Diana Skouris
| Diana Skouris | |
|---|---|
| The 4400 character | |
| First appearance | "Pilot" |
| Last appearance | "The Great Leap Forward" |
| Portrayed by | Jacqueline McKenzie |
| Information | |
| Occupation | NTAC Agent |
| Relatives |
Maia Skouris (daughter) April Skouris (sister) |
Diana Skouris is a fictional character in the USA Network science fiction television series The 4400.
Character
Season One
Initially portrayed as somewhat cold and removed, Diana Skouris was partnered with Tom Baldwin in the pilot episode to investigate the 4400 returnees. She expresses displeasure at being partnered with him, declaring that "He went MIA once. Who's to say he won't do it again?"
Not much is revealed about Diana in the first season, but it is hinted that her relationship with her father is very poor. In the Pilot, when the staff of NTAC contact their relatives, Diana even seems to believe her father will not immediately recognize her name.
Diana gradually thaws somewhat, becoming a loyal partner and friend to Tom. The first 4400 abductee, eight-year-old Maia Rutledge, asks to move in with her in the season one episode "The New and Improved Carl Morrissey". Initially Diana is surprised at Maia'a request, thinking herself ill-suited to motherhood, and Maia observes "You don't like being alone either." Nevertheless, their relationship proceeds well, and Diana jokingly labels Maia "The grown-up one."
Diana is furious with Tom for hiding the truth about Shawn Farrell's healing ability, stating that she would have told him had the positions been reversed. When Tom plans to rescue his son, Kyle Baldwin, from the government, Diana immediately sets about helping him, arranging for him to break into Kyle's facility.
Season Two
The adoption of Maia by Diana is finalised. Maia takes Diana's surname and the two call each other "mother" and "daughter" often.
Following Tom's relegation to desk duty for several months following his actions toward Warren Lytell, it is Diana who persuades new NTAC head Nina Jarvis to reinstate him as her partner. Diana is visibly shaken after she shoots dead a 4400 with the ability to fatally infect entire towns, a hint that Diana is becoming disenchanted with her role in NTAC.
For some time Diana believes that Maia has ceased having visions of the future. However, when she discovers that Maia had simply stopped talking about them, she receives a government writ to hand Maia's diary to NTAC for analysis. Seeing her refusal to betray her daughter, Marco Pacella writes a fake "Maia's diary", and hands that to the government. Marco has been interested in Diana for some time - first witnessed in the season one finale - and the act of kindness brings them closer together.
Diana has had a strained relationship with her free-living sister, April. During a period where April visited Seattle and stayed with them, she used Maia's ability to see the future to place bets and make money. Maia "tested" her by giving her a false prediction, causing April to lose her mother's ring, which she had hocked to place the bet. Diana demanded she leave but met her at the bus station to give her the ring (which she had bought back).
When Maia falls critically ill, Diana helps Tom to uncover the conspiracy surrounding the promicin inhibitor, even putting a gun to NTAC's chief Medical Officer's head to obtain information. After the crisis is resolved, she is seen having dinner at her apartment with Marco, and as he promises to stay at her side during the lengthy court process she kisses him, marking a start to a romantic relationship.
Season Three
Diana agrees to help Dr Kevin Burkhoff with his experiments, following his revelation that he injected himself with promicin. It later transpires that the desperate Burkhoff has also persuaded Tess to use her own ability, to compel Diana to be used as an alternative in case of Burkhoff's death. Diana is soon freed thanks to NTAC, and Tess and Kevin go on the run.
When several 4400 children go missing Diana is horrified to discover Maia is one of them. Single-mindedly tracking her daughter down, her world collapses as Maia cannot be found. After the "future people" send Maia back further into the timeline, altering history and the memories of everyone on Earth, Diana remains subconsciously aware of Maia's disappearance. Finally Alana Mareva manages to restore Diana's memories, but Diana cannot cope knowing her daughter died over a hundred years previously; she retreats inside her own mind, giving herself up to die in a fantasy world with Maia, but is eventually saved by the reappearance of Maia due to Tom's efforts.
Under the influence of the Blink drug, we learn about her previous unhappy relationships. She hallucinates her former fiancé, Josh, who cheated on her two weeks before their wedding. The hallucination caused her to realize she had been dating unsuitable men ever since, to avoid real intimacy, and realized her relationship with Marco was in the same vein. She ended their relationship, though Marco and Diana continue to be friends.
April returned, and revealed she had a new boyfriend, Ben. Diana was stunned when Maia told her she saw Diana and Ben getting married. Diana told Ben in an effort to avoid both Ben and this future, but he broke up with April. In spite of herself, Diana soon found herself getting involved with Ben and, to her own surprise, realized she was falling in love with him. Innocently attempting to forewarn April, Maia told her about the vision, but this unfortunately put more tension in the sisters' relationship.
When Collier begins to distribute promicin to the masses, Diana realizes that mass upheaval and chaos could be imminent. Ben reveals that he has been offered a job in Spain, and Diana seizes her chance. She resigns from NTAC and moves to Spain with her family, seeking stability for Maia as long as possible.
Season Four
At the beginning of season 4, Diana is seen in a vision/dream of Jordan Collier, having the power of freezing time. Although later in the show, it's revealed that she is immune to the effect of promicin, it's not for sure, that eventually she would not be able to develop an ability.
When Marco informs her that April has disappeared and is in possession of promicin, Diana returns to Seattle and NTAC to look for her. Partnered once more with Tom, she realizes that her place is back in NTAC, trying to do good in amongst the revolution. After Ben and Maia come back to the USA to visit her, Diana locates April, who herself comes to work for the government. Diana informs Ben of her choice, both realizing that they will see each other rarely as a result. Ben is saddened by her decision, but holds on to the hope that Maia's vision was correct.
Diana's experiences with raising Maia have taught her to be more open-minded about the 4400 and the promicin-related issues. She has been shown to disagree somewhat with Tom's stance of total denial of Collier's goals. She is unimpressed when she and Tom are assigned to bring in an anonymous blogger from Seattle library, and later when Tom reveals Kyle's belief in the prophecy of the White Light cult, she suggests that there may be something to it. When the existence of a group of people called "The Marked" comes to light, she and Tom investigate, but their attempts are thwarted by the mysterious group. Diana later finds out that Tom has come under the influence of the Marked and resolves to find a way to free Tom. In "The Great Leap Forward", it is shown that she has a resistance to promicin from her earlier exposure by Kevin Burkoff.