Eric Doyle

Eric Doyle
Portrayed by	David H. Lawrence XVII
First appearance	The Butterfly Effect
In-story stats
Known ability	Puppet master
Alias	The Puppet Man Jason Tyminski
Gender
Age	39
Date of birth	September 14, 1968
Place of birth	Omaha, NE
Residence	Eric Doyle's apartment
Occupation	Owner of Doyle's Marionette Theatre
Parents	Unnamed father (deceased), unnamed mother (deceased)
Other relatives	Ned (uncle, deceased)

Eric Doyle is an escaped prisoner from Level 5. He has the ability to control a person's physical actions.

Character History

The Butterfly Effect

Elle accidentally knocks out the Level 5 power grid with an electrical outburst, inadvertently giving the Primatech Research prisoners the chance to escape. While Knox, the German, Jesse, and the others escape, Eric is running after them.

Angels and Monsters

Meredith looks through some of Noah's files with Sandra Bennet and becomes worried when she finds Eric's file. She notes that Eric doesn't live too far, and since Claire has lied about where she went, said she'd check there first. Sandra tries to follow her, but Meredith stops her, as it's too dangerous. Later, Meredith is sitting at dinner with Eric, moving exactly as he does, thanks to his ability to control another's actions. He tells her to eat, then demands a kiss. Meredith tries aggressively to tell him off, but he shuts her mouth by snapping his fingers closed, and they kiss. They sit back down, and Eric seems very pleased with himself.

Graphic Novel:Doyle

Eric is thrown into a cell on Level 5. Noah Bennet enters and describes three "suicides"--Marcus Wilde, Stephen Taylor, and Tristan Rivers--caused by Doyle. Eric demands a lawyer, but Bennet tells him he's not the police. Two years later, an agent named Michael chats with Eric while bringing his meal. They discuss the differences between "us" and "them", and Michael speculates that Bennet let Sylar kill Eden. When Elle's electrical outburst knocks out the power, Eric's cell opens. Michael tries to stop the escaping prisoner, but Eric uses his power to force Michael to kill himself with his own lasers.

Dying of the Light

While they eat, Meredith tells Eric that she will never love him. Eric uses his ability to make Meredith break a wine glass and place the sharp edges against her throat. Later, he makes her dance with him on the stage of his marionette theater.

Sandra Bennet calls him to his front desk to arrange a fictitious birthday party, hoping to distract him while Claire sneaks into the theater through the back door. When Claire accidentally knocks something over while opening the door, Eric captures both her and Sandra and sits them down at a table with Meredith. He makes his three prisoners play a variation of Russian roulette in which the gun will be spun to decide who will fire it at whom. Meredith begs Eric to release them, promising to love him. However, Eric does not believe her and continues the game. First, Eric makes Claire spin the gun. When the barrel points between her two mothers, Eric tells her to choose which to fire at. When she refuses, he toys with her by making her aim at each one after the other. When she fights to not pull the trigger, he uses his ability to pull it for her, firing the gun at Meredith. The hammer lands on an empty chamber. Next, he makes Sandra spin the gun. It ends up pointing at Claire. Without Eric's control, Sandra pulls the trigger repeatedly until the gun fires the bullet, hitting Claire. When Claire is shot, Eric releases her from his control. He is then knocked out by her.

Noah is called to inject him using a pneumatic syringe, keeping him under control.

The Eclipse, Part 1

As Claire Bennet enters Level 5, Eric stands up in his cell, grinning at her.

Dual

Noah releases the remaining Level 5 prisoners, and tells Doyle, Danny Pine, and Echo DeMille that the first of them to kill Sylar will be guaranteed his freedom. Doyle asks what happens if they try to escape, but Noah warns that Sylar has sealed the building. As Doyle leaves on his own, he blows Meredith a kiss.

Later, as Sylar attempts to assault Meredith, Doyle appears and stops Sylar in his tracks with his ability. He claims Meredith as his own, but Sylar only asks him if he really thinks he can control him. Sylar concentrates on Doyle for a moment. Doyle's nose starts to bleed, then he falls onto the ground with his eyes twitching in his head. He is apparently left for dead as Primatech burns to the ground.

Exposed

Claire goes down to her kitchen to serve some popcorn. When she realizes that the microwave is empty, she turns around and is shocked to see Doyle snacking on the popcorn. He tells her that Rebel sent him a message saying that Claire would help him.

Shades of Gray

Within the Bennets' kitchen, Doyle explains his predicament to a very shocked Claire. Sandra, while enraged at Doyle's break-and-enter, listens to him. He explains that he had been tracked down and left for dead in his theatre as it burnt to the ground and had no one else to turn to. He discovers about Claire's "free pass," and is distraught that she refuses to help her own kind. Initially, Claire refuses to help him, causing Doyle to snap and use his ability to force Claire and Sandra to listen to him. However, he soon breaks into tears and releases his hold on them, claiming that he does not want to be like that anymore. He then leaves the house.

Later, Claire receives a text from Rebel, asking her to help save Doyle from agents who were chasing him. Doyle is chased up a staircase by Rachel, who threatens to shoot him. Doyle, in an almost crazed mood, forces Rachel to turn the gun on herself, claiming he has a "certain effect on women." After once again realizing that he wants to change, however, he simply knocks Rachel out. When Jason points his tazer at Doyle, Claire knocks him out, saving the puppet master.

That night, Claire and Doyle meet at a park, where Claire gives him a file containing information on his new life. When asked if he really has changed, Doyle simply smirks at Claire and walks away.

Graphic Novel:Puppet with No Strings

Eric Doyle is held captive and being interrogated in his theatre by Emile Danko, Rachel Mills, and Jason. Doyle tells them that once Primatech was burned to the ground, he went back to using his powers to get whatever he wanted. However, knowing that everyone around him saw him as a monster, this did not satisfy him. He says that when Rebel contacted him he decided to go back to his marionette theatre. Nathan's team found him there, though, tied him to a chair, and burnt down his theatre. Walking out of the burning building, Rachel receives a text message from Rebel telling her to save Eric, and she teleports into the building without Jason and Danko noticing. Rachel frees Doyle and hands him her cell phone, saying that Rebel wanted him to have it. Escaping from the building, Doyle receives a text message from Rebel telling him that Claire Bennet will save him.

Episode:Cold Snap

As Danko walks into his living room he finds Doyle tied to the ceiling as a gift from his ally Sylar. He is later seen being held in Building 26, sedated and strapped to a bed with numerous other evolved humans.

Heroes Evolutions

primatechpaper.com has an Assignment Tracker 2.0 profile for Eric (file: C019; password: EDwvar70p). His personal history reads:

Eric Doyle was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He was orphaned at five when his parents died in an auto accident and was raised by his uncle, Ned, in San Diego, California. Eric shunned his new home and the Southern California lifestyle in favor of an elaborate imaginary world revolving around a set of crude finger puppets that his birth mother had made for him. Ned, an avid outdoorsman, clashed frequently with his nephew over Eric's desire to "play with dolls."

One day, during one of Ned's frequent attempts to force Eric to enjoy the beach, Ned gave his nephew's ragged finger puppets to his dogs as chew toys. Watching the last keepsakes of his childhood destroyed sent Eric into rage, causing his power to manifest for the first time: Eric forced his uncle to swim away from shore and drown in the Pacific.

Afterward, Eric experimented eagerly with his power while waiting to be arrested for Ned's murder. But the police investigation concluded that Ned had been caught in a riptide while beachcombing. The escape emboldened Eric in the months ahead. Left with his uncle's house and assets, Eric opened a moderately successful marionette theater, entertaining children with intricate shows but clashing constantly with parents and business relations. Behind the theater operations, Eric carried out an increasingly more brutal pastime: the kidnapping and torture of those whom he felt had slighted him.

Eric Doyle met Claire Bennet's birth mother, Meredith Gordon, at an antique flea market, where Meredith was admiring a rare 19th century marionette. In Company interviews, Eric claims he fell in love at first sight and felt that he and Meredith were meant to be together. But despite Meredith's initial politeness and Eric's increasingly desperate attempts -- including abduction and manipulation -- he was unable to make her love him, to his deep frustration. The Company made its initial bag and tag of Eric at this point, and Meredith survived.

The case file also includes a psychological profile:

The subject's traumatic loss of his parents at a formative age, accompanied by the abrupt transition to an unsympathetic environment and caregiver, resulted in persistent feelings of anger and frustration toward society. Psychological interviews reveal classic anti-social tendencies and an aversion to casual human interaction. In substitution, the subject projects a highly developed fantasy instinct onto his perceptions of the world, and any cognitive dissonance encountered as a result is channeled into his repressed frustrations and sense of rejection. Because of this acute disruption in emotional development, the subject possesses many of the psychological characteristics of a pre-pubescent child.

The subject's ability has become the primary outlet for his childhood feelings of loss and powerlessness, leading to a chronic psychological dependency. The subject has also developed a number of accompanying defense mechanisms, such as a radical perception of justice and vengeance that validates virtually any action against any given victim.

The Agent

In chapter 4 of The Agent, Rachel Mills receives text messages from Rebel on her mission laptop asking her to help Eric Doyle and warning her that he could tell her secret. The messages also include what appears to be garbled text, but is later transformed into an ASCII photo of Eric Doyle using instructions from Rebel.

In chapter 5 of The Agent, Eric Doyle is cutting though an alleyway in Costa Verde, trying to escape capture from Danko's team. He sees an agent spot him from the back entrance of the alleyway, but he refuses to stop and continues running. He turns into another alley, but it is too long and the agent catches up with him. He then turns around, but the sun is shining towards the agent's back so he doesn't recognize that the agent is Rachel Mills. He forces Rachel to become still, then point her gun at her head. He then says something to Rachel and has her slam her head into a brick wall on the side of the alley.

Evolved Human Abilities

Eric has the ability to control the physical actions of other people, essentially making them move like puppets under his control.

According to his assignment tracker file at primatechpaper.com, Eric's control index is 80%. His data analysis shows his biological level at 35, cerebral at 75, elemental at 20, and temporal/spatial at 25.

Cranial imaging

Memorable Quotes

"Meredith is mine. Mine to love. Mine to kill."

"You really think you... can control me?"

- Eric Doyle, Sylar (Dual)

Notes

• Eric owns Doyle's Marionette Theatre.
• According to the casting call for Eric Doyle, the character is between the ages of 30 and 48, and is described as "[h]ideous, horrible and big. A disgusting, villainous man who delights in controlling others."

Trivia

• According to his assignment tracker profile, Eric is 5'6" and weighs 250 pounds.
• Claire gives Doyle a fake driver license with the name "Jason Tyminski" (Shades of Gray). Jason Tyminski is a real-life friend of Oliver Grigsby.
• According to the doctored documents Claire gives to Doyle, Jason Tyminski lives at 42 Carmichael Way in Milpitas, CA. The license lists him as 5' 9" and 230 pounds, born on December 12, 1968. His Social Security number is 998-8B-2646. (Of course in reality, Social Security numbers never contain letters.)

See Also

• For other uses of Doyle, see Doyle (disambig).
• For a list of his victims, see Doyle's victims.

Fan Theories

Please refer to Theory:Eric Doyle for fan-created theories and other speculation.