| “ | I've always wondered if being ageless meant being immortal. | ” |
— The Count, "The Living and the Dead"
|
Bennet Sutton is a professor at Columbia University with a specialization in 18th Century History. He was in fact the Count of St. Germain himself, who was made immortal by an alchemist with the use of a stone.
Biography[]
In 1541 Sutton agreed to become a test subject for his brother's, Paracelsus, experiments for a small fee. However, Paracelsus later betrayed Sutton by kidnapping his family, his wife Charlotte Dupres and his teenage son Nick Powell, using them as test subjects as well, stating he needed to test it on a variety of subjects. Paracelsus recently created the legendary Philosopher's Stone and he believed it could give him immortality, but he wanted to test it on his brother and his family first to make sure that it's safe. Sutton, Charlotte, and Nick wake up in Paracelsus's laboratory and soon discovered that Paracelsus had made them all immortal. Sutton was furious with his brother and when he confronted him about it, Paracelsus believed that he had done them all a great favor and that, they should be thanking him. Paracelsus also explained that in order to make them all immortal he had to sacrifice the life energy of 600 people and that's when Sutton realized his brother had to be stopped. Sutton told the local authorities what his brother had done and shortly after that, agents from Warehouse 9 appeared and arrested, then bronzed Paracelsus. Sutton split the Philosopher's Stone in 2 and kept one half while the other half was taken by the Warehouse.
Sutton became a con artist and a thief after that and as Charlotte mentioned [1] she gave up trying to keep track of Sutton after Napoleon put a price on his head. He earned the favor of Marie Antoinette as she was amused by the Count's power to bring dead plants back to life, through the use of the Count of Saint Germain's Ring, so she made him a member of her royal court, or as Pete put it "he spent a lot of time crashing on her couch". Marie and Sutton had a love-hate relationship; Marie believed the Count was just using her for her money (which he was). Sutton was after Marie's Violet Sunrise, a legendary diamond that was supposedly worth untold riches. Sutton swore to himself that if he ever could steal that diamond, he'd use its fortune to retire from his life of crime. However, Marie got wise to the Count's plan and tried to have him beheaded. Instead, Sutton dropped off the grid and went into hiding until everyone assumed the Count of St. Germain was dead. Marie gave the Count a public funeral and used the body of one of her servants, a boy named Sebastian, to fill the Count's coffin.
Myka with painting of the Count
The Warehouse first ran into Sutton in the episode "The Living and the Dead", he was a history professor at Columbia University in New York City and was the leading expert on the Court of Marie Antoinette. Pete and Myka needed his help in locating the Count of St. Germain's Ring which could reverse the effects of the Chinese Orchid and he knew more about the Count than anyone else. He claimed all of the Count's personal belongings were buried with him under Paris in the French Catacombs and he could help them get the ring if they brought him along with them. Before they snagged the ring, Myka realized that Sutton wasn't just an expert on the Count of St. Germain but was actually the Count of St. Germain himself. Myka realized this after she saw a painting of the Count and noticed the resemblance which explained why Sutton had plenty of pictures of Marie Antoinette in his office, but there's no pictures of the Count. Also, historically the Count of St. Germain did claim to be over 500 years old, but everyone just assumed he was lying when in reality he was telling the truth. When they reached the Count's crypt, Pete and Myka were able to snag the ring and reverse the effects of the orchid, but while they were busy, Sutton snagged Mary Antoinette's diamond which was on his coffin. By taking the diamond, Sutton set off a booby trap left by Marie and a poison dart was shot into his chest. Pete and Myka left the Count there, assuming he was dead. However, Sutton just let them think he was dead so could disappear again.
Charlotte Dupres is Bennet Sutton's professional rival and was later discovered to be his wife. She's a collector of rare antiques and she has caught Sutton trying to rob her several times. Sutton explains to Pete and Myka that he was trying to steal back antiques that belonged to him when he was the Count of St. Germain. Pete and Myka discover that Charlotte is really the Countess of St. Germain and is immortal as he is.
In the episode "All the Time in the World", Sutton's son Nick infiltrated the Warehouse and unbronzed Sutton's brother, Paracelsus. Nick's mother, Charlotte, has been searching for a way to return their family to mortal form for centuries, but with no results. Charlotte believed that maybe the person who made them immortal could turn them back to the way they were which is why Nick unbronzed Paracelsus. However, shortly after Nick unbronzed Paracelsus he immediately took Nick hostage and stole several artifacts from the Warehouse. He also left a clue suggesting that he was going after Sutton. Artie was able to track Sutton down using the Warehouse's computer; Sutton was posing as a Russian businessman named Vladimir Kamenev and was about to get married to the Luxembourg Duchess of Hereweald. Charlotte wasn't surprised to know the whereabouts of her husband because this was part of his infamous Lonely Heart Con. First, get engaged to a lonely wealthy noble woman, then stage an engagement party, and while everyone is distracted, steal the family jewels and skip town. Charlotte, Pete, and Myka were all able to get to Sutton before Paracelsus was able to and as soon as they explained the situation, he told them where he thinks Paracelsus was going.
Paracelsus was going to his laboratory in Constantinople underneath the Monastery of Stoudios in Istanbul, Turkey where he intended to recreate the same experiment that made Sutton and his family immortal and perform it on himself. Shortly after entering Paracelsus's laboratory, Paracelsus trapped Pete and Myka, snagged Sutton's and Charlotte's halves of the Philosopher's Stone, and put the stone back together again. Now that Paracelsus had the stone back, he could finally get revenge on his brother for letting Warehouse 9 bronze him; Paracelsus used the stone to make Sutton and his family mortal and then immediately killed Charlotte. Before Paracelsus could use the Philosopher's Stone to make himself immortal his laboratory began collapsing in on him and they were all forced to rush out. Now that Charlotte is dead, Nick and he are now both mortal again, and his evil brother is loose in the world.
In "The Truth Hurts", Sutton promised Nick that with Charlotte gone he's going to spend the rest of life being a good father to him so Nick will never have to feel alone again. The Regents gave Sutton and Nick new identities so they could both start their new lives as normal mortal people, though Sutton complained that the Regents named him Ned.
Personality[]
The one-time Count is a womanizing, cocky person, who describes his biggest weakness as 'beautiful women.' He is obviously very intelligent and quick, and not above thieving to get what he wants. He thinks Myka is sexy, but Pete has a big forehead. He's also a slob and has adopted a British accent.
However, he is not without a sense of honor in that he was seen appalled after Paracelsus revealed that he (literally) immortalized Bennet and his family at the cost of the lives of everyone in the village, which was what prompted Bennett to inform the authorities about his brother, not wanting another genocide like that to happen again; Bennet also shows guilt and remorse when he admits that he never intended for Nick and Charlotte to participate in Paracelsus' experiment in search of immortality. He also cares deeply for his son, Nick, going as far as to preserve his brother's laboratory all these years to ensure Nick's chances of regaining his mortality again.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- Presumably, both the immortality and the accent are deliberate nods in the direction of Spike from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, actor James Marsters's most popular and enduring role. Likewise, the 'forehead' comment to Pete, given his own 'vampiric past', is more than a tad ironic. Even "I won't have the entire world upstage my big death scene" may be a tongue-in-cheek reference to Spike's world-saving 'demise' in the finale of 'Buffy'. In one episode (S06E08) of Buffy, Giles (Anthony Head's character) and Spike believe themselves to be father and son, although Giles first suggests older brother, the relationship between the characters on 'Warehouse'.
- The fact that Sutton's belongings have been collected by Charlotte, as well as his own greed, may be a nod to the fact that in real life the Count's estate primarily consisted of various clothing, but contained no valuables such as jewels and money (it could be assumed that Sutton kept all of his wealth himself), nor any personal belongings or cultural items from travels (these items may have been kept by Charlotte herself).