Russell Lightbourne

Russell Lightbourne is a recurring character in the sixth and seventh seasons. He is portrayed by JR Bourne and Sean Maguire and debuts in "Red Sun Rising". He serves as one of the two main antagonists of Season Six, alongside Josephine Lightbourne.

He was the leader of Sanctum settlement and one of the Primes.

Early Life
Russell was born on Earth, and when he was a young boy on Earth, his first pet dog bit his face. However, his father still loved the dog and refused to put him down, claiming that the dog deserves a second chance. A few years later, the dog attacked Russell's infant sister for crawling near his bowl, and two days later, Russell's sister had died. At some point, when he was an adult, he married Simone Lightbourne and they had a daughter, Josephine.

The three of them went aboard Eligius III to travel to the moon Alpha. They arrived there in 2045 and were original members of Mission Team Alpha. Russell was the team leader. On day 21 of the mission, Russell killed Simone, Josephine, and others during an eclipse induced psychosis.

Russell spent the next 25 years trying to figure out how to use Mind Drives to bring his family back. In 2070, he assisted Gabriel Santiago in bringing his daughter back via an adult, black blood host.

His family become three of the Primes and used various hosts for the next two centuries to be reborn after each death. Russell is currently the "seventh of his line", that is, on his sixth host.

Throughout the Series

 * -|Season Six=

In Red Sun Rising, 236 years ago, Russell and his team including his wife Simone and daughter Josephine had just recently arrived on the Alpha. He tried to keep everyone on target with their missions to build a sanctuary for human race on the Alpha. When his Josephine suggested renaming the place to "Sanctum", he gladly accepted the suggestion. Later that day, Russell and his team encountered their first red sun eclipse. Since they didn't know it's effect, Russell got exposed to it and turned psychotic. While in this eclipse-induced psychosis, Russell went off and attacked his wife and Josephine with an axe and shot many others.

In The Children of Gabriel, the current "reincarnation" of Russell is among the first Sanctum Citizens to see Clarke's group from Earth. When they ask for help with Murphy who's dying, Russell takes a look and determines that Murphy has died from the toxic seaweed, but there's a way to bring him back. He asks Cillian to bring him back by getting him bitten by a Kepa-She snake whose venom reverses the effects of the sea weed. Afterwards, he orders for Clarke and her friends to be locked up. He visits them later to inquire why they are there and why they killed Kaylee's family. Before deciding what to do with them, he asks some of them to go bring in their transport ship inside the radiation shield where it's safe. He's left behind with Clarke to determine their fate.

When Clarke begs Russell to let them stay in Sanctum, Russell invites her to discuss it over dinner at the palace. During the dinner he tests Clarke's loyalty. He already knows about Clarke's dark past, thanks to Jordan telling Delilah everything. Clarke says that all the time she killed people on Earth, it was to protect her people. She asks Russell for a second chance but Russell doesn't trust that Clarke won't turn against them. He decides to kick Clarke's people out. However, right after dinner, everything is interrupted when the Children of Gabriel sneak in and kidnap Rose and Delilah - the remaining Royal Bloods. Clarke saves Delilah but get injured in the process. When Russell notices that Clarke has black blood, he realizes that she is a royal blood like them too. The events of the night convince Russell to let Clarke's people stay. However, upon learning that Charmaine Diyoza is the terrorist from their history books, he kicks her out.

In The Face Behind the Glass, Russell leads the celebrations for Delilah's naming day. Part of the ceremony involves repentance during which he makes amends with Kaylee for leaving her behind and shutting the door at Ryker's Keep before Kaylee's family could get in. After conducting Delilah's naming ritual, Russell is disappointed to receive bad news from Jade that Rose has been killed. Russell and Simone needed Rose to eventually use her as a host for their daughter Josephine. It could take decades before another royal blood child is born. Lucky for them, Clarke gets paralyzed by Cillian who turns out to be a spy for the Children of Gabriel. Russell becomes tempted to take advantage of Clarke and use her as Josie's host without her consent. Simone agrees that it was meant to be. He apologizes to Clarke and tells her that her brain will be erased. Russell and Simone inject Clarke with a substance that knocks her out. While she's out, they insert Josephine's Mind Drive in Clarke. A while later, Josephine wakes up in Clarke's body. Russell is happy to be reunited with his daughter.

In The Old Man and the Anomaly, Russell expresses remorse for what he did to Clarke and sees Clarke's survival as a chance to make it right. Instead of erasing Clarke's mind for good, Russell desires to restore her and find a new willing host for Josephine despite his daughter's protests. As a result, Josephine decides to go behind his back to get rid of Clarke for good.

After Miranda Mason is found dead, Russell realizes that it is not the Children of Gabriel and orders his people to find the people from Earth and Josephine as Sanctum begins to go into lockdown. After Madi's failed attempt on Priya's life, Russell insists that the people of Earth must stand trial for what they have done, though he promises they will do all they can to save Jordan Green since he saved Priya. The disgusted Ryker forces Russell to admit that Clarke is still alive. He orders his people to do whatever it takes to bring Josephine home.

In Matryoshka, Russell is having lunch along with his wife and Desais. They discuss the raised tension about citizens starting questioning the truth when a man named Tai asks for a meeting with the Primes. He claims to know where Echo is hiding, but really he wants to take this opportunity to murder Simone. He cuts a glass goblet on the table and stabs her in the throat. “Death to primes,” he says as the guards drag him out. Russell grabs his wife, but realizing that her injury is fatal, promise to bring her back.

This evening is the time when all earth prisoners and Tai are getting burned at the stakes. He walks around saying how there will be no forgiveness, however Murphy has a idea that Abby could make nightbloods with bone marrow. Russell says they tried it before and it didn’t work, but Abby says she knows the right formula and if any of them die, they’ll never know what it is.

Russell pardons Abby and the rest of the people so she can get to work right away. She says she’ll need a nightblood donor and suggests Russell himself. He says Madi will do. Abby starts to protest, but Raven says she’ll work fine they’ll just need a computer. He allows them to continue, but still kills Tai for assassinating Simone.

In Ashes to Ashes, Russell is torturing Echo to learn who else knows “the truth” aside from Tai. She doesn’t give up anything, so Russell tells Ryker to take her to the machine shop and test Abby’s bone marrow on her. As she’s being dragged out, Murphy tells her in Trigedasleng that they’re sneaking out to the machine shop to get Becca’s book and she needs to stay alive until then. And because Echo spits back at Murphy, Russell believes he’s still on his side. He wants him to go with Jade and bring back Josie. If he doesn’t succeed, Russell will kill Emori.

By the end of the day, Clarke is brought back to Sanctum and succeeds in tricking Russell into believing that she is Josephine, claiming that she has no Mind Drive as she hung on through the neural mesh and killed Clarke in the Mindspace. Clarke questions where Simone is and Russell shows Clarke her Mind Drive and mentions his plan to bring her back through Echo. However, Josephine's supposed return causes Russell to put this plan off to bring Clarke to Madi instead. He shows her how they get more nightblood through bone marrow extraction.

In Adjustment Protocol, Russell is in the lab inserting a Mind Drive in Clarke, who is pretending to be Josephine. He tells Abby that today he will be resurrecting all dormant Primes and he needs five more nightblood doses. He goes to the machine shop to check on Ryker and his progress on making the host from Echo, but finds his dead body, he orders the guards to shoot to kill the people from Earth. He walks back to the Lab and prepares for the special Naming Ceremony, reviving the Mason family using bodies of his guards, Jade, Sierra and Bryson and giving Murphy and Emori drives, so they could pretend to be Daniel and Kaylee Lee. He then wipes Abigail's mind so she can be used as a host for his wife. Then Gabriel surrenders to the guards and is brought to Russell. Face to face, Russell argues with Gabriel about the meaning of life. Gabriel says, “Without death, life is meaningless” and asks Russell to stop the killing, but he says the new hosts were honored to become one with the Primes, "most of them anyway." Just then, an alarm goes off signaling the red sun toxin.

Using the distraction, Gabriel grabs a guard’s gun and points it at Russell. He tells him these will be the last resurrections, but in the end, he can't shoot his old friend. Russell goes out and tells the gathering crowd that the sirens are a false alarm, the "demon Gabriel" has been caught, and they should prepare for all their gods to return that night. But then the power goes off as well as the radiation shield, allowing Children of Gabriel to walk in. Approaching the crowd, Bellamy yells out that they’re not gods and the Primes don’t become one with their hosts. "They kill them," he says. "They steal your bodies so they can live forever" with Priya remorsefully confirming it. As people start to murmur and take in the truth, Russell puts an end to it with a red sun bomb. "Non-believers must be purified," he says as he throws it into the crowd.

Regrouping in the mess hall, he introduces his resurrected wife in Abby's body to Clarke. Russell says that Sanctum is lost them they need to get away up to space. They take Raven, Madi and Gaia as hostages and fly to Eligius IV.

Personality
He appears to be a stern and kind leader. He is a charismatic leader, a visionary and pioneer, who rules over a "peaceful society."

During his first life, he seemed like a nice person, he seems to be kind and hardworking. He cares about his family and for a new settlement. However the eclipse caused him to become psychotic and kill his family and friends. After the eclipse had passed, he seemed to be wracked with guilt, as he spent the next 25 years with Gabriel trying to bring Josephine back through the Mind Drives before using it on the others he killed.

Although he was willing to murder Clarke Griffin to get Josephine back, Russell expressed remorse for his actions. After discovering that Clarke survived, he wanted to bring her back and put Josephine into a new, willing host to make that wrong right. He also balked at the idea of executing the people from Earth as he still wanted a peaceful end to things, showing that he is not naturally as bloodthirsty as his wife seems to be.

After Simone is assassinated, Russell's personality changes completely and he loses all hesitation in his desire to get revenge, willing to burn people at the stake to get it as a form of justice. He begins acting more ruthless, though he is willing to give the people from Earth a chance to earn their freedom by helping to replicate Nightblood using bone marrow transfusions so he can save his wife rather than giving into his bloodlust completely.

Despite his actions, Russell is shown to be sympathetic to a degree to what the prisoners from Earth are going through. When Abby threatens to kill him for Josephine supposedly taking permanent control of Clarke's body, Russell understands what she is going through one parent to another, especially as he knows what it's like to do whatever it takes to get your child back. As a result, he understands her anger and that she means what she says. He is also sympathetic enough to not force Abby to continue extracting Madi's bone marrow when it would mean killing her to continue, instead offering to have his healers do it instead.

Physical Appearance
His current host is tall, broad and skinny, with a beard and greying hair.

His original appearance was a white male with blonde hair and a mustache.

Simone Lightbourne
Simone is Russell's wife and agrees with him on many things. He takes her opinion into consideration when decision making and the pair are often seen leading their people side by side. Both are Primes with the Royal Blood who occupy hosts of their own. They have been together for over two centuries. Russell is utterly devastated by both of her deaths, particularly when Clarke floats her as he has no way of retrieving Simone for resurrection.

Josephine Lightbourne
He seems to be very close to his daughter, Josephine. He cares deeply for her and often lets her get away with things. He respects her work, though he disagrees with some of her opinions. After learning of Josephine's death, Russell is immediately reduced to tears. Her death and Simone's shortly after he learns about it causes Russell to seek revenge upon Clarke for his losses.

Quotes

 * Russell Lightbourne: "Do you remember when I told you why I became an astronomer?"
 * Josephine Lightbourne: "You wanted to prove there's no God. Too bad Nietzsche beat you to it when he said "God is dead." Can I go now?"
 * Russell Lightbourne: "What would you say if I told you that being here in this miraculous place, makes me question that?"
 * Josephine Lightbourne: "I'd say.. not everything that miraculous is a miracle."
 * -- Red Sun Rising


 * Russell Lightbourne : "Sanctum is yours."
 * -- Adjustment Protocol

Killed Victims

 * Simone Lightbourne I
 * Josephine Lightbourne I
 * Unknown number of other Primes
 * Faye Lee I
 * Caleb Mason I
 * Priya Desai I
 * Ryker Desai I
 * Brooke and others born in Sanctum
 * Tai Averi Sr.
 * Abigail Griffin
 * Jade
 * Sierra
 * Bryson
 * Layla
 * Tory
 * Unknown number of Sanctum Citizens

Notes and Trivia

 * His character was announced on September 21, 2018.
 * He was the first person who turned psychotic on the new world.
 * In "The Children of Gabriel", Russell VII mentions that he was bitten in the face by a dog when he was a child. Russell I had a scar on the side of his face which may have been from that dog attack.
 * As of "The Blood of Sanctum," Russell is the only Prime still alive as well as the only Prime to not be killed on-screen at least once.