Harold George Ballinger was a toymaker who lived in Wayward Pines. He was married to Kate Hewson.
History[]
Harold was an accountant from Saint Paul who met a woman and got engaged with her. He was abducted and taken to Wayward Pines, a small town he couldn't escape from. There, he was introduced to a woman by Nurse Pam, who thought they would be perfect for each other.[1]
In the little town, he met people like him, willing to break the rules, and formed a bond with them. They gathered in secret to discuss about their situation and their past.[2]
One year after Kate's arrival to Wayward Pines, Harold married her.[3]
At some point, Harold's support group decided that they would escape. Along with Kate, Franklin Dobbs, Peter McCall, Ted Laufer, and several other residents, they planned to take down the fence.
Two years after his marriage, Harold and Kate opened a toy store on Main Street. Harold made the toys, specialising in rocking horses, and Kate was at the reception desk, selling the merchandising.[4] On the back of the store, Harold carved the toys from pieces of wood, and eventually, he removed all the microphones and cameras from his workspace.[2]
For two years in a road, Harold won the Wayward Pines horse shoe's Tournament.[4] During that time, Harold started disguising one of Franklin's bombs as a music box, receiving the parts from Ted, the town's mailman.[2]
Several years later, after a barbecue with his wife, a man knocked on his door, claiming that he was Kate's old friend. Harold called his wife, and she asked him for some time to talk with the man at the door.[5]
The next day, while he was working on the back of his store, Harold went to the front, and he was formally introduced to Ethan, who was talking to Kate. Later that day, during a walk with his wife, they saw Ethan and Beverly Brown walking together, and they invited the couple to their house for diner.
During diner, Kate and Harold made small talk with the couple, and after Beverly talked about the past, and Ethan made an excuse to leave, Harold asked his wife if she tought that they were going to try to escape.
Later that night, the phones started ringing, and they chased Beverly and Ethan all over the town. When Beverly was captured, Sheriff Pope told Harold and Kate that they would get the credit for warning the town about Beverly and Ethan. They watched as Beverly's troath was cut,[4] and after hearing Pope talking about trust, he and Kate joined the rest of the town in reciting the Seven Rules. After Beverly's reckoning, and now in their house, Kate promised Harold to give him some tea with milk before he went up the stairs.[6]
The next afternoon, Harold took Kate out to the Biergarten, where they heard Pam's speech about their new sheriff, Ethan Burke.[7]
After Peter McCall died, a part of the bomb that Harold was disguising went missing. Ted, the mailman, came by his store to talk to Kate and him. Despite their protests about not meeting there, they finally got to the conclusion that the piece was in Peter's office.
When Ted found the part, he delivered it to Harold, who armed the bomb. In his workshop, he talked to Kate about the risks of harming innocents, but they eventually decided that way too many people had died for their cause.[2]
The next day, Franklin met him at The Excellent Bean, and warned him about Ethan knowing about a bomb on his car. When the sheriff entered the coffee shop, Franklin left, and Ethan started talking to the toy maker. Although he denied knowing anything about the bomb, Ethan asked him to go with him to talk about more. He was escorted outside by the sheriff, where Harold panicked and tried to escape. Ethan tackled him and took him to the station, where he questioned Ballinger about the subversives. The sheriff wanted their names and the identity of their leader, but, to protect the cause, Harold claimed that he was working alone. Ethan let him go, not before giving him a message to deliver to Kate. When he found Kate, he gave Ethan's note to her, and she left to the sheriff house.
At the toy store, Harold talked to Kate after she met with Ethan, who declared that they should execute their plan that night. He reasoned that they shouldn't, since the sheriff was onto them, but the agent said that because of that, they had a narrow window to do it. She asked him to call everyone to let them know, but when the phone rang and his wife answered, Harold was told that they had they annual fertility consultation at the hospital.
During the consultation, Harold held his wife's hand, and before they left, he heard how Pam had such high hopes for them fathering a child, since their genes would make a great kid. In the hallway, Harold talked to Kate about gathering everyone and getting the two bombs they had ready, since they would only have one shot.
He met with Ted at the Biergarten, who confessed that he had been the one who planted the bomb on Ethan's car. After a small talk, he gave the bomb to Ted, and when he found out that the first bomb was neutralized, he tried to slow Ethan down dragging a dumpster to the middle of the street. The dumpster ended up hitting Eric, and Harold helped the man to go to the woods.[1]
In the forest, Harold and Alan laid an unconscious Eric on the ground. He noticed that the man had internal injuries, and during the night, they received the visit of Tim Bell and Ruby, who gave them water and food to survive the night. They discussed taking Eric to the hospital, but realized that if he entered that place, he was going to be executed. Seconds later, like their fellow Ruby, Tim had to leave in order to avoid being caught.
By the morning, Harold noticed that Eric hadn't survived his injuries. He and his partner started digging a grave, but Alan suggested not burying Eric there, but on the other side of the fence. They went to a truck depot, opened the door, and stole one of its construction vehicles.
On the road, Harold helped Alan carrying Eric's body inside the dump truck, and when they were about to leave, the toy maker decided to stay behind, since he couldn't leave without Kate. They parted ways, and while he was walking down the road, he saw the sheriff's car. He ran to the woods, but Ethan catched up to him. The sheriff shot twice to the air, warning Harold. Ethan hit him and handcuffed him to a tree, demanding to know where were the other members of his group. He, however, limited to say that the sheriff was too late.[8]
He was taken into custody and interviewed after being dragged by Ethan. After seeing the photos of his mutilated friends, he gave everyone's names to Ethan. As they were waiting for the sheriff to return, a group of three adolescents fronted by Jason Higgins overpowered Arlene and held everyone hostage after taking the keys to the gun safe. After Jason shoved Kate to the ground, Harold retaliated but was easily overpowered. With a gun to his head, he was forced to recite the Seven Rules and, after mouthing "I love you" to Kate, was shot at point blank range in the back of his head.[9]
Appearances[]
Wayward Pines[]
Season 1[]
- 101. "Where Paradise Is Home"
- 102. "Do Not Discuss Your Life Before"
- 103. "Our Town, Our Law"
- 104. "One of Our Senior Realtors Has Chosen to Retire"
- 106. "Choices"
- 107. "Betrayal"
- 108. "The Friendliest Place on Earth"
- 109. "A Reckoning"