Sheryl Goodspeed

“*The day I lost your dad, my heart shattered. Whatever was left was too small to love anything anymore.*”
―Sheryl
**Sheryl Goodspeed** is a major character in *Final Space.*

Sheryl is an intergalactic criminal, the ex-wife of John Goodspeed, and the mother of Gary Goodspeed.

## Biography

### Pre-Series

Sheryl used to belong to a rival faction of the Infinity Guard. She was assigned by her superior to seduce John Goodspeed to gain his trust and steal his plans for a new weapon for the Infinity Guard. However, she fell in love with John for reals, and thus she kept finding excuses to prolong her mission. Eventually, John found out when she revealed John's plan to make an Anti-matter bomb, which John found out when he heard their baby Gary crying. It broke John's heart to realize that his wife, who'd had a child with him, had betrayed him, and he told her to leave. Sheryl, regretting her action and shedding tears, blamed the infant Gary for exposing her, rather than acknowledging her own deceptions.

It's unknown if John ever forgave her, but it seems like Sheryl came back to her husband and son sometime later, but her heart broke when John died in the explosion while closing the breach with Final Space. She then neglected her son Gary, then a little boy, and left him soon after losing her husband.

At some point, Sheryl was contacted by a Titan named Oreskis, who told her that she could recover her husband by getting the Dimensional Keys for him. He also warned her to prevent Bolo from being released from his prison, with the lie that Bolo was evil.

Since then, Sheryl has been a notorious criminal, with a talent for breaking out every time she got captured.

### Season 2

After never being seen or mentioned in Season 1, she makes her debut in Season 2 when Gary learns from David Dewinter that Sheryl's imprisoned on Sorbo, and scheduled for execution. Along with the rest of the Team Squad, he decided to visit her to give her a piece of his mind about abandoning him, but once mother and son were reunited he quickly fell for her charms, and helped her escape instead. He and Clarence then helped her steal a jewel from the Polyhedron Fortress. Only after Sheryl abandoned Gary again, taking the jewel (which turned out to contain a Dimensional Key) with her, was Gary reminded about what kind of person his mother truly is.

When Todd Watson blamed Gary for losing the Earth and taking away his family, he sends bounty hunters to capture Sheryl to make her reveal where her son is. Sheryl easily kills most of these hunters, she eventually lets herself get caught just to find out who keeps sending them. While this causes initial hostility between Sheryl and Todd, they eventually ally when they realize they both hate Gary. Sheryll tells Todd that she is interested in obtaining Dimensional Keys to get to Final Space with the hope of finding her husband.

After finding the fourth Dimensional Key, Sheryl tricks Clarence to bring her the two Keys that Gary's team possessed. She then coldly rejects Clarence and leave to Rugaro in search of the fifth and last Key. After missing the Key, Sheryl gets into a fight with Gary and Nightfall in which Gary ends up skewing her with Nightfall's spear and finally confronts her for her abandonment and unjustified resentment. However, Gary decides to take her to the ship as a prisoner instead of letting her die.

After a failed escape attempt, Tribore realizes that they would need her help to face the Titans. Tribore, H.U.E. and Fox take Sheryl to the virtualizer where they recreate the moment John left her. Although Sheryl insists that Gary was the one who ruined everything between them, Tribore makes her understand that Gary is actually the product of their love and that she only blames him for having ruined the happy life she led herself. H.U.E. then shows her images of the possible moments she could have with her family having stayed instead of running away. This really makes Sheryl see the mistakes she made and all the moments she missed, but Tribore tells her that although it is late for those, she can still create new moments because although John is gone, she still has Gary.

When the crew tried to leave the collapsing Inner Space, Sheryl shows up to help asking Gary for forgiveness for the decades of delay. After assuming control of the ship and leaving Inner Space, Sheryl joins Gary and the rest of the crew on the trip to Final Space.

## Appearance

She has bright blonde hair, now slightly grayed as a result of age. It sits at her shoulders and is quite unkept. She has sky blue eyes with a grey tint.

## Personality

Upon her debut, Sheryl was a loner who looked out for number one and had no qualms in double-crossing anyone to get what she wanted, and her son was no exception.

Her past as a spy for a rival organization to the Infinity Guard made her discrete, keeping things close to the vest, and opportunistic. When she was assigned to seduce John Goodspeed to acquire secrets he was privy to, she didn't expect to fall in love, much less to become a mother.

When her secret as a spy was accidentally blown by her son, Gary Goodspeed, which caused John to turn her away, rather than acknowledge her own deceptions Sheryl instead laid blame upon Gary, telling her own baby son she wished he'd never been born. She descended into a downward spiral, refusing to admit to her own wrongs, always scapegoating Gary, even after the death of her estranged husband, as she soon after abandoned Gary and turned to a life of crime.

Years later, when her adult son would ask her why she wanted nothing to do with him, Sheryl answered that after John's death, her heart was shattered and what remained couldn't love anyone else. Gary's response that he would have settled even for one little piece of her heart, even a little love, and though Sheryl looked momentarily remorseful she simply shrugged it off and left.

Later on, her animosity and spite became more apparent as she conspired with Todd H. Watson/Hushfluffles to acquire the Dimensional Keys from Gary and his crew, having no qualms with selling her son out and when they confronted each other, she unloaded her pent-up resentment on Gary until he and Nightfall subdued her and Gary finally unloaded his own demons on his mother, which left her speechless and even tearful.

Despite another attempt to threaten him for the Keys, Sheryl was made to finally face the truth of her past by Tribore and seeing what could have been, a happy and wonderful life with her husband *and* her son, Sheryl finally accepted that she had been blaming Gary so that she didn't have to face the truth that all her miseries and heartbreak were her own fault, and she finally accepted Gary as her son and aided him.

## Abilities and Equipment

Sheryl is a master combatant and escape artist, quickly freeing herself from being restrained on more than one occasion.

In addition to laser pistols, Sheryl wields dual energy swords in combat. While helping to free Bolo, she utilizes two energy cutlasses to deadly effect.

She is very good at charming people into liking her and assisting her wit her plans, as seen in "The Notorious Mrs. Goodspeed" where, with the exception of Nightfall, she managed to wrap the entire Team Squad around her finger, and convinced them they had to rob the Polyhedron Fortress.

## Relationships

### Gary Goodspeed - Son

At first, Sheryl cared very little for her son, not above using him to steal a Dimensional Key. Sheryl's contempt of her son began when he was only a baby and his crying led to Sheryl's role as a spy being revealed to her husband, John. He told her to leave and instead of acknowledging her duplicities Sheryl blamed Gary, telling her infant son she wished he'd never been born. Her resentment continued even after John's death and though Gary lived with Sheryl a short while she neglected him and abandoned him soon after.

They wouldn't meet again for many years when Gary helped Sheryl break out of prison and though it seemed for a short while they were getting along she attempted to slip away, only to run into Gary, who wasn't surprised in the least, as he asked her why she wanted nothing to do with him. Sheryl answered that after John's death, her heart was shattered to pieces and what was left wasn't enough to love anyone else. Gary responded that he would have happily accepted even just one little piece, that even a little love would have been enough for him. Though Sheryl seemed to be remorseful for a moment, she quickly shrugged it off and left (stealing one of the Dimensional Keys Gary had collected).

They met again after Sheryl agreed to help Todd H. Watson to take revenge on Gary in exchange for his help getting the Keys Gary had collected, and Sheryl unloaded all her resentment and issues onto Gary, but he turned them around back on her, leaving her speechless and even shedding tears.

Despite another attempt afterwards to take the keys, Sheryl was made to undergo a unique therapy by Tribore, who helped her see the happy life she could have had with her family and how wrong she'd been to blame Gary for how it all turned out instead of herself. Finally accepting Gary as her son, Sheryl aided him in the mission to reach Final Space, this time with sincerity and a real mother's love.

During season 3, this return to motherly love began awkwardly during "One of Us" but only grew more and more especially in the episode "Change is Gonna Come" when Gary is in pain during the operation to save Quinn, Sheryl worried about the life of her son, fearing that he would not survive and in the episode "Until the Sky Falls" where, while she can leave Final Space, she prefers to stay with Gary and Team Squad because she does not wish to lose Gary, her son, just as she lost her former husband, John.

### John Goodspeed - Husband

Sheryl was assigned by her superior to seduce John Goodspeed to learn classified Infinity Guard secrets. She didn't expect to fall in love with him, much less have his child. After baby Gary's crying caused Sheryl's deceptions to be revealed, John told Sheryl to leave. Despite their falling out, Sheryl continued to love John but blamed her son for tearing their relationship apart.

She continued to love John even after his death, as she became obsessed with acquiring the Dimensional Keys to get her husband back.

After Tribore's therapy, Sheryl saw the happy life she could have had with her family, with John and Gary, and realized how wrong she'd been to blame the child she and John had together. She thus resolved to do the right thing by helping Gary in honor of John.

## Little Cato - Adopted Grandson

after Garys and Little Catos father/son relationship matures, Little Cato eventually begins to see Sheryl as a grandmother, and while Sheryl is at first against this, she quickly warms up to the idea, even offering advice to Little Cato over wanting to know more about his biological mother