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Fauna Hodel, also known as "Pat", is a young woman haunted by a grim past. She is a major character in ‘I Am the Night’ and is portrayed by India Eisley.
Official Description[]
"Fauna Hodel aka “Pat”: A naïve young girl growing up outside of Reno, Nevada, who embarks on a desperate quest to discover who she is, a quest that throws her identity into crisis."[1]
Character Overview[]
Fauna is a young woman born and raised with the identity of Pat in a poor neighbourhood in Sparks, Nevada, by an African American single mother. Due to her fairer complexion, the girl was often at the centre of discussions about her actual ethnicity — voices silenced once and for all by the revelations of her biological mother, Tamar. As a daughter of incest, Fauna is actually white. Her slightly olive complexion and hair of a warm chocolate colour are highlighted by simple but fashionable dresses of the shades of burgundy, green and red. Despite being petite and quite naïve about the most corrupt and perverse aspects of society, Fauna is tenacious, stubborn and with a good heart. Qualities that are very useful in dealing with potential allies and the less fortunate. Since she is still a teenager, Fauna's decisions are often instinctive and driven by emotions rather than thoughtful reflections although Fauna is capable of relying on a cold mind if the situation requires it. Fauna is shrewd and enterprising and has a strong sense of justice. She is also polite and respectful of others, finding herself sometimes exploited by malicious people because of her trustful nature.
Biography[]
The following contains plot details – read at your own risk.
Sparks, Nevada. 1965. Pat is a young biracial girl facing racism and prejudice from both white and coloured people. Particularly, in a segregated high school. Lewis, one of her schoolmates, compliments her, making Sharon jealous. The two girls have an altercation in a parking lot where Sharon says she wants to beat her to see if Pat really has black blood. Before returning home, Pat notices a man in a black car following her.
At the hospital where she works as a cleaner, Pat and Lewis spend time together, and he takes her back home in the evening. The two kids are stopped by a police patrol. One of the policemen thinks Lewis is harassing a white woman, but Pat reveals that she is the daughter of a coloured woman and the cops let them go.
Once home, Pat argues with her mother, Jimmy Lee, because of the time that Pat spent with Lewis Ferguson. Jimmy Lee is drunk and makes some suspicious remarks about her choice to raise a mixed-race girl. At night, Pat starts to browse through her mother's documents and discovers a mysterious birth certificate. The following morning, Pat demands answers. Who is Fauna Hodel? At this point, Jimmy Lee can not help but reveal the secret of a lifetime. Pat has been secretly adopted, and she is actually the illegitimate daughter of Tamar Hodel and a black man. Pat and Jimmy Lee are distraught.
When Jimmy Lee pretends to be dead in order to make her daughter feel what she feels every day, Pat rushes home from work and the two women have a last heated fight that culminates with Pat leaving for Los Angeles to meet her grandfather, the famous Dr. George Hodel. After greeting Louis at the bus station, Pat has a brief conversation with a man at a bus stop. Once in the city, Pat can not contact her grandfather. When she calls her grandmother, the woman advises her to stay far away from the man because he is a very dangerous man. [2]
Fauna takes her first steps in Los Angeles with the help of her aunt, "Big Momma", and her cousins Tina and Nina. Like at home, even a party where she goes with her cousin proves to be a source of discussion and discomfort. Nero, one of the newly-known boys, questions the fact that Fauna is black before harassing her. Another boy, Terrence, on the other hand, is more friendly towards her. After the party, Fauna, her cousin and her friends walked home and Fauna spotted the man on the black car spying on her.
The time has come for Fauna to discover her past and meet Dr. George Hodel at his house. Once again, the man is nowhere to be seen. After a conversation with Big Momma on the true meaning of the family, Fauna manages to meet her grandmother, Corinna. The woman is eccentric and evasive about Tamar, her stepdaughter and Fauna's biological mother. All that Fauna can discover is that Tamar was a pathological liar, according to her stepmother, and a disgrace to the good name of the Hodel family. After lunch at the restaurant where Fauna feels even more uncomfortable for not meeting her grandmother's expectations, the girl has a first meeting with her grandfather at an art gallery where he is talking about defying social constructs with another man. He immediately recognizes him as the man met at the bus stop and runs away. Fauna has one last fight with Corinna. The woman continues to throw mud on Tamar, stating that Fauna is not mixed-race. His father was a French dancer. Fauna snapped and left the car, calling Corinna a “racist old cow”. Fauna then picks up a bus. Unknown to her, she's being followed. [3]
Fauna is still deeply shaken by what happened to the art gallery when she is approached by a man who grabs her by the arm. The girl manages to escape but is constantly alert even when she is at home with Big Momma. Her cousin's friend, Nero, continues to call but Fauna is not willing to give in to his advances. She has more important things to do. Not convinced by what Corinna said, Fauna sneaks into the house looking for evidence; anything that could bring her to her mother, Tama. Fauna is forced to hide and flee when the man who attacked her arrives at home, looking for her. Sneaking out of the back garden, Fauna is approached not by one, but by two cars. The girl eventually decides to go away with a blue-eyed man who protected her from the assailant. In the car, the man reveals that he is Tamar's friend.
The two have a coffee and pie at Chili John's, where the man introduces himself as Jay Singletary, a reporter interested in discovering the truth about Tamar. However, Fauna does not trust him and at the first opportunity, flees away.
Back home, Fauna makes the sad discovery that Nero was killed. Someone ripped off his tongue and tied it close to the body. Fauna feels responsible and decides to leave Big Momma's house so as not to put her and her cousins in danger. Fauna then spent the night at Terrence's home, where she calls her mother, Jimmy Lee, asking for her help in finding the truth about George Hodel. [4]
Fauna is forced to face the harsh reality when Terrence takes her to the place Nero's body was dumped. A strange conversation with a homeless man triggers a friction between the two, and Terrence begins to suspect that Fauna knows much more than she says. Fauna, on the other hand, is heartbroken and feels responsible for Nero's death.
At Big Momma's house, Fauna finds out that Jimmy Lee is in Los Angeles and is very angry with her daughter. Moreover, Tina is jealous of Terrence and accuses Fauna of sleeping with him. Before leaving Fauna alone in her room, Tina gave her an envelope delivered by some white man. It is an invitation to The Happening, sent by Corinna Huntington.
Determined to pursue her personal investigation, Fauna goes to the avant-garde event but is immediately overwhelmed by the crowd. After a first unsuccessful approach to a woman, Fauna hides as soon as she sees the reporter amidst the crowd. She finds her grandmother, Corinna, in the middle of an artistic performance. The woman is sprawled on a bench in total silence and the spectators cut pieces of her dress with scissors. When the turn of Fauna arrives the girl throws the scissors on the ground, with surprise and disdain of the other enthusiasts of surrealism. Immediately after, Corinna ends the show and summons her granddaughter into her dressing room. The two women have a conversation about the nature of art and how avant-garde requires courage. Fauna is not convinced and has found that Corinna's performance was a farce, a manipulation. Without being noticed, Fauna steals a diary from her grandmother's bag and the two take separate paths.
In a dark corridor, Fauna is knocked out by a shady man. When she wakes up in the basement, Fauna recognizes the man as the guy following her in the black car. The man attacks her but before he can hurt her, he is stopped by the reporter. The two men fight until the reporter stabs the shady man in self-defence. Fauna panics. When two guests almost discover what happened, the girl decides they have to get rid of the body; the landfill where she went with Terrence is the ideal place. Once in the area, she steals the attacker's wallet and the two find refuge at Jay's apartment.
The next morning, Fauna decides to ally herself with Jay and help him in the search for the truth if he, in turn, will help her find her mother, Tamar. But before revealing everything she discovered from Corinna's diary, Fauna wants to know something about the shady man. The only clue they have is a name: Ivanovich Viktor Sepp.
In the evening, Fauna meets with Jimmy Lee at a lounge bar, where her mother slaps her and tells her to stop digging in the past before it's too late. But Fauna retorts, saying that she is determined to discover the truth, no matter the cost. [5]
Quotes[]
- Pat: “I don't want to be different. I just want to be normal — like everybody else.”
- Pat: “Who's Fauna Hodel, mama?”
- — Pilot
- Fauna: “What about all of this? What about George Hodel?”
- — Dark Flower
- Fauna: “I think you just wanted for us to be responsible for you. Joining in or even just watching doing nothing. Either way, you would've been the one getting hurt.”
- Fauna: “I’m gonna find out everything. And I don’t care what it breaks.”
- — Matador
- Fauna: “Heaven must look like this.”
- Fauna: “Sometimes you catch a bad one, uh?”
- — Aloha
- Fauna: “We all know what you are, George. You’re a cliché.”
- Fauna: “We know what monsters are. We know what makes them, and I know what unmakes them.”
- — Queen’s Gambit, Accepted
Appearances[]
I Am the Night
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Trivia[]
- She is based on the real-life Fauna Hodel, the author of One Day She'll Darken, the autobiography that inspired the limited series “I Am the Night”.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Official Overview for India Eisley's Fauna Hodel — TNT Pressroom
- ↑ Sam Sheridan (writer); Patty Jenkins (director); (January 28, 2019); "Pilot". Episode 1. I Am the Night. TNT.
- ↑ Sam Sheridan (writer); Patty Jenkins (director); (February 4, 2019); "Phenomenon of Interference". Episode 2. I Am the Night. TNT.
- ↑ Sam Sheridan (writer); Patty Jenkins (director); (February 11, 2019); "Dark Flower". Episode 3. I Am the Night. TNT.
- ↑ Sam Sheridan (writer); Victoria Mahoney (director); (February 18, 2019); "Matador". Episode 4. I Am the Night. TNT.