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Ned, played by Lee Pace
Ned has the ability to bring people back to life, but there are two catches: if he touches them again, they die and he cannot bring them back, and if he doesn't touch them again within a minute of resurrecting them, they stay alive but someone in proximity will die instead. Ned's abilities work on plants and animals, although typically if something new dies when the old thing is kept alive, it is something of roughly equivalent mass and classification. if a pigeon dies, another bird is more likely to die then a human being. When Chuck was brought back permanently, another human died rather than flies, lice, bacteria, etc.
If Ned brings back a human being, they don't heal from their obvious death wounds if any, but they (somehow) appear to otherwise function normally, at least for their minute of alloted time. When he touches fruits and leaves, they are brought back to their normal condition in life.
When Ned touches someone they are effectively ageless: Digby has lived 20 years since his resurrection. Someone who has been brought back can be injured (Chuck sprains her ankle in "Girth"), suggesting that a "brought back" person can be killed through injury. Second season narration seems t confirm this, implying Chuck is in danger of dying on at least two occasions.
When Ned inadvertently caused the second and permanent death of his mother, his father sent him to boarding school and started a new family. Ned spent the rest of his childhood years without a family and is very insecure as a result. Any happiness he's found is brief, so he's learned to do without it, or at least be very leery when it shows up. After touching his mother and bringing about her permanent death, Ned is also leery of touching anyone, and his best friend is his resurrected dog Digby... who he has to pet with a stick or a wooden hand.
Ned is leery of romantic involvement, particularly after a traumatic experience where he made love to a woman on a bear skin rug. A dead bear skin rug. That came back to life. Some scars (and claws) run deep. |
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