Baptiste | |
Name | Baptiste |
Played by | Lennie James |
First appearance | Baptiste |
- "You know, a man's watch is a very precious thing. You steal that, you may as well be stealing his soul."
Baptiste is an assassin employed by The Old Man who previously worked with Christopher Chance.
History[]
Background[]
Little of Baptiste's early history is known, save for the fact that, despite his ability to speak many languages, he has a British accent - implying he is British in nationality, despite his Francophone name of use. Like Guerrero, Baptiste is essentially mononymous, as was 'Junior' when he went by that name.
Baptiste and Chance were both orphans who were brought into The Old Man's organization and raised by him. The Old Man treated them like sons and respected them equally, but he considered Chance to be his favourite, and so Chance was trained in the tradecraft of assassination and tapped to eventually succeed the Old Man. In turn, Baptiste was trained by Chance to become the perfect assassin.
Due to a combination of Chance being a good teacher and/or Baptiste being a good and/or natural learner, Baptiste became one of the world's greatest assassins; amoral, ruthless, incredibly efficient and deadly, but he still owed all of his skills to being trained by Chance. Baptiste constantly aspired to out-shine his teacher and gain his place in the Old Man's eyes; proving himself to be the best. Despite this, Baptiste remained his partner, student and friend.
Baptiste, despite his cold exterior, admitted he and Chance made "a pretty good team together", and also took in every lesson he gave him (Chance gave him the impression human life was worthless, at a time he believed it himself - something that Baptiste took to heart). Baptiste, in terms of methodology, operates by planning for every contingency, ensuring full intelligence on all aspects of the operation, and, on a more personal note, has a fetish with wristwatches. He constantly changes wristwatches with his most recent kills, as in his own words, stealing a man's watch may as well be "stealing their soul".
Season 1[]
Baptiste was on vacation when The Old Man called him and informed him that Chance (at the time known as Joulbert, Junior or simply Junior) had gone rogue with his latest target; Katherine Walters. Presented with the opportunity to finally surpass his teacher, Baptiste, despite not understanding Chance's reasons, nevertheless took the mission to hunt Chance down. Baptiste arrived at Chance's hidden safehouse, but not in time to stop him from defeating Guerrero and escaping.
Baptiste finally caught up with him at the docks, this time told by the Old Man to retrieve a mysterious book that was the focus of the entire operation. No sooner had Chance located and retrieved it, did Baptiste reveal himself. Shirking off Chance's attempts at discussion, the two battled until the book was thrown into the ocean by Chance. Faced with the prospect of having to explain that to the Old Man, Baptiste, in turn, deployed on of his many contingencies - he detonated a bomb he planted previously on the boat Katherine was on, killing her. The two battled again, but within seconds Baptiste was poised to kill Chance, only to be shot from behind by the previous Christopher Chance. Baptiste responded by throwing a knife into his chest, killing him, and then escaping.
Baptiste was mentioned to have gone underground afterwards. He apparently cared for the Old Man, whose heart was broken when Chance left. Baptiste himself continued struggling to understand how Chance could change. Baptiste also continued his life as an assassin - he took on a variety of high-paying clients who paid him the best money to perform flawless hits; even on heads of state (e.g. a U.S. senator dying in a plane crash, and the Prime Minister of Argentina; both deaths ruled as accidental yet rumored not to be so).
Baptiste planned to bomb a secret United Nations peace summit; Operation Olive Branch, although complications arose when Chance and FBI Agent Emma Barnes stepped in. Ultimately, Baptiste's plan was foiled, and so Baptiste was taken into custody by the FBI.
Nevertheless, it is presumed he will escape, as, when Baptiste was lead away in handcuffs, surrounded by armed FBI agents, he casually noted a guard next to him had "a nice watch" (implying he will kill them all and make his escape).
Season 2[]
By the time of "Baptiste", however, the escape plan is still a work in progress. Indeed, the assassin has been transferred to Russian custody and a desolate, snowbound prison.