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My Roanoke Nightmare
In General
- Acting for Two:
- Inverted. All of the characters introduced are played by two actors each: one in the "real" interview sections, one in the dramatic reconstructions.
- Also played straight with Lana Winters' return.
- Dawson Casting: All of the actors in the reconstruction are quite a bit older than the people they're playing.note Sarah Paulson is eight years older than Lily Rabe; Cuba Gooding Jr. is twelve years older than Andre Holland; and Angela Bassett is thirteen years older than Adina Porter.
- Show Within a Show: The characters played by Lily Rabe, Andre Holland, and Adina Porter are being interviewed for a reality ghost-hunting show entitled My Roanoke Nightmare. Meanwhile, Sarah Paulson, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Angela Bassett play actors Audrey Tindall, Dominic Banks and Monet Tumusiime doing dramatic reenactments of the events being described.
The Crew
Sidney Aaron James
Sidney Aaron James
"Reality is what we make of it."
Played By: Cheyenne Jackson
The executive producer and interviewer of My Roanoke Nightmare, who comes up with the idea to return to the house with the real subjects and the actors who played them.
- Author Avatar: It's easy to see him as a fictionalized take on Ryan Murphy: energetic, pretentious and obsessive. Murphy isn't quite as overtly vicious as Sidney is, though.
- The Chessmaster: He's impressively good at his job... in a borderline sociopathic sort of way.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: He embodies every negative stereotype of the TV industry (reality TV in particular).
- Gone Horribly Right: He wanted the Butcher back, and good Lord, did he ever get her.
- Gutted Like a Fish: His stomach is sliced open by Agnes.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He rightly denies Agnes the chance to return to the mansion for Return To Roanoke: 3 Days in Hell because she actually is unstable and attacked Audrey with a meat cleaver after the show wrapped for winning a Saturn Award. Subverted, in that Sidney served her a restraining order in a public and humiliating way to deliberately set her off in the hopes she would show up on set to terrorize the cast.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He had hoped to send Agnes into a rage. It apparently never occurred to him that that rage might end up being directed at him.
- Manipulative Bastard: The man has no scruples whatsoever about messing with people's lives and emotions in order to get more ratings.
- The Voice: Until "Chapter Five".
Diana Cross
Diana Cross
Played By: Shannon Lucio
Sidney's assistant.
- Doomed Moral Victor: She's the rational voice who questions Sidney's rampant egomania and is smart enough to flee when strange, horrific things begin happening on the set of Return to Roanoke. Naturally, she is killed right as she's driving out of the woods.
- Character Death: Piggy Man kills her.
- Only Sane Woman: The only person involved with the show to object to Sidney's many questionable decisions. She's also adamant about shutting down production as soon as the first person dies and bolts when Sidney refuses.
- A very minor example but during the interview with Shelby in "Chapter 6", she seems to be the only cast member to truly feel sorry for her.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Got killed immediately in the episode she appeared in by the Pig Man after trying to leave the house.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: She quits after all the weird shit that keeps happening at the house.
- The Watson: Most of her dialogue is asking about Sidney's plans (so he can explain them) or voicing moral objections (so he can laugh them off).
Alissa
Subjects
Shelby Miller
Shelby Miller
Played By: Lily Rabe, Sarah Paulson (as Audrey Tindall in the dramatizations)
Matt's wife who had a miscarriage after her husband was attacked and moved into the Roanoke House.- Action Survivor: In "Chapter 8", where she stabs the Pig Man in the head seconds after him sneaking up on her and Dominic and slashes her way to the upper floor, all while bleeding and lethargic.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In-Universe. While Shelby is styled somewhat Hollywood Homely, her counterpart in the dramatizations is decidedly more glam-looking.
- The Alcoholic: She drinks a lot of wine when Matt isn't around.
- Character Death: She slits her own throat after killing Matt.
- Crowbar Combatant: She killed her husband with a crowbar when the latter announced he fell in love with Scàthach.
- Driven to Suicide: Does this when the ghost colonists surround the house during Return to Roanoke.
- Granola Girl: She's a professional yoga teacher who likes gluten-free cooking, and the "real" Shelby appears to wear minimal make-up for her TV appearance. Her clothes are also quite hippy-ish, though you only really see them properly in the reconstruction.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Shelby gets hit with this hard after she bashes Matt's brains in for scorning her in favor of Scáthach. She is overcome with guilt and horror at having savagely killed the man she loved.
- Nervous Wreck: According to Lee in a talking head, "My brother married one jumpy bitch." After she kills Matt, Shelby is reduced to hysterical sobbing for the rest of the episode.
- The Scrappy: In-Universe, Shelby became widely hated by the audience, becoming the target of the internet's ire.
- Screaming Woman: She screams frequently, which is especially apparent in the promos.
- Slashed Throat: How she kills herself.
- Took a Level in Badass: Surviving the events of My Roanoke Nightmare definitely bumped her up a few levels. See Action Survivor above.
- Trauma Conga Line: This girl goes through absolute hell. She and her beloved husband, Matt, are the victims of a violent assault, in the process causing her to miscarry their baby. They move down south away from the city for a fresh start, only to be terrorized by insane hillbillies and freakish ghosts that haunt the land in service of a witch. Shelby finds Matt having sex with the witch in the woods, only mitigated by the fact that he was (allegedly) entranced. She later gets her ankle smashed by a sledgehammer before she, Matt and Flora are nearly ritualistically murdered. Though she and Matt escape this ordeal, they become estranged from one another. Shelby has an affair with Dominic Banks (who played Matt in My Roanoke Nightmare), after which she and Matt separate. She signs on to Return to Roanoke hoping to mend their relationship. Matt only starts to come around after Shelby is stabbed and nearly killed by Agnes. Then Shelby discovers him having sex with the hideous witch again, proclaiming his love for her, causing Shelby to snap and brutally murder Matt. She gets her ankle shattered again, and then is trapped by all the ghosts she previously escape. Heartbroken and with no way out, Shelby slashes her own throat.
- Unstoppable Rage: Matt certainly did not see that coming, and neither did we.
- Woman Scorned: Turns Lee in for sneaking off at the time of Mason's death after she finds Matt and Scáthach having sex at the end of "Chapter 3". After she realizes Matt was Not Himself, she regrets her actions and they reconcile. It doesn't turn out so well when she finds him at it again after her own relationship with him has crumbled and he tells her he only came back to the house because he wants to be with Scáthach; having herself only came back to try to reconcile again with him, Shelby completely loses it and beats his head in with a crowbar.
Matt Miller
Matt Miller
Played By: Andre Holland, Cuba Gooding Jr. (as Dominic Banks in the dramatizations)
Shelby's husband who was attacked on the street causing her wife to have a miscarriage from stress. He moves into the Roanoke Hoise with her.- Alliterative Name: Matt Miller.
- Black and Nerdy: He wears Nerd Glasses and is a pharmaceutical sales rep.
- Dissonant Serenity: When he shows up for Return to Roanoke his affect is creepily flat... except when he sees Dominic.
- Bludgeoned to Death: His head is bashed in by Shelby after he has sex with Scáthach.
- Eye Scream: Matt fell victim to the Knockout Game and suffered a broken orbital socket, which swelled horribly.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: How he dies. In very graphic detail.
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: He wants to divorce Shelby after her affair with Dominic Banks but she wants to reconcile.
- Foreshadowing: Matt suffers a head injury early on, and Shelby is sick with grief fearing for his life. Near the end, their relationship ends with Shelby obliterating Matt's head with a crowbar after he spurns her for Scáthach, only to kill herself out of guilt shortly after.
- The Load: In his own words, he is useless. It is only after he, Shelby and Flora are attacked by the Roanoke colonists and the Polk family that he finally Takes a Level in Badass.
- More than Mind Control: Scáthach takes an... interest in Matt from the get-go, immediately thralling him into having rough sex with her in the woods during the search for Flora. Later on, she opens herself up to him mentally and reveals her true history to him. When Matt returns to the house for Return to Roanoke, he's oddly stoic with a flat affect until he eventually reveals that he came back to the house specifically to reunite with Scáthach.
- Nice Guy: In the beginning, he's a normal, steady, fairly likable guy who just wants to start a happy life with Shelby.
- Tin Man: He admits to Shelby in "Chapter 7" that since they lived at the house, he doesn't feel human anymore, which may account for his creepily stoic demeanor in the second half of the season. That said, he has his Not So Stoic moments towards her and Dominic to indicate something of his old personality remains.
- Took a Level in Badass: Over the course of My Roanoke Nightmare, Matt gradually asserted himself more in order to defend his wife and sister, standing up to ghosts and inbred psychopaths. Subverted in that Matt's braver moments usually only make his bad situation worse.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: The traumatic events of My Roanoke Nightmare and Shelby's infidelity with the actor who played him in the television re-enactment seem to have turned Matt into a colder, more bitter person than the loving man portrayed in the beginning. Although his changed behavior might also have something to do with Scáthach's corrupting influence.
- Where da White Women At?: His marriage to a white woman does not endear him to the hillbilly Polk family.
- Your Head A-Splode: Shelby smashes his head into a bloody pulp with a crowbar.
Lee Harris
Lee Harris
Played By: Adina Porter, Angela Bassett (as Monet Tumusiime in the dramatizations)
Matt's sister who moves into the Roanoke House because Shelby is seeing weird things.- Action Girl: As a former trained police officer, she is better prepared than the others for the threats at the house. In "Chapter 5", she rams the Pig Man with a car to save Flora, Matt, and Shelby, and in the second story arc, she comes back to the mansion with a gun in tow, and puts it to good use, even headshotting Agnes Winstead. The next episode, she manages to trick and kill Jether to escape being tortured and killed by them.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In-Universe. Much like Shelby, Lee's counterpart in the dramatizations is glammed up a bit from the real thing.
- The Alcoholic: She's a recovering one.
- Anti-Hero: Lee is a courageous woman who is quick to aid people who are in trouble and often invokes the law. She's also self-righteous, quick to judge others and a cold-blooded murderer.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: She point-blank refuses to believe that Shelby killed Matt. For all that she despises her sister-in-law, she doesn't doubt that Shelby still loved Matt.
- Ax-Crazy: Essentially becomes a new Butcher.
- Big Damn Heroes: Returns just in time to drive Matt, Shelby, and Flora away from the house.
- The Bus Came Back: She returns to the house with the rest of the crew to film Return to Roanoke: 3 Days in Hell.
- Cassandra Truth: She spouts these in the final episode of Roanoke. During her final return to the grounds to look for Flora, she's practically screaming and yelling at the paranormal investigators to get out of there while they still can and they are all badly underestimating the house and the perils like she and everyone else did.
- Character Death: Shot in the chest by Priscilla.
- Clear My Name: One of her reasons for agreeing to participate in Return to Roanoke: 3 Days in Hell is to defend herself against the lingering accusations that she was the one to kill Mason.
- Career-Ending Injury: Zig-zagged. She was shot during a drug bust, though she fully healed from it. What ended her career was the painkiller addiction she developed during the recovery process.
- Face–Heel Turn: Becomes a servant of Scáthach in "Chapter 9".
- Heroic Sacrifice: Willingly dies to save her daughter's life.
- Laser-Guided Karma: She frames the Polk family for Mason's murder in the first half of the series. In the second half of the series, Lee is captured and tortured by the Polks.
- Mama Bear: Will stop at nothing to find Flora and keep her safe. However, she is still far from a perfect mother and in "Chapter 8", she reveals that she did kill Mason—Flora's own father—because he was going to take Flora away from her.
- Meaningful Name: She shares her name with a historian who wrote Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony.
- More than Mind Control: She reveals that she killed Mason during the events of My Roanoke Nightmare, though it was under duress. However, during Return To Roanoke we discover that Matt isn't the only one Scáthach seems to be grooming - Lee was either influenced or outright possessed by the Celtic witch, driving her to kill Mason and Monet and nearly kill Audrey.
- Parental Neglect: Her ex gave this as one of his reasons for divorcing her, since she forgot to pick up their daughter multiple times. He got full custody after their divorce.
- Parents as People: She thinks so.Lee: You know when you're drawing a cat or a house, and you picture that cat or that house in your mind, and it looks so perfect, but you can't get that your hand to live up to that picture in your head. That's what it's like to be a parent. You picture how you wanna be, and it's so wonderful and flawless; but you can't ever live up to that picture you imagined.
- Put on a Bus: Arrested for abducting her daughter and allegedly murdering her husband, she's not present for the confrontation with the Butcher.
- Redemption Equals Death: Promises her daughter she will watch over Priscilla and willingly dies so that she may live, burning the house down in the process.
Actors
Agnes Mary Winstead
Agnes Mary Winstead
The Woman Who Played the Butcher
Played By: Kathy Bates
The actress who portrayed The Butcher on My Roanoke Nightmare who went off the deep end once the show ended.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In-Universe. Agnes may be middle-aged and a bit matronly, but she's leagues ahead of the True Butcher, who's is squat and mannish, with partially rotted and charred skin and thick, matted hair.
- Becoming the Mask: Poor Agnes took her sterling portrayal of the Butcher a little too far.
- Character Death: Her head is chopped in half by The actual Butcher.
- Disproportionate Retribution: She attacks Audrey with a meat cleaver after "My Roanoke Nightmare" wraps up because Audrey won a Saturn Award for her role as Shelby... and her fan-favorite character The Butcher did not. This may actually have started her Sanity Slippage detailed below.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After all the carnage she rains down upon her former costars, she runs into the actual Butcher... who slams a cleaver down on her head.
- Lost in Character: She is convinced that she is the Butcher.
- Sanity Slippage: Assaulted bystanders on Hollywood Boulevard and was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder after My Roanoke Nightmare ended. After playing The Butcher, she seriously believes she's The Butcher.
- Stepford Smiler: Her enthusiastic gushing about her role hides some serious issues.
- Tragic Villain: At the end of the day, Agnes is a woman who's been consumed by her mental illness, an illness that was exacerbated to breaking point by Sidney's cruelty. It's heartbreaking as she rants to the camera, swinging from in-character psychosis to genuine remorse to uncertain terror and all the way around.
Audrey Tindall
Audrey Tindall
The Woman Who Was Born in the Wrong Times
Played By: Sarah Paulson
The actress who played Shelby on My Roanoke Nightmare.
- Action Survivor: Has developed into this by "Chapter 9", killing an attacking Polk after covering herself by recording him saying he was going to kill her, and fighting Lee Harris off after the latter kills Monet. She even survives the last night of the Blood Moon while lying wounded at the bottom of the cellar and later manages to climb back up on her own strength. Seconds later, she is finally killed when she tries to kill Lee and the police gun her down to protect Lee.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Even for an upper-class English actress, her dress sense and attitude are ridiculously old-fashioned.
- Character Death: Shot by the cops after trying to shoot Lee.
- Fake American: Plays this on My Roanoke Nightmare — she's actually English.
- Irony: After miraculously surviving Roanoke's hell, she gets gunned down by the police.
- It's All About Me: Makes both Shelby and Dominic's deaths about her.
- Old Maid: Very touchy about being on the wrong side of 30.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Audrey's overly posh attitude and selfish remarks were a source of comedy in an otherwise very serious show.
- Romance on the Set: Married Rory shortly after My Roanoke Nightmare ended.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Her first instinct when she thinks she may die? Making a video to all of her fans.
- Team Mom: For all her self-absorption, she takes the initiative on treating Shelby and Lee's respective wounds, and tries to keep the group together.
Rory Monahan
Rory Monahan
The Goofball Who Should’ve Looked Before He Leaped
Played By: Evan Peters
The actor who played Edward Mott on My Roanoke Nightmare.
- Character Death: Stabbed by Miranda and Bridget.
- Leeroy Jenkins: When Audrey is threatened, Rory needlessly rushes straight into danger by himself. He gets killed.
- Nice Guy: Rory is funny, concerned for others and generally likable.
- Plucky Comic Relief: He's a bit of a goofball, this guy.
- Romance on the Set: Married Audrey shortly after My Roanoke Nightmare ended.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Falls victim to the "Real Life" Jane sisters and completes their "MURDER" lettering crime sphere.
Monet Tumusiime
Monet Tumusiime
The Former Alcoholic Who Should've Held Her Tongue
Played By: Angela Bassett
The actress who played Lee Harris on My Roanoke Nightmare.
- The Alcoholic: She started drinking heavily after the show ended, to the point of being arrested. She is now legally prohibited from drinking.
- Dirty Coward: Desperately offered to lead the Polks back to the house and help them murder Matt and Shelby to save herself and Audrey in "Chapter 8". Later, she left Audrey to the Polks and showed no inclination to go back for her when trying to make her own escape.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: She dies after Lee, who is possessed by Scáthach, shoves her through the upstairs railing and she falls onto the stem of the fallen chandelier below, which impales her through the chest.
- Never My Fault: She blames Lee for her developing an alcohol problem, claiming that she only started drinking to try and get into character as Lee... despite the fact that Lee was still sober during the period covered by the reenactment.
- Too Dumb to Live: After watching a video confession from Lee that she murdered her husband, Monet and Audrey find Lee standing outside the door, holding a cleaver, first muttering incoherently to herself and then ranting about Monet and Audrey being unclean blood soiling the land. Monet goes right up to her and deliberately antagonizes her for no apparent reason, which gets her thrown from the top floor and fatally impaled.
Dominic Banks
Dominic Banks
The Jerk Who Payed For Playing The Villain
Played By: Cuba Gooding Jr.
The actor who played Matt Miller on My Roanoke Nightmare.
- Ambition Is Evil: Is happily willing to be a total asshole and screw with a married couple's relationship if it means a bigger profit or the promise of a spin-off series for himself.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Has a soft voice and plays sympathetic Matt, but is a cocky and self-centered jerkass who tries to instigate drama at Return to Roanoke at Sidney's orders for the sake of screentime. Dominic gets into Cock Fights with Matt to play up his affair with Shelby, enables Monet's alcoholism, and wakes Shelby up to lead her to Matt having sex with Scáthach, the last of which results in Shelby snapping and killing Matt. He begins to defy this later in the series though; once the shit starts really hitting the fan, he becomes a much more compassionate and sane person. He even shows a much gentler side around the real Shelby. For all his faults, he knows when to cut the act.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He knows that bad guys are more popular on reality shows, and gleefully states his intent to be a bastard on purpose. Bites him in the ass later when Lee and Audrey refuse to believe Shelby killed her husband and committed suicide because of his card-carrying status and their understanding of Shelby's personality, which Audrey notes is too "self-centered" for her to commit suicide."Hey, listen, if I got to play the dick in order for people to tune in for ratings, then that's what the hell I'm-a do. What's the bright side? Let me tell you what the bright side is. The bad guy is always the lead on every show."
- Character Death: Stabbed by the Piggy Man.
- Genre Savvy: He knows he's going to be made to look like a villain on the new show for sleeping with Shelby, so he embraces it, believing that he'll get a lot of publicity out of it.
- Gone Horribly Right: Playing up the part of a mean, selfish, untrustworthy bad guy for fame and publicity comes back to bite him hard when Lee and Audrey return to find Dominic alone in the house with Matt and Shelby's bloody corpses. They don't believe his (true) story about Shelby killing Matt and then herself, instead thinking he murdered them. They refuse to listen to his explanations and lock him out of the bedroom, where he is immediately stabbed to death by the Pig Man.
- Hell-Bent for Leather: Wears leather.
- Hidden Badass: He curbstomps the attacking Agnes with the help of a Dynamic Entry and a window he smashes her head into to save Shelby.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As much of an unapologetic prick as Dominic is, he comes to Shelby's rescue more than once and doesn't abandon her when it would be convenient for him to do so.
- Replacement Goldfish: After her marriage to Matt fell apart in the wake of the show, Shelby hooked up with Dominic precisely because she thought he'd be a replacement for Matt. After she kills Matt and has a mental breakdown over it prompting her to turn to him, and he sees the ghosts killing Agnes and realizes the Millers' story is true, he ironically seems to be falling into Matt's old role again.
Dylan
Dylan
The Former Navy SEAL Who Takes Acting Very Seriously
- Played By: Wes Bentley
The actor who played Ambrose White on My Roanoke Nightmare.
- Badass Normal: A former Navy SEAL with a long list of accomplishments. Not that it helps him when one of the Polks gets the drop on him or when the colonists disembowel him.
- Character Death: Disemboweled by The Butcher.
- Gutted Like a Fish: After being injured by the Polks, is dragged out and gutted by the colonists.
- No Man Left Behind: Expresses this belief, though he very quickly redacts it when pointing out how reckless it is to just run into "enemy territory".
- Punch-Clock Villain: Was hired by Sidney to come back and scare the shit out of his former coworkers, but all in all isn't too bad of a guy. He just viewed it all as another acting gig.
- Serious Business: Treats acting like this, showing up despite the lack of organization and complaining nonstop about how unprofessional he thinks Sidney is being though to be fair, this is before he learns that the colonists and the Polks are real.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: We didn't even hear a last name for this guy.
Ashley Gilbert
Ashley Gilbert
- Played By: Leslie Jordan
The actor who played Cricket Marlowe on My Roanoke Nightmare.
- Back for the Dead: He reappears in the season finale only to be killed off.
- Gutted Like a Fish: His stomach is sliced open by the Piggy Man.
- Too Dumb to Live: After nearly everyone involved in the first two reality shows got massacred at the Roanoke mansion, Ashley thought it would be a good idea to come back for the third. It wasn't.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: When the Pig Man attacks, he tries to stop it by shouting "Croatoan" the way Cricket Marlowe, the character he played in My Roanoke Nightmare, had done. It apparently has no effect, so nothing stops the Pig Man from gutting Ashley.
Brian Wells
Brian Wells
Played by: Chaz Bono
The actor who played Lot Polk in the reenactments.- Nice Guy: Implied. He's the one we see officiating Audrey and Rory's wedding with a big sweet smile on his face and is clearly very happy for his two friends.
- Sole Survivor: Much like William, he's one of the only re-enactment actors we meet outside of "My Roanoke Nightmare" that doesn't get killed. Likely due to being a minor character in the show and thus probably not asked to return for the sequel.
William Van Henderson
William Van Henderson
The Only Sane (And Not Dead) Guy
- Played By: Denis O'Hare
The actor who played Dr. Elias Cunningham on My Roanoke Nightmare.
- Only Sane Man: He's the only re-enactment actor who wisely declined Sidney's invitation back to the sequel, and naturally, he emerges as the only main character to survive the season.
- Sole Survivor: Of the re-enactment actors we meet outside of My Roanoke Nightmare, he is the only one who doesn't get killed.
Polk Clan
Mama Polk
Mama Polk
Big Mama the Chef
Played By: Robin Weigert, Frances Conroy (in the dramatizations)
The matriarch of the Polk clan.
- Agony of the Feet: She breaks Shelby's ankle with a sledgehammer.
- Bludgeoned to Death: Audrey kills her by smashing her face in with a hammer.
- Cannibal Clan: The Polks eat other people, and Mama is the cook.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She might be psychotic, but she loves her children.
- Even Evil Has Standards: DO NOT accuse her or her family of bestiality.
- As monstrous and inhumane as she is and how she treats Audrey, Monet and Lee, a line she tells Audrey about The Butcher implies that suffering at their hands is better than being sacrificed by the Colonists and The Butcher herself.
- Evil Matriarch: The Polks don't call her "Mama" for nothing.
- Evil Old Folks: Being rather old doesn't stop her from engaging in evil acts.
- Hillbilly Horrors: She is the head of a backwoods clan of inbred cannibals.
- Parental Incest: Chapter 8 implies she has sex with her children after they reach a certain age.
- Pet the Dog: She orders that Flora be locked in the truck so she won't have to witness Mama's mutilation of Shelby.
Ishmael Polk
Ishmael Polk
Played By: Frank Collison, Grady Lee Richmond (in the dramatizations)
Mama Polk's husband.
- Boom, Headshot!: Audrey kills him by shooting him in the head
- The Dragon: To Mama Polk.
- Henpecked Husband: There doesn't appear to be a whole lot to Ishmael besides being Mama Polk's henchman.
- Not Helping Your Case: Audrey has him repeat his intention to kill her into her camera, which he gladly does. She then shoots him in the face.
Lot Polk
Lot Polk
Played By: Frederick Koehler, Chaz Bono (in the dramatizations)
Mama Polk and Ishmael's son.- Ax-Crazy: Just like the rest of his family.
- The Brute: His main function in the family.
- Character Death: Shot by cops after trying to kill Lee.
- Oh, Crap!: When he sees the Colonists coming, he screams for Ishmael and then immediately heads for the hills on his truck, especially after Mama was killed by Lee and thus had no way of being protected anymore.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He tries to murder Lee in order to avenge his family's deaths. The police kills him before he can do it.
- Sole Survivor: Of the Polk family. Until he dies too.
Jether Polk
Jether Polk
Played By: Finn Wittrock
The only member of the Polk family with redeeming qualities.- Adapted Out: In-universe, he's the only Polk not to be depicted in My Roanoke Nightmare, and he's rather upset that he didn't get to be "on the TV" like the rest of the family.
- Affably Evil: He feels some empathy towards Lee, and he genuinely doesn't want to hurt her.
- Character Death: Lee kills him by stabbing him in the neck.
Cain Polk
Cain Polk
Played by: My Roanoke Nightmare: Orson Chaplin
A Polk cannibal.- Boom, Headshot!: Shot in the head by Matt.
Dramatizations
Elias Cunningham
Dr. Elias Cunningham
The University Professor Who “Came for Dinner”
Played By: Ric Sarabia, Denis O'Hare (as William Van Henderson in the dramatizations)
A professor who is driven insane by the spirits of the Roanoke House.- An Arm and a Leg: The Polk family make jerky out of his limbs.
- Annoying Arrows: Averted. Nearly dies after being shot with arrows.
- Apocalyptic Log: He left behind several videos of his ghostly encounters, which are found 17 years later by the Millers.
- Bludgeoned to Death: His head is bashed in by a Polk.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: After being shot with multiple arrows, his body is slowly cut apart for meat by a Cannibal Clan. He is finally killed when one of the Polks smashes his head with a hammer.
- Mr. Exposition: Via both his videos and in person. He fills the Millers, and by extension the viewers, on what's really going on in the house.
- Not Quite Dead: Initially, it seemed that he was killed in 1997 by the Butcher, but it was later revealed that he was not, in fact, a ghost. He later survives being hit by arrows through the intervention of the Polk family, only to be kept alive for meat before having his head caved in.
- The Professor: He was a professor at Bradley University.
- True Crime: He came to the farmhouse to do research on the Jane sisters.
"Piggy Man"
"Piggy Man"
Played by: Marti Matulis (real and My Roanoke Nightmare)
A ghost who has a pig's head. Originally a Roanoke colonist who was caught stealing from the colony's storerooms, he was forced to wear a pig's head before being burnt alive. Now one of the most active ghosts at Roanoke house.- Chained by Fashion: Has manacles with short lengths of chain on his wrists, since he was tied up and burned for stealing.
- Continuity Nod: Though not named 'Piggy Man' in the show itself, the fact he's frequently seen in mirrors recalls the 'Piggy Man' Bloody Mary legend mentioned in Season 1. It's later confirmed that the urban legend is based on a Polk who went on a killing spree in Chicago, who was himself inspired to wear a pig's head because of the 'Piggy Man' ghost of Roanoke.
- Danger Takes A Back Seat: Has a propensity for this: it's how he kills Diana and he's later seen chilling in the back of Dylan's Uber, suggesting he kills the driver in the same way.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Unlike the Minotaur, Piggy Man is clearly a human wearing a hollowed-out pig's head, though he still squeals like a real pig.
The Jane Sisters
Miranda & Bridget Jane
Two psychotic nurse sisters.- Adaptational Attractiveness: In-Universe. In the reconstruction they look like the young women they were when they died... not the moldering blackened corpses who kill Rory.
- Asshole Victim: Elias believes they fell victim to the more powerful evil at the house. Their fate is later shown firsthand.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: One has her arms torn off by the Roanoke colonists and is left to bleed to death. Downplayed for her sister, who was decapitated.
- Jerkass: They would be thoroughly despicable even if they weren't serial killers.
- Laughing Mad: Killing reduces them to fits of uncontrollable giggling.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: They are based on the real killer nurses Gwen Graham and Cathy Wood, who weren't sisters but lovers.
- Off with Her Head!: How one is killed by the Butcher.
- Psychopathic Womanchild: When they decide it's murder time, they become a pair of gleeful children.
- Serial Killer: They target the elderly.
- Smug Snake: Act like domineering bullies towards their (totally helpless) victims, had major delusions of grandeur (at least according to Elias Cunningham) and were seemingly nothing to the real danger at Roanoke.
Mason Harris
Mason Harris
Played By: Joe Alvarez, Charles Malik Whitfield (in the dramatizations)
Lee's ex-husband. Frustrated by his wife's lack of communication and emotional attachment, he files for divorce.- Bludgeoned to Death: Lee bashed his head in with a rock and if that didn't kill him, being set on fire did.
- Death by Adaptation: In My Roanoke Nightmare, he looks like he was ritually sacrificed and burned to death. In one of the last episodes, we see Lee bash his head in with a rock, which was probably what really killed him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He may not look too sympathetic for keeping Lee from their daughter, but given that his ex-wife has serious drug and alcohol problems, in the past showed Parental Neglect to the point of forgetting to pick Flora up from school, and Flora starts talking about death and being murdered after he lets her visit her, it's easier to see why Mason might be short on patience with Lee. Later, it turns out that Lee actually killed him over this, so yeah, dude had his reasons to be wary of her.
- Kill It with Fire: During the third episode, his body is found burned past the point of identification. It's confirmed to be him from his ring.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: His ghost, still burned, made a very conspicuous appearance at the beginning of Return to Roanoke, but never showed up again.
Flora Harris
Flora Harris
Played By: Simone Baker, Saniyya Sidney (in the dramatizations)
Lee and Mason's daughter. Her disappearance at at the Roanoke house and the Miller's search for her is what leads to them discovering the horrors hidden within the haunted forest.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In-Universe. The dramaticized version of Flora is sweet, bubbly and loving to her parents, including her troubled mother Lee, but the real Flora is more reserved, cold and distant towards her. Justified, as she had only discovered that Lee murdered her father during her disappearance, and is understandably pissed towards her, but she also expresses more bitterness towards Lee when talking about her friend Priscilla, even confessing that she was 'happier with her' than she ever was with Lee.
Cricket Marlowe
Cricket Marlowe
Played By: Leslie Jordan (as Ashley Gilbert in the dramatizations)
A psychic who assists the Millers in looking for Lee's abducted daughter Flora.
- Camp Gay: Very similar to his actor, Leslie Jordan. Everything he says provides the camp, and propositioning his male Uber driver confirms the gay.
- Character Death: Disembowled by The Butcher.
- Dirty Old Man: Propositions an attractive Uber driver not even half his age for a "gay for pay" scenario. He does try to clarify it was "just a question."
- Dodgy Toupee: He wears a bizarre white helmet-cut wig.
- Gutted Like a Fish: At the hands of the Roanoke colonists.
- I See Dead People: He can communicate with the dead.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Has a bitchy personality and understandably demands payment for his services, but he does genuinely want to help his clients.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Uses Flora's abduction as an attempt to extort the Millers for money in return for his assistance, and outright admits that he's always paid for his services.
- What You Are in the Dark: Tries to save Flora at serious risk to his own life even when the Millers aren't around to see it.
The Butcher
Thomasin White/The Butcher
The Real Butcher
Played By: Susan Berger, Kathy Bates (as Agnes Mary Winstead in the dramatizations)
The leader of the Roanoke colony and servant of Scáthach.
- Audible Sharpness: Her cleaver is sharp enough to make a noise just from being pointed at someone.
- Bad Boss: She brutally sacrificed some of her own people and later murdered every last one of them.
- Big Bad: While she's technically just The Heavy to Scáthach, the witch rarely gets involved in the actual torment. It's the Butcher who directly leads the colony and instigates the antagonism towards the Miller's.
- The Butcher: Is called as such, and wields a meat cleaver to kill people.
- The Dragon: To Scáthach.
- Evil Matriarch: She has led the ghosts of the lost colony with an iron fist for centuries.
- Evil Old Folks: She has grey hair, a son well into adulthood and yep, is very evil.
- The Heavy: She is the direct main antagonist of the season, but Scáthach is confirmed to be the master of all of the colonists.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Thomasin White was the wife of Roanoke governor John White in real life, though it's unlikely that she sold her soul or engaged in human sacrifice.
- I Owe You My Life: Scáthach saved her life after she was exiled from the Roanoke colony.
- Offing the Offspring: She spared Ambrose the first time her rule was questioned, but not the second. However, he returned as a ghost right afterwards, and they've been together ever since.
- Slashed Throat: Throat slit by Sćathach.
- Stout Strength: She is powerful enough to drive a cleaver straight through Agnes's skull all the way down to her nose, splitting her head partially in half, in one swing.
- Woman on Fire: Her son Ambrose pulls both of them in a pyre to stop her from killing Flora.
- Would Hurt a Child: She can't have taken Flora! If she had, the kid would have been flayed and burned alive. She later does get her hands on Flora and nearly kills her, only for Priscilla to interfere.
- Outright sacrificed Priscilla to Scáthach.
Ambrose White
Ambrose White
The Rebellious Son
Played By: Jesse La Flair, Wes Bentley (as Dylan in the dramatizations)
Thomasin White's son.
- Aesop Amnesia: He has a Heel–Face Turn and turns against his mother, but in all of his subsequent appearances, he's back to being as evil and subservient as ever.
- Big "NO!": Having enough of his mother's sadistic murders, Ambrose shouts this once Thomasin was about to kill Flora.
- Heel–Face Turn: Finally gets sick of his mother killing everyone who steps foot on the land and turns on her, allowing Matt, Shelby, and Flora to escape.
- Offing the Offspring: Stabbed in the chest by his mother.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Dismayed by his mother's "devil worship" and human sacrifice, he attempts to lead the colonists back to England.
- Taking You with Me: Grabs his mother and jumps into a fire with her.
Priscilla
Priscilla
Played By: Estelle Hermansen (in the dramatizations), Savannah Liles (real), Audrey Casson (Cracked reinactment)
A young girl and one of the Roanoke colonists.
- Big Good: The closest thing to one that this season will likely see. The most benign of the ghosts, she led the Millers to discover the root cellar (and thus led them to Elias), abducted Flora to protect her from the Butcher, and is heavily implied to have orchestrated the other ghosts turning on the Butcher.
- Bludgeoned to Death: Her head is bashed in with a rock by The Butcher.
- Would Hurt a Child: On the receiving end, as she was sacrificed to Scáthach.
Scáthach
Scáthach
The Witch Behind it All
Played By: Unknown actress, Lady Gaga (in the dramatizations)
A Celtic witch who inhabits the woods around the house.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In-Universe. Scáthach may be a an uglied-up Lady Gaga (with bad skin, foul teeth, and Gollum-ish demeanor)... but she's still Lady Gaga. The True Scáthach is more of a thing than a woman, who is made up to be absolutely repulsive and barely even human, and her coupling with Matt produces unearthly shrieks.
- Charm Person: One of her primary powers, she appeals to the baser natures of those she wants. She stoked Thomasin's anger at being exiled by her own son into outright murderous fury, leading her to make a Deal with the Devil to bewitch those who have wronged her. Scáthach also seems to be grooming the Miller siblings; Matt to be her consort, and Lee to become a new Butcher.
- Draco in Leather Pants: Appears far more ambiguous, and with some trace of redeeming qualities, in the re-enactment. Possibly because most of the testimony regarding her came from Matt, whom she enchanted.
- Druid: She is a witch brought up in Celtic traditions passed down from the ancient Druids.
- Greater-Scope Villain: She is the master of the Roanoke colony and the ghosts. However, besides seducing Matt and turning Lee into the new Butcher she isn't very involved in the present-day storyline, leaving the Butcher as The Heavy.
- Meaningful Name: Scáthach
is a prominent figure in Celtic mythology as a legendary warrior and trainer of heroes. - Precursors: According to Ryan Murphy, the co-creator of American Horror Story. Scáthach is the Original supreme witch, pre-dating the Salem witches by centuries.
- Questionable Consent: Her sexual relationship with Matt seems to involve magical coercion to some extent.
- Religion of Evil: She's serving and worshiping the old gods of an ancient, evil religion predating Christianity.
- Stalker with a Crush: For Matt.
Edward Mott
Edward Phillippe Mott
The Social-Awkward Nobleman
Played By: Elliot Ehlers, Evan Peters (as Rory Monahan in the dramatizations)
The original owner of the house, a 18th-century nobleman, and an ancestor of Dandy Mott.
- Adaptational Heroism: In-Universe. The reenactments make him out to be almost a Noble Demon. When Audrey, Lee and Monet encounter the actual Edward, he roars at them.
- The Beard: The gay Mott kept a wife, but it's made abundantly clear that she was only there to provide him with an heir.
- Big Fancy House: Had the house built originally to display his very large art collection as well as to get away from Philadelphia.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: impaled and then burned alive by the Roanoke colonists.
- Comically Missing the Point: He's in an openly homosexual relationship with a black man during the 18th century and he wonders why people are judging him.
- The Dandy: He's got the powdered wig and the frilly clothes to prove it. Hilariously, his last descendant was actually named "Dandy".
- Depraved Homosexual: Subverted; while he was flamboyantly gay and murderous, the one had very little to do with the other.
- Disproportionate Retribution: He locked almost his entire household in a cellar and left them to die after the Butcher destroyed his collection of artwork. It's implied that he likely would have let them out eventually, but his death and his lover/servant fleeing prevented that.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Was impaled shortly before his death by the Butcher and the colonists.
- Man on Fire: Was burnt alive by the colonists after being impaled.
- No Social Skills: According to the historian, Edward probably suffered from severe social anxiety. Matt and Shelby recall him frequently recoiling from them as he led them through the tunnels. The reason he saves them from the other spirits in the house isn't charity per se, but that he doesn't want the number of other souls intruding on his privacy to increase.
Margaret
Margaret
Played by: Irene Roseen
A patient at the Roanoke house when it was a nursing home.- Boom, Headshot!: Shot in the head by the Jane sisters.
Gary Chen
Gary Chen
Played by: My Roanoke Nightmare: Hahn Cho
A Chen family member.- Character Death: Murdered by The Butcher.
- Immigrant Patriotism: He was dedicated to assimilating into American society.
Daisy Chen
Daisy Chen
Played by: My Roanoke Nightmare: Becky Wu
A Chen family member.- Character Death: Murdered by The Butcher.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl
Grace Chen
Grace Chen
Played by: My Roanoke Nightmare: Megan Truong
A Chen family member.- Character Death: Murdered by The Butcher.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl
Amy Chen
Amy Chen
Played by: My Roanoke Nightmare: Miya Cech
A Chen family member.- Character Death: Murdered by The Butcher.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl
Guinness
Guinness
Played by: Reenactment: Henderson Wade
One of Edward's servants who was also his lover.Army of Roanoke
Sophie Green
Sophie Green
Played By: Taissa Farmiga
One of the co-founders of "Army of Roanoke", a My Roanoke Nightmare fansite, who decides to travel to the house in hopes of getting footage of the then-upcoming Return to Roanoke: Three Days in Hell, which results in her and her friends stumbling upon Diana Cross's car.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Impaled and burned alive.
- Fan of the Past: She and her friends are interested in the history covered by "My Roanoke Nightmare" (as opposed to the gore) although they do comment negatively on the patriarchy of the era.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: She gets impaled on a stake before being burned alive by the colonists.
- Too Dumb to Live: She insists on trying to rescue Audrey and Monet, despite having no skills relevant to the task of fighting an Ax-Crazy Lee, despite knowing that the cops were unlikely to rescue her or Todd because of how many Roanoke-related pranks they've had to deal with, and despite knowing that with the Blood Moon in place, she's likely to face the full wrath of the Roanoke colonists.
- Woman on Fire: She and Todd are burned alive by the colonists.
Todd Allan Connors
Todd Allan Connors
Played By: Jacob Artist
Another member of the "Army of Roanoke".
- Genre Savvy: After getting detained by the police for questioning about Diana Cross's car, he rants that the cops never believe that they're in a horror movie until it's too late.
- Slashed Throat: Lee slits his throat.
- Too Dumb to Live: He stumbles across the possessed Lee in the woods, who's clearly not in her right mind, and thinks it's a great time to gush over her. She stabs him to death.
Milo
Milo
Played By: Jon Bass
Another member of the "Army of Roanoke".
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Impaled and burned alive.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He gets impaled on a stake before being burned alive.
- Man on Fire: He and Sophie are burned alive by the colonists.
Other characters
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Played by: Doris Kearns Goodwin
A historian.
- Real-Person Cameo: An actual historian playing herself.
Bob Kinnaman
Bob Kinnaman
Played by: James Morosini
A host of Spirit Chasers.
- Character Death: Arrows are shot in his chest by the Roanoke colonists.
- Too Dumb to Live: Not only do he and his crew go to film in the area where several people were violently killed, supposedly by hostile ghosts, but they actually brag into the camera that they're trespassing after being denied permission to enter the place.
Dave Elder
Tracy Logan
Trixie Mattel
Trixie Mattel
Played by: Trixie Mattel
A drag queen performer, songwriter and TV personality who's best known for having participated in several editions of RuPaul's Drag Race. Rhett Snow
Rhett Snow
Played by: Billy Snow
An Uber driver.- The Driver: He takes Cricket, and later Dylan, out to the mansion.
- Nice Guy: He describes being concerned for Cricket and Flora during the part of the hauntings he saw.
