| Character | |||||
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| Hunter Gathers | |||||
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| 1st appearance: | Assassinanny 911 | ||||
| Voice Artist: | Christopher McCulloch | ||||
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Colonel Hunter Gathers was the first contact Brock Samson met when he was initiated into the Office of Secret Intelligence. Gather's brutal training was at least partly responsible for turning Brock into the hardass he is today. Brock has described the Colonel as the second closest thing that he has ever had to a father.
In Assassinanny 911 Brock was contacted by his handlers in order to find Hunter Gathers. Gathers had gone A.W.O.L with forty million dollars of the OSI's money and a plastic surgeon kidnapped from "the enemy". Brock is dispatched to an island in Macronesia in order to take Hunter out permanently.
Brock reached Hunter's lair only to find his old mentor unconscious on a table. As Brock prepares to kill him, the plastic surgeon stops him and gives him a message from the Colonel. Brock takes no heed and lifts up the sheets covering Hunter. He's shocked to discover the Colonel's undergone a sex change operation. Brock leaves her to live his, er...i mean, her life, after double checking the bottom parts just to be sure.
[edit] Big Beautiful Tits
In Orb, Hunter Gathers is again seen. She gives Brock some info on Operation Rusty's Blanket (ORB) which might mean he needs to kill Rusty. She then reappears in the season finale. Samson, failing to kill Rusty per the orders regarding 'ORB', goes on the run believing OSI wants him dead for disobeying orders. Gathers provides Samson with a car and a list of ex-OSI agents. It is revealed that Gathers, working in conjunction with mercenary Molotov Cocktease, misled Brock in order to have Samson eliminate the assassins. Gathers and Cocktease have started a new criminal organization, the all-female Blackhearts. Samson has eliminated their competition, leaving them alone at the top of the murder-for-hire heap.
[edit] You Don't Know Dick
Gathers returns once more in the season 4 premiere, Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel. We first see him in the Blackhearts offices speaking with Molotov Cocktease about assassination assignments whilst Brock Samson and an agent of SPHINX both try to listen in. The two agents fall through the ceiling on top of Molotov, after which Brock confronts Gathers. Gathers is reluctant to shoot Brock despite betraying him previously, however, Molotov is more than willing.
We soon see Brock tied up and naked after being abducted by Sphinx, and it appears that Gathers is with him. However, Gathers was not tied up, and cuts Sampson loose while they discuss what has occurred. Gathers reveals that the sex change and defection from O.S.I. was all a set-up to infiltrate Molotov's organization, for an unexplained reason. We see very plainly that Gathers is no longer a woman, wearing a Sphinx Uniform, and tells Brock that he doesn't know the half of it.
In Pinstripes & Poltergeists Gathers reveals that he had his sex change, and later had it reversed, so that he could defect from the O.S.I. to Sphinx and return to fighting the 'bad guys'.
[edit] Real-World Inspiration
Hunter's (pre-op) appearance, voice, and general mannerisms are modeled after those of the late "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who is known primarily as the writer of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Hell's Angels, among many other books and essays. Some of the notable traits that Gathers borrows from Thompson include his tone of voice and manner of speech, his aviator sun-glasses, his thin build, his paranoia, and his preference towards smoking a cigarette via a cigarette holder (dinner length, about 6"/15cm).
