The protagonist of The Ends of Time, initially introduced as The Stranger and later revealed to be Gary, is the emotional and moral center of a desperate time war. He is a deeply scarred, pragmatic revolutionary defined by his single-minded dedication to ending Dictator Thayne’s rule, often at a crippling personal cost.
Gary’s personality is a complex mixture of ruthless pragmatism and profound despair.
The Pragmatist/Leader: His actions are driven by objective, tactical necessity. When his ally Adam is killed, Gary’s immediate reaction is to assess the surroundings for an escape route, demonstrating his ability to compartmentalize grief in the face of survival. He maintains focus on the mission above all else, which is essential for a rebel leader.
The Desperate Rebel: He is characterized by a constant state of flight. He and Josh are described as sprinting and firing “in desperation.” This shows that his bravery is born not of calm confidence but of a deep, urgent need to survive and complete his objective. His goal to interfere with Dictator Thayne’s ancestry by targeting Ben Farrow highlights his extremist commitment to the cause.
The Wounded Soul (Gary): The “Gary” identity, known only to his closest allies like Josh and Jenny, is where his emotional armor falls away.
Gary faces three primary challenges:
The most obvious challenge is the totalitarian state. He is relentlessly hunted by the Planetary Police and the robotic enforcers, forcing him to live a life of constant evasion and violence.
Surveillance and Evasion: He must maintain multiple identities, carrying a fake ID for Cameron Getto to hide his true self. This constant need for subterfuge is a daily psychological strain.
Tactical Warfare: His challenge is to execute a seemingly impossible mission, manipulating the timeline while simultaneously fighting a physical war against a heavily armed regime.
Gary’s greatest internal conflict is the emotional cost of his rebellion.
The Loss of Josh and Adam: The deaths of his comrades are not just casualties; they are open wounds that fuel his self loathing and despair. Josh’s death, in particular, seems to have been a defining, traumatic event.
The Ethics of Interference: His mission involves kidnapping an innocent child, Ben Farrow. The challenge is justifying this morally ambiguous act to himself, a conflict that culminates in his breakdown after the mission is complete.
He lives with a fractured sense of self, which is both a tool and a curse:
The Stranger: The persona of the unknown, aggressive rebel.
Cameron Getto: The manufactured, disposable civilian identity.
Gary: The original, vulnerable self buried by trauma.
His ultimate challenge is whether he can ever truly reclaim the man named “Gary” after everything “The Stranger” was forced to do.
Ruthless, Determined, Unemotional. He is the archetypal rebel on the run, focused solely on the objective and survival. He is quick to violence and quick to discard emotion.
Broken, Vulnerable, Regretful. This is his authentic self, displaying overwhelming grief and self hatred. He is stripped bare by his trauma, seeking comfort and offering a desperate apology for the pain he has caused and endured.
In The Ends of Time, Gary’s heroism is not found in his success as a soldier, but in his final, painful display of humanity, a realization that even the most determined revolutionary cannot escape the emotional debris of their choices.
