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The story of Mr. Hyde from the BBC TV series Jekyll.
Emergence[]
As later episodes in the series reveal, Tom Jackman is none other than a descendant of the original Dr Henry Jekyll, a resident of 19th century Edinburgh on whom Robert Louis Stevenson based his famous novel; though historical records state that Jekyll died a virgin with no other relatives to continue the family line, the original Hyde was notoriously promiscuous, and so both Jekyll and Hyde perpetuated their mutual existence through the abandoned children they left in their wake.
Hyde was not always present in the good doctor's descendants, fortunately: numerous factors had to be in place for the secondary personality to emerge, and only one member of the family ever acquired their own Hyde - Sophia Jackman, Tom's mother. Having already seen her husband murdered as a result of her other half's destructive urges, Sophia went so far as to abandon her infant son at a Belfast train station, hoping that it would be enough to save him.
Unfortunately, Henry Jekyll's exploits in reality and fiction had provoked considerable scrutiny: the firm of Klein & Utterson had spent a good deal of time and money attempting to replicate the potion detailed in Stevenson's novel, unaware that the real Hyde had emerged due to a combination of genetics and psychology, and the formula that they had retrieved from Jekyll's files was a deadly wild goose chase. When this failed, they resorted to cloning Jekyll from a sample of his genetic material, but only produced catatonic rejects - lucrative thanks to the drugs and vaccines that could be obtained from their bodies, but useless for creating another Hyde.
Empowered by the money and political power they had gained from the clone-produced pharmaceuticals, the fully-fledged biotechnology firm scoured the world for Jekyll's offspring, searching for a perfect genetic throwback to the original - and eventually found it in the form of the infant Tom Jackman. Worse still, Sophia's own Hyde persona secretly joined Klein & Utterson under the alias of "Ms Utterson," soon rising to control the entire organization; under her guidance, K&U set out to dominate her son's life - all for the purposes of replicating the exact circumstances that created the original Hyde.
Much like his ancestor, Tom Jackman spent most of his life as a profoundly self-repressed individual, thanks in no small part due to Klein & Utterson's manipulations. His foster parents, childhood friends, scholastic achievements, and even his career at K&U's London offices were all arranged by the company, with oversight provided by Tom's friend, mentor, employer and handler, Peter Syme.
Thanks to their mastery of cloning, K&U were even able to create a future wife for him in the form of Claire, a perfect duplicate of Alice Cameron, the woman who Dr Jekyll had fallen in love with - and the impetus for the original Hyde's manifestation. With all these careful steps established, Jackman was finally introduced to Claire when they were in their late thirties; though they couldn't have been more different, a relationship blossomed between the two, and Hyde began the first tentative steps toward manifesting.
Shortly after his first night of sex with Claire, Tom began manifesting unusual patches of dense hair on his arms without warning, most of which vanished just as quickly as they'd appeared. Several years after their wedding and the birth of their twin sons, his symptoms began to slowly escalate: first, a DNA lock at Klein & Utterson's offices refused to allow him entry; he began finding notes in his possession with the words "I am coming" written all over them - in his own handwriting; finally, he started experiencing auditory hallucinations of someone loudly and repeatedly knocking on a door.
On the advice of his colleagues, Jackman decided to take some time off work, and took his family to a holiday at the seaside. However, while Tom and Claire were wandering the beach one day, a group of thugs accosted the two of them and proceeded to humiliate Tom at length while their leader sexually menaced Claire. That evening, while Tom and Claire attempted to recover from the assault, Hyde manifested for the very first time (though he didn't go by this name, yet, of course). Despite having no memories of his other self's life and no idea of his own identity, he nonetheless experienced all the rage and hatred Jackman had felt during his earlier humiliation; inspired, he sought out the ringleader of the thugs and beat him to a pulp before biting off one of his ears - even though he freely acknowledged that he didn't even know the man or why he'd woken up wanting to hurt him.
Jackman regained consciousness the following morning to discover that his eyesight had somehow corrected itself and he no longer required glasses, though his joy swiftly turned to horror when he found the ringleader's severed ear in his jacket pocket. Recognizing the threat he might represent to Claire and her children, Jackman resigned from his position at K&U and swiftly went about isolating himself while he tried to determine the scope of his condition: purchasing a derelict underground flat, he gradually renovated it into a private sanctuary where he could study his unique mental state; still experiencing blackouts, he resorted to filming himself while asleep in the hope that he could gain some perspective.
Sure enough, the recorded footage showed him awakening in the middle of a night with a new personality - and suddenly addressing Jackman via the camera: mockingly referring to Tom as "Daddy," Hyde used this opportunity to taunt his other self, frightening him with startling insights into his private life; though he couldn't access any of Tom's memories, he still knew his mind well enough to get under the doctor's skin - enough to predict Jackman's response to the prerecorded taunting and troll him with illusory visions. For good measure, Hyde even went so far as to order another TV in advance, knowing that Jackman would break the current one in a fit of pique over the course of their "conversation".
Tom soon realized that he couldn't allow Hyde any access to his family, and did his best to conceal their existence from his other self, hiding his wedding ring just before he transformed and ensuring that any references to Claire's location remained well out of reach. For good measure, he continued renovating the flat, outfitting it with security cameras and a code-locked restraining chair: if Hyde ever misbehaved, Jackman would simply strap himself into the chair prior to transformation, knowing that his alternate personality had no memory of the passcode. Eventually, his transformations became predictable enough for Tom to timetable them and plan accordingly, though certain stimuli could cause Hyde to emerge out of schedule - usually those relating to arousal.
In an attempt to make peace with his other self, Tom took steps to communicate with him via a dictaphone - during which he personally promised that if he ever found any evidence to suggest that Hyde had killed someone, Jackman would had himself over to the police. In turn, Hyde promised to shoot himself if Jackman ever attempted to find a cure for their condition. For a time, they were able to abide by this arrangement, making the most of their divided schedule.
The partnership didn't stay civil for long, unfortunately: Hyde would often go on drunken benders, get into fights, have sex with prostitutes, and deliberately parked as far away from wherever bedsit he ended up - forcing Jackson to spend a good deal of time hunting for his car after awakening. Worst of all, Tom's marriage to Claire went into a slump; though he regularly visited her and the children, he couldn't afford to stay with them for fear that Hyde would awaken while he was still there.
The New Agreement[]
The series begins with Tom seeking professional help in managing his other self, having been driven to his wit's end by the breakdown in the current agreement. The position is soon claimed by one Katherine Reimer, a fully-qualified psychiatric nurse who agrees to serve as an assistant to both personalities and a mediator between them, supposedly out of interest in a clearly unique case of psychological development; in reality, she's actually being employed by Sophia Jackman in order to keep an eye on her two sons. Though Hyde easily detects that Katherine has ulterior motives for accepting Jackman's offer of employment, he allows her to keep her secrets on the condition that she never lie to him again. Indeed, Hyde actually seems quite taken with their new assistant - or as he calls her, "Mary Poppins."
Meanwhile, Jackman's relationship with his wife takes a turn for the problematic when Claire admits that she hired a private detective by the name of Miranda Callendar to spy on him, suspecting that he'd been having an affair; but despite following him for weeks, the detective somehow turned up nothing - a detail that immediately makes Jackman suspicious, especially given that a black van with tinted windows has been following him for the last few weeks.
Upon meeting with Miranda, however, it's revealed that an unknown party paid the detective a large sum of money to abandon her investigations, and left a big enough impression to force her to shut down her agency and resettle elsewhere. As it turns out, the unknown party (later revealed as K&U) own the black van; unfortunately, Jackman's attempts to follow the van only result in him running out of time and straying into a scheduled change.
While hurrying back to his car, he strays into an alleyway and accidentally blunders into a teenager threatening his girlfriend with a knife, resulting in Jackman being held at knifepoint as well; he has barely enough time to hide his wedding ring in his pocket and mutter a warning of "minimum necessary force" into the dictaphone, before transforming into Hyde (the first occasion in which this has occurred on camera). In the altercation that follows, Hyde gives his assailant three chances to stab him to death, before non-lethally breaking his neck and going on to menace the crippled teenager's girlfriend with attempts to "play lions" - though he lets her go unharmed.
At a pub that evening, after downing several drinks said to be "really bad for hangovers" and having anonymous sex with a woman he met at the bar (after covertly knocking out her boyfriend), Hyde is unexpectedly interrupted by the sudden appearance of K&U representative Benjamin Lennox; over the course of their brief conversation, Lennox not only calls the secondary personality by his original literary name, but claims to own Hyde, offering him information on his origins in exchange for good behavior. Instead, Hyde flings Lennox's bodyguard out the window and leaves via the wall of the building opposite.
The following day, groggy from less than four hours of sleep and a hangover, Jackman seeks out Miranda and her girlfriend Min for more information on what the detective might have learned about him. As it happens, Miranda has actually uncovered records of the original Dr Jekyll's existence, and happily shares what she's found over the course of her investigation. Unfortunately, Jackman nods off during the discussion, allowing Hyde to emerge; though he spares the lives of both women, he is able to coerce them into handing over Claire's address, and soon pays a visit to her that very evening.
Though Tom expects the worst when he regains consciousness outside Claire's house, it turns out that Hyde was on his best behavior - having endeared himself to both his wife and children by posing as "Cousin Billy" - and now seems determined to take his other self's place as head of the family. For good measure, he also goes to the trouble of reading the original Robert Louis Stevenson novel and adopting his original counterpart's name on a formal basis from then on.
Fugitives[]
In the following episode, Hyde is approached by Sophia Jackman and learns the truth of their connection a full day ahead of Tom. However, Katherine no longer fully trusts either Sophia or Tom, and wants more information connecting the two of them; in an ill-advised attempt to investigate her "employer's" secrets, she resorts to drugging Tom and switching off the power so she can get past the security systems hiding his personal effects. Though she succeeds in uncovering everything she wanted, Hyde awakens while the power's still out: after toying with Katherine for a while, he lets her live in exchange for information on why she drugged him. The following day, Tom awakens with no memory of the incident and arranges a get-together with his sons at a local zoo.
It is at this point that Klein & Utterson decide to make their move: having noticed the genetic damage that each transformation is doing, they take steps to capture him and extract what they need before Tom dies - including buying the entire zoo to arrange a proper capture. Fortunately, the remains of the drug in his system has the side-effect of keeping Hyde awake even while Tom is still conscious, and the two are able to collaborate over the course of the K&U ambush: when Lennox attempts to prompt a transformation by putting one of Tom's sons in the lion enclosure, Tom willingly allows Hyde to take control and save his child's life, throwing one of the lions onto the security van outside for good measure. After playing around with Lennox for a while, Hyde gets bored and captures his bodyguard for interrogation.
Once Jackman regains consciousness and discovers the bodyguard tied up in the next room, he soon finds himself in a wide-awake phone conversation with Hyde over their prisoner's fate: both personalities agree that the unfortunate lackey doesn't know anything, but Hyde insists that they need to send a message to K&U in order to convince them not to try anything like the zoo ambush ever again, and after a good deal of badgering, Jackman reluctantly agrees. Ultimately, the bodyguard is delivered to a hospital, still alive, but rendered blind, deaf, incapable of walking, speaking or eating except through a straw. Soon after, Sophia arrives at the hospital, revealing her connection to Tom and advising him to leave before Syme arrives to capture him.
Jackman and Hyde spend the next episode on the run from K&U, sleeping in cheap bedsits and doing their best to remain out of sight, all while struggling for dominance. For a time, Jackman is able to keep his other half restrained by means of a heavy chain (the key to which he keeps in a combination-locked strongbox). However, even while chained up, Hyde still manages to sabotage him by remaining awake for every single hour of his time in control, leaving Tom constantly sleep-deprived. In the end, out of both options and ideas, he takes a train to Syme's country estate in a desperate attempt to seek answers; on the way, Hyde assaults him in a nightmare, demanding to know what makes Claire so special, only to be seemingly repelled when Tom shows him the answer.
Unfortunately, Tom's attempt to get answers out of Syme ends with him being given a powerful sedative. In a desperate effort to get Hyde under control before he emerges, Tom goes so far as to tie Syme to a chair, drag him down to the wine cellar and lock themselves inside - making Syme swallow the key for good measure. Doubly unfortunately, Claire has been visiting the estate, and while Tom is busy securing the front doors of the house, she ventures into the cellar to investigate the noise - resulting in her being locked in with Hyde when he seizes control.
Hyde is delighted to learn that he is in the presence of "a tied-up old guy" and even more happy to discover Claire as well, having not had sex in days, and immediately introduces himself to her with undisguised glee. Though he is annoyed to discover that Tom's hurried preparations have still been enough to keep his other self from escaping the cellar, the spittle on Syme's lips gives away the key's location, forcing Claire to knock Hyde out with a wine bottle before he can tear Syme open. When he regains consciousness, Hyde finds himself chained to the wall with Claire demanding answers from him: unfortunately, after learning the details of her husband's secondary persona - and why he's been "fucking half of London" - Claire is distracted by the brief re-emergence of Tom's personality, and when Hyde seizes control again, he immediately attacks her in an attempt to retrieve the key to his chains. Convinced that he won't actually hurt her, Claire puts the key in her mouth and makes it look as though she swallowed it; Hyde isn't fooled, and simply retrieves it by kissing her - ironically proving Claire's point in the process.
Soon after, a K&U security team bursts into the basement with Lennox in the lead, fully prepared to retrieve their prize. Hyde naturally resists capture, prompting Lennox to directly threaten Claire and her children in an attempt to force him to cooperate. Instead, Hyde just slits the obnoxious manager's throat, and for an encore, goes on to bluff the rest of the squad into submission and warn them that any harm to Claire will result in him killing them all, before departing the scene to go howl at the moon.
Tom awakens the following morning with only a few hazy memories of the night before, but with blood all over his shirt and a vague recollection of Claire being in the same room as Hyde, he naturally assumes that his wife is dead at his other self's hands. When the police arrive to investigate the scene, a grief-stricken Tom immediately turns himself in as a murderer; unfortunately, this gives Klein & Utterson the perfect opportunity to capture him in the guise of a prisoner transfer.
Worse still, in order to avoid losing Hyde to the genetic damage being suffered through routine transformations, they immediately seal Tom in a specially-designed container, maintaining his vitals by life support while deliberately keeping him fully conscious; through this tailor-made prison, they intend to permanently submerge Jackman's personality via his claustrophobia, driving him insane through application of his worst fear.
When they finally open the box, Jackman is gone and Hyde is in control - permanently.
Run If You Want To Live[]
Once the container is opened, Hyde initially pretends to be Tom by bluffing Claire with memories of their honeymoon; then, as soon as she gets within arm's reach, he promptly reveals himself in as dramatic a manner as possible, making advances on Claire, threatening K&U scientist Dr Gilligan with a snapped neck, and taunting security chief Colonel Hart with the knowledge of his terminal lung cancer. However, once he's finished showing off, Claire briefly flummoxes him when she demands to know how he was able to answer the question about their honeymoon.
As it soon becomes apparent, this is actually because Hyde is in the process of "downloading" his other personality's memories, the death of Jackman's mind having released all the information he'd acquired over the course of his life into Hyde's brain. More unusually, his growing powers also allow him to tap into the memories of the original Dr Jekyll and discover the truth behind his transformation - and Alice, Claire's original self, a discovery that ends up knocking Hyde unconscious.
Left in the lab to recover, he continues sorting through Jekyll's memories in his dreams, following the doctor out of his home and into Alice's hovel; there, Jekyll transforms into the original Hyde, who encourages his modern counterpart to kill Claire and eliminate the only weakness keeping him from true freedom - demonstrating how he achieved this by smothering Alice with a pillow.
After awakening (and removing one of Dr Gilligan's thumbs before locking him in the container), Hyde calls Syme via the lab phone and agrees to cooperate if Claire and her children are brought to him immediately. After explaining to Claire exactly how K&U submerged Tom's personality, Hyde acknowledges that there might be a chance that he might return someday, and decides to give him "a memory he could never live with" - ordering Syme to switch off the security cameras and give him half an hour alone. But the moment they do so, Hyde takes the opportunity to tear open the floor paneling and lead Claire and her children on an escape route through the ducts; as it turns out, though he agrees with his original counterpart that Claire makes him weak, he considers this reason enough to care for her, as she's the only person in the entire world who Hyde finds remotely interesting.
Unfortunately, though Dr Gilligan's severed thumb allows them access to the helipad, Ms Utterson bars their way to the roof with a platoon of guards, and threatens to kill Claire and the children if Hyde refuses to cooperate. In response, Hyde puts a gun to his head, clearly hoping that the threat of losing their prize test subject will be enough to make them stand down; however, Ms Utterson not only calls his bluff but actively dares him to go through with it - gleefully noting that Tom Jackman would be able to make such a sacrifice. In the end, Hyde can't bring himself to pull the trigger, unable to conquer his own childish fear of death.
With their only protector effectively broken by the experience, Claire and the children are easily removed from the area by helicopter, leaving Hyde to be recaptured by the K&U security. At this point, Hyde throws a temper tantrum over his failure, descending back into Tom's memories and demanding to know why he couldn't save his loved ones even with all the power he had at his disposal. It is at this point that a memory of Tom Jackman's original personality offers Hyde an alliance in exchange for the maturity and willpower needed to rescue Claire; Hyde accepts, drawing in most of the electrical power in London in order to bring Tom's mind back from the dead.
In the final episode, Jackman and Hyde easily escape from the building and make their way back to Jackman's underground flat, where the two of them find Katherine, Miranda and Min currently using it as a hideout; after a failed attempt at rescuing Tom and Claire in the previous episode, the three partners were able to escape from K&U custody and kidnap one of their soldiers, who is now kept in Hyde's old restraining chair. With Hyde serving as the "bad cop," Jackman is eventually able to frighten the captive soldier into revealing Claire's current location, and after bidding his farewell to Katherine and the others, sets off in search of Klein & Utterson's hidden base.
In the days that follow, K&U personnel throughout the base begin receiving messages via emails, phone texts, word documents, card readers, even notes on the office billboard, all spelling out the same message: "RUN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE." Realizing the sheer scope of Hyde's powers, employees begin fleeing the base in droves, and the K&U leadership are unable to stop them.
Soon after, Tom arrives at the almost-empty base and confronts Syme in his office: in a desperate attempt to kill Tom and allow Hyde to take his place once again, Syme pumps the room full of toxic gas; in stead of changing back, Hyde feigns death, holding a pocket of gas in his mouth until the room is cleared and then exhaling the gas into Syme's face, killing him instantly.
Descending into the cellars in search of Claire and the children, Tom finds the three of them behind a locked gate at the end of a long corridor; for good measure, the children have been sealed in similar containers. In one last desperate gambit to capture Hyde, Mrs Utterson disconnects the life support systems on the containers and threatens to let the children die if Jackman and Hyde don't surrender; instead, Hyde charges Utterson and her security detail. Intimidated by the display and too afraid to follow Utterson's orders, the guards open fire on him, mortally wounding him; despite his injuries, Hyde continues his march down the corridor towards them, until almost every single guard flees in terror - Utterson following soon after. After ensuring that the life support for the containers has been reactivated, Hyde finally succumbs to his wounds, dying of blood loss.
However, to Claire's astonishment, Tom survives; as it turns out, Hyde had willingly spared his other self from the injuries that killed him, leaving Tom and Claire free at long last.