TESS PROFILE

This profile is a compilation of ideas and thoughts created by Karst and DocPaul. All profiles are subject to change as new thoughts, observations, and implications are added, but Tess’s is even more tentative, in that we have an especially limited view of her to-date, and developing her character was not a goal of the series this past season. While the creators attempted to portray the other characters as 3-dimensional, especially the main characters, Tess so far has mostly been used as a motivator to impel action in others. As the next thirteen episodes reveal more facets into Tess’s personality, this profile will change.

This is an unusual profile, since much of it is derived indirectly from surmises about what it would be like to grow up with Nasedo as a parent. Normally, direct observation of the subject would be used to create a profile, and parental information would only be background information to help flesh out or confirm observations, or possibly suggest areas to be examined.

I. Background Profile

Tess Harding, apparent Caucasian female of approximate age of 17, soon to be junior in high school. Was raised in a single-parent household with no association with known relatives. Resides in Roswell, NM with her supposed father, Ed Harding. Ed Harding is of course, Nasedo, an alien shapeshifter that was in the crash of 1947.

Past Medical Records: Unavailable. No known drug allergies. High intolerance to alcohol is assumed for all aliens.

School Records: Good record of attendance, many past schools due to father’s high mobility. A grade point average of 3.4, gives an impression of good academic background and highly involved in school life. Involvement in organized extra-curricular activity is unknown.

Parents and place of origin: Unknown. No known living relations. (Possibly Michael Guerin, but has yet to be established.)

Ethnic background: Human/Alien hybrid, engineered.

Arrest record: Unknown.

Associated factors: Found alone in the "pod chamber" at the age of 6, unable to communicate, status of development undetermined at time. First contact was with Nasedo at early impressionable years.

II. Evaluation:

Development:
Nasedo will have anticipated all of Tess’s basic needs. His main goal is her survival and the retrieval of the other children. On hatching from the pod, Tess would have been lacking certain skills and abilities. We do know, despite the discrepancies in the versions of events we receive, that the alien/hybrids could all walk and had other motor skills more or less appropriate to a 6-year old human child at the time they hatched. But reportedly, they could not speak at that time, and communicated via some form of telepathy. It is unclear at this time how the alien/hybrids developed speech, or at what pace.

History of Strict and Clinical/Unemotional Upbringing:
Tess’s development would not really have been neglected by Nasedo in any real way. But her social development was stunted at a level of neglect. The most important feature Tess lacks in early development protocol is a bonding with a parent or adult figure. She has learned a dependence on Nasedo, but her emotional needs remained unfulfilled. In the famous experiment done with monkeys, the baby monkey with no contact with another creature grew up with severe emotional and intellectual impairments. The one with a wire and carpet "mother" was badly impaired, but not completely unable to function like the first, since it was at least able to pretend to itself that it had a mother, and act out one side of some of the typical mother/child monkey behavior. Nevertheless, without an appropriate adult response, the baby monkey with the wire and carpet "mother" did not learn all appropriate behaviors. Since Tess's care provider lacks true human emotions, all her human contact would have to come from outside the home.

Nasedo would have been a strict parent since mistakes in their lives could have meant capture and death. The clinical and strictness of upbringing can be seen in Tess’s reaction to the breaking of the statue. The way she gasps and looks immediately at Nasedo was somewhat like the way abused children with parents who "go off" suddenly in unpredictable manners intently observe the abusive parent's behavior, to know when to take protective action. Very little in the house suggests a happy environment for child growth and tactile excitement. I doubt that this was a Sesame Street home with birthday parties, sleepovers, and dance lessons included.

Feelings of Isolation and Abandonment:
Tess would have been taught about her destiny early in life, and would have been informed of the missing other children. The lack of a conventional upbringing and of human emotion within the household will not alleviate Tess’s abandonment issues. Her situation will not be as severe as Michael’s, due to the lack of abuse, but her feelings of isolation and unworthiness will remain. Defensive mechanism will over-compensate for these issues, and her personality will be full of false bravo, arrogance, and a need to be noticed.

Responsive Fear and Paranoid Tendencies:
From early ages Tess will have learned of the dangers of interacting with humans. Max, Isabel and Michael were born with the instinct that hiding was necessary for survival, so Tess probably has it as well. Whatever potential she might have had to build real ties to human children have been destroyed by the constant moves, and the need to avoid close relationships in order to guarantee secrecy and security. Plus, it seems Nasedo has not pretended to her that things were safe. It would be foolish for him to. Humans to her vary from things to ignore to grave dangers, and her views about them will always consist of weariness and reserve. There will always be the fear of being found out, turned in, and captured. These feelings will build walls of coldness in the interactions with others. Tess will have hard times acting on issues of altruism. All her actions will be self-motivated. Despite originating as a reaction specifically against humans, Tess will behave in general along these lines even with the other podsters, since she has no other set of behavior to use.

History of Classical Conditioning:
Since probably from the moment Tess was first born, she was given the understanding that her Destiny was Max. From the box of pictures that Isabel picked up in the house, and that Liz looked into later, it is clear that Tess has been conditioned to focus on Max, more than Michael or Isabel. For Tess, the Destiny mission and her reunion with Max would be a longed-for escape. It would mean the humans had not won, and that there was hope of moving forward to a better future. Max is Tess's dream of moving on from constant fear and evasion, to a life of taking control of her own life and fulfilling a destiny far greater than the scary, mundane reality that she knew.

Nasedo was unlikely to teach little Tess things such as "If you laugh at someone, of course they'll get mad at you." What is much more likely, given their danger and his background (alien, either without human emotions, or without emotions at all) would be an explanation such as "If you laugh at people, they might get angry, and we don't need to attract that attention or get involved." Or "If you agree with people, they're less likely to question you or single you out for an attack," or something similar. The most elementary self-protection is to lie low and blend in (as Max tries so hard to). From Nasedo's perspective, playing on human emotions is a necessary survival technique. (He seemed quite good with the sheriff when talking about the camera - maybe he was putting extra effort into it, considering whom he was talking to.) A good protector would make a point of teaching the protected person how to protect herself. Tess knows to go to the pod chamber if they are separated, and how to revive Nasedo if necessary. How to manipulate humans - especially how to lull them and get their cooperation - would be another survival technique for when he's not around to control the situation.

Nasedo would teach Tess proper table manners and other things. More than emotions, they are things that can be consciously learned, and they often don't need understanding.

Defensive Mechanisms of Dependency:
The fact that Nasedo never left Tess alone for very long - even when she was older - has had an odd double effect on her. Tess's needs, at least the physical ones, seem to have received great attention. "Ed Harding" has some pretty fancy possessions in that house. But Tess seems also to have absorbed the lesson that she is in danger even when Nasedo almost always is with her - implying that she is in even greater without him. Tess’s fear of being alone will force her to cling to her protectors. From the way she reacts at the beginning of Destiny to his loss, losing him seems to be the ultimate disaster. She will try to manipulate the situation into areas that will comfort her, or make her feel safe. Tess will give up control of her life to another because she lacks the confidence to believe in her own ability to protect herself, alone. There is the question of whether Max could fully substitute, even if she had her way with him. Tess's fantasy honeymoon might be Max alone with her, with Nasedo within call. She will always look to the leader - Max - for answers. She will have a compulsive need to ingratiate herself to him not only because of conditioning, but because she will perceive that next to him is the safest place to be.

Morals:
Since morals are taught from generation to generation, either by parents, community or church, it is safe to assume that no real deep morals have been instituted in Tess’s life, save those that have a benefit to her well being.

Tess seems to have internalized something of Nasedo's emotional patterns (or act). Like Nasedo with Liz and the statue fragments, she snaps at Isabel to leave the pictures alone. But she is more aware of the need to maintain the mood. She does act awkward when she notices what she has done, while Nasedo seems oblivious with Liz. Perhaps she has learned something from experience at school with human children. Or it might be Tess’s essentially human nature asserting itself - having had her feelings aroused, they cannot actually subside as quickly as Nasedo’s do, or seem to.

III. Personality traits indicative of background and behavior

Narcissistic Personality

Grandiosity and a preoccupation with fantasies about power, beauty, and so forth A need for constant attention and admirationMarkedly negative or empty feelings towards the criticisms of others Disturbed interpersonal relationships, exemplified by:
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feelings of entitlement; taking advantage of others; alternations between over-idealization and devaluation of others; and inability to empathize with the needs of others.

Dependent, Demanding Personality

Insatiable desires and appetites
Active-passivity model where patient is trapped in a parent-child relationship. This is evident with Tess’’s anger at being left alone by Nasedo. This pulls into her abandonment issues
Transference tendencies such that patient will transfer needs and demands to another or others in an overtaxing manner to the point of creating genuine anger and frustration in the target(s) of the transference. (In more concrete terms, Tess will transfer her dysfunctional relationship with Nasedo to Max, her Destiny, who is likely to have an extreme reaction to being treated as the replacement Nasedo.)

Histrionic Personality

Shallowness, dramatic behavior, and exaggerated affect.
Tendency to be vain, self-centered, and dependent.
Craves novelty and excitement.
Often initially appears charming and behaves seductively; however, once a relationship is established, quickly becomes
either extremely controlling or extremely dependent, causing disruption in interpersonal relationships.

Basic Personality typing is as follows:

Riso label: Motivator
Palmer label: Performer
Key traits (healthy and average function): Adaptable, ambitious, image-conscious, and arrogant
Gift: Efficacy
Unconscious drive: Self-deceit
Approximate DSM-IV correlates (unhealthy): Narcissistic

IV. Impressions

Tess has certainly been indoctrinated in her role in the Destiny plan. The rest of the group would have more than likely had the same training to overcome their human tendencies to follow their hearts rather than their Destiny if Nasedo had reached them in time. Without this constant clinical conditioning/brainwashing it is questionable whether any of the original trio can be trained away from their more human natures.

There has always been a question of why it was so important for the podsters to be mated again. Perhaps it was important to pair them from birth so they wouldn’t give in to the natural tendencies that where inherent in the human DNA, the heart. Our belief is that the pod children were destined for each other not as a love match, or maybe even to breed. Rather, they were meant to be a sort of mutual-support group to keep them isolated from humans, and isolated from human emotions. They were to provide all the basic needs of each other, with Nasedo conditioning them to their duty early in life. It is doubtful Max would have fallen in love with Liz and risked exposure to save her, if he had been indoctrinated with the Destiny mission. But accidents happen and plans go awry. It will be interesting to see what takes precedence, destiny or free will.

With Nasedo gone, Tess can’t afford to lose Max. She has a deep-seated fear of isolation and helplessness. Her conditioning to love Max will bind her to him and act as an anchor to weigh him down. Shaking off Tess will be near impossible unless she can be unconditioned or retrained.

Expect Tess to try to be the comfort for Max, Michael and Isabel because she feels that she belongs with them. It is obvious that Tess understands how to interact socially with her peers, including the other podsters and humans. It is unclear whether Tess can form a mutually satisfying and supportive emotional tie with anyone. The cry of Destiny will always fall from her lips, but Destiny will not be the motivator that holds the others to her: friendship will.

Tess will always push the humans away. She will always see them as competition for her rightful place, her birth right in the lives of the other alien/hybrid children. Tess will manipulate and insulate herself between the groups in order to bring control to herself. Tess needs to understand the ties that bind the original three and their human friends if she wishes to become part of their group. Discounting or ignoring the circle of friends established by her pod mates will not endear her to anyone.

Tess does have an essentially human emotional make-up, despite its lack of full development, and it may start to assert itself under the encouragement and example of Max, Isabel and Michael. She herself may not realize what is motivating her, whether Kyle or someone else draws her attention.

What Tess needs most in her life is a stable, loving environment where she can become in touch with her own humanness. All the raging emotions, fears and anxieties need to be conquered before she can meet her own destiny head on.

One word descriptor for Tess: Entitlement

SO. . . .Comments? As mentioned earlier, all profiles are open to discussion, and Tess is especially problematic. We intend these profiles more to open discussion rather than close it.

DocPaul, Karst