Season 4 Redemption Characters

In Heroes Season 4 entitled "Redemption", we've met quite the cast of characters straight out of a carnival freak show. In fact it's the Sullivan Bros. Carnival company, which is run by Samuel, who has become a sort of "anti-hero" looking for redemption. He considers himself and the others he presides over to be outcasts who need to redeem themselves in the wake of the death of his brother, Joseph. There's an interesting compass involved in all of this, which was buried with Joseph. It comes into play quite a bit throughout the episodes in Season 4, including a tattoo version that becomes an imprint on Peter's arm.

Samuel, played by Robert Knepper, is the leader of the Sullivan Brothers Carnival group. While not completely evil, he seems to serve as the main villain so far in the latest installment. He has the ability to move the dirt of the Earth with his hands, but also some sort of relationship with ink, as he can use it to create images as he pleases. We saw this when he uses it to tattoo his girlfriend so she can show him images, and when he puts himself into a newspaper article photo at Peter Petrelli's apartment.

One of the newest Heroes characters with Samuel is his henchman, Edgar (actor Ray Park) who is the "knife guy", also from Sullivan Bros. Carnival. Edgar has a cool set of knives and moves super fast with them. He seems reluctant to do the dirty work for Samuel at first, when he's asked to hunt down Danko and the compass. He ends up encountering Tracy Strauss and trying to slash her. Tracy survives the attack, but Danko doesn't and is killed by the new villain. Edgar goes to retrieve the compass from HRG and Peter, but meets his match in Peter who is an empath, capable of using his power. Park is no stranger to weaponry as he portrayed the evil lightsaber-wielding Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace, and the ninja Snake Eyes in the 2009 GI Joe movie. Park also has a strong martial arts background. According to this Kung Fu magazine article, for Heroes Park uses skeleton knives for his Edgar character and practiced for the role with Wushu knives. On a cool side note of trivia, Ray Park who plays Edgar is also the current voice of the Geico Gecko from the TV commercials.

Two other carnival workers we meet are Arnold and Claudia played by Dawn Olivieri. Claudia is the tattoo display girl who Samuel gives ink to and watches as faces form on her back. She's able to foretell the future or which Heroes will be part of their story by having them show up on her back in tattoo form. She's also Samuel's love interest. Arnold is an ailing older man, who seems to have a power similar to Hiro's. Unfortunately he's on a breathing apparatus and that is why Samuel searches out for Hiro Nakamura to replace Arnold's powers.

Deanne Bray, is the deaf actress who portrays a similar heroic character named Emma. She's deaf and has the ability to see sounds in a colorful way. We learn that when we see her grab a stringed instrument in the park and start playing beautifully to the amazement of the local crowd and Peter Petrelli. She was also seen complaining to a nurse at the hospital Peter works at about her senses seeming to be jumbled. She uses a set of headphones to block out sounds from her ears, which Peter notices aren't plugged into anything.

Another character we meet is Claire's new quirky college buddy, Gretchen (Madeline Zima). She's a curious one, and learns of Claire's powers. She also knows of Claire's whole Homecoming saga, where Claire witnessed a cheerleader being murdered by Sylar. Gretchen and Claire didn't exactly share a lesbian love scene at college, but instead Gretchen got to cut Claire's palm and watch it heal. She said she'd never done it before. Madeline Zima who plays Gretchen was also on the hit show Californication starring David Duchovny.

We're sure to meet even more character as the Heroes Redemption season unfolds. We've seen Janice Parkman, The Haitian, Sandra Bennet, Kimiko Nakamura, and Matt Parkman's new detective partner all featured in various episodes as well. It's notable that Mohinder Suresh has been missing from the show, so far and that the openings are no longer narrated by him.