The Haitian

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The Haitian

Portrayed by	Jimmy Jean-Louis
First appearance	"One Giant Leap"
Statistics
Superpower(s)	Memory removal Unspecified power negation
Gender	Male

The Haitian is a fictional character on the NBC television series Heroes, portrayed by Jimmy Jean-Louis. He is an associate of Mr. Bennet.

[edit] Character history

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

First seen in a bar by Matt Parkman in "One Giant Leap" just prior to being kidnapped, the Haitian assists Mr. Bennet in capturing people having super powers. The Haitian used his memory removal power to "go deep" with Parkman and then "wipe out" his memories of the capture. Ted Sprague later revealed to Matt that he too had seen the Haitian just before experiencing a similar memory loss. The episode "Six Months Ago" showed that the Haitian also had a hand in capturing Eden McCain, who went on to work with him and Bennet. The Haitian and Eden worked together in "Homecoming" to capture Sylar. The Haitian also worked with Bennet in the attempted kidnapping of Nathan Petrelli, who escaped by using his flying power.

The Haitian also serves Bennet by blocking the telepathic powers of others. In both "Collision" and "Fallout", the Haitian's powers interfered with Matt Parkman's attempts to listen to the thoughts of Mr. Bennet and his daughter, Claire, respectively. Matt does manage to overcome the interference in both instances, but only enough to get a single name and after considerable strain on his part the second time.

"Tell me, Claire, can you keep a secret?"

Bennet's tasks for the Haitian are not limited to dealing with people possessing powers. In the episode "Hiros", the Haitian followed Bennet's order to "hollow out" Brody Mitchum, a rapist who attempted to force himself on Claire. After this encounter, Brody no longer recognized even his own name. In "Fallout", Mr. Bennet ordered the Haitian to erase the mind of Claire's friend Zach as well as her brother, Lyle, after Claire told Bennet that they both knew of her healing powers. Although the Haitian followed through with these orders, he defied Bennet's order to erase Claire's memories.

The Haitian wears a necklace having a strange RNA-like symbol seen throughout the series. He did not speak in any episode until "Fallout", in which Eden expresses the belief that he is mute, but then he later asks Claire if she "can keep a secret".

[edit] Powers and abilities

The Haitian has a powerful ability to erase the memories of others. In "Collision", the Haitian wipes out Matt Parkman's memory of the relatively short time of his capture. In "Hiros", the Haitian uses his power to "hollow out" Brody Mitchell's mind so extensively that he does not remember his own name while leaving his basic abilities such as general coordination and language skills intact. In "Fallout", he reveals to Claire that he has erased her mother's memories many times. None of these victims immediately realize that their memories have been erased. They only realize that something is wrong if confronted with evidence of the missing memories.

Several episodes also indicate that the Haitian is able to block or interfere with some mental powers. In "Collision", Matt Parkman tries to listen to the Haitian's mind but hears only silence (Matt later describes the difficulty as "interference" when having similar problems hearing Claire's thoughts in "Fallout" with the Haitian located nearby). When Mr. Bennet tells Matt that his telepathy won't work while he is being held captive in "Hiros", the Haitian is suddenly revealed to be standing in the same room. Similarly, when Mr. Bennet tells Eden that her persuasion powers won't work on him when she is first captured in "Six Months Ago", the Haitian is shown to be standing nearby.

Despite any interference the Haitian causes with telepathy, Matt is able to get Claire's name from Bennet's mind in "Hiros". He is also able to get Sylar's name from Bennet's mind with the Haitian present in "Fallout", although it requires a considerably greater amount of effort, even to the point of giving Matt a nosebleed from the strain. The Haitian doesn't seem to need to be aware of who he's blocking, as Matt encountered the interference despite being hidden in the latter instance. In addition to not entirely blocking Matt's telepathy, the presence of the Haitian did not impede Nathan Petrelli's powers of flight when he was cornered by Bennet and the Haitian.

Heroes

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