Alec McDowell

X5-494
X5-494
	File:Supernatural s01e03.png
First appearance	Designate This
Portrayed by	Jensen Ackles
In-universe information
Alias	Alec McDowell
Gender	Male
Occupation	Bike messenger/thief

X5-494 (aka "Alec McDowell") is a character in Season 2 of the James Cameron created television series Dark Angel (2000-2002).

Alec is a human/animal (mostly feline) hybrid supersoldier bred, trained, and raised by Manticore. Manticore was a facility created by the U.S. government that used experimental genetic technology to produce various classes of enhanced beings for warfare. Physically he is caucasian, 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, medium build, with dark blond hair and hazel-green eyes.Born to a surrogate mother in 1999, Alec was 21 years old at the time of his first appearance on Dark Angel. Unlike his twin Ben, he was not considered to be "a brother" to Max, as he was raised in a separate unit, and they didn't meet until he was assigned as her breeding partner.

Just before "The Pulse" (a magnetic pulse bomb set off over the Eastern United States in 2009), Max and a number of her unit (considered by each other to be siblings) had escaped from Manticore in 2009 to live free in the world, yet always hunted by their creators. X5-494, however, was not one of the '09 escapees and did not achieve his freedom until the year 2020. This was achieved when Max revealed the location of Manticore's new top secret base via an Eyes Only broadcast, resulting in Manticore authorities torching the site and attempting to destroy its many experiments for plausible deniability. Max then releases the transgenic inhabitants from their locked cells, and into the world.

Once free, Alec cage fights for quick cash, but determines it as too risky for possible exposure and capture. He then emulates Max by being a cat burglar, and working at Jam Pony, a bike messenger service, for Sector Passes and casing possible locations to steal from. By the end of the Dark Angel series, he and Max worked to maintain a new community for Manticore escapees dubbed Terminal City (aka Transgenic City, or more commonly TC), a place where they could live and defend themselves from the hostile ordinary humans. It was located in an abandoned and toxic section of Seattle, ideal for the trangenics who were all immune to known biohazards.

Powers & abilities

Enhanced strength,speed,agility,reflexes,durability,stamina and coordination.
Accelerated healing.
Enhanced eyesight,hearing,and nightvision.
Enhanced immune system.
Eidetic memory.
Very high I.Q.
Powerful empathy capabilities.
Extraordinary martial artist and sharpshooter.
Specialist in CQB,recon,infiltration,tracking,and observation.
Highly proficient with computers and explosives.
Peak athletic condition.

Although he appers human(except the bar code on the back of his neck)Alec is highly superior physically to even a Olympic athlete and his mental abilities are far beyond a average human.

He possesses extraordinary physical strength,able to lift 2,000 pounds maximum,and can throw an average-sized human 15-20 meters with enough force to kill or incapacitate.His reflexes are superhumanly fast and his eyesight and hearing are extremely acute,which makes it very hard for someone or something to catch him by surprise.

He can leap vertically up to 20 feet,allowing him to jump over a standard fence or scale a small building with ease and he is capable of sprinting at a maximum speed of 35.MPH makeing it impossible for anyone to touch him,except another X5,unless he allows it.

His nightvision has also been enhanced to the point were he can see perfectly in low light or complete darkness and he also has telescopic vision allowing him to see great distances and observe very small objects.

Alec can exert himself at peak capacity for several hours before becoming affected by fatigue and the composition of his skeleton,muscles,inter-connected tissues and nervous system is extremely durable and highly resistant to impact and injure.When he does suffer damage he is capable of regenerateing at a incredible rate and small cuts,burns and scrapes heal in seconds wile larger injuries,such as broken bones or damaged organs,can take up to a week or more to heal depending on the severity.His immune system and metabolism have also been greatly enhanced makeing him immune to all known biohazards and certain diseases as well as most drugs and poisons.

He has extraordinary agility and coordinaton,allowing him to perform complacated acrobatic and gymnastic maneuvers that would be impossible for a human,expertly manipulate tools or weapons,and achieve a state of perfect balance in any possible position.

In addition to his superior physique Alec possesses incredible mental abilities including a I.Q. of 180,amazing creativity and problem solving skills,and very powerful empathy capabilities which make him highly adaptive to changing scenarios/situations and able to learn and mimic the skills and personalities of individuals with extreme speed and accuracy.

Skills

Like all X5's Alec endured rigorous pyhsical and mental training and rigid discipline from childhood to the time of his escape,and his training combind with his enhanced physique makes him nearly unstoppable when faceing normal humans though he is by no means invincible.Due to his eidetic memory he is able to recall any part of this training with perfect accuracy.

Alec possesses a full black belt in Krav Maga,TaeKowndo,and Judo and is extraordinary skilled with all three martial arts.He also has one of the highest sharpshooter scores among the X5's and is extremly skilled with all current military firearms and equipment though he perfers useing the weapons he was brought up with.

He is very proficient with computers and explosives,skills which he used often during his early missions for Manticore.Engineered and trained as a soldier/assasssian unit,he also possesses incredible skill in CQB, recon, infiltration, tracking, observation, escape and evasion and espionage. He is superb at handling vehicles,and speaks fluent French, Russian, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish and 3 Middle Eastern languages.

Twin Brother Ben

494's identical twin brother/genetic double X5-493 (aka "Ben") was one of the children in Max's Unit who escaped in 2009. Ben, however, didn't adapt to the outside world very well and ultimately became a serial killer who was stopped by Max. Alec, in the episode "Hello/Goodbye" is accused of one of the murders committed by Ben.

Love

In the episode "The Berrisford Agenda" we see flashbacks to 494's first long term away mission in 2018 when he was ordered to observe, then assassinate, Robert Berrisford, a Manticore subcontractor who was becoming too curious about the supersoldier program. However, while using the alias of the young piano teacher Simon Lehane (whom 494 killed in order to take his identity), 494 fell in love with Berrisford's 17-year-old daughter, Rachel. Rachel would have been killed in the car bomb he was supposed to set off, and at the last minute 494 attempted to stop the execution. Unfortunately, his Manticore handlers were suspicious of 494 and triggered the bomb anyway. Robert Berrisford survived, but Rachel ended up in a coma that lasted for two years. 494 was brutally punished by Manticore for his disobedience. However, he was allowed to live (with his memories of the event suppressed) and ultimately resumed his duties as a soldier. Alec did get to say good-bye to Rachel at her bedside before she ultimately died in the present day. It was in this episode that Max learned Alec was capable of love, and was far more than a killing machine or automaton for Manticore.

His name

494 was given the name "Alec" by Max when she first met him while imprisoned at Manticore. He was supposed to be her "designated breeding partner" but when Max refused his ordered advances, 494 was willing to back off, albeit with a very snarky attitude. After that Max dubbed him "Alec" — as in "smart Aleck" — due to his egotistical cockiness, and a wary love/hate relationship between the two ensued. (Max's second choice for 494's name was "Dick".) 494 liked the name "Alec", and made it his. The last name "McDowell" was given to the character by one of Dark Angel's writers who's favorite actor was Malcolm McDowell. However, the name was never actually revealed on the show, the scene in which it was once shown on a file folder was edited out.

Many fans thought that if Dark Angel had continued for a third season there would have been a romance between Alec and Max, and there was actually a story treatment by the show's writers to that effect (one of several). However, the show was canceled leaving the Max/Alec relationship only a possibility, not a fact.

The novels

Alec's adventures with Max continue after the end of the Dark Angel series in the Max Allan Collins novels Skin Game and After the Dark. There are also details of his years at Manticore in The Eyes Only Dossier by D.A. Stern.

Detailed information about X5-494 can be found at the website Genetically Empowered [1].