Characters / Dark Angel

Transgenics

Max Guevara/X5-452 (Jessica Alba)

A genetically engineered Super-Soldier developed by Manticore. She led a break out of her fellow experiments and escaped to Seattle. Decades later Max works as a bike messenger by day and looks for information about her fellow transgenics by night.

• Action Girl: "She was designed to be the perfect soldier, a human weapon."
• Animalistic Abilities: Max is infused with the DNA of a cat, granting her superior strength, speed and senses to that of a normal human. Unfortunately, this also causes her to go into heat like a cat two or three times a year.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Max was the youngest of her unit back at Manticore, and the others call her "Maxie".
• Badass Biker: Of both the motorbike and bicycle variety.
• Cat Girl: Not in appearance, but she has some feline DNA, which gives her extraordinary strength and speed... and heat cycles.
• Child Soldiers: Manticore started training them very young.
• Classy Cat-Burglar: In third-world America, she needs alternate means of income than her minimum wage.
• Cool Big Sis: Tries to be one to Joshua (despite being younger than he is).
• The Chosen One: As revealed in the final book, Dr Sandeman modified her DNA for this purpose, to save all the Muggles. A less fantastical version of the trope than most: her DNA is the key to immunizing people against the comet-borne virus that the Familiars hope will cause the apocalypse.
• Deadpan Snarker: "Don't tell me you're one of those people... because a butterfly farted in India, you and I are sat right here, right now, sharing a cup of coffee that tastes like goat piss".
• Doesn't Like Guns: Due to witnessing the death of another X-5 by gunshot, she's averse to firearms, preferring to fight unarmed.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Seems to be a transgenic thing.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Mostly due to Fantastic Racism towards transgenics. It doesn't help that her arch enemies have inserted themselves into the military, police, hospitals.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: "All I wanted was a nice, normal life."
• Lightning Bruiser: Thanks to her enhanced genes, she's faster than the average person, so her fighting style is swift, making her able to deal with multiple opponents with ease.
• Meaningful Name: After guerilla leader Che Guevara.
• Ms. Fanservice: Most noticeable in "Gill Girl", where she has to pretend to be a stripper/dancer to get into the club.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: She's fond of them. Sometimes mid-ass-kicking one-liners too.
• Say My Name: When she finds Tinga, complete with Big "NO!".
• Scannable Man: All transgenics have barcodes. The barcode is far from a simple tattoo. Max states that she got it removed once, only for it to reappear not long afterwards, concluding that it was encoded into her DNA.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Think she's beautiful normally? Wait until you see her in a Pimped-Out Dress.
• She-Fu: Tiny, slender and full of acrobatic ass-kicking.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She can be sweet and kind, especially towards Joshua and Cindy. Or she can be "such a bitch", especially to Alec (her words). Sometimes she can switch in a heartbeat.
• Super-Soldier: All the X5s are super soldiers, complete with enhanced strength, endurance, agility and speed.
• Timeshifted Actor: Played by Geneva Locke as a ten-year-old in flashbacks, who also plays her X7 clone.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Shades of it with Kendra and Original Cindy.
• Tomboyish Name: Max, which is not short for Maxine or "Maximum Girl".
• Tyke Bomb: See Child Soldiers above.
• Unkempt Beauty: Complete with her tomboyish nature, Max doesn't usually take care of her appearance. She still looks beautiful.
• You Are Number 6: The X5s gave each other names. Manticore gave them numbers. This is shown unpleasantly at the start of Season 2, where part of Max's reindoctrination involves identifying herself as 'X5-452'. If she refuses, she's locked in a box for a week.

Alec McDowell/X5-494 (Jensen Ackles)

Another X5 transgenic and twin brother of Ben, who breaks out with Max during her second visit to Manticore. Once outside he fully embraces his freedom and becomes a bit of a hedonist, though he will still reluctantly assist Max.

• Atrocious Alias: Max finds his boxing stage name "Monty Cora" to be this.
• Backup Twin: Twinned with Ben, he becomes a series regular in Season 2 after Ben was Killed Off for Real in Season 1.
• Child Soldiers: Trained to be super soldiers since they were kids.
• A Day in the Limelight: "The Berrisford Agenda" is very much an Alec episode.
• Deadpan Snarker: "Hell, I wanna get rid you, and I just met you!"
• Evil Brunette Twin: Inverted. It's Alec whose hair is a bit darker than Ben's.
• Handsome Lech: The first thing he does in "Bag 'Em" after being free of Manticore is rent a motel room and a ditzy Hooker with a Heart of Gold. In "Gill Girl," he's the one who finds out about the captured transgenic mermaid because he was at a strip club at the time where she was on display, and he tells Max that he'd like to get together with said mermaid if not for the obvious obstacles to their relationship. At the start of "The Berrisford Agenda" it turns out he was dating two of his Jam Pony co-workers at the same time and now they're having a cat fight about it; he claims it just kind of happened that way.
• Heel–Face Turn: Starts off working for Renfro to track down Eyes Only. When Manticore explodes, he's in it for himself for a while, until he eventually befriends Max and the gang.
  • Verges on a Good Costume Switch, since he starts out in black leather not unlike Ben's and increasingly often is wearing brown and gray denim and sweatshirts instead.
• Instant Expert: Part of the X5s' genetic engineering is enhanced intelligence and memory, allowing them to pick up skills quickly. As seen in "The Berrisford Agenda", Alec learned to play the piano at concert level after starting the day before.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be a selfish jerk sometimes, but he can also be kind. Most noticeable with Joshua, but also Sketchy when he goes after some Steelheads who beat Sketchy up, and even Logan when he agrees without hesitation to give him a blood transfusion (which gets derailed by the police mistaking him for Ben). He also has a moment with Max at the end of "Hello, Goodbye", after she tells him about Ben.
• Just Following Orders / Punch-Clock Villain: His attitude in the Season 2 premiere towards working for Manticore. As long as he does what they want, they keep him fed, healthy and housed, which is arguably better than being out there in the "filth and degradation" of post-Pulse America, and he could be killed if he tried to defy them anyway.
  • Notably the only time he's seen killing someone is when he was under Manticore's influence (the real Simon Lehane in flashbacks in "The Berrisford Agenda", and when he tries to shoot Logan in the premiere but is stopped by Asha, which he claims was meant to be a Mercy Kill since Logan was succumbing to Manticore's engineered virus) or blackmailed by Agent White (and he only kills a pantherwoman who was implied to be a Humanitarian that wanted to eat him, rescuing a small dog in the process; he's unable to bring himself to kill an X6 teen or Max). He's offended in "Hello, Goodbye" that Max thinks he could have been capable of committing the murder it turns out was one of Ben's.
• Lovable Rogue: Called one outright by Logan; starting as a Lovable Traitor.
• Meaningful Name: Derived from "smart alec", actor Malcolm McDowell, and Malcolm's A Clockwork Orange character Alex.
• Mr. Fanservice: At least two shirtless scenes in the series, to show off those finely chiselled abs.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: The Roguish to Logan's Noble.
• Only One Name: His fake surname is McDowell, but it only appears on a Jam Pony file folder in a deleted scene.
• Pretty Boy: "Say what you like, Manticore sure knows how to make 'em pretty," says lesbian Original Cindy. Max also directly calls him it as a jab while they're tussling like children over an object they both want to steal.
• Scannable Man: Has a barcode on the back of his neck.
• Super-Soldier: All the X5s are super soldiers, complete with enhanced strength, endurance, agility and speed.
• Tragic Keepsake: Rachel Berrisford's heart-shaped locket.
• Tyke Bomb: See Child Soldiers above.
• You Are Number 6: Known by Manticore as X5-494. It's Max who names him 'Alec'.

494 provides examples of the following further tropes while posing as Simon Lehane:

• Becoming the Mask: He was supposed to get close to Rachel's father so that he could kill him. Instead, he came to care for Rachel herself.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: He kills the real Simon and changes the picture on the latter's ID badge, but that's as much effort as we see. He gives a sob story about his parents dying as well.
• Dead Person Impersonation / Kill and Replace: See above.
• In Love with the Mark: He falls for Rachel and attempts to abort the plan to assassinate her father.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When he sees the Berrisfords' car explode, knowing that he planted the bomb (although he didn't detonate it; his handlers didn't trust him and had a second detonator).
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Dresses in a fancy suit, befitting a man teaching the rich elite.
• Stoic Spectacles: Completely different from his joker personality as Alec. The writer said they put him in spectacles because they thought he'd look good in them.
• Teacher/Student Romance: His cover is that he's Rachel's music teacher. He falls for her instead.

Joshua (Kevin Durand)

Joshua is the first transgenic developed, a human/dog hybrid, who breaks out with Max during her second trip to Manticore. Due to his canine features Joshua can't be seen outside, which causes a lot of friction between him and Max.

• Beast Man: Part dog, part man.
• Beast and Beauty: The Beast to Max's Beauty.
  • And Annie's Beauty.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's pretty damn scary when he gets his hands on Ames White, who murdered Annie. Max tells him he has to let him live for now in "Freak Nation" because of how it would look, but he finally gets his revenge in the third novel, After the Dark, twisting White's head clean off.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Sometimes gives off this vibe because of his naivety.
• Cute Little Fangs: He has canine choppers, though they're very white.
• Expy: Is rather similar in appearance and mannerisms to Vincent from the Beauty and the Beast TV series.
• Genki Guy: Joshua has very little experience with the outside world, and reacts with adorable excitement to a lot of new things. "Tricks and treats!"
• Genius Bruiser: Can seem simple due to his lack of world experience, but has a high IQ.
• Gentle Giant: Easily the sweetest member of the team, though he towers over Max (and everyone else).
• The Heart: Joshua is everyone's friend, even Alec and Max can't resist him. Most noticeable at the start of "The Berrisford Agenda'", where he invites everyone to dinner. He's also unfailingly supportive about people's problems ("Virus bitch going down!")
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With either Annie or Max. Adorably lampshaded with Max and Joshua's nicknames: 'little fella' and 'big fella' respectively.
• Hulk Speak: ex. "Max and Joshua outside with out there people", and a tendency to repeat Max's idiomatic phrases in wacky contexts. Justified due to a lack of human interaction after Dr Sandeman left Manticore, and gets better with time.
• Nice Guy: One of the nicest in the series.
• Reclusive Artist: Invoked. For obvious reasons, he sold his paintings to the gallery via Alec.
• Scannable Man: A notable aversion. He is the only transgenic without a barcode, because he was the first one created.
• Third-Person Person: See Hulk Speak above.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Joshua wasn't trained as a soldier and never uses the military/martial arts combat moves we see the other transgenics use. Since he seems to be even stronger than they are, though, this doesn't work to his disadvantage. Noticeable in "Designate This", when Max and Alec are trying to saw through bars on a window, since they can't remove it. Eventually, Joshua walks over and yanks the whole thing off the wall with ease.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Most of the time, Joshua is very sweet. However when the Familiars attack Jam Pony in "Freak Nation", he's tossing them around like rag dolls (while the other transgenics have a much tougher time). When he gets his hands on Ames White, Joshua comes very close to ripping him in half.

Zack/X5-599 (William Gregory Lee)

Planner of the original breakout. Zack was designed to be his X5 unit's field leader and as such is naturally protective of them, to a obsessive degree.

• And I Must Scream: After Manticore recaptures him, he's used as a organ donor, providing a heart to Max and liver and kidneys to others. While still alive.
• Big Brother Instinct: Most of his Big Damn Heroes moments are due to this. He also shoots himself in the head so his heart can be used to save Max. It's implied that his feelings for Max are more than brotherly.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In his last episode.
• Child Soldiers: Manticore trained them young.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Unapologetically kills Vogelsang (the information broker Max hired, who was later squeezed down by Lydecker) to protect his siblings.
• Neuro-Vault: Apparently, Manticore trained them to forget information in case they are captured by the enemy. Zack does exactly this when Manticore captures him, so that he can't reveal the locations of his siblings.
• Scannable Man: Has a barcode on his neck.
• Put on a Bus: In his last episode, "Some Assembly Required", Zack starts out with amnesia but slowly regains his memories, including Fake Memories implanted by Manticore along with his new cybernetic enhancements to make him hate and suspect Logan, whom he tries to kill. When he's taken out of commission and loses his memories again, Max isn't willing to risk the same thing happening all over again, so he's sent to the countryside with the story that he's a farmhand who lost his memory in an accident.
• Super-Soldier: All the X5s are super soldiers, complete with enhanced strength, endurance, agility and speed.
• Timeshifted Actor: Played by Chris Lazar as a ten-year-old in flashbacks, who also plays his X7 clone.
• Tyke Bomb: See Child Soldiers above.
• You Are Number 6: His designation is 599. He and his siblings gave each other the names they use now.

Ben/X5-493 (Jensen Ackles)

Another escaped X5. As a kid Ben use to tell stories to keep everyone's spirits up, but sadly he lost his mind after he escaped Manticore and became a Serial Killer.

• Ambiguous Situation: Whether or not Zack, who was keeping track of the other X5s, knew where Ben was and what he was doing.
• Child Soldiers: Trained from childhood to kill.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: He doesn't know how to function outside of the framework that Manticore created and tries to act out being a soldier through his hunts.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: He captures people and hunts them down, ripping out their teeth to prove his faith to 'The Lady'.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Ben's hair has blond highlights that Alec's lacks.
• Let Them Die Happy: Max asks him to tell her about "the good place" (from one if his childhood stories), before snapping his neck while he's mid-sentence.
• Mercy Killing: His leg is injured after fighting Max, and Manticore is closing in. Rather than go back, he asks Max to kill him.
• Pretty Boy: Naturally, he's played by Jensen Ackles.
• Room Full of Crazy: His hideout is covered with words like 'Mission', 'Discipline' and 'Duty', reminiscent of the propaganda slides they were shown whilst children at Manticore.
• Scannable Man: Has a barcode on his neck.
• Serial Killer: See Hunting the Most Dangerous Game.
• The Storyteller: In order to explain the things that happened to them as children, Ben would make up stories. Max theorises that when he got into the real world, he couldn't handle the amount of unexplainable things, and it broke him.
• Super-Soldier: All the X5s are super soldiers, complete with enhanced strength, endurance, agility and speed.
• Timeshifted Actor: Played by James Kirk as a ten-year-old in flashbacks.
• Tyke Bomb: See Child Soldiers above.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The flashbacks show him telling stories to keep the others entertained and making butterfly/bird shadows on the wall for Max with his hands. Also, the trope name is almost word-for-word what Alec says when Max describes him.
• You Are Number 6: His designation is 493, named Ben by his siblings.

Tinga/X5-656 (Lisa Ann Cabasa)

Another escaped X5 who managed to start a new life, get married to a man named Charlie Smith, and have a kid named Case. Then Manticore tracked her down.

• Baby Factory: Renfro's plans for her, due to her being able to pass along her Super-Soldier traits like enhanced IQ and spatial awareness to her children, which hadn't been the case with previous attempts at crossbreeding at Manticore.
• Child Soldiers: Raised by Manticore to be a soldier.
• Happily Married: Until Manticore catches up with them.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Like Max, Zack and Alec, she wears a leather coat.
• Killed Off for Real: The tank she is placed in kills her.
• Mama Bear: Tinga gives herself up to Lydecker to save her son's life after he's infected with a Synthetic Plague by his "new tutor" at school (Lydecker).
• People Jars: Max finds her in one after she is captured by Renfro.
• Scannable Man: Has a barcode on her neck.
• Super Soldiers: All the X5s are super soldiers, complete with enhanced strength, endurance, agility and speed.
• Tyke Bomb: See Child Soldiers above.
• You Are Number 6: Her designation is 656. She was named Tinga by her siblings, and later named herself Penny when she settled down into a normal life.

Brin/X5-734 (Nicole Bilderback)

Another escaped X5 who got recaptured and brainwashed into a Manticore enforcer.

• Child Soldiers: Raised by Manticore to be a soldier.
• Consummate Professional: Once reindoctrinated, she acts like the perfect soldier Manticore always wanted.
• The Dragon: Becomes one for Renfro for a while.
• Face–Heel Turn: After being taken back to Manticore, she is reindoctrinated and becomes "one of them now", as Tinga put it.
• I Don't Want to Die: Said word for word, and the reason she allows Manticore to recapture her.
• Locked in a Freezer: Done by choice, because the cold slows down her rapid aging.
• Rapid Aging: She is afflicted with a disease that causes rapid aging. Her only options were to die or return to Manticore.
• Scannable Man: Has a barcode on her neck.
• Super Soldiers: All the X5s are super soldiers, complete with enhanced strength, endurance, agility and speed.
• Tyke Bomb: See Child Soldiers above.
• Unwitting Pawn: She knocks out Tinga and delivers her to Renfro based on orders from the latter that Lydecker didn't know about, and then Renfro's experimentation kills Tinga. Renfro lies through her teeth to Brin about how Tinga died, saying that she was undergoing treatment and Lydecker interrupted it.
• Weak-Willed: She asks to be sent back to Manticore in "Cold Comfort" rather than die of progeria, whereas Zack in the same episode said he would rather die than go back, and Manticore's reindoctrination techniques are much more effective on her than on Zack in "The Kidz Are Aiight" or Max in "Designate This".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She doesn't show up in Season 2, despite Max spending months and a whole episode at Manticore, and her fate is not mentioned at all.
• You Are Number 6: Her designation is 734, named Brin by her siblings.

Mole (Brian Jensen)

A human/lizard transgenic designed for desert combat. After escaping Manticore, Mole becomes the unofficial leader of the underground transgenic community in Terminal City, coordinating efforts to help other transgenics.

• Cigar Chomper: Like a noir protagonist if they were a lizardman.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's very gruff and sarcastic. In the novel After the Dark (which is set during Yuletime), when Max tells him not to kill Lydecker, he says, "But it's what I want for Christmas."
• Non-Indicative Name: Named Mole, even though he looks like a lizard instead of a mole.
• Rebel Leader: A role Mole grows into gradually as more transgenics are found.
• Scannable Man: Has a barcode on his neck.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: We see in After the Dark that Mole of all people is repulsed by snakes, to Max's bewilderment.

Human Allies

Logan Cale / Eyes Only (Michael Weatherly)

A journalist from a wealthy family who uses his resources to be "Eyes Only", a faceless hacker who interrupts tv signals to report on corrupt dealings in Seattle with impunity. Max first runs into Logan when she tries to steal from his apartment. In exchange for his tracking down lost transgenics, Max does missions for Logan to help out Seattle's less fortunate.

• The Alleged Car: A Pontiac Aztek. Kind of pathetic given Logan's money, but it's best to keeping a low profile on missions.
• Catchphrase: As Eyes Only: "This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped and it is the only free voice left in this city... This has been a streaming freedom video bulletin. Peace, out."
• Genius Cripple: His spine is damaged in the very first episode, leaving him paraplegic. He is still invaluable as a hacker and general computer whizz.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Only on one occasion, but he jumps to the conclusion that Max and Alec are in a relationship based on seeing them having a friendly conversation and a hug outside Max's apartment. He then gets drunk and confronts Max with his suspicions.
• Handicapped Badass: One one occasion Max was incapacitated due to her seizures, so someone had take on some thugs. Cue Logan arming up and going at it from his wheelchair.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: His role as Eyes Only gets him some heat from the authorities, despite trying to get the truth out. Siding with the transgenics doesn't do him any favours either.
• Hollywood Hacking: It's made very aesthetically pleasing, and very simple. Sometimes all it takes is one button click.
• Intrepid Reporter: To the point that he can't even go on a holiday without trying to find out the truth about some police brutality that occurred after the Pulse.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Lost some of his idealism over time. The prequel novel Before the Dawn shows that he was against killing bad guys and chewed Max's brother Seth out for doing so, but by the time of the series he's over it. Blaming himself for getting Seth killed, which he hides from Max until After the Dark, may have something to do with it.
• Knowledge Broker: Comes with being able to hack into anything, and being filthy rich.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: The Noble to Alec's Roguish.
• Non-Idle Rich: Uses his wealth to help out the rest of Seattle. Becomes markedly less wealthy after exposing his own family's company (run by his Jerkass uncle) for corruption.
• Nice Guy: Most of the time.
• Obfuscating Disability: After his walking problem is solved by an exoskeleton.
• Perma-Stubble: Perhaps to emphasize that his work takes priority over everything else.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Logan's official job is a journalist, and while that is only a cover and a way for him to find information for Eyes Only, we never see him submit an article for publication, or publish an article himself in his regular persona.
• Secret Identity: Reporter Logan Cale vs Eyes Only.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: In "I and I Am a Camera", when he as Eyes Only exposes Cale Industries' role in reprogramming hover drones as search-and-destroy weapons and testing them on ex-cons, Max tells him that only a bored, rich little white boy would piss away a fortune to prove he wasn't a bored, rich little white boy. He does it anyway.
• Stoic Spectacles: He usually keeps his cool in any situation, though this is notably averted at the end of Season 1, when Max is shot.
• Voice of the Resistance: For both the transgenics and the S1W.
• White Sheep: The rest of his family are rich jerks who look down on Logan for using his money for altruistic purposes.

Original Cindy / Cynthia McEachin (Valerie Rae Miller)

Max's first and best friend, co-worker and roommate. Original Cindy always has Max's back, and after she learns Max's secret regularly runs interference for her.

• A Day in the Limelight: "Shortie's in Love" and "Rising" are the only episodes in either season to give her character any kind of real focus.
• Demoted to Extra: Got hit with this the hardest in Season 2 compared to her importance in Season 1. But remained the most prominent of Max's human co-workers, since she was the only one who knew the truth about her and whom Max could talk with openly about transgenic issues and the virus keeping her and Logan apart. She also knew about and got to be friends with Alec and Joshua.
• Dope Slap: Called upon occasionally to give these to Max; see "Meow" for a particularly good example when Max's heat cycle is making her put a move on Normal of all people (Max: "Thanks. I needed that.").
• Meaningful Rename: From Cynthia to Original Cindy, shedding her timid childhood persona.
• Muggle Best Friend: And Max values their friendship extremely highly.
• Sassy Black Woman: Not afraid to tell it like it is, even if it gets her in trouble sometimes.
• Secret-Keeper: Once Cindy learns Max's secret she does the most to keep Max's transgenic status from everyone else at Jam Pony, and Alec's by association.
• Shipper on Deck: She supports Max and Logan being together and encourages Max not to give up on their relationship.
• Shrinking Violet: Her original personality before she dated Diamond.
• Third-Person Person: Original Cindy picked this up from her previous girlfriend, Diamond, along with a dose of confidence and sass.
• Twofer Token Minority: African American and lesbian.
• Undying Loyalty: To Max.
• Unfazed Everyman: In the last episode of Season 2, Normal actually mistakes her for a transgenic because she's that comfortable with them and supportive.

Normal / Reagan Ronald (J.C. MacKenzie)

The unpleasant boss of Jam Pony Express, the bike messenger service Max, Original Cindy and Alec work for. In Season 2 he is one of the most fervent anti-transgenic people.

• Ambiguously Bi: In "Fuhgeddaboudit" when Alec temporarily takes up boxing again, Normal mentions having very homoerotic-sounding dreams about Alec as a gladiator and Normal as his valet, wiping his sword, rubbing his muscles...
• Bad Boss: Overworks and belittles his employees. They in turn give him no respect.
• Catchphrase: "Bip-bip-bip!"
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially to his workers.
• Delivery Guy: He helps Gem deliver her daughter Eve in the Season 2 finale.
• Fantastic Racism: Hates transgenics in Season 2, thinking they are trying to destroy the country.
  • Heel Realization: Realizes transgenics are people too after acting as the midwife for one in the series finale.
• Hates My Secret Identity: Ironically despite eating up all the anti-transgenic propaganda, Normal adores Alec, calls him his golden boy, and to Max's surprised chagrin is only too eager to hire him at Jam Pony in "Two", his raging mancrush having started after watching Alec box as Monty Cora in "Proof of Purchase". In fact, he's the only employee Normal treats well. This leads to a brief Broken Pedestal after Alec outs himself as a transgenic in "Freak Nation".
• Hidden Depths: Dated a post-op Transgender woman despite his normally narrow-minded behavior. And was the only person at Jam Pony during the hostage crisis who had a clue how to deliver a baby.
• Jerkass: Aside from constantly belittling his employees, he also exhibits Fantastic Racism towards transgenics.
• Mr. Fanservice: Only shown in one episode, "Meow", but dude is ripped for an unpleasant weasel.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Named after Ronald Reagan and has a very conservative attitude.
• Nerd Glasses: Partial example, as he wears glasses and has a less-than heroic personality.

Kendra Maibaum (Jennifer Blanc)

Max's original roommate and a friend of hers and Cindy's. Was mostly concerned with Max's love life.

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She disappears late in Season 1 when she moves in with her boyfriend Walter and is never heard from again. Original Cindy, who originally had her own place, moves into Max's place in her place.

Asha Barlow (Ashley Scott)

A member of a resistance cell that often collaborates with Logan.

• Locked Out of the Loop: Like many of Logan's contacts, she believes he is a collaborator of Eyes Only rather than the same man.
• Pair the Spares: Looked like she and Alec were going this way, until they didn't.
• La Résistance: An important member of the S1W, who fight against police brutality and corruption in Seattle.
• Romantic False Lead: Served as a Foil for Max and Logan.
• Unrequited Love: Asha is clearly crushing on Logan hard, but he only has eyes for Max.

Sketchy / Calvin Simon Theodore (Richard Gunn)

Another employee at Jam Pony. Prone to slacking off, cutting corners, and getting into trouble.

• Distressed Dude: Often had to be bailed out by Max after doing something stupid.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Sketchy was much sleazier in the pilot than the rest of the show. He also had a fiancée named Natalie, but in later episodes he was single without explanation.
• Shout-Out: Named after the three Chipmunks.
• The Slacker: Sketchy likes to cut corners and avoid doing work.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Season 2 surprisingly he actually listened to and agreed with Normal's transgenic-bigoted beliefs, until Cindy set him straight and he learned about Max and Alec.

Herbal Thought (Alimi Ballard)

Another Jam Pony messenger.

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappeared without a trace between seasons 1 and 2.
• Closer to Earth: Probably the wisest Jam Pony employee, even if he was as much of a goof-off as the rest of them.
• Erudite Stoner: Not shown, but at least implied in his name that he smokes.

Human Enemies

Colonel Donald Michael Lydecker (John Savage)

Manticore goon in charge of tracking down the X5 series. Lydecker was originally in charge of the X5s' training and as such sees them as his children.

• The Alcoholic: Hasn't had a drink for 10 years when the show starts, but that doesn't last the season finale.
• Abusive Parent: Closest thing the X5s had to a parent, and he put them through grueling exercises to mold them into soldiers since the time they were small children.
• Big Bad: Of Season One, until Renfro turns out to be Eviler than Thou in the last couple episodes.
• Colonel Badass: Although following the Conservation of Ninjutsu, his badassery goes up exponentially when he's by himself.
• Coup de Grâce: Delivers several.
• Determinator: He gave up alcohol through sheer force of will. He even goes to an AA meeting to gloat about it.
• Enemy Mine: And he uses the associated saying.
• Establishing Character Moment: Lydecker establishes himself as both a Determinator and a complete dick when he goes to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting for the sole purpose of listening to their stories and then telling them how weak they are. You see, when he gave up drinking, he did it cold turkey under his own willpower. He didn't whine about how he had a disease and he needed help. The irony when he later falls Off the Wagon is delicious.
• Glasses Pull: Often at dramatic moments.
• Heartbroken Badass: After his wife's pre-series death.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Discussed and lampshaded. When he's injured and rambling, Max is afraid he's going to say this to her. Turns out he isn't related to her, but did include some of his dead wife's DNA in her.
• Mercy Kill: Near the end of season one, he's about to kill Max and then himself. She convinces him otherwise with a boot to the head.
• Never Found the Body: His car is driven into the water early in Season 2, and he's never heard from again on the TV show. Max finds him a prisoner of the Familiars near the end of the third novel.
• Off the Wagon: When Manticore turns on him, and he's holed up with a captured Max in a motel, he breaks out the whiskey.

• Papa Wolf: He gets extremely upset when "his kids" are endangered. Although he'll kill them himself if he deems it necessary, he takes offense to anyone else doing it.
• Stoic Spectacles: Moreso than Logan; the mission is his primary objective.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He actually thinks his treatment of the X5s was good for them, and made them stronger.
• Would Hurt a Child: Fatally shot ten-year-old Eva during the escape (which is why Max Does Not Like Guns). And also teenage Vada seven and a half years later, according to the novels.

Agent Ames White (Martin Cummins)

Head enforcer of the conspiracy that wants to hunt down Max and the rest of the transgenics. His job as an FBI agent allows him to do so under legal auspices.

• Antagonistic Offspring: It turns out late in Season 2 that Dr Sandeman was his father. Sandeman turned against the breeding cult's agenda after his other son C.J. proved to be a regular human who would be vulnerable to the virus, while Ames remained a fervent believer (and changed his surname to White).
• Big Bad: In Season Two from the second episode on, after Renfro dies in the premiere. Max lampshades it: "You must be the new bad guy in my life."
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to C.J.'s Abel. Also with Joshua; although they hadn't met until recently, they both had Sandeman as a father.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: While Lydecker and Renfro worked for a black ops military program and wanted to recapture Max alive if possible, White works for an Ancient Conspiracy and just plain wants to kill her and the rest of the transgenics.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played straight with his son, but subverted with his wife, whom he kills.
• Fantastic Racism: He and his Familiars really hate transgenics. They are very dismissive of ordinary people too.
• Smug Snake: He especially loves gloating when he has someone at his mercy.

Director Elizabeth Renfro / "Madame X" (Nana Visitor)

Head of Manticore, really wants the X5s back, enjoys threatening Lydecker.

• Disc-One Final Boss: In Season 2. Until Manticore is deactivated.
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: A live-action version!
• Eviler than Thou: She ousts Lydecker from his position of season one Big Bad.
• Expy: Of Nana Visitor's character the Intendant in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Evil Counterpart of her character Colonel Kira Nerys from the Mirror Universe.
• Fantastic Racism: Tells Max bluntly that she and the other transgenics are nothing but "meat" to her. Not that she treats normal humans much more compassionately.
• Have You Told Any One Else: Usually asks this before killing her coworkers or business partners.
• No Name Given: In her first few appearances, the script referred to her only as "Madame X" (a title not actually used in the show).
• Obviously Evil: The moment you see her, you know she's bad news, in particular because she's a Smug Snake.
• Older Than They Look: According to Nana Visitor, Renfro used transgenic DNA to retard the aging process.
• Smug Snake: Most of her time spent with Max is her gloating through nasty means, e.g. turning up the monitor so Max can hear the heartbeat of Zack's heart inside her chest.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Her hair is (dyed?) white-blonde.
• Taking the Bullet: Does this for Max, because "[she's] the one we've been looking for..."
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: While she's seemed like pure evil up to that point, it turns out she's looking for Sandeman's special transgenic to save all of humanity from the breeding cult's virus, and is willing to die to prevent Max being shot after discovering she's the one.