Stephen Canfield
| Stephen Canfield | |
|---|---|
| |
| Portrayed by | Andre Royo |
| First appearance | Angels and Monsters |
| In-story stats | |
| Known ability | Gravitational manipulation |
| Gender | |
| Place of birth | New York, NY |
| Date of death | 2007 |
| Home | Los Feliz, CA |
| Residence | Empty home in L.A. |
| Occupation | former used car dealer |
| Significant other | formerly Elizabeth (wife) |
| Children | Three children, |
Stephen Canfield was an escaped evolved human from Level 5.
Character History
Angels and Monsters
Sandra looks through Noah's files and finds a reference to Stephen and his ability to "create vortexes that make people disappear forever." Stephen has a wife, Elizabeth, and several children. He goes to his former home to try to locate his wife, but she has moved out and the place stands empty. He loses his temper and creates a vortex, but quickly shuts it down. Claire gets his attention just before tasering him. He wakes up from her attack and, after explaining that he's not a monster, calls his wife with Claire's assistance. When he and his wife agree to meet at a carousel in the park, Stephen is interrupted by Noah and Sylar, who attempt to recapture Stephen to bring him back to Level 5. Stephen creates a large vortex and runs, leaving Noah, Sylar, and Claire to save themselves.
Later, Claire finds Stephen at the carousel alone; his wife never showed up. Noah shows up and tries to force Stephen to create a vortex and destroy Sylar in exchange for his own freedom. Stephen refuses and, with nothing left to live for, creates a vortex and throws himself in it.
Heroes Evolutions
primatechpaper.com has an Assignment Tracker profile for Stephen (file: C006; password: SCwem43ib). His personal history reads:
Stephen Canfield's childhood experiences as the only African-American student in a predominantly white, upper-class Manhattan private school helped establish a pattern of delinquency and defensiveness that set him at odds with his father, a former hard-driving assistant district attorney in New York City during the racially charged 1950s and '60s. Stephen always insisted that he had been unfairly punished or wrongly accused for his actions but found little traction with school authorities or his parents, who compared Stephen to his successful sister.
After graduating from a military boarding school, Stephen moved to Los Angeles, where his sister was now an administrator in the Los Angeles County school system. Stephen began dating his future wife, Elizabeth. Their relationship was rocky due to Stephen's sensitivity and temper, but when Elizabeth became pregnant, they married. Stephen found work at a used car dealership and stabilized in his new life. The couple had two additional children.
However, Stephen's defensiveness at work led to friction with his co-workers and community. After losing his temper with a customer, Stephen was fired. Unable to find new work, Stephen's frustration grew, turning occasionally on his family. Their growing distance intensified his emotional distress. One day, Stephen was confronted by his neighbor about a broken lawnmower. During the course of the argument, Stephen manifested his ability to create a gravitational vacuum. His neighbor was never seen again. The resulting police investigation alerted the Company, and Agent Noah Bennet was tasked with extracting Stephen from police custody.
Despite two years of aggressive testing, the nature of Stephen's vortices remains a mystery. A recent shift in experimentation strategy to focus more on Stephen's control bio-mechanisms was interrupted by Stephen's escape from Level 5 and apparent self-absorption during a recovery attempt by Agents Bennet and Grey [sic]. Stephen's exact disposition remains unknown but he is presumed dead.
The case file also includes a psychological profile:
The subject's defining psychological characteristic is his pathological defensiveness, bordering on schizophrenic paranoia, as evidenced by his capacity for breaking with his deeply rooted social norms such as lack of violence. The subject also displays the classic anchoring tendencies of a pathological personality, personified in this instance by his wife and children.
The subject's separation from his emotional anchors initially led to a severe decline in psychological health, but a counseling regime encouraging hope of an eventual reunion with his family was successful in achieving re-stabilization. This strategy also made the subject's movements easy to predict after the subject escaped from his testing confinement. However, the subject quickly deteriorated when confronted with the truth regarding his family's rejection, resulting in an apparently successful suicide attempt.
Evolved Human Abilities
Stephen Canfield had the ability to create vortices.
According to his assignment tracker file at primatechpaper.com, Stephen's control index is 60%. His data analysis shows his biological level at 25, cerebral at 35, elemental at 55, and temporal/spatial at 90.
Fan Theories
Please refer to Theory:Stephen Canfield for fan-created theories and other speculation.