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Clover Hill
In General
The Clover Hillers
Harlan's elite, an extremely rich group of corrupt businessmen and string-pullers.
- Always a Bigger Fish: They consider themselves the top of the Harlan criminal food chain and are blindsided when Boyd has Theo Tonin neutralize their political connections.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: They all have shades of this, even the ones who aren't CEOs.
- Kavorka Man / The Hedonist: They network at lavish swinger's parties, keep mistresses, and in Arnold's case, patronize prostitutes.
- The Man Behind the Man: To Bo Crowder and kingpins like him. Their political connections and money allow crime to operate in Harlan on the level that it does.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: They want an associate of theirs killed so they order Boyd to do so. When he balks at the idea, they threaten to us their connections to have him arrested and thrown in jail. It is an extremely bad move on their part.
- Environmental Disaster for Fun and Profit: They want to flood a large area with toxic sludge so they can make a lot of money when the government comes in to clean it up.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Practically their motto. All the Clover Hillers are 'old money' and through their political connections and bank statements they are exempt from the law.
Core Members
Lee
Lee Paxton
Played By: Sam Anderson
"I think you're missing the point. Your daddy got the point. Crowders do what we say."
Part of Harlan County's wealthy elite, Paxton isn't above dipping his toes into the seedy criminal underworld to get certain jobs done. That said, he never for a moment believes he can be compared to the low-born individuals with whom he associates, including Boyd Crowder.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When confronted by Boyd with a gun, he makes one last attempt to beg before being abruptly killed.
- Archenemy: His enmity with Boyd Crowder gradually becomes deep-seated and vitriolic. They despise each other.
- The Bully: Paxton is insulting and cruel to everyone who doesn't share his upper-class lifestyle.
- Character Death: Lee is finally killed by Boyd, while he's recovering from previous injuries at home.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Of his funeral home business, which he uses to fund his criminal activities.
- Dirty Old Man: He has a much younger wife who he brags about 'banging from behind'.
- Evil Old Folks: He seems to be the oldest Clover Hiller, and the closest thing they have to a leader.
- Frame-Up: Boyd arranges for the bodies of several criminals to be dumped at his funeral home, making it look like he was collaborating with criminals. After law enforcement discovers the bodies, Boyd murders Paxton in a manner that could be mistaken for suicide.
- Hate Sink: He's no more evil than Boyd, but his crass personality and lack of obvious redeeming feature make it easy for the audience to focus their loathing on him.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: During a gunfight with Bob Sweeney, neither he nor Gerald could hit the constable with their rifles.
- Jerkass: Paxton is a repulsive bully and arrogant snob. He looks down on Boyd and taunts Bob Sweeney because they're not from his social class. His arrogance reeks in every scene and he has absolutely zero redeeming qualities.
- Kavorka Man: He marries a beautiful Latvian brunette, Mara, after his first wife dies.
- Karmic Death: Paxton held the Crowder family in his claws for a long time, being The Man Behind the Man to Bo Crowder. He then insults the man's son, his wife, and everything about him. Paxton puts Ava in prison and humiliates Boyd time and time again for his own sadistic pleasure. It's perfect that Boyd, the man he wronged to such an extent, should finish him while permanently tainting his reputation...the reputation that made Paxton powerful in the first place.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: He makes a desperate attempt to beg before Boyd blows his brains out.
- The Man Behind the Man: To Bo Crowder and other similar kingpins, or so he claims. Given what Bo was like this isn't necessarily the most believable of stories.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Like the other Clover Hillers, he's an upper class fine-dining fellow.
- Manipulative Bastard: He, along with the other Clover Hillers, pulled the strings in Kentucky for a long time.
- Misogyny: He despises Ava Crowder for getting off scott free after killing her abusive husband. He also talks about his trophy wife Mara as a sex object.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gets a brutal and wonderfully deserved one from Boyd. Who proceeds to paint the wall with his brains."Disposing of murder victims for money? Well that leaves a bad taste in a Christian’s mouth. Small town don’t run on a 24-hour news cycle, a small town never forgets. Now, word’s gonna burn through these hills and hollers like a wildfire. People of Harlan County, rich and poor, will marvel at your debasement and venality. They will spit venom when they speak your name and they will take your suicide as the last act of a coward. Now your reputation is ruined, your good word worthless but death will not be the end of your suffering. For generations your children, and your children’s children, will have a mark against their name and that will be your legacy."
- Rich Jerk: Paxton is a product of his family business, and has always had money. As such he treats everyone else with condescension and scorn, spitefully mocking Boyd.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: This could be the motto for the Clover Hillers.
- Sickbed Slaying: Boyd shoots him in his bedroom while he is recuperating from the head injury that Boyd gave him.
- Smug Smiler: Usually has a big grin on his face when he's pulling off some horrible shit.
- Smug Snake: Paxton is 100% convinced that he's an untouchable mastermind. Unfortunately for him, Theo Tonin outranks him, and Boyd makes it his mission to utterly destroy Paxton's reputation before finally offing him.
- Tempting Fate: In a big way. He lords himself over Boyd, mocking him, outright insulting him, telling him to beg and basically hitting every single one of Boyd's berserk buttons on purpose. When he gets to calling Ava 'white trash' Boyd snaps and brutally beats him.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Mara.
Arnold
Arnold
Played By: Brian Howe
A married judge-executive and Clover Hiller who frequents Ellen May to indulge in his furry fetish.
- Affably Evil: He cheats on his wife, dabbles in powerful drugs and is complicit in the murder of Frank Browning (and like the other Clover Hillers probably had his fingers in all sorts of criminal pies). At the same time, he's jovial and reasonable while not being anywhere near as devious, evil or smug as the likes of Paxton or Johns.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Arnold married a beautiful former cheerleader.
- Butt-Monkey: In his first appearance, he's shot by Ellen May. From then on, he's blackmailed and threatened repeatedly.
- Hookers and Blow: He purchases sexual favors from Ellen May (until she shoots him) and shares an unidentified drug with her.
- Made of Iron: Ellen May pumps several bullets into him. Oddly, he seems perfectly fine when he reappears later in the season. It's possible the bear suit he was wearing at the time helped slow the impact of the bullets.
- May–December Romance: With his wife, who seems a great deal younger than him.
Johns
Gerald Johns
Played By: Ned Bellamy
A Clover Hiller and owner of a car dealership.
- Bald of Evil: As seen in the picture.
- The Bully: In the same manner as Lee.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Of his car dealership.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He's sometimes seen wearing glasses.
- Evil Old Folks: As are the other Clover Hillers.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: During a gunfight with Constable Bob, neither he nor Lee Paxton could hit their opponent.
- Jerkass: He's a smug, bullying man.
- Lean and Mean: In contrast to the other Clvoer Hillers who are well-fed, Johns is tall and rather thin.
- The Man Behind the Man: To Bo Crowder and other similar kingpins.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Like the other Clover Hillers, he's an upper class fine-dining fellow.
- Manipulative Bastard: Along with the other Clover Hillers, Johns controls a great deal of what is allowed in Harland.
- Rich Jerk: Johns believes his wealth makes him better than the other residents of Harlan.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: This could be the motto for the Clover Hillers.
- Smug Snake: Johns' confidence and satisfaction disappear easily when he loses the advantage.
Keener
Sam Keener
Played By: Grainger Hines
One of the Clover Hillers who takes an interest in Ava.
- Character Death: He's one of the men who is mistaken for Drew Thompson, and subsequently killed by Tonin's hitman.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Sam is a Dirty Old Man who attends swingers' party and is lacking in the charm department, but he knows not to get handsy with a lady who isn't into you.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Like the other Clover Hillers, but his business is unclear.
- Dirty Old Man: He gets pretty lecherous with Ava at the Clover Hill party.
- The Man Behind the Man: Like the other Clover Hillers.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Like the rest of the Clover Hillers.
- Token Good Teammate: He may be a sleazy swinger, but he's never seen doing anything really evil. He even tries to protect Ava when a fellow swinger gets too handsy with her.
Family and Associates
Mara
Mara Paxton
"Lee will never again be the man I married."
Played By: Karolina Wydra
Lee Paxton's Russo-Latvian trophy wife.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: Mara's hardly innocent, but in "Shot All To Hell" she is splattered with blood after Mooney's assassination.
- Femme Fatale: She hits all the hallmarks, using her sexuality to manipulate Boyd, Mooney, and Lee.
- Gold Digger: The reason she married Lee Paxton, and the reason she's so eager to keep him alive. She doesn't get his money unless they've been married for ten years.
- Groin Attack: She gives a much-deserved one to Mooney.
- Mail-Order Bride: She signed some kind of 'contract' when she married Lee Paxton. Though, considering that ordinary pre-nuptial agreements are contractual in nature (most of which modify inheritance rights between spouses), the contract might be a normal pre-nup, to guard against her obvious Gold Digger tendencies. And though it's clear she's not from the US, it's not stated whether she came to Kentucky as a mail order bride, or whether she had just been a hard-luck immigrant who latched onto Paxton by some other means.
- May–December Romance: She's married to Lee Paxton, who's twice her age.
- Opportunistic Bastard: Goes back and forth between Boyd and Lee, trying to figure out who will help her live the life she wants. In the end, it doesn't pay off for her.
- Out-Gambitted: By Boyd.
- Scylla and Charybdis: Mara weighs her options after Boyd beats Lee Paxton into a coma. She can protect Boyd in exchange for $300,000, or she can turn Boyd in and thereby pacify Nick Mooney. Either choice would make an enemy out of one of the men, but both men will continue to threaten her if she fails to make a choice. She eventually sides with Boyd against Mooney, although she keeps this from Paxton after he revives.
- Sensual Slav: Mara is extremely sexy, and isn't above using her striking good looks to manipulate others. It's seen most clearly when she fondles a shirtless Boyd.
- Ship Tease: With Boyd. They flirt and threaten plenty, but it ultimately goes nowhere.
- Trophy Wife: For the much older Lee Paxton, who's very pleased with himself for nabbing a young, sexy wife.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: With Lee Paxton.
Browning
Frank Browning
Played By: Rocky McMurray
The owner of Black Pike Mining, who was at the center of an assassination plot by the Clover Hillers.
- Bad Boss: To his bodyguard, Deke. He says that nobody will miss him after his death.
- Rich Jerk: He's a thoroughly unpleasant person.
- Wicked Cultured: Browning quotes Hemingway at Boyd.
Deborah Jane
Deborah Jane Napier
Played By: Robin Riker
A madam that attends the party of Tillman Napier. She is seen mostly socializing with Ava Crowder.
Napier
