Lord Darlington

## Darlington

> Though I do not dispute the fact that we have descended from neanderthals, the very notion that somehow, under duress, we can convert back is simply preposterous.
> But if only—
> It is an insult to the very core of this historical society. We are scientists, learned men, we deal in facts. Your theory is pure lunacy, as crazy and deranged as that mad-man who escaped from the asylum.
>
> Lord Darlington and Charles

**Lord Darlington** is a minor character in *Primal*. He is a late 19th century scientist and former Oxford champion boxer in England, originally from Boston, Massachusetts.

## Appearance

Darlington is a tall, middle-aged human man. He sports a full head of neck-length light brown hair and mutton chops. He wore a tuxedo and bow tie, which he progressively lost more of throughout the episode. Since he was a boxing champion, he is well-built, though perhaps not as well-built as he previously was. His hair becomes loose and flowing by the end of the episode.

## Personality

As a wealthy Englishman during the Victorian era, Darlington is naturally well-spoken. He evidently does not believe Charles' theory about man's potential savagery, and even cracks a few jokes with the other scientists about it. This can be seen further when he jokes to the Constable that Charles is the escaped Mad-Man.

During the Mad-Man's invasion, Darlington was able maintain a higher degree of composure during times of duress, as he is quick to regain his wits and composition, even as a crazed hulking Mad-Man wrecks havoc around his home. He's also a man of moral character as he frequently shows concern for the wellbeing of his friends and goes out of his way to try to protect or help them from the Mad-Man.

However, Darlington starts to resort to more desperate and primitive means to combat the Mad-Man, gradually becoming more aggressive against him in the process. Though he contrasts the Mad-Man in that, while Darlington starts to call upon his primal savage instincts, he still maintains a calculating mind and approach to combat. Darlington constantly seeks to avoid direct confrontation and dodge the attacks of the Mad-Man while the lunatic lets himself be struck repeatedly by Darlington. Darlington uses terrain like highground, aims for critical spots on the Mad-Man's body, and is overall more precises and deliberate as opposed to the Mad-Man's frenzied flailing and attempts to bite and grapple.

By the conclusion of the affair, Darlington was shocked both by the horror of the evening's events and his own brutal killing of the Mad-Man. He could only stare in shocked silence when Charles exclaimed triumph in the validy of his theory being proven by Darlington himself. While in the end, however, Charles was somewhat correct in that humans like Darlington can become savages when put in life or death situation, Darlington still maintained his morality and ability to think. Darlington was deliberate in his aggression in response to an extreme situation but didn't devolve the way the Mad-Man did.

## History

Lord Darlington is first seen standing in the study during the night, listening to Charles' lecture and informing Blakely on where the lecture was at, prior to his arrival. He jokes about Charles' theory, using Blakely as an example of "unleashing his inner Mad-Man".

When the Constable arrives to inform the men of an escaped inmate, Darlington jokingly points to Charles and accuses him of being the mad-man. He agrees with Charles that humans descended from Neanderthals, and proceeds to explain to him why he disagrees with Charles' claim of returning to savagery under duress. He sends Stevens upstairs to investigate a loud noise, and upon hearing a second loud noise, assumes the matter has been dealt with.

Seeing the blood dripping through the ceiling, he marches upstairs with Charles and Giroud to locate the cause of it, only to find Stevens' body being eaten by the inmate. The men race back downstairs when Darlington is pounced on by the Mad-Man-man, until Charles breaks a chair across his back. After watching Bertie get killed, Darlington and the two remaining men attempt to flee through the front door, but are forced to barricade themselves in another room when the door is blocked.

When the Mad-Man breaks through the window behind them, Darlington leads Charles and Blakely to a room filled with firearms, swords and collected armor pieces. He loads a revolver, which he uses to shoot at the Mad-Man, but the Mad-Mans' agility makes this a difficult task. Darlington instructs the other men to arm themselves, so they can hunt the Mad-Man. They encounter it again but are unable to land any shots on it until it charges at Charles, allowing Darlington to shoot the Mad-Man in the shoulder, causing it to flee further into the house.

The two remaining men follow the Mad-Man, but lose their guns once he ambushes them from the roof. Darlington challenges the Mad-Man to a fist-fight which, thanks to his previous experience as a champion boxer, leads him to land many punches on the Mad-Man but is eventually overpowered. Once freed, Darlington uses a bow to ward the Mad-Man off, seemingly killing it. He and Charles go to inspect where the Mad-Man fell, but find he is nowhere to be found. Darlington correctly assumes he is hiding in the bushes, and waits until he emerges before releasing another arrow, which slices his scalp.

After Charles is badly beaten by the Mad-Man, and he nearly downs, Darlington faces him down in one-on-one combat. A tree falls through the roof of the greenhouse, which provides Darlington with his next weapon - a spear. He uses the spear (which quickly breaks into a sharpened stick) and increasingly primitive methods, to great effect, inflicting many stab wounds upon the mad-man. Darlington eventually skewers him through the head, ending the carnage at last. Charles uses this moment to prove his theory correct, but Darlington takes no note - he only stares into the distance and contemplates the night's events. ("The Primal Theory")

## Abilities

* **Combat Proficiency:** Though he is apparently not as young or spry as he used to be, in a life-threatening situation he proves to be much more capable than he seems. As a former Oxford boxing champion, he has displayed strong skills in hand-to-h and combat.
	+ **Weapon Proficiency:** Darlington has shown himself to be handy with various forms of weaponry, ranging from firearms to bows and arrows. Once finally abandoning all forms of ranged weaponry, he proves lethal in mêlée combat and is able to single handily kill the Mad-Man with a broken spear.

## Trivia

* Lord Darlington appears to be themed after **Cyril Dean Darlington** who was an English biologist, cytologist, geneticist and eugenicist, who discovered the mechanics of chromosomal crossover. Like his real-life counterpart, Darlington was a botanist and took up boxing in his youth. However, it is unlikely that he is the real C.D Darlington, since the episode takes place in 1890, thirteen years before he was born.
* Darlington appears to be a collector of many foreign items, such as Japanese Samurai armor, firearms typically used in the American Old West and many types of medieval era weapons. This was quite typical for many wealthy Victorians at the time.
* Darlington's behavior in the latter half of the episode, such as the way he took in a primitive fighting method and use of a spear, strongly parallel Spear. Another similarity is that while spear was primitive, he also possessed the ability to think and be deliberate when fighting a stronger foe as when he and Fang used fire and laid a trap for the night feeder. Darlington and Spear both also possess a sense of morality and do not fight out of sadism or pleasure but to survive and to protect the people they care about.