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.

Portrayed By - Adrian Pasdar
First Appearance - Genesis
Superpowers - Flight; Flying
Gender - Male
Age - n/a
Occupation - U.S. Congressional Candidate
Spouse - Heidi Petrelli (wife)
Parents - Angela Petrelli (mother); Father (unnamed, deceased)
Children - Two Sons (unnamed)
Siblings - Peter Petrelli (younger brother)

Character history

Nathan was a lawyer working with the District Attorney's office. The District Attorney wanted to expose the Mafia connections of his father's client, Mister Linderman.As he was driving his wife home from a party in a convertible, anothervehicle repeatedly struck his car. Nathan inadvertently flew from hiscar after one of the strikes, causing the car to lose control and veeroff the freeway. The resulting crash caused a significant spinal injuryin his wife, Heidi, for which Nathan has blamed himself ever since.

Six months later, Nathan was running for Congress in a district of New York City. In the pilot episode, he was approached by his brother Peter,who told him that he'd been having strange dreams and believed he couldfly. Nathan claimed to be unconvinced. Their conversation wasinterrupted by the news that their recently widowed motherhas been arrested for shoplifting. Nathan, still primarily concernedwith his candidacy, cut his mother no slack and left her at the policestation with Peter. The following morning, Nathan watched from an alleyas Peter jumped off a building in an attempt to fly. As Peter fell,Nathan flew into the air and grabbed his hand. They descended for a fewseconds, but then the brothers lost their grip on one another.

The next day, Nathan was the first person Peter saw at his bedsidein the hospital. Nathan denied that he flew and tried to explain awaywhat happened as if it were simply a failed suicideattempt by Peter. Much later that night, Nathan was called to anotherrooftop, where Peter threatened to jump unless Nathan admitted that heflew. Nathan eventually admitted that he did fly. Both brothers soonlearned that Peter could fly as well, when he began to walk on thinair. Soon after that, Nathan was again approached by Peter withinformation about the power of flight and other superhuman abilities.Nathan was still more focused on his campaign and his family. Thatevening, Nathan held a press conference where he broached the subjectof depression. He revealed that his father suffered from it, and thatit was the cause of his death. Nathan then claimed that Peter's attemptto fly was actually a suicide attempt, to satisfy the press.Peter stormed out of the press conference, later cursing Nathan out andassaulting him, but went along with the story in public.

On his way to Las Vegas to meet with Mr. Linderman, Nathan was "harassed" by Mohinder Suresh,who attempted to warn him that his life may be in danger. Nathanmistook Mohinder for his father, Chandra, assumed that Peter sent him,and ignored the man. In Las Vegas, Nathan encountered Jessica Sanders, and the two shared an instant attraction, ultimately resulting in them sleeping together. Afterward, Mr. Bennet monitored them and had the Haitian kidnap Nathan.

A shirtless Nathan escaped when Bennet is distracted. Flying away, Nathan broke the sound barrier in the process. Nathan landed on his feet outside a dinerin the desert outside Las Vegas, though it was not a smooth landing.After entering and getting a shirt from the lady at the counter, Nathanmet Hiro Nakamura.Hiro said he saw Nathan fly and told the candidate that he has powers,too. Nathan was skeptical, but humored Hiro, who said he could teleportand manipulate time. Nathan asked about the upcoming election; Hirosaid he won by a landslide. Hiro promised to keep Nathan's secret and,when Nathan's ride arrived at the diner, Nathan agreed to give Hiro aride back to the city. After dropping Hiro off, Nathan went back tomeet with Linderman, only to run into Niki on the way. Niki tells himshe was supposed to sleep with him by the order of Mr. Linderman. Shesaid they blackmailed her and will do the same to him, using arecording of the incident. When Nathan met with Linderman's associateagain, he worked out a deal with her: Though their original deal wasfor two million dollars, Nathan became more certain than ever of hisvictory and negotiated for four million, saying, "for two million, yougot a congressional candidate in your pocket; for four, you'll get a congressman."

After Nathan returned to New York, he and his family had brunch witha newspaper reporter. During the brunch, the reporter questioned Nathanabout his connections to the reputed mobster Linderman, and Nathan'smeeting with a blonde woman in Vegas. Peter covered for Nathan, tellingthe reporter that Nathan was arranging a private clinic to treat himfor his mental health issues. That night, Nathan later lied to hiswife, Heidi, by assuring her that he really was arranging for Peter'streatment, and that the woman he met with was a doctor. Nathan latertold Peter that he cheated because of the guilt he felt about Heidi'sconfinement every day he looks at her. Before leaving, he also toldPeter about the failed kidnapping attempt, and warned his brother to becareful, saying that people would want to lock them up if they realizedthe two brothers had powers.

At home, Nathan inquired about a painting by Isaac Mendez which Linderman had purchased and Peter wanted back. Linderman sent it "straight to [Simone's] gallery".When the painting arrived, Nathan viewed it with Simone. The imagedepicted a man resembling Peter, dead under a homecoming banner and aclock. After seeing it, Nathan destroyed it, telling Simone that he wasprotecting Peter from getting himself killed. Nathan later appears tobail Peter out in "Fallout".

Military service

Nathan fought for the United States during the mid-1990s conflict in Bosnia, making him a war veteran.^[1] A picture of a naval officer can be seen on his desk in "Nothing to Hide".

Powers and abilities

Nathan possesses the power of self-propelled flight. He firstdiscovered his power when he inadvertently used it to save himself fromthe same car crash which left his wife wheelchair-bound.Though he has not used the power much in the series, he did use it tosave a woman from a burning building in an official webcomic. In "Hiros", he also broke the sound barrierusing his power. Despite a rough landing afterward, this may be a signthat he is beginning to hone his ability, or that his power isincreasing on its own. Currently, Nathan is very reluctant to use hisability, saying that he is afraid of both being seen as freak and takenin for scientific study.

Trivia

• Actor Adrian Pasdar said in an October 31, 2006conference call with journalists, that he would like his character'spolitical career in the series to eventually allow Nathan to becomePresident of the United States.