Ryan Hardy was born in 1966. Ryan's mother died of leukemia when he was 14. His father was a street cop in Albany who worked for the NYPD until he retired. Some time later he was killed when trying to stop a robbery. Ryan saw the robber run out of the store and when Ryan walked in he saw his father shot on the floor and he watched him die and couldn't do any thing about it. After his fathers death he tracked down the robber that killed his father and Ryan held a gun on his fathers killer and he drugged the robber until he died of an overdose. Ryan and his sister, Jenny, also had a brother, Ray, who was a fireman and died in 9/11. At some point, he was recruited into the FBI.Ryan meeting Claire for the first time2003 He visited Claire Matthews at the college where she taught and Claire advised him that she believed the serial killer he was chasing was taking some literature written by Edgar Allen Poe based on the information that he provided her with. She said that he should talk to her husband who known a lot about the time period. When he questions her marriage and Claire asks he's flirting, he shrugs it off as mere misconception. While attempting to catch Joe Carroll, Ryan followed Sarah Fuller to her dorm room, waiting outside as she entered. When he heard screams, he broke in and saved her life, but not before Carroll was able to kill her roommate, Annie. As he entered, he and Carroll got into a fistfight during which Carroll stabbed him in the chest dangerously close to his heart and nearly killed him. Luckily, Hardy survived and was able to shoot and injure Carroll, who was arrested.( Pilot ) The injury he sustained resulted in him to be required to wear a pacemaker afterwards as a result of the fight. Ryan helped Claire move and Claire made the first move when she told Ryan to kiss her, to which later they started a romantic relationship. However, Ryan later broke up with her and her son Joey believing he's not good for them (he felt he was a reminder of the worst time in her life) and wants more for them. His sister tried to reason with him stating she knows he loves her, but Ryan retorts saying it's not a good time with her in a divorce and believing he's a constant reminder of Joe from the case. Sometime after retiring from the FBI, Ryan writes a book about Joe which he titles The Poetry of a Killer, which, unlike Joe's book, was successful.2005 When trying to get his book, Poetry of a Killer, he talked to his old partner Tyson about it and Tyson said he shouldn't do it since it wouldn't be any better than Joe's book. But once Ryan admitted he wrote it to make himself feel better about himself, Tyson admitted he should go for it. It's implied his book did to well in his life.2009 While living in Brooklyn, Ryan lived next to a neighbor named Molly, who is one of Joe's followers and a doctor that did check ups on him. They met at a party and they flirted with each other, but Ryan still didn't feel like being with her due to his death curse belief despite Tyson encouraging himself to be happy. They did make out at one point at the party and occasionally had sex, which seemed to have been taped unknowingly to him, likely Molly keeping tabs on him for Joe. However, as stated by Tyson, they broke up due to his withdrawn nature and not being serious about her. Ryan would at some points reveal him to have a drinking problem and Jenny, his younger sister, tried to keep him off the bottle less he injure himself and his pacemaker. She notes how Ryan is near impossible the way he is and left being done trying to take care of him.2013 At this point he is no longer working for the FBI and is living in Brooklyn, New York. He has a drinking problem. When Carroll escaped, he was called back in to help the FBI work on the case because he is the one who tracked and caught him in the first place Ryan returning to the FBI.. He finds Carroll and the FBI arrests him after Carroll has managed to kill Sarah, his unfinished work, before Hardy has a chance to save her.( Pilot ) After Joe is arrested, Hardy interrogates him. Joe states he killed Sarah over him wanting Ryan to be redeemed and in the sequel to his book. Ryan retorts at his cruelty that his book had better end with his death and snaps at Joe by angrily attacking him and breaks his fingers. Joe then says his sequel has just begun as Hardy is pulled out of the room. Hardy is then informed that Joey Matthews, Carroll's son, has been kidnapped by Claire's nanny. Hardy promises Claire that he will save her son. In Chapter Two , Claire decides to talk to Joe personally believing she may persuade him to telling where Joey is. However, Ryan watches Joe question Claire and Hardy's past relationship and how they had an affair after Joe's divorce. Claire openly refuses to ever love someone like Joe again and is forced to be pulled away after Carroll responds by attempting to choke her. He later puts her under surveillance for her protection. At night, they track down Jordan Raines (Jordy), the guard responsible for Joe's internet privileges and escape from prison. He has murdered three college girls in Joe's footsteps. However, Ryan looks over the blueprints from Emma's home and realizes it's for Claire's home. He rushes to her room to find Jordy there intent on killing her. Ryan manages to trick him and shoot him in his shoulder, saving Claire. He then questions Joe later about Jordy where Joe congratulates saving Claire but is disappointed Jordy is alive-- but claims knows he's stupid and won't give anything to Ryan. He visits Claire at night and promises he'd watch over her after her statement that Ryan is the only person she can trust.In The Poet's Fire , Ryan goes to the hospital with Debra Parker to see Jordy and he asked him where Joey is but Jordy refuses to tell and mocks them by singing. Ryan angrily punches his bullet wound in response. Later when one of Joe's followers (Rick Kester) kills Rick Fellows, he along with the FBI go to Rick Kester's home and they find his wife Maggie Kester. He later goes to the prison where Joe was being held and he tells Ryan that Rick was going after the people responsible for Joe's downfall: Ryan, Stan Fellows and Phillip Barnes, When they went to check on Phillip Barnes they found him dead. Later, Weston went to the Kester house and they watched the house in case of that Rick would come and when Parker called them and Jordy told her that Maggie is a follower, They ran in and found Riley on the floor bleeding from his neck. Ryan ran out to follow them and held a gun on Maggie and when Rick came up behind him, he shot Rick but he came back up and Ryan shot him again and killed him and when he turned around Maggie was gone. When he came back inside Riley was dead. The next morning he stood outside the house with Debra and she was angry over that Maggie fooled her and Ryan revealed that the first time he met Joe he was fooled by him to. Later Claire asked to see him an at her home she showed him a video of Joey being taught how to kill by Emma and Paul.After Ricks death, Ryan slowly begins to become uneasy with so many dying around him due to Joe's followers as Debra tries to not let it get to him. Mike even begins to try to reason with him despite his lack of respect towards him. While working, he receives a call from his sister Jenny and is horrified that Maggie is the caller and has his sister hostage. She says he must come alone or she will die. Ryan tries to reason with her over how Joe doesn't want him to be killed yet, but she off the book as payback for Ryan killing her husband. Ryan went to save his sister and he brought Mike Weston with him after being convinced he would need help. When he arrived she knocked him out and tied him to a table. She then put electromagnets on his chest to interrupt the pacemaker. Ryan tried to reason with her that she didn't want to kill him because then Joe Carroll wouldn't have been the one to do it. She reasons that she's only stopping the pacemaker so technically the stab wound Joe inflicted during the struggle in Sarah Fuller's house would be the thing that killed him and forced his sister to watch him die for murdering her husband. Before she could succeed and kill him as she made Ryan's sister watch Ryan die; Mike who had been waiting outside for some sort of signal shot her to death and effectively saved Ryan and his sister. With that, Ryan finally shows Mike respect by calling him by his first name and as his partner. The next day Claire expresses her relief after hearing what happened with him and offers to make him breakfast since he's obviously exhausted working on the case, but Ryan, still believing he'll drag her down with her, says he can't and goes back to the station.After Claire received a call from Joey, Ryan and Mike work tirelessly on the signal to find her son. Before leaving to another state, Ryan talks with Claire about leaving her and apologizes over what he did and wishes to talk with her after getting her son back, to which they hug and he leaves for Virginia. They fly out to Virginia after getting an image of Paul in convenience store, prompting Ryan and a police officer to track them down. They make there way to a home where Paul murdered two people and follow a trail in the woods that leads them to the house. The officer is murdered by Hank Flynn, but Ryan shoots him and calls in Mike for more backup. Inside the house, he finds the missing Megan Leeds and promises her he'll come back. He finds Joey in the house and just as he tries to take him home, Paul appears from behind and puts a gun on his head. With Emma and Jacob returning as well, they force Joey upstairs.Informing the fugitives the FBI is on the way and there's no way out, he tries to reason with them to let Joey go, but they refuse and Emma brings out Megan and threatens to torture her with a taser gun and Ryan grudgingly stands down. She then drugs Joey with special milk so he doesn't listen to what they do and forces Jacob to tie him up after shocking him. As the FBI is outside, Ryan uses the confusion of the group to grab a knife and cause panic amongst the group. This proves to be affective following Emma having left Jacob and Paul behind after taking Joey with her, to which Ryan, freed of his rope, stabs Paul twice in the stomach and disarms Jacob and frees Megan to get her to safety. He follows after Emma and finds a wounded Mike being shot by Ava, who was a follower in disguise. He finds Emma about to leave and shoots Ava, but Emma successfully gets away. Later, a frustrated Ryan realizes to Debra they underestimated Joe's followers that he's had some in law enforcement and even higher up. Later, he returns to Claire after hearing what she went through and tries to console her despite her pushing her away and eventually gives in and tearfully hugs Ryan over losing her son again, leaving a very upset Ryan worried.With Joey having gotten away, Ryan is informed by the warden of Joe's prison that he's requested a transfer via his attorney Olivia Warren due to Ryan having snapped Joe's fingers as a result. He demands to be in the transit, but is denied. However, after looking over the video of the truck, he realizes Joe's not in it and finds that the truck is empty and Joe escaped again. He realizes the warden was in on it due to his daughter was kidnapped and assisted Joe in his freedom. Ryan and Mike go to find Joe and listen on the phone as Olivia calls them as Joe demands she tell them he's killing her and strangles Olivia on the phone as Ryan rushes to the scene. In a hotel, they find Joe and rush to stop him, but more followers get in his way and corner him in a parking garage. Joe then comes face to face with him and shows his utmost hatred to Ryan and reveals his sole reason for all this was for revenge: Joe blames Ryan for the wasted nine years of his life in prison, losing his wife and never seeing his son and not being allowed to continue his work. He demonstrates a shaking desire to kill him despite Ryan goading him, but he refuses stating killing him in a parking garage is too dull and wants Ryan to suffer more till he's satisfied. As Joe prepares to leave via helicopter, Ryan overpowers the follower and shoots him in the leg and tries to stop Joe, but he already escaped. Afterwards, he convinces Debra to use a new approach to interrogate the follower due to there current methods being a joke to them. Ryan then tortures the follower by pressing on his bullet wound till he gives the warden's daughter's location. He then visits Claire and has her go into witness protection for her safety, knowing Joe will go after her now.After being informed of Joe's second escape, the FBI sends Nick Donovan to do this his way. He greets Ryan and refuses to let him in on anything else believing he's messed this all up. However, as they both question the follower David, he commits suicide after taking a sedative in his hand. When Mike is forced to go to his hotel due to helping Ryan try to hack Nick's email, Ryan finds that Mike has been kidnapped. He and Debra eventually find his location and save him before they deal the killing blow and takes out 5 followers (as stated by Roderick). At the hospital, Mike is stated he will survive and is informed by Debra Mike knew Claire's location, being the only one with clearance. Ryan is shocked seeing Mike's determination and continues to be frustrated over the situation with people suffering due to Joe's ambition.In Love Hurts , Ryan discovers of a follower killing women named Claire Matthews in an effort to lure Claire out, to which he was told first hand by a call from Joe, but the call was untraceable and told Ryan that love hurts , wanting Ryan to suffer. After killing two Claire Matthews, they find the third one at a rally which Amanda goes after her, but Ryan follows after killing Louise. Once he confronts her, he begs her not to kill Claire but Amanda says she has to die because Ryan has to be punished from sleeping with Joe's wife and that Joe deserves the happy ending and not Ryan. She then demands why he slept with Claire and Ryan told Amanda Porter it was cause he's in love with Claire and tells her to kill him with her staple gun because he is still love in with Claire and can't unlove her. Just as she frantically tries to kill him, he disarms her and has her arrested.Following Amanda's capture, Ryan discovers Joe traced the call to Claire's location and demands she be moved immediately. She visits Claire and informs her of Joe's followers killing women with her name and about how his followers are so well trained. just then, they are attacked by Joe's followers, but Ryan and Claire manage to escape and discard there cell phones. Ryan takes them to Tyson's home, a former partner of Ryan and greets the two. Just then, Ryan notices she was tagged back at the hotel and Joe's men know there at Tyson's home. At night, Claire and Ryan have a private talk about why Ryan left never called her, to which Ryan states is cause he's her past and is no good for her, but she retorts that he could be his future and how messed up the two of them are. As she mentions she loves him, he too says he loves her to, and they reaffirm there love for each other through a kiss and hug warmly. After Brock is killed, Tyson is fatally wounded and Claire goes out and finds Joe's men. Realizing the blood shed won't stop till Joe gets what he wants, Claire willingly give herself up to see her son and Ryan desperately tries to stop her and sees her mouth I love you before she goes away. Ryan calls for backup and rushes Tyson to the hospital. At the hospital, Ryan is called by Joe about the events and gloats how Claire willingly gave herself up having won now. He mentions that Ryan himself must feel terrible with so many dying around him, but a angry Ryan tells him to go to hell and warns him to not hurt Claire, to which Joe says he loves her and would never do such a thing. As Ryan says he's done with him, Joe says he can't quit yet and hasn't become the man he's meant to be since he's been given a second chance and says he must endure more till he becomes the hero of Joe's book.With Claire having been captured, a depressed Ryan returns to his home in Brooklyn and hits the bottle hard that night. He receives a call from Joe who asks how Ryan's doing, to which Ryan asks what he wants and just wants to keep Ryan off the bottle and needs more coffee instead. Ryan hangs up, but Joe calls right back stating he is going to enjoy having his family back and knows it will take time, but is positive Claire will fall in love with him again, to which Ryan tells him she only came for Joey, not him, and that he won't just let him have his way and hangs up. Debra visits him and tells him to not give up or get depressed over Claire's capture less what everyone went through now would be for nothing. He gets dressed and visit a club were they find information on a member of Joe's cult and bargain with her to get to a cult member. Ryan and Debra follow Vincent to a former militia bunker and find the place full of weapons, armory and numerous records and bombs, to which Ryan believes it to be a camp to train followers. After Vince escapes, a soldier finds people locked in a cage and is killed by followers in training. Ryan and Debra find them and Ryan saves her from two cult members as the others in the bunker were killed. Debra later thanks Ryan for saving her to which Ryan thanks her for bringing him out of despair.At home, Ryan is visited by Molly (one of Joe's followers) who dropped by to check up on him. She does so and notices he's having breathing troubles. At the bunker, Ryan reunites with Mike who shows some measures of troubles from his near death experience. He receives a call from Joe who asks about what motivated Ryan to do this, but Ryan notices the change in his voice and asks why he's not so cheery like always, and notes he's getting closer to Joe. As Joe angrily hangs up, Ryan tells Debra Joe's unraveling, know realizing the bunker was a huge win. Nick then shows up with information about a Daniel Monroe, a former militia who the FBI have been tracking for a while. They go to his house and find him and his brother Brian Fowler there. Before they can question them, Vince shows up and after Ryan kills him, Joe appears and, having killed Daniel, holds Mike hostage intending on torturing him unless Ryan talks with him. He asks what motivated Ryan and Ryan says his father was murdered by a drug dealer and Joe notes they are both motivated by death despite Ryan's claims and they are more alike than they know. As Jacob shows up with Debra as a hostage, Joe walks out and forces Ryan to back off less Debra dies. After they escape, Ryan consoles Mike about everything knowing he's frustrated over everything but is alright. After Mike is taken to the hospital, the Sheriff, who really is Roderick, says he's offering his help.In the morning, after Mike returns and tries to stop Roderick after revealing his true identity, Ryan and the team desperately try to find him know knowing he's a follower. Ryan uses the news to lure a follower of Joe's to come clean and they get there life back. Later, Roderick is found on the road and taken into custody. In interrogation, Ryan discovers Roderick kidnapped Joey as insurance over Joe and after a talk with Joe on the phone, realizes Roderick is telling the truth. Roderick however, will only give Joey's location if he gets his freedom. Nick refuses stating he killed two state troopers, but Ryan, determined to keep his promise to Claire, takes Roderick with him on the condition he leave his gun and phone behind. They arrive at the location and as Ryan frees Joey, Roderick pulls a gun out intent on double-crossing them both till Mike, who followed them, save them before Joe's men kill Roderick from behind. After Mike hides Joey, Ryan engages a follower and manages to kill him, but Jacob found and took Joey away. He finds them and tries to persuade Jacob to let Joey go, stating he knows he cares for Joey, but Joe doesn't care whether he lives or dies. He goes closer and tries to talk Jacob to ending this now, but Jacob left, but agreed with Ryan and allowed Joey to go free. Joey recognizes Ryan and how Claire told him Ryan is one of the good guys. Ryan then carries Joey away back to the station in safety. Later that night, Joe calls him about how his book will need a re-right and there story has taken a turn about how bad it is and that it's not been a good day. When Ryan asks about Claire, Joe says she's no longer the lead lady nor will she ride off in the sunset with her as planned and that it's time for her to die, horrifying Ryan. Just then, a follower named Melissa shows up intent on doing what Ryan asked, but reveals her true nature when she stabs Nick in his eye as Ryan and Mike kill her. Show less «