Characters / No Ordinary Family

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Main Characters

Jim Powell (Michael Chiklis)

A police sketch artist, and patriarch of the Powell family. Was just a normal man with a dysfunctional family, until he suggested a trip to Brazil... and the rest, as they say, is history. Currently moonlights as a vigilante.

• Achilles' Heel: Jim isn't completely invulnerable. So far the only thing strong enough to actually hurt him is a high caliber bullet fired from close range. Jim tries to block bullets with his hands rather than his head as a result. On the other hand, his bullet-catching habits means he also tends to block everything with his hands, even force waves and electrical bolts from other supers. Fortunately, these he can stop just as well as he can bullets.
• Berserk Button: Never accuse Jim of cheating on his wife. EVER.
• Combat Pragmatist: Jim seems to be turning into this.
• Ground-Shattering Landing: For the first few episodes, though he gets better at it.
• Happily Married
• I Just Want to Be Special
• In a Single Bound
• Jumped at the Call: He has always wanted to make the world a better place and doesn’t hesitate to start doing so after getting powers that can help him catch particularly dangerous criminals.
• Kryptonite Factor: Cinoxate, a chemical found in most sunscreens and Stephanie's lipstick.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Bullets only hurt him at close range.
• Papa Wolf: He will tear his way through a wall or deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown whenever someone threatens or harms his kids and he is nearby (unless he has to hold back for the sake of the whole family).
• Personality Powers: Jim previously had to carry the weight of his family on his shoulders; he now has Super-Strength.
• Super-Strength
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Stephanie.

Stephanie Powell (Julie Benz)

• Action Mom: Stephanie starts spending a lot more time being there for her teenaged children once her superpowers give her time to get her work done faster, and is quick to travel across the country or fight super-powered criminals.
• Big Eater: A side effect of her powers makes her need a lot more food.
• Blessed with Suck: Stephanie, after a close shave with death, was injected with the serum, which augmented her super speed to the point of allowing her to travel through time. A nasty side-effect of this, however, is that her chromosomes are beginning to decay. As of the same episode she seems to have no control over this, meaning she is effectively cut off from using her powers AT ALL. Of course it resolves itself by the end of the episode.
• Calling the Old Man Out: After her parents literally invited themselves over and proceeded to be generally condescending to everyone.

• Healing Factor: Though, from what we've seen so far, she only heals faster, not better, which is unusual for this trope. Basically, she won't be regrowing limbs.

• Missing Mom: Formerly; her Super-Speed now gives her more time to spend with her children.
• Personality Powers: Stephanie's work formerly kept her too busy to spend time with her family. Now, with her Super-Speed, she can do both.

• Time Travel: As of "No Ordinary Future." Though she can't control it that well.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Jim.
• Would Hit a Girl

Daphne Powell (Kay Panabaker)

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Daphne is elected student body president by vowing to replace the gym lockers and allow cellphones in the hall, and there's no indication that she can't make good on those promises. She also sits on a three student council which votes on the guilt or innocence of rule-breakers facing detention or suspension.

• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Was this before gaining her powers. Due to her Laser-Guided Amnesia, she regresses to this, full force.
  • Until the next episode, at least.
• Compelling Voice: Daphne develops this power, which she uses to influence decisions.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Though she seems to have grown out of this.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Watcher wipes her memory of the last three months at the end of "No Ordinary Sidekick."
• Jedi Mind Trick: As of "No Ordinary Double Standard" when she used it to save herself and Chris from a mugger. Then she used it on her own father... Sure, it was just to get out of trouble (and maybe as a test), but this may be Foreshadowing a budding super-villain.
  • Lampshaded by Daphne in "No Ordinary Love."
• Personality Powers: Daphne is constantly worrying about what people think of her and her boyfriend; now she can read minds.
• Student Council President: Since "No Ordinary Friends." Also places her on the 'Peer Disciplinary Committee.'
• Telepathy

Jim Junior "J.J." Powell (Jimmy Bennett)

• Awesome by Analysis: While he doesn't always retain what he's learned, he can always do this on the spot.
• Ditzy Genius
• Eidetic Memory: Though it only lasts about six hours unless he spends the time to actually learn and retain the material through study.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Sure, Jim has Super-Strength, Daphne has mind-reading and Compelling Voice, and Stephanie can run fast. But JJ's power is definitely the most versatile. He's learned a language in half a day, identified a species of bacteria without a microscope and solved a ten-year murder case. Not to mention being immune to mind-affecting abilities if he thinks about it hard enough. Furthermore, his ability to see physics itself has proven rather useful; he's no slouch in a fistfight because of it.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Played straight during the first episode when the others exhibited superpowers and he was still the ordinary kid with the learning disability. Inverted for the next several episodes when he hides his powers so that he can pretend to be working hard in school so that his parents will be proud of him (he thinks they won't be proud of him if he's relying on his powers to succeed).
• Improbable Aiming Skills: A result of his Super-Intelligence. He uses it to play football. He ultimately uses it to take down Dr. King.

• Personality Powers: J.J.'s inferiority complex stemmed from the fact that he had a learning disability. Now, his powers have made him a super-genius.
• Precocious Crush: Develops one on Katie.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Tends to use this.
• Super-Intelligence
• Weaksauce Weakness: His powers short out when he gets preoccupied with his girlfriend Natalie.

Supporting Characters

George St. Cloud (Romany Malco)

The Casanova

• Genre Savvy: George loves superhero fiction and frequently references it while helping Jim learn about his powers and fight crime.
• Mission Control: He mostly stays out of the field while calling Jim with information on how to fight or catch the Villain of the Week.
• Muggle Best Friend: He is constantly there for the super-powered Powell family despite having no powers of his own, although that may change after he is exposed to the power gas in the finale.
• Token Minority; He is the only black character to appear in more than a few episodes.

Katie Andrews (Autumn Reeser)

• Ascended Fangirl: Katie is a lifelong fan of superhero comics and sci-fi shows and is excited when her boss gets real powers and makes Katie her sidekick.
• Brainy Brunette: Katie is a brilliant biochemist with red-brown hair.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Katie tends to talk too much about her love life, or her favorite comics and TV shows, but she's a good scientist and Hyper-Competent Sidekick.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: In "No Ordinary Proposal", Katie's voice is nervous but composed as she talks about how a kidnapper who has her in a headlock is someone she just met in the parking lot who is insistent about seeing her.
• Ditzy Genius: Katie regularly goes off on tangents, but she's just as good of a scientist as Stephanie.
• Genki Girl: Katie is a very chipper and excitable young woman.
• Genre Savvy: Katie is well aware of various superhero tropes and discusses them with her super-powered boss.
• Morality Pet: Katie brings out The Dragon's most kind and conflicted moments.
• Muggle Best Friend: She has no powers and is Stephanie's friend and confidant.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Her actress' pregnancy was written into Katie's storyline.
• Secret-Keeper: She is one of the only people to know about the Powells' powers.

"Joshua"/The Watcher (Josh Stewart)

• Badass in a Nice Suit
• Becoming the Mask: Has rejected Dr. King's employment in favor of a life with Katie.
• Brought Down to Normal
• Chekhov's Gunman: The Watcher is seen standing next to Jim in a flashback to Stephanie's promotion ceremony early in the pilot. The final scene of the same episode reveals that he's The Dragon.
• Combo Platter Powers: He's shown telekinesis as his main hat, but has also demonstrated a psychic shield, manipulation of internal organs, and memory manipulation.
• The Dragon: To Dr. King, until he quit.
• Heel–Face Turn: Though even then, as of the finale, he's apparently 'offered' his services to the Powells as they go to him to get rid of Victoria's body. Thus doing for them similar things as what he did for King.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: He has not told Dr. King that Jim has powers. Thus far, his stated reason is because he wants to know why Jim and family have permanent powers rather than temporary. Especially since his powers are of the latter variety; he requires injections to keep his.
• Hitman with a Heart: He wants out.
• In Love with the Mark:
• Line-of-Sight Name: Where he gets his second alias.
• Mind over Matter
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bringing Victoria to Mrs. X to be revived is likely what drew Mrs. X's attention to the Powell situation.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: All instances of Nightmare Fuel on the main page are attributed to him.
• The Power of Love: His love for Katie inspired his Heel–Face Turn.
• Psychic Powers
• Put on a Bus: Literally; he was last seen riding a bus into the distance.
  • The Bus Came Back He returns in the finale.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Posed as Katie's boyfriend Will Joshua in order to get closer to the Powells.

Minor Characters

Detective Frank Cordero (/Guillermo Díaz)

• Dropped a Bridge on Him/Bus Crash: He hadn't been seen in a while and, when he is killed off, he was about to transfer to another precinct.
• I Owe You My Life: Cordero begins acting much warmer toward Jim after finding out that Jim saved his life and didn't publicize the fact or bask in how heroic it was.
• Jerkass: Though he became much politer to Jim after the latter saved Cordero's life.
• Non-Protagonist Resolver: In his first appearance, Cordero and not Jim is the one to ultimately stop a murderous vigilante by drawing him out with a sting operation and then regretfully shooting him when he elects to commit Suicide by Cop.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Cordero can be a cold and judgmental man, but not an entirely unreasonable and uncompassionate one even before his Character Development.
  • In his first appearance, he expresses annoyance that Jim is showing so much concern over the attempted murder of a career criminal and Asshole Victim when the police have limited resources and there are many other open cases with more sympathetic victims. However once the shooter strikes again and kills someone, Cordero takes the case more seriously and also tells George that he thinks the suspect he's pointed them to is guilty (he is) and worth further investigation even though there's no immediate evidence.
  • In another episode, he refuses to let a witness to a home invasion remain anonymous despite the boy's fear of the robbers (pointing out that the crooks will walk in court if he keeps the boy out of it), but he does post a police guard on the boy and his family.
  • In "No Ordinary Quake", Cordero discusses an investigation with Jim after learning that he and his family feel invested in due to being witness and doesn't come across as unreasonable when he won't let Jim look at a surveillance tape due to the tape eliminating any need for one of Jim's sketches and Jim not being a cop.

Detective Yvonne Cho (Christina Chang)

• Disposable Woman

• Hell-Bent for Leather: Cho wears multiple leather jackets and kills an armed murderer during the climax of the pilot.
• Killed Off for Real
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Cho is the only cop who appreciates Jim's contributions to their cases. She also picks up on the pattern of how he's been involving himself in cases after he gets powers. Her reaction to seeing him use his powers isn't an entirely understanding one, but she still says that she won't arrest him for his vigilantism if he stops taking the law into his own hands. She also seems contemplative when Jim says that she may need him if more super-powered villains show up and he'll be waiting for her to change her mind.

Dr. Francis Chiles (Reggie Lee)

• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Chiles is mad that Stephanie keeps him in the dark about her work (although she has her reasons) and King tries to use him as a spy even though he spent eight years teaching at CalTech and ten years working at GlobalTech.

• Everyone Has Standards: While Chiles resents and mocks Stephanie, he confines himself to insults and seems to draw the line at actively working against his colleague.
  • When Chiles finds Stephanie's research regarding super powers, he warns her (albeit smarmily) that a previous employee already pursued that angle and got fired, rather than trying to sabotage or discredit her.
  • He refuses King's orders to spy on Stephanie (which costs him his job) and also gives her a veiled warning about what King's up to while cleaning out his desk.
• Jerkass
• Killed Off for Real
• Smug Snake: Chiles is very cocky about his own scientific expertise and is unfairly dismissive of Stephanie's accomplishments, which prove to be far more valuable.

Mr. Litchfield (Jason Antoon)

• Asshole Victim
• Jerkass: Actually called J.J. "stupid" to his face, and blackmailed J.J. into joining the Academic Decathlon team so Natalie's scholarship wouldn't be yanked. He was being paid by Dr. King to do this.
• Killed Off for Real
• The Mole
• Sadist Teacher: Has been shown to be ruthless regarding the students in general, and J.J. in particular.
• Smug Snake

Villains

Dr. Dayton King (Stephen Collins)

• Affably Evil: Acts very friendly toward allies, enemies, and everyone in general.
• All Your Powers Combined: His second trylcettum injection gives him Jim's, Stephanie's and Daphne's powers along with his own.
• Badass in a Nice Suit
• Bad Boss: Aside from the whole superpowers thing, he had Dr. Chiles, one of his best employees, fired and killed in order to cover his tracks, and attempted to kill Katie in order to keep Watcher working for him.
• Big Bad
• Body Horror: Dies from twenty years of cancer eating his body up at once.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: To Jim, after his second trylcettum injection.
• Eye Scream: Courtesy of J.J.
• Healing Factor
• Love Makes You Crazy And Evil
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Attempted to get rid of Jim, but ultimately fails.
• The Unfettered
• Wham Line: "Good luck trying to kill a man that can't die."

Victoria Morrow/Amelia Hammond (Rebecca Mader)

• Back from the Dead
• The Dragon: To Dr. King, after Watcher's resignation.
• Love Makes You Evil: Most of her actions are out of love for Joshua.
• Shapeshifting
• This Was Her True Form
• Unexplained Recovery: After being seemingly killed by Jim.

Helen Burton (Lucy Lawless)

• Bad Boss: Implies that she would have killed Dr. King had he not surprised her with the news that he may be able to make the trylcettum injections permanent.
• Big Bad: Now that Dr. King is out of the way.
• The Woman Behind the Man: Is Dr. King's immediate superior.
• War for Fun and Profit: Her motivation.

Rebecca Jessup (Rachel Miner)

• Anti-Villain: Unlike most of the super-powered criminals in the show, Rebecca wants to suppress her destructive powers with anti-epilepsy drugs and stop King from hurting other people. However, she injures, endangers, and in one case kills people with her powers during pharmacy robberies or attempts to stop her.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Rebecca hates how her powers cause destructive earthquakes that she can't always control. She tells King that she wants her old life back and if he can't give it to her, then maybe she should just kill him so he can't inflict the same misery on anyone else.
• Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life: Like most of the Global Tech super-powered individuals, Rebecca was recruited out of prison in the Back Story. She was serving a sentence for passing bad checks prior to the series and ends up stuck with destructive powers that she hates, and becomes a fugitive for killing someone while trying to steal drugs to suppress those powers.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Rebecca has very dark hair and very pale skin. She doubles as an Aloof Dark-Haired Girl due to her sense of bitterness and refusal to trust Jim when he tries to appeal to their Commonality Connection.

Theo Patton (Alex Solowitz)

• Badass Longcoat: Theo wears a billowy overcoat and has very effective control over his Playing with Fire powers.
• Disney Villain Death
• Personality Powers: A serial arsonist with Pyrokinesis.
• Playing with Fire
• Pyromaniac

Lucas Winnick (Eric Balfour)

• Berserk Button: Lucas doesn't like being compared to an animal, even though his Personality Powers and brutality make it a perfectly fair description.
• Expy: Winnick's animal based powers, slightly scraggly appearance, and eagerness to inflict violence with his new claws and teeth make him an expy of Sabretooth from the X-Men.
• Personality Powers: Was apparently a "real animal" when he was a kid.
• Serial Killer: He is implied to have killed at least four people for fun or out of anger, and then he got powers...

Reed Koblenz (Jamie Harris)

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Reed's a thief and a murderer, but he has a girlfriend who bailed him out of jail and is sheltering him. After getting into a gunfight with the cops at her house, he warns her to get out of town.
• Starter Villain: He is the antagonist of the pilot, and the Big Bad of the series is only revealed after Reed's death.
• Weaponized Teleportation: He has the power to teleport and uses this in fights to avoid being hit and to get behind his opponent without being seen.

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