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 |
| Nicknames | Jerry, Troll |
| Gender | |
| Age | 39 |
| Date of birth | September 14, 1968 |
| Place of birth | Omaha, NE |
| Home | Milpitas, CA, Costa Verde, CA (formerly) |
| Residence | Eric Doyle's apartment |
| Occupations | Owner of Doyle's Marionette Theatre, Office worker at Copy Kingdom Headquarters |
| Parents | Unnamed father (deceased), unnamed mother (deceased) |
| Other relatives | Ned (uncle, deceased) |
Eric Doyle is an escaped prisoner from Level 5 who was hunted down by Building 26 and detained there. After escaping Building 26 with the help of Rachel Mills and Rebel, he is now living under the alias "Jason Tyminski," given to him by Rebel. He has the ability to control a person's physical actions.
Character History
Season Three
For an episode-by-episode summary, see Eric Doyle: Season Three History.
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.
In chapter 10 of The Agent, Eric is sedated with a tube in his nose at Building 26 when Rachel teleports into the room and removes it, waking him up and a man and woman next to him. Then, alarms go off and he sees two armed agents charge into the room firing. He sees some of the bullets hit the man next to him that Rachel woke up, and turn to sand. Eric ducks behind him as the agents continue shooting, and watches as the man and Rachel take out the two agents. He asks Rachel what is happening when Rachel grabs his arm. Eric is then teleported with Rachel through the building and up to the roof, and learns the other man's name is Gordon along the way. Two agents are waiting for them in an airborne helicopter when they get there, and Eric gets pushed behind Gordon by Rachel before the agents open fire with machine guns. Rachel then teleports up to the helicopter, shoves the agents that are firing out the door, and gets the pilot to pick both Eric and Gordon and fly them out of there.
The helicopter touches down in a dew-covered field at sunrise, and Eric and Rachel go for a walk together while Gordon prays. Eric comments that he guesses Rachel isn't going to be undercover at Building 26 anymore, then sees Rachel checking her phone again and asks if there is still no word from her friend. When Rachel then gets a new text from Rebel, Eric comments that Rebel always comes through.
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.

Memorable Quotes
"Meredith is mine. Mine to love. Mine to kill."
"You really think you... can control me?"
Notes
- Eric owned 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). In reality, Jason Tyminski is Oliver Grigsby's brother-in-law.
- 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 Eric, see Eric (disambig).
- 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.
