The Clones of Project LEDA | Associates of the Clones | The Proletheans | The Neolutionists | Dyad Associates | The Clones of Project CASTOR | Miscellaneous Characters
The Neolutionists
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In General
The people who created the clones. 2x06, however, reveals that they hijacked the original cloning project by infiltrating the Dyad Institute, which was among the military contractors who took over the Duncans' experiments.
- Affably Evil: For the most part, they're charming and professional. Not to mention willing to employ deception, blackmail, kidnapping, violations of medical ethics, and assassination to further their goals.
- Body Horror: Their more extreme body modifications cross into this, such as Olivier's tail and strange maggot-like creatures growing in people's cheeks.
- Bio-Augmentation: The organization revolves around this.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Members are frequently seen in black and white, though there are exceptions.
- Evil Versus Evil: Against the Proletheans.
- Foil: In a case of "science vs. religion", they're the "science" to the Proletheans' "religion". However, they're not so different in their shared view of the clones as objects to exploit and control rather than real people.
- For Science!: Their core motivation. Anything that advances knowledge and invention is, in their eyes, already justified.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Season 3 finale reveals that, far from the "pop science" hangers-on they appeared to be, they're secretly in control of both LEDA and CASTOR.
- In-Series Nickname: "Freaky Leekies", after their founder.
- MegaCorp: They have near complete control of the Dyad Institute, to the point that "Neolutionist" and "Dyad" are almost synonymous (though they're not quite the same thing).
- The Mole: They monitor the clones by planting someone in their lives to gather information about them. Or, in the case of Donnie, manipulate people already in the clone's life.
- The Presents Were Never from Santa: They promise transhuman advancements like extended life, based on the achievements of PT Westmoreland, who has supposedly survived from Victorian times until the present day. Except he hasn't—the man claiming to be Westmoreland today is a fraud who adopted a dead man's identity and founded Neolution in the selfish hopes of extending his own life like he claims to have already done.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!/Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Dyad has a lot of influence and deep pockets.
- Sci Fi Bob Hair Cut: Many of their female members sport this 'do.
Aldous Leekie
Dr. Aldous Leekie
We're developing an artificial womb. Bit of a hobby of mine.
- Played by: Matt Frewer"Neolution: a philosophy of today for tomorrow, rooted in our past, in the evolution of the human organism."
The "face" of Neolution; a provocative and widely read scientist in the public eye. His Neolutionist philosophy pushes the ethical, moral and scientific boundaries of what is known to be possible.
- Affably Evil: Is unfailingly polite and charming. According to Ethan Duncan, he killed Rachel's mother, though she's later revealed to have survived. However, he certainly seems to have tried to kill her, though it ultimately hasn't been confirmed one way or the other.
- Bald of Evil: He's quite impressively bald.
- Bio-Augmentation: He's the founder of Neolutionism, the belief that humans have the right to enhance their bodies until they become perfect.
- Boom, Headshot!: Thanks to Donnie "I Just Shot Marvin in the Face" Hendrix.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even he seems horrified that Rachel would kidnap Kira to get to Sarah.
- And he also wants to see the clones remain healthy as much as he can. See Pet the Dog.
- The Evil Genius: The head of the science division of the Neolutionists.
- Evilutionary Biologist: He has no apparent problems with creating human clones or experimenting on them to advance his vision of Neolution.
- The Heavy: He's the public face of Neolutionism, but he still answers to several other people.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Leekie used people as pawns, and one of his pawns killed him. By accident.
- Meaningful Name: His first name is based on Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, a novel about an utilitarian dystopic world where human cloning is the only allowed method of reproduction.
- Only Sane Man: For the Neolutionists.
- Parental Substitute: To Rachel.
- Pet the Dog: Decides to give Cosima the stem cell treatment, despite the fact that Rachel told him to shut down the tests.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Relatively speaking. He's not as cold as Rachel nor as ruthless as Daniel. Though he does want to bring the clones under Dyad control, he employs methods that would cause them the least amount of pain.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: While it's doubtful he cares for them as individuals, Leekie does what he can to see that the clones aren't hurt, even if it means defying Rachel's orders.
- Token Good Teammate: Manipulative he may be, he's about the only Neolutionist and Dyad man who acts as the clones' guardian angel, treating Cosima, trying to control Rachel, and even going out of his way to get Felix freed from Rachel's frame-job. It costs him.
- You Have Failed Me: Has Olivier killed due to his blunders and sloppy handling of the situation at his club.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Subverted. Marian Bowles and Rachel Duncan plot to eliminate him but Rachel decides to spare him at the last minute because she still cared for him. It doesn't prevent him from his fatal encounter with Donnie but his death is lampshaded like this in the next episode by saying he died of a heart attack.
Olivier Duval
Olivier Duval/Kevin
As long as your subject makes her own choices, there are no wrong decisions.
- Played by: David Richmond-Peck"Don't interfere unless it's critical."
Paul's boss and underling to Dr. Leekie.
- Bio-Augmentation: Firm believer in this, and constantly revels in how "perfect" Sarah is, saying she's their greatest creation. Also, he has a tail, which Helena cuts off.
- Blackmail: He thinks he is doing this by helping Paul cover up the killing of six marines in Afghanistan in exchange for becoming Beth's monitor, but in reality Paul is trying to uncover more about Dyad and Project Leda. As a result, he actually becomes a victim of this when Paul discovers that he's been dodging some outstanding warrants. Paul makes him lie to Leekie by omitting his knowledge of Sarah.
- Body Horror: Helena cuts off his tail.
- Mad Scientist: Subverted. He admits he doesn't know much about the science behind the clones.
- Mook Lieutenant: He has some authority, but isn't very high ranking. He oversees Paul and probably other monitors for Dr. Leekie.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: "Dr. Leekie sends his regards."
Astrid
Astrid
- Played by: Sarain Boylan
A 'futurist' woman with one silvery-white eye and voluminous white hair. She works as a kind of secretary to Olivier.
- Bio-Augmentation: In her eye.
- Secretary of Evil: Astrid works as a secretary within the Dyad Institute, responsible for the unethical cloning experiments, helping Olivier keep track of the various clones he's assigned to monitor.
- Sci-Fi Bob Haircut: The club she first appears in has this theme. Also, the fact that she's part of a tech-heavy organization adds to the effect.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She disappears after Helena's attack. Presumably, she shared Olivier's fate.
Virginia Coady
Dr. Virginia Coady/Alex Ripley
- Played by: Kyra Harper
A driven doctor and adviser to the military who oversees a brood of unhinged killers she treats as her sons. Coady is outwardly the soul of reason, but her maternal, nurturing manner to her boys conceals an agenda that even her superiors do not suspect.
- Big Bad: For Season 3.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Becomes part of it midway through the final season alongside Westmoreland and Rachel, taking Susan's place as Westmoreland's head scientist.
- The Bus Came Back: After being absent for the entirely of Season 4, she's revealed to be in a mental hospital under an assumed name on Season 5. Susan Duncan is the one who put her in there.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Early in Season 1, Paul mentions that during his "split" with Beth, he was staying over at "Cody's" place, which likely referred to Dr. Coady.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She loves her sons more than anything and has been trying to find a treatment for their disorder for ages.
- However this doesn't stop her from killing Mark, the last of her sons, on Westmoreland's orders.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She stops the soldiers from torturing Helena because she's pregnant.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Coady smokes in a nonchalant way that lets you know she's bad news.
- Heel Realization: A guidebook containing Neolution memos and phone call transcripts reveals that she had one offscreen after killing Mark, realizing that after delivering Helena's babies she would be expendable to PT, but ultimately decided that she had come too far to stop now.
- Irony: She didn't want kids, but ended up raising the Castor clones as though they were her own.
- Kick the Dog: Lies to Helena by saying her family doesn't want her anymore.
- In season 5, she tells Helena she's unfit to be a mother.
- Man Behind the Man: To Paul and the Castor Clones.
- Motherly Scientist: She's the scientist assigned to watch over the Castor clones and they really do see her as their mom.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Her adopted sons have a genetic disorder that's slowly killing them. Seth had to be put out of his misery, Parsons was mercy killed by Helena, and Rudy eventually did come down with symptoms, though it isn't clear if she knows that he's dead too. Also, Mark ended up betraying her.
- Parental Substitute: To the Project Castor clones.
- Smug Snake: Tells Sarah that she's not an enemy to be messed with, but was easily tricked into getting herself captured by Ferdinand.
- Tuckerization: Dr. Virginia Coady is named for the writer Lynn Coady.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: She wants to end war, but part of her plan to do so involves creating a biological weapon with the Castor pathogen, using several women as unwilling test subjects.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What happens to her by the end of Season 3 isn't revealed. Season 5 finally answers the question: Ferdinand abducted her and Susan locked her in a mental hospital.
Trina
Trina
- Played by: Allie MacDonald
A young woman whom Beth met while investigating Olivier's club. She's seemingly very normal for a neolutionist and has reservations about the movement's more extreme members.
- Bio-Augmentation: Like Astrid, she has a modified silvery-white eye. Trina also had magnets implanted in her fingertips.
- Break the Cutie: Losing her boyfriend and some unspecified conflict with Beth, whom she thought could help her.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Appears to be completely unaware of the existence of clones, and does not even give any signs of being aware that Beth, Alison, and Sarah are different people. Given the complexity of the lives of people who are aware of the conspiracy, this is probably to her benefit.
- Nice Girl: When Beth meets her in a flashback, Trina is very open and welcoming. Though she's not quite so nice when she runs into Alison (thinking she's Beth) in the present. However, in season four, when she interacts with Sarah (again thinking she's Beth), she is again nice and forthcoming with her.
Evie Cho
Evie Cho
- Played by: Jessalyn Wanlim
Evie Cho is the founder and CEO of a neolutionist fertility clinic named BrightBorn, which gives couples "perfect" children but has a sinister secret.
- Big Bad: Of season 4.
- The Chessmaster: Evie's organized her plans quite well and they go off without a hitch. Until the very end...
- Engineered Public Confession: How Rachel ultimately brings about her downfall.
- Freudian Excuse: Her miserable, illness-filled childhood.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Who would have thought that she went from an ill girl to a powerful sociopathic executive and chessmaster extraordinaire.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Inverted from the usual appearance of "X" Marks the Hero, she has a small, almost fully healed x scar on her cheek. It's from Beth beating the shit out of her a few months prior.
- Greater-Scope Villain: For Seasons 2 & 3, given her running the neolution facility.
- Hidden Villain: Her villainous depths are not even revealed until 4x06, but she's been responsible for a great many of the horrible things that have happened to the Leda clones from the very first scene of the series. However, late in season four it's also suggested that there's someone else behind her.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Killed unceremoniously by one of the same maggot-bots she implanted in her unfortunate subjects.Doctor Van Leir: "You built it. Let it take you."
- Her blackmailing Beth into killing herself ultimately brought Sarah Manning into play. Guess who gives Rachel the footage to take her down?
- Kick Them While They Are Down: After having Kendall killed, in front of an already distressed Cosima, she feels the need to gloat to her about Delphine, telling her that she's dead. This absolutely breaks Cosmia.
- Laser-Guided Karma: She caused Beth to kill herself... but this ended up bringing Sarah Manning into play. Sarah would help set the Neolutionists back AND provide Rachel with the footage that she would use to bring Evie's downfall into play.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Her causing Beth to kill herself ultimately resulted in Sarah entering play, which in turn led to both her own downfall and later that of the Neolutionists as a whole.
- The Perfectionist: Her philosophy is this, taken up to 11. Anything or anyone who is less than perfect is eliminated, even children.
- Smug Snake: She likes to think of herself as a Chessmaster, and for most of the show her plans go off without a hitch, but she's ultimately shown to be nowhere near Rachel's match in the Chessmastery department.
- The Starscream: She wants to replace Susan Duncan as the leader of Neolution, and planted the idea of killing Susan into Beth's head. When Beth realized what was going on, she spared Susan and confronted Evie.
- Villainous Breakdown: Quite an epic one after the board of Neolutionists removes her from her own project when her actions are exposed. She throws a hissy fit when she is told her technology will be used without her and she screams out that it's not her fault their plans went wrong. They don't take kindly to it.
- Villains Never Lie: When she claims that Delphine is dead, Cosima takes her at face value. The very next episode reveals that Delphine very well might not be dead, as Krystal witnessed her carried away alive after she was shot. She is confirmed to have been lying at the end of 4x09, when Delphine is shown very much alive, albeit apparently somebody's captive.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Evie wants to perfect the human genome to prevent diseases and disorders, even if it means murdering innocent people and performing tests on pregnant women that result in their babies being deformed. She compares her methods to da Vinci robbing graves to study anatomy.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: To this end she has been blackmailing and threatening multiple people, and has euthanized newborns with deformities and other imperfections such as blindness. Her plan involves controlling and altering people's DNA without their knowledge and consent and at the prospect of the plan moving forward without her, she undergoes a Villainous Breakdown. Ultimatley it has more to do with her own legacy and perfectionist view of the world.
- Would Hurt a Child: Has been putting deformed and otherwise imperfect children down to cover up her failures. She also allegedly threatened Duko's niece to blackmail him.
Frank and Roxie
Frank and Roxie
- Played by: Ian Matthews and Miranda Edwards
Two EMTs and Neolution agents who serve as Evie's "cleanup crew".
- The Brute: For Neolution is general and Evie Cho specifically. They appear to be in charge of monitoring and, if necessary, killing people who've had maggot-bots implanted in them.
- Character Death: Helena puts an arrow in Frank's throat for trying to forcibly implant a maggot-bot into Alison.
- Deadly Doctor: Both of them. They gas any Neolutionists who want their maggot-bots removed. And they aren't above murder by other means.
- Minion Shipping: In their first scene, they make out over the corpse they're burying.
- Smug Snake: Roxie.(Being arrested by Art) "We'll be out by morning."
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Both of them. They never raise their voices, but obviously enjoy what they do.
Marty Duko
Detective Marty Duko
- Played by: Gord Rand
A detective in Beth's precinct who works for the Neolutionists.
- Affably Evil: He's a very polite, if somewhat unsettling, man. In 4.06 he offers a cigarette and a blanket to his kidnapping victim.
- Ambiguously Evil: He has done a long list of horrible things up to and including murder, but claims to only be doing this because he's been blackmailed into it. His alignment is certainly not in question, but his character is.
- Blackmail: He claims that the reason he's working for Neolution is that they threatened his ten-year-old niece. He in turn subjects Alison to this, but Clone Club turns the tables on him, leading to his downfall.
- Character Death: Mrs. S. kills him in revenge for his murder of her mother.
- Dirty Cop: He claims it's because he's being blackmailed into it, but he still qualifies.
- The Dragon: He's Evie Cho's right hand man, though seemingly not entirely by choice.
- Hidden Depths: Well, not exactly "deep", but he seems to be surprisingly knowledgeable about D&D.
- Punch-Clock Villain: He doesn't seem to be personally invested in Neolution, and claims to only be working for Evie Cho because he got in over his head and has to protect his loved ones.
- Remember the New Guy?: He worked with Beth and Art, yet was never mentioned before season 4.
- Smug Snake: A bit of one. He seems to think he's a much more competent Chessmaster than he actually is. It's questionable whether he's truly evil given his being subjected to the blackmail mentioned above, but he's certainly done a long litany of horrible things.
The Board of Neolution
The Board of Neolution
A board of shadowy individuals who oversee Neolution's projects and decide who gets funding.
- Cosmopolitan Council
- Driven to Suicide: Multiple members kill themselves in utter despair after realizing Westmoreland was a fraud. It quickly becomes a way to cover up the murders of other members.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted. They are angry that Evie was euthanizing infants, but only because it gave them bad publicity.
- Karmic Death: See the You Have Outlived Your Usefulness entry below.
- Mysterious Backer: To Susan Duncan and Evie Cho. And later Rachel, when she wins them over.
- The Omniscient Council of Vagueness
- Scam Religion: Most of them completely fell for John Matheson's claims of being P. T. Westmoreland and worship the ground he walks on.
- Satellite Character: They largely exist to rule over the likes of Evie Cho and provide Westmoreland with his backing. They only get individual names and titles when they start dropping like flies.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Apparently fond of doing this to people. They end up on the receiving end of this after Neolution's crimes are exposed to the public.
Maddy Enger
Detective Maddy Enger
- Played by: Eylse Levesque
A detective working for Neolution, assigned to monitor Art Bell.
- The Brute: When the other remaining threats to the Clone Club get offed, she quickly becomes the only named muscle of Neolution.
- Smug Snake: Seems to take perverse pleasure out of threatening Art's daughter.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Essentially a female Marty Duko without his Ambiguously Evil traits.
P.T. Westmoreland
Percival T. Westmoreland/John Patrick Mathieson
- Played by: Stephen McHattie
Neolution's founding father, a Victorian eugenicist who wrote the tome that inspired his followers into the present day. The season 4 finale reveals he has somehow survived into modern times, though it's later revealed to be a hoax.
- Bald of Evil: It's revealed towards the end of the season that he wears a wig.
- Big Bad: Of Season 5, and arguably for the whole series.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Puts on a kindly grandfather act to hide that he's a narcissistic psychopath.
- Blue Blood: Both the original Westmoreland and Matheson are essentially aristocrats (Matheson is the son of a Texas Oil Baron.)
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Sarah beats him to death with an oxygen tank instead of waiting for him to die after she shoots him. Honesty, the bastard deserved it.
- Dead Person Impersonation: He's just a regular old man who used Westmoreland's writings and the fact that his body was never found to craft a persona with which to create his own cult.
- Disproportionate Retribution: During his amphetamine-assisted Villainous Breakdown in the final episode, he shoots one of his own medical minions dead for alluding to his age.
- The Ghost: Has not been seen onscreen in four seasons, having been assumed long dead. He finally makes active appearances in Season 5.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Is ultimately responsible for ALL the atrocities the neolutionists have committed.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: If he just respected the clones as people Rachel wouldn't have turned against him and Sarah wouldn't have killed him for kidnapping Helena.
- Immortality Seeker: He's a regular old man who wants to extend his own life by any means necessary, even involving dangerous or unethical experiments on children.
- Karmic Death: Dies at the hand of Sarah Manning, the clone whose daughter he tried to exploit for his fountain of youth.
- The Man Behind the Man: Behind the man behind the man, even. Behind Rachel, Leekie, Susan Duncan, Evie Cho, and Dyad's controlling board members is Westmoreland. All of them seem to be jockeying for positions amongst themselves, but it appears they all ultimately report to him.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Like many early evolutionists (and Victorians in general), believed class and socioeconomic status were down to genetic quality. Matheson is this as well what with his plan to sterilize the poor.
- Despite most of the scientists he uses being women, he’s pretty sexist as well, with Cosima and Delphine noting that his favorite tactic is dividing women and pitting them against each other. And, befitting a man pretending to be from the Victorian era, he’s almost certainly homophobic, given that Cosima and Delphine make no real effort to hide their relationship while they’re in Revival, yet he still rather pointedly refers to Cosima as Delphine’s “friend”.
- Posthumous Character: Ultimately Subverted. Turns out he's just a normal man who exploited that PT Westmoreland's body was never found.
- Really 700 Years Old: He's 170 years old, or so he claims. He's actually just a regular old man who crafted an elaborate hoax.
- Sanity Slippage: His seemingly gentle persona falls apart as his sickness worsens.
- Villainous Breakdown: Has an extended one over the second half of the season as his plans come undone. By the finale he's barely stable, worsened by the drugs he's abusing in an attempt not to physically collapse.
- Villain Respect: Tells Sarah that she was his greatest success even if she was also his greatest failure.
- Would Hurt a Child: He experimented on and tortured Yanis since Yanis was a boy, sustains himself with the blood of children (resulting in the death of at least one child) and wanted to harvest and fertilize Kira's eggs so he could study the so-called "Fountain of Youth" gene in her offspring.
