 |
|
| Tom Berenson | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Species | |
| Host to |
Temrash 114 (formerly) |
| Gender |
Male |
| Hair color |
Brown |
| Eye color |
Brown |
| Born |
c.1981 |
| Died |
2000 |
| Family |
Steve Berenson (father) |
| Occupation |
Student |
| Affiliation | |
| Behind the scenes | |
| First appearance | |
| Last appearance | |
| Cause |
Killed by Rachel |
| Portrayer |
Joshua Peace |
- "Not Jake. Leave Jake alone. Leave my brother alone. I'll... look, I'll never trouble you again. I swear it. Just leave Jake alone."
- ―Tom pleading to Temrash 114
Tom Berenson was Jake's older brother. He was also a Controller and the primary reason Jake became involved in the war.
History
Life as a Controller
Tom had initially joined the Yeerk front organization, The Sharing, and became a Controller sometime before the Animorphs met Elfangor because he wanted to spend time with a girl he liked, who was already a Controller at the time.[1] Tom originally resisted being infested, but eventually complied in order to stop his brother, Jake, from being infested for the time being.[2]
During the Animorphs' first raid on the Yeerk pool, Tom is cut loose from a cage and rides on the back of Jake's tiger morph. As the Animorphs and several Controllers are escaping, Visser Three runs up the staircase and Tom attempts to fight him with his bare fists. Visser Three, apparently not wanting to waste a human host, simply sends him falling down the staircase with a side tail blade blow to the head.[1]
Tom's first Yeerk was Temrash 114, a high-ranking Yeerk in The Sharing, but ranked lower than a Sub-Visser in the Yeerk military, who was promoted and assigned the task of infesting the governor of their state. However, thanks to the Animorphs' interference, Temrash temporarily infested Jake and was subsequently killed via Kandrona starvation. With Temrash's promotion, Tom was infested by another low ranking Yeerk instead.[2] This Yeerk would go on to become a major antagonist in the final part of the series.
Gaining Morphing Powers
Tom's new Yeerk was eventually given the morphing cube by Cassie because she thought that it was the right thing to do and that it would stop Jake from killing Tom. The Yeerks use the morphing technology, however, to fight against the Animorphs.[3] After the end of the war, only a few Yeerks use the morphing technology to become nothlits.[4]
Death
- "Tom was dead. And I wondered how I was ever going to explain it. I had ordered my cousin to execute my brother. How would I ever explain that? All these years I'd fought to keep us all alive, to stop the Yeerks, always with the hope that someday I would save my brother, that he would come back, that he'd be Tom again. That was why I'd enlisted in the war to begin with. I was going to save Tom. Tom was dead. The Yeerk in his head was dead. And Rachel."
- ―Jake
Eventually, Tom's band of morph-capable-Controllers stole Visser Three's Blade ship and attempted to destroy the Animorphs who had captured the Pool ship. The Pool ship's weapons were disabled because of Erek King's programming to never harm another being, so Jake had to send Rachel aboard the Blade ship to kill Tom. Although Rachel succeeds in her mission, her grizzly form impaling Tom in cobra morph with her claws and finally biting down on him, she subsequently demorphs and is killed by one of his other Yeerk allies in polar bear morph.[4]
Tom's Morphs
| Morph | Book Acquired/used |
|---|---|
| Jaguar (through Tom's body) | The Answer |
| Human (Tom Berenson) | The Answer |
| Cobra (through Tom's body) | The Beginning |
Trivia
- In the Animorphs (TV series) Tom's Yeerk received the call from Jake, hangs up and his hand starts shaking violently. The Yeerk closes his hand once to regain control. This shows Tom resisting his Yeerk and his fight boosted from Jake's call.
- Also in the TV series he and Melissa Chapman are shown to have a short love affair in the episode The Front.
- Throughout the series, Tom himself never talks with anyone while being free from the Yeerks controlling him, not counting a memory of Temrash 114 in The Capture. As such, although he interacted with at least Jake, Rachel and Marco prior to his infestation, he is never depicted freely interacting with anyone in the whole series.
Gallery
