Graphic Novel Commentary

It Takes a Village

Chapters 35 to 38

An insight on “The Haitian”
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"Who commands the loyalty of the man know only as the Haitian?"

Chapters 35 through 38 of the Graphic Novel, asks this very question.

Though he partnered for years with Noah Bennet, the main in horned-rimmed glasses, the Haitian turned against him to aid his daughter Claire. They he seemed to betray them both to her biological grandmother Angela Petrelli.

We first encountered “The Haitian” at the end of Volume 1: Chapter3 “Don’t Look Back” when he abducted Matt Parkman and manipulated his memory, causing him to lose the better part of two days.

We later found out in Chapter 7 “Nothing to Hide” that our radiative man, Ted Sprague, also had a similar encounter with The Haitian. During the “Fallout” after Homecoming, the Haitian was told by Mr. Bennett to erase the memory of Claire, but the Haitian was sure that she had to remember.

The situation with the Haitian came to head, in Chapter 17 “Company Man” when Parkman and Sprague took the Bennet family hostage looking for answers.

Claire too realized that more was going on with the Haitian after Matt read her mind the same time they both were thinking about “The Haitian”.

Thompson mentioned in flashback that The Haitian described his powers by drawing a picture in the sand, of him taking memories out of someone head. This scene was illustrated in part four of this story arch.

Memories are what make us who we are. Even if sometimes memories are painful. The graphic novel starts in a scene that place in Collision, after The Haitian takes Matt’s memories.

Noah noted that some of the people seem almost relieved that their memories were taken.

Noah, said, “I was being rhetorical, I know sure as hell aren’t going to tell me.”

But then the Haitian spoke.

“Sometimes it is liking picking flowers just after a spring rain. Sometimes like reaching into the moist soil of freshly dug graves. Grubs biting at your fingers... Sometimes like dancing. But always it reminds me of home and of my father.”

So here we found out why Mr. Noah Bennet said these words to the Haitian in Company Man, “Guess who found out you can talk.”

I assume that the day Matt was kidnaped was the day Mr. Bennett realized that The Haitian could talk. Though, he might have told to be before!

So the Haitian begins his story of his father, of Guillman, the Houngan, that priest, the only Houngan loved by the Loa. Who was able to save his village though much of Haiti was in ruin. He was special, and he had the ability to save the village from the “Tonton Macoutes”, the Boogie Men.

“Tonton Macoutes”, “The Boogie Man”, “Okage” Gotta love themes...

“Though, no one, god or man could have loved him more than I did.”

The Haitian continues about how villagers loved and worshiped his father. That he had great power. The power to use “Bliss and Horror” against enemies, the suggested “Fear of Fear itself.”

Some have speculated that Guillman’s power was of “Emotional Manipulation”. Imagine the possibly of using fear to scare someone!? Too bad the Haitian’s powers had manifested and his power canceled out his father’s power–And Guillman failed.

And the Tonton Macoutes did what they please with their goods, their money and their woman, so Guillman was then punished for being weak, hung by chains for twenty hours and no one was allowed to take him down.



Guillman was determined to regain the villagers faith, but he warned his son not to come to this rally, or he would kill him. But the Haitian didn’t understand. He only felt that his father was in pain.

The villagers believed. They had faith, but later when Guillman went to have the village’s revenge, he failed again. Because The Haitian stood by him. He was proud of his father, but he took his power, and Guillman knew this.

“Why did you come?!”

He was angry and began to beat his son, the Haitian felt so much shame that he prayed for his neck to break.

The Haitian was scared, and all the people around him became zombies, somehow his power took away all their memories and they were like an empty shell.

Guillman took his son, telling them they needed to be cleansed, that they were cursed.

And told him the story of the Serpent and the Crane.



The Serpent was a creature of ambition, tried of crawling on his belly and eating grubs and mice. One day, he spotted the crane. Carefree. Stupid. But she could fly. The sun shone on her always. She slept in clouds. Drank from rainbow.

“What a waste” thought the snake. “If I could fly, the things I could accomplish.”

So one day, he found the watering hole where the crane deigned to bathe... and swallowed her whole. He took here wings, and made them his own and he flew. He flew around the sun. He flew to the moon. He ate the clouds and played in the rain.

The Haitian thought this was good.

“But,” Guillman continued.

“What good is it to fly, if you have nowhere to go? Once he had the power, the snake lost touch with the ground. When the Loa mount me, I have power. I could drive men to ecstacy or horror. I could lean nations... Instead I get them high and sleep with their women. I have forgotten the ground, and must make penance for it.”

Guillman abused his power. He was treated like a god, but forgotten that he was actually, just a man.

He took his son to the crossroads in order to have penance, and he took an ax and shouted to his son.

“Remember the ground! Cut the poison!”

The Haitian stared at his father in fear, was he trying to kill him?

Guillman called him a poison, some the Loa sent to punish him, that they were cursed, but he forgave him and would not suffer.

The “deity” he loved called him a poison. And the Haitian was ready to die for him, but he was just a child, and could not resist touching him one last time.

And when he touched him, he brought on memories. He not only take memories away but find them and show them. And for the first time The Haitian saw his father not as a god or as a priest, but as a man. A man that loved his son, but was afraid to show it because it might show him as weak.

“I...oh...boy. Son. I have forgotten the ground. I have forgotten.”

He hands the boy the necklace off his neck, the familiar one that The Haitian now wears.

“That day my father ‘Remembered’ the ground and he flew. But not in the way either of excepted”

Guillman leaped off the rocks to his death.

The Haitian tried to restore the memories of those he took, but as he later told Claire, his gift did not work that way.

And he literally buried the shame.

Mr. Thompson showed up then looking for Guillman.

“Did you do this? Like father, like son.”

“Never Forget. Never forget.”