Eleanor "Ellie" Penn is one of the identities taken by Echo. She is a hostage negotiator hired to intervene in negotiations between Gabriel Crestejo and Mr. Sunshine, who had kidnapped Gabriel's daughter Davina. She is known for a tough, assertive demeanor. The personality of Eleanor was created from several different individuals
Fictional History
At the age of nine, Eleanor was kidnapped by a man she called "Ghost" and held for a period of three months, where he did "very unprofessional things". Eleanor managed to escape when she had been thrown into a cold river by "Ghost" who figured she would have drowned. The traumatic experience later drove Eleanor to become a hostage negotiator, in order to facilitate the release of other kidnap victims back to their families safely. (S1: "Ghost")
Part of Eleanor's training took place in Quantico, where afterward, over a period of seven years, she handled twelve successful negotiations. (S1: "Ghost")
And then came the Crestejo case. Initially sent to just deliver the money to ensure Davina Crestejo's return, Penn suffered an asthma attack when she saw the Ghost among her kidnappers and they panicked and shot Gabriel Crestejo. Ellie nearly botched the case but persuasion from Boyd Langton made Adelle think otherwise. Topher checked Ellie Penn's file and discovered the reason for Echo's panic attack. The original Ellie Penn killed herself a year prior to the Crestejo case as she never gained any closure since the traumatic experience. Echo, in Ellie Penn's body continued the case. She first persuaded Mr. Sunshine's accomplices to leave but an argument from both parties turned them against each other. Mr. Sunshine died bleeding from a gunshot from one of his accomplices. She since she knew from experience where Davina would be hidden, she found a turned fridge with Davina inside it. The Dollhouse security breached and swept the area. Upon completion of the case, Echo managed to bring closure for Ellie Penn, one that the original couldn't manage to do.
Eleanor Penn surfaces when Echo is smacked in the face (as Roma Klar) in S2: "Vows". Flashes to her face are frequently shown as Echo accesses imprints. Composited Echo comments, when surveying a crime scene, that Eleanor and Roma were squabbling over how to analyse the scene of the crime (S2: "Stop-Loss"). When Echo is condemned to the Attic, there are flashes of Eleanor's personal hell: Mr. Sunshine and his kidnappers appear, and a nightmare of handler Paul Ballard has his eyes white out to tell her "You can't kill a ghost" (S2: "The Attic").
Parameter
A profiler and hostage negotiator with a tough yet calm demeanor.
Lack(s)
- Ellie is near-sighted and asthmatic.
Background
Eleanor Penn was created by Topher Brink, and dialogue suggest that this personality in particular, let alone most (if not all) of the personalities imprinted into the actives are based on scans of real people. This would suggest that someone used to create Eleanore did indeed endure the training she mentions to Gabriel, and that the same person, or someone else may, or may not have successfully handled 12 different negotiations. It is known, that at least one person to create Eleanor was real, and that this person was the true kidnap victim of "Ghost" who ended up commiting suicide afterwards as a result of her horrifying experience.