Sydney is a scientist who specializes in human behavior and psychology. This makes him perfect for working in the think tank place known as The Centre. There he was responsible for training Jarod into being a Pretender. He orchestrated the simulations Jarod performed and acted as a sort of guardian for him when he was a child. Sydney has been with the Centre since the 50s and took on the case of Jarod in 1963 when he was brought in. It is for this reason that he was assigned with Miss Parker to capture Jarod when he escaped 33 years later. Sydney secretly helps Jarod find information about his parents, but if anybody at the Centre found out, namely Mr. Raines, he would be in a great deal of trouble. It is this risk he takes that is one of the reasons that it appears that Sydney cares more for Jarod than he ever lets on. He may even see Jarod as his son, as Jarod thinks of Sydney as his father.
Sydney is intelligent as well as Jarod, just not quite as much. He knows a lot about human psychology and is good at his craft. Jarod often calls Sydney with questions about new experiences he was denied while in the Centre. One of his biggest questions of Sydney concerned sex in the episode "Ranger Jarod" where Jarod slept with a woman for the first time. Sydney always has comforting advice, but warnings as well.
Much like Jarod feels guilty about the simulations he did, Sydney feels guilty for virtually everything he has done for the Centre, espcially things concerning Jarod. He did not like it when the Centre made a habit of stealing children away and using simulations for sinister reasons rather than putting together rescue scenerios, things that help people. But there was nothing he could do about it. The Centre became his life and there was little for him outside of the Centre. All that was left to do is put up with Mr. Raines, help Jarod when he can, and try to do his best to make the Centre good again.
Sydney had a twin brother that was put in a coma around the time of Catherine Parker's death. Jacob, his twin, was involved in a car accident with Sydney and has only regained consciousness twice since. Whenever he did, he would drop mysterious clues by scrawling words on a piece of paper, like "SL-27" (which lead them to discover Sl-27) and more recently, "Gene" which may be a clue about Jarod's past and/or parents. Unfortunatley, and tragically after writing "Gene" Jacob finally died of the virus that woke him up the final time. And he may have taken many vital Centre secrets with him.
BACK