Characters / Legends

Trope page for characters of the TV series Legends.

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Season 1 Characters

Martin Odum

Martin Odum

Played by: Sean Bean

Martin Odum is an FBI agent, a member of the Department of Covert Operations (DCO). He specializes in undercover operations, where he assumes a fake identity (termed as a "legend") in order to infiltrate and investigate federal crimes. He's good at what he does — too good, in fact, that various psychologists are convinced that he's having trouble reverting to his former self the more he embarks on FBI operations. To make matters worse, he encounters a mysterious man who is stalking him, and just as the man dies in his arms, he tells Martin that even "Martin Odum" is a legend as well.

As of season 2, Martin is currently laying low in London, having narrowly escaped getting arrested and being (wrongfully) convicted for the murder of the FBI Director. With a little help from Tony Rice, he gets a new lead on another of his legends, and gets caught up in a complicated chain of events involving several people he had been involved with while undercover for MI6 as Dmitry Petrovich in 2001.

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• The Ace: Gates knows just how good Martin is at what he does, and is almost always willing to support Martin's risky adaptations to increasingly dangerous situations while undercover. Flashbacks show that even during his early twenties, MI6 and the KGB already saw his potential. The season 2 finale reveals he was groomed for undercover work since his early childhood, when the Russians enrolled him in an English boarding school doubling as a breeding ground for sleeper agents.
  • Broken Ace: He's having more and more trouble dissociating from his old legends. The Reveal that even "Martin Odum" is a legend definitely isn't helping him any.
• Amnesiac Hero: Martin can't remember anything before February of 2004, which does not at all hinder his capabilities as an FBI agent.
• Boarding School of Horrors: Season 2 flashbacks show him as a student in the Sedley School, wherein he's shown to be a brilliant but highly irreverent student. When he lies to cover for his roommate, his punishment is to beat up his roommate bare-handed. It's also somewhat implied that he was already being groomed as an undercover agent as early as then. Confirmed as of the season 2 finale; the Sedley School was actually a covert training ground for Russian sleeper agents in England.
• Determinator: He trades everything, including his freedom, to rescue Kate from her Chechen captors.
• Disappeared Dad: His undercover operations keep him away from his family for weeks, even months, at a time. Despite his wife Sonya's misgivings, however, their son Aiden doesn't seem affected that much by him being gone. Season 2 depicts him as a disappeared father figure to Kate Crawford.
• First-Episode Twist: Martin Odum is a legend in itself, and Martin is left wondering "Who am I?" as the mysterious man who told him this dies in his arms.
• Frame-Up: He becomes a victim of one in the season 1 finale, courtesy of Verax, who convincingly creates a digital recorded facsimile of him confessing to the murder of the FBI Director.
• Identity Amnesia: Martin has no idea what his birth name is, and cannot remember anything before 2004. So far, the furthest back he's gone into his personal history is 2001, undercover for MI6 as Dmitry Petrovich.
• I Have Many Names: Martin Odum, Dante Auerbach, Sebastian Egan, John Cameron, Dmitry Petrovich, etc. Nobody knows what name he was actually born with, though he went by Alex during his university days. His true birth name was Alexei Volkov.
• Lost in Character: He's been having increasing difficulty dissociating from old legends the more he goes undercover. Since the revelation that Martin Odum is also a legend, it turns out he's been this way for about 10 years prior to the start of the series.
• Omniglot: Speaks French, and unconsciously spoke Russian in one instance. Flashbacks reveal his early aptitude for languages as a university student. Makes sense since he was actually born in Russia.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Somewhat justified by his amnesia, but he barely reacts to Curtis Ballard's utter rage at finally getting to confront the man he knew as Dmitry Petrovich, who shot him in the leg 14 years prior, causing its amputation. He does act remorseful when Gabi slaps him and blames him for Curtis's suicide, and also when Ilyana learns that Dmitry was never a real person.
• Quest for Identity: The entire series is this for him.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He served in Iraq and got entangled in a nefarious friendly-fire incident. Conveniently, however, he can't remember anything that happened in that time.
• Technical Pacifist: While he can be ruthless in brutally assaulting people while undercover, he clearly appears to be very much averse to outright murder. The only exception so far was his killing of an informant in order to ingratiate himself with Tamir, Doku Zakayev's brother.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: More like "hairstyle/facial appearance, attire, accent" in his case. Conveniently for him, people acquainted with Martin and his legends have never crossed paths with each other, even though Martin's hardly changing anything much from his normal appearance. He is really impressive with accents, though, to the point that even while the legend is being constructed in a DCO briefing, Martin would sometimes find himself already talking in-character with the legend's accent.

Crystal McGuire

Crystal McGuire

Played by: Ali Larter

Crystal is Martin's handler in the DCO, and is implied to have slept with Martin at least once prior to the start of the series. Her main role is mostly to monitor Martin's undercover operations, and to keep him out of trouble as much as she can — which is usually complicated by Martin's Cowboy Cop tendencies. She is also capable of going undercover as well when the situation calls for it.

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• Dirty Harriet: One episode has her briefly going undercover as a stripper.
• Fair Cop: She's played by Ali Larter.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: She and Martin seem to have some of this, judging from their interactions.

Tony Rice

Tony Rice

Played by: Morris Chestnut

Tony is an FBI agent working in another division, who somehow found out about the man who died in front of Martin, and initially assumes that Martin killed the man. Before his curiosity almost ends up jeopardizing another of Martin's operations, however, Martin's boss Gates intervenes in time, and eventually offers Tony a job in the DCO. Tony accepts, and later becomes friends with Martin as they work on several operations, to the point that he becomes Martin's only contact from his old life in season 2 while he's incognito in London.

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• Commuting on a Bus: Of all the other Season 1 characters that got Put on a Bus prior to Season 2 (i.e. everybody not played by Sean Bean), Rice is the only one who returned in the second season, for all of three episodes.
• Fire-Forged Friends: From almost blowing Martin's cover during one of his operations, Tony eventually becomes one of Martin's most loyal friends, even taking the risk to help him out while he's still wanted for the death of the FBI Director.
• Inspector Javert: At first, until Gates offers him a spot in the DCO.
• Sex God: Nina describes him as a "damned good lay."
• Undying Loyalty: Out of all of Martin's old associates, Tony's the only one who continued to help him out after Martin was framed.

Maggie Harris

Maggie Harris

Played by: Tina Majorino

Maggie is the newest member of the DCO. She handles all of the digital aspects of the undercover operations, which usually have her building up the fake records for Martin's legends, and even backing up the stories he makes up on the fly when interacting with the FBI's marks.

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• Boyish Short Hair: Unlike most cases of the trope, it's much longer than a pixie cut, but is always kept combed over.
• Mission Control: Usually shares this along with Crystal, which helps in backing up Martin's legends.
• The Smart Guy: She's the DCO's resident computer expert... pretty much like Mac once was.

Nelson Gates

Nelson Gates

Played by: Steve Harris

Gates is Martin's supervisor as the head of the DCO. He's also Martin's oldest friend, and the one who's most confident in Martin's abilities despite his apparent mental issues. He used to be Sonya's handler in 2004, and masterminded her rescue of Martin during the fallout of Operation Raining Fire.

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• Da Chief: Heads the DCO division of the FBI.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite Crystal's objections to Martin's occasional unpredictability, Gates never loses faith in Martin.
• Secret-Keeper: He knew the whole time that Martin Odum was a legend. He used to be Sonya's handler, and led the operation to rescue Martin from being assassinated by Verax.

Sonya Odum

Sonya Odum

Played by: Amber Valletta

Sonya is Martin's wife. They have a child together named Aiden.

In 2004, she used to be a CIA agent, and was tasked with rescuing John Cameron from being assassinated by Verax, and convincing him that he is Martin Odum and she in turn is his wife Sonya. She eventually fell in love with Martin and quit the CIA to have a family with him, still keeping the truth a secret from him.

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• Big Damn Heroes: Narrowly saved a barely-conscious John Cameron from being killed by Verax assassins.
• In Love with the Mark: She used to be a CIA agent tasked with convincing MI6 operative John Cameron that he is FBI agent Martin Odum, married to her, his wife Sonya. However, she fell in love with Martin, and decided to quit the agency to start a family with him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: The season 1 finale reveals that she knows her way in a fight. She later ends up telling Martin the whole truth about herself and how she came to know him.
• Secret-Keeper: Along with Gates, kept the truth behind Operation Raining Fire a secret from Martin for 10 years.

Season 2 Characters

Dmitry Petrovich

Dmitry Petrovich

Played by: Sean Bean

Dmitry Petrovich was a legend Martin Odum used back in 2001 when he was working undercover for MI6. Dmitry was a Russian gangster, whose first scene showed him beating up the owner of a trucking company and declaring himself the new owner. He allied himself with Doku Zakayev, a Chechen drug dealer, in an attempt to gather enough evidence against the latter's boss. Along the way, he befriended Doku's brother Tamir, his wife Ilyana, and also grew very close with his daughter Katya. During that time, he also became the main focus of an investigation led by Czech detective Gabriela Miskova and FBI agent Curtis Ballard.

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• Bruiser with a Soft Center: While he had no problem beating up several men, he's shown to be genuinely concerned about Ilyana and Katya.
• Establishing Character Moment/Klingon Promotion: The first thing he did in Prague was to take over a trucking company by publicly beating up the owner and declaring himself the new proprietor.
• Parental Substitute: Katya fondly remembers him as a father-figure. It turns out he did act as one for her between 2001 and 2004.
• Smug Snake: If the audience didn't know that Dmitry was a legend, he certainly comes off as this, as evidenced by Curtis's bitterness against him.

Curtis Ballard

Curtis Ballard

Played by: Steve Kazee

Curtis Ballard is an FBI agent who was tasked with the investigation of Dmitry Petrovich in Prague back in 2001. After failing to arrest him, and somehow losing his left leg in the process, he grew disillusioned and bitter, until Dmitry's face turned up again 14 years later, this time as Martin Odum. Driven by a desire for justice and revenge, he goes off to Prague on his own and reconnects with his former investigation partner, Czech detective Gabriela Miskova, to try and hunt down Petrovich one more time.

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• An Arm and a Leg: During his investigation into Dmitry, he got his left leg cut off above the knee. He blames Dmitry for the incident, though it is not shown until the eighth episode, where they had an altercation that ended with Dmitry shooting Curtis in the thigh.
• The Atoner: After a series of events that led to his fellow Mormon elder's murder in Lithuania, he resolved to "become a force for justice in this life."
• Book Ends: He was inspired to go into law enforcement after a night wherein he slept with a prostitute and inadvertently got his friend killed. He later took his own life after sleeping with another prostitute.
• Break the Cutie: His growing frustration at being unable to convert people in Lithuania for over a year led him to avail of the services of a prostitute he initially intended to share his faith with. Because his fellow elder, who accompanied him, didn't follow him and neglected to pay for the other prostitute, said elder was murdered by their pimp right in front of Curtis.
• Cowboy Cop: Gabi's influence and his frustration with Dmitry eventually turn him into this.
• Despair Event Horizon/Driven to Suicide: In "The Legend of Terrence Graves," being unable to secure the arrest of Dmitry yet again (and a suggestion from his superiors that he change careers as an instructor) pushes him over the edge, leading to one last phone call with Gabi, during which he shoots himself in the head (as in, he didn't even have the courtesy to hang up on Gabi before pulling the trigger, to her complete shock).
• Inspector Javert: Even with 14 years in between, he made it his life's mission to bring Dmitry Petrovich to justice.
• Ironic Echo: The first time Dmitry slipped his grasp, Gabi reassures her with a Czech proverb, "Patience brings roses." When he fails a second time to arrest Dmitry, his last words to Gabi before killing himself are "May patience always bring you roses."
• Mormonism: He used to be a Mormon missionary in Lithuania as a teenager, and even as an adult, is shown to be wearing the temple garments underneath his clothes and praying in several scenes.
• My Greatest Failure: Being unable to arrest Dmitry Petrovich in 2001.
  • My Greatest Second Chance: Dmitry's reappearance as Martin Odum 14 years later.
• The One That Got Away: As an investigator, Dmitry Petrovich. As a man, Gabi. This gets a tragic Call-Back during his last phone call to Gabi.
  Gabi: Maybe bad guys are like lovers.
  Curtis: What do you mean?
  Gabi: There's always one that gets away. You just have to learn to live with it.
• Posthumous Character: As of "The Legend of Tamir Zakayev".
• Self-Harm: One scene shows him pricking his own finger with the pin from his former fellow elder's nametag back when he was a Mormon missionary. While he's recuperating from his leg amputation, Gabi catches him doing this again.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Aside from his target being an undercover agent, he's definitely a sympathetic character.
• Tragic Keepsake: Elder Hansen's nametag, a reminder of why he chose his line of work.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Gabi. They did sleep together once, but Gabi refused to follow him back to the US.

Gabi Miskova

Gabriela "Gabi" Miskova

Played by: Winter Ave Zoli

Gabi was a detective for the Czech police force in 2001, partnered with FBI agent Curtis Ballard in investigating Dmitry Petrovich. Following the abrupt derailment of the investigation, she wound up marrying her boss, whom she previously had a one-night stand with after Curtis rebuffed her advances, and had two children with him. As of 2015, she now collaborates with Czech intelligence, and is investigating Doku Zakayev's brother Tamir and his possible connection with Chechen terrorists.

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• Happily Married: More like happy while oblivious to her boss's secrets, but they did have two children.

• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: While Tamir is undergoing withdrawal symptoms during an interrogation, she gives him drugs in order to secure his cooperation.
• The One That Got Away: In the season 2 finale, once she learns of the full extent of her husband being an accomplice to the Chechen terrorists, she admits that she married the wrong man, implying that she regrets not being with Curtis.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Curtis Ballard (before she sleeps with him).

Ilyana Crawford

Ilyana Crawford (née Zakayeva)

Played by: Klara Issova

Ilyana was the wife of Doku Zakayev, who physically and emotionally abused her and forced her to practice Islam against her wishes. She wanted to learn accounting on her own, but Doku put a stop to it as well. Witnessing her growing desperation, Dmitry befriended her and managed to get her help in investigating her own husband. Eventually, she became a British citizen and remarried as Ilyana Crawford, and is currently trying to distance herself from her former life as much as she can. This unwittingly puts her at odds with her own daughter, whom she never told of her former life, which results in Kate finding out on her own.

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• Awful Wedded Life: She clearly grew to hate being Doku's wife.
• Badass Boast: From "The Legend of Doku Zakayev":
  General: You are not safe without man.
  Ilyana: Someone once told me never hesitate when my family is threatened. So it's you who needs protection from me.
• Career Versus Man: She was studying accounting in her spare time before Doku burnt all of her books, saying that she didn't need them as long as she was his wife.
• Domestic Abuse: A victim of it, both emotionally and physically.
• The Mole: Dmitry befriended her in order to gather more intelligence on one of Doku's contacts known as the General.
• Lie Back and Think of England: Given that we've seen her being physically abused by her husband, somehow the one scene where they sleep together doesn't reach Marital Rape License levels.
• Perpetual Frowner: She has rarely shown genuine happiness with anyone.
• Rescue Romance: She fell for Doku after he saved her from a Russian deserter who threatened her. Her feelings for Dmitry also have some shades of this.

Kate Crawford

Kate Crawford (born Katya Zakayeva)

Played by: Aisling Franciosi

Katya was the daughter of Ilyana and Doku Zakayev. Back in 2001, while she was a little girl, Dmitry Petrovich befriended her father, and she came to know him as a loving and caring adult figure. Except for those happy memories, however, as of 2015, following her mother's second marriage, and her name being changed to Kate, she barely remembers anything from back then (not even her birth name), and is stunned to learn that she was born in Chechnya and that her father was a Muslim. A school friend who shared the same background reached out to her, and she came to meet Iftikhar Bulfati, a Muslim teenage boy whom she grew very close to, until he carried out a terrorist attack on a Paris school. Thankfully, she also met the man she knew as Dmitry before she went to Paris, so after the shooting occurred, he was there just in time to protect her from the fallout.

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• Boyish Short Hair: In order to pass beneath suspicion on her way to Prague, she is told to cut her hair and disguise herself as a Czech boy.
• Blood-Splattered Innocents/Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: In the season 2 finale, she slits the General's throat before he attempted to rape her after their forced marriage.
• Damsel in Distress: As of "The Legend of Curtis Ballard," after a stray bullet grazes her right forearm during Ifti's shooting. She falls back into this after she is taken to Chechnya right from under Martin's nose.
• The Mole: As part of a deal to protect her from facing charges as an accessory to Ifti's mass-murder, MI6 plans to use her to spy on her uncle, Tamir. She is only convinced to go along with this after Martin volunteers himself as her handler.
• Protectorate: Kate's surprisingly sweet reaction to meeting Martin (who doesn't even recall being Dmitry) endears her to him, to the point of risking himself to keep her from getting involved with Iftikhar Bulfati.
  Martin: (talking to Tony) If I can't be there for Aiden, I'm sure as hell going to be there for this girl.
• Quest for Identity: Due to her mother being very secretive about her former life, she wound up learning of her Chechen and Muslim origin on her own, which made her a prime target for terrorist recruiters.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Part of her disguise to evade the French authorities and travel to Prague involved her having to cut her hair and bind her breasts to pass as a Czech boy.
• Undying Loyalty: Even for someone she barely remembered as a kid, her closeness to Dmitry (whom she still calls "Papa", even as a teenager) is one of the most heartwarming aspects of the second season.
• Unwitting Pawn: Iftikhar Bulfati switches bags with her at the Calais train station in order to evade suspicion, knowing that he was most likely going to be more thoroughly inspected. Kate agrees, unaware of the battery-operated gun he was secretly hiding inside his bag. As a result, she later faces charges as an accomplice to his shooting.

Nina Brenner

Nina Brenner

Played by: Kelly Overton

Nina is a CIA agent who was once involved with Tony Rice, with whom she maintains a close friendship. As proof of their closeness, Tony points Martin to her as a backup contact after he is forced to return to the US after briefly helping him out on his way to Paris. Nina eventually proves to be a valuable ally, as in "The Legend of Terrence Graves," she manages to get Martin out of FBI custody.

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• I Gave My Word: Invokes the trope as she gives Martin his old MI6 files.

• New Old Flame: Of Tony Rice, whom she describes as a "damned good lay."
• Unwitting Pawn: After negotiating with MI6 to give her time to track Martin down, she failed to realize that they bugged her phone until they swooped in to arrest Martin while she was meeting with him.

Terrence Graves

Terrence Graves

Played by: Ralph Brown

Terrence was the handler for the MI6 agent going undercover as Dmitry Petrovich (presumably going by John Cameron at the time) in 2001. He was also secretly a double agent for the KGB. As of 2015, however, he's currently suffering from dementia, leaving Martin unable to learn anything useful from him during his initial search for clues to his identity.

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• Blackmail: The KGB threatened him with exposing his homosexual affairs in order to recruit him as a double agent.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Has been secretly spying for the KGB since the late 70's, and is shown to still be working for the SVR (successors of the KGB) as late as 2001.
• Ignored Confession: He confesses to his wife that he's an MI6 agent, working for the SVR, and a homosexual, but she doesn't believe any of it, ascribing this to a neurological condition.
• Interrupted Suicide: His son knocks on his study door just as he had his gun pointed at his chin, causing him to stop. This also acts as foreshadowing of Curtis Ballard's suicide at the end of the episode.
• Red Herring: When a senile Terrence calls Martin his son, Martin is overwhelmed with emotion at being recognized... until Terrence's real son shows up.

Tamir Zakayev

Tamir Zakayev

Played by: Nikola Djuricko

Tamir is Doku's younger brother. He was a drug addict back in 2001, whom Dmitry befriended in order to get closer to Doku. Gabi Miskova and Curtis Ballard tried unsuccessfully to use him to get enough evidence to arrest Dmitry. As of 2015, he claims to have gotten free of his addiction and become an upstanding Czech citizen, but Gabi, now a Czech intelligence officer, suspects that he may have ties to Chechen terrorists.

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• Character Death: Martin shoots him after he tried to strangle him.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Started out as a useless junkie and later became a financial backer for terrorists.
• I Am a Monster: After shooting an unarmed woman, he confesses to his little niece "Your uncle is a bad man."
• I Owe You My Life: Is very grateful to Dmitry for saving him from getting shot until he is told that Dmitry killed Doku.
• The Mole: Gabi and Curtis tried to use him to gather evidence against Dmitry, but he eventually proved useless to them.
• Would Hit a Girl: In "The Legend of Tamir Zakayev", under orders from his brother, he shoots a woman in cold blood, just as it appeared that Dmitry was trying to let her escape with her life. Once the drugs he was on wear off, he becomes very remorseful.

Doku Zakayev

Doku Zakayev

Played by: Visar Vishka

Doku Zakayev was a notorious drug dealer who migrated along with his family in 2001 from Chechnya to Prague, where he began his operations anew. Dmitry Petrovich allied himself with Doku by providing him with trucks usable for smuggling his drugs. He was a devout Muslim and insisted that his wife act accordingly despite her reluctance to do so.

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• Big Damn Heroes: He first appeared in Ilyana's life by saving her from a Russian deserter who threatened to shoot her.
• Character Death: Killed by Ilyana in self-defense after suspecting her of having an affair.
• Disappeared Dad: Kate barely has any memories of him.
• Domestic Abuse: Has been shown to hit his wife Ilyana at least once.
• Dying Declaration of Love: His last words after being shot by Ilyana are "I loved you..."
• The Fundamentalist: Appeared to be very devoted to Islam, though it's possible that it might have been a cover for his association with the terrorists Dmitry Petrovich was trying to gather evidence against.
• The Heavy: He is certainly villainous, but Dmitry is only using him as a means to go after another target called the General.
• Posthumous Character: Only appears in flashbacks.

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