Josh Levison

Josh Levison
Continuity:	Being Human
Notability:	Main character
Type:	Orderly
Gender:	Male
Race:	Werewolf
Location:	Boston, Massachusetts Ithaca, New York
Relatives:	Emily Levison Neil Levison Ellen Levison Nora Sargeant Robert Sargeant Lynette Sargeant R.J. Sargeant Aidan Levison Sally Levison
Status:	Alive
First:	"There Goes the Neighborhood (Part 1)"
Final:	"There Goes the Neighborhood (Part 3)"
Actor:	Sam Huntington

Josh Levison is a fictional werewolf and one of the principal characters featured in the North American television series Being Human. The series is based on a British programme of the same name, which premiered on the BBC in February, 2008. Known primarily as just "Josh", he is played by actor Sam Huntington and was introduced in the series' pilot episode, "There Goes the Neighborhood (Part 1)", and has appeared in every subsequent episode to date. Josh's counterpart in the original series is George Sands, played by English actor Russell Tovey.

Josh is portrayed as passionate, yet anxiety-ridden orderly whose fear of the wolf inside of him governs his every action and response. This often makes him come off as thoughtless, and though he cares for his friends deeply, his own personal demons always takes priority over everything else. Through his association with Aidan and Sally, Josh has learned he does not have an exclusivity contract on hardship and he has tried to temper his callous reactions with empathy and compassion. His relationship with Nora gives Josh a new channel, by which to focus his attention and comes to regard her as the single-most important thing in his world. Josh Levison is Nora's husband; Aidan and Sally's father; Neil and Ellen's only son; and Emily's older brother.

Biography

Early life

Josh was once just a normal, upstanding young man growing up in Ithaca, New York. He has a younger sister named Emily and attended school at MIT (or so he says). After school, he returned home where he fell in love with a young woman named Julia. The two were engaged to be married, but fate had other plans for Josh. During a camping trip with his friend Stu, Josh and his friends were attacked by a werewolf. Josh awakened with deep scars across his body, but was otherwise okay - or so he thought. At the time, Josh believed that he had been attacked by a simple animal, but while having dinner at a diner one evening, the full moon rose in the sky and Josh found himself doubled over in pain. He ran out into the nearby forests where he transformed into a werewolf for the first time. Awakening the following morning, Josh found himself naked in the woods with blood smeared across his body. He had no memory of what had happened, but soon came to understand that he was now something other than human. Josh researched the phenomenon extensively and although his rational mind refused to accept what he had learned, all signs pointed towards one irrefutable fact - he was a werewolf. Josh began keeping a diary, recording everything he could find regarding werewolves, but nothing he learned indicated how to cure his situation. Left with no alternative, Josh broke things off with his fiancée and left home. He didn't have any contact with his parents or his sister for more than two years.

The Vampire

Josh's journey eventually brought him to Boston, Massachusetts where he found work as an orderly at Suffolk County Hospital. His innate fear of his condition prevented him from forming any close relationships and most of the staff at Suffolk found him to be a quirky, nebbish bundle of nerves. Following a violent altercation, Josh met a male nurse named Aidan Waite. Aidan helped Josh out of the situation and the two became friends. Josh discovered that Aidan was a creature of the night as well - a vampire. Traditionally, vampires and werewolves were sworn enemies of one another, but the two men shared a common commitment towards holding fast to their humanity, denying their animalistic urges whenever they could. Aidan found an old, closed off wing of the hospital fitted with a deadbolt and large steel door. Once a month, whenever Josh felt the change coming on during the nights of the full moon, Aidan would lock him up in the room and collect him in the morning.

The Ghost

Josh and Aidan decided to lease a house together, believing that they could now have a place of their own where they could feel normal, free to discuss their lifestyles without having to worry about anyone discovering their secret. They leased the house from a young man named Danny Angeli who told them that he once lived there until the tragic passing of his fiancée, Sally Malik. Although Sally was deceased, she was not quite gone. Her ghost lived on beyond her death and was anchored to the house. As creatures of the supernatural, Josh and Aidan were the only ones who could perceive her. Her presence made Josh increasingly nervous and agitated, as there was no way he could dispel her or "shoo" her away. The privacy that he had hoped to maintain was now gone. Initially, this made Josh slightly resentful towards Sally, but as he came to understand her situation, he sympathized with her plight and the two became close friends.

Josh's sister Emily eventually tracked him down and followed him to Boston. She wanted to reconnect with her brother, but Josh feared for her safety and refused to let her get close. Emily was undeterred however and, realizing that her brother suffered from some kind of mental abnormality, pressed the issue even further. She even found herself trapped with Josh inside the secret room at the hospital and witnessesed him go through the first stages of his transformation. Fortunately, Aidan arrived in time to get Emily to safety before Josh could fully change. Though convinced that her brother was deeply troubled and suffering from some unspoken malady, she had no idea that he was a werewolf.

The Werewolf

Josh awakened in the woods one morning following an evening spent as the wolf. A man named Ray discovered him and instantly knew what he was. Ray confessed that he was a werewolf as well, and was desperately in need of companionship. He took Josh deeper into the woods to an old cabin that he availed himself of on the nights of the change. As per his nature, Josh was extremely distrustful of Ray and his motives, but over the course of several days, came to value him as a friend and mentor. Ray showed him how to hunt freely and safely without needlessly endangering the lives of humans. In exchange, Josh invited Ray to stay over at the house for a short time.

Unlike Josh, Ray held a deep resentment for vampires and could not understand why Josh would elect to associate with one. Josh defended his friendship with Aidan, telling him that not all vampires were the same, and that some of them were actually decent people. Ray could not abide this however and whenever Josh was away, he made every effort to voice his distaste for vampires to Aidan, even going so far as to empty his stores of sealed blood.

On the days immediately preceding the nights of the full moon, a werewolf would themselves with an increased libido and a lack of inhibition. Ray took Josh to a bar and showed him how his heightened pheromones could be used to seduce women. Taking Ray's cue, Josh attempted such a feat on a hospital colleague named Nora Sargeant with disastrous results. Nora was unimpressed with Josh's straight-forward proposition and threatened to report him to Human Resources.

Ray took Josh out again, this time to a neighborhood known for its high vampire population. They watched a group of vampires exit a night club - intoxicated after gorging themselves on human blood. Ray attacked one and beat him to a pulp and Josh, following Ray's lead, did likewise. News of the incident reached the ears of James Bishop, the vampire elder of Boston, as well as that of his lieutenant, Marcus Damnian. Bishop knew that Josh was a friend of Aidan's and warned the vampire to keep his "dog" on a tight leash.

The following day, Josh was disgusted by what he had done. He could not believe he would allow himself to give in to the ravages of the beast and realized that Ray was not truly a friend to him at all. It was soon after this that Josh learned the truth about Ray - that he was the one who had bitten Josh two years earlier and cursed him as a werewolf. Ray confessed that he had been searching for him ever since, but Josh could no longer tolerate his presence. He evicted him from his home and told him that he never wanted to see him again.

The Girlfriend

Josh was ashamed for the way he had acted towards Nora Sargeant and offered her a deep and earnest apology. She forgave him and even displayed a slight interest in Josh. He finally mustered up the nerve to ask her to dinner and she accepted. He invited her back to his house, but the meal was disrupted by the surprise appearance of Emily, who was now homeless and needed a place to stay. Josh was not about to turn his back on his sister, so she came to stay with Aidan and he. Sally thought that Emily was simply adorable and Nora took an immediate liking to her as well. After dinner, the two finally had a little time alone together and shared their first, intimate kiss.

The night did not end well however. Emily came home bearing severe bruises and lacerations across her face. Nora had her taken to the hospital right away. Josh was furious with Aidan who was supposed to have been keeping an eye on her. Aidan felt terrible and his guilt only worsened when he discovered that Emily's attacker had been a vampire.

Family reunion

Once Emily was released, she asked Josh to take her home to Ithaca. Josh acquiesced, but had no desire to see his parents, whom he had no spoken with for more than two years. The family reunion was extremely uncomfortable for him, particularly when his father revealed that he knew about Josh's belief that he was a werewolf. Josh denied this seemingly insane accusation until his father presented him with his journal. Josh continued to deny it, but ultimately confessed that he was in fact a werewolf. Naturally, his parents did not believe such an outlandish claim.

Marcus Damnian, the vampire who had attacked Emily, followed them home with the intent of finishing her off. This was his way of punishing Josh for his previous attack against his vampire brood. Once again, Aidan came to his rescue and fought against Damnian while Josh raced throughout the house trying to protect his family. Once the situation righted itself, Josh and Aidan returned to Boston.

Intense romance

Josh resumed his relationship with Nora but on the night before the full moon, his libido overtook him and they had violent, angry sex with one another in a room at the hospital. Nora, being sexually adventurous, actually enjoyed their time together, but Josh was once again disgusted with himself. The following day, he apologized to her for how he had acted.

Josh and Nora went on another date, which consisted of sitting at Josh's house watching movies. Josh dozed off and dreamed that he had transformed into a werewolf in front of her. Fearing that his growing relationship with her could only endanger her life, Josh tried to distance himself from her. Nora thought that he was breaking up with her, but he insisted that this was not the case. He told her that he was afraid of hurting her, but Nora responded by showing him deep scars across her stomach, citing that she has been hurt by men before and is more than capable of taking care of herself.

Dog Eat Dog

Josh Levison was abducted from his home one afternoon by a group of James Bishop's vampires. he was brought to an underground dungeon beneath the funeral home operated by Marcus Damnian where he was caged. He shared a cell with an older werewolf named Douglas and found out that Bishop intended on having the two fight one another in werewolf form on the next full moon. Bishop did this not only to satisfy Marcus' enmity towards Josh, but also to impress three vampire elders collectively known as "The Dutch". When Aidan found out about this, he had to hide his disgust in front of the other vampires, but plotted to find a way to extricate Josh from this situation. He made a deal with Bishop that if he agreed to let Josh go free, then Aidan would return to his inner circle (which is what Bishop always wanted of him). Bishop knew that he could not simply cancel the fight, so he arranged to have the other werewolf weakened, insuring an easy victory for Josh. As promised, Josh was set free after the fight, but the incident strained the relationship between Aidan and he.

After having been missing for two days, Josh returned to the hospital to apologize to Nora. He could not tell her the truth about what had happened, but was in for an even greater shock when Nora revealed that she was pregnant with his child.

Nora soon learned the truth about Josh after he had been tricked into locking himself in the hospital basement. Peering through the window, she watched as he transformed into a werewolf. Though in an animalistic state, something in Josh's eyes seemed to recognize Nora, but unfortunately, he also managed to scratch her on the arm, spreading the curse to her.

She-Wolf of Boston

Over the course of the following month, Nora kept the fact that Josh had infected her a secret from him. She was careful to cover up the wolf scratches that he had left upon her arm. Nora was not certain if Josh's condition was contageous, but she tried to get more information from him, brining up the situation every now and again. Josh disliked talking about his lycanthropy and did everything he could to avoid the topic. The two had several quarrels over the issue, but Josh's fight or flight reflex always steered the topic of conversation towards other avenues.

When the time came for Josh to change again, Nora drove him out into the woods. She waited in the car by the side of the road as Josh went off to become the wolf. From the distance, she could hear him snarling in pain as the change overtook him. At first she felt a wave of relief, for it had appeared that Josh's curse had not been transmitted to her after all. Only moments later however, Nora learned that this was far from true and she transformed into a werewolf for the first time.

The Cure

Nora Sargent learned from her time with Brynn that curing lycanthropy lied not within the world of science, but in the supernatural. She discovered that if one were to kill the werewolf who had infected them, then they would cease to turn into a werewolf. This initially worried Josh as he feared that Nora might try to kill him to cure herself. Nora reassured him that she had no desire to harm Josh, but if he wanted to be rid of this curse, he had to find Ray.

Josh and Nora enlisted Sally's aide to take possession of Ray's wife, thus luring him to a predetermined location where Josh intended on killing him. They returned to the forest cabin that Ray and Josh once spent time at. Things quickly escalated into violence, and Nora was forced to shoot Ray. As he was bleeding out, she beckoned to Josh to finish him off, so he could be cured. Ray pounced on Nora, striking her several times until Josh came up from behind him and bashed Ray across the head repeatedly with a rock until he died. Nora and he buried him in the woods. Come the next full moon, they sealed themselves within their respective storage units, just in case the cure did not work. Josh was human again, but Nora continued to shift into her wolf form.

Blood magic

For the next year, Josh and Nora did everything they could to track down Aidan and Sally. Finding Aidan was virtually a hopeless cause. With a fatal virus rapidly depleting the vampire population, Josh could find very few vampires who had any knowledge of Aidan or his whereabouts. He never gave up hope however and knew in his heart that Aidan was still alive.

Sally Malik however, was another problem. It wasn't enough that she was dead, but her ghost appeared to have disappeared into the ether altogether. Josh and Nora had a chance encounter with Ilana Myers - the medium who once tried to exorcize Sally. Ilana referred them to a woman named Donna Gilchrist. They found Donna working at the Miller Avenue Community Kitchen and explained their situation. Donna told them that she could restore Sally's spirit and even bring her back to life, but to do so, she required the heart of someone that Josh had killed. The solution to this dilemma seemed obvious - they had to dig up Ray. Having dealt with so much ugliness in his life, digging up a corpse and cutting out it's heart seemed to be a small obstacle to him. Nora and he also had to disinter Sally's remains as well. They brought the heart and the body back to Donna who performed the ritual. Miraculously, the process worked and Sally was wholly reborn. Donna warned Josh that Sally was to have absolutely no contact with anyone from her past life.

Notes & Trivia

• The character of Josh Levison was created by Jeremy Carver and his wife Anna Fricke, based on concepts originally developed by Toby Whithouse.

• In werewolf form, Josh has been known to eat his own feces whenever proper food was unavailable.

• Whenever Josh is in public with Sally, he wears a Bluetooth device so that it doesn't appear as if he is speaking to empty air.

• Outside of the Being Human TV show, actor Sam Huntington has also been involved in the Superman comic franchise. He played eager cub reporter Jimmy Olsen in the 2006 film Superman Returns. Sam's other films credits include Jungle 2 Jungle, Detroit Rock City, and Not Another Teen Movie. His television credits include episodes of CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Veronica Mars and Cavemen.

Appearances

Being Human: There Goes the Neighborhood (Part 1) Being Human: There Goes the Neighborhood (Part 2)

See also

Being Human Being Human images Being Human episodes Being Human seasons

Being Human characters Being Human cast & crew Being Human appearances Being Human miscellaneous

External Links

• Josh Levison at IMDB
• Josh Levison at Syfy.com
• Josh Levison at Wikipedia
• Josh Levison at the Being Human Wiki

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