Tess Doerner is a 4400 abductee who disappeared April 3rd, 1955. After being released from Quarantine, she was put into a mental hospital due to being diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 15. She is later released and becomes the girlfriend of neuroscientist Kevin Burkhoff.
| Tess Doerner | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Portrayed by | Summer Glau |
| First appearance | Wake-Up Call |
| In-story statistics | |
| Ability | Mind Control |
| Disappeared | Apr. 3, 1955 |
| Gender | |
| Home | Seattle, WA |
| Significant other | Kevin Burkhoff |
Season Two
Tess is first seen in the second season premiere episode "Wake-Up Call", a paranoid schizophrenic living in a psychiatric hospital. She had unknowingly mentally taken control of the patients and staff at the hospital to undertake a task of building an unknown structure. Once completed, an attempt at powering up this unknown device seems to fail, until Tess's friend and protector Kevin Burkhoff (and future boyfriend) speaks for the first time in many years; he has been "awakened" by the device and is revealed to be the probable "father" of 4400 technology(promicin).
Season Three
Tess is later seen in the episode "The Ballad of Kevin and Tess", when Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris are looking for Kevin. Tess claims not to have seen him, having only met him once for coffee after her discharge from the institution; however, she is secretly keeping Kevin safe at her house, as he has mutated due to his promicin experiments. Tess has also been compelling Diana to come to her house using her abilities so that Kevin could inject her with promicin in order to secretly gift her 4400 abilities. After the events that follow, Kevin and Tess run off.
In the episode "Terrible Swift Sword", Jordan Collier receives help from 4400s with the ability to trace people to track Kevin and Tess and discovers where they are hiding; he then goes to visit them and enlists them in his plan to steal Dennis Ryland's stores of promicin to prevent the formation of a super army while enabling access to 4400 abilities to the general public.
She uses her ability to prevent Richard Tyler from destroying the entire supply of stolen promicin in the third season finale "Fifty-Fifty" so that Collier can freely distribute the promicin to the general public.
Season Four
In the fourth season premiere, due to stress Tess suffers a relapse into schizophrenia and begins "seeing" dead people mainly those who suffered a promicin death. In the episode "Daddy's Little Girl" Tess's schizophrenia is finally cured by Shawn Farrell after she makes a diner full of people party nonstop for three days.
In the episode "Tiny Machines" Tess confesses her love for Kevin, after he reveals his feelings of inadequacy in receiving her admiration (due to her youth and his belief that she deserves better) being the cause of his self alienation from Tess. Kevin is both surprised and relieved by the obvious revelation and confesses his love for Tess in like. Tess finds Kevin's cluelessness adorable and they both share a romantic moment together.
After Kevin is kidnapped by Kyle and Collier, Tess forms a team to infiltrate and rescue Kevin from Promise City with the help of Shawn.