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The Players
In General
- Cloudcuckoolander: All four of the leads have a bit of this trope in them:
- Peter describes what emotions he feels aloud, and has a childlike belief that the game may be real.
- Simone imagines herself having conversations with a portrait at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
- Janice holds conversations with her comatose husband as if he's really responding.
- Fredwynn is an emotionless yet somehow manic Conspiracy Theorist with few social skills.
Peter
- "This is Peter. Think of him as you. He is you if you lived alone and woke every weekday to your iPhone alarm, still set to the default chime 'Radar'. Peter is you if you walk to work in the morning, which he neither enjoys nor does not enjoy. He never makes eye contact with his fellows and assumes his fellows never make eye contact with their fellows, either. Peter is you if you worked a reliable job at a company which offers on-demand listening of over 2 million songs for a modest monthly fee; in addition, the company’s innovative algorithm conveniently informs you of songs you will enjoy based on your prior listening history, saving you the hassle of unpleasant and unnecessary musical exploration. Peter is you if you walked the same route home as you did to work, only, as I'm sure you understand, in the opposite direction. He generally stops into his corner bodega to procure dinner, which often consists of packaged sushi with a small packet of brown liquid salt and spicy green putty. Peter is you if you ended your day in the same place you began it, no change, every day like the others, with the exception of meaningless and arbitrary deviation — burrito instead of sushi, perhaps. And this is tragedy in its most quietly devastating costume."
Played by: Jason Segel
Peter is a typical aimless Office Drone, tied to a Soul-Crushing Desk Job and no longer even Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life — until the day comes when he answers an ad for the Jejune Institute and is drawn into the conflict between the Institute and the Elsewhere Society. Initially timid and self-effacing, he begins to come out of his shell more when he's around his partners in the Institute's game; he also proves to have a remarkably active imagination once the game begins to stimulate it.- Agent Mulder: The game awakens this side of him, and he grows less and less inclined to repress it — as he says, he would rather believe too much than go back to not believing in anything at all.
- Cowardly Lion: Peter starts off as terminally shy and totally lacking in self-confidence, but is inspired by Clara's example and finds the guts to regain at least some control over his life. He also serves, more than any other character, as the glue that holds the group together.
- Self-Deprecation: In the middle of a conversation on who fills what role in their group, Peter characterizes himself as "the guy who needs to do something brave, but ends up embarrassing himself".
Simone
- "This is Simone. Think of Simone as you. Simone is you if you woke up every morning believing today would be the day you could finally be happy, not realizing that you were the only obstacle standing in the way. Simone is you if you have never truly felt a part of anything. Simone is you if, your whole life, you felt like you'd been invited by mistake. Simone is you if you finally worked up the courage to do the one thing you knew was going to make everything different, the thing that would at last fill the hole that had been silently growing within, only to find something terrifying waiting on the other side — you still felt exactly the same. Simone is you if you are beginning to wonder if maybe, just maybe, you're always going to feel... alone."
Played by: Eve Lindley
A young bright, upbeat woman who's far more effusive and laid-back than Peter, Simone is enthusiastic about the puzzle, often taking the lead in contrast to Peter's reluctance. However, she's secretly quite lonely and still struggling with some issues about her identity.- Dark and Troubled Past: We see glimpses of it, but what says the most is that, confronted with a device the Institute says enables you to relive memories, she instantly rejects the idea as nightmarish.
- Lady Swears-a-Lot: On her first meeting with Peter, Simone assumes he's part of the game and slams him into a wall with a VERY vulgar threat. Peter notes she says "ass" a lot.
- Leg Focus: Janice tells Simone to enjoy her "cute dimples and long, long legs."
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Subverted with a vengeance. While her love for art and magic realism and quirky sense of humor make her seem like this trope, the story clearly establishes her as a character with her own flaws and wants (specifically, her habit of sabotaging her own happiness). Rather than inspiring Peter to live life to the fullest, she learns to alongside him and the other players.
- Trans Tribulations: While she is shown to be confident in her gender as a woman, we see brief flashbacks of her unhappy childhood pre-transition; it's implied her parents were upset when she came out. As an adult she still has trouble accepting happiness, even running from a pride parade after feeling she shouldn't be there, and also has to fight off two harassers in the first episode.
Janice
- Let's imagine, friends, that Janice is you. Janice is you if, years ago, you found exactly what you were looking for — or, as anyone with real time under their belt would admit, nothing close to "exactly", but lovely nonetheless. Janice is you if, despite your fears, you dedicated yourself to a journey traveling side-by-side with another. Janice is you if your partnership was strong enough to endure anger and betrayal, loyalty and commitment overcoming all that stood in its path. Janice is you when life brought the greatest of gifts — and with it a new partnership, one from which there was no looking back. Janice is you when a role you thought would last forever changed — a natural progression, of course, but painful nonetheless. Janice is you if despite the ups and downs, twists and turns of life, one thing remained constant. For better and worse, almost always for better, you didn't have to do life alone. Janice is you if, after years of building a life, an identity, a family, through sickness and health, through births and graduations, life swooped in with its harshest of reminders: Nothing lasts forever.
Played by: Sally Field
Janice Foster is an older woman who stumbled into the game by herself. With her husband Lev near-comatose at home after a stroke, she's looking to find herself again and make sense of her life, now that she's essentially alone in the world for the first time in decades, and the Institute is holding out a great temptation.- Berserk Button: She tends to gradually lose her temper whenever she feels she's being taken advantage of, particularly by the other members of her group. Implying that there's something wrong about her devotion to Lev takes her from zero to righteous indignation in three seconds flat.
- Cool Old Lady: As is standard for anyone played by Sally Field, Janice is an intelligent, no-nonsense woman and a former feminist activist who is very open-minded and gets along great with younger people.
- Elder Employee: after the Time Skip, Janice is seen taking child psychology classes where she is definitely the oldest student. She keeps up just fine, however.
- Guile Hero: She shows traces of this by pulling a Five-Finger Discount on no less than Octavio himself.
- Happily Married: She was this with her husband Lev and is now struggling to adjust to a life without him.
- Intergenerational Friendship: She's decades older than the rest of the group, easily old enough to be the mother of any of them, but she forms a close bond with them al the same.
- Just a Kid: A troubling inversion. Janice gets the distinct impression that the other three think of her as just a nice harmless old lady, and it grates on her the more they do it.
- Retired Badass: Janice wins a lot of respect from Simone when she reveals that she used to be a social activist who made speeches in defense of the Equal Rights Amendment.
- Team Mom: Mostly averted, as Janice wants the team to see her as a friend and equal instead of just an old lady. But she invokes this trope in the episode "Everyone" when she tells Simone to enjoy being herself and "if anyone has a problem with that, you send them to talk to me."
Fredwynn
- "Ah, Fredwynn. Look at the determination, the drive to power, self-will run riot. Let's think of Fredwynn as you. Fredwynn is you if you've ever obsessed over anything so badly that it ached in your chest. Fredwynn is you if you believed that if you could just cross the finish line, solve that mystery, get that promotion, buy that house, then perhaps you might just feel... okay. Fredwynn is you if your drive toward it became so all-consuming that it devoured everything that stood in its path — relationships, family, friends. Oh, and Fredwynn is also you if you're currently locked in the trunk of my car."
Played by: André Benjamin
A nattily attired, nerdy Conspiracy Theorist, Fredwynn is convinced that whatever's going on is a government experiment, and is willing to do whatever it takes to find the truth. He has a passion for codebreaking, an eye (and nose) for suspicious details, and an unshakable belief that there is always an explanation for anything.- The Insomniac: He admits to only being able to sleep in small, fifteen- to thirty-minute bursts, but once he falls into the Institute's game he can hardly sleep at all.Fredwynn: To hell with sleep!
- Limited Wardrobe: Fred's preferences in clothes are very specific, and he sticks with them — including several identical pairs of pajamas.
- Self-Made Man: Fredwynn graduated college with an economics degree at nineteen and made his first million before he was twenty-one. He was rich enough to buy eleven cars, but sold them all when he realized he didn't like driving.
- The Spock: His relentless rationality and logic combine with severe emotional tone-deafness and No Sense of Humor. He doesn't have the type of mind that sees value in whimsy; a Jejune agent calls him "a hardcore", which Octavio defines as someone who takes the game of life too seriously.
- Spock Speak: One of his many eccentricities, perhaps driven by his need for exactitude in all things.
The Game
The Jejune Institute
Octavio Coleman, Esq.
Played by Richard E. Grant
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: However much he may try not to give any unpleasant impression of himself, he is ultimately out to technologize, commodify, and sell Divine Nonchalance — the same thing Clara is giving away for free.
- Faux Affably Evil: Octavio is unfailingly warm and respectful to almost everyone he encounters, but there are hints of something steelier underneath — particularly when he sends his henchwoman after Clara.
The Elsewhere Society
Commander 14
Played by Richard E. Grant
- Wizard Classic: Assumes the look in all of his public appearances, including a purple robe and a bushy gray beard.
Clara
Played by Ceci Balagot
Mural painter, visionary, and co-founder of the Elsewhere Society, Clara is a young genius whose artistic vision transformed the district of Fishtown — until she disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A more down-to-earth and pragmatic version of this, who founds the Elsewhere Society and begins making art on the streets of Fishtown in order to awaken its residents to the possibilities of life.
- Nice Character, Mean Actor: The character Ceci Balagot plays is not the original Clara, but an actress. And a young self-centered diva at that.
Bender Elmore
Lee
Played by Cherise Boothe
Appears to be both Octavio's assistant and a director of events within the game, but there may be more to her.
- The Man Behind the Man: Lee is in fact the architect of the entire ARG. The story of Clara is inspired by her own history as an artist and engineer who came up with something brilliant, but had to sell out in order to obtain the funding to complete it; she deliberately casts herself as a villain as a sort of penance for betraying her old ideals.
