Richard Tyler (The 4400)
| Richard Tyler | |
|---|---|
| The 4400 character | |
 Mahershalalhashbaz Ali as Richard Tyler | |
| First appearance | "Pilot" |
| Last appearance | "One of Us" |
| Portrayed by | Mahershalalhashbaz Ali |
| Information | |
| Occupation | 4400 Center |
| Spouse(s) | Lily Tyler (widower) |
| Children | Isabelle Tyler (daughter) |
| Abilities | Telekinesis |
Richard Tyler is a fictional character in the USA Network science fiction television series The 4400.
Character
One of the first 4400s to be shown, Richard is Lily Tyler's husband, and is the father of her second daughter, Isabelle Tyler.
Background
Born in 1922 in St. Louis, Missouri, and disappeared on May 11, 1951, Richard joined the U.S. Air Force and piloted their fighter jets in the Korean War. When his fellow officers and "friends" discovered he was having an affair with a white woman, Lily Bonham, they beat him. When they left Richard alone, he was abducted. This happened on May 11, 1951. [1] While he was in the future, Richard's DNA was extracted and put into another abducted person, Lily Moore, Lily Bonham's granddaughter.
Season 1
After his return Richard meets a woman named Lily Moore in quarantine. He is struck by her resemblance to Lily Bonham, and it quickly becomes apparent that this Lily is the granddaughter of his lost love. The two strike up a close friendship that turns to romance after Lily finds that her own husband has remarried following her abduction. When Lily finds she is pregnant, the two look for a place to live together and raise the baby.
After the 4400s are vilified and attacked, in part due to Barbara Yate's scare-mongering, Richard and Lily move into Jordan Collier's estate for the 4400. Richard works as a security officer, and helps prevent further attacks. However, it becomes clear that Collier has other plans for Lily; he keeps the information that Lily's unborn daughter has a black father, and shows Lily an article from 1945 falsely claiming Richard was responsible for the rape of a white woman.
Realizing that Collier wants to destroy them as a couple they prepare to leave. He attempts to stop them, claiming that the baby is the keystone to the future and that he could raise her far better than Richard could. The unborn baby inflicts severe damage on Collier, and Richard and Lily flee to an abandoned log cabin, where they are happy for several months. At the close of the season Lily enters labour.
Season 2
Having gone into hiding from Collier, Richard, Lily and Isabelle have also missed several NTAC check-ups and are labelled as fugitives. It is during their time on the run that Isabelle exhibits paranormal abilities, resulting in several deaths that cause Richard to fear his own daughter. Lily and Richard's relationship is put under severe strain by their fugitive status- when Isabelle enables Lily to steal money, Richard is horrified by the immoral act.
Richard is finally taken into custody, and Jordan Collier uses his wealth to meet with Richard before NTAC is notified. He offers Richard's family sanctuary in the new 4400 Center, even suggesting that he meet with baby Isabelle again to prove himself. Isabelle accepts Collier and heals him of the damage she had previously inflicted on him. The family move to the center, where Collier uses his lawyers to persuade NTAC to leave them alone.
When Collier is assassinated Shawn Farrell takes over the center. After Shawn, along with other 4400s, falls seriously ill, Richard becomes the public face of the 4400; he advises healthy 4400s not to go into quarantine, as he believes the government will use the excuse to detain them indefinitely. In response Dennis Ryland begins detaining the 4400, and Richard and his allies move into one of Collier's many safehouses. The promicin inhibitor scandal is eventually exposed, proving Richard's suspicions of the government's motives were well-founded. After the crisis is resolved, Shawn retakes his place as the center's leader.
However, the removal of the promicin inhibitor has a marked affect; all the 4400 begin to develop abilities, and Richard is stunned to discover he has telekinesis.
Season 3
Richard is horrified to discover his wife aged by fifty years, and Isabelle a woman of roughly twenty. When Dr Burkhoff believes that the only way to save Lily's life would be for Isabelle to die, Richard cannot and will not choose between the two. He stays loyal to his wife until the very end, taking her back to the log cabin they hid out in during her pregnancy, where she dies peacefully. After taking Lily's ashes to the resting place of her grandmother Lily Bonham, Richard returns to the center and is appalled to find Isabelle eager to begin a sexual relationship with Shawn. He warns Shawn that despite appearances, Isabelle is still immature, but unbeknownst to him Isabelle initiates a relationship anyway.
When Shawn admits to initially funding the Nova Group, Richard is furious that money from his late wife's healing foundation was diverted. He is convinced by Matthew Ross to enter into a joint partnership with Shawn to run the 4400 Center.[2] Richard is further disgusted when he learns of Isabelle and Shawn's relationship; but Isabelle refuses to end it, becoming more and more angry at her father for his interference. In a fit of rage she attacks Richard using her abilities, almost causing him to have a heart attack, but at the last moment ceases and realizes what she has done.
It is around this time that Richard begins to control his ability of telekinesis, with the help of Heather Tobey.
Richard is later contacted by Nova himself; if he does not assist them, Shawn will be attacked as an enemy. Neither Richard nor Shawn are prepared to deal with the terrorist group; Daniel Armand afflicts Shawn with paranoid schizophrenia, causing Isabelle to murder Matthew Ross and then hunt down and kill the Nova Group one by one. Richard finds Isabelle, as does NTAC, and Richard manages to persuade Isabelle to come quietly. She is later released due to lack of evidence tying her to the deaths, and Richard warns her that they will need to talk soon.
Refusing to listen to Shawn's demand that the relationship end, Isabelle plans their wedding. Shawn agrees to prevent the volatile Isabelle from committing further violence, and Richard reluctantly prepares to give his daughter away in marriage. Shawn receives a vision of the future, where the catastrophe tears apart the USA. The future Richard is revealed to have been responsible for a pre-emptive strike (presumably against the US government), initiating the catastrophe. In his vision, Shawn then uses his ability to kill Richard. Shaken, he informs Richard of the vision, and the two pledge to prevent the future from occurring. Unknown to Richard, Shawn continues to receive the vision, the future seemingly unchanged.
After Jordan Collier's return, Isabelle is cast out and openly allies herself with Dennis Ryland. Richard initially allies himself with Collier- even supporting Collier's reformation of the Nova Group, under their guidance- but when the promicin they later steal is revealed to have a fifty-fifty chance of killing whoever takes it, Richard cannot continue. He begins to destroy the promicin by telekinesis but is restrained by Tess Doerner. When Isabelle then tears through the 4400 Center, Richard manages to inject her with the serum given to Tom Baldwin. Rendered helpless, his daughter is taken into custody.
Richard, after seeing the disgraced 4400 Center seized by the government, walks away.
Season 4
Richard returns in Daddy's Little Girl. A fugitive after NTAC arrested Isabelle and Jordan Collier went into hiding, for six months Richard has been in hiding using a network of sympathetic 4400s. Richard goes to Promise City with help from his friends inside, and is reunited with Isabelle. Jordan Collier is overjoyed to see him, and hopes that Richard will join the movement. Richard has ulterior motives, however, and uses his telekinesis to kidnap Isabelle. Breaking out of Promise City, he takes Isabelle to an isolated farmhouse in an effort to "start over".
It transpires that after Richard heard that Isabelle now lived in Promise City, he sought the help of a fellow 4400 called Cora; her ability is to rejuvenate people, making them younger. She imbues a container of water with her ability, which the unsuspecting Isabelle begins to drink on the way to the farmhouse.
It begins to rapidly regress her to a younger and younger age. Distressed at the change, Isabelle demands that her life be her own; Richard says this is the only way for them to erase the pain of the recent years, and begin again. Eventually Kyle, Tom and NTAC find them and attempt to stop him, but Richard easily incapacitates everyone and flees with Isabelle. Later, Richard confesses to the eight-year-old Isabelle that she must have changed for Kyle to be so loyal to her. He lets her choose whether to complete the change, or find a way for Kara to undo the age regression. After much thought, Isabelle drinks the water and the next morning is revealed to have regressed to her "true" age, 3 years old. She calls him 'daddy' and Richard embraces his daughter.
Shortly afterwards, Richard sees Lily once again. Appearing to be a young woman again, Lily has no memory of hers' and Isabelle's rapid aging. Despite fearing she is not real, Richard is happy to live with her again, together with baby Isabelle.
Over the course of a few days, guilt finally overwhelms Richard and he confesses to Lily what he has done. She persuades him that his actions were wrong, which he says he knew deep down but it is only her he would hear it from. Even after "Lily" is revealed to be an illusion (created by a 4400 at Kyle Baldwin's request), Richard still knows that he must find a way to reverse the process. Fellow 4400 Cora reverses the aging, but they are found by the "marked" Tom Baldwin and NTAC agent Skouris. After immobilizing Diana, Richard is finally overwhelmed by "Tom".
Richard is placed on the promicin inhibitor and sent to prison.
Abilities
The promicin-inhibitor entirely suppressed Richard's ability, leading him to believe he was one of many returned without an ability. After the inhibitor scandal and the cessation of inhibitor injections Richard developed telekinesis.[3] His control of the ability was initially poor. Fearing his daughter, he worked with Heather Tobey to refine his control and can now more precisely control what he affects and where he moves it.
When Richard reappears in Daddy's Little Girl, his powers have become far more powerful and refined. He demonstrates a much greater precision over small objects. He is able to summon a tomato to his hand from a great distance, stop a tranquilizer dart, and even render someone unconscious by pinching off the blood flow to the person's brain. He is able to effortlessly throw multiple full-grown adults through the air or pin them against walls- even if not in the immediate vicinity- as well as fling concrete barriers weighing hundred or possibly thousands of pounds with pinpoint accuracy.
References
External links
- Richard Tyler's profile at the official 4400 website provided by USA Network.