Nicole "Niki" Sanders was a former casino worker in Las Vegas. She was raising her son, Micah, alone because her husband D.L. was a fugitive. In the absence of D.L. and his regular paycheck from construction work, she earned extra money as a webcam stripper running lasvegasniki.com. She had an aggressive alter-ego named Jessica, under whose identity violent acts and murders were committed. After the events at Kirby Plaza, Niki worked as an agent of the Company and was infected with the Shanti virus. As the virus progressed, Niki returned to New Orleans to stay with Micah. She was later killed in an explosion after she saved Monica Dawson.
About[]
Born a triplet with Tracy Strauss and Barbara, Niki was given the ability of enhanced strength at birth by the Dr. Zimmerman. She was placed under the care of the Sanders family and bonded with her sister Jessica. However, her father, Hal Sanders, was abusive and due to this, Niki developed a split personality. Unbeknownst to Niki, Jessica was accidentally killed by Hal. Niki remembered none of the beatings, and was devastated when Jessica was killed. Upon growing up, Niki lost contact with Hal and grew to resent him and later became an alcoholic. She met D.L. Hawkins and had a son- Micah. However, Niki was approached by Hal Sanders, who tried to make amends for his past actions. Niki's main alter ego, Jessica, however, attacked Hal and sent him away before he could do any harm to Niki or her family.
Character History[]
Season One[]
For an episode-by-episode summary, see Niki Sanders: Season 1 History
Niki yells at the image to leave her alone. ("Genesis")
Season 2[]
For an episode-by-episode summary, see Niki Sanders: Season 2 History
After the explosion, Niki is approached by Bob Bishop, who warns her that another split personality will manifest if she does not go with him to receive treatment. Niki refuses, and her new personality—Gina—forms, and leads to D.L.'s murder. Niki, distraught at what she had led to, then agrees to go with Bob. Niki and Micah move on with their lives after telling Niki's dead husband, D.L., goodbye. They later make it to New Orleans so Micah can stay with Nana. Niki explains that she has to go away for a while, but she will return for him.
After arriving at the Company facility, Niki is treated for her split personalities and loss of control over her powers. However, Niki, not in control of her powers, escapes from her confinements, making her way past guards and wreaking havoc. She happens upon Mohinder and Bob, with Mohinder immediately recognizing her and knocks Mohinder into a door. She grabs Bob by the neck in an attempt to strangle him, but Mohinder tases her. Later, Bob assures her that she will be helped with her Multiple Personality Disorder. As Bob leaves, Mohinder attempts to free her, but Niki tells him to stop, explaining that she came of her own free will, even leaving her son behind, so that she can seek aid from the Company.
Niki is partnered with Mohinder in the Company, and she explains that Bob had told her of Mohinder's trust issues, and she is there to ensure that there aren't any problems. The next day, Bob warns Niki and Mohinder about an upcoming attack by Maury Parkman. Niki teams up with the pair, along with Matt Parkman and Nathan Petrelli in order to defeat Maury. Bob orders Mohinder to inject Maury with the Company's strain of the Shanti Virus, and Niki goes with Mohinder to retrieve it. However, Maury, who is able to control minds, manages to take control of Niki plagues her with visions of D.L.. The vision of D.L. convinces her to kill Bob and Niki then proceeds to punch Mohinder when he tries to help. Niki then goes after Bob and smashes through a door with her bare hands. However, Niki is talked down by Nathan, though she can't fight off Maury's mind control and injects herself with the virus. {C Niki is injected with Mohinder's blood, though it is revealed that her strain of the virus is immune to the cure. After realizing that she would die without a cure, Niki returns to New Orleans to be with Micah. Niki explains that because of the virus, she doesn't have much time to live. Micah's bag is soon stolen, in it D.L.'s medal, and after Niki insists that the police should handle it, Micah and Monica go off to retrieve it themselves. However, Monica is captured by the thugs who stole the medal, and Micah goes to Niki for help. Micah tells his mother that Monica was kidnapped, and they have to save her. After Micah tells his cell phone to track the GPS signal in Monica's cell phone so they can locate her, they find a burning building in which Monica is being held. Niki races in to help her. Niki is able to free Monica from her binds and help her escape the building, but is unable to escape herself. Unfortunately, the fires intensifies and Niki is killed as the building explodes.
One of Us, One of Them[]
Tracy Strauss travels to New Orleans to discover more about Niki. However, when she arrives at the Dawsons' home, she finds the remnants of Niki's wake, along with her body. After she closes the casket, Micah finds her and realizes that Tracy isn't his mom, but that she looks just like her.
Later, Micah tells his laptop to find information and yield any matches on Tracy and Niki, and one match comes up: a birth record. Tracy leaves Micah, and goes to find Dr. Zimmerman.
I Am Become Death[]
It is revealed to Tracy Strauss that Niki was a triplet along with her and Barbara. Also, Niki's ability was synthetic and was given to her by Dr. Zimmerman.
Cold Snap[]
Micah reminds Tracy that she looks exactly like Niki. He realizes that she's a politician and nothing like his mom, and tells her that Niki was "the everyday American, was a hero".
I Am Sylar[]
Micah tells Sylar that his mother used to change on the inside, that it was creepy but it made her strong.
Heroes Evolutions[]
The Agent[]
In chapter 2 of The Agent, Rachel Mills is searching the web and finds lasvegasniki.com. She mentions that Tracy's triplet sister, Niki, did pornography to keep the food on the table
Powers[]
- Enhanced Strength: Niki was strong enough to knock down doors and other obstacles with a single hit, throw people several feet across a room, Overpower Men several times larger than herself, literally rip people in half, break restraints capable of "holding down an elephant" with very little effort, rip the door off an office safe with her bare hands, she was able to lift a heavy set grown man with one hand, Broke a guards nose, folded a aron malsky in half, broke a set of hand cuffs, throws linderman across a room and into a wall, Smacked sylar with a parking meter, sent mohinder flying with one hit and broke his nose, knocked candice off her feet several feet across the room and give her a bloody nose, rip a door nob off with her bare hands, Yanked open a locked door, when angered she slamed a car door so hard that the window glass shattered, threw mich into a pile of rocks, broke a tazer, severly injured Dr. Witherson, broke a prison guards baton, Bashed down a wooden door, throw matt prkman through a window with one hand, pushed mohinder into a door, lifted bob bishop with one hand, and send D.L flying with one kick. Due to Niki's ability of enhanced Strength, Her body was naturally completely immune to the force she applied allowing her to perform her superhuman feats of strength without causing any damage to her body. For months, she could only utilize her power through her alternate personality, Jessica, who is much more violent than her normal self. In How to Stop an Exploding Man, Niki finally learned how to use her enhanced strength at will.
Notes[]
- While Jessica has a tattoo of The Symbol on her upper right back, Niki does not.
- Niki and Hal use more formal names for each other: Niki calls her father "Hal", and Hal calls his daughter "Nicole".
- Niki is on the list.
- Niki can communicate with her alternate personalities through reflective surfaces: whichever personality is dominant sees the alternate in the reflection. However, Matt Parkman heard thoughts of both personalities via his telepathy during one of their conversations (Run!). Niki and Jessica also communicated in jail sans reflective surface (Godsend). The significance of these unusual occurrences is unknown.
- According to the cast commentary for Godsend, the cast members themselves believed that it was Niki — not Jessica — who broke the guard's baton. However, during the Wizard World Los Angeles panel, the writers entertained the possibility that Niki might "eventually" be able to access Jessica's power, indicating they believed she hadn't done so yet. Her use of enhanced strength in How to Stop an Exploding Man at Jessica's urging made reasonably clear that she had not knowingly accessed her power prior to her fight with Candice Willmer.
- While a great deal of confusion about Niki and Jessica's relationship persists, Jeph Loeb stated in an interview that the crew "thought this was very clear on the air. Niki's power is the same as her alternate personality Jessica's: unbelievable strength. They're the same person. Niki discovered her special ability through her split personality, but it was always her ability."
- According to Dr. Zimmerman, Niki's ability is the result of receiving the formula rather than a naturally inherited ability. (I Am Become Death)
Trivia[]
- The laptop Niki uses for lasvegasniki.com runs Debian Linux and uses Gaim for instant messaging.
- Niki never keeps peanut butter in the refrigerator. (Godsend)
- The ABC Soap Opera One Life to Live is famous for being one of the first serialized dramas to tackle the topic of dissociative identity disorder (DID) in a real and serious way with a beloved lead character. That character was Victoria Lord (Viki), whose most active and dominate alter ego was named Niki. She also had a daughter who, through Niki's carelessness, was traumatized as a child and likewise developed DID. Her name was Jessica, and her main alter ego was named Tess.
- According to a form found in Linderman's archives, Niki's Social Security number is 2574-87-5698. (The Hard Part)
- A 2001 medical form for Niki has an address listed at the top: 348 South 4th Street, Portland, Oregon, 97209. It is unclear whether this was once Niki's address or whether this is the address of the form's originator. The medical form also lists Niki's age as 33. According to NBC's press packet, Niki would have been 28 in 2001. However, according to Nikki her birth certificate says she was born on August 24, 1974.
- In New Orleans, Niki drives a Chevrolet with Louisiana license plates KMB801T.
- According to the birth certificate Micah found on his computer, Niki weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces when she was born. She was born August 24, 1974 at 12:56 am in Beverly Hills at Our Lady of Perpetual Faith Hospital, and she was delivered by Dr. Zimmerman. Interestingly enough, Tracy Strauss's birth certificate lists the exact same information.
- According to a court record, Nicole Sanders has had felony complaints brought against her for robbery, homicide, and grand theft auto.
- The same certificate lists Niki's birth mother as "Kelly Sullivan". This name probably came from the assistant to the executive producers with the same name (see Kelly Sullivan).