| This article is about the character. For the episode, see Simon (episode). |
Simon Teller (Traveler 004 and Traveler 5069) is one of the first Travelers. He was responsible for setting up the traveler communication infrastructure in the deep web. His host body manifested schizophrenia, leading to him being sent to psychiatric hospitals and eventually the streets.
He assists Vincent Ingram, Traveler 001, in building a consciousness transfer machine in the 21st century under the promise that he would be placed in a host which wasn't compromised. However, 001 abandons him in the path of an incoming train, triggering a T.E.L.L. that overwrites 004 with another Traveler.
Averted Death[]
Nothing is known about the circumstances that originally turned Simon into a Traveler.
For Traveler 5069, his averted death was classed as attempted suicide from being run over by a train. The historical record wrote Simon's death as a John Doe, making the Director unaware of who was overwritten.
History[]
Host[]
Almost nothing is known about the host, only that they must have been on the brink of death and that their body was susceptible to Schizophrenia, which manifested itself under Traveler 004.
Traveler 004[]
As one of the earliest Travelers, his mission was to set up communication infrastructure for other travelers who were to come. However, at some point his body manifested schizophrenia which meant that he lived the rest of his life in mental institutions, hospitals, or on the streets.
He became a resident in a hospital ward some time before the charity auction and dinner, in 2012. While there, he revealed to those who were working for him that he's not in his own body and that he was sent from the future, although they just assumed that he was crazy due to the schizophrenia. He was on some medications and did art therapy, mainly drawing what is assumed to be various structures from the future. Many of his images were sold at the charity auction and dinner, which is where Vincent found out about him and later came to meet him in the hospital.
When Vincent visited him, Simon recognized immediately who it was and told him he was supposed to be dead and that they'd been searching for Vincent for years. However, Vincent convinced Simon to help him build a machine to transfer consciousness between bodies under the false pretense that the machine was supposed to cure Simon and that it was his new mission from the Director. Simon agreed and began to build it. An early test of the machine lead to Marcy becoming mentally disabled. Although unknown how many others used it, Simon did mention that it “hurt so many people.”
Some time after this, he was kicked out of the hospital, due to its closure as a result of following Vincent's removal of financial funding, and ended up living on the streets where he met David who helped to look after him. The Director was unable to help Simon as no records of the institution made it past the 21st century, as Trevor mentioned, meaning that the Director didn't know about his schizophrenia as Vincent had destroyed the records. (S2E10: 21C)
While out with David Mailer, Marcy Warton stumbles upon one of his pictures which was drawn on the ground. They then go to meet Simon who remembered Marcy from the hospital. They bring him back to the base to meet the team, which is when they found out that he was an early Traveler. Eventually, he asks to go back to the streets, so they give him some money and return him. He is then taken away by two men. (S2E11: Simon)
Vincent Ingram tasked Simon to create a consciousness transfer machine machine, and the latter agreed as he wants a host without Simon's disabilities. Having proven it works with the subsequent transfer of 001 from Ingram to Katrina Perrow, Simon lays in the machine and is told to keep his eyes closed as a 'test from the Director'. Implanted with a comm, he follows instructions from 001, now in Perrow's body, with 001's men laying him down on a train track where he would've died. As he was classed as a John Doe on the historical records, and hence no record of his schizophrenia, the Director replaces him with Traveler 5069. 004 dies screaming betrayal. (S2E12: 001, S3E01: Ilsa)
Traveler 5069[]
After jumping out of the train's way, Traveler 5069 is messaged by Perrow, who claims she couldn't bring herself to kill Simon because of his loyalty but the Director has no such restraints. After welcoming him to the 21st, 001 remotely burns 5069's comm. 5069 hears none of that over the noise of the train.
Simon turns up at the Core Traveler Team's Ops, seeking to conduct his mission of tagging every copy of the teams' confession videos on the internet for erasure by other Traveler teams. He's annoyed that he's recognized by Philip Pearson as he was supposed to be a random John Doe but realized that he'd overwritten another Traveler.
Philip then tells him, after he passive-aggressively attacks Philip for recording the confession tapes and praises the work of the Director, that he'd been placed in a body which suffered from extreme paranoid schizophrenia which was untreatable by Marcy and would likely suffer from an attack soon. He begins hallucinating his friend Traveler 2383, who was left with a debilitating disease in the future. The experience teaches him the lesson that even the Director makes mistakes. (S3E01: Ilsa)