X5-494
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
X5-494 (aka "Alec McDowell") is a character in Season 2 of the James Cameron created television series DARK ANGEL (2000-2002). A "brother" to the title character, X5-452 (aka "Max Guevera"), Alec is a human/feline hybrid supersoldier bred, trained, and raised at Manticore, a facility created by the U.S. government that used experimental genetic technology to produce various classes of enhanced beings for warfare. Physically he is Caucasian, 6 feet tall, 178 pounds, medium build, with dark blond hair and hazel-green eyes (portrayed by actor Jensen Ackles). Born to a surrogate mother in 1999, Alec was 21 years old at the time of his first appearance on DARK ANGEL.
Just before "The Pulse" (a magnetic pulse bomb set off over the Eastern UnitedStates in 2009), Max and a number of her siblings had escaped from Manticore to live free in the world, yet always hunted by their creators. X5-494, however, was not one of the escapees and did not achieve his freedom until the year 2020 when Max and others of her kind led an attack that freed the remaining Manticore soldiers — even those who didn't really want to be freed. Once out in the real world, Alec tried his hand at being a cat burglar and prize fighter, but ended up taking a job at Jam Pony, a bike messenger service in Seattle where Max also worked. By the end of the DARK ANGEL series he had helped Max create a new community dubbed Terminal City in an abandoned section of Seattle where the Manticore escapees could live and defend themselves from ordinary humans.
Contents |
[edit] Super soldier abilities
X5-494's special abilities include superior speed, strength, and coordination, rapid healing, enhanced eyesight, hearing, and night vision, as well as a very high I.Q., ideatic memory, and empathy capabilities that make him extremely adaptable to any situation. For example, he acquired the playing skills of a concert pianist after only one day's training so he could pose as a piano teacher on a mission. He is also very handsome, as are all of the X5 Units.
[edit] Twin brother Ben
494's identical twin brother X5-493 (aka "Ben") was one of the children in Max's Unit who escaped in 2009. Ben, however, didn't adapt to the outside world very well and ultimately became a seriel killer who had to be destroyed by Max. Alec, in the episode "Hello/Goodbye" is accused of one of the murders committed by Ben.
[edit] Love
In the episode "The Berrisford Agenda" we see flashbacks to 494's first long term away mission in 2018 when he was ordered to observe, then assassinate, Roger Berrisford, a Manticore subcontractor who was becoming too curious about the supersoldier program. However, while using the alias of the young piano teacher "Simon Lehane" (whom 494 murdered in order to take his identity), 494 fell in love with Berrisford's 17-year-old daughter, Rachel. Rachel would have been killed in the car bomb he was supposed to set off, and at the last minute 494 attempted to stop the execution. Unfortunately, his Manticore handlers were suspicious of 494 and triggered the bomb anyway. Roger Berrisford survived, but Rachel ended up in a coma that lasted for two years. 494 was brutally punished by Manticore for his disobedience. However, he was allowed to live (with his memories of the event suppressed) and ultimately resumed his duties as a soldier. Alec did get to say good-bye to Rachel at her bedside before she ultimately died in the present day. It was in this episode that Max learned Alec was capable of love, and was far more than a killing machine or automaton for Manticore.
[edit] His name
494 was given the name "Alec" by Max when she first met him while imprisoned at Manticore. He was supposed to be her "designated breeding partner" but when Max refused his ordered advances 494 was willing to back off, albeit with a very snarky attitude. After that Max dubbed him "Alec" — as in "smart Aleck" — due to his egotistical cockiness, and a wary love/hate relationship between the two ensued. (Max's second choice for 494's name was "Dick".) 494 liked the name Alec, and made it his. The last name "McDowell" was given to the character by one of DARK ANGEL's writers who's favorite actor was Malcolm McDowell. However, the name was never actually revealed on the show, the scene in which it was once shown on a file folder edited out.
Many fans thought that if DARK ANGEL had continued for a third season there would have been a romance between Alec and Max, and there was actually a story treatment by the show's writers to that effect (one of several). However, the show was canceled leaving the Max/Alec relationship only a probability, not a fact.
[edit] The novels
Alec's adventures with Max continue after the end of the DARK ANGEL series in the Max Allan Collins novels "Skin Game" and "After the Dark." There are also details of his years at Manticore in "The Eyes Only Dossier" by D.A. Stern.
Detailed information about X5-494 can be found at the website Genetically Empowered [1].
