| Ethan Duncan | |
 | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Full name: | Dr. Ethan Duncan |
| Birthplace: | United Kingdom |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Manner of Death: | Suicide with poison |
| Age: | Unknown |
| Residence: | Somewhere in Canada |
| Occupation: | Scientist |
| Affiliation: | Dyad Institute (formerly) |
| Other information | |
| Also known as: | Andrew Peckham Swan Man (by Helena) |
| Gender: | Male |
| Hair color: | Gray |
| Eye color: | Brown |
| Skin color: | Tan |
| Height: | 6'2 |
| Relationships | |
| Marital status: | Married to Susan Duncan until his death |
| Family: | Susan Duncan (wife) † Rachel Duncan (adoptive daughter; subject) |
| Series information | |
| Portrayed by: | Andrew Gillies |
| Season/s: | 2 |
| First appearance: | "To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings" |
| Latest appearance: | "By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried" |
| Appearance count: | 5 |
Ethan Duncan was one of the main creators of the clones alongside his wife, Susan Duncan.
Biography[]
Project LEDA[]
Project LEDA was initially a military project, in which Ethan was heavily involved in. He and his wife were among the lead scientists.
At one point, Ethan and his wife Susan arranged for a woman named Amelia to become a surrogate mother to a pair of their clones, with the intent to raise the child she would carry to term. However, Amelia ran away after sensing something sinister about the project. Eventually, Ethan and Susan came to raise another experiment: Rachel. Rachel, unlike the others, grew up knowing she was a clone.
After the military decided to shut down the project, the Dyad Institute got involved as a contractor and took over. Once the clones had been successfully made, Dyad patented the clones. At one point, Susan and Ethan made it clear that they wanted to truly raise Rachel, whom they had grown attached to, as their own, a request Dyad denied them of. The couple then began plotting to "reveal everything"; according to Aldous Leekie, they sabotaged the project by salting the petri dishes and attempting to escape with Rachel. Because of this, Leekie set their laboratory on fire, killing (according to a news article) six people, presumed to be Project Leda scientists, and also destroying the notes and the original genome from which the original batch of the female clones were derived. It was widely believed and reported that the couple died in the fire. On the contrary, Ethan made it out alive.
After his "death", Dyad took Rachel and raised her within the compounds of their institution, shaping her up into an important Dyad figure—a model clone—in their quest for knowledge. It would take Dyad 20 years and 400 attempts before they successfully created a new viable clone (Charlotte Bowles), during which Ethan spent his years in hiding, his continued existence, and slow descent into brilliant madness, known only by a select few people.
After project LEDA[]
Siobhan Sadler knows the whereabouts of Ethan. She wants to use him as leverage against Dyad. After Leekie's death he is taken to the Dyad Institute and agrees to look for a cure for Cosima.
After Rachel kidnaps Kira, he has tea with Rachel, but commits suicide with a laced tea bag, exclaiming that he doesn't think Rachel deserves him anymore.
Personality[]
If he was once a brilliant professor, his current demeanor is very different. He appears as a confused man who is very afraid of Leekie. He currently lives in a house which is apparently full of junk.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Ethan is the second character in the series to commit suicide.
| Season 2 appearances | ||||
| Nature Under Constraint and Vexed | Governed by Sound Reason and True Religion | Mingling Its Own Nature With It | Governed As It Were By Chance | Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est |
| To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings | Knowledge of Causes, and Secret Motion of Things | Variable and Full of Perturbation | Things Which Have Never Yet Been Done | By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried |