| Angela Petrelli | |
 |
|
| Portrayed By | Cristine Rose |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Date of Birth | November 1st, 1945 |
| Age | 63 |
| Zodiac Sign | Scorpio |
| Aliases | Ma |
| Place of Birth | New York City, NY, USA |
| Current Location | New York City, NY, USA |
| Occupation | Widow |
| Known Relatives | Arthur Petrelli (husband; deceased), Nathan Petrelli (eldest son), Peter Petrelli (youngest son), Claire Bennet (grandchild), Simon Petrelli (grandchild), Monty Petrelli (grandchild) |
| Known Abilities | ??? |
| First Appearance | Some Things Thicker Than Blood |
Mother of Nathan Petrelli and Peter Petrelli, Angela is the matriarch of the Petrelli clan — a nurturer who is not averse to violence.
History
1945 was an eventful year; the United States detonated atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; World War II officially came to an end; the first German war crimes trial began in Nuremburg; and, on a cold November morning in New York City, thousands and thousands of miles away from the suffering, Angela Petrelli was born. As an only child, she was afforded the very best care that her parents could provide, though neither money nor attention does a happy upbringing necessarily make. During the war, Angela’s father had served as a technical sergeant in North Africa, Italy and finally France, where he participated in the Omaha beachhead assault of June 6, 1944 and was injured severely, receiving an honorable discharge from the military. The experience left him — like many of his brothers-in-arms — emotionally numb and suffering from an undiagnosed case of post-traumatic stress disorder. To this day, Angela remembers her father as an irritable and aggressive man who struggled with his feelings and rarely slept — an alcoholic with an even worse habit of taking his frustrations out on his wife. From an early age, Angela learned that the best method of coping with the violence between her parents was to detach herself from it; although she did not know it then, this strategy of emotional aloofness would eventually secure her a position within the Company as one of its founding members.
When Angela was twelve, her mother successfully filed for divorce from her father. The pair moved from the family’s townhome in Brooklyn to a smaller flat in Manhattan, where Angela’s mother soon found work as a secretary with a reputable accounting firm. Although she never remarried, she kept herself romantically occupied with a steady string of boyfriends — none of which her daughter was particularly fond. In high school, Angela focused on her studies to distract herself from what was going on at home, eventually graduating in the top ten percent of her class. Eager to get away from New York, she applied for a scholarship to further her studies at an all women’s college in Montreal, Quebec, and in her freshman year took a field trip to Paris where she met fellow American and native New Yorker — Arthur Petrelli.
Like Angela, Arthur possessed the desire to broaden his horizons, and though it was far from love at first sight, the pair became sexually involved during the brief time they spent together touring the city. When Angela returned to Quebec to finish her schooling, she never expected to see Arthur again, so it came as something of a surprise when she ran into him at her father’s funeral in New York City some years later. He’d seen the obituary in the paper, he said, and recognized her name as the deceased’s surviving daughter. Initially, Angela was affronted; although she had never been close to her father, he was still her family, and Arthur — who had never known him — had no right to be there. In the end, however, Arthur’s dogged persistence won her over, and she agreed to meet him for dinner so the pair could reminisce about Paris and catch up on what the other had been doing in the years since they’d last seen each other. One dinner turned into two, and two dinners turned into three; before Angela fully realized what was happening, she and Arthur had become romantically involved instead of just sexually, and in 1965 they were married.
Having watched her parents’ marriage deteriorate, Angela insisted that she and Arthur takes theirs slowly. It was two years before she was ready to start adding to the family, but even then the timing proved to be unfortunate; when Angela was six months pregnant with their first child, Arthur was drafted into the military and sent to Vietnam. In Angela’s eyes, this was one of the worst things that could possibly happen; aside from being outside her sphere on influence, Arthur risked coming back a changed man, as her father had. She wrote him as often as she could, partly to remind him of his responsibilities back home, and partly in the hope that wouldn’t have the nerve to die without writing her back first. It was through these letters that Arthur learned about the birth of his eldest son, Nathan, and Nathan’s first steps.
Much to Angela’s pleasure, Arthur returned home in 1969 — both emotionally and physically intact. Unlike her father, he had little trouble readjusting to his old life; even though the practice where he used to work had closed down during his absence, he quickly found a job with another firm. Angela only became suspicious of her husband’s activities after he introduced her to a friend from the war, a young man named Daniel Linderman, who in turn introduced her to Adam Monroe. It turned out that Angela, Arthur, Daniel and Adam all had one very unique thing in common, and together with the help of nine other likeminded individuals, they started an organization called the Company.
The Company started out strong, but as the years passed, tension between its founding members grew to the point where Angela and the others had Adam locked away. Other founding members, like Victoria Pratt and Maury Parkman, faded away into the background until only Daniel Linderman, Bob Bishop, Kaito Nakamura, Angela Petrelli and Arthur Petrelli remained at the helm. With another child on the way, Angela suggested to Arthur that they scale back so the couple might be able to focus on raising little Nathan — not because of any maternal instinct, but because she, along with Linderman, had plans for the boy. Arthur grudgingly agreed, staying on only as an attorney for the Linderman Group while Angela continued to consult and offer input from afar. Unbeknownst to her husband, she started an affair with Kaito Nakamura, though this was hastily broken off after the death of his wife.
In April of 2006, Arthur committed suicide, leaving Angela a widow. Although she mourned his loss, she grieved — like most other things — in private, but was also emboldened by the knowledge that she was now free to act openly and confer with Linderman without having to worry about her husband’s disapproval. Not that Arthur’s disapproval would have dissuaded her, of course — it just would have made the execution of their plan that much more complicated. Working from the sidelines, she put Nathan in a position to win a seat in congress while Linderman went about finding a way to rig the election. If Angela and Linderman had their way, the eldest Petrelli son would have been president following a massive explosion that wiped out half of New York.
That wasn’t what happened. Instead, her vision was ruined by the very man who she’d worked so hard to place at its center. Furious with one son and mourning the loss of the other more than she ever mourned for her husband, Angela has had to take a step back and reevaluate her role both as a mother and an advocate for change. Her methods for furthering the greater good are unkind, she knows, but destiny frequently is.
Abilities
She's not telling.
Timeline
Quotes
- "When you put everyone else first, you end up last." — Angela, "Genesis"