Niki and Jessica

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Niki and Jessica

Dissociative Identity Disorder is a highly controversial condition, claiming that people, due to extreme amounts of stress or other factors, can develop multiple, independent personalities within the same body. Fortunately, since Heroes is fictional, and the superpowers that the characters possess could have some additional effect, we can safely say that Niki does have this condition. Her other self, Jessica, is violent, willful, and extremely dangerous. What is most interesting is where she came from. We are not sure exactly what caused the splintering of Niki's personality, but we have an idea of what might have started her down that road.

Jessica was named for Niki's twin sister who was killed when their father strangled her in an alcohol-driven rage. Niki did not remember the incident, yet Jessica did, indicating that, perhaps, this was when her personality splintered. Years later, Niki's father shows up at her Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Clearly, Niki has many issues. Anyway, he shows up and tells her that he wants to make amends. However, when Micah takes apart the laptop that he gave him as a gift, her father becomes very angry. Niki then tells him to leave.

Then, in Jessica's first manifestation, she found her father in his hotel room and beat him up, threatening him to leave their family alone. Jessica also said that she remembered everything about how "she" had been killed. She also displayed her super strength for the first time during this altercation. Since then, Jessica periodically popped up during the course of the series, causing trouble for Niki by trying to "help" the family in the most ruthless of ways.

The worst thing that Jessica did was to kill D. L.'s former gang and steal the $2 million that they had taken from the ever mysterious Linderman. As a result, D. L., the only living person who had ever been a part of the gang, was arrested. Clearly, then, family was not Jessica's greatest priority. She claimed that it was protecting Micah. However, she was not only unwilling to take into consideration Micah's feelings, like his love for his father, but she also hurt him during the confrontation with D. L. However, based on what Future Niki said, Jessica was really only looking out for herself and Niki, since they were the same person. Perhaps she tried to help Micah simply to try and keep Niki in line.

In the alternate future, Niki seems to have taken care of Jessica. Her dialogue indicates that she managed to successfully re-integrate their personalities and that she has full control over her super strength. Perhaps, then, Niki could possibly, in the normal timeline, do the same. Then she could become a fully functional human being again and live happily with her family. Or not. Niki does not get such a happy ending. But I am speaking purely in theory, if she had been allowed to have a happy ending. I was actually disappointed to learn that Niki would eventually die, since she was one of my favorite characters on the show. I certainly do not believe that they had nothing else to do with the character. But perhaps the next alternate timeline will be happy, and Niki, without Jessica, will make a surprise appearance.

Aenedis
Sun, 25 Jan 2009 03:03:17 +0000

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