| ATTENTION! SPOILERS AHEAD!! This article contains information from later episodes of The Magnus Archives and may contain major spoilers for the setting and plot. Continue at your own risk. |
Alice "Daisy" Tonner is a detective who has signed a Section 31 form, meaning that she is called upon to deal with supernatural cases.
Personality
As a child Daisy tended to be disobedient to authority and to take risks, playing where she was forbidden to go. She also did not seem to care for gender roles, playing with her best friend Calvin despite everyone saying she should not because she was a girl. As an adult Daisy is given to violent tendencies and making threats in uncomfortable situations. This stems from a desire to be strong and in control, which Elias indicates is a key part of her personality, revealing she holds onto her nickname because it comes from the starburst-shaped scar on her back which many said resembled a daisy, and she liked the contrast of weakness hiding strength. As a child her first sight of a dead body excited as well as frightened her.
Daisy is a driven officer and loyal friend to her partners, a fact which proves her undoing when Basira joins with the Institute, forcing her to abstain from killing Elias for fear of the effect it would have on Basira. Her loyalty may stem from the loss of her first partner on the case that got her Sectioned, as well as the loss of Calvin.
Elias and Basira describe Daisy as not being good at thinking things through, and unskilled in conducting investigations, preferring to pick a target and pursue it. Daisy is ruthless in pursuit of what she believes to be monsters, but her poor investigative skills impede her, as was seen when she successfully killed Michael Crew, and intended to kill Jon, believing him to also be a monster or at least a murderer. Ironically this drive had given her some leeway in carrying out cases that were deemed Section 31, since she could handle them quietly and out of sight, although this probably happened with the aid of a fellow officer directing her.
Daisy could best be compared to a hunting dog, being tenacious and vicious while also loyal to those she cares for, especially officers like Basira, who can direct her best and back her up. This is likely the reason why, after the apocalypse, she becomes a bestial monster herself, hunting indiscriminately and wanting Basira to join her in the hunt.
Description
Daisy has a starburst shaped scar on the back of her shoulder from a metal fence post.[1]
History
Daisy got her nickname after an incident that occurred when she was eleven. She and her best friend, Calvin Benchly, often played near an abandoned building together. One day Daisy dared Calvin to go inside, then followed after he did not return.[1] This was her first encounter with The Hunt. In the building, she saw her first two dead bodies, which had apparently killed each other, and she felt both afraid and excited. Calvin was there, in a blank trance, and behind him was a naked, monstrous creature covered in bloodless open wounds. It spoke silently to Calvin, with its black tongue flicking into his ear. Calvin then ran at Daisy, slamming her into a fence and causing the metal to puncture her back. She lost consciousness as Calvin stood proudly over her. She later awoke in a hospital, Calvin claiming that she had fallen. She was left with a scar on her back that the doctor likened to a daisy, leading to her new nickname. Daisy observed that Calvin was now sinister and violent; 6 local children were mysteriously killed or seriously injured in the next few years.
Daisy joined the police force in 2000.
On July 24th of 2002, Daisy had the encounter that led to her first Section 31. She and her partner, Isaac Masters, stopped a Breekon & Hope delivery van that was driving very slowly in the rain on the M6 near Preston. Two cockney delivery men were in the van and moaning was coming from the back, where they found a Coffin. Masters walked down the endless stairs inside the coffin, and one of the delivery men broke some of Daisy's ribs when she charged them. She reported the incident, expecting an investigation, but was instead made to sign a Section 31 form and was reassigned to the metropolitan police.
Among other paranormal subjects, she encountered vampires while in Section 31. She says in MAG 61 that she has dealt with "five in the last nine years."
In 2011, Daisy tracked down Calvin Benchly, who had repeatedly escaped legal charges for violence, and beat him up, took him to her secret dumpsite spot, and shot him five times. He was the first human she killed, but not the last. She is noted to use extreme force and threats, and hunts and kills both humans and supernatural beings.
Daisy works with Basira Hussain after the latter is sectioned. In July 2014, Daisy and Basira were involved in a Section 31 case in Kensington. When a gunshot victim tried to force a gun to his own head, Daisy wrestled it away.[2]
Season Two
She is first mentioned in MAG 43, where Basira says that she had been sectioned for "spider husks," which maybe have been "the husks of people-sized spiders, or the spider-like husks of people" (though this is contradicted in MAG 61).
Daisy appears again in MAG 61 where she gives her own statement, describing her first Section 31 in 2002. She admits that she has never told anyone but her old sergeant this story; John unknowingly compelled the statement. Thus, Daisy begins to have recurring dreams about the incident where she also sees John.
Season Three
Daisy interrogates Tim, Martin, and Elias in MAG 82 in order to find where John is hiding while he is suspected of murder. During these interviews, she threatens to do whatever she must to find John. During her interview with Elias, he extracts a statement from her mind and gives it for her while she protests. The statement reveals her past with Calvin Benchly, and he threatens to expose her crimes if she continues the investigation.
In MAG 88, Basira appears at the beginning of the episode looking for Daisy. When she hears that Daisy claimed to have "full operational discretion" she becomes distressed and says that she needs to find either John or Daisy quickly.
Daisy finally tracks John down in MAG 91, and knocks out and kills Michael Crew. She is only prevented from doing the same to John by the arrival of Basira, who convinces Daisy to try to get John to use his compulsion ability to extract a confession from Elias for the murder of Jurgen Leitner and Gertrude Robinson.
The three confront Elias in MAG 92. He confirms that he did kill both victims. Daisy aims her gun at Elias, but he has already called the police to his office. He reveals to the room that the reason Daisy has been missing is that he made the police department aware of all of Daisy's crimes, even fabricating some evidence to prove a few. He reminds Daisy that the other Section 31 officers will hunt her down like a rabid dog if she is caught and that they will also kill anyone associated with her, namely Basira. Elias forces Basira to sign a contract of employment for the Institute, making her his hostage. Elias tells Daisy that if she kills him, Basira, the only person she still cares about, will die screaming in agony.
After MAG 92, Daisy begins working for Elias. She hunts down agents of the Stranger and acts as John's escort and bodyguard, to prevent a repeat of his kidnapping by Nikola Orsinov. During MAG 96, she helps capture and interrogate Sarah Baldwin. Although she pines for Basira and misses having her as a partner, she says she is happy enough to be killing monsters regularly.[3]
Daisy becomes a key part of the plan to stop the Unknowing, due to her knowledge of how to set the plastic explosives that will be used to disrupt the ritual, as well as general competence at violence. During MAG 119, she comes face to face with Breekon & Hope, who tease her by saying they are Basira. Daisy angrily says "No, you're not, because nothing is anything" and threatens to kill them. They taunt her about being unable to remember how to use her gun in the chaos of the Unknowing, and she gives in to the Hunt and goes berserk. She tears Hope apart with her bare hands while growling and laughing. Breekon uses the coffin they carry with them, opening it and repeating what happened to her old partner in MAG 61, where he felt compelled to enter the coffin. Daisy enters the coffin and vanishes, her laugh cutting off from the recording as the lid thumps down.
In MAG 120, Elias confirms that Daisy did not make it back from the Unknowing. However, this episode also implies she is not yet dead, as her statement taken in MAG 61 is included among those John visits in his dreams, and those statement givers who are dead are not included in said dreams. Elias's narration notes she is absent from the dream, though, and that it feels empty.
Season Four
One half of the being calling itself Breekon & Hope returns the coffin to The Magnus Institute in MAG 128. In the statement John extracts from the creature, it is revealed that Daisy is still alive but cannot move, hunt, or be taken out of the coffin.
John goes into the coffin to rescue Daisy in MAG 132. He eventually finds her, and the two catch up while being squeezed by The Buried. Daisy gives a statement and says she feels more like herself now that she is cut off from The Hunt. She does not want to go back to being a violent predator out there, nor does she want to limp around like wounded prey, but she is most afraid she will not get the chance to choose. John assures her that there are always choices. Eventually, John is able to feel his anchor, and he guides Daisy out of the coffin, where Daisy greets Basira with a quiet, "Hi." Basira responds, "Oh my God."
After coming out of the Buried, Daisy chooses to no longer allow the Hunt to take control of her. She is afraid to be alone and is either with Basira, Melanie or John at all times. She becomes friends with John, to a degree, sometimes making jokes with him. However, she is weakened from not feeding.
When Trevor and Julia attack the Archives, she finally allows the Hunt to overtake her so she can stop them, after she makes Basira promise to kill her.
About a week after the attack on the Institute she manages to corner Julia in an old subway access and kills her by tearing out her throat. Trevor finds the body three hours later and starts tracking Daisy.
Season Five
John uses his power to see that Daisy is feral and animalistic, not chained to any domain as she Hunts for prey while pursued by Basira.
In MAG 179, Basira, along with John and Martin, catch up to her while she is busy with her latest prey. She attacks and injures John but recognises Basira, who is able to talk her down. Daisy asks her to join her in The Hunt but Basira shoots and kills her, fulfilling her promise.
Recurring Nightmare
Since MAG 61, Daisy and John have shared a nightmare about the singing coffin. However, the nightmare has become empty since Daisy disappeared into the coffin in MAG 119:
The rain is still there, though it is empty. The long and desolate road, slick with the downpour. A police car's lights flashing over the unmoving van. The doors are open, and the two familiar statues stand on either side of the well-worn wooden box. He looks around, his eyes scanning this forever road and the skies of iron grey, looking for her, but she is not there.
The Archivist expects—he hopes—to find the violence in her looking back at him. Hungry for pursuit and murder. But the emptiness of the place is complete. The only sound is the gentle singing of the box and the pounding, bitter rain.
He knows the writing on the coffin has changed, though it is still carved deep into the splintered wood: 'I AM FOR YOU.' He knows it is not addressed to him, but he reaches down and pulls the chains off all the same. It opens, and he walks slowly down the steps, into the earth. But even as it closes above him, the great shadow still sees him. There is nowhere in this universe that it would not blot out the sky.
Daisy later reveals that she was going to kill John once she figured out he was watching her.[4] She made this discovery due to him wearing a poorly-fitting and generally out-of-character shirt in her dream, and he was later wearing the same shirt when she went to pick him up from the airport.[3]
Episode Appearances
Bold marks episodes where Daisy has given a statement.
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Trivia
- Daisy's D&D class would be a former assassin rogue, multi-classed into a barbarian who refuses to rage.[5]
- Daisy is a huge fan of The Archers, and never misses an episode.[6]
- Daisy goes out for drinks in MAG 136 but in MAG 150, John claims that she has only been drunk once, in 2006.
- Daisy's vicious nature is inspired by Jonny Sims' personal experience with police brutality. (Citation needed)
- Daisy first appearance in Season five is in MAG 177: Wonderland. This might be a reference to Alice in Wonderland