Tommy Clark
Tommy Clark (born Nathan Bennet) is a character in Heroes Reborn. Tommy is portrayed by Robbie Kay. Tommy and Luke Collins are the only characters to appear in all thirteen episodes.
Tommy Clark | |
---|---|
Heroes Reborn character | |
First appearance | "Brave New World" |
Last appearance | "Project Reborn" |
Portrayed by | Robbie Kay |
In-universe information | |
Occupation | Student |
Family | Claire Bennet (mother) Malina (sister) Anne Clark (adoptive mother) Hiro Nakamura (adoptive father) |
Relatives | Angela Petrelli (great-grandmother) Noah Bennet (adoptive grandfather) Nathan Petrelli (maternal grandfather) |
Ability | Empathic power absorption |
Character history
Tommy is first seen attending a support group for evos as he was seeking advice on how to control his abilities. Tommy fails at getting advice. Tommy leaves the support group after getting a text from his mother saying she was home. Tommy later heard about everyone in the support group being murdered. The next day at school, Tommy is punched by Brad, a high school bully when he catches him staring at his girlfriend, Emily. Emily takes pity on Tommy and offers him a job at Moe's Ice Cream Parlor. Tommy accepts, and the two quickly become friends. While there, Tommy notices Luke Collins sitting at a table and recognizes him as a survivor of the church fire the previous night. Tommy approaches Luke and asks him what happened. They are immediately joined by Joanne, who shows Tommy her gun and tells him to step outside. Sensing that something is wrong, Emily follows them and calls out for Tommy. Joanne decides to kill them both, but before she can, Tommy teleports her gun away, then her and her husband. Knowing that Emily now knows he is an evo, Tommy runs away. Emily follows him in her car and tells him that his secret is safe with her.
Tommy and Emily sit in a gardening shed outside their school and discuss the workings of his ability. Tommy demonstrates it by teleporting away a flower in Emily's hand, but is seen by Brad. When Emily leaves, Brad confronts Tommy and tells him that he'll have to do something for him if he wants to keep his power a secret. Tommy agrees, so Brad takes him to his house to ask him to make his abusive step father disappear. A man watches Tommy flee from inside his car and determines that something is wrong. The man walks up to Brad's house, gains the attention of Brad’s step father, and then begins to remove his memories. When Brad gets back, he sees that his step father is missing and assumes that it was Tommy's doing. Eternally grateful to Tommy, Brad befriends him and leaves. Later that evening, Emily discovers the flower that Tommy made vanish inside a bucket of ice cream. She deduces that the things Tommy makes disappear go to wherever he is thinking of. She tells him this, and he agrees.
When Anne, Tommy’s adoptive mother is injured in a car accident, Tommy offers his blood but isn’t a match and is then told that he has been reported due to being an evo.
Powers and abilities
At first, Tommy's ability appears to be simple teleportation that he can't control. By touching an object, Tommy can make it disappear but has no idea where it goes. He eventually learns that it goes wherever he's thinking of in his mind and learns to control his ability. By touching his hand to his chest when using his ability, Tommy becomes able to teleport himself and others he's touching. At one point, he indicates his ability is strong enough to teleport the Eiffel Tower if he so wishes.
It is eventually revealed that Tommy's actual ability is a form power absorption with similarities to Arthur Petrelli's power and Peter Petrelli's second power. In Tommy's case, he absorbs the power of an evo he touches, permanently stripping them of their ability, but he loses access to that ability when he takes the power of another evo. The only evo who does not permanently lose their ability when he takes it on is his twin sister Malina. Tommy has taken both regeneration from Claire Bennet and space-time manipulation from Hiro Nakamura.
After the discovery that his active ability is in fact Hiro's and not teleportation as Tommy previously believed, his use of the power expands. Tommy gains the ability to stop time and time travel like Hiro could. He can also selectively unfreeze others as seen in "Company Woman" and can send others through time without him with just a touch, similar to how he originally used the teleportation aspect of the ability. After being trapped in Evernow, Tommy learned how to be in two places at once, effectively splitting himself into two distinct Tommy's that remain connected but can act separately in different time periods. Both retain all the abilities of the original Tommy. Tommy's absorbed version of Hiro's ability has a different visual effect with Tommy and anyone he uses it on traveling through a vortex-like effect rather than simply disappearing into thin air as Hiro had. Tommy's version is also stated to be stronger with Anne Clark telling Tommy in "Company Woman" that Hiro told her that Tommy can do "far more" than Hiro ever could.
By holding hands with his sister Malina, Tommy can take on her ability of elemental manipulation. Unlike with the other powers Tommy absorbs, this is not permanent and after he lets go of her hand, Tommy resumes his previous ability. However, without a conduit to channel their combined power through, Tommy and Malina are unable to safely use this power and it will ultimately be fatal to them. With a willing conduit, together they can create a magnetic shield around the Earth powerful enough to deflect a massive solar flare. However, acting as the conduit for Tommy and Malina's combined powers is inevitably fatal to the conduit.
Tommy's current absorbed ability is Hiro Nakamura's space-time manipulation as of "Project Reborn."
Ability | Source | Episode(s) absorbed | Episode(s) discarded |
---|---|---|---|
Rapid cellular regeneration | Claire Bennet | June 13, Part One | June 13, Part Two |
Space-time manipulation | Hiro Nakamura | June 13, Part Two | Project Reborn |
Elemental manipulation | Malina Bennet | Project Reborn | Project Reborn |
Space-time manipulation | Hiro Nakamura | Project Reborn | Project Reborn |
Reception
When describing the new characters for Heroes reborn Tommy was described as “gawky teen” [1]
Tommy has also been described as “an awkward evo teen with a mysterious past”.[2]
References
- "NBC bets big debuting newbies against solid hits". Arkansas Online. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
- "Heroes Reborn cast Robbie Kay returns to 'Once Upon A Time'". Youth Health Magazine. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
External links
- Tommy Clark on IMDb