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The Good Girls
The Gang
Left to right: Ruby, Annie, Beth
Three women who turn to a (part time) life of crime after finding themselves in desperate need of money.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: The main female characters become criminals, secretly working for crime boss Rio, for the sake of providing and caring for their children and families when left with no other financial options. The series revolves around the ladies trying to avoid arrest by the police in order to continue caring for their families by this unexpected means of work while adapting to their new darker and more dangerous secret lives.
- Best Friends: But of course.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: Ruby is big, Beth is thin, and Annie is short.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Annie is blonde, Ruby is brunette, and Beth is redhead.
- Childhood Friends: Revealed to be these in season two, episode eight. After a teenage Beth crashes her parents' car into Ruby's yard with a young Annie in the back seat, Ruby decides to help them drive to the store for food. They've been ride-or-dies ever since.
- Group Hug: They have a version of this where they lean on each other's shoulders.
- Innocence Lost: The ladies struggle to maintain their "innocence" as they navigate through their hidden criminal lives as mothers and try to remain mostly good people. However, they find this very hard to do as they are faced with extremely difficult situations that cost them gradual pieces of their moral innocence, but also determine whether they go to prison (or even end up dead altogether).
- Nice Mean And In Between: Church-going Mama Bear Ruby is the nice one, ruthless mastermind Beth is the mean one, and Hotblooded Annie is the in-between.
- Parents as People: All three women are loving and doting mothers, but each make their fair share of mistakes (Annie more than the other two) and are fleshed out way beyond their roles as caretakers.
- Plethora of Mistakes: What really drives the series is how the ladies are not by any means professional criminals. They often make a series of mistakes during their crimes, either due to morality or general lack of criminal professionalism, resulting in them being in a jam they are desperate to fix... sometimes for a whole season.
- Robbing the Mob Bank: The ladies accidentally do this in the pilot. They rob the town grocery store in a desperate attempt to solve their financial problems, taking an unintended half a million from the vault, not knowing the money actually belonged to big time crime boss Rio. This huge mistake kick starts the girls criminal careers as they are unable to recoup the money and agree to work for him in order to pay off their debt.
Beth
Elizabeth "Beth" Boland
Portrayed By: Christina Hendricks
A mother of four and housewife whose car salesman husband cheated on her.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Despite having a somewhat rocky relationship-him threatening to kill her for taking his money and holding a gun to her on numerous occasions-she develops an attraction to Rio. An attraction that results in the two hooking up on more than one occasion.
- Blackmail: In season 2, Dean leaves her and takes the kids with him. He forces her to give up her criminal life (or more specifically Rio) in exchange for getting her kids back. Desperate for her children, she agrees. Of course, though, walking away from a crime lord is not that easy.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: When Rio uses her car dealership as a cover for his drug dealing business and refuses to share his cut with her, she strategically forces him to give her and the ladies a cut of his payment. She steals his product and reminds him that without her legal business cover, it would be very easy for the police to discover his illegal activities. Rio is forced to submit to her demands after this.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She may be the picture perfect soccer mom, but push her to her limits and she will snap. There are several examples of this throughout the series.
- When she finds out Dean has been cheating on her, she takes a sledgehammer to his home office in a full on violent rage as revenge. Annie and Ruby merely watch her destructive episode from the doorway, too stunned to attempt to interrupt or stop her.
- Also shown when Boomer threatens to go to the police about her and the ladies crimes. As he walks out the door, threatening to go the cops, she hits him in the head with a bourbon bottle and holds him captive in her kids' tree house bound and gagged.
- Especially shown in the season 2 finale. When Rio kidnaps her and tries to force her to kill Agent Turner, he finally pushes her beyond her mental limits. Beth snaps under the stress and ends up shooting him several times instead (breaking her Thou Shalt Not Kill mindset prior to this) before deciding to try to start her own criminal business without him.
- Because I'm Good At It: After being freed from their debt to Rio, Beth tells him she wants to continue working for him. She later reveals that this type of work is something she feels she can be talented in and that feels good for her.
- Break the Cutie: In the season 2 finale, Rio kidnaps Beth and attempts to force her to kill a bound and wounded Agent Turner to "take care" of him once and for all. Feeling dominated by Rio for too long and stressed beyond her limits, she snaps and instead shoots Rio - not just once but three times - before running back home.
- Cathartic Chores: Whenever she is anxious about something in particular, she resorts to cooking and baking food as a stress reliever. When she is forced to become a simple housewife again, she cooks a grand dinner for her family and bakes a ridiculous amount of cookies for her children's school event and goes all out on the frosting decoration.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Dean interrupts her fantasy of Rio smashing things in her room with a crowbar, but subverted in that Dean didn't know what she was doing.
- Cool Big Sis: When Beth begins showing her "boss" side during their time working for Rio and successfully negotiating for more financial benefits, Annie is impressed and asks Beth when she got to be "so cool".
- Consummate Liar: Beth discovers a hidden talent for off-the-cuff lying. Ruby is highly impressed by her spontaneous lying skills and calls her "an incredible liar".
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
- She uses her mouth to take off a pen cap in the season 1 finale, which leads to many complications for the ladies in season 2 when the cops find her DNA on it and they resort to desperate measures to get it back. Annie later remarks how the mistake was so "amateur" and Beth reminds her, "We are amateurs!"
- Another of these moments happens when Mary Pat begins causing major trouble for the ladies in season 2 and it's noted that Beth could have avoided the needless drama if she had let Rio "handle it" like he wanted to back in season 1.
- Cry Laughing: Has this moment in the first episode of season 2 when she finds out that Dean didn't die from being shot by Rio. When Annie and Ruby ask if she's crying or laughing, she says she doesn't know.
- Dysfunctional Family: It's implied that she and Annie came from an unstable family life and Beth had a Promotion to Parent to Annie as a result.
- This is shown in a season 2 flashback when a teenage Beth attempts to drive her and a young Annie to the grocery store for food despite not knowing how to drive. Consequently, she gets into a small accident in Ruby's front yard. She was forced to do this because her mother refused to get out of bed to care for them, possibly because of depression. This, along with implications from Ruby, heavily imply that Beth had take care of Annie herself while growing up due to their own mother's neglect.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: In the past has been the more responsible sister to Annie, even taking on a mom role towards her. Less so now, but she's still more focused.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: Beth initially deals with a Thou Shalt Not Kill mindset, especially when Rio demands she kill Boomer to solve her problems and she confesses to being unable to kill someone - no matter how bad the person is. However, this drastically changes in the season 2 finale when she snaps and shoots Rio himself.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Dean's various affairs are seen as horrible whereas Beth's affair with Rio is played more sympathetically. This is due to how Dean cheated on Beth for years with meaningless flings while she was devoutly faithful and even going through post-partum depression. He adds further insult by saying he was put off by her "attitude" towards him caused by her depression and felt "lonely". However, when she has an affair with Rio, it is because of genuine attraction to him and how he treats her with basic respect, unlike Dean.
- Go-Getter Girl: Is very much this in all aspects of her life, both personally (such as her kid's bake sales and school projects) and professionally (be it the car dealership or her criminal life).
- High-School Sweethearts: She and Dean have been dating since high school. He asked her to prom his senior year while she was a bit younger than him.
- Housewife: She was a dedicated, full-time housewife before she got involved with crime.
- I Have a Family: She pulls this line many times to Rio, specifically how she's a mother with several children, who comments about how she "loves telling him that". In season 2, he finally shuts this excuse down when her careless inability to separate being a mother/criminal puts her in a near fatal situation that could have been easily avoided. He harshly tells her to accept the dangerous reality of her life and that she needs to separate being a mother and criminal-or face eventual fatal consequences for it.
- I Warned You: Gets this from Dean and also Annie, who warn her that having a relationship with a crime boss will end badly for everyone.
- Idiot Ball: While she could generally be seen as the brains of the gang, she occasionally catches this throughout the series. A few of these are seen when she tries to dispose of the extremities from the dead body Rio regularly sends her by running them through the garbage disposal.
- A big one is when she repeatedly tries to pay off Boomer and Mary Pat to leave her, Annie and Ruby alone only for them to come back and demand more money from them over and over again as a result. Despite both Annie and Rio advising her to just "take care of it", she still often sticks to this poor method of "handling it".
- In Love with Your Carnage: In season 2, in addition to her deepening attraction to Rio, it's revealed that she has a Sex Is Violence fetish. She highly enjoys seeing Rio break things in an aggressive fashion, even having a fantasy of him violently destroying things in her bedroom with a crow bar.
- The Leader: She is the unofficial leader among the ladies. She officiated the idea to rob the grocery store as an actual planned heist, handles and maps out their various crimes, acts as their spokesperson to Rio and generally acts as the leader during moments when Annie and Ruby have no idea what to do. When Annie and Ruby attempt to do a job for Rio without her, things go very awry for them.
- One Last Job: When blackmailed by Dean to give up her criminal life, Beth decides she is going to do "one last job" with the girls before giving up her criminal life. Of course, though, it's not that easy.
- Sex for Solace: When Dean blackmails her into living a crime-free life along with disassociating herself with Rio, she decides that she wants one last hook up with Rio before cutting him from her life. She brings him back to her house before Dean and the kids are scheduled to return and has goodbye sex with him (without actually telling him of her circumstances) before being forced to (briefly) return to her "normal" life.
- Sexless Marriage: With Dean. He uses this as an excuse for cheating on her by bringing up how they hadn't had sex in years when he began doing so. Annie also brings this up during a heated argument between her and Beth, harshly saying how her sister hasn't had sex since her last child was born.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: After shooting Rio in the season 2 finale, Beth quickly runs away from the scene and goes into a clear state of shock while walking back home. Once home the morning after, she silently stares at an oblivious Dean before collapsing in his arms while crying in distress.
- Sleeping with the Boss: With Rio. Given that she and the ladies work under him as his employees and his position of high authority in the criminal world they are newly exploring.
- Thrill Seeker: While Beth was initially scared of the dangers of her criminal life, she becomes increasingly comfortable with it as the series progresses-even enjoying it. In season 2, when forced to briefly return to her homemaker life, she admits to missing her criminal life and finds life as a dutiful PTA mother and homemaker boring. Upon nearly being caught by Agent Turner for running an illegal drug business, Annie and Ruby say how terrified they would have been. However, Beth shocks them by admitting she found the ordeal "fun" and a criminal's dangerous life to be "addicting". She even briefly joins an addicts anonymous group for her "addiction", but soon accepts this is who she is now.
- The Unfair Sex: Dean cheated on Beth with numerous women for years because he felt "lonely" while she was going through depression, even lying about being how often he was unfaithful to her. He continued to act emotionally neglectful and very misogynistic to her, often putting her down. This helped drive Beth to have an affair with Rio, who showed basic respect for her and praised her strong points as a person. When Dean finds out about her affair with Rio, he feels betrayed, leaves with the kids to his mother's house and refuses to give their children back to her unless she agrees to never see Rio again.
- Unwanted Spouse: While Beth cares for Dean given their history together, it is heavily implied that she does not romantically love him. Throughout the series, there are various hints that she married him out of convenience to escape her stressful home situation with her family.
- This is first implied in season 1 when Beth admits she envies Ruby's marriage because of the clear love she has for Stan.
- Furthermore, in season 2, Ruby says that Beth married Dean because she "had" to. She goes on to say that Beth had to leave home in order to escape the constant responsibilities of taking care of her family, primarily Annie. This is something Annie is implied to be aware of and feels guilty about.
Ruby
Ruby Hill
Portrayed By: Retta
Beth's best friend, a waitress who is struggling to pay for her daughter Sara's kidney disease treatments.
- Beware the Nice Ones: A sweet, church-going mother and homemaker who can deal out The Reason You Suck Speeches like no one's business.
- Big "WHAT?!": Has this moment when she finds out Beth slept with Rio.
- Blackmail: Agent Turner finds out about her secret criminal life thanks to Mary Pat and forces Ruby to nearly flip on Beth in exchange for not arresting her and Stan. She nearly does it, but backs out when realizing her friendship with Beth meant too much to turn on her.
- Comfort Food: When she's feeling particularly depressed, she eats doughnuts.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father died when she was a kid.
- Fat Best Friend: To Beth and Annie.
- Good Parents: Her and Stan. They both try to set good examples for their kids and always look out for their best interests. For Ruby, this means even if she has to rob a grocery store and start a criminal life to get her ill daughter much needed medication she otherwise can't afford.
- Happily Married: To Stan, who isn't always the most observant guy, but is a genuinely sweet and caring husband who's frequently on the same page as Ruby. Beth even comments that she envies the strong love they clearly hold for each other.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Has this moment with Stan when he refuses to forgive her for turning to crime to support their family. She tells him she only did what was necessary to save their daughter and refuses to apologize for it.
- Idiot Ball: In season 2, she tries to pay off Stan's much needed lawyer with $30,000 of the counterfeit money Rio gave her and the ladies to wash. Her intentions were genuine and well-meaning, desperate to keep her husband out of prison, but when the lawyer realizes the money is fake, he drops Stan as a client. She then only succeeded in driving her and the ladies into even more debt to Rio and got nothing for it in return whatsoever.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: In season 1, she and the ladies are supposed to pick up a package for Rio from Canada. However, the man who is supposed to give them said package refuses to do so. Ruby decides to scare him using Stan's gun, which she believed was unloaded. But, she ends up accidentally shooting him in the foot-revealing a bullet in the chamber she forgot about. She and the ladies begin screaming in panic as the shot man frantically gives them the package. On the ride back, Ruby prays to God aloud for forgiveness while in clear shock from shooting someone for the first time.
- Mama Bear: The reason she got involved with crime was because her daughter needed expensive kidney medication, which she couldn't afford any other way. Despite her hard difficulties in adjusting to a criminal's life, she makes it clear to Stan that she would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
- Only Sane Woman: Out of the three protagonists, Ruby is usually the one who's most down-to-Earth and sensible. She also has the most sympathetic reasons for turning to a criminal life, and lacks many of underlying motivations that Beth and Annie have.
- Rejected Apology: Deals with this by Stan and Beth when confronted with the consequences of choices she made that ended up making them feel betrayed by her. However, she is later forgiven by the both of them.
- Sassy Black Woman: She often provides moments of humor whether through sassy remarks or her basic yet hilarious facial reactions to certain situations.
- To Be Lawful or Good: She has the most difficulty adapting to a criminal life out of the three women, often the most hesitant to get involved with their various crimes. She was the most reluctant to rob the grocery store in the pilot, only being talked into it by Beth and Annie for the sake of getting her daughter much needed medication for her failing health.
- Token Religious Teammate: Goes to church and often prays before, during, or after crimes.
- Shy Bladder: Ruby seems to be pee shy as she is shown to be terrified by the idea of using the toilet in jail in front of other prisoners. When asked about the nature of the bathroom in jail by Harry, she refuses to acknowledge it, claiming you go in a proper bathroom with Sara acknowledging reality. She also was disgusted at possibly using the dirty men's room and when asking about what if she needs to pee while out on the water, Annie tells her she'll just have to go there by the road which she again seems reluctant about.
Annie
Annie Marks
Portrayed By: Mae Whitman
Beth's younger sister and the mother of Ben.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: While there are some things that Annie feels guilty about and may even refuse to do, she arguably has the most comfortable time adjusting to a criminal life compared to Beth and Ruby. She was the most excited and eager to rob the grocery store in the pilot episode and ultimately had no problem with the idea of killing Boomer and Mary Pat if it meant saving her and the ladies.
- Blackmail: Her boss Boomer figures out that she was one of the robbers due to seeing her back tattoo, and promptly tries to extort her for sex.
- Children Raise You: It's implied Beth had to take care of Annie starting early on in their childhood due to having a neglectful mother.
- Cool Aunt: She's the hip, cool young aunt to Beth's kids.
- Desperately Craves Affection: She has an almost desperate need for romantic affection and gets easily attached to her romantic partners. She easily rekindles past romantic feelings for Gregg and has an affair with him due to past yet intense feelings. Ending the relationship is very hard on her because of her emotional attachment. She later admits that she needs to stop letting her emotions cloud her judgement with men... this doesn't last long.
- In season 2, shortly after meeting new boss Noah, he says a few good things about her and she is visibly touched by his kind words. She responds by immediately hooking up with him directly after his compliment in a storage room despite still barely knowing him. When he lies about previously committing crimes, she easily falls for his lie and blabs about her and the ladies criminal business at Beth's car dealership in an attempt to bond. When she finds out he was just using her for Agent Turner's case against her and the ladies (and nearly got her sister arrested for her gullibility), she is rendered in tears and is completely heartbroken. Ruby later finds her at her apartment loudly playing sad music, drowning her sorrows in alcohol and feeling stupid for her naivety.
- Dysfunctional Family: It's implied that she and Beth had an unstable family while growing up. This is shown in a season 2 flashback when an adolescent Beth was forced to get basic home food from the grocery store herself despite not knowing how to drive since their mother refused to literally leave her bed, possibly because of depression. This also implies that Beth was forced to take care of Annie in a much more motherly fashion while growing up. Ruby also hints at this, saying how Beth was always the one taking care of Annie for as long as she's known her.
- First-Person Smartass: She is the snarkiest and most sarcastic one of the group.
- Former Teen Rebel: She had a very wild past as a teenager, which is occasionally referenced to. She used to party, get high and was sexually active during her high school days, which resulted in her teenage pregnancy with Ben. While traces of her wild personality still show and she sometimes acts childishly, it is clear that becoming a teen mom forced her to arguably mature from that time in her life.
- Good Bad Girl: Out of the three main ladies, she has the most hook ups and is a bit promiscuous. She even sleeps with her married ex while he has a pregnant wife. Despite this, she still has a good heart and tries to correct her mistakes. This is shown when she breaks up with her ex-husband Gregg because of the guilt of being the other woman.
- Hotblooded: Is she ever! Annie is quick to anger, and is the most likely to lose her temper.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Her friendship with Marion, Boomer's mother.
- The Mistress: Because of her relationship with the married Gregg.
- Near-Rape Experience: A drunken Boomer tries to rape her, but Beth stops him at (fake) gunpoint.
- Never Grew Up: Told this by Ruby during a fight, who calls her out on her childish behavior and how she often does what she wants without thinking of potential consequences. She tells Annie that Beth was the one always "cleaning up her messes" since they were kids, telling her to grow up.
- Open-Minded Parent: She's immediately accepting when Ben comes out as transgender, and even tries to get him puberty-blockers so he can kick-start his gender transition.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: A conviction she firmly holds after being a victim of near rape herself. She can't bring herself to destroy evidence that would incriminate Beth because she'd also have to destroy rape kits in the process (as that would make it unlikely the rapist would be convicted) and has no qualms about killing Boomer with the very explicit justification that he is a rapist.
- She is the most furious with Mary Pat for orchestrating the events that resulted in her and the ladies being pinned for Boomer's supposed murder. However, when she finds out that Mary Pat was raped by him, she immediately lets go of all animosity towards her. While Ruby is still all for sending Mary Pat to the police for everything she's done, Annie sympathetically says Mary Pat is a victim and soberly reminds her that, "Boomer raped her" before walking away.
- Sex with the Ex: Starts sleeping with Gregg again in season 2 despite it making her The Mistress in his marriage. Her reckless choice in doing this serves with a lot of consequence later on for her.
- Sleeping with the Boss: In season 2. She meets her new manager while at the bar, Noah, and starts a quick relationship with him.
- Struggling Single Mother: She works very hard to provide for her and Ben, but wishes she could do more.
- Stupid Crooks: Of the three women, Annie is the most blatantly irresponsible. Both Beth and Ruby have had to scold her for her careless attitude due to it getting them in unnecessary trouble.
- Tears of Remorse: Has this moment when they dispose of (what they presumed to be) Boomer's dead body and she listens to the voice messages on his cell phone sent by his worried grandmother which renders her in tears.
- Teen Pregnancy: She had Ben at 17.
- The Unfair Sex: She was sleeping with her ex-husband, Gregg, early in the series. He was married to a pregnant Nancy, but still loved Annie and eventually left his wife because of it. This blows up in her face when Nancy and Ben find out about her role in Gregg walking out on his marriage.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Annie is not one to shy away from her bathroom habits and is often shown either using the toilet or saying she needs too.
Beth's Family
Dean
Dean Boland
Portrayed By: Matthew Lillard
Beth's flighty husband.
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Due to putting his family in a deep financial hole, Beth is forced to resort to robbing a grocery store in order to pay off his debt. He also has a severe lack of talent in selling cars in his family dealership, often blowing sales. He also puts Beth and their family in another financial hole in season 2 due to yet again mishandling his business and also gets Beth's money stolen when he tries to put a hit on Rio out of jealousy and is instead easily conned.
- Bumbling Dad: Comes across as this at first, before the audience finds out it's so much worse than that.
- A Day in Her Apron: When Beth kicks Dean out of Boland Motors, he's forced to take over Beth's housework. On the first day, Beth comes home to the house in complete disarray. By the second day, he has things much more under control.
- Did You Just Have Sex?: In season 2, Beth offers herself to him late one night after getting home from a business meeting with Rio. Dean is initially thrilled and believes she wants to have sex again after a long dry spell between them. However, he notices her new cold behavior towards him during attempted intimacy. This sudden change in her behavior towards him makes him horrifically realize Beth has slept with Rio and is now simply using him as Retargeted Lust.
- Hypocrite: His reasons for cheating on Beth for several years are, in his eyes, justified (even though they clearly aren't to anyone else). But when he finds out Beth had an affair with Rio, he is so overcome with jealousy and anger that not only does he leave her, take their kids and blackmail her into dissociating herself with Rio, he attempts to put an actual hit on him as revenge. The last part doesn't work as well as he hoped. He also insists that he "can't live without her" and even calls Beth "the love of his life", but still continues to flirt with and check out other women at the same time.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's not wrong when he says that Beth's double life could endanger their children.
- Like Father, Like Son: It's revealed in season 2, episode 9 from his mother that his father often cheated on his mother too.
- Manipulative Bastard: Leaves Beth, takes her children and refuses to give them back to her unless she gives up her life of crime... or more specifically Rio. When she is unable to disentangle herself from her criminal life, he serves her with divorce papers.
- Mock Millionaire: Despite owning a car dealership and living in a massive beautiful house, Dean's finances are not remotely in order. He's been keeping the family's financial straits a secret, but he made seriously bad decisions that have left him and his family bankrupt and in a steep amount of debt.
- Never My Fault: For most of the series, he refuses to own up to his many mistakes. He always blamed the economy for his failed car dealership business (such as wildfires despite living in Detroit), Beth's post-partum depression and cold attitude for his many affairs as he felt "lonely" and her criminal activity for Rio's interference in their lives (despite being the reason Beth met Rio in the first place). He becomes mildly better in season 2, but still has little to no actual improvement.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Shows shades of this state of mind when he tells Beth that home-making is her "superpower". When he forces Beth to return to her home-making life (albiet briefly), he is thrilled to have her back to her "normal" self.
- Playing Sick: He pretends to have cancer so he can worm his way back into the house.
- Really Gets Around: When Beth demands to know how many women he cheated on her with, Dean claims it to be four. However, when former mistress Amber talks about his unfaithful past to Beth, she implies the number of women he cheated with to being much higher as well as had been going on for much longer than what he claimed.
Ruby's Family
Stan
Stan Hill
Portrayed By: Reno Wilson
Ruby's husband, a rookie cop.
- Bad Liar: Both he and Ruby lampshade that he can't lie to save his life. This comes to bite them in season 2 when they need him to lie about stealing a pen cap that could incriminate them - he fails by epic proportions on a lie detector test.
- Dirty Cop: What Agent Turner thinks he is, after realizing he stole the pen cap.
- Family Man: Loves his wife and children more than anything in the world, and would do anything for them. In season 2, he is even willing to go to prison if it means saving Ruby.
- Happily Married: He and Ruby are a team, and love each other dearly. Not even her criminal activities shatter their relationship.
- Locked Out of the Loop: In Season 1, he's totally oblivious to Ruby's double life. He finds out in the first season finale and does not take it well.
Sara
Sara Hill
Portrayed By: Lidya Jewett
Ruby's daughter. She has a kidney disease that requires expensive medication to manage.
- Broken Pedestal: Her view of her parents shatters after Stan's arrest.Sara: Did he do it?
Ruby: ...Yes.
Sara: Then he should stay in jail. - Delicate and Sickly: It's not specified what exactly she has, but it requires her to wear an oxygen tank.
- Healthcare Motivation: Is this for Ruby: trying to pay for treatment for her illness is what sends her to do the robbery.
- Rebuilt Pedestal: She eventually forgives Stan when he explains that if he hadn't tampered with evidence, something much worse would've happened.
Harry
Annie's Family
Ben
Ben Marks
Portrayed By: Isaiah Stannard
Annie's son. He came out as a transgender boy in season 2.
- Brutal Honesty: Downplayed. Although he always says what's on his mind, though he's not mean about it.
- Butch Lesbian: Presented himself as such prior to coming out as trans, talking about a girl that he liked.
- Gender Reveal: Ben reveals that he is transgender in Season 2, and changes his name to Ben.
- Meaningful Rename: He changes his name to Ben after coming out as trans.
- Nice Guy: While he sometimes lashes out due to frustration, he's a very nice kid overall.
- Only Sane Man: His mother is... a lot, his stepmother is a Stepford Smiler, and his father is a philandering slimebag. He's definitely the normal one in the family.
Gregg
Gregg
Portrayed By: Zach Gilford
Annie's ex-husband and Ben's father.
- Jerkass Has a Point: A lot of his criticisms of Annie's behavior aren't exactly incorrect, and he turns out to be right about Catholic school being a good fit for Ben. In the second season, he also turns out to be right to be wary of Noah.
Nancy
Nancy
Portrayed By: Sally Pressman
Gregg's new wife.
- Stepford Smiler: It's pretty obvious that despite how perky and cheerful she acts, Nancy isn't a very happy person. She admits to Annie all the women at her baby shower aren't even really her friends.Nancy: They're just some bitches I follow on Instagram.
- Wicked Stepmother: Averted. She's a good and kind woman who loves Ben as if he was her own. Even after Nancy and Gregg split, Ben keeps hanging out with her.
Other Characters
Rio
Rio
Portrayed By: Manny Montana
A kingpin who becomes entangled with the girls after they accidentally steal from him.
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: He is willing to do whatever it absolutely takes to get the job done, including kill, and tries to teach this to the ladies. The girls also turn to him whenever a situation becomes too much for them to handle on their own, which he agrees to... for a usually high financial price though.
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: Carries a gold plated pistol as his weapon.
- Boxed Crook: After saving his life and keeping him out of prison, Turner uses him as an informant. Rio double crosses him with extreme prejudice, though.
- Brutal Honesty: He doesn't sugarcoat details whatsoever and bluntly expresses his feelings about a situation in a cold or harsh manner, especially when annoyed.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: After he escapes from federal custody he vows to kill Beth, which she only temporarily puts off by fabricating a pregnancy. What actually saves her is her skill at counterfeiting bills. Rio actually says, "I think I need to keep you alive."
- Consummate Professional: He is a very professional and skilled leader and doesn't tolerate any incompetence in his organization. However, he holds a good toleration with the girls, particularly Beth.
- Deadpan Snarker: He often has something sarcastic and witty to say at times.
- Do You Trust Me?: Has this moment with Beth, to which she says no. She later reveals that she actually does.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He has an elementary aged son whom he deeply loves and cares about.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being willing to go to any lengths to get the job done, even murder, he appears to draw the line at harming children and seems to hold a soft spot for them. This is implied when he is seen casually helping Beth's son with his homework and, later, expresses concern about him having too much of a busy schedule for a kid. On another occasion, he quickly hides his gun from view when her young daughter unexpectedly shows up despite being in the middle of a furious confrontation with Beth and having said gun aimed on her. Rio's soft spot for kids is likely due to him being a father himself.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: He heavily implies that he has done some awful and gruesome things to climb his way to the top. (In the season 1 finale, he tells Beth that "if you want to be the king you've got to kill the king - this stuff's medieval, darling.") Despite this, he is trying to raise his son in a traditional way and has kept his life of crime entirely separate from his life with his son. In brief scenes of the two together, Rio is shown trying to instill good and positive traits in his son.
- Evil Wears Black: He is almost always wearing black or dark colored clothes. It is very rare to see him wearing something other than black and if he is wearing something light colored, it is usually kept to a strict minimum.
- Family-Values Villain: He might be a pretty brutal crime boss, but he seems to be a Family Man nonetheless. This is emphasized when most of the photos he has at his home are pictures of him and his son happily spending time together and he has a specially decorated area of his apartment clearly meant for his kid.
- Actor Manny Montana, who portrays Rio, also confirmed that Rio became involved with crime to support his child and secure a good future for him.
- Friend in the Black Market: Is this to the ladies. Annie nicknames him "Gang Friend" whenever she and the ladies talk about him.
- First-Name Basis: With Beth. He is the only person to call her by her full first name, Elizabeth, as opposed to her preferred nickname Beth. However, she never calls him by his name.
- Gang Banger: Yup. Implied to be an impressive kingpin in Detroit's organized crime syndicate.
- Handgun: He carries one on him at all times.
- Laughing Mad: In the season 2 finale, after being shot by Beth several times and bleeding out on the floor, Agent Turner blackmails him into "owing him" in exchange for calling emergency services. Despite literally bleeding to death and being in a potentially fatal situation... Rio responds by actually laughing.
- Likes Older Women: His attraction to Beth.
- Mooks: Used to have a couple of them around him in season one. Not so much in season two.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Is this. Being a high ranking crime lord, he has a considerable amount of wealth. Despite initially being seen in hoodies in season 1 as well as beanies, season 2 shows that he does have high quality clothes (even Ruby impressively takes note that his sweaters are made from an expensive material), suits and a variety of classy watches to choose from in his personal wardrobe.
- Morality Pet: Beth. He develops a significant soft spot for her throughout the course of the show, primarily in season 2, as the two form a romantic attraction towards each other.
- Mysterious Informant: Implied to have least one of these-likely more-in order to stay a few steps ahead of the FBI. In season 2, he is able to learn about Agent Turner's plan to do a raid on the Boland dealership and warns Beth so she can destroy evidence that could be used against her. When seeing the dealership is clean, Agent Turner easily concludes that someone tipped them off to his planned raid.
- Neat Freak: Upon breaking into his apartment in season 2, Beth discovers that Rio is surprisingly clean and very well organized. His entire home is spotless without a single mess in sight and well decorated. His personal closet is also neatly organized with his shoes and clothes color coordinated on clothing racks.
- Only One Name: The ladies only know him as Rio. In season 2, we learn that his apartment neighbors know him as Christopher. However, it is possible this could be an alias.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Rio is very attractive as well as seductive, which he attempts to use to his advantage at times.
- Tattooed Crook: His neck tats are the first thing other characters (especially Dean) instantly notice about him and usually remember him by. He also has other tattoos marked around his shoulders and arms, but these are normally hidden by his long sleeve shirts. Most of his mooks are inked up too.
- Villain Cred: He is a high ranking criminal and implied to be a Big Bad in the criminal underworld - everyone knows who he is. When Dean attempts to put a hit on him to keep him away from Beth using two (albeit young and somewhat inept) hit men referenced from a Krav Maga instructor, the two guys are willing to do the job until they find out who it is Dean wants to put the hit on and promptly back out. The FBI have also been after him for an indefinite amount of time, but have been unable to make any charges actually stick with him - when Beth gets him arrested in the season 1 finale, Rio hires a lawyer who makes the charges go away - showing just how good Rio is at what he does.
- "Wanted!" Poster: His picture is frequently seen at the FBI as one of the most wanted criminals on their list. When Beth brings up how the FBI has his picture, he shrugs it off and simply remarks that he's "on Facebook too".
- Wicked Cultured: When season 2 shows fans his private and personal apartment, it is shown that Rio holds an interest in art or at least the appearance of it. He has various paintings and clearly expensive art pieces decorated around his apartment.
- You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: He may be somewhat tolerant of someone who has wronged him for a short time under certain circumstances (such as when the ladies accidentally rob him of half a million dollars), but when reaching the end of his patience... he won't hesitate to terrify them in the most scary way possible. This includes putting on a very violent and aggressive show of his anger before making it clear he is going to "handle" the person himself.
Boomer
Leslie "Boomer" Petersen
Portrayed By: David Hornsby
Annie's boss at the grocery and one of the first people to figure out the gang's involvement.
- Beard of Evil: He's bearded and very evil indeed.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He chooses not to flee the country because he doesn't want to abandon his grandmother. On the other hand this is partly because he's been stealing from her.
- Hate Sink: Of all the hardcore criminals, neophyte crooks, law enforcement, and innocents, he has the fewest redeeming moments.
- I Just Want to Be Badass: He has cop wannabe tendencies that cause him to hang around Agent Turner. Turner doesn't like him but occasionally finds him useful.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Boomer is a bitter, sadistic ogre of a man, but when he starts dating Mary Pat, he's almost cute and does claim to genuinely like her. It almost looks like he's going to develop in a more likable direction. However, he doesn't stop being a monster, and ultimately blackmails and rapes Mary Pat before getting killed himself.
- Marital Rape License: He forces himself on fiancee Mary Pat, who's only engaged to him out of blackmail to begin with. This is the last straw for her and she winds up running him over but he survives and runs away.
Agent Turner
Agent James "Jimmy" Turner
Portrayed by: James Lesure
An FBI agent who knows about Rio's crime ring, and the Good Girls' involvement in it.
- Character Death: He’s shot to death during an ambush set up by Rio in the season 3 premiere.
- Distressed Dude: After his case against Beth falls apart, Rio kidnaps him, and her, wanting her to finish him off. She instead shoots Rio three times in the chest and frees Turner.
- FBI Agent: Yup.
- Hero Antagonist: The women are criminals, and it is his job to apprehend them.
- Straight Gay: He shows no stereotypical gay traits and is currently living with his boyfriend in Detroit.
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Heavily downplayed: he borderline harasses the suspects (even following Ruby's family to church) and can come off as a jerk. However, his pursuit of the protagonists is mostly law driven and he reveals that he does hope for the best for Ruby's family.
Mary Pat
Mary Pat
Portrayed By: Allison Tolman
A former "Secret Shopper" who finds out about the girls business and wants a cut of it to support her family.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A seemingly friendly, beleaguered single mom who begins extorting Beth, Ruby, and Annie after learning that their secret shopper business is a front for money laundering. She's doing it to support her kids, but still gets unnecessarily aggressive and cutthroat, continually upping the amount she asks for and pressing the girls for money while their financial situations are visibly no better than hers.
- I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: Following her sexual assault by Boomer, she makes a desperate attempt to leave with her kids in her minivan. However, he catches her and attempts to stop her, only for her to accidentally run him over with her car and killing him instantly... or so we thought. In the season 2 episode "Jeff", we learn Boomer survived and the chopped up body she gave to the ladies is her late husband Jeff who died of natural causes.
- Rape and Revenge: When Boomer rapes her in season 2, she gets her revenge against him by running him over.
- Rape Discretion Shot: It shows him walking towards her and implied overpowering her before switching to her sitting on her floor the next morning. She is clad in her shirt and underwear, visibly traumatized, while Boomer sleeps in her bed.
- Struggling Single Mother: She has four kids and is a widow. She has severe financial troubles, arguably more so than the three ladies. It is the main reason they have a small level of sympathy for her despite her blackmailing them, understanding she is just trying to get by like they are.
Noah
Noah
Portrayed by Sam Huntington
Boomer's replacement as manager at the store, also Annie's new lover.
- Consummate Liar: When Annie is about to break up with him he comes up with a spontaneous story about embezzling from his own job, thus gaining her trust.
- Honey Trap: Rare male example. He's actually Turner's deep-cover FBI partner, sent to seduce Annie.
Dr. Cohen
Dr. Josh Cohen
Portrayed by Rob Heaps
Annie's therapist and the object of her latest inadvisable crush.
Agent Donnegan
Agent Phoebe Donnegan
Portrayed by Lauren Lapkus
A Secret Service agent who catches on to the gang's crimes after they take up counterfeiting.
- Sherlock Scan: Deduces that a new batch of fake bills are made by women from the presence of a name brand nail polish in the ink.
Mick
