Emile Danko

Emile Danko
Portrayed by	Željko Ivanek
First appearance	Under the Bridge, Part 2
In-story stats
Known ability	None
Alias	Jakob Pradasa
Nickname	The Hunter
Gender
Date of death	Post-March 2007
Home	Washington, DC
Residences	Apartment in Washington, DC
Occupation	formerly Senior Agent of Homeland Security
Significant other	formerly Alena
Parent	Unnamed father

Emile Danko, also referred to as "the Hunter", was a former senior agent of the Department of Homeland Security, who served as the leader of a team of soldiers hunting evolved humans. He was originally doing this on behalf of his superior, Senator Nathan Petrelli, but since Nathan's ability has been exposed, Danko was left in full charge of the operation. He was framed by Sylar, who took on Danko's identity and killed some of his agents. After being given a compass by Joseph Sullivan, Danko was killed by Edgar, whom Samuel Sullivan had ordered to murder Danko and retrieve the compass before Danko could take him in.

Character History

Season Three

For an episode-by-episode summary, see Emile Danko: Season Three History.

Danko leads a team and manages to kill Donald Essex and capture Tracy Strauss and Mohinder Suresh. He returns to a flight hangar and watches as his prisoners are loaded onto Flight 195. Upon seeing Nathan Petrelli, Danko reveals that Claire Bennet was also caught. When Flight 195 goes down, Danko teams up with Noah Bennet to recapture the escapees. When one of his men go crazy, Danko is forced to kill him, which he later blames Claire for. Later, both Danko and Noah accompany Nathan to a meeting with Peter and Tracy. Danko becomes angry when Noah refuses to kill Peter and later, at Building 26, Danko begins to worry that Nathan is not leading properly. He releases Tracy, resulting in the death of an analyst and increased funding in their operation. Via telepathy, Matt Parkman learns that Danko sees evolved humans as nothing more than targets.

Danko shows no hesitation in firing at Peter.

Danko soon becomes increasingly frustrated with Nathan when he refuses to allow deadly force to be used. He also begins to suspect that like his mother and brother, Nathan might also possess an ability. He questions Tracy but finds no information and after Nathan fires him, Danko throws him out of a window and watches him fly away. Danko then takes command of Building 26 and allows Matt, Mohinder, Tracy and Daphne to escape in order to lure out Rebel. When Danko and his men close in on Tracy and Rebel, Danko manages to avoid being killed by Tracy's vicious "cold snap". He then teams up with Sylar to bring in a shape shifter named James Martin. After finding James, Danko allows Sylar to kill him and take his power. Soon after that, Matt uses his power to find Alena, the one woman that Danko truly loves. Danko reveals everything to Alena and, after she sees him try to kill Matt, she leaves him.

After learning that one of his finest agents, Rachel Mills, is an evolved human, Danko has her captured and interrogates her. He gives her the mission to kill Linda Niles and hangs the threat of Anna Korolenko's life over her. Danko then learns that Sylar is having problems with his latest ability and, when Sylar refuses to stay as Agent Taub, Danko tries to kill him. Danko fails and is locked up in Building 26, where he is forced to team up with Noah. However, Danko soon turns against Noah and is finally stopped by Hiro Nakamura.

Orientation

Danko is killed by Edgar.

When Tracy Strauss attempts to drown Noah Bennet in his car, Danko shoots in the window, saving him. He proposes that Bennet and he team up to kill Tracy before she kills them and reveals that despite his operation being shut down, he's still hunting evolved humans. Later at an abandoned Building 26, Bennet attempts to save Tracy, himself and Danko by removing Danko's memories of Tracy. The Haitian erases his memories, but later Tracy approaches him in his apartment. Finding him with no memory of her she decides not to kill him. Danko then finds Edgar in his apartment who demands that he give him something. When Danko refuses, telling Edgar that he would never get it, Edgar kills him.

Jump, Push, Fall

Tracy calls Noah over to Danko's apartment, and he finds her crouching over Danko's body. She explains she had decided not to kill Danko when he had no memory of her, but a man arrived and killed him before she left. Noah notices all the wounds are around the stomach, and reaches inside, pulling out a key. He tracks the key to a safety deposit box that contained a compass which Samuel sent Edgar to retrieve.

Shadowboxing

Samuel claimed that Danko was the one who killed his brother, although it was really him.

Thanksgiving

Samuel and Joseph go walking near the Carnival. Joseph explains to Samuel about his ability while Hiro and Lydia watch on. Joseph tells Samuel that he has given a compass to a man from the government and that he was coming to get him. Hearing this, Samuel kills Joseph. Later on, Samuel changes his story that it was not Danko that killed Joseph, but Edgar.

The Fifth Stage

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Graphic Novel:Bloodlines, Part 2

Lydia uses her empathy to discover that Arnold's son Mel has been captured and killed by Danko. Later, Joseph meets with Danko and tells him about the carnival. Interested, Danko agrees to Joseph's deal and is given a compass. Joseph tells him that he will need one of them to use it and tells him that he must only take Samuel.

Upon This Rock

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Let It Bleed

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Memorable Quotes

"How did you catch him?"

"I'm smarter than the average bear."

- Noah Bennet, Danko (Cold Snap)

Trivia

• According to Bryan Fuller, "There was some talk about making Danko gay," but "it was decided it was best to not have our first gay character be a villain." [1]
• After shape shifting into Danko, Sylar notes that Danko has a mole. (Turn and Face the Strange)
• Danko speaks six languages. (I Am Sylar)
• Danko's pocket watch has Russian writing on it, suggesting that Danko, or at least his father, was born in Soviet Russia.
• In the commentary for Turn and Face the Strange, Mark Verheiden said that he named Danko in Trust and Blood because it became increasingly frustrating to continue referring to the character as "The Hunter". He chose to name the character after Rick Danko a member of The Band. Mark also felt that the name was fitting because he felt Danko's character had a European feel.
• According to a sticky note on Danko's computer, his passcode is 4289721. (Shades of Gray)

See Also

• For a list of his victims, see Danko's victims.

Fan Theories

Please refer to Theory:Emile Danko for fan-created theories and other speculation.