Characters / Slasher: Ripper

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Echo Tribune

Basil Garvey

• Birds of a Feather: He's even more drawn to Verdi after he twigs onto her being the one who actually set up Venetia's death and Viviana to be framed for it.
• Dirty Old Man: He yearns for a relationship with Verdi Botticelli, the youngest of the sisters. Enough that he decides to heed Venetia's proposition to him about paying them in exchange for her. Neither of their ages are specified, but Sadie Laflamme-Snow (Verdi's actress) is 36 years younger than Eric McCormack (Basil's actor) in real life.
• Disproportionate Retribution: While it's understandable since Margaret tried to blackmail him even if it is for desperate reasons, abusing his power to make her life hell and straight up murdering her was just too far, especially when she begged for his forgiveness.
• Et Tu, Brute?: He has this reaction when he believes that Verdi might be the Widow.
• Evil Is Petty: He makes Margaret Mehar's life complete and utter hell and is the one to actually kill her, because she tried to blackmail him into giving her some money. He also regularly abuses his maid Gladys for small transgressions that aren't her own fault.
• Jerkass: He is very unpleasant, being very abusive to his underlings, and openly cruel about his power in town. He was also the person who most terrorized Margaret Mehar, and actually killed her.
• Paper Tiger: He acts all high and mighty, lording his power over everyone else. However, his power comes from his money and his tough guys. When he actually tries to intimidate his underling Eddie, he quickly is overpowered by his much bigger underling, showing that he poses very little threat on his own.
• Pet the Dog: In episode 5, he buys Verdi from the Botticelli sisters. He is disgusted when Venetia is making the sale proposition, but does so anyway, getting her away from them. When he attempts to take some gratitude sex from her, but ultimately allows her to keep her virtue and permits her to sleep separately from him.
• Silver Fox: His actor in real-life was nearing 60 when he was cast in the series, and it shows with the grey beard. However, multiple women find him quite attractive, mostly the Botticelli sisters.
• Villain Protagonist: He's a charismatic and ruthless tycoon and the main protagonist of the season, clashing with the equally ruthless Widow.

Kenneth Rijkers

Played by: Gabriel Darku

• Only Sane Man: Is the most level-headed and normal of the main cast.
• Police Are Useless: Downplayed. He's good at his job, so good that he determines with confirmation from Melanda Israel that the Widow is left-handed just from the wounds on a murder victim and one of the notes left behind. However, the Widow is just one step ahead of him, and his department's incompetence hinders his efforts.
• Romancing the Widow: With Regina. More accurately, she's the one romancing him, as she's the Widow, and she wants a close tie to his investigation.

Eddie Jacobs

• Death by Irony: He was too much of a coward to help Margaret Mehar escape against his boss's orders. So the Widow ensures that he won't escape his boss and kills him by paralyzing him with a sledgehammer to keep him from escaping.
• Dirty Coward: His defining trait, unable to resist his boss's orders even when he knew they were wrong. Basil even calls him out on this when he decides to get away from town to escape the Widow.
• My Greatest Failure: He was too cowardly to help Margaret Mehar when she desperately begged him to let her escape, though he initially was going to until Basil Garvey showed up. He's clearly not happy about it, especially twelve years later.
• No Party Like a Donner Party: His dead body is mutilated and put into the butcher shop, where it's cut apart and put into some of the food which gets fed to Basil Garvey and some of his guests.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He decides to get out of town as the Widow's body count rises. He is ambushed and killed by the Widow before he can.

Isaac Kashtinsky

• Only Sane Man: He's the only one of the Widow's targets who recognizes them as a legitimate threat and demands that Basil to do something about it, only to be dismissed.

Enid Jenkins

• Convicted by Public Opinion: The Widow, and numerous other characters, claim that she did this by printing and publishing in the paper that Andrew May Sr. was guilty of Margaret Mehar's murder. The Widow even kills her for it because in their eyes, she refuses to repent.
• Death by Irony: She's killed with the very same printing press she used to print out information that got Andrew May Sr. executed for Margaret Mehar's murder.
• The Nicknamer: She's the one who gave the Widow their name.

Terrence Crenshaw

• Benevolent Boss: Cares about his employee's and even gives Salomé a home.

Salomé

• Ambiguous Gender: Salomé is referred to by male pronouns and is biologically male, but they present as a woman even when they're off stage.
• Every Scar Has a Story: The two diagonal scars on his cheeks were caused twelve years before by Alistair Simcoe. We get to see that story in episode five.

Alistair Simcoe

• Gutted Like a Fish: He's tied to a brick wall by the Widow, who then takes giant shears and cuts him open from behind.
• Teaser-Only Character: He's the opening victim to the season.

Regina Simcoe

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Averted. Despite being Alistair Simcoe's wife, she's not happy when she learns of her late husband's violent history and habits of carving up working girls' faces. Gains an extra layer when it's revealed she's the Widow, and only married Alistair to infiltrate the wealthy class and learn the truth of her mother's murder.
• Final Girl: She's the most prominent female character who is shown to be kind, resourceful and witty. Ultimately subverted however as Regina is the one committing the murders.
• Nice to the Waiter: In contrast to her fellow elites, she's kind to her workers. Because she herself was once of that same class, as her mother was Margaret Mehar, and she endured that same kind of abuse.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She naively believed that her husband was a good man and is appalled at discovering his darker side. She later falls for the Nice Guy Detective Rijkers.
• Statuesque Stunner: Her actress Clare McConnell is six feet tall, plus the height of whatever shoes she's wearing at any given time. And as Detective Rijkers says, she's quite an attractive young woman and won't have any problem finding another man willing to marry her.
• The Watson: To Detective Rijkers. Though she is also very proactive in the investigation.

Viviana Botticelli

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: She's very interested in trying to get with mob boss Basil Garvey.
• Big Sister Bully: She and Venetia are incredibly abusive towards Verdi, physically and emotionally.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's outwardly nice to other people to make a good impression, but the mask falls very quickly behind closed doors, and she's really an abusive asshole towards her sister.
• The Hecate Sisters: The evil variant of the Maiden. Although she's age-wise the middle Botticelli sister, she's also the most impulsive and shortsighted of the sisters, and is the most openly abusive towards Verdi, being the most vicious aggressor towards her for things that are obviously not Verdi's own fault.
• Humiliation Conga: The two-hour season finale is not kind to her. She loses Basil to Verdi, gets into a fight with Venetia, ends up losing Venetia later that day when she's literally sawed in half, and is arrested for the death wrongfully (Verdi was the one who did it). She ends up being stripped, washed, and all of her hair is chopped off very aggressively.
• Impoverished Patrician: She's supposedly wealthy, but the home she shares with her sister is largely empty because they have no money at all anymore.
• Irrational Hatred: Towards Verdi for supposedly trying to steal Basil from her. First, Basil was clearly never interested in Viviana. Second, Verdi initially had no idea about Viviana's interest in Basil. Third, Verdi outwardly respects her sister's highly abusive wishes and doesn't pursue Basil, which Viviana herself witnesses but still takes out her anger on Verdi.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After years of treating her younger sister as The Scapegoat, she ends up being scapegoated for her older sister's murder by the abused little sister.
• Sole Survivor: She's the only survivor of the Widow's rampage, but the murder of her sister is enough to implicate her in the Widow's murders. While that won't stick, the charge of Venetia's murder is likely to.
• Traumatic Haircut: She's arrested and charged with her sister's murder, which was actually set up by Verdi. Either way, part of the treatment of becoming a prisoner is having all of her hair viciously cut off.
• The Unfought: She never once faces the Widow. Her story revolves entirely around Verdi. The Widow does come to gloat after she's arrested however.

Venetia Botticelli

• Big Sister Bully: She and Venetia are incredibly abusive towards Verdi, physically and emotionally.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She's outwardly nice to other people to make a good impression, but the mask falls very quickly behind closed doors, and she's really an abusive asshole towards her sister.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even Venetia comes to the end of her rope with Viviana. She outright calls Viviana a selfish child and lampshades her sister's narcissism, even declaring that she'd gladly get rid of her.
• Half the Woman She Used to Be: She's sawed in half by Georges during his magic act. He didn't realize that he was doing this, as she was supposed to fall through the trap door, but Verdi had locked it beforehand, causing Venetia to actually suffer this fate.
• The Hecate Sisters: The evil/asshole variant of the Crone. She's the eldest Botticelli sister, and just as abusive towards Verdi as Viviana, but Venetia is wise enough to find a much quicker solution to their impoverishment problem. Instead of selling photos or Verdi herself to some random person, she's wise enough to offer her to Basil Garvey, as she already knows that Basil is attracted to Verdi.
• Impoverished Patrician: She's supposedly wealthy, but the home she shares with her sister is largely empty because they have no money at all anymore.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Instead of going for Salomé's ploy of selling Verdi's virginity and Verdi herself to some foreigner, she decides to make the offer to a person close to home who already has shown attraction to her: Basil Garvey, who at least had the decency to heed Verdi's request to abstain from sex right after she moved in with him. It doesn't make Venetia an angel by a long shot.
• The Unfought: The Widow never confronts her. Her downfall is entirely because of Verdi.

Verdi Botticelli

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Averted. Despite showing attraction to him initially, she is very much not willing to have sex with Basil when he finally has her, and even manages to convince him not to have sex with her. She's shown being a bit uncomfortable in the situation. And once she learns just how horrible he really is, she joins the Widow in killing him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: After spending most of the season being abused by her sisters, she finally snaps and locks the escape door in Georges Rondeau's saw trick causing Venetia to be sawed in half in front of a large crowd. She then plants the key on her other sister Viviana, sending her to prison for the rest of her life. Not to mention her involvement in Basil's murder.
• The Dog Bites Back: Verdi gets payback on her sisters by setting Venetia up to be killed and framing Viviana for it. It's implied she also did this as part of Regina's revenge plot.
• Final Girl: She has all the trademarks. She's a virginal girl who is nothing but cordial and kind, but still suffers from severe abuse by her sisters. So you might be surprised when she ends up indirectly killing Venetia and setting up Viviana to take the fall, followed up by participating in Basil's murder.
• Guile Heroine: She easily manipulates Basil when he has bought her freedom and virginity from Venetia. She's already read the situation, and then uses her valuable wholesome nature as an excuse to wait until she's fully accustomed to living with Basil before sleeping with him. She even throws back how he values her wholesomeness as a way to convince him to do so, and it works.
• The Hecate Sisters: The Mother. While she's the youngest Botticelli sister, and at first she's like the Maiden given her ingenue nature, she eventually shows that she's more adept than they give her credit for. When Basil buys her freedom (and her virginity) from Venetia, Verdi immediately clocks to what he had done. She also seamlessly manipulates her way into avoiding intimacy with Basil for at least a few days.
• The Ingenue: She's the most innocent character in the season's cast. She's so sweet that she falls for Salomé's obvious ploy to take indecent pictures of her to sell.
• May–December Romance: The "May" to Basil Garvey's "December". From the outset, she's attracted to him and it's reciprocated, though she backs off when her sister... tells her not to. However, he eventually buys her freedom from them in the hopes that this will happen. Neither of their ages are specified, but Sadie Laflamme-Snow (Verdi's actress) is 36 years younger than Eric McCormack (Basil's actor) in real life.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Basil easily figures out that Verdi herself set up Venetia's death and framed Viviana for it. She reacts to this by expressing how horrifying it was when the kill was actually happening. However, given that she's working with the Widow, it's unclear how much was genuine.
• Nice to the Waiter: She's kind even to those who are responsible for serving her needs. Most notably is her treatment of Basil Garvey's maid Gladys. He's abusive to her while she outright defends her from his brutality whenever she can. Though, that's partly because she's already joined her and the Widow's crusade against him.
• Not So Similar: Basil sees Verdi as something like his perfect match when he clocks her as being Venetia's true killer and setting up Viviana to take the fall. He sees her as being like him, with how devious he can be with his power. However, Verdi's motive for doing so was out of a sense of payback to get them out of her life while Basil is just a cruel person outright, and she shows that she has no relatability to him.
• The Scapegoat: Whenever anything bad happens with the sisters, especially in regards to Basil Garvey's actions and attraction, her sisters blame and abuse her for it.
• White Sheep: In contrast to her incredibly abusive sisters, she's a genuinely sweet girl. Though when pushed far enough, she can be just as devious as her sisters, as they find out painfully.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Implied. Basil praises her for her deviousness in setting up Venetia's death and Viviana's downfall. However, she's not exactly happy with the praise, and given that she was already against him, likely didn't ever like the comparison.

Devil's Elbow

Horatio Dixon

• Benevolent Boss: He's the pimp for the street workers, but he claims and turns out to very much care about his girls. After his girlfriend is killed in front of him, he's so distraught, he doesn't even fight back against the Widow killing him.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: He's a street pimp, and in the image of the Widow's eventual/current victims, all of whom are implied to have been part of Margaret Mehar's victimization. However, his care for his girls is genuine, he truly loves Daisy, and is not fond of Basil Garvey.
• Off with His Head!: The Widow saws off his head with a knife.

Daisy Zyweicki

• Accidental Murder: She's killed when she tries to interfere with Eddie and his henchman's assault, and ends up being thrown against a metal pole hard enough to crack her head open.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: She's a street-worker, but she's nonetheless a kind person.
• The Nicknamer: She was the one who identified Alistair Simcoe's killer as wearing widow's weeds, leading to the nickname of the season's slasher killer.

Melanda Israel

• The Atoner: She's ultimately not happy with the role she had in Margaret Mehar's death, and after witnessing the Widow's murders, she decides to come clean. Basil Garvey had her desecrate Margaret's body to make her death more violent than it seemed, but she also used it as an opportunity to explore the anatomy of a fresh human body.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • She prescribes cocaine as an energy supplement to help the chief of police stay alert and awake and claims to use it herself when performing surgeries.
  • Her medical practices are also very behind what they would be in the modern age. For instance, she never uses gloves when cutting open either living people for surgeries or autopsies on cadavers.
• Desecrating the Dead: Her role in Margaret Mehar's murder was to eviscerate her body and leave her where she would be found under Basil's orders. She also used her body as a chance to explore a fresh, young body to learn things she didn't have the chance to learn in medical school.
• Et Tu, Brute?: She is a friend of the inspector and helps him find clues regarding how the victims died, but she is one of the targets of the Roaring Rampage of Revenge he is investigating after helping cover up a murder, something which upsets him.
• The Medic: She's the town's mortician and doctor, treating characters for their wounds. She's also the town's medical examiner, and she's very good at it.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Her title of Dr. Isreal is justified because she is a medical doctor. There's also her association with the corrupt wealthy elite class, and her apparent but unspecified role in Margaret Mehar's death, making it unclear if she is this trope. It's revealed that she wasn't the one who killed Margaret, she was given the task of desecrating her body to make her death seem more violent than it was. She also took this as an opportunity to explore a fresh, young, healthy human body to improve her skills as a doctor. As she is not proud of and wishes to atone for it, she's a subversion.
• My Greatest Failure: She's ultimately regretful and unhappy with the part she played in Margaret Mehar's death. Specifically, that she disrespected Margaret's body both for her own personal reasons and under Basil's order, and didn't speak up when she could have saved an innocent man's life.
• Token Good Teammate: It's unknown how much she really is this or A Lighter Shade of Black, or anything like this at all. However, she's one of the few people in the image of the Widow's current/eventual victims who is not unreasonably hostile towards anyone else in the town and is genuinely helpful in trying to take the Widow down. She's genuine. She has remorse for participating in the coverup of Margaret Mehar's murder and the desecration of her body, but it doesn't save her.
• What You Are in the Dark: While treating a wounded Andrew May Jr., Israel is confronted by the Widow. Rather than flee, she begs the Widow to let her first save Andrew since he is an innocent.

Andrew May Sr.

• Cassandra Truth: He warned Margaret that it would be dangerous to blackmail Basil Garvey, but she was desperate enough to try it anyway, getting both her and Andrew killed.
• Fall Guy: He is framed and executed for Margaret Mehar's murder twelve years ago and was never acquitted as Basil used his connections to avoid the consequences.

Margaret Mehar

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: She begs multiple people to help her, and even begs for forgiveness from Basil Garvey. It doesn't save her life.
• Didn't Think This Through: To say it's a bad idea to try to extort a corrupt tycoon is a huge understatement, as it costs her life. Despite being warned against it, she was just that desperate.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Margaret's murder twelve years prior to the story is central to the season, and the reason for the Widow's killing spree. The targets all share a connection to a party where Margaret died, and to the subsequent framing of an innocent man for her death.

Gladys

• Broken Bird: She seems completely and utterly resigned to being Basil Garvey's punching bag, to the point where her only advice to Verdi when she tries to escape him is that he will find her and won't be happy afterwards. She even refuses Rijkers' attempts to help her after witnessing her getting beaten. Subverted when it's revealed that she was in on the Widow's plan for him, and was actually just trying to keep the plan going.
• The Dog Bites Back: She's heavily abused by Basil Garvey. She joins the Widow in killing in the finale, and does so with a sinister smile on her face.
• Revenge is Sweet: She's got a huge vicious grin on her face as she helps tear apart Basil's face, seeming to enjoy herself a bit too much.
• Slasher Smile: She's got a frightening one when she's tearing into Basil's face, made all the more creepy by the cuts and bruises she has all over her at the time.

The Killer

The Widow (spoilers)

Beware the Widow's wrath.

• Anti-Villain: The Widow's explicitly shown going after people who are immensely horrible for unknown reasons. Some people have outright said that the Widow is fulfilling a lower class fantasy of eating the rich. The Widow, Regina Simcoe, of the Woobie variety, as she was victimized by the city's wealthy elite, and lost her mother because of them. Witnessing how they framed an innocent man for her murder, and seeing that justice would never be fulfilled, she took matters into her own hands.
• At Least I Admit It: They agree that doing vengeance for Margaret's murder makes them no better than their Asshole Victims, but since those victims refuse to take responsibility for said murder, the Widow is considered to have higher ground.
• Black Widow: Literally. Their true identity is Regina Simcoe, and she personally murdered her husband, Alistair as her first victim.
• Cold Ham: After the identity reveal, the Widow, unlike previous killers, never speaks loudly or bombastically, but they still carry a lot in their voice either way. It makes sense because Regina Simcoe is both well-educated and still carries herself with a wealthy person's formality while exuding her contempt for her victims. The one time she raises her voice is when she's finally killing Basil, and screams at him for his injustices against her mother.
• Dark Action Girl: Their true gender is unknown, but because they wear Widow's Weeds, they're often referred to as female by default. Though several characters don't believe this and refer to them as male. Either way, they beat Rijkers on two separate occasions, and none of the victims can fight back effectively. They're eventually revealed to be a woman all along.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Regina's revenge spree is motivated by her mother's murder at the hands of the city's elite and wealthy. Even just talking about what happened to her mother is enough to bring her to tears.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Widow's true identity shows that they in fact truly love a few select people. She fell in love with Kenneth Rijkers. She spares him numerous times and wishes no harm to come to him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: They are not happy that Salomé tries to pin his murder of the comparably innocent Terrence Crenshaw on them and kills him painfully for it.
• Evil Is Bigger: The Widow stands taller than most of the cast members. However, as Regina points out, the person's build is also quite slim and slender.
• Evil Wears Black: This person is the season's killer and wears classical black widow's weeds to hide their identity.
• Jack the Ripoff: A literal inversion. According to promotional materials, the Widow is based on Jack the Ripper (hence the season title) but is targeting rich and powerful people like Basil Garvey instead, basically making them more like a dark Robin Hood. And as of the finale, their followers are representative of the merry men.
• Kick the Dog: While the deplorable nature of most of the Widow's victims make it much too difficult to feel sympathy for them much of the time, one of the Widow's victims comes off more as this. This is Melanda Israel, who chooses to save Andrew May Jr.'s life instead of trying to save her own, shows genuine shame and remorse for her part in Margaret Mehar's murder, and was ready to testify against Basil Garvey to set things right. However, the Widow still kills her, and she dies pleading for her life and the chance to testify against Basil.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: The Widow turns out to be less monstrous than their victims. She's a girl who lost her mother to the torment of the wealthy classes only to watch justice go unserved as an innocent man is framed and killed for her murder. Her victims are all horrendous people who were involved in the murder, save for Melanda Israel.
• Line-of-Sight Name: The Widow is named because of the outfit they wear, widow's weeds.
• Mundanger: This season explicitly introduces the supernatural, showing Regina Simcoe being possessed by her husband's ghost, and Georges Rondeau apparently was able to magically make Margaret Mehar act like a chicken and pull her out of it without her remembering anything... and yet, the threat is the very mundane Serial Killer that is the Widow. Subverted because the convincing supernatural act was faked by Regina.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: All of the Widow's victims were involved with either the victimization, murder, and/or coverup thereof of her mother Margaret Mehar, or were involved in framing Andrew May Sr. for it. Though some of the victims were more sympathetic, the Widow doesn't kill anyone who wasn't part of that.
• Pet the Dog:
  • The Widow takes the time to gently close the eyes of Daisy, who was murdered by Eddie before moving on to kill her boyfriend, Horatio, who allows them to. They even pose their bodies such that they seem to be Together in Death.
  • In episode 3, they also spare the life of Detective Rijkers, despite him completely at their mercy. It's because her romantic feelings for him are genuine, and Regina wanted him to join her crusade.
  • They also spare Melanda Israel to save the life of Andrew May Jr. who had been stabbed earlier that day. The Widow comes back to kill Dr. Israel after it's confirmed that he was in recovery, meaning the focus of this act was on him.
• Revenge Is Not Justice: The Widow admits that justice negates the need for vengeance. However, the Widow, Regina Simcoe, cannot let her mother's murder go unpunished, and knowing the corruption caused by Basil Garvey, decides that vengeance is the only justice she has left.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: It becomes clear as the season progresses the the Widow is trying to avenge the murder of Margaret Mehar, but the exact details aren't clear until the finale. The Widow is Margaret Mehar's forgotten daughter, who turns out to be Regina Simcoe, and she's avenging her mother's murder and desecration.
• A Sinister Clue: You can see early on that the Widow is left-handed, and the police quickly catch on to it based on the nature of their victims' wounds.
• Villain Has a Point: After being found out, Regina/The Widow claims to Rijkers that Basil will never face justice because he owns the whole city. She's proven right when Viviana is too afraid to testify against him, and when he finds himself arrested because Basil has commanded the police force to do so. He's forced to acknowledge the validity of this afterwards.
• Villain Protagonist: While Basil Garvey is the primary viewpoint protagonist, the story of the season truly belongs to the Widow. It's all about her quest for revenge against everyone who wronged her mother and participated in her murder and/or the coverup afterwards.
• What You Are in the Dark: Exploited. She's really Regina Simcoe, who in truth is Margaret Mehar's daughter, and thus is from low-class roots. However, she hides this well as an adult enough to marry Alistair Simcoe, and pretends to be old money to see what they really are and what they think about victimizing her mother. As they had no idea who she is, she heard everything.
• Widow's Weeds: They wear this outfit to conceal their identity instead of an actual mask. The mourning veil conceals the Widow's face and becomes incredibly frightening to anybody who sees it.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Widow turns out to be Regina Simcoe, the daughter of Margaret. After the brutal murder of she was kicked out onto the streets by the Botticelli sisters. This led to her taking on a much darker outlook on life and murdering everyone involved in the death of her mother.