The Centre - a Pretender/Alias spin-off for Scifiland's Create-a-Show Challenge
Plot Summary
After the events on the Isle of Carthis, the harsher cutthroat atmosphere at the Centre drives Miss Parker, Sydney, and Broots away and into hiding. With his emotional ties to the Centre finally severed, Jarod disappears without a trace, just as Mr Parker always knew he would. The Triumvirate is displeased with Mr Raines and Mr Lyle’s handling of the Jarod situation and the complete destruction of what little good reputation the Centre had left while it was under their control, so they oust the pair and send them to be re-educated.
The Triumvirate decides to rehabilitate the Centre’s public image by implementing a more benign leadership. With the new director and chairman in place, the Centre does its best to go back to its roots as a mostly-harmless research facility. At least on the surface.
A few years later, cracks begin to appear in the Centre’s altruistic facade. People start hearing whispers about the old Pretender Project, that maybe it may start up again. At first the whispers seem unfounded and most of the newer employees brush them off as hearsay. Until all the security measures are tightened and surveillance is ramped up, that is. An extraordinary little girl is brought to the Centre to be the newest Pretender: Isabelle Bristow Vaughn.
Naturally, Isabelle’s parents, Sydney Bristow and Michael Vaughn, do not take her kidnapping lying down. They start to search for her but do not make much progress until Jarod resurfaces and offers to help rescue the girl.
The trio hits a brick wall when it turns out to be a lot more difficult to gain access to the Centre than it once was. The director and her sweeper run the place with an iron fist now that their precious new Pretender has been located. They don’t care about getting Jarod back at all now. He’s more of a threat than an asset to them.
Soon, current and former Centre operatives start disappearing. They return battered and bruised after being interrogated about Isabelle’s whereabouts and well-being, as well as Centre history and information. Agent Bristow, Vaughn, and Jarod are as in the dark about the interrogator’s identity* as those in the Centre.
Will they be able to rescue Isabelle? Who is the mystery man on the same trail, and why is he so interested in Isabelle and the Centre?
Introducing
Mr Lucas, Chairman
played by Morgan Freeman
The public face of the kindler, gentler Centre, Mr Lucas is the epitome of compassion and grace. At least on the surface. Underneath the calm facade, he’s as ruthless and cunning as Mr Parker and Mr Raines ever were. He’ll do anything to assure that the Pretender Project becomes as successful as it once was.
Madam Director
played by Marion Cotillard
Not nearly as outwardly harmless as Mr Lucas, the director still tries to keep up the pretense of kindness until Isabelle is brought in. Afterward, she has free rein over everyone at the Centre and enjoys the power immensely.
(Following the Pretender tradition of ‘one name, you live, more than one, you die’, the new director should be darned near immortal. But we’ll have to save the immortality for later.)
Ken, Sweeper
played by Ken Watanabe
Ken is Madam Director's bodyguard, spy, and right-hand man. He'll do anything for her, the Willie to her Raines. Rumor has it he gave the missing Mr Lyle a taste of his own medicine, so to speak, when the old regime was ousted.
Miss Randolph, Isabelle's Centre-loyal school psychiatrist
played by Jayma Mays
An Emma Pillsbury gone bad, Miss Randolph collects medical, intelligence, and personality information on school-aged children for the Pretender Project. She turns Isabelle’s data over to the Centre and helps to orchestrate the kidnapping.
Lily
played by Kate Winslet
Part mentor, part parental figure, Lily is even more conflicted about her work than Jarod’s Sydney was. She heard rumors of the Centre’s past after she was hired, but always strove to give them the benefit of the doubt. Until she was assigned to study Isabelle, that is.
Dr Burke
played by Michael C. Hall
Brought in under the new regime to care for Mr Parker’s orphaned son, now a ward of the Centre, Burke knows little of the Centre’s dark history, at the beginning at least. What he’ll do when he starts to find out is anyone’s guess.
Also Starring
Isabelle Vaughn, Pretender-in-training
played by Julia Di Angelo
Aaron Parker, Mr Parker and Brigitte's son
played by Max Records
Michael Vaughn
played by Michael Vartan
Miss Parker
played by Andrea Parker
*The implication I'm making with these pictures is entirely intentional. The mystery interrogator is Jack Bristow. Well, Jack Bristow-as-immortal-Milo-Rambaldi, that is. I couldn't just let him die.
