Matthew "Matt" Parkman is a fictional character played by Greg Grunberg in the 2006 NBC drama Heroes.

Character history

Matt Parkman is a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. He would like to become a detective, but has flunked the test three times due to his dyslexia. Parkman is a telepath; he can hear the thoughts of people around him, which he first realizes after hearing the thoughts of Molly Walker, a little girl who was hiding from a serial killer nicknamed Sylar. When he found the girl, suspicion of how he knew her location led to his arrest.

After proving his ability by reading an FBIagent's mind in the interrogation room, he is offered a position toassist in the investigation. Things turn dangerous when a man whoappears to be Sylar shows up. Stopping the mysterious man from harminga little girl in the building, Matt tries to comfort the girl whileAudrey, the FBI agent, gives chase. Ultimately, the man escapes, butnot before displaying apparent telekinesis and standing after being shot. Later, Matt came home to his wife, Janice,with whom he is going to couple's therapy. Though he apologizes formissing the day's session and tries to tell her about his amazing day,she is still upset with him and doesn't want to hear it. Janice alsocomments about how, when she got promoted, he seemed to resent her forit. Matt told her he didn't mean to, but she just further shuts off tohim. Hearing Janice think she wants him to leave, Matt responds "Iwill" verbally and then storms out.

At a bar, Matt hears most, if not all, the thoughts of the variouspatrons. However, when he comes across a patron whose mind he cannotread, he begins to hear the other voices fade out. The mysterious otherman sits and stares at Matt until Matt finally collapses on the floor,unconscious.

Matt wakes up strapped to a table with Mr. Bennetstanding over him. Mr. Bennet explains that they had to drug him, asMatt is telling him what he remembers last. Matt asks if he is FBI orCIA. Mr. Bennet states that the organization he works for does not haveinitials. Matt tries to read Mr. Bennet's mind but can't. Mr. Bennettells Matt that with his friend around he can't read his mind. His"friend" turns out to be the mysterious manfrom the bar. Nevertheless, Matt is still able to discern the name ofBennet's daughter, slightly impressing Bennet with his developingpower. Mr. Bennet then tells the mysterious man to "Go deep", followedby a scream from Matt.

Matt wakes up on his couch a day later, suffering from what hethinks is a hangover. His wife tells him he has been missing for a dayand has been frantic with worry. Matt reads her mind and realizes thatJanice has actually been worried about him. He uses his mind-readingability to listen to her thoughts and give her everything she wants.They stay home from work, he cooks for her, and is the perfect lover.Later he goes to a local convenience store to buy her ice cream andoverhears the thoughts of a man planning to rob the store. Matt talksthe man out of what he is about to do. The would-be robber leaves hisgun on a shelf and runs out of the store. Matt picks up the gun andattempts to calm the customers in the store by telling them he is acop. However, they instead fear him because he is holding the gun and aheadache Matt had is aggravated by their fearful thoughts. Matt'sperception gets hazy and he appears to lose consciousness.

The following day, Matt approaches his wife with the intention ofrevealing his newfound power. As he attempts to explain his power, hisrecent mysterious behavior leads his wife to think about a secret whichshe feared he had discovered. Suddenly uncertain, Matt left withoutuncovering the secret. At work, Matt and Audrey Hansonrun down a possible lead on Sylar after discovering a badly burnedcorpse with a fingerprint branded into the bone. Instead of findingSylar, they find a man with radioactivepowers. Matt ignores Janice's calls to his cell phone throughout theday, despite Audrey's suggestion he should listen to her. In the briefbut intense stand off, Matt manages to diffuse the situation by usinghis telepathy to allow the man to speak with his comatose wife.Afterward, Matt calls Janice and says he'll be coming home soon to talkwith her. At the end of the day, Matt is informed by his old partnerthat he was being given another chance to interview for a detectiveposition. After congratulating Matt, his friend immediately calls Matta "loser" in his mind and and gleefully thinks about how he is sleepingwith Matt's wife behind Matt's back. A shocked Matt punches his"friend" in the face but is restrained by the other officers beforewalking out of the locker room.

In "Seven Minutes to Midnight,"Matt receives a one month suspension without pay for punching hisformer partner for having an affair with Matt's wife. Unaware of hissuspension, Audrey Hanson asks Matt for assistance in interviewing Ted Sprague,the man from the previous episode who has the power to emit radiation.Matt talks with the man and discovers that, like himself, Ted wasabducted from a bar just after seeing the Haitian and woke up two dayslater with no memory of events. Ted says he experienced headaches andhas a strange mark on his neck just like Matt's. Unfortunately,Homeland Security takes Ted into custody before Matt can learn more,although Ted tells Matt to "find the Haitian". Audrey later notifiesMatt that Ted has escaped from custody, leaving behind a burning car.Matt's wife, Janice, admits to her affair with his former partner andasks Matt if their marriage is over. Matt says he doesn't know.

In "Fallout" Matt and Audrey investigate the crime scene at UnionWells High, where they suspect Sylar was intercepted by two otherpeople near the school. Matt and Audrey don't consider Peter a suspectin Jackie's death, but interrogate him anyway and learn that Sylar'starget was the cheerleader Claire.

Matt tells Audrey Hanson that he has never cheated on Janice. He isflattered when he hears her thinking that he is "cute." She orders himnot read her mind and tells him she believes he loves his wife. Mattacknowledges that this is true, but says he doesn't want to call herbecause he doesn't want to be a "chump." Audrey tells him he will onlybe a chump if he doesn't attempt to work out his problems with Janice.

Matt later attempts to read Claire Bennet's mind when she is beinginterviewed by Audrey at the police station about Jackie Wilcox'smurder. However, he is unable to hear anything except static, which herecognizes as having also happened to him before he was abducted fromthe bar. Suspicious, he and Audrey stake out Primatech Paper and Mattrecognizes The Haitianfrom the bar with Mr. Bennet. He attempts to overhear Mr. Bennet or TheHaitian's thoughts and is able to pick up just one word: "Sylar."

Powers and abilities

Matt possesses telepathy,though it seems to be one-sided and outside of his control. Often, hewill begin to hear thoughts that are not his own and be unable to blockthem out. As he told Audrey Hanson, he cannot activate it at will,though he has been receiving more thoughts more often as of late. It islikely activated by the clear thoughts of others; thus, the time andamount depends on the "sender(s)" rather than himself. Still, he wasable to pull the name "Claire" from the mind of Mr. Bennet, despitebeing blocked by his associate, which Mr. Bennet considered as evidencethat Matt's powers are growing. Currently, the biggest problem of thepower is his inability to turn it off, allowing for a whole room ofthoughts to bombard him. Also, as he stated in "Nothing to Hide,"he has been having troubling homing in on one person in a crowd. He isunable to send messages to others or use his abilities over anysignificant range. In general, he only seems able to hear thoughts fromthose in his immediate vicinity. In "Fallout" Matt's use of his powershas physical side effects. He suffers from headaches and his nosebleeds when he attempts to read the thoughts of The Haitian.

Nicole "Niki" Sanders is a fictional character portrayed by Ali Larter in the television series Heroes. She is the wife of D.L. Hawkins and mother of Micah Sanders. During times of need, Niki is endowed with superhuman strength when her alter ego, Jessica, takes control.

Character history

Niki grew up with an abusive, alcoholic father named Hal Sanders.Hal would often beat Niki and her sister, Jessica, during his drunk enrages. Eventually, Hal choked Jessica to death and left his remaining daughter. As an adult, Niki had no memory of her father's actions and simply believed he ran out on her. At some point in her life, Niki herself became an alcoholic and a problem gambler, but managed to overcome her problems. On her first anniversary of sobriety (April 24, 2006), Niki attended an Alcoholics Anonymousmeeting. There she was reunited with her father, Hal, who wanted to make amends for his mistakes. Niki introduced Hal to her husband, D.L.,and her son, Micah. Hal gave the boy a computer, but when he became angry at his grandson for taking the expensive gift apart, Niki demanded that he leave. After her father's departure, Niki's alternate personality surfaced and she went to confront him. Jessica told her father that she remembers everything he did to her, including his responsibility in "[her] death," even though Niki doesn't remember any of it. After assaulting him, she forced the check Hal gave Niki into his mouth and ordered him never to contact her again.^[3]

As of October 2006, Niki was living in Las Vegas, Nevada and struggling to raise her ten-year-old son, Micah. She had been working as an internee stripper to pay the bills. Her husband, small-time criminal D.L. Hawkins, was in jail, accused of stealing two million dollars from a sports booker and murdering his own gang. To help pay Micah's tuition at a very expensive school that Niki believed would encourage his gifts, Niki borrowed money from a Mr. Linderman,a reputed mobster who used to employ her husband. Not having enough money to continue paying tuition or repay the loan, she withdrew Micah from the school.^[4] The two went on the run,as they attempted to elude thugs and police that Linderman sent after her. As Niki attempted to deal with her predicament, she occasionally left Micah with her friend Tina.Niki ran an online porn site to pay off the debt, but eventually finished the payments to Linderman after she seduced and slept with congressional candidate Nathan Petrelli, producing blackmail material Linderman could use against Petrelli later.^[5]

During times of stress, Niki began seeing her reflection in mirrors and other reflective surfaces moving differently than herself, leading her to be concerned about her sanity. After Linderman sent two thugs to her house to collect the money she owed him, an altercation occurred,with Niki apparently blacking out after being hit by one of the thugs.When Niki recovered consciousness some time later, she was shocked to find the dead, bloody bodies of the two thugs.^[6]Niki would have other blackout spells over the following days, one time losing four hours, always with no recollection of what has transpired.Niki eventually realized that she possessed a split personality, the other being far more sinister and amoral than her usual self, and which had superhuman strength.

Niki was reunited with her husband D.L. for a time. He had escaped from jail to return home and clear his name, maintaining that he was framed. Later, Niki's alter-ego revealed that she was the one who stole the money, killed D.L.'s crew, and framed him, planning to use the money to give her son a better life and keep him out of D.L.'s influence. After a short but violent fight, when D.L. revealed the phasing powers that he had used to escape from jail, Niki was defeated and lay unmoving on the floor while D.L. took Micah away.^[7]

The next day, Niki recovered from her injuries and confided in her friend Tina about her dreams and her alternate personality. When she called Nathan for assistance, he simply pretended he did not know who she was. Jessica then resurfaced and told Tina that Niki would no longer need Tina's help. That night Jessica answered a telephone call from Micah. She persuaded Micah, who knows that she is not his mother,to tell her where he and D.L. were staying.Soon after that, Jessica purchased a sniper rifle, and went in search of D.L. and Micah. When she finally found them, she took aim at D.L.from a hidden location across the street and attempted to kill him.Her first shot hit D.L in the shoulder, but he phased through the one meant for his head and successfully escaped with Micah by the time she reached their car. After a short chase through the woods, during which Niki fought Jessica for dominance, Jessica attempted to kill D.L.again. She inadvertently threw Micah against some rocks when he tried to restrain her, which allowed Niki to regain control. Concerned that Jessica would eventually take over and put her family in danger, Niki turned herself in for murder.

Powers and abilities

Niki Sanders has a split personality-type power in the form of an alter-ego who identifies herself as Niki's late sister, Jessica. Jessica surfaces during times of great stress.^[10]When the Jessica personality surfaces, the transformation is instantaneous and almost unnoticeable; Niki becomes violent and strong-willed with seemingly no warning almost like She-Hulk.When she undergoes the drastic personality change, she gains superhuman strength, being able to pull out the door of a safe box with her own hands,^[11] throw her husband across their bedroom with a single hit, or tear men to pieces with her bare hands. She also gains a peculiar tattoo resembling an RNA helix on her right shoulder, a symbol which has appeared often throughout the Heroes series.

Jessica seems to have been aware that she is sharing Niki's body for longer than Niki, leaving notes, gifts, and instructions for Niki, and telling a thug not to "threaten our son". When Niki reasserts control of her body, she can't remember anything that has happened while the Jessica persona was dominant, feeling as if she had blacked out. Eventually, Niki became aware of Jessica with the aid of reflective surfaces such as mirrors and has begun communicating wither.