Jason Zharkov

"I come from Russia with love too."

- Jason.

Jason Zharkov is an inmate at San Hill, and one of the The March Nine.

Appearance
Jason is tall and strong, although this is not immediately obvious. He frequently looks tired and rundown, often sporting eyebags and bruises. His right eye is blind with a milky iris, and a scar that stretches from above his eyebrow to his cheek. Although he arrived at San Hill with a full head of hair, he was shaved as punishment on his first day and is more commonly seen with a shaved head from this point onwards. He frequently has some degree of stubble on his face.

Personality
Jason is impulsive and quick to leap into action, fighting those who disrespect him and often making things worse for himself, however he is also shown to be emotional and even affectionate. He is shown to struggle tremendously with withdrawal from his drug habits outside of prison. Jason's personality changes considerably after Sanders is sent to solitary and he is left on his own, becoming depressed and apathetic, and hostile towards almost all who interact with him.

Once reunited with Sanders, Jason's mood improved although he has still been shown to suffer from depression and is prone to being miserable. He has developed a deep fear of Syrus Norwood and the thought of being in the same room as him causes panic.

Season One
From day one Jason has never made his life particularly easy among the population of San Hill, and was the first of the inmates to be summoned to the warden's office where his hair was shaved off as punishment. After returning to his cell, Jason started another fight with his cellmate, Sanders which caught the attention of the entire cell block as well as the guards. Sanders passed their fight off as a romantic altercation by kissing him, which left a lasting impact on Jason. Quick to realise the potential of having someone at his beck and call, Sanders took advantage of Jason's interest in him and the two of them have become involved in a complicated relationship.

Following Sanders being sent to solitary, Jason became hostile to the people Sanders told him to go to and this resulted in him being beaten so badly by Syrus Norwood that he had to be taken to the infirmary. Eliska Jellinekova made an attempt to discover who was responsible for the attack, only for Jason to state that he would only give the name in exchange for Sanders' freedom. This plan did not work, however Sanders was released shortly after anyway.

After recovering from the attack, Jason was assigned the job role of library assistant alongside Adam Lee. Shortly after being given this job, Adam started a fire that had him sent to psych, and so Jason became the sole caretaker of the library. Despite having this enviable position, Jason has not spent much time in his job due to the prison flu incident, the food poisoning incident, and stubbornly refusing to go to work after being scolded by Eliska Jellinekova.

Season Two
After the arrival of Soren White, Jason is less involved in prison drama and seems to mostly keep to himself, although he made a point of speaking to Soren. He puts a lot of time and effort into caring for Sanders after the greenhouse attack.

He does not lie low for very long before becoming the target of Sprinkles, who forces drugs down his throat in an effort to make him relapse and be an easy source of income. Jason eventually lands himself in Psych where he is cared for by Autumn Ayers. Upon his released, he is separated from Sanders, and forced to share a cell with Syrus Norwood who has been released from solitary.

Jason becomes far more aggressive and mean-spirited, turning on many of his former allies as he struggles with his drug addiction and the trauma he has been through in San Hill.

Romantic

 * Sanders

Allies

 * Akira Yubari
 * Autumn Ayers - She serves as Jason's doctor and counsellor in place of James, and has managed to earn some degree of trust from him.
 * James Alistaire - (formerly) James was Jason's counsellor, he trusts and confides in him.

Neutral

 * Ilya Luzhkov - Jason likes and respects Ilya, and enjoys his few conversations with her.
 * Armando Alighieri - Armando retrieved Jason's sketchbook on cleanup following his fight with Syrus. Jason later makes an agreement with him to discover who Taavi Logan was visiting at the prison,
 * Maude Gallagher - Jason initially disliked Maude, considering her to be a 'kind of a bitch' during their first interaction at the commissary when Jason was sick with the flu. He later interacts with her with Sanders when Maude begins working in the greenhouse.

Enemies

 * Marcel O'Brien
 * Syrus Norwood
 * Della Prince - Jason considers Della a threat through association with Syrus.
 * Grey McCorduck
 * Maxie Tanaka
 * Sprinkles

Trivia

 * Jason likes to draw and can often be found sitting in the yard sketching birds, and looking for planes.
 * He is a sore loser when it comes to things such as card games.
 * He knows a little British Sign Language, as mentioned to Akira Yubari
 * He previously had a habit of stealing large amounts of apples from the cafeteria and storing them in his bed. This continued until he was caught by William McCaffrey and banned from fruit from the cafeteria for a while.
 * Jason has no gag reflex, after tearing out a feeding tube to use in an attempt to strangle William McCaffrey. He is very proud of this fact.
 * He is fluent in Russian, and tends to write notes in his sketchbook to himself in his mother tongue so they cannot be read by his cellmate, Syrus Norwood.