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Students
Amerie Wadia
Played by: Ayesha Madon
- 0% Approval Rating: Series 2 shows Amerie's reputation going from bad to worse when she runs for class captain, only for a stalker called "Bird Psycho" to turn the entire school against her.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Her crush on Dusty Reid, Amerie started to lose her attraction when she realized that Dusty planned a molestation charge on her and Ms.Obah.
- Ambiguously Brown: Amerie's ethnicity is not expressly stated, although she makes at least one reference to reincarnation and is implied to be of South Asian descent.
- Amnesiac Protagonist Catalyst: As the show opens, Amerie has no idea what occurred to cause the rift between her and Harper. It takes months and a lot of context clues for her to recover bits and pieces of the story.
- Celibate Hero: Invoked by Amerie herself, although with basically zero success.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father is not seen or heard from. Possibly a factor in her abandonment issues, for which see below.
- Guy on Guy Is Hot: While trying to "give up men" Amerie's libido goes into overdrive and she fantasizes about Spider and Malakai making out while they play basketball.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: On several occasions, drinks to the point of sloppiness.
- Hates Being Alone: Amerie is desperate (sometimes counterproductively so) to repair her relationship with Harper, and is visibly upset when Sasha and Missy take Harper's side in the dispute. Befriends Darren and Quinni as much out of desperation as anything, although she's loyal to them once she enters their orbit.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Harper before the night of the concert and towards the end of the series.
- The Protagonist: The entire series is through her POV and (usually) we as the audience learn new things about the other characters only as she does.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Her relationship with Malakai.
Harper McLean
Played by: Asher Yasbincek
- Bald Head of Toughness: Her new persona after the rift with Amerie and her Important Haircut to signify this shift is personality.
- Broken Bird: After her Trauma Conga Line the night of the concert she's been left cynical, hostile and traumatized. For example, she burns the police officer running a safety demonstration with her lighter after getting triggered by him grabbing her arm.
- Character Tic: She tends to flick her lighter a lot, especially when she's distressed.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: The first sign that something is wrong with Harper is her severe buzzcut. Once she explains what happened to her, it's revealed that this was inspired by one of her attackers ripping a chunk of her hair out.
- In season two, her hair has grown into a mullet, showing that she's on the path to healing.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Amerie before the night of the concert and towards the end of the series.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Of the good variety. Amerie ultimately forgives her because she tries to stop Amerie from having sex with Dusty, who has chlamydia. This leads Amerie to confront Ca$h about Harper's Attempted Rape, who in turn provides Harper the evidence needed to lock up her would-be rapists.
- Not Like Other Girls: According to Dusty, at least.
- STD Immunity: Averted. She has chlamydia, and gives it to Dusty and Malakai.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Between the music festival and the start of the series, due to her Trauma Conga Line.
- Took a Level in Kindness: She makes up with Amerie at the end of the series. For the most part, she is less of a Jerkass to Amerie after the first two episodes, albeit still uncommunicative and distant.
- Trauma Conga Line: Harper has this in spades on the night of the concert. Already dealing with her father's issues, she proceeds to have a fight with her best friend Amerie, leading to them being separated. She then gets drunk and is abducted and nearly raped by the local drug dealer and his friends; she manages to escape, but is injured and traumatized. Once she finds her way to Amerie's house, she is turned away by her unknowingly and finally, after returning home, finds her dad in the midst of a psychotic episode, which leads him to attack her.
Darren Rivers
Played by: James Majoos
A non-binary self-proclaimed outcast who has no desire to tone down their personality in order to be accepted by others, including family.- Camp Gay: They’re very flamboyant and tend to dress in stereotypically feminine clothing.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has clearly taken the Camp Gay stereotype to heart.
Did you injure yourself from overpolicing a marginalized community? - Darren after learning the ex-officer teaching SLTs quit after an injury
- Gay Best Friend: Downplayed. Darren is best friends with Quinni and Amerie and is a Camp Gay, but they have a rich inner life of their own with a romance that gets a lot of focus.
- Incompatible Orientation: Darren is very sexually active, but their love interest Cash is asexual.
- Legacy Character: The child of original series character Peter Rivers.
- Twofer Token Minority: Biracial and non-binary.
- Undying Loyalty: To Quinni, and eventually Amerie, they are the one who best knows the ways to support Quinni when she becomes overwhelmed and will drop anything they're doing in the moment to do so.
Quinni Gallagher-Jones
Played by: Chloe Hayden
An optimistic young woman on the autism spectrum and Darren's best friend. It is her idea to welcome the newly isolated Amerie into their group.- The Cutie: As of the story's beginning, no one has seen her labia, but she has no hesitation about showing a photo of them off to prove a point.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Quinni repeatedly bangs her head on desks when trying to look at (or add to) graffiti in Ms. Obah's classroom.
- Genki Girl: (Usually) always sunny, friendly and optimistic. She decorates her face with colourful stickers and gets really excited about almost everything.
- Heroic BSoD: After Sasha interfered with her schedule for the 'Angeline of the Underworld' book signing, and the fight they had afterwards, Quinni has a meltdown followed by a prolonged non-verbal episode.
- Hollywood Autism: Averted. Quinni is autistic, but also female, lesbian, highly emotionally intelligent, interested in sex and relationships, and fanatically devoted to her friends.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Dresses in a far more overtly "girly" manner than her girlfriend, including pigtails and glittery face makeup.
- Literal-Minded: Misses figures of speech on a number of occasions. Darren and (eventually) Amerie generally straighten her out.
- Motor Mouth: Her distinctive speech pattern. Makes it all the more shocking and disturbing when she goes through nearly an entire episode without uttering a word.
- Only Sane Man: When it comes to giving Darren relationship advice. Nearly everything she says borders on Cassandra Truth.
- Precision F-Strike: Doubles as an example of Suddenly Shouting, in the series one finale when Cash publicly proclaims his love for Darren, causing Spider to make an off-colour joke as usual, Quinni, who had only recently overcome a nonverbal episode, tells him to "Shut the fuck up!".
- Sensory Overload: Played sympathetically, not for laughs. It's made clear that she can have severe difficulties in large groups or noisy and bustling environments.
Malakai Mitchell
Played by: Thomas Weatherall
A basketball player of indigenous descent, smoldering good looks and a fair amount of bewilderment, as he is initially new to Hartley High.- Alliterative Name: Malakai Mitchell
- Bi-Wildered: After his threesome with Harper and Dusty he walks into the locker room the next morning and pictures each of the guys in sensual poses while naked, with a confused look on his face.
- Broken Bird: Played With after his brush with Police Brutality to the point of a Despair Event Horizon at Amerie's house party.
- Lovable Jock: He’s on the Hartley basketball team (and very good at it) but is a lot nicer than Spider and Dusty.
- Vision Quest: Of sorts. Missy's brother Jai takes him camping in the bush to help him recover from his near-death experience at Amerie's. Misses the protest in Woodsy's office as a consequence.
Douglas “Ca$h” Piggott
Played by: Will McDonald
An eshay, delivery driver, and the school drug dealer.- The Atoner: Has been hanging around a bad element since childhood and his "friends" have increasingly become more and more criminal. It's implied he's long outgrown his fondness for their activities but doesn't know how to safely cut off contact without them coming after him. In the end he helps Harper get justice for what his so-called friends tried to do to her and in the process is arrested himself.
- Celibate Hero: After much confusion he finally admits He's not interested in sex. Implying he identifies as asexual. Despite his romantic interest in Darren.
- Character Tic: Fidgeting with his chain necklace or putting it in his mouth.
- Forced Out of the Closet: Subverted. He runs into one of his eshay friends at Mardi Gras (while dressed for the occasion) and is clearly worried about it, but the eshay instead just comments on his black eye.
- Incompatible Orientation: He's ultimately revealed to be asexual. His love interest Darren is not only androsexual but very sexually active.
- Meaningful Name: Or rather, meaningful nickname. "Ca$h" comes from the file information in his papers: '''C'''hild of an '''A'''ddict and '''S'''elf '''H'''armer.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Gender-inverted. When Chook brings up Darren as leverage and refers to them as a "faggot", Ca$h, in spite of his fear of Chook, reacts by putting a knife to his throat and ordering him to shut up.
Dusty Reid
Played by: Josh Heuston
- Ambiguously Bi: It is his idea to initiate a threeway between him, Harper and Malakai and the two share a kiss.
- Big Man on Campus: Practically everyone appears to have a crush on Dusty, he's the most popular boy in school and one of the main stars of the school basketball team.
- Hypocrite: It was his idea to initiate a threesome with Malakai but afterwards he feels jealous and insecure about it thus completely ruining his relationship with Harper. To add insult to injury he then doubles down on his hypocrisy by again blaming Harper instead of himself for their breakup and tries to use Amerie to get back at her.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Just because he didn't want to do SLT class anymore he comes up with plan to accuse Ms. Obah of molesting Amerie to get it cancelled.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He treats Harper poorly because of his insecurity over their threesome with Malakai. It turns out that Harper gave him chlamydia.
- Lovable Jock: Presents himself as this initially and it seems at least partially genuine but secretly he has Jerk Jock tendencies.
- Never My Fault: He blames Harper for both their threesome with Malakai and their subsequent breakup despite the fact that both were his idea.
- Put on a Bus: After the events of season one, he is sent to a private boys school in season two. Subverted as he reappears in episode 6.
- What You Are in the Dark: Presents himself a Nice Guy, Lovable Jock in public but when alone with friends he masterminds a plan to pin a pedophilia charge on Ms. Obah in order to get SLTs cancelled.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Despite his wrongdoings in season one, in the subsequent season he comforts Darren & gives Ca$h advice on how to save their relationship.
Sasha So
Played by: Gemma Chua-Tran
A lesbian, Chinese-Australian student, initially part of a clique with Amerie and Harper. Vitriolic Best Buds with Missy, her ex-girlfriend.- Alliterative Name: Sasha So
- Hypocrite: She claims to be vegan and rallies against the consumption of animal products, but still eats duck at a Chinese restaurant.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Despite how irritating she can really be, she does points out stuff that is offensive.
- Really Gets Around: One of the most well-connected nodes on the Incest Map.
- Soapbox Sadie: Very politically active, hinted to be perhaps only performatively so but nonetheless she is very knowledgeable about how to do a "proper" protest.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Her initial enthusiasm about dating Quinni fades into anger over the difficulties of an interabled relationship.
- Also seen in season two, where her (albeit likely well meaning) obnoxious activist tendencies get more pronounced.
Spencer “Spider” White
A member of the basketball team. He often makes intentionally insensitive remarks in class.
Played by: Bryn Chapman Parish
- Amazon Chaser: He develops a crush on Missy after she helps beat his team during a rugby game.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: He developed his misogynistic attitudes in part due to his mother, who raised him with the belief that men are inherently evil and destined to become rapists. However, as Missy (gently) points out, he still has the opportunity to prove her wrong.
- Loving Bully: Spends the series hurling insults at everybody but in particular at Amerie. It's revealed he's always had a crush on her and the night of the concert they nearly slept together but he was unable to remain erect. His humiliation at this, and hurt at how embarrassed she was to be with him, is the root cause of his attitude towards her: it's shown before this incident he was publicly very friendly with her.
- Phrase Catcher: “SHUT THE FUCK UP, SPIDER!”
- Those Two Guys: Often seen alongside Ant.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: The SLTs girls (and Darren) are willing to invite him to get-togethers and play drinking games with him during the protest, but are still vocal with their dislike of his misogynistic remarks.
- Tsundere: As seen above, Spider is particularly bitter towards Amerie, but it's clear after The Reveal that he tried to sleep with her that he still harbors feelings.
Missy Beckett
Played by: Sherry-Lee Watson
Sasha's ex-girlfriend. She is of indigenous descent.- Ascended Extra: Not focused on very much in S1, she gets a lot more screentime (more than Sasha even, who she previously acted like a sidekick too) and her own subplot in S2.
- Amicable Exes: Missy and Sasha remain firmly in Those Two Guys territory despite no longer being a romantic item.
- Innocent Beta Bitch: To Sasha and Harper. Although she turns against Amerie at the start of the series, she is kind and protective towards Malakai.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: After Malakai's brush with police brutality and his discovery that Amerie is involved with Dusty at her house party, he drinks himself into a stupor and threatens to jump off the roof of the house in a thinly veiled suicide attempt. Missy gets her brother to intervene and pull him back from the edge, and the two of them escort Malakai safely away.
- Those Two Girls: Most of her S1 screen time, she’s with Sasha.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Though her first few appearances might give the impression that Missy is just Sasha's catty sidekick, Missy is quicker than other students to pick up on the fact that Malakai is struggling mentally and befriends him by emphasizing their shared First Nations roots.
- Twofer Token Minority: A bisexual young girl of indigenous heritage.
Anthony "Ant" Vaughn
Played by: Brodie Townsend
- Ambiguously Christian: His family is religious (particularly his mother, who is briefly seen hectoring Woodsy on behalf of the parents' association), but it's unclear how seriously Ant takes it, as he seems to regard church as a punishment.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Gender inverted; the amiable Gentle Guy to Harper’s closed-off Brooding Babe.
- Butt-Monkey: His name might as well be Charlie Brown. Even the teachers are constantly ragging on him.
- Class Clown: Almost nothing he says is serious. Subverted in season two, where we see him be genuine about how he feels about himself, and more prominently, Harper.
- Flat Character: The least focused on of the SLTs kids, at least in the first season.
- Groin Attack: Attempts this on himself in the first episode of season two, after a bad trip convinced him his penis is the source of all his problems. Luckily, he used craft scissors.
- Those Two Guys: Barely ever seen apart from Spider.
- Token Good Teammate: To Spider and Dusty, who act more overtly antagonistic to their fellow students where Ant is generally nice (though he doesn't make much effort to stop his friends either).
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: While everyone else is listing what they want, such as PlayStation gift vouchers or a glass of almond milk, Ant solemnly adds “I want my dad to be proud of me.”
Zoe Clarke
"Played by:" Kartanya Maynard
Missy's cousin and the leader of a self-titled, sex-negative group known as the "Puriteens."- Blaming the Victim: She all but states that because Harper is sexually active, it's no surprise that she was the victim of an attempted rape.
- Slut-Shaming: She does this to all of SLTs, but seems to have it out for Amerie and Harper.
Rowan Callaghan
"Played by:"Sam Rechner
A transfer student from Dubbo.- Dark and Troubled Past: In the finale, he reveals that after being humiliated by Amerie & the other kids in the skatepark, he flew into a fit of rage causing his younger brother, Jett, to rush across the street to find his parents and being hit & killed by an oncoming car.
- Love Triangle: Between him, Malakai, and Amerie.
- The Reveal: He ultimately turns out to be "Bird Psycho".
Faculty
Principal Stacy "Woodsy" Woods
Played by: Rachel House
The principal of Hartley High. She often frets about the reputation of Hartley High.- Canine Companion: Rarely far from her diminutive dog Joan of Bark, except when Joan is inadvertently taken hostage by the protesting student body.
- Dean Bitterman: Downplayed, but she has her moments. Particularly in direct comparison to Ms. Obah.
- Pet the Dog: Principal Woodsy gets several moments. Where in any other teen show they'd have her rejoice when trouble finds the kids who have caused her so many headaches, she repeatedly puts aside her past anger towards them and what they've done to the reputation of the school to stand by them. Particularly noted when she makes a point to reach out to Malakai after his run in with Police Brutality and when she eventually comes around to the idea of keeping on Ms. Obah as a teacher.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Principal Woodsy, who is at first played as something of a parody of stern teachers in teen comedies who come in to ruin all the fun, repeatedly shows that, while she must enforce the rules and keep order, she genuinely cares about the students and will go to bat for them, even the ones that cause her the most trouble.
Jojo Obah
Played by: Chika Ikogwe
An English teacher who is recruited by Principal Woodsy to teach the Sexual Literacy Tutorial or SLT and tries to do so the best she can while balancing what the administration wants and what the kids actually need to know.- Cool Teacher: Played With with Ms. Obah. It's a lot more subdued and realistic than usual but she tries to come up with some fun and unorthodox ways of teaching SLTs and is constantly defending her methods to Principal Woodsy.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: An understandable variation. After fighting to teach the kids on her own terms and dealing with backlash from both the administration and the student body, she reaches her breaking point when she's maliciously and falsely accused of molesting Amerie. She nearly quits but is eventually convinced to continue teaching.
Timothy Voss
Played by: Angus Sampson
The sports teacher who beleives the current generation needs to protect their masculinity.- Angry White Man: Voss spends every moment of his screentime blaming society for keeping men like him from reaching the heights he feels entitled to. After Quinni wins the student council election, Voss loses his temper, is fired over it and then plots to burn down the school out of spite.
- Foil: Deliberately styles himself as one to Jojo, countering her lessons on addressing rape culture by encouraging the boys to be unapologetic.
- Jerk Jock: A P.E. teacher and a raging misogynist.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Voss making the students bushwalk into uncharted territory lead to Quinni getting bit by a snake. Voss is outraged when the class captain position is awarded to Quinni and he ends up ruining his own life over it.
- Never My Fault: Voss sends the students out bushwalking during their school retreat - where they get lost and Quinni nearly dies - and pelts Woodsy when Spider loses the election. Both times he refuses to take responsibility and treats the resulting consequences of his actions as part of some "woke agenda". When he talks about his father's life being ruined by these kinds of attitudes, it soon becomes clear that his dad deserved to have his life ruined.
- Sore Loser: After Spider failed to win the class captain election, Voss pelted Woodsy with a pavlova, called her a cunt and then ordered the boys to help him get revenge on the school when both misdemeanours resulted in his termination.
- Straw Misogynist: There's absolutely nothing else to his character outside of irrational hatred towards anything which doesn't fit his narrow and destructive idea of masculinity.
Family
Huma Wadia
Played by: Sandy Sharma
Amerie's mother.- Hands-Off Parenting: As long as her three children are not actively killing one another, she's usually chill, though she does let Amerie have it when she arrives home in dead of night wearing only one shoe.
- Struggling Single Mother: Amerie's father is seemingly not in the picture, and Huma sometimes works nights to maintain her family's middle-class lifestyle.
Peter Rivers
Played by: Scott Major
- Character Development: Admits that when he was a kid he was a bully, racist, homophobic and a criminal as he gives a loving motivational speech to his queer, mixed-race, gender non-binary child.
- Disappeared Dad: Downplayed but he has been absent from Darren's young adult life since he divorced Darren's mom and he's not very financially dependable as he attempts to get a writing career off the ground. But ever since Darren's fallout with their mother and her current boyfriend he has been trying to be there for them.
Nan
Played by: Maggie Dence
Cash's grandmother who appears to be his only family member. He is her primary caretaker.- Cool Old Lady: Despite her advanced age she regular gambles, is still sexually adventurous and often covers for her grandson's criminal activity with the police.
- Shipper on Deck: For Ca$h and Darren.
Cait White
Played by:Robyn Malcom
Spider’s mother.- Abusive Parents: She tells Spider that because of his sex, he’s innately bad and a danger to women. She even says that she dreamt about him being a rapist in front of him.
- All Abusers Are Male: She seems to believe women are incapable of being abusive, and outright suggests that the world would be better if everyone was a woman.
- Does Not Like Men: Was disappointed when she had a son & believes all men, even her own son, are inherently evil.
Others
Chook
Played by: Tom Wilson
The leader of the eshays.- Big Bad: The closest thing the series has to one as a psychopathic drug dealer who treats his "friends" like his servants and nearly rapes Harper the night of the concert.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He’s one of the main villains of the series, mainly due to his attempted rape of Harper.
- It’s also worth noting in S2E2, he gropes and kisses a sobbing Darren while taunting them about Ca$h.
