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Julian Ballantine is a African-American executive of Madacorp. His main project is the CIR, which he intends to use to control a person's mind with upload and download and delete like a computer. He is the main antagonist for the first half of season 2.
Before season 2
Ballantine inherited his Latnok ring from his father, though it's importance was never revealed to him.
Season 2
After receiving a computer alert that 781228 XX has escaped from Zzyzx, Ballantine calls in Emily Hollander to capture her. Emily tells Ballantine about the hunter XX killed. Ballantine tells her to remove anything, such as the "pink goo", that could be traced to XX. When Emily finds XX, she calls Ballantine to come see the drawings she had been making. Ballantine is shocked to see one of 'XY' (Kyle), the other Zzyzx experiment that was supposedly terminated.
Hoping to use XX to get the Zzyzx information from XY's brain, Ballantine erases XX's memory and gives her an identity: Jessi Hollander, sister of Emily Hollander. When asked how he could do that, Ballantine says "Ms. Hollander: we are a multi-billion-dollar technological research and development corporation. We have resources." He assigns Emily to get Jessi closer to Kyle in a way that will destabilize his life, making him more vulnerable to his plan to use Jessi as a "mental hacker".
Stephen Trager suddenly loses his job, and is quickly hired by Madacorp. Ballantine welcomes him to his department to work on the computer systems for a new project, the CIR. When they first shake hands, Julian is wearing a ring exactly like the one Kyle had pawned earlier to retrieve Amanda Bloom's bracelet.
Emily tells Ballantine about Jessi's lack of progress with Kyle and her bad behavior, and Ballantine says to bring her to be reprogrammed like "a computer with a glitch." Emily doesn't like the idea, and tries to resign. Ballantine threatens her through her real daughter Paige, and Emily hands over Jessi. Ballantine tells Emily to next focus on getting close to Stephen, with whom she is then going on business trips and is having other meetings.
Stephen brings Julian home for dinner unannounced, where Kyle sees Ballantine's Latnok ring. Kyle believes it must be the one from Adam Baylin that was bought from the pawnshop before he could retrieve it. The next day, Stephen takes Kyle to Madacorp, where Kyle studies the security system, while Julian shows him the CIR. Kyle's careful plan to steal the ring from Ballantine the next day during a test of the CIR is spoiled by Lori who is upset about her father having an affair with Emily, just as Ballantine had intended to further disrupt Kyle's homelife. Tom Foss is captured, but Kyle does manage to snatch the ring.
Julian has Tom Foss strapped into the CIR machine to be used as the test subject. Brian Taylor is there as an observer for Latnok, which actually has a controling investment in Madacorp. He becomes worried about the damage the machine must be doing to Tom and would cause to Kyle, and Emily wants to stop because of the pain it is causing Tom; but Ballantine cruelly tells them both that he will proceed regardless.
Ballantine's programming of Jessi succeeds, as she does transfer the Zzyzx information from Kyle. Kyle does not know that she has gone back to Madacorp, and makes plans to bargain with Julian to give him the information through the CIR in exchange for leaving the Tragers alone. His real plan is to be connected to the mainframe to blow it out, with Stephen's help. But he and Stephen are locked in a room where they see Jessi in the CIR. Kyle manages to connect to Jessi too, and takes back the information so that he still has to get in the chair.
Ballantine is so determined to have the information that he falls for the trap. Kyle is strapped into the CIR and is actually not strong enough to resist it. At Nicole's urging, Jessi joins in his mind as Stephen manages to connect the CIR to the mainframe. They produce a power surge so strong that it not only blows out the entire Madacorp computer system, it also causes a city-wide electricity outage. When that is traced to Madacorp, and Latnok is very upset about the CIR experient, Ballantine is removed from his position and the company and the building, and we do not see him again.
Appearances
Season 2
| 2x01 | 2x02 | 2x03 | 2x04 | 2x05 | 2x06 | 2x07 | 2x08 |
| 2x09 | 2x10 | 2x11 | 2x12 | 2x13 | 2x14 | 2x15 | 2x16 |
| 2x17 | 2x18 | 2x19 | 2x20 | 2x21 | 2x22 | 2x23 |