Notable families inhabiting the tiny town of Hatchetfield.

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Main Characters' Family Members

Emma and Tom's Family

Jane Perkins

Mentioned in: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals | Black Friday | "Forever & Always"

Emma: "And, you know, when one sister is so on top of her game it kind of demands that the other one be a total fuck-up, right?"

Tom: She used to like bars
She liked to loosen me up just to get at my heart
She'd poke at each of my wounds to see what I'd say
And now she's doing the same

Older sister of Emma Perkins, wife of Tom Houston, and mother of Tim Houston. Jane died in a car accident about a year earlier, and her death weighs heavily upon Emma, Tom, and Tim in TGWDLM and Black Friday.

For Jane after her resurrection, see The Haunted Car in Paranormal Phenomena.

The Ace: An ambitious goal-oriented high achiever who made a plan starting from childhood for exactly what kind of life she wanted to lead and was absolutely determined to see it through, point by point.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Mildly. Tom isn't bad, exactly, but he's certainly very different from the high-achieving college girl Jane was, and "If I Failed You" tells us that she seems to have been fascinated by his history as a war veteran and the emotional damage it left him with.
Always Someone Better: We knew she was this to Emma when they were kids from The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals. What's heartbreaking is she was also this to her own husband Tom, who finds that his inferiority complex next to her has spun out of control after she died and his life fell apart.
Backseat Driver: Despite the way Black Friday elevated her to a saint due to her Lost Lenore status, "Jane's a Car" has Tom reveal that she was a bit of a passive-aggressive Control Freak — as Emma alluded to when talking about how inferior Jane always made her feel in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals — and she used to drive him nuts trying to manipulate him into doing what she wanted instead of just outright asking him to do it or doing it herself. And yes, invoking this trope name is a Stealth Pun.
Cain and Abel: Emma had a bit of this relationship with her, which is why when she turned 18 she became The Runaway so she wouldn't have to live in her shadow.
Control Freak: You don't get to hit every single life milestone you wrote down in your Lisa Frank binder when you were twelve without having a bit of this personality trait. It seems like Jane could be just as stubborn and strong-willed as her sister and just expressed it differently.
Cool Big Sis: Apparently this to Emma, who never let her resentment of her change the fact that she deeply admired Jane as a person.
The Gadfly: "Jane's a Car" gives us a little more insight into the line from Black Friday's "If I Fail You" where Tom says "She'd poke at each of my wounds to see what I'd say"; Jane getting Tom drunk so he'd open up and reveal his emotional secrets wasn't completely about trying to help him, it was also a way to feel in control of the relationship by having control over him.
The Ghost: In The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals and Black Friday, she's a Posthumous Character who sets up the backstory for lead characters Emma and Tom. While Jaime Lyn Beatty dresses as Jane during the reading of Jane's a Car, she doesn't appear physically in that story either.
Hidden Depths: Despite Emma's perception of her (years out of date, since she left home at 18) as a goody-two-shoes Purity Sue, Tom tells us that she loved going out to bars and getting wasted, and hints that it might have been because the alcohol was the only way she could get past his emotional walls.
Lost Lenore: Is this for Tom, for whom the wound of her loss is extremely fresh.
The Maiden Name Debate: She never took Tom's surname and remained "Jane Perkins" after her marriage, as did Becky Barnes.
Mirror Character: "Jane's a Car" reveals that she and Emma, despite their Cain and Abel relationship, had more in common than Emma would admit — they were both very strong-willed and had a tough time bending their desires to other people's needs, often stepping on their loved one's feelings without meaning to. And they both had surprising tastes in men, both picking partners who were strikingly different from themselves.
Missing Mom: Is this to Tim.
Nightmare Fetishist: Mildly. The events of "Jane's a Car" are driven by her fascination with the seemingly delusional rantings of one of her patients who claimed to have read the Black Book and been driven mad by it.
The Reliable One: Was this in her marriage to Tom — we know from Emma that this has been true since childhood, when she wrote out a detailed life plan and has apparently followed it to the letter. Unlike the typical sitcom Bumbling Dad this is Played for Drama, and Tom's constant sense that he can't do anything right without her help is a major source of angst.
Second Love: Unlike the typical "dead wife" trope, she was Tom's second love, and it's her death that sends him reconnecting with his actual First Love, Becky. (And unlike most Old Flame plots, there was nothing wrong with his marriage to her and she really was the love of his life.)
The Shrink: "Jane's a Car" reveals that this was her job — she worked as a psychiatrist at St. Damien's Hospital (the same place Becky works as a nurse) and her work brought her into contact with institutionalized patients, including ones driven mad by the supernatural.
Small Role, Big Impact: Jane never appears onstage for The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals or Black Friday but her death drives the plot of both shows — she's the reason Emma came back to Hatchetfield, leading to Paul's crush on her in TGWDLM, which drives the plot of the show (since his love for Emma is the "one thing he wants" that the aliens are obsessed with uncovering). Her death also led to Tom Houston's downward spiral in Black Friday, as well as being the inciting incident that led to Becky breaking free from her abusive husband and killing him after he tried to forbid her from going to the funeral — and her death leading to Tom quitting his job led to Lex flunking out of school, which leads to her plan to steal a Wiggly doll that gets her and Hannah involved in the plot.
What Does She See in Him?: Emma wasn't around for any of Jane and Tom's marriage, but looking at his life now this seems to be her opinion. "Forever & Always" reveals she outright tried to talk Jane out of marrying him over the phone, judging just from Jane's description and his pictures that he was some kind of useless Lower-Class Lout.
- Admittedly, Tom isn't doing so great in the time after Jane's death. It would make sense if Emma thought poorly of him then, and the kinda back-projected that onto him, saying he'd always been like that.

Tim Houston

Played by: Kendall Nicole

Appears in: Black Friday | "Jane's a Car"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tim_houston.jpg

"I don't really like getting hit by cars anymore."

Tom: He still lights up a room
It’s just less frequently that you catch him in bloom
If there’s a god, my god can you see what you’ve made?
My god
And what I took away

Tom Houston's nine-year-old son, recently bereaved by the death of his mother Jane.

Adaptation Dye-Job: Kendall wore a somewhat obvious oversized wig (to fit her real long hair beneath it) to play Tim in Black Friday, giving him the same sandy-colored hair as his dad. Since this wasn't available when she played Tim in "Jane's a Car", Tim instead has dark hair (matching his mother's) that's mostly hidden under a beanie hat — which most viewers said was a better, more convincing look for him.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite how resentful he seems to be of Tom at the beginning of the play, when World War III breaks out he absolutely refuses to let Paul and Emma leave town without his dad, even though it seems like Tom must be dead.
Bratty Half-Pint: Tim comes off a little bit like this, although he has one hell of a Freudian Excuse for being an unhappy kid.
Cheerful Child: "What Tim Wants" tells us that Tom always saw Tim as this and is deeply wounded to see how withdrawn and unhappy he's become since Jane died. By the time period of "Jane's a Car", he and his father have moved on well enough that he is genuinely cheerful when the story begins.
Children Are Innocent: The obsessive need to get a Wiggly doll to make Tim happy was all in Tom's head. Tim himself, like all children, is immune to Wiggly's powers, and "doesn't even want that piece of shit".
Cross-Cast Role: Although unlike Starkid's other instances of this trope (including Sherman Young in this same show) there's no Played for Laughs here, it's merely that Kendall is the closest cast member to being young enough to play Tim.
From the Mouths of Babes: In "Jane's a Car", he regularly parrots Paul's line from Black Friday about people being "intimate" with one another.
Small Role, Big Impact: Only appears in the opening scene of Black Friday and never reunites with his dad after its events, solely because it's impossible for Tim and Hannah to appear onstage at the same time. Despite this, his well-being and happiness is the motivating factor for his dad Tom, who is arguably the play's protagonist. He gets more face time in "Jane's a Car" .
Trauma Button: Tim used to be into cars and other vehicles, but has cooled off on them since the accident.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He spills the beans that Tom and Becky are dating in "Jane's a Car" as an innocent response to a Freudian Slip from Tom about "the three of us" spending time together. In fairness, he had absolutely no way of knowing his mom's malevolent ghost was haunting the car at the time or that this would drive her into a murderous rage.
When You Coming Home, Dad?: A twist on this Parental Neglect trope. Tom is home all the time — in fact, he's been unemployed for over a year and has nowhere else to be — and yet he's never emotionally present, and refuses to just talk to Tim or be a human being around him, as opposed to being cold and standoffish and then trying to buy his love with gifts. And to make it worse Tim seems to understand what's wrong with his relationship with his dad much more than Tom does, though he's not in a position to fix it.
Wise Beyond Their Years: He came off as a bit of a Bratty Half-Pint in Black Friday, but after he gets a year older in "Jane's a Car" he shows a lot of surprising maturity for a kid his age, including noticing that his dad is holding back on pursuing Becky for his sake and telling Tom what he needs to hear to have permission to be happy.

Charlotte's Family

Sam Sweetly

Officer Sam Sweetly

Played by: Jeff Blim

Appears in: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals | "Honey Queen"

Mentioned in: "Time Bastard" | Nerdy Prudes Must Die

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tgwdlm_sam.jpg

"I never miss a musical at the Starlight Theatre. And if anyone thinks that makes me less of a man, they can talk to my fuckin' gun!"

Show me your hands, show me those jazz hands
Get 'em up, or you'll end up in cuffs
Show me your hands, show me those jazz hands
Or I might be inclined to shoot you up

Charlotte's husband, a crooked police sergeant who frequently cheats on her.

Air Guitar: Indulges in some air guitar and air drumming when backing up his wife in "Join Us and Die".
Alliterative Name: Sam Sweetly.
Asshole Victim: The way he treats Charlotte makes it hard to get too worked up over Ted bashing in his skull... but Charlotte, as misguidedly in love with him as she is, does get worked up about it.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Sam does get a moment of sincere love and appreciation for his wife... After she's turned into a murderous singing undead rock star.
The Bad Guys Are Cops: He and two other cops are infected by the spores.
Cool Shades: Sam is never seen without his sunglasses (including when he comes indoors to Beanie's to pick up Zoey) until he loses them after Ted bashes his brains out.
Cowboy Cop: "Show Me Your Hands" is about him being this, getting off on threatening people he's pulled over just because he can, and seemingly relishing the idea of a disturbance at a mall so he can shoot up the crowd.
Dirty Cop: He's more than willing to commit murder for his own ends, as shown with Zoey's grandmother and River.
Fighting from the Inside: In the otherwise totally Played for Laughs sequence "Show Me Your Hands", he has a heartbreaking moment where he almost seems to come back to normal when he looks in Charlotte's eyes... before he pulls a gun on her.
Good-Looking Privates: Sam has no illusion about the fact that the main thing women see in him is the authority that comes from his uniform (and his gun).
Hell-Bent for Leather: It's not clear whether Sam actually rides a motorcycle as part of his job or it's just an affectation, but he's awfully proud of the leather jacket he wears over his regular uniform.
Jerkass: Even before becoming a musical zombie, he was a serial adulterer who liked to abuse his authority as a cop.
Killed Off for Real: Like Charlotte, he never comes back after Hidgens shoots him, despite most victims of apotheosis displaying the ability to heal from any damage. Likely, this is because Hidgens tied him down and dissected him.
Not Himself: Charlotte first realizes something is wrong when she hears Sam in the shower and he "has the voice of an angel", to which she reacts with comical horror.
Police Brutality: Makes it clear that if anyone disobeys his (conflicting) orders he'll shoot them. Seems to have a habit of roughing up suspects even while they're trying to obey his orders, just to show he can.
Police Are Useless: Charlotte calling Sam for help turns out to be a disaster because the Hatchetfield PD was already assimilated by the Hive Mind when she did so (thanks to Sam having been at ground zero when the meteor hit the Starlight Theater), although it's pretty clear Sam wasn't all that great of a cop beforehand either.
Real Men Wear Pink: Like pretty much everyone not named Paul Matthews, he enjoys musicals and is very excited when Zoey reveals she got them tickets to see Mamma Mia!. As his image quote shows, he's very proud of this.
Reckless Gun Usage: Was apparently already prone to using his sidearm to randomly intimidate people before assimilation Flanderized him into even more of a caricature of a bad cop.
Unholy Matrimony: After he kills and assimilates Charlotte, the two have a Villain Song duet threatening the other survivors. It's probably their relationship at its most loving and supportive, in a weird, murdery way.
Unseen Character: Doesn't show up at all in Nightmare Time Season 1, even though we're told he's physically present at Paul and Emma's wedding in "Time Bastard", with Jeff Blim's scenes at the wedding being as the Man in a Hurry and Mr. Davidson instead. Likewise, he was apparently at the crime scene of Richard Lipshitz's murder in Nerdy Prudes Must Die.
Villain Song: He gets three of these. The first is "Show Me Your Hands", where he first confronts the main characters and sings that if they don't obey him he'll shoot them. The second is “You Tied Up My Heart”, a song he uses to get Charlotte to sympathize with him and release him. The third is "Join Us (And Die)", which is the most traditional villain song where the Hive Mind (through him and Charlotte) reveals that they've given up subterfuge and becomes openly violent.
Vomiting Cop: Off-camera, anyways. He's said to have "ralphed" at the sight of Richie Lipschitz's corpse in the opening scene of Nerdy Prudes Must Die (though he doesn't actually appear during that scene).
Who Even Needs a Brain?: Half his brain falls out after his head is mauled, yet he's still a competent singer.
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Pretends to be dying so Charlotte releases him.

Bill's Family

Alice Woodward

Played by: Mariah Rose Faith

Appears in: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals | "Watcher World" | "Killer Track"

Mentioned in: "Forever & Always"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alice_woodward.jpg

"I'm trying! I'm trying to grow up, but you won't let me!"

And if you wonder what led your daughter astray
Well daddy wasn’t here to say not your seed
I’m not your perfect teen
I’m fucking seventeen!
At least I was, before you left me

Bill's daughter, who lives with her mother in Clivesdale, staying with Bill one week each month, and is dating Deb.

Adaptation Dye-Job: Alice has apparently dyed her hair blonde between the time period in which The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals took place and the time period of "Watcher World" (this is, of course, Real Life Writes the Plot, since Mariah Rose Faith dyed her hair to play Regina George in Mean Girls, but also makes sense since this story takes place after graduation, with Alice contemplating Starting a New Life in college).
Ascended Extra: She had very little screentime in TGWDLM, but established herself as a core member of the Hatchetfield cast by co-starring with Bill in "Watcher World".
Bittersweet 17: We're introduced to Alice in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals on the cusp of turning eighteen, and struggling mightily with the idea of "coming of age"; when we catch up with her again in "Watcher World" several months later, about to leave for college, she hasn't made any progress on any of those insecurities.
Brainwashed and Crazy: She spends most of her stage time in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals as the evil zombie version of herself. She also ends up a patricidal maniac in "Watcher World", which gives us a more detailed and sympathetic view of her transformation.
Bratty Teenage Daughter: She came across mildly as this in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, and we get many more opportunities to see her bratty side in "Watcher World".
Colorblind Casting: Mariah Rose Faith doesn't look remotely like she could be the daughter of Corey Dorris, but live theatre has a much lower bar for what is and is not Acceptable Breaks from Reality; it's left to the audience's imagination what Bill and Alice actually look like, just like any other special effect in the series and the fact that Hatchetfield presumably isn't populated by multiple women who look exactly like Alice.
Daddy's Girl: A twist on this trope. She doesn't seem to have a very good relationship with Bill on the surface, her mom is the one with primary custody, and her mom is apparently winning the bidding war for her affections by being the wealthier, cooler parent. But "Not Your Seed" painfully twists the knife in Bill's gut by revealing that she actually wanted to live with Bill when her parents split and one of the reasons she resents him is that when he "needed to fight" he gave up instead and let her mom take her away.
Dating What Daddy Hates: Bill doesn't like Deb. Not because she's a girl; he simply thinks Deb is a slacker and Alice can do better.
A Day in the Limelight: "Watcher World" shows the viewer a timeline of Alice where we see her point of view, rather than Bill's Doting Parent glasses or brainwashing courtesy of the Hive. She actually is aware that Deb is a poor choice of girlfriend but doesn't want to admit this to Bill because he's overprotective as it is. What's more, her rebelliousness is because she wanted Bill to fight for her, and doesn't understand that he fought for her every day, to make her happy.
Death of Personality: A chilling example — after Bill dies, the assimilated Alice seems to drop the pretense that she actually is Alice and becomes nothing but a Creepy Monotone mouthpiece for the Hive Mind.
Delinquent: She's still very much a good girl compared to Deb and her stoner friends, but she's deeply insecure about this and worries it may be driving Deb away — hence her snapping at Bill in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals that Grace Chastity, whom Bill wishes she'd be more like, is a "nerdy prude", and her extremely minor act of rebellion by deliberately littering in front of the security cameras in "Watcher World".
Does This Remind You of Anything?: "Not Your Seed" sounds like a typical Emo Teen anthem about a kid growing up into somebody their parents don't understand anymore, even though it's actually about Alice dying and turning into a zombie.
Drama Club: "Watcher World" reveals that Alice doesn't just like watching musicals, she's a "theatre nerd" who aspires to major in theatre and make a living as a playwright. She also, unfortunately, fits the stereotype (Self-Deprecation from Team Starkid) of theatre kids being drawn to drama both on and off the stage.
Emotional Regression: A heartbreaking moment in "Watcher World" — on top of the rollercoaster called the "Tear-Jerker" — is Alice regressing to an innocent, childlike way of speaking as Bill tries to help her out of her panic attack, dropping the snarky Bratty Teenage Daughter persona and letting us see what Bill sees when he looks at her and remembers her as a little kid.
Evil Gloating: "Not Your Seed" is a weird version of this, being a song about Alice's anger and grief at her death, sung by Alice's body, but actually coming from the Hive Mind that killed Alice in the first place.
First-World Problems: A lot of the digs at Alice's immaturity and selfishness in "Watcher World" are of this kind — to her, her social problems due to her parents' divorce and transferring to a new school for her senior year before going to college seem like the end of the world, while for Bill (and for much of the audience) it's really hard not to see her as spoiled. It's especially jarring when you compare her life to Lex's (see Foil below).
Foil: Alice is a bit of one to Lex Foster (who was originally going to be played by the same actress, before Mariah Rose Faith bowed out of Black Friday due to being cast in Mean Girls). Alice is also a Troubled Teen, but one whose problems are a lot more abstract and in her own head than Lex's very serious problems of living in dire poverty with a violently abusive parent. Nick Lang has said that although Alice and Lex went to the same school, they barely interacted, due to Lex having no interest in any of the gossip and campus politics that consumes Alice's life.
Freak Out: "Watcher World" reveals Alice is prone to panic attacks, and one of Bill's major Pet the Dog moments is revealing he's one of the only people who can help her out of them.
Fun T-Shirt: The second time we see Alice, her pink sweater is unbuttoned, revealing the shirt underneath has the slogan "Beautiful Monster", revealing she's been assimilated.
- Part of Alice's humiliation in "Watcher World" is her clothes getting soaked and forcing her to change into a Watcher World branded T-shirt with the lame And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt joke on it.
Lipstick Lesbian: Alice is this to her girlfriend Deb's Butch Lesbian.
Minor Character, Major Song: Almost all of her stage time in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals is taken up by "Not Your Seed".
Murder Into Malevolence: The assimilated Alice presents herself as this, seeking only to hurt Bill and drive him to suicide to get back at him for his failure to save her from the Hive Mind. Of course, it soon transpires that this was just the Hive Mind being a Sadist For the Evulz.
Nervous Wreck: She acts like this in her brief scene in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals and the first half of "Watcher World". At first it just seems like typical teenage social insecurity, but then in the rollercoaster scene it's revealed that she actually does have a diagnosed anxiety disorder and is prone to panic attacks.
Patricide: She kills her father Bill in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals. "Watcher World" is about her becoming Brainwashed and Crazy to get her to do this again, only this time The Power of Love saves her from it.
Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Bill seems terrified that this is happening to Alice thanks to Deb and her delinquent friends. It does happen in the sense that Deb and her friends were assimilated by the meteor and then killed Alice. The assimilated Alice seems happy to treat this as basically the same thing, for the sake of taunting Bill.
The Power of Love: The big payoff of "Watcher World", which many people who latched onto Alice in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals had been waiting for, is revealing that despite the cruel words of both infected!Alice in TGWDLM and brainwashed!Alice in "Watcher World", deep, deep down she truly loves her father and he remains one of the few people in the world she knows she can count on.
Starving Artist: "Watcher World" reveals Alice's current life plan is to follow Deb in becoming one of these, pursuing her dreams of a career in theatre rather than getting a practical job as a doctor or a lawyer — one of the many choices Bill doesn't understand and doesn't approve of, but he warms up to the idea when finding out she won a scholarship.
Straight Edge: Bill might be less neurotic about the peer pressure he imagines Alice is surrounded by if he could see that Alice turns down smoke from the "Smoke Club" at school and Deb backs her up on it.
Taking the Kids: Bill's whole character is defined by him still reeling from losing custody of Alice.
Visit by Divorced Dad: From Alice's perspective the plot of every story she's appeared in is one of these episodes, gone ridiculously wrong.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Except for one brief scene, Alice barely plays a part in The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals until we meet her in her assimilated form. Her return in "Watcher World" was a tip of the hat to those — especially fans who are around Alice's age and identify with her — who wanted to get to know the real, non-infected Alice.

Lex and Hannah's Family

Pamela Foster

Played by: Jaime Lyn Beatty

Appears in: "The Witch in the Web"

Mentioned in: Black Friday

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hatchetfield_pamela_7.jpg

"Don't get my hopes up, Duke."

Lex: My mom's a bitch
An alcoholic
A melancholic
That we keep afloat

The deceitful and alcoholic mother of Lex and Hannah.

Abhorrent Admirer: She flirts with Duke, who regards her with barely concealed dislike.
Abusive Parents: She emotionally abuses Hannah and is incredibly neglectful. She also forced Lex to take the fall for her illegal activities.
Addled Addict: It's hinted that she's not just an all-day drinker but has been abusing the painkillers she got prescribed when she broke her foot a while ago (possibly linked to why that injury apparently hasn't healed even though it's been months).
Adults Are Useless: Worse than useless as a parent — she's actively harmful, in a way that would be unconscionable in any situation, but in the case of her daughter Hannah, who's being prepared as a vessel for the spirit of Willabella Muckwab once her will breaks, her neglect and abuse is actively hastening the end of the world.
Afraid of Doctors: Has apparently never allowed a doctor or therapist of any kind to examine Hannah, out of fear that she'll be blamed for Hannah's disability, which is why Hannah has never gotten a formal diagnosis for whatever she has.
Alcoholic Parent: She's pretty much always sloshed.
Blatant Lies: Has the gall to call Hannah a "lying little turd" for telling the truth about taking her ukulele.
Celeb Crush: She has a serious one on Dan Reynolds of the Hatchetfield Morning Cup O' News, which apparently matters enough to her that she gets furious at Hannah for disrupting her "alone time" with her "future husband" when she's watching the morning news on TV.
Child Hater: Outright says "Don't get my hopes up" when Duke warns her she's in danger of losing custody of her one remaining child.
Fan Disservice: Jaime Lyn Beatty wears a revealing tank top to play Pamela, and she shoves her cleavage suggestively toward Duke when trying to act seductive at him, but the kind of character Pamela is makes all of this very difficult to see as appealing.
Hate Sink: There's pretty much nothing redeeming about her that we've seen so far. She doesn't lift a finger to raise her own kids and she actually got one of them arrested and sent to prison for her own financial gain. It would take one hell of a Freudian Excuse to get fans to even consider moving her off their shitlist, right next to Becky's husband Stanley.
Ignored Epiphany: Invoked in "The Witch in the Web". Ethan had previously reassured Hannah in Black Friday that if Lex and Hannah left, maybe Pamela would realize, "Hey, I gotta do better". "The Witch in the Web" shows us that her older daughter is in prison — over a crime that was her fault — and she hasn't shown a single scrap of remorse or desire to change.
Jerkass: She's not just an obviously unfit parent, she's a rude and abrasive ass to everyone around her about it too.
Lower-Class Lout: A very ugly example of the "trailer trash" stereotype, an environment Lex is desperately trying to rise above and take Hannah away from.
Malicious Misnaming: While Lex and Ethan occasionally refer to Hannah affectionately as "Banana", Pamela exclusively addresses Hannah as "Nanners", which comes off extremely crass and disrespectful.
Meat Puppet: Uncle Wiley takes over her body and uses it to strangle Miss Holloway out in the physical world while waging his Battle in the Center of Her Mind. Notably, this happens without any awareness of being possessed on her part or any indication Wiley is actually inhabiting her body rather than just using it as a tool.
Powers via Possession: Pamela didn't seem all that physically capable in her normal state — and has a broken foot to boot — but with Wiley possessing her is able to sneak up on and knock out Duke with a single Tap on the Head.
Recessive Super Genes: Barring future revelations about her backstory, it seems like magical/psychic abilities have a tendency to skip generations — her daughters Lex and Hannah both have substantial powers connected to the Black and White (with Hannah being the Chosen One and the most powerful psychic to ever exist), whereas it's hard to imagine someone less magical than Pamela.
The Slacker: Doesn't seem to have a job, nor any desire to go get one. Lex was the one whose wages kept the family afloat back when she was around, and it was her desire to make some quick cash illicitly selling her pills that took that income stream away from her.
Sleepy Depressive: She does seem to spend a lot of time sleeping, even without Miss Holloway's influence. Lex implies in "CaliforMIA" in Black Friday that her problems have to do with depression (she's "a melancholic") but doesn't really sympathize.
Smoking Is Not Cool: Turns out Lex's smoking habit runs in the family. And unlike Lex, Pamela has no concern — however hypocritical — about Hannah picking up her bad habits or being harmed by the constant secondhand smoke filling up the trailer.
Struggling Single Mother: She portrays herself as one to Duke to try to win his sympathy, but he's unmoved, since he can see she's obviously not putting any effort into her "struggling".
Unexplained Accent: Like Gary (a New Yorker) and the Greens (Chicagoan), she has an American accent that suits her personality but is incongruous with her presumable small-town Michigan upbringing; in her case, she sounds like she's from the Deep South, which matches her "trailer park" aesthetic.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her taking away Hannah's ukulele removes Hannah's last tool for holding back "Nightmare Time" and stopping the Muck-Witch from invading and possessing her. (This is after she already brought "Nightmare Time" closer than it ever had been before by getting Lex arrested, removing Hannah's main source of emotional support in the waking world and causing her to "forget Webby" for the first time.)
Weak-Willed:
- It takes only a few seconds for Miss Holloway's Jedi Mind Trick to sink in and get her to first let her into her home, then tumble into a Forced Sleep on the couch. Unfortunately, she's equally weak-willed when Uncle Wiley tries to get hold of her mind...
- Luckily, the good guys win this one, and her Weak-Willed nature means that she's unable to resist Miss Holloway planting a post-hypnotic suggestion to confess her complicity in Lex and Ethan's crimes.

Becky's Family

Stanley

Played by: n/a

Mentioned in: Black Friday | "Jane's a Car"

Becky Barnes' abusive ex-husband.

The Alcoholic: He was a bad man even when sober, but booze regularly brought out the worst in him.
All Take and No Give: Stanley and Becky's relationship was exploitative on every level; he even forced her into her nursing career because it seemed like the fastest way for her to start bringing money in, compared to going to a four-year college.
Ambiguous Criminal History: According to the town gossips, Stanley's checkered past included having been in and out of prison a few times.
Asshole Victim: As much of a piece of shit as he was, and even though no jury would call his death anything but self-defense, Becky remains haunted by the fact that she's violently taken a human life in anger, and that bleeding out alone in the Witchwood is a truly horrible way to die.
Corruption of a Minor: When Becky met him he was in his early 20s and was a "cool guy with a car" who bought booze and cigarettes for high school girls. He had the very minor decency to wait until Becky turned 18 before directly making a move on her, but was obviously exploiting her naïveté.
Crazy Jealous Guy: He did not like the idea of anyone threatening his relationship with Becky; the moment Becky knew she couldn't get away from him was when he rolled up to a party she was at just to beat the shit out of a boy she was flirting with. The final fight between him and Becky was triggered by her desire to be there for Tom at his wife's funeral and his absolute refusal to let her anywhere near her First Love.
Divorce Requires Death: He made it clear to Becky she would only be leaving him over his dead body. She took him up on it.
Domestic Abuse: What he's mainly known to the audience for — that he was cruel, controlling and violent, and was the reason Becky had to go around wearing long sleeves and turtlenecks in the middle of summer to conceal her bruises.
Final Battle: Stanley and Becky apparently had an epic one on their last night together, when she provoked him into a drunken frenzy and he chased her into the Witchwood.
Financial Abuse: As is Truth in Television for many abusive relationships, Stanley was once generous with free rides and gifts and booze for parties to the high school girls he was grooming, but once he had Becky in his clutches he became a fanatical miser when it came to letting her spend any money on simple pleasures for herself, even once she was working and contributing her paycheck to the household. She tells Tom she can barely remember the last time she even went out to see a movie.
Foil: For Tom, who, while he's far from a Nice Guy and is obviously a damaged person, is very far from being the monster Stanley was.
The Ghost: He's been gone for quite a while at the beginning of Black Friday, with the town gossips assuming he's taken up with a side-piece on the mainland now that Becky is past her prime and not as hot as she was at 18. They're wrong. Becky stabbed him in the leg in the Witchwood and left him for dead.
Hate Sink: Albeit a posthumous one.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Forcing Becky to go to nursing school gave her the requisite medical know-how to kill him.
Irony: A roundabout form of Hoist by His Own Petard:
Becky: Stanley was the one who made me go to nursing school. That's how I knew where his femoral artery was.
Jerkass: A realistically played example, but Stanley is this through and through, described without any redeeming qualities; everything Becky remembers about him is an example of petty cruelty.
Knight of Cerebus: Absolutely nothing about him is ever Played for Laughs, which is one reason fans theorize he's unlikely to ever appear onstage.
Never Bring a Knife to a Fist Fight: Despite his size and strength advantage over Becky, in Stanley's last drunken rage, he was the one who felt it necessary to brandish a knife to threaten her. Karma — and Becky's sheer determination to get away — led to it being wrestled away from him and ending up buried in his thigh.
No Name Given: Becky Barnes kept her surname when married to him, and his own last name has therefore never been revealed.
Uncertain Doom: It turns out that Becky's "divorce" from Stanley never actually happened — what did happen was the two of them having a violent confrontation in the Witchwood, Becky stabbing Stanley in the leg and running off to leave him for dead. In the months since then, he hasn't come back looking for revenge but his body has also never been found, leaving his status — and that of Becky's marriage — ambiguous.
What Does She See in Him?: Linda Monroe and the other gossips weren't above taunting Becky for how far she fell from being a beautiful, popular girl with a bright future to the wife of an abusive two-bit loser, and victim-blaming her and whispering that her loyalty to Stanley spoke to a weakness in her own character.

Linda's Family

Gerald Monroe

Dr. Gerald Monroe

Played by: Dylan Saunders

Appears in: "Honey Queen" | Nerdy Prudes Must Die | Workin' Boys

Mentioned in: Black Friday

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"You don't need him to cheat for you. You're successful, you're hot as hell, and you're smart. You can cheat for yourself."

Linda's husband, father to her four children, and a practicing plastic surgeon at Inner Beauty Rhinoplasty.

The Cameo: In the filmed version of the Nerdy Prudes number "Hatchet Town", Gerald makes an edited-in cameo as a suspect of the murders. In the stage version, that accusation was directed at Jerry.
Characterization Marches On: While Black Friday only had him appear via an unheard phone conversation with Linda, it indicated him to be a weak-willed doormat. He cries after mistaking Linda scolding Becky for him and is on a forced diet that he is apparently not happy with. When he appears in Nightmare Time 2, he's relatively confident, shows no sign of any weight problems and isn't bothered by Linda's attitude, but was attracted to her for it.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In Nightmare Time 2, it is revealed that he is less of the doormat he was previously assumed to be and is instead just incredibly in love with his wife. He's also revealed to be just as amoral and willing to do evil things as she is, and finds her wickedness incredibly enamoring, citing the time he saw her tamper with another girl's skis in a skiing competition as the moment he knew she was the woman he wanted to be with.
Extreme Doormat: Subverted. Though Linda's Newhart Phone Call conversation with him in Black Friday implies this, when he's seen in person in "Honey Queen", he's actually pretty capable of snarking back when Linda or anyone else insults him.
Getaway Driver: Linda didn't know there would be any crime or violence involved when the day started, but she did still want him sitting in the car with the engine running and the heater on so she could hop in immediately after she got the dolls she was at the mall to buy. He ends up continuing to do this for eighteen hours.
The Ghost: Never leaves the car and comes into the mall for the course of the whole show, though he repeatedly asks to. Probably for the best for him and the kids in the end.
Henpecked Husband: And how. To make it worse, Uncle Wiley reveals he's also a cuckold.
Hypocritical Humor: Not that it's uncommon in real life, but the name of "Inner Beauty Rhinoplasty" is obviously one.
Lady Macbeth: A rare male version.
Linda: I don't even think my dad's going to cheat for me.
Gerald: Hey, you don't need him to cheat for you! You're succesful, you're hot as hell, and you're smart. You can cheat for yourself!
Linda: ... Cheat for myself?
Gerald: You remember that skiing competition in college? Remember that uppity snow-bunny broad: "I'm so cute, I'm gonna win!" Remember what you did to her skis?
Linda: Prove I did anything! The cops sure couldn't.
Gerald: I knew right then you were the woman I'd spend the rest of my life with.
Linda: You're right, Gerald - I can win Honey Queen! But I've got to do it my way: destroy them all!
Gerald: God I love you!
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: According to Uncle Wiley, only two of Linda and Gerald's four sons are biologically Gerald's. Gerald is implied to be completely oblivious.
Mutual Kill: With Sam in Honey Queen. He bleeds out from his gunshot wounds but not before ramming Sam to death with his car.
Newhart Phone Call: Linda is on the phone with him for the entirety of Black Friday, to the point that one could argue it qualifies as his first appearance.
Papa Wolf: Is willing to take on an armed cop by himself in order to save his kidnapped son.
Only Sane Man: By Act 2 of Black Friday, Gerald is the only character outside the mall anyone has ongoing communication with, and his unheard half of the Newhart Phone Call indicates he's somewhat confused as to how a simple shopping trip turned into a violent battle over an Apocalypse Cult.
Unholy Matrimony: Though Black Friday gives the impression that Gerald is pathetic and servile, it turns out in Honey Queen that he is just as amoral as Linda is, fell for her after he witnessed her tampering with another girl's skiis during a skiing competition, and absolutely adores her.
Linda: I can win honey queen. But I have to do it my way: destroy them all.
Gerald: God, I fucking love you.
Weight Woe: Apparently he's allowed his wife to put him on a diet and treat him like a child over it.

River Monroe

Played by: James Tolbert

Appears in: "Honey Queen"

Mentioned in: Black Friday

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"Dad, is Mom gonna win?"

Linda's favorite among her four sons and the youngest at six years old.

Colorblind Casting: Assuming that Chocolate Baby isn't in play with the two of Linda's four sons who are secretly not Gerald's, River probably isn't really black like James Tolbert.
Family Theme Naming: Where his three older brothers are named after some of the world's rivers, his name is simply River.
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: According to Uncle Wiley, only two of Linda's four sons are Gerald's; which half River falls into is thus far unknown.
Parental Favoritism: Linda dotes on him. When Zoey and Sam kidnap him, Linda's first question is which of her sons they have, then wants to make absolutely sure that it's River before deciding if it's an issue.
Token Good Teammate: Not prone to scheming, sabotage, classism, bullying, or murder as the rest of his family. Likely due to his only being a kid, though his brothers are quite little monsters already.

Monroe Brothers

Trent, Seaton, and Jordan Monroe

Played by: Jeff Blim (Trent) | Corey Dorris (Seaton) | Curt Mega (Jordan)

Appears in: "Honey Queen"

Mentioned in: Black Friday

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Trent: "You have to do it, or you can't be our brother anymore."

River's three older brothers.

Big Brother Bully: They torment River relentlessly.
Bratty Half-Pint: All three, but special note goes to Trent, who very deliberately kicks the seat of the man sitting in front of him at the Honey Queen pageant.
Colorblind Casting: Assuming that Chocolate Baby isn't in play with the two of Linda's four sons who are secretly not Gerald's, Seaton probably isn't really black like Corey Dorris.
Family Theme Naming: They're all named after rivers, presumably due to Linda being a boating enthusiast.
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: According to Uncle Wiley, only two of Linda's four sons are Gerald's. It is thus far unknown which two.

Roman Murray

Played by: Jon Matteson

Appears in: "Honey Queen"

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"The Honey Queen is the soul of Hatchetfield. And you'll show her respect, Piglet."

Linda's father, the chairman of Hatchetfield's annual Honey Festival.

Embarrassing Nickname: He brings up Linda's childhood nickname of "Piglet", and when she responds with anger, he taunts her with the name relentlessly. This uncomfortable moment foreshadows that his evil runs a bit deeper than that of the rest of Hatchetfield's upper-crust, and specificially his worship of the pig-like Nibbly.
Offing the Offspring: Sacrifices his daughter Linda to Nibblenephim without a second thought.

Steph's Family

Mayor Solomon Lauter

Played by: Corey Dorris

Appears in: "Abstinence Camp" | "Killer Track" | Nerdy Prudes Must Die

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"Stephanie, please, I'd like to have an intelligent conversation with you. In other words: Shut up."

There’s a man on the loose
And he’s got a gun
Better put out the APB
The psycho’s killed two
If he gets me next
Make it three

The mayor of Hatchetfield and father of popular girl Stephanie Lauter.

Abusive Parents: He feels the same way about his daughter Stephanie as he seemingly does for everyone else: absolute contempt and loathing, only tolerating her presence in his life because it would tarnish his reputation not to.
Cigar Chomper: He is always seen with a cigar, brandishing it in such a manner to express that he is a sinister Rich Bitch.
Colorblind Casting: For the second time in Hatchetfield, Corey Dorris and Mariah Rose Faith play a father and daughter despite being different races.
Dirty Coward: He refuses to make a deal with the Lords in Black himself, having been traumatized by his unexplained past experience with the Black Book — which doesn't prevent it being scummy that he forces his own teenage daughter and two other youths to make a Deal with the Devil in his stead.
The Masquerade: Based on comments made by his daughter Stephanie in "Abstinence Camp", as the mayor of Hatchetfield he has some awareness that he runs a Town with a Dark Secret; he's let slip to Stephanie that disappearances at Camp Idonwannabang aren't too rare an occurence in the Witchwood, and one particularly ominous proclamation that the Witchwood is "as big or as small as it needs to be". In Nerdy Prudes Must Die, he's the one to explain what's going on with Max and tell Stephanie, Pete, and Grace about the Black Book. He mentions that the Book came to him 15 years beforehand, but doesn't elaborate further.
Mayor Pain: While he is not an outright villain, he is an antagonistic figure in "Nightmare Time". In Nerdy Prudes Must Die, he's again not an outright villain, but he does prioritize supporting the football team over finding a missing student and responds to two murders of teenagers not only with ramped up police activity but by actively encouraging a witch hunt mindset of distrust and paranoia. Amusingly, this results in the witch hunt (briefly) targeting him.
Punny Name: S. Lauter, as in "slaughter."
Sleazy Politician: Everything he does — up to and including taking care of his own daughter — he does to earn voters, not because he cares.
Small Name, Big Ego: He's the mayor of a tiny middle-of-nowhere tourist trap in Michigan, yet like many of the other wealthy residents of the town he practically considers himself a higher lifeform than the general populace.

Grace's Family

Karen and Mark Chasity

Played by: Kim Whalen (Karen) | Curt Mega (Mark)

Appears in: Nerdy Prudes Must Die

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Mark: "Remember how wild we were at her age? On the phone 'til 8 p.m., sneaking out to watch PG films..."

Grace's parents, proud and prudish churchgoers like herself.

Everyone Has Standards: Karen Chastity might be a prudish Christian, but in the filmed version of "Hatchet Town" from Nerdy Prudes Must Die, she correctly addresses the non-binary Ziggs with they/them pronouns.
Meaningful Name: Karen's character bio implies she fits the stereotype associated with the name Karen.
One-Steve Limit: Mark has the same first name as one of Professor Hidgens' "workin' boys". In the short Workin' Boys, that Mark is also played by Curt Mega.
Overly Narrow Superlative: Mark's character bio describes him as Hatchetfield's most religious real estate mogul.

Other Families