Cliff Stanfield

**Cliff Stanfield** is a character appearing in Beyond The Sea. He is portrayed by Aaron Paul.

## History

Cliff was an astronaut two years into a six-year space mission, but was able to return to Earth to visit his family via a lifelike replica. He and his wife, Lana, were distant despite this because Cliff had recently removed them away from their friends to a remote location and moved about with each other mostly silently.

Cliff was on the station with David Ross, and when David's family was murdered and his replica destroyed, Cliff had to leave him alone on the station to continue to visit his own family. When Cliff found David in the airlock one day, seemingly contemplating suicide, Lana suggested that Cliff allow David to use his replica, just to allow him a little time on Earth to take a walk and feel the breeze. She said their son, Henry, didn't need to know as it would confuse him to have someone else in his father's body.

After David's visit, he drew Cliff's house, which impressed him. David offered to paint a painting of his house if Cliff would allow him to keep using his link. Cliff agreed and they decided he would go for one hour, once a week, while Cliff was doing his physical.

They continued his routine until after one visit, Lana told Cliff that David had hit Henry for ruining the painting. Cliff said it was fine, that Henry needed someone to keep him in line and brushed off Lana's concern. He said he wanted to let David finish the painting, which would only take a few more visits, and then he'd make up some excuse to stop the visits.

When Cliff went to do his physical on the next visit, there was an error, so Cliff wandered the station instead and ended up in David's space, where he had drawings of his family on the walls. Cliff went through a pile of drawings and found some David had drawn of Lana, including several nudes. He confronted David about it, thinking they were having an affair, but David denied anything, though he said that Lana was all alone and unappreciated.

Cliff then confronted Lana, who also denied an affair. But she did remind him that she asked Cliff to stop allowing David to visit. She also admitted that while David didn't touch her, a part of her wished he would because for a moment, it felt like her husband was back and saw that she was real. Cliff hugged her and apologized.

Back on the station, David apologized for overstepping and said he wanted to make one last visit to apologize to Lana himself and say goodbye, but Cliff said Lana didn't want to see him because he was a con man of the worst kind and she didn't want him near her.

While Cliff was with his family, he got called back to the station for an emergency. David told him there was a coolant leak and helped him get ready to go repair it. When Cliff arrived at the sit where the leak was supposed to be, he found no leak. He returned to the door to find it locked and David not responding to him. David finally appeared and let him back in the station, but when Cliff went to retrieve his belongings, he found that David had his tag. He immediately went back to Earth to see what David had done with it. He found blood on his hands and followed a trail of blood to learn that David had killed Lana and Henry.

Cliff went back to the station, where David just offered him a chair.

## Relationships

He was distant from his wife after moving them to an isolated area.