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Loy Cannon
Loy Cannon
Played By: Chris Rock
The founder of the Cannon Limited, Kansas City's latest mob faction. Having gotten rich through the "alternative economy" (i.e. racketeering via an unauthorized bank in the city's black community), he is attempting to take his business mainstream.
- Berserk Button:
- He reacts with cold rage when Dibrell confuses Zero for his own son.
- In episode 7, mentioning Doctor Senator after his death becomes a sore spot for Loy, as he beats Leon with a belt for using Doctor's death as an argument for why they should kill Gaetano. He also warns Josto not to mention Doctor during a sitdown.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Combined with
Vindicated by History. Loy and Doctor Senator are both men are simply ahead of their time, and not even by a whole lot. Their bread and butter is banking, and Loy hopes to elevate Cannon Limited into a legitimate, nation-wide business with his credit card concept. Unfortunately, no one at the time believes people would be dumb enough to spend money they don't have, and no one is willing to back him. Not to mention, he's a black man in a deeply racist time and place. As a result, he relies on racketeering and loan sharking to fund his concept. - Church Going Villain: He's a deacon, actually.
- Everyone Has Standards: He's a ruthless gangster, but he treats foster son Zero Fadda like an actual foster son rather than a potential spy and traitor.
- Deal with the Devil: Is painfully aware that he traded his son in exchange for more criminal power.
- Family-Values Villain: Zigzagged. He's shown to take Thanksgiving seriously and shows kindness to Zero Fadda. However, as Deafy later argues, Loy can seem at times like he's more concerned with projecting an image of himself as a family man than he is with actually living up to it.
- Kick the Dog: Taunts a man asking for money just to make a point to his son.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Loy's decision to first sell out Zelmare and Swanee and then have Odis kill both to tie up loose ends turns out to be the decision that costs him his life; Zelmare escapes and eventually kills Loy once the war is over and he no longer has Opal watching his back.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: When his business is robbed by Zelmare and Swanee, he wastes no time finding them and forcing them to use their skills for his impending war.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: As a gangster, he preys on the local population for his own interests, but doesn't go out of his way to hurt innocents, unlike Gaetano; and he has some moral limits to what he's ready to do to win, unlike Josto.
- Loan Shark: His bank is pretty much nothing more than a loansharking racket.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The most tragic thing about Loy's character is in fact how decent he was, for the standards of a crimelord. He could not bring himself to hurt Zero after the presumed death of Satchel at the hands of Calamita, he did return Etherilda's parents their house at the end, all his choices were pragmatic and carefully thought through, and he showed a quite brilliant mind for business. He in fact tried to be accountable for Zelmare and Swanee, ultimately failed, and turned them in only to take the weight of the police, led by a racist marshal, off his back to guarantee the safety of his family. This decision cost him his life at the end.
- Papa Wolf: He is fiercely protective of his kids. This even extends to his foster kid, as he instinctively steps in front of Gaetano to stop him from approaching Zero.
- Pragmatic Villainy: In "Lay Away", Josto convinces him that Calamita has murdered Satchel, and begs him to spare Zero from any retaliation and kill Gaetano instead. Loy decides against killing Zero, but also elects to free Gaetano — after telling him that Josto was prepared to sell him out, assuming this will ensure that the Faddas go to war with each other. Unfortunately, this plan backfires because of Loy's misjudgment of Gaetano's character.
- The Stoic: He's not a terribly emotional man, and very rarely do you see anything more than his poker face. That said, once one of his {{Berserk Button}s gets pushed, he shows to have an explosive temper even hotter than a Fadda.
- The Strategist: He's very smart when it comes to managing the mob war brewing in Kansas City. Kinda subverted, however, as the moves of his enemies rarely make logical sense.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: In "Happy", Loy arranges a meeting with Happy Halloway in hopes of getting more muscle for his war with the Faddas. Happy tells him that as far as the syndicates down south are concerned, Loy's got his "head too high" — he's risen too far and too fast for their liking, and they see his war with the Faddas as a natural reaction to his "foolish" attempt to compete with white folks.
- Too Clever by Half: His brilliant strategies assume that everyone else around him behaves rationally, which is seldom the case.
- In the finale, he ends up with the opposite problem - he tries to use Don Fadda's ring to sue for peace with the Faddas, appealing to the ring's sentimental value. Unfortunately for him, the Faddas are now ruled by Violante, who only values the ring on a pragmatic level — it legitimizes his rule - so the ring does not distract him from the fact that Loy basically has no other leverage, enabling him to demand most of the Cannon Limited's territory. Loy gets peace, but at the cost of a vastly reduced empire.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His scheme to take over the slaughterhouses is rather standard gangster tactics... But he didn't take Gaetano Fadda's wild antics into accounts, thus causing a gang war.
- Villainous Friendship: Has one with Doctor Senator.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: He believes that with the right sales pitch, he can get people hooked on credit.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He can't bring himself to kill his hostage Zero as retaliation for the (claimed) death of his own son.
Doctor Senator
Doctor Senator
Played By: Glynn Turman
Loy Cannon's right-hand man. A former member of the army's legal corps, he uses his knowledge of the law to help give the Cannon Limited the appearance of legitimacy.
- Amoral Attorney: He's Loy's attorney, responsible for handling his financial affairs.
- Badass Boast: He tells Ebal that he was assigned to interview Hermann Göring in the run-up to the Nuremburg Trials, and managed to gather enough material for a 400-page report making the case for Göring's guilt.
- The Consigliere: Serves this function to Loy Cannon.
- Cool Old Guy: Witty, wise, and willful.
- Dies Wide Open: After being shot, he lays on the ground, staring at the sky.
- Nice to the Waiter: He's very courteous with Nadine, the waitress of the coffee shop where he takes his lunch.
- Sacrificial Lion: Introduced as Loy Cannon's main problem-solver, he's the only one shown to be capable of reasoning with the Faddas. He's killed by Calamita halfway through the season to demonstrate that he and Gaetano are through messing around, and that the time for talking is over.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: He tried to do his job honestly. He got only racist mockery as a reward. So he turned to organized crime.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Doctor Senator is his actual name.
- Wicked Cultured: Probably the most sophisticated, articulate criminal the series has ever seen.
- Worthy Opponent: He considers fellow consigliere Ebal Violante as this.
Omie Sparkman
Omie Sparkman
Played By: Corey Hendrix
The organization's most recurrent hitman.
- Career-Ending Injury: He was a promising boxer, but left the profession due to the loss of an eye.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Inflicts this on Gaetano by punching him repeatedly while he's tied to a chair.
- Deadpan Snarker: Doesn't talk much, but most of what comes out of his mouth is sarcasm.
- The Dragon: Loy entrusts him with most of the tasks including violence.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Allowing Aldo out of his trunk forces Omie to shoot him when he tries to run to Calamita, warning Constant of the trap laid there for him.
- Killed Off for Real: He is shot dead by Calamita towards the end of "East/West".
- Red Right Hand: His glassy right eye make him look quite sinister.
- Weak, but Skilled: He's skinny, but knows how to fight.
Opal Rackley
Opal Rackley
Played By: James Vincent Meredith
A gangster with Loy's trust.
- The Big Guy: The largest of the named Cannon Limited named members, and often serving as a bodyguard to Loy.
- Replacement Gold Fish: Serves as Loy's confident after Doctor Senator's death.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Opal has shown to have a pretty sharp mind, and wear distinctly big glasses.
- Sole Survivor: The only significant member of The Cannon Limited to survive the season.
Leon Bittle
Leon Bittle
Played By: Jeremie Harris
An eager young recruit, currently assigned as a bodyguard to Loy's eldest son, Lemuel.
- Ambition Is Evil: He hopes to become Kansas City's new black boss by betraying the Cannons.
- Born Unlucky: He was hired to protect Lemuel and keep him out of trouble. Unfortunately for him, no sooner was he hired than Gaetano put out a hit on Lemuel that was only averted because Rabbi intervened, and then on his second chance, the Faddas bribed the cops to raid the club where Lemuel happened to be.
- Due to the Dead: He is horrified that the body of Doctor Senator was left laying on the ground.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: The only reason Loy hasn't fired or killed him yet is because his cousin happens to be Lionel "Happy" Halloway, a legendary cattle rustler back in Texas whose syndicate provides much of the Cannon Limited's muscle.
- Informed Ability: He is described as a Lightning Bruiser with baseball player strength and reflexes who killed many German soldiers with a bayonet in close-quarters combat, but he never gets into any fights like that during the show.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Tired of Loy's derision and brief physical abuse, he makes a deal with Josto Fadda to betray the Cannon Limited in exchange for taking over the slaughterhouses and getting a cut of the profits.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: He is strangled to death by Opal after trying and failing to kill Loy.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He's only a newcomer in Cannon Limited, but he expects to be given important tasks in the organization due to being the cousin of Happy, a powerful Texan mobster.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He keeps insisting that he's smart and could be vital to the Cannon Limited if Loy would just give him a chance, but he has yet to back up his claims with any displays of brilliance.
Cannon Family
Buel Cannon
Buel Cannon
Played By: J. Nicole Brooks
Wife of Loy Cannon.
- It's Personal: She cares less about the result of the gang war as a whole than the death of the Faddas brothers.
- Mama Bear: She compares herself to a mother lion while threatening Calamita with a shotgun when he comes calling at her house.
- Thicker Than Water: She invokes family relation to convince Happy Holloway to support Loy in his war.
Lemuel Cannon
Lemuel Cannon
Played By: Matthew Elam
Loy Cannon's eldest son, an aspiring musician who wants nothing to do with his father's business.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: He has given up on his glasses and cap by the time he works at the Smutneys' house.
- Meet Cute: He and Ethelrida bond rather quickly, despite Ethelrida initially being shocked to see gangsters inside her home.
Satchel Cannon
Satchel Cannon
Played By: Rodney L. Jones III
Loy Cannon's youngest son, traded by him to the Fadda Family in exchange for their youngest son as a show of peace.
- A Boy and His X: While he and Rabbi are on the run, Satchel finds a lost dog stuck in the cupboard of the room at the boarding house they're shacked up in, named Rabbit. He adopts her, much to Rabbi's disapproval as it is impractical to their survival. When Rabbi is swept up by a tornado after going out to buy Satchel a treat for his birthday to make up for not allowing him to keep Rabbit, Satchel heads off on his own with only the dog for company.
- Canon Character All Along: The very last scene of the season reveals Satchel grows up to become Mike Milligan.
- Children Are Innocent: Seems mostly unaware of the brewing tensions between his family and the Faddas, and initially fails to grasp the danger he and Rabbi are in.
- Denied Food as Punishment: Implied and downplayed; when Loy asks Satchel if the Faddas are feeding him, the boy replies "mostly peanut butter", implying that he's provided the bare minimum of the nutrition he needs.
- Happy Ending Override: He manages to find his way home from Liberal and is reunited with his family just in time for the Mob War to end… and then a few days later, his father gets stabbed to death by Zelmare.
