Adam

Adam
Biographical Information
Aliases	Dr. Lewis Farber, Julius Caesar
Born	1st Century BC
Age	over 2000
Occupation	Therapist (formerly)
Time period(s)	1940's, 1985, modern day
Appearances
First appearance	"Pilot" (voice only) "Skinny Dipper"
Last appearance	"The Last Death of Henry Morgan"
Episode count	credited, appeared: 5 episodes
Portrayed by	Burn Gorman

“	You know...I was like you once. Perhaps not quite as dapper, but a decent man. My first death also came trying to save the life of another. Alas, I failed. So, take a good look, Henry. This is what a decent man looks like after 2,000 years.	”
— Adam in "The Last Death of Henry Morgan"

"Adam" is a character who shares the same curse as the medical examiner Henry Morgan, only whereas Henry has lived for over 2 centuries, Adam has existed for over 2000 years. He has taken special interest in following Henry, and obtaining everything there is to know about him. He had not been seen until the episode "Skinny Dipper", having only been known until then by phone calls to Henry. Despite his antagonistic personality towards Henry, he has also helped him solve a murder case, provided Abe with information on finding his parents and even killed Henry for the sake of keeping his immortality a secret.

Biography

Early life

Adam's first death was 2000 years ago when he was stabbed in the stomach with a pugio, a type of Roman dagger.^{[ep 18]} An expert on ancient artifacts stated that the pugio was one of the daggers that killed Julius Caesar himself on March 15, 44 B.C., known as the Ides of March,^{[ep 22]} hinting that that may be Adam's true identity. However, Adam mentions that he died trying to save the life of another, as Henry did,^{[ep 22]} which could mean Adam was trying to protect Julius Caesar.

Other than this, not much is known about him, except that he is well over the age of 2000 years and shares the same curse as Henry Morgan. He first spoke with Henry when he called him during his investigation of the murder of a train driver. He informed Henry that the first 200 years are easy, and that you still cling onto the past, searching for hope. He also traveled to London in 1888, where he read the papers about Jack the Ripper's murders.^{[ep 6]}

World War II

During World War II, Adam was a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp, where his curse was discovered. Dr. Josef Mengele experimented on him in the hopes of finding a way to give Hitler immortality. During this time, the 44 B.C. Roman dagger that first killed him was taken, possibly by SS Commandant Otto Heidrich of the Rosenberg Reichleiter.^{[ep 6]}

Throughout the Series

Adam knows of Henry's secret, witnessing him survive the destruction of a subway car and being hit by a car on the Queensboro Bridge.^{[ep 2]} Adam later secretly assisted Henry in the investigation of a copycat killer impersonating Jack the Ripper and the Black Dahlia. After Henry's back was broken by the murderer, Mark Bentley, Adam killed Henry to keep his secret hidden from Jo.^{[ep 6]}

In some of his conversations with Henry, he is seen using a payphone across the street from the antique store. When Henry looks through the window, he can only see his own reflection because the room light is turned on although the camera angle changes to a follow shot of Adam in which only his hand holding the payphone is visible, his head being blocked from view by his hood. When Adam and Henry met face to face for the first time, Adam was posing as a therapist named Lewis Farber. Henry believed that Adam was another man and was forced to kill him defending Abe. Adam later called Henry and revealed that he was Lewis Farber.^{[ep 11]}

He was intent on finding an ancient Roman dagger that the Nazi's took from him and during one visit to New York, asked Henry if he could let him know if he learned anything about it. Although he finds no leads on the dagger he leaves a ledger for Abe containing the identity of his parents, an act of kindness possibly motivated by him knowing that Abe had also been through the Holocaust.^{[ep 14]}

When meeting Henry at a museum event celebrating the discovery of the ship Henry was first killed aboard, Adam revealed himself and showed him the flintlock pistol that killed him and shortly after sent it to the antique store. He later called Henry from atop a girder and hinted that it could be possible that whatever causes an immortal's first death could be used to kill them permanently. This would suggest that in his case, it was the dagger. He mentioned that before the Nazi's took the dagger from him, he was unable to summon the courage to test this theory and asked that Henry let him know if he ever decided to test the pistol.

When Henry discovered what had happened to Abigail, he called Adam, initially believing that he had killed her. Adam then retold the story to Henry. Following being hit by a drunk driver, Abigail saved his life. Alive, albeit badly injured, Adam asked her to kill him and after explaining his secret to her he was met with an unusual reaction, belief. Aware that she had met an immortal, when Abigail left the room he killed himself with a defibrillator and went to her home the next day. Believing he meant harm to Henry, Abigail refused to tell him anything about him, -only leaving with him to protect a patient staying with her- going so far as to drive off the road and crash her car. Adam was able to resuscitate her, stating that he thought he was alone all this time. She told him "You are." before slitting her throat with his knife, setting him back thirty years on finding Henry.^{[ep 21]}

When Henry is looking for the man who stole the puggio, Adam appeared, and apparently tortured the man almost to death. Before the man died Adam appeared, and threatened Henry before he killed himself to get away. Later, Adam met with Henry and after Henry returned the puggio to him, he pulled the flintlock that had killed Henry and shot Henry in the chest. Before dying, Henry injected an air bubble into Adam's brain stem. Adam is sent to the hospital. Currently, he is completely conscious and self aware, but unable to move in any way, due to the injury to his brain stem. The doctor tells Henry that "this condition could last for a lifetime." Adam is told by Henry that they will find a way to solve their mystery because "they have eternity together."^{[ep 22]}

Trivia

• He is immortal, but he is far older than Henry, reaching 2,000+ years of age and, by now, views immortality as a curse.
• He has killed before.
• He has killed Henry, and knows how to slit a throat.
• Character may be based on the Wandering Jew story given his age.
• He was experimented on by Dr. Josef Mengele in Auschwitz during the Holocaust due to his condition.^{[ep 14]}
• Abigail saved his life.
• It was revealed in 'The Last Death of Henry Morgan' that he ressurects in water.
• He claimed that he was once a good man, and believed that he was the personification of one after 2000 years of life, directly implying that Henry will inevitably become just like him after a certain amount of time.
• Due to being alive for so long, seeing history repeat itself numerous times throughout the ages and everyone around him dying, it appears that Adam has become completely detached from the world and desensitised to death. As such he consequently displays a complete lack of emotion in most situations.
• Curiously, despite his very long life and claims of wanting to end it, he admits he has never been able to summon the courage to test his theory that immortals can be permanently killed by their original death weapons by killing himself with his Pugio dagger and has subsequently carried it around with him unused for the last two-thousand years. This indicates that, like Henry, he does not actually want to die yet, but wants to know if there was ever a way for him to do so when he inevitably got tired of living.

Memorable Quotes

• "Hello, Henry."
• "We're the same, you and I. We share the same pain, same curse, same affliction."
• "When you suffer from our condition, you realize -- murder, it's just a part of life. It's like breathing."
• "We're looking for the same thing Henry -- a way out."
• "The great curse for the immortal is that time ceases to exist."
• "What you fear, more than anything else, is someone learning your secret."

Gallery

Henry talks to Adam on the phone at night.

Adam telling Abraham about his knowledge of the latter's Auschwitz number tattoo

Adam and Henry talk face to face for the first time.

Screen capture of Adam's pugio

Screen capture of Adam's pugio.

Screen capture of cloth that covered Adam's pugio.

Screen capture of Adam's pugio.