Daniel Linderman
Daniel Linderman is a male television supervillain who features in Heroes.
Contents |
Biography
Daniel Linderman was a male human who was born in the modern age where at some point he came to manifest powers with his being the ability to heal others. It was shown that he came to enlist in the U.S. military where during his service he was deployed to Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, he was noted to had served with Arthur Petrelli in the conflict. They became the only surviving members of a group ordered to destroy a target called Au Co. Arthur would have died if not for Daniel choosing to make him the second person he ever healed. Upon arriving at the target, the pair discover an area of farmland with vast amounts of vegetation. They destroyed the farm which they surmise was being used to feed Viet Cong troops. They then realize that Au Co was actually the name of a young girl with the ability to make crops grow at an accelerated rate. Despite Linderman's pleas, Petrelli shoots Au Co with Arthur preventing the horrified Linderman from healing her stating that in killing her they had saved many lives. Linderman, in retaliation, refused to confirm Petrelli's seemingly unbelievable account of the mission during their debriefing. Linderman even suggested that Arthur has some form of mental defect, thus leading to both leaving the army under less than favorable circumstances.
After the war, Daniel finds himself living a nomadic, solitary existence. Though he occasionally drowns his sorrows in alcohol, nothing eases the pain of his war memories. Eventually, Daniel met a young woman named Linda Tavara. Through his time with her, he begins to reconcile what has happened with the present. He also feels himself beginning to trust again. However, after revealing his power to Linda, she, in turns, reveals her intentions to steal it. Daniel was forced to kill her in self-defense, and takes a notepad she was writing. The only note lists the name and location of none other than Arthur Petrelli.
It was sometime following these events that Daniel Linderman arranges to meet Petrelli again. Because of his experience with Linda, Linderman tells Arthur that he now agrees with him. Linderman feels sacrifices must sometimes be made for the greater good.
He and Arthur Petrelli came to work together on a plan to blow up New York City where the latter served as Linderman's lawyer. Six months prior, Nathan Petrelli came to discover some of Linderman's criminal activities. This led to him being asked by the DA to prosecute Linderman which would look bad for Arthur. This led to Arthur ordering Linderman to have his son killed in a car crash. However, Nathan managed to survive but the incident left his wife Heidi Petrelli crippled as a result. Nathan came to think that this was a hit by Linderman's thugs and it was an attempt to get him to stop the prosecution. Shortly after, Arthur was revealed to have died supposedly from a heart attack.
In the present, Linderman's representative Aron Malsky retrieves Niki's debt from D.L. Hawkins, Niki's husband. In return, Linderman sends Malsky to release Niki from prison, after she had turned herself in for murder to protect her family. Malsky steals the money he had gotten from D.L., so Linderman hires Jessica Sanders, Niki's violent alter-ego, to kill Malsky.
He also has ties to several of the main characters. He is an avid chef and collector of art and antiquities[6], and is revealed to have the ability to heal living things in the Heroes graphic novel series "War Buddies" and the episode ".07%".[7][8][9] In person, he is persuasive, gentle and unfailingly polite. However, he has no qualms about extortion or assassination. He is even willing to allow the deaths of several million people in order to safeguard the human race.
In "Six Months Ago", Arthur Petrelli's sons Nathan and Peter discuss their father's connection to Linderman, and agree not to interfere with or expose that relationship, in spite of Nathan's political aspirations. After an incident where Nathan's car is driven off the road by a mysterious truck, which he believes to have been sent by Linderman, Nathan and Peter change their minds and decide to report their father's relationship. When their father dies shortly before they are scheduled to testify against him, the brothers decide to end their mission to expose Linderman.
In the series premiere, Linderman sends two thugs to Niki Sanders' home to collect on a loan she could not repay. When the thugs are killed, he sends a corrupt police officer to retrieve her in "One Giant Leap". In "Collision", one of Linderman's subordinates gives Niki the opportunity to repay her debt by being the bait in a badger game targeting Nathan Petrelli; Jessica, Niki's alternate personality, eventually complies. Nathan, however, realizes that Linderman needs him to win the congressional seat he was running for, and convinces Linderman's associate to "donate" $4 million to his campaign, rather than the originally agreed-upon $2 million, and suppress the tape.
In "Godsend", Simone says that Linderman is one of her biggest clients, having purchased nearly every one of Isaac's works. He is also revealed to be in possession of a sword desired by Hiro Nakamura, who steals it from him with the help of Ando. Later on, in a meeting with him, Nathan holds a gun on Linderman. Linderman subsequently reveals to him the extent of his knowledge regarding Nathan's, Peter's and Claire's powers, as well as those of many others, before offering him the victory in the election, as well as an eventual position in the White House.
In "Distractions", he arranged for Niki Sanders' freedom from prison in exchange for Jessica's services as an assassin.
In ".07%", Linderman revives a plant and implies that he has the power to heal others. He shows Nathan one of Isaac's paintings, depicting Nathan in the Oval Office. He also tells him of how he was once part of a group of heroes, but that they began to use their power for their own personal desires. Later, he demands that Jessica bring her son Micah to him but she refuses, so he enlists Candice Wilmer to impersonate Niki to deliver Micah to him. This shows that he has a connection with the Company, which was already known.
In "Five Years Gone", while Linderman is not shown, a news show mentions something called the "Linderman Act".
In "The Hard Part", while not shown, Linderman is heard talking on the phone with Candice Wilmer apparently giving her some specifics on her assignment with Micah and encouraging her to do a good job, even though she feels the assignment is a "waste of her abilities." Later on, Nathan calls Linderman to inform him that there is a problem in relation to Nathan's new knowledge of Ted Sprague. Later, in a meeting, Thompson reassures Nathan that Linderman has the situation under control and confirms that "Yes, we are trying to blow up half of New York."
In the episode "Landslide", Linderman heals Nathan Petrelli's wife Heidi's paralysis. Later Linderman meets with Candice and Micah at the building in New York. By promising Micah his freedom and enough money to make his family live happily ever after, Linderman persuades him to adjust the election results so that Nathan wins by "a landslide" by manipulating the outcome through one of the networked electronic voting machines.
At night, Linderman gets an unexpected visit from Jessica and Micah's father, D.L. Hawkins. They ask where Micah is, and Linderman says Micah is elsewhere in the building. Before Jessica leaves the room, he tells D.L. that he'll be killed later anyway, because Jessica wants the money more than she wants D.L. and Micah. Jessica agrees, and Linderman pours out loads of money from a bag, trying to entice Jessica further. However, Jessica turns back into Niki, and runs to D.L.'s side. Linderman pulls out a loaded gun and tries to shoot Niki, but D.L. takes the bullet for her. In return, he uses his phasing powers to phase his fist through Linderman's skull, leaving a fist-sized hole after removing it, killing him.
Linderman's death is later made public, and the Corinthian Hotel in Las Vegas is closed and demolished. [10]
In "Out of Time" Bob reveals that Linderman's belief that punishing humanity would help save the world stemmed from him being Adam Monroe's disciple.
Overview
Personality and attributes
He was an avid chef and collector of art and antiquities.
In person, he is persuasive, gentle and unfailingly polite. However, he has no qualms about extortion or assassination. He is even willing to allow the deaths of several million people in order to safeguard the human race. Linderman was noted for having been a disciple of Adam Monroe where he shared his mentors beliefs. In fact, his views that humanity should be punished in order to save the world stemmed from Monroe. (Episode: Out of Time)
According to him, there came a time in a person's life when they had to ask themselves whether they wanted a life of happiness or a life of meaning. He had said that one could not have both as these were two very different paths. Linderman said that for one to be truly happy a man they must live absolutely in the present with no thought of what had gone before as well as no thought of what lay ahead. Meanwhile, a life of meaning to him meant that the person was condemned to wallow in the past and obsess about the future.
As an aged man, Linderman is a reputed mobster, and founder of Linderman Corporation
Powers and abilities
Originally, Daniel Linderman was an ordinary human being until the manifestation of superhuman powers to select people on Earth. Upon gaining powers, his ability was that he could heal a person of all their injuries.
After entering the criminal underworld, he came to be part of the mafia and involved in illegal activities. He also had formed a business called the Linderman Group that he used as a front for his operations. He owned several casinos and was able to conduct criminal activity unnoticed through them.
Notes
- Daniel Linderman portrayed by actor Malcolm McDowell where he appeared as an antagonist in Season 1 of NBC's Heroes but was an unseen character until the episode "Parasite".
- The graphic novel Heroes story "War Buddies" explained some of the early backstory of the character where it was said that Linderman had discovered his ability at a young age. As his mother lay terminally ill in her bed, he found he could heal her through touch and concentration. At first, his father saw this as a miracle. When Daniel explained the truth, both his parents looked at him strangely. Daniel felt their fear was reason to leave home, and ultimately found himself in the U.S. Army.
Appearances
- Heroes:
External Links
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