List of Dark Angel characters

This is a list of the key characters in the television series, Dark Angel.

Main characters

Max Guevara/X5-452

Portrayed by Jessica Alba and Geneva Locke as Young Max (Seasons 1–2)

Max is a genetically enhanced transgenic super-soldier who escaped from Project Manticore. She can be identified by the bar code on the back of her neck, which reads the number 332960073452. In order to blend in with normal society, she works as a courier for Jam Pony Express, which also helps her travel with greater freedom in post-Pulse Seattle.

Max also uses her messenger job to help scout potential targets to burgle, and uses the money obtained to fund her search for her fellow Manticore escapees. Max teamed up with Eyes Only in the pilot episode, and her friends include her roommate Kendra, played by Jennifer Blanc in the first season, and her Jam Pony co-workers Original Cindy (Valarie Rae Miller), Herbal Thought (Alimi Ballard, who is not present in the second season), Sketchy (Richard Gunn), and Alec (Jensen Ackles). Jensen Ackles also appeared in the first season as Alec's twin, Ben.

Logan Cale/Eyes Only

Portrayed by Michael Weatherly (Seasons 1–2)

Logan is a cyber-journalist who uses his knowledge of computer technology to bring down the corrupt power brokers of the new millennium. Heir to a family fortune, Logan hacks into television cable networks and delivers his scathing video messages under the pseudonym and alter ego Eyes Only. Max and Logan develop a partnership and close friendship, as she helps him to take out villains, and he helps her track down her fellow Manticore escapees. He often refers to Eyes Only in the third person, even when talking to people in the know.

Cynthia 'Original Cindy' McEachin

Portrayed by Valarie Rae Miller (Seasons 1–2)

Original Cindy (also known as O.C.) is Max's best friend, coworker and drinking buddy. In the middle of Season One, she discovers that Max is an escaped supersoldier from Manticore and, after some debate, becomes her roommate for the rest of season one. At the start of Season Two, O.C. learns that Logan is Eyes Only. She usually refers to herself in the third person, and is a lesbian.

Normal

Portrayed by J. C. MacKenzie (Seasons 1–2)

Normal's real name is Reagan Ronald. He runs the Jam Pony Express courier service and is nicknamed Normal because his conservative attitude clashes with his somewhat anarchic surroundings. He is a hard taskmaster, often annoyingly saying "Bip, bip, bip!" to mean "hurry!" In addition to being disliked by most of his workers, he becomes anti-transgenic in the second season after the existence of Manticore's creations becomes public.

Normal dotes on Alec and calls him his "golden boy," unaware that he is a transgenic. He also shows homosexual leanings towards him. In the series finale, he skillfully helps an X-5 deliver her baby and later realizes the error of his ways.

Colonel Donald Michael Lydecker

Portrayed by John Savage (Season 1, recurring season 2)

Colonel Lydecker is one of Manticore's senior officers and the arch-enemy of Max and Zack. He remains attached to the X5 program and tries to recapture the super-soldiers, referring to them as "his kids." He is prepared to torture and murder in cold blood to achieve his aims. Lydecker eventually switches sides after the project's director betrays him and kills one of "his kids." He becomes a valuable ally taking down Manticore but disappears under mysterious circumstances early in season 2.

Alec McDowell/X5-494

Portrayed by Jensen Ackles (Season 2)

Alec is named by Max, and is introduced as Max's breeding partner at Manticore, an order which is vehemently protested by Max. When Manticore is destroyed, Alec escapes to the outside world. A genetically enhanced super-soldier, he makes money using questionable means, while wheeling and dealing. However he often follows Max's example, working at Jam Pony, and being a cat burglar.

Alec is a rogue in the mold of Han Solo or Gambit and often presents a cavalier attitude to the world while hiding his darker emotions. He is at first a self-absorbed magnet for trouble, but becomes a valuable ally for Max, and eventually, her friend.

He is the identical twin of Ben, Max's dead unit-mate, a situation which is very difficult for Max to handle. Being a twin of one of the escapees also causes Alec a lot of trouble in Manticore and out in the world.

Joshua

Portrayed by Kevin Durand (Season 2)

An early Manticore experiment, Joshua is engineered with canine DNA and consequently has some unusual facial features, as well as incredible strength even by transgenic standards. As the very first successful Manticore creation, he has no bar code. At Manticore, he often roams in the basement unchecked, and takes care of the rest of the "downstairs people" by giving them food. He and Max develop a very close friendship, and he often imitates some of the words she says, because of his unfamiliarity with normal speech. His beastly appearance causes the team to seek creative ways to hide him from public view.

He has a brief romance with a blind woman named Annie Fisher before she is murdered by Agent White to frame the transgenics. His enormous strength also helps turn the tide in the climactic battle against the breeding cult members.

Ames White

Portrayed by Martin Cummins (Season 2)

The second season's primary nemesis. He is a government agent charged with tracking down and exterminating Manticore escapees in order to conceal the organization's existence. He is also part of an ancient cult, known only as the "Conclave", that has infiltrated various levels of society, and over millennia, bred super-humans that are formidable fighters equal to most of the results of the Manticore projects.

Asha Barlow

Portrayed by Ashley Scott (Season 2)

Asha is a member of S.1.W., a militant resistance movement against government corruption. She works closely with Logan on Eyes Only missions but does not know Logan is Eyes Only. She believes, like Det. Matt Sung, that Logan is a messenger for him. She is infatuated with Logan, and also has a near hook-up with Alec.

Recurring characters

Det. Matt Sung

Portrayed by Byron Mann (Seasons 1–2)

Det. Matt Sung is Logan's trusted police contact who often provides information or otherwise aids him.

Bling

Portrayed by Peter James Bryant (Seasons 1–2)

When Logan becomes disabled and needed to use a wheelchair, he was assisted by Bling, his live-in physical therapist, up until he meets Phil, also known as the Street Sweeper (Rainn Wilson), in the episode "I and I Am a Camera", who provides him with an exoskeleton allowing him to walk.

Zack/X5-599

Portrayed by William Gregory Lee (Seasons 1–2)

Zack is Max's unit leader at Manticore, and the original escape is his idea. He is very protective of his fellow escapees, especially Max, and does not trust regular humans. He more than often expresses dislike of Max's close bond with Logan Cale. Zack originally returns to Max's life by getting a job at the Jam Pony, and posing as a man named Sam. Logan finds out that somebody had a procedure to remove a bar code tattoo from his neck recently, and this is revealed to be Sam/Zack. Zack leaves briefly, but returns in need of Max's help several times, at which she helps him. In the episode "And Jesus Brought a Casserole" he sacrifices himself to save Max by giving her his heart. He is shown in flashbacks of Max's memories when she reflects on her losing him. However, he returns in the episode "Some Assembly Required" without any memory of who he is, and part machine. After seeing Max and spending time with her, he remembers everything through flashes of memory. This leads to problems because, due to flashes of intimate memories of hugging Max or being close to her, he falls under the impression they were romantically involved. When he attempts to kiss Max, she rejects him and this brings flashes of Max kissing Logan back to him. Certain Logan is the problem, he goes after Logan, but is prevented from killing him when Max interferes and electrocutes him. Logan's doctor contact studies him and informs them that his memory has been wiped clean again, but they cannot chance him trying to hurt Logan, or the same situation will play out again. Max is forced to let him go. Zack wakes up in a hospital, with a man sitting at his bedside who claims to be Zack's employer at a farm. The farmer offers to take Zack home for a hot meal. Zack agrees, not remembering, but accepting this is what his life was before the "accident". While leaving the hospital, he stops and stares at a girl sitting in the waiting room, Max, and asks if he knows her, but she says no, and he is wheeled off for the new, normal life he always wanted.

Ben/X5-493

Portrayed by Jensen Ackles (Season 1)

Ben is a favorite unit-mate of Max's. He often makes up stories explaining things about which his unit mates have no answers, such as death and the "Nomalies" (anomalies) in the basement. He entertains them, making them feel special and loved. While at Manticore he creates a religious ideology for "the Blue Lady," after receiving an illustrated card of the Virgin Mary.

In the real world however, he feels lost, and that nothing makes sense anymore. His gifted imagination and tendency for story telling develop into full-blown psychosis, and he becomes a serial killer, hunting down priests after tattooing his bar-code on the back of their necks to make them more worthy sacrifices. He offers the teeth of his victims to the Virgin Mary; his "Blue Lady." Max tracks him down to stop him, and during combat, breaks his leg. Ben asks her to kill him rather than let him be taken by the Manticore retrieval team closing in. She tearfully obliges.

Ben has an identical twin, Alec/X5-494 (see above), who is a main character all of season 2.

Tinga/Penny Smith/X5-656

Portrayed by Lisa Ann Cabasa (Season 1)

Tinga is another escapee with Max and the others. She manages to assimilate into normal society, marry Charlie Smith (Sebastian Spence), have a child named Case, and work in a bakery. In "The Kidz are Alright", she escapes to Canada with Zack, returns for her family in "Hit a Sista Back", and is then captured by Manticore in exchange for her son's return.

Her capture and death has a very strong influence in Lydecker's decision to defect from Manticore.

Case Smith

Portrayed by Malkolm Albuquerque (Season 1)

He appears in "Hit a Sista Back", and is the nephew of Max Guevara and the only child of Tinga. At five years old he has accelerated motor control, heightened spatial recognition, and advanced logical thinking, all traits an X5 would have. This surprises Manticore, since their laboratory combining of X5 DNA with human DNA resulted in very poor offspring. He is last seen going into hiding along with his dad Charlie, after bidding a tearful goodbye to his mother and Max, who fears she may never see him again.

Sebastian

Portrayed by Jade C. Bell (Season 1)

Sebastian is Logan's friend and a mute quadriplegic who communicates via a machine that verbalizes his thoughts. He is a conspiracy theorist and technological genius, similar in some ways to Stephen Hawking, who helps Max and Logan solve mysteries through the use of computer technology.

Raymond 'Ray' White

Portrayed by Brayden Bullen (Season 2)

Ray is Ames' son who is kidnapped by the Familiars, a breeding cult that put him through a mysterious ceremony to see if he will survive exposure to a potentially lethal pathogen for 'the coming'. Ray's immune system kicks in with the right antibodies, and he survives. Max rescues him, and Logan arranges for Ray to be placed in a secure environment away from the Familiars. This causes Ames, deprived of his son, to increase his hostility towards Max.

C.J.

Portrayed by Henri Lubatti (Season 2)

C.J. is Ames' younger brother, and is locked up in a mental institute for a period. He reveals that he and Ames White are Sandeman's sons.

Sandeman

Sandeman is a figure who is often referred to but appears only briefly in the series in a form of a faceless flashback Max has later in Season 2. He is part of the same ancient cult as Ames White but rejected it and created Manticore. Joshua and Isaac, Joshua's younger brother, are his first creations. In addition, Sandeman creates X5-452, also known as Max Guevara, in whom he implants a message in an ancient language related to the cult, which manifests itself as tattoo-like markings on her skin. Max is created as a means to stop the ancient cult.

Annie Fisher

Portrayed by Kandyse McClure (Season 2)

Joshua's short-lived girlfriend. The two meet when Joshua is on his porch due to fleas in his house and they have a conversation after Joshua realizes that she is blind. As the two began getting close, Alec convinces Joshua it is dangerous to see Annie, and he breaks up with her.

They meet up again later while Joshua is being chased by vigilantes, and he leads her into the sewer where he is forced to tell her the truth about himself. Although she is initially upset, Annie later wants to feel Joshua in order to perceive what he really looks like, and understand why he lied to her. She tells him to escape and leave her behind, and that she will tell the police he went in a different direction. Ames White finds her and snaps her neck to frame Joshua for murder.