of boredom and answered, "Psychiatric evaluations can be really subjective." Unfortunately for Jarod, Lyle later shot and killed Kyle, and then vanished again before Jarod or anyone from The Centre could get him.

In the third season premiere, viewers were told that Mr. Lyle was Miss Parker's brother... and saw Lyle's triumphant return to The Centre, thanks to a monumental effort by Mr.Parker to have his son reinstated there. Lyle now co-leads the pursuit of Jarod along with his sister; it is, at best, a strained coalition.

On a more gruesome note, viewers were also informed that Mr. Lyle was once married to a Vietnamese mail-order bride... and beat her to death. Later, with the help of Mr. Paker, he was able to detroy all the evidence that implicated him in his bride's death. The episode "Someone to Trust" closed with images of Lyle going through catalogs looking for a new bride to "court".

This is Dannie. Once Daniel Hilton Minor, a child suffering from "mild depression", Dannie was brought to The Centre in the 60's, like Jarod, but his treatment was overseen by Dr. Raines. Raines kept Dannie in SL-27 until 1982, when a fire gutted that sub-level. Then Dannie was transferred to a psychiatric hospital and later to a warehouse, where Raines continued his mind-altering experiments on Dannie. Dannie was so traumatized by Raines that his psyche split into several distinct personalities. Viewers have seen two thusfar: Dannie, a fragile child-like persona, and Einnad, an aggressive attacker-protector who assaults people with a straight razor whenever the Dannie personality is indanger of being harmed.

What was creepiest about Dannie's situation was: the Einnad personality had become so powerful that it was pushing the Dannie personality aside. In the warehouse where Danie was housed, Einnad took over, literally pushing Dannie into the walls of the building, while Einnad took over the main floor space of the warehouse.

Dannie is aware that Einnad exists, and once begged Miss Parker to shoot him (Dannie) so Einnad would be destroyed.

After attacking Mr. Raines in a parking lot at The Centre, Dannie/Einnad was found by Miss Parker, Syndey and Broots, rescued from his warehouse environment, and put into a mental institution under the care of Sydney.

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