Philip Carvel

Philip Carvel
Professional Information
Occupation	Scientist

"Each day’s momentous. Every minute, every decision, every action is... historic. And I feel separated, you know? Do you feel that? That separation?"

Background

Philip Carvel is a Roma man who was born in the late 1930s or early 1940s. He speaks Romani, and comes from a family who lived in Romania. His family was taken to a concentration camp by the Nazis during the Second World War, and Carvel was the only one who escaped the gas chambers by hiding in a pile of dead bodies for several days as a very young boy.

Not much is known about his history between the end of the war and 1974. He relocated to England at some point and speaks perfect English. He was married to a woman named Brosca who was from an unidentified Eastern European country (potentially Bulgaria.)

Series 1

Carvel is a shadowy figure most known as the creator of The Utopia Experiments under the pseudonym Mark Dane. He is first mentioned by name by Jessica Hyde, his daughter. She says that she never knew him, as he went mad due to Network torture when she was four. Carvel was put in a mental institution while Jessica was raised on the run by Krystos. He killed himself after the completion of the Utopia Pt. 2 manuscript. Jessica's primary motivation throughout the first series is to seize the manuscript because it has information on what her father was truly like.

Both Jessica and Milner describe Carvel as the originator of Janus, alongside his mysterious partner Mr. Rabbit. Milner indicates to Ian, Becky, and Wilson that Carvel wrote a paper on eugenics "in which he advocated a human cull" and espoused views on racial purification.

After Arby reads the manuscript, he discovers that he is in fact Carvel's own son (and Jessica's elder brother), whom Carvel experimented on as a child and later abandoned. According to the manuscript, Jessica was similarly treated by her father. Her discovery prompts a breakdown and she begins acting rashly, amping up her mission to find and kill Mr. Rabbit at the expense of caution.

Series 2

Philip Carvel, 1970s.

In the 1970's flashback episode, Carvel meets Milner at a secret gala in 1974 held for the most influential politicians, businessmen, scientists and leaders in the world. She says that he must be an incredible scientist to be invited to the party. He appears surly the whole time he's there, binge drinking and getting into arguments with other researchers. He picks a fight with a man purporting to have figured out a way to kill mosquitoes with weaponized fungus, a plan devised to cure Malaria. Carvel argues that half the birds in the Arctic tundra will go extinct and that the mosquitoes will out-evolve the fungus, adding, "Why would we want to cure Malaria? Malaria's doing a great job. The only disease that needs curing is us." Milner is drawn to him after this outburst and they discuss what should be done about the impending human population crisis.

Shortly after, Carvel is brought into the fold of the Network in order to work on developing Janus in earnest. The other scientists on his team love him, and Milner says that "they think [Carvel is] a god." Carvel devises a serum which will sterilize 90-95% of the human population, but he comes into conflict with Milner and the Assistant over whether or not they should select a specific part of the population to be spared; Carvel believes that they should isolate a specific race with superior characteristics to be spared the sterilization, while Milner and the Assistant insist that it must be random.

Carvel has been experimenting on his son, Pietre, by injecting an unknown serum within chocolate raisins, which Pietre is fed, and exposing him to violence (the torture and killing of rabbits) in an attempt to prevent violent impulses in the child. The experiments backfire, with Pietre showing a completely blunted affect. Brosca is aware something is wrong with her child, and correctly guesses that her husband "did something" to Pietre, which Carvel denies, insisting that she "take [her] pills." Despite their marital issues, Brosca becomes pregnant for the second time.

Carvel becomes close to Milner and acquainted with Milner's alcoholic husband Tom. After Brosca finally calls Child Services on Carvel, Milner insists that Brosca is a liability. Carvel responds that Tom is more of a liability than Brosca, especially because Milner truly loves Tom while Carvel doesn't "feel like that about Brosca," only about Milner and the work they are doing together. In a separate scene, Tom tells Carvel that Milner is in love with Carvel's brain.

Brosca dies while giving birth to Jessica, and it is heavily implied Milner arranged for her not to survive childbirth. Carvel becomes extremely attached to Jessica from the moment she is born, neglecting his son entirely. He completes work on Janus but says he has made an "adjustment" to it and that they shouldn't use it. He twice attempts to expose Milner as the real Mr. Rabbit, but is foiled by the Network. Milner threatens him, saying that if he tries to destroy her again, Jessica will be tortured.

At the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (and Network lab), Carvel begins suffering from a psychotic break as Milner has him tortured for the whereabouts of Janus and what the adjustment is. He refuses to divulge the information, and before Jessica can be tortured, Krystos breaks Carvel out of the facility. Before they leave, Carvel injects the Janus serum into his daughter. On his way out of the facility with Jessica and Krystos, Carvel sees Pietre, who reaches up his arms at his father, but Carvel abandons him.

Following the torture, Carvel is extremely dissociated and out of touch with reality. Krystos has him put into a mental institution called Shenley under the name Mark Dane.