User:El Sandifer/Heroes/Characters/Monica Dawson

Monica Dawson
Heroes character
Dana Davis as Monica Dawson
First appearance	"The Kindness of Strangers"
Portrayed by	Dana Davis
In-universe information
Alias	Saint Joan
Ability	Adoptive muscle memory

Monica Dawson, portrayed by Dana Davis, is a fictional character on the NBC science fiction Television drama|drama series Heroes (U.S. TV series)|Heroes. She is in her early 20s from New Orleans with the power to mimic any physical motion she witnesses.

Character concept

Monica Dawson is one of many new characters to join the second season of the series. She is the first cousin of Micah Sanders, and niece of D. L. Hawkins. She also has a younger brother named Damon. She lives with her grandmother, Nana Dawson, who takes on responsibility of caregiver to Monica and her brother. Monica and the Dawson family live in New Orleans which was heavily flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina. It is known that her mother was killed during the devastation of Katrina.

TV Guide describes Monica as "an avenging angel intent on bringing justice to prevalent corruption," obviously inspired by the death of her mother. Her family home was flooded, leaving her family with financial difficulties, and of course the sudden loss of her mother. She works hard to support her brother and grandmother (played by Nichelle Nichols). Furthermore she has to deal with the implications of discovering she has a special ability. "She's a good girl with a good heart who has had her life taken from her, and she's looking for a way out." She adopts the a role of surrogate caregiver to Niki Sanders|Niki and D.L. Hawkins|D.L.'s son Micah Sanders|Micah who lives with the Dawson family during the second season.

Characteristics

Description of the character personality is scarce, although the show's writers have described her as an "extremely kind young hero, and one to willingly give up everything to help the people close to her."

Story arc

When she first appears, Monica displays a drive to support her family, and plans to move up to a management job in the fast-food restaurant where she works in order to make enough money to move them out of New Orleans. She is approached by Mohinder Suresh, who offers to help her understand her powers. He then proceeds to test her and almost injects her with a variation of the Shanti virus in order to negate her powers under Bob's orders but is unable to do it. She is then released and given an iPod with useful skills to mimic.

In "Truth and Consequences", she helps Micah take back his backpack from a group of big gangsters, but fails and eventually gets captured and tied up. In "Powerless", Niki and Micah rescue her from the burning building and she gets the backpack with the comics and medal inside, but Niki is trapped inside the building as it explodes.

Powers and abilities

Monica has the power of adoptive muscle memory, or photographic reflexes, allowing her to replicate any physical motion she witnesses without having to practice it. For example, in "The Kindness of Strangers (Heroes)|The Kindness of Strangers", she subconsciously creates a tomato rose after glancing at a cooking show her grandmother was watching. Later on, she stops a robber with a wrestling move (Rey Mysterio, Jr.|Rey Mysterio's Professional wrestling attacks#Tiger feint kick|619) that she saw during a match on TV. In the following episode, Micah helps her hone her powers, and she learns piano, Double Dutch (jump rope)|double-dutch, and martial arts from a movie. She learns gymnastics while with the Company during the episode "The Line", and Bob Bishop (Heroes)|Bob gives her an iPod loaded with video demonstrations of any skill she wants to learn. Her powers only allow her to duplicate what she is physically capable of doing; she cannot duplicate the powers of other evolved humans.