| This article is about the character. For the episode, see Simon (episode). |
Simon Teller (Traveler 004 and later 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 classified as attempted suicide from being run over by a train. The historical record listed Simon as a John Doe, preventing the Director from learning 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[]
Prior to being sent into the past, 004 was acquainted with a woman named Traveler 0092.
As one of the earliest Travelers, his mission was to set up a communication infrastructure for other Travelers who were to come. Sometimes he was required to interface physical components, and often transacted with an intermediary named Terry for the items he required. However, his schizophrenia gradually manifested, first as mere voices, then as full-blown sensory delusions. In the middle of a coding job he imagined that authorities have discovered what he was doing. He fled out into the streets, screaming his surrender at searchlights trained on him. In the real world he was having a public meltdown on a suburban street in view of some passersby, who promptly called for medical authorities to deal with Simon.
He became a resident in the mental ward of Coastal Cross Memorial Hospital under the care of Dr. Carroll. He claimed his body was not his own and that he was sent from the future. Dr. Carroll dismissed his ramblings and treated him like any other patient, with drugs and therapy. Simon took up art to express himself, illustrating people and places of the future he remembered. Some of his artworks ended up on a charity gala hosted by the hospital in 2012, which attracted Vincent Ingram's notice and led to their first meeting.
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 claimed he was on a mission from the Director to help him. Simon agreed to collaborate with Vincent, lured by the promise that he will be "made whole" again. With Vincent procuring the necessary resources, Simon began to build a device in room 21C of the mental ward.
Simon became acquainted with Marcy Warton, an orderly at the ward. He tried to describe the future to her when she expressed interest in his drawings, though the immediate environs didn't help his credibility much. She signed up to be a test subject for the device, though she began to back out when she saw Simon tinkering with it. Vincent, however, had her forcefully strapped to the machine, starting Marcy's mental incapacitation. Marcy would become a patient in the mental ward subjected to repeated "treatment" sessions with the device, while Simon tried his best to fix both her and the device. (S2E10: 21C)
Simon became frustrated with the slow development on the project, as it lacked the room-temperature superconductor breakthroughs the Fraser meteor would bring. He pressured Vincent to ask the Director for plans for a qubit engine and a field generator, but Vincent insisted they should solve the technological issues themselves. The use of test subjects like Marcy and other patients in the ward gnawed at Simon's conscience as he argued that their project "hurt so many people." (S2E11: Simon)
Vincent eventually cut off funding to the mental ward of the hospital, resulting in its closure. Simon ended up on the streets by 2016, where he met the social worker David Mailer not long after David also rescued Marcy from the same. Simon learned to live by himself on the streets, doodling his artwork on public spaces while David occasionally checked on him. One such graffiti, a depiction of a shelter dome, attracts Marcy's attention, who has become host to Traveler 3569 by 2017. Simon acknowledges Marcy when they cross paths again, though Marcy has only just recovered some of her host's memories. (S2E10: 21C, S2E11: Simon)
At Ops, Simon is reticent to talk to Marcy and her teammates as he constantly hallucinates Vincent nearby telling him to be quiet. He tries to resort to "extreme measures" by cutting out his tongue, though fortunately the other Travelers restrain him. Once he's mellowed out, the team pieces enough information from his behavior to learn who he is. As the creator of the deep web back channel, Simon assists the team in locating Vincent by tracking down Katrina Perrow when the latter called the former with an unsecured phone, wearing nothing but his birthday suit.
While Grant MacLaren and Carly Shannon meet with Dr. Perrow, Marcy, Trevor Holden and Philip Pearson discuss why the Director wasn't able to help Simon. Marcy believes the Director didn't know; Trevor indicates no records of the institution made it past the 21st century, meaning Vincent covered his tracks and ensured the Director had no information to begin with. Simon eventually indicates he'd like to return back to the streets, and Marcy sends him off with some cash, art supplies, and an invitation to drop by anytime. Simon believes Marcy's sanity was restored by his machine and wishes he could get better too. Not long after Marcy's departure, however, Simon is snatched up by two men. (S2E11: Simon)
Vincent Ingram tasked Simon to create a consciousness transfer machine, and the latter agreed as he wants a host without Simon's disabilities. He puts Simon back to work on the machine at an undisclosed location. When the machine is nearly complete, Simon asks Vincent to hand him a screwdriver but the latter launches into a tirade against the Director, prompting Simon to get the tool himself.
Having proven it works with the subsequent transfer of 001 from Ingram to 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 railroad. Simon opens his eyes and realizes he's been duped when he hears the incoming train. As he was labeled 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)