Daniel Cooper
Age: 30 (at the time of the series premiere)

Daniel Cooper was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but lived in many towns throughout the United States. His father, Cliff Cooper, was a congregational minister and went from one parish to another, preaching the word of God--and slowly building his reputation. Because of this, Daniel had to learn to fit in quickly, like an army or navy brat. He often got into mischief, went along with the crowd, because he wanted so desperately to fit in. Eventually, Cliff Cooper became a much sought after speaker and personality and traveled all around the world building his ministry--and leaving his wife and young son alone many times in his effort to spread the word.

Daniel rebelled against his father often throughout his childhood and teens, yet the one thing that he always believed in was that his father represented pure faith; his word was pure--that is until they moved to Irvine, California when Daniel was 15 and the TV cameras started rolling. Soon, his father's ministry turned into a glitzy show where the word and the piggy bank were pushed equally.

Seeing the opportunity before him, Cliff began to move away from the specifics of the congregational religion, finally morphing into a sort of vanilla religion available for the masses, a quick fix. Cliff Cooper was perfect for Southern California, smart, good-looking, charismatic, and energetic. Most important, his church was all about making people feel good about themselves. He gave the people exactly what they wanted. He had an uncanny ability to make people feel like he was talking just to them. His ministry skyrocketed, and Cliff was its rising star. He quickly tapped into the media market, tapes, books, and an ever-expanding TV signal. His ministry's staff grew into the hundreds. With the ever-increasing salaries, overhead, advertising, etc. that became integral to running the ministry, more and more the quest for tithing became the focus of the sermons. It became harder and harder for Daniel to respect his dad as he watched him struggle for power.

Daniel attended college for four years, where he majored in literature and minored in music. This was followed by three years of theological school. As he traveled around throughout his life, Daniel managed to learn a lot, from helping his dad build habitats for humanity to cooking for the homeless with his mom--to where to buy the best cherry bombs (courtesy of a gang he hung with in Philadelphia).

Daniel's mother was the nurturer, a warm, loving woman who always took a back seat to her husband. Sadly, both she and Daniel were not the most important things in Cliff's life. Although Daniel's mother could see that the ministry put too much emphasis on money, she was also able to see the good that it gave people. This conflict caused an emotional dilemma for her.

Cliff Cooper is a charismatic man who can get almost anyone to do just about anything--with a great emphasis on tithing. He is not an insincere man, but a driven man who sees his ministry as the absolute answer, and to keep that ministry running, money is necessary. For him everything is either black or white. Cliff's great desire is to be like Billy Graham with the kind of power that Billy wields over world politics and the powers that be in the business world. His jealousy of Billy eats at the heart of him. Where Billy has written 30 books--6 of which became bestsellers--Cliff has only written 3, the latest of which is the only one to receive major attention, having reached the NY Times bestseller list.

The beginning of the end for Daniel's relationship with his father came when he fell in love with Kathy (Kate) Sullivan, a Catholic girl whom Cliff found completely unsuitable for his son. Cliff believed that this girl was not "the one" for Daniel. Besides, Kate was completely unsuitable by virtue of the fact that she was not a follower of the "church of Cliff". Dad's dream was for Daniel to finally "see the light" and to take over his ministry when he retires, and Kate, being a nonbeliever, would not fit with the program. Hoping that Daniel's relationship with Kate would fade, Cliff did nothing to interfere, but undermined it at every opportunity.

After dating for three years, Daniel told his father that he intended to marry Kate, but Cliff forbade the marriage. Daniel was not strong enough to go against his father's wishes. Instead, he asked Kate to be patient, hoping that his father would eventually give his blessing, but Kate knew that Cliff never would. Fearing that Daniel would never be able to stand up to his overbearing father, Kate gave him a final ultimatum, "leave with me today or lose me forever." Unable to break with his father, Daniel begged her for just another week, but Kate knew that another week would turn into months, then years, then forever. So she left on her own. Deciding to move as far away from Southern California as possible, she headed for Florida. Halfway across country, she had a fatal car accident.

Daniel was devastated by Kate's death. He fell into a deep depression and took out his anger on his father. After a bitter argument with Cliff over Kate, Daniel went over the edge. He hopped a plane for Las Vegas. There, he went on a five-day bender, gambling away tens of thousands of dollars using his American Express platinum credit card--which is how the ministry finally manages to track him down. On the sixth day, he woke up to a big surprise--while drunk, he'd married a showgirl named Stella. Within hours, the ministry swooped down and got him out of Las Vegas before the tabloids could get hold of him and send his father's ministry--and top-selling book sales--into a tailspin.

Back in Irvine, his dad refused to speak with him. James Reilly, Cliff's right-hand man, informed Daniel that his father had finally washed his hands of him. Daniel implored James to send him off somewhere where he could do some good, start over, get the opportunity to find his own path. As odd a time as this was to claim to have "seen the light", Daniel felt finally ready to serve the lord, but wasn't quite sure how the lord felt about it. He was ready to find out, though. When James told Cliff of Daniel's wishes, Cliff told James to find him a ministry where he couldn't get into trouble. James asked a Congregational friend of his to find a position for Daniel. The man found the perfect place: a small island off the coast of Seattle. A local businessman on the island, Brian Brewster, had been driving him crazy trying to get a Congregational minister placed there. As the real need on the island was not great, and ministers were hard to come by, the friend had informed Brian that there was no one he could assign at this time, but Brewster simply would not take no for an answer and had been a constant pain in the neck. James and Cliff determined that this was the perfect place for Daniel, and they shipped him off. James warned Daniel that this was his very last chance. If he screwed up there, that would be it, he'd be on his own.

Daniel's Journey of Wisdom and Self-Discovery

Filled with self-doubt from the years of living in the shadow of his larger than life father, Daniel strives to at last find his place in the world. With that desire in his heart, Daniel arrives on Hope determined not to let this opportunity slip through his fingers. Hope represents his chance to finally find what his faith means to him. It is his journey to the "getting of wisdom". He's determined to put his life in God's hands, and for the first time in his life, let himself be led by God.

For Daniel, God is the north on the compass, the one he turns to for guidance. He addresses Him in a somewhat conversational way. It's his personal relationship with God that makes him so intriguing. Like the rest of us, he too struggles with the world and the pain that is inflicted on individuals and how to apply faith to give comfort. On Hope Island, he will get the opportunity to learn right along with everyone else.

One of Daniel's struggles is how to apply his faith and put it into action here on this island where that faith is constantly challenged. He is no longer surrounded by the comfort of the inner circle where everyone is of like mind. These people of Hope are all different, with different needs and opinions. It is here that his faith will be tested in everyday ways. Troubles in marriages, loss of faith, jealousy, anger--anything and everything that a congregation would come to a minister with. It is no longer about money and ratings, but about people and real problems. Having come from seeing his father patronize everyone in his TV ministry, Daniel does not patronize, but, rather, accepts the failings and differences of the people he meets with compassion and understanding.

This is the first time in Daniel's life that people come to him for answers, and he doesn't always give the right ones, not because he doesn't want to, but because he simply doesn't know the answer. If he sees he's made a mistake, he does his best to make sure he rights the situation. He will come to learn that it's okay that he doesn't have all the answers.

Daniel's heart is always in the right place, even if his advice is sometimes based on learned rhetoric. He must adjust his responses and deal with people on a personal level--something his father has long forgotten. He quickly learns that there are no absolutes. His father's belief, that everything is black and white, doesn't work here--things are gray, and many different shades of gray at that. How he grows is by responding to the needs of his community and making sure that he follows through to see that the outcome is realized and, if not, how to adjust his way of thinking to readdress the particular needs of the individual. They'll need him to be a good minister, a good neighbor and, on occasion, a good baseball player.

Brian represents the outside forces that impose themselves on what it is that Daniel is trying to create here on Hope. Daniel shuns the business-like approach to faith. He must learn to fight people like Brian and claim this church as his own, or lose it and have nowhere to go.

Alex brings out something in him that he's never felt before. Her lack of faith is something that Daniel fights against, but, at the same time, he feels more connected to her than anyone else in his life--ever. She truly becomes his best friend, as we all should be with the person we wind up with. But their conflicting beliefs, which is at the core of who each of them are, will keep them at bay.

Daniel slips into a fatherly role with Dylan. They will form a father/son type of relationship. And when Dylan's father, Steve, shows up on the island, it will bring out feelings of jealousy toward Steve in his role of father (to Dylan) and lover (to Alex) that Daniel will struggle with. One of the things that was drilled into Daniel all his life--the thing he remembers with great sadness as that which put him over the edge--is that he can never be with a woman who is not of his faith. Is it the insurmountable obstacle that will keep him and Alex apart or will their hearts win out in the end?

On Hope Island, for the first time in his life, Daniel will discover the sense of community that he never had as a child moving from town to town or in his father's huge, faceless ministry. He will change this island, and this island will change him.