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John Young
JY
Portrayed by Luke Mitchell
Mitchell Kummen (young John)
First Seen Pilot
Last Seen Son of Man
Episode Count 22
Details
Powers Telekinesis
Telepathy
Teleportation
Species Homo superior (restored)
Homo sapiens (formerly)
Age 27-28
Occupations Agent of Ultra (formerly)

Leader of the Tomorrow People (formerly)
Second-in-command of The Tomorrow People (formerly)
Jedikiah's Agent (currently)

Significant Other Cara Coburn (Ex-Girlfriend)
Astrid Finch (Former Girlfriend/He lost his memories of her)
Status Alive


Astrid, when I kiss you next time, it's not going to be because the world is ending.
— John to Astrid in Kill Switch


John Young is the former leader and one of the Tomorrow People who specializes in teleportation. He was cured in A Sort of Homecoming. Jedikiah gave him Roger's powers in Son of Man and he lost his memories of the Tomorrow People and the friends he knew. John currently works for Jedikiah.

He is portrayed by Luke Mitchell.

Biography[]

John Young is the cool rebel leader with a troubled past who is searching for his place in the world. John had a very troublesome upbringing. He was in a foster home  with several other kids and an aggressive alcoholic father who abused him verbally and physically. He had to steal food just to feed his family while the state money was squandered on booze. John was taken to Ultra by Jedikiah Price where he was trained in all his abilities. In the episode Kill Or Be Killed, it is revealed that John has the ability to kill because he was part of a lethal experiment called the Anax Project. The prime barrier of his brain that stored his inability to kill was fried out through a serum called Dolofonium-6. This experiment was successful for him, unlike many other participants, but John soon left Ultra because Jedikiah manipulated him into killing Roger, something that haunted John for years.

Early Life[]

In Kill Or Be Killed, it is revealed that Jedikiah found John in foster care. At this point, John already had good control of his abilities and was using them to steal food for his foster siblings. Not much is known about his parents or the events before Jedikiah found him; however, it is made clear that his foster father was physically and verbally abusive. Jedikiah removed John from the home, paying his foster father compensation for taking him away. John was then trained at Ultra with fellow young Tomorrow person Killian McCrane. The two often trained together and became friends. John later returned to his foster home, revealing to his foster father that he had powers. Upon learning this, the foster father attacks John, but Jedikiah interrupts this altercation by shooting his foster father and taking John back to Ultra for training. 

In Sitting Ducks, in a series of flashbacks, teenage John is shown using his abilities to defend his friend from being robbed. After he admits this to Jedikiah, he is forced to watch from inside a car as the man is killed.

Season One[]

In the Pilot, John is introduced to be the leader of the Tomorrow People. He has hope that Stephen will be able to find his father and lead the Tomorrow People to a safe land. When Stephen starts working for the Jedikiah, John becomes mistrustful of him. Towards the end of "In Too Deep", John becomes more trustful of Stephen, suggesting that he should work Jedikiah as an inside man, spying for the tomorrow people. 

In Kill Or Be Killed, Killian McCrane, an old friend of John's, comes out of hiding by blowing up a series of buildings across the US. At first it is thought that Killian was trying to kill Jedikiah, but it is soon revealed that the person he wants is John. John and Stephen track Killian to a warehouse adjacent to the Youth Orchestra auditorium. Killian plans to blow it up mid concert. Killian easily takes out Stephen and truns to fight John, asking him about why he left Ultra and what Jedikiah did to make John turn away from him. Killian proposes that John joins him, that together they can get revenge on Jedikiah and the company. John refuses and Killian leaves John and Stephen with six bombs to disarm simultaneously. John realizes that Killian had been testing him with the bombs, to find out if he was still a worthy adversary. 

Jedikiah asks to meet with John in order to discuss how to take down their mutual enemy, Killian. John reluctantly agrees to work with him. John tracks Killian to a parking lot. John tries to persuade Killian to leave and go back into hiding. Killian points out that he will not go 'underground' like John, indicating that Jedikiah has always known John was hiding his group under the city somewhere. It turns physical. During their fight, Jedikiah sends in Alpha unit, a kill squad, to take out both John and Killian. Stephen is able to warn John in time and John and Killian relocate away from the Alpha unit and continue fighting, John trying to give Killian one more chance to leave. Killian bates John telling him that Jedikiah didn't give him 'the gift' that he gave to Killian, that John can't kill him so John can never win the fight. John then shoots Killian, revealing that Jedikiah did the same thing to him as he did Killian, that John can kill. 

At the end of this episode, John teleports into Jedikiah's car, confronting him about his betrayal. During their conversation, John states that he left Ultra because Jedikiah made him kill, telling Jedikiah that he hates him for what he made John. The conversation ends with John telling Jedikiah that the Tomorrow People are not running anymore, that they will do anything to stop him. 

During this episode flashbacks reveal how John met Jedikiah.

In All Tomorrow's Parties, the Tomorrow People want to go topside, and get out of their underground hiding place in order to relax for the evening and have fun. John is against the idea, stating that it is too dangerous. He and Cara make a deal to jaunt, whoever won the jaunt would get their way. Cara wins and the Tomorrow People go out for the evening. John joins them, after some persuasion. Their night out is ambushed and three of the group are killed. During his escape, John kills a man in front of Cara, revealing to her that he was part of the Anax project. She becomes very angry with him for not telling her.

In Sorry For Your Loss, John accompanies Russell to his father's funeral in Oregon. We find out that John made a series of safe houses around the country for him to hide out in, most likely unknown to Ultra. Russell and John bond after a bar fight and continue their way on to the funeral.  While John is gone, Cara sleeps with Stephen.

In Thanatos, Jedikiah is held hostage in the rebel's subway station. Through flashback scenes in this episode it is shown how John became a killer and that Johns first assignment was to kill Stephen's father Roger Price.   

In Death's Door, John is captured by the company and tortured by the founder for information about where the tomorrow people are hiding. Jedikiah and Stephen rescue John. Later in the episode John is asked to kill Stephen in order to send him to Limbo, the place where his father is.

In Sitting Ducks, John is shot in the lower abdomen while protecting Astrid from the Ultra agents, who were about to kill her.

In Things Fall Apart, John is still recovering from his wounds. When Ultra threatens Stephen, he goes against Cara's orders to help him by delivering the Founder's daughter to Ultra as Stephen was meant to. However, this action, despite saving Stephen, led to Cara exiling him from the Lair as punishment.

In Enemy of My Enemy, After being kicked out of the Tomorrow People (by Cara), John gives his new friend Astrid some comfort, advice and helps her face her fears. In return, Astrid gives advice to John about facing his fears (which she didn't know about) and that leads John to go back and join the Tomorrow People.

In A Sort of Homecoming, John stuns Roger and takes his place to go blow up the "Machine" but it turns out to be a trap and John is captured by Ultra. There The Founder uses the serum to take John's powers. Since it has been remarked that John had a very strong will to fight --and was a very powerful Tomorrow Person in his own right-- it takes three injections of the serum (debated to be a mixture of the tracker and the power erasing serum), causing John to have a psionic episode, where his powers react to protect himself and telekinetically shoot out, sending objects and people flying across the room. Unfortunately, it is too late, and the serum takes hold, rendering John powerless.

In Son of Man, with the Founder dead and the Tomorrow People free, Jedikiah persuades John to regain his powers using Roger Price's DNA, which Jedikiah extracted after Roger had died. Jedikiah explains that, since John was originally homo superior , his body will permanently accept the infusion of homo superior genes via the same process that can temporarily empower a homo sapiens. Jedikiah also tells John that he is proud of the man John has become. While John undergoes the procedure, Cara senses him breaking out and undergoing severe distress. Two weeks later, John is seen working for Jedikiah, tracking down new paranormal members for an yet-to-be-named new organization. John looks very different than previously; he is now clean-shaven, with short, neatly combed hair, and is wearing a business suit, and he has suffered an unintentional memory loss to the point that he does not recognize Cara when shown her photo. He accompanies Jedikiah on a visit to a Senator, to whom they make an offer of a cadre of paranormal soldiers; they also warn the Senator to accept the deal on Jedikiah's terms. 

Personality[]

John is very disciplined, this could be due to his time spent training to be the best agent at Ultra. It is hinted that John's training was very rigorous. He is often very cautious, always remembering that his species is at risk. John is also very focused and rarely loses sight of the goal of his mission. He has good control of his emotions and can sometimes appear detached, though he becomes angry when the safety of his group are threatened. John can be stubborn, bossy and arrogant at times. However, when training Charlotte, he was very caring and kind, perhaps because when he was younger he didn't receive the same treatment. He cares for her like a daughter.

Physical Appearance[]

John is about 6' 1" tall. He has lightly tanned skin, dark blond hair and blue eyes. He is a very attractive figure.

When working for Ultra John's hair was neatly combed, shaven face and wore suits.

When he joined The Tomorrow People, his hair was more in an untidy style with casual wear and slight stubble.

Relationships[]

Cara Coburn[]

John was in a romantic relationship with Cara. Their relationship is often complicated by trust issues. Early in season one, it is revealed that John is hiding something in his past from the rest of the Tomorrow People, including Cara. There relationship is further complicated when Cara finds out that John can kill in "All Tomorrow's Parties". Cara is very angry that John has been keeping this from her. In 1x06 "Sorry for Your Loss", Cara sleeps with Stephen. When John finds out about this in episode 7, "Limbo", it causes further waves in the relationship.  After Limbo it seems that Cara and John fall further and further apart and in "Things Fall Apart" Cara ends things with John and kicks him out of the Lair. She asks him to come back in 1x14, saying he was the one person she would sacrifice everything for, that he was her family and that she missed him. He coldly refuses claiming she just wanted an assassin at her disposal but he returns in the next episode to save Charlotte from Ultra. She asks him not to go saying it's a suicide mission. He admits that he still loves her and since they have developed a strong emotional and sexual relationship. However, they breakup and remain good friends.

Jedikiah Price[]

John and Jedikiah have a complicated relationship. Fifteen years before season 1 of the Tomorrow People, Jedikiah takes John away from his foster home, giving his abusive foster father money as compensation for removing him from the home (as revealed in Kill or Be Killed). He then takes John to Ultra to train him in his abilities and in hand to hand combat. During this time Jedikiah becomes like a father to John. In Thanatos, Jedikiah is held hostage by the tomorrow people, during this time Cara senses that Jedikiah cares a great deal for John and even loves him like a son.

This episode also reveals that towards the end of John's time at Ultra he volunteered for an experiment that would alter John's DNA in order to allow him to kill. The experiment was very risky and had a low survival rate; however, John underwent the experiment to make Jedikiah proud of him.  John survives the procedure and successfully gains the ability to kill, at which point Jedikiah assigns John to kill his trainer and Jedikiah's brother, Roger. John completes the task, and this assignment partly caused the rocky relationship between Jedikiah and John. John felt manipulated by Jedikiah and felt that Ultra had turned him into something he wasn't: a killer.

In Son of Man, Jedikiah manipulates John (who was powerless at the time) into being becoming paranormal again but losing his memories of the Tomorrow People. Jedikiah then employs John as his right-hand man in a new organization to recruit paranormal military operatives. 

Stephen Jameson[]

John and Stephen seem to have a very antagonistic relationship. John does not like Stephen's methods of by which he chooses to work with Ultra, nor does he like to agree with him. When they need to work together, they will, but they think very differently. As the show progressed the two eased up on each other even if they still are at odds sometime. John watches out for Stephen as a favor to Stephen's deceased father. Later on in the season it shows that John and Stephen have been getting along. They were friends and allies before Jedikiah forcibly recruited John into his new organization.

Russell Kwon[]

Russell and John are allies and good friends.

Astrid Finch[]

In Death's Door, there appears to be brief flirtation between John and Astrid as they exchange looks. In Sitting Ducks, John offers to protect Astrid because she knows about Stephen's powers, and John knows from personal experience what happens to humans who know about paranormals. He was right and protects Astrid when Ultra attempt to kill her, taking a bullet before teleporting them nearby. She removes the bullet and sings to him. In Enemy of My Enemy, Astrid is plagued by agoraphobia after her near-death experience and is afraid to go outside. After being kicked out of the Tomorrow People by Cara, John gives her comfort and helps her face her fears which causes her to kiss him on the cheek. In return, Astrid gives advice to John about facing his fears (which she didn't know about), which leads John to go back and re-join the Tomorrow People. In Kill Switch John, after having his powers taken away by Ultra, meets her to warn her about the impending doom for humans engineered by the Founder. Astrid points out that his powers were not what made him special and takes him to task for giving up so easily. After he saves her from an oncoming taxi, she kisses him. Later, he gives her his lucky jacket and says he'll come back for it. In Son of Man, John again seeks out Astrid's company under pretense of leaving town with her, but they decide to stay and help the Tomorrow People in their assault on Ultra Head Quarters. They kiss again, and are frozen in that position until the Machine is stopped. Two weeks later, they are seen together on the subway exploring topside New York City. At the end of the series finale, it has been hinted that John, has begun a new romantic relation with Astrid, after he broke up with Cara. However, they are forcibly split up when John loses his memories and joins Jedikiah.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

These are his Powers and Abilities when he was still one of the Tomorrow People. Since he was cured and then given his powers back, the full extent/limitations of his powers are unknown. However, because it is "Roger's Power" it is presumed that it is highly powerful.

  • Telekinesis - The power to move things or people with your mind.
  • Telepathy - The power to communicate with others through each other's minds.
  • Teleportation - The power to teleport oneself or more people to another location. John specializes in teleportation. During his time at Ultra, he spent a vigorous amount of time training, which especially strengthened his teleportation. John has shown he can teleport at such speeds he can be in at least five places at once, although this seems to cause incredible disorientation and fatigue. 
  • Killing - Due to the Annex Project John was given the ability to kill whilst he was working for Ultra, which ultimately led to him leaving Ultra.

Abilities[]

  • Expert Hand-To-Hand Combatant - John is shown to be an extremely adept fighter, and is seen on many occasions taking down multiple opponents, usually Ultra agents.

Appearances (22/22)[]

Season 1

Trivia[]

  • Some time before the shows events, John was an agent for Ultra.
  • Before John left Ultra, he was a part of the Anax project that was to discover and destroy the part of the brain that stopped the Tomorrow People from killing.
  • While in foster care, he stole food for his foster sibings because his foster dad spent all the money on alcohol.
  • John is one of the few Tomorrow People who can kill.  Only two others have been shown to possess this ability before the final episode of Season 1. At that time Natalie and enough Tomorrow People to fill out a kill squad gained the ability to kill.
  • He stole the super computer TIM from Ultra to assist the Tomorrow people.
  • John's surname, Young, is a testament to Nicholas Young who portrayed John (who was given no surname) in the original British series.  Ironically, this actor also appeared on two episode of the first season.
  • John Young was the name of one of the 12 people to step foot on the Moon in the 1960s and 70s.
  • John is considered Homosuperior+, a Paranormal Super-Soldier
  • Before Cara took over as leader for the Tomorrow People, John was their leader.

Quotes[]

John (to Stephen): "You're not the only one who had a human life. Ask Cara about the little sister she left behind. We all made sacrifices, Stephen, but somehow, you think you're special."

John [to Stephen]: "Getting inside your head is just the beginning. You haven't even scratched the surface of what they can do! As long as you're down here, none of us are safe!"

John (to Jedikiah in Kill or Be Killed): "I hate you for what you made me."

John (to Astrid, 1x15): "Fear doesn't have to own you, fear is something you can control."

John (to Astrid, 1x15): "Everyone dies Astrid. All you can do is make sure you're wearing the right shoes when it happens."

John (to Cara,1x15): "Hey, get out of my head. Dark place, don't wanna be there."

John (to Cara, 1x15): "After finding you and building this place up from nothing, together, turning it into a shelter and then a home for us...Can't you see? This is where I belong. By your side no matter what happens to us."

John (to Stephen): "Jedikiah's goal is to eliminate our species from the face of the planet. I worked there, Stephen, I know!"

John and Cara, 1x15

John: "You know what the scariest part of this whole thing was? Having to look you in the eye and see what we've lost. It's terrifying. I guess that's why I couldn't bring myself to come back."
Cara: "There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm still here. We're all still here."
John: "I feel like everything we've worked so hard to build here is somehow broken."
Cara: "Then we will build it again. Together."

John (to Astrid, 1x15): "Fear doesn't have to own you. Fear is something that you can control."

John (to Jedikiah): "I trusted you like a father, and you used me!"

John (to Jedikiah): "I am not your son. "

John and Cara in a hotel room after having sex, 1x16

Cara: "Oh my god...that was...."
John: "Long overdue!...What?"
Cara: "I'm just not sure about this whole sleeping together and working together."
John: "I respect your authority in and out of the bedroom."

Russell as Cara and John enter, 1x16

Russell: "Looks like someone just had a horizontal jaunting match!"
John: "Can it, Russell!"

John (to Jedikiah): "Listen, I'll make you proud."

John (to Jedikiah): "I hate you for what you made me."

Jedikiah (to John): "I made you strong, perfect!"

John (to Astrid): "Astrid, when I kiss you next time, it's not going to be because the world is ending."

Gallery[]

Gallery[]

→ see also John Young/Gallery and Category:Images of John Young

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