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Franklin
Franklin Saint
- Played by: Damson Idris
An ambitious young man in LA. A chance encounter draws him into the lucrative world of cocaine dealing and CIA domestic operations.
- Adopted to the House: Back when he was still in school, he lived with his white friend Rob. He repaid Rob by hiring him when he went into the crack business.
- Affably Evil: Franklin is genuinely friendly and easygoing, mostly when he is not running his business. At times while he is running his business, he treats his subordinates well unless they fuck up. He can turn it on a switch to Faux Affably Evil, though.
- Ambition Is Evil: While Franklin's desire to make a better life for himself is understandable, the lengths he's willing to go to (selling crack, having people beaten or killed) to get rich and gain respect are utterly horrific.
- Character Development: Early in the series, Franklin was an ambitious, but naive young up-and-coming drug dealer. Over the course of the series, he becomes more hardened, ruthless, and very serious as he becomes a powerful drug kingpin.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: His love for his mother Cissy is possibly the one thing that stops him from going completely over to the dark side. Gets used against him when he's on the run from the law after shooting and killing Kev at the end of season 2 - the police staked out his house with the certainty that he wouldn't be able to resist visiting her at least once.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Franklin genuinely cares about his family and friends.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Crosses with Pragmatic Villainy, he runs with operation without any unnecessary violence, only doing so he is absolutely has too.
- While he wasn't evil at the beginning of the series, he was still horrified at Karvel's brutal rape of Lenny.
- He subtlety turns on Kane behind when the latter proposes to have a captured Louie arranged to be gang-raped by a pimp and a bunch of recently released gangsters. Franklin and Louie were in war against each other at the time, but Franklin cannot bear to allow this to happen.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Franklin goes from an ambitious but naive clerk to a ruthless drug lord.
- Generation Xerox: He ends the series an alcoholic, paranoid wreck, just like his dad was at the start of the series.
- Handicapped Badass: In season 4, Franklin walks with a cane as a result of his being shot by Melody, but he still manages to command respect.
- Karmic Shunning: In the final season, his disastrous campaign to recoup his lost money, which entails countless serious crimes, alienates nearly every single person in his life, including his wife, his mother, and his best friend, and by the end of the series, he's left penniless and reclusive, holed up in his mother's old house, which has been condemned. The series ends with the cops moving in to evict him.
- Morality Pet: He was this for Jerome for years; Jerome was lost when he came back from the military and his nephew being brought into his life gave him focus to get his act together.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Franklin is the victim of this twice, the first being by Ray-Ray and Lenny who jump him in the alley for taking their supplier, and the second time by Ray-Ray and his goons in prison in retribution for Franklin forcing Ray-Ray to kill Lenny at gunpoint.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He runs his business with as little violence as possible.
- Properly Paranoid: He conducts his business with a considerable amount of caution, because it's the 80's and dealing with crackheads, rival gangs, and the CIA is pretty dangerous."I am a black man in America! Hell yeah I'm paranoid!"
- Rags to Riches: The series chronicles his ascent from small-time drug dealer to a millionaire. The finale shows that with Teddy taking away his money and unable to recoup it due to his death at Cissy's hands, his empire crumbles; he ends up being a drunken wreck living under poor conditions at his old home with it about to be repossessed at any moment.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: In the penultimate episode of season 5, he finds out that Teddy has started selling crack to Louie, and decides to quit the crack business, both because he's pissed that Teddy and Louie have done business behind his back and also because he doesn't want to compete with his own family.
- Start of Darkness: At the end of season 2, he accidentally killed Kev in an attempt to stop him from starting a gang war. For this, he was sent to jail, where he was brutalized by Ray Ray, and after Teddy bailed him out, he resolved to put an even tighter grip on his organization, to prevent another mess like Kev from happening.
- Too Clever by Half: He is a very clever young man who often seems several steps ahead of everyone else, but gets horribly overconfident at times. For instance, when dealing with the cops, he assumes that as long as the cops can't prove he's committed a crime, they won't be able to touch him, but fails to anticipate Officer Nix making up fake charges in order to throw his mother into the back of a squad car and rough her up.
- Took a Level in Badass: His prison tenure changed Franklin's view of the drug trade for either the better or worse.
- Young Conqueror: Franklin is 19 years old when he starts building his up crack business.
Teddy McDonald
Teddy McDonald/Adam Reed/Reed Thompson
- Played by: Carter Hudson
A CIA agent based in Los Angeles. Reassigned to babysitting local assets, he stumbles upon an opportunity to get back into the field when one of his assets overdoses, leaving him with a whole lot of cocaine that has to be disposed of.
- Broken-System Dogmatist: Teddy frequently professes his belief in the "greatness of America", even he as is often confronted with the systematic oppression and racism that African-Americans suffer under, and that he himself, as a government representative, inarguably has a huge part of the responsibility for making their plight even worse by essentially running the pipeline that pours a highly addictive poison into their communities and backing the organized crime element that preys on them and their suffering. Teddy, however, insists that this merely a necessary evil to "fight communism", and uses domino theory
to justify this belief. - Control Freak: Teddy freely admits that this is one of his major character flaws. He has to be in control and change of every situation he finds himself in, and damn everyone who try to stand in his way.
- Failure Knight: He was involved in the CIA's operations in Iran back before the Revolution, and is now trying to redeem himself by getting involved with the Sandinistas. A cursory look at Wikipedia would tell you how that worked out. Suffice it to say, he's not a particularly accomplished spy.
- Hate Sink: Whereas most of the other characters on the show are motivated by an understandable desire to survive their harsh environment and provide for their families, Teddy's singular obsession is keeping his incredibly-illegal operation going, and he's willing to screw over anyone if it keeps him in power. By the final season, nearly every other major character wants him dead.
- Killed Off for Real: In the penultimate episode of the series, he is shot dead by Cissy Saint.
- Klingon Promotion: In season 5, he worms his way back into the Los Angeles operation by poisoning his successor.
- Knight in Sour Armor: He's well aware of the terrible things the CIA has done, but still believes in its mission.
- Noodle Incident: The incident that got him banished to LA is not explained until several episodes into the series: He freaked out after one of his agents was caught during the Iran Revolution and attacked his superior with a Civil War-era saber.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: He used to work overseas, but was banished to the Company's Los Angeles outpost after flipping out on his superior in the wake of the Iran Hostage Crisis.
- The Unfavorite: Between him and his brother, Matt, there is a strong impression that the latter was clearly their father's favorite. Where Matt have no reservations when it comes to showing physical affection around him and openly calls him "Dad", his relationship with Teddy is markedly cold and distant, and Teddy consequently refers to him as "Sir". Eventually, when Matt dies, their father neglects telling Teddy about it until after the funeral, and he parts with him by telling that You Should Have Died Instead.
El Oso
Gustavo "El Oso" Zapata
- Played by: Sergio Peris-Mencheta
An aging luchador from Mexico. Having realized that he's not getting any younger, he gets into the cocaine business in hopes of making enough to take care of himself and his family.
- The Big Guy: He is a former luchador, and still has the body to go with it.
- Cool Uncle: When he's not working with Teddy, he's hanging out with his nieces and nephews, who adore him.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: In the final season, he realizes that Teddy's operation is about to collapse and makes a deal with Franklin to hand over Teddy in exchange for Franklin helping him get Xiamara and the boys out of the country.
- The Mole: In the final season, he's forced to inform on Teddy to Tony Moreno from the DEA.
- Pet the Dog: He saves Franklin from being killed in the Mexicans territory when he walks by him being dragged into the house.
- Promoted to Parent: Following the murder of his brother and sister-in-law, he is raising his nieces and nephews with Xiamara.
Uncle Jerome
Jerome "Rome" Saint
- Played by: Amin Joseph
The uncle of Franklin Saint (he is Cissy's brother.) A veteran of LA's crime scene (and before that, a war veteran), he is recruited by Franklin to set up contacts for his burgeoning cocaine business. Later, he and Louie try to set out on their own.
- Berserk Button: Louie getting hurt brings the worst out of Jerome. A prime example of this is when Louie is caught in the crossfire during an attempt on Leon’s life, prompting Jerome to furiously take matters in his own hands and start the war between Franklin and Manboy's crews and when Louie is kidnapped by Kane, he and Franklin put their differences aside to rescue her.
- The Big Guy: Jerome is physically imposing and often uses his size and strength to put people in their place.
- Cool Uncle: For many years, he was the closest thing Franklin had to a father figure, and Franklin looked up to him.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Jerome dies after going on a rampage and wiping out Kane's gang in order to rescue Louie, even managing to kill Kane himself before taking a fatal bullet to the chest.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Franklin and Jerome go to confront Jim Volpe for stealing some of their cocaine, Jim whines about how he needed to sell the cocaine to cover the expenses of raising his son, which he has meticulously tallied up. Jerome may be an unrepentant drug dealer, but he is so appalled at the notion of keeping a running tab on your own offspring that he summons Jim's son and goads the boy into beating up his dad for being such a stingy asshole.
- Happily Married: Despite their dangerous lifestyle, he and Louie genuinely love each other. In season 5, they decide to finally make it official.
- Jerkass: Jerome is boisterous as hell and is very rude most of the time.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After seeing what the lifestyle has done to Peaches in season 5, Jerome decides that he needs to make some changes to his life and tells Louie that he wants out of the cocaine business.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At the end of "Say a Little Prayer", he's horrified when his and Louie's business trip to Arkansas results in the crack epidemic spreading to a new region.
- Outlaw Couple: He and Louie been involved in crime for much of their adult lives.
- Scary Black Man: Jerome is a brolic black man who happens to be a drug dealer and uses both his physical strength and weapons to intimidate or murder rival drug dealers.
- Uncle Tomfoolery: He has the racial characteristics of a stereotypical black man in 1980s Los Angeles: loud, boisterous, and always cracking jokes that’ll make the people around him (and audience) laugh. He slowly loses this over the course of the series as his arc in the drug trade becomes more serious.
- Villain with Good Publicity: He spreads his money around to the community, which has earned him a lot of goodwill despite everybody knowing how he got rich.
Aunt Louie
Louanne "Louie" Saint
- Played by: Angela Lewis
Jerome's wife, and Franklin's aunt. Formerly an escort working out of a club, she sees Franklin's new cocaine business as an opportunity to buy her way out of sex work. Later in the series, she decides to part ways with Franklin.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: She wanted to usurp Franklin, and she succeeded... at the very moment that the DEA began surveilling Teddy's operation. At the end of the series, with Teddy dead and Franklin now out of the game, she is Los Angeles' biggest cocaine dealer, and thus on the DEA's most wanted list.
- Face–Heel Turn: Initially Franklin's loving auntie, she starts getting a little too accustomed to having wealth and influence and starts to resent taking orders from her nephew. This drives her to go behind Franklin's back, doing business directly with Teddy.
- Happily Married: She and Jerome genuinely love each other.
- Lady Macbeth: In the later seasons, she decides to part ways with Franklin and start selling cocaine on her own. As Jerome is not comfortable with going to war with Franklin, Louie pushes him towards it, playing on his desire to protect her and convincing him that Franklin is now a threat to them.
- Outlaw Couple: She and Jerome have been involved in the underworld for much of their adult lives.
- Rape as Backstory: Back when she worked as an escort, she was raped several times, and was nearly killed by one of her customers. It's also likely that she was sexually exploited by Claudia, her former boss.
- Twofer Token Minority: She is black and bisexual; before meeting Jerome, she had relationships with at least two women, Candy and Claudia.
Avi
Avi Drexler
- Played by: Alon Abutbul
A half-mad Israeli arms dealer. He serves as Franklin's guide into Los Angeles' criminal underworld.
- Badass Israeli: He's a deconstruction. While he's successful and seems like an effective boss, he's also incredibly paranoid and impulsive and his organization is kept together largely by the force of his personality. When he gets arrested early in season 2, his operation almost falls apart.
- Season 4 reveals that he actually used to be a Mossad agent, but was kicked out for botching an operation.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Deconstructed. Avi's proneness to weird and arbitrary behavior and rather unstable temperament is implied to at least partly be an act he puts on to make people scared of crossing him, but is also a hindrance for anyone to really trust him as it makes him come across as Ax-Crazy. As soon as Jerome sees an opportunity to work around Avi, instead of with him, he immediately suggests to Franklin that they take it, and Franklin agrees just as quickly.
Cissy
Sharon "Cissy" Saint
- Played by: Michael Hyatt
The mother of Franklin Saint, and a former rent-collector. She now reluctantly runs the real-estate business that launders the money from his drug dealing.
- Category Traitor: She spent years collecting rent money from poor black people on behalf of her white boss, and was often the one who had to kick people out of their apartments when they couldn't make rent. It made her deeply unpopular in the community.
- Crusading Widow: In season 5, she returns to LA, ostensibly to help Franklin and Veronique prepare for parenthood, but in reality, she's made a deal with some of Teddy's enemies in Central America to spy on him in exchange for killing him for his role in Alton's death. In the penultimate episode, after Franklin makes a deal to hand Teddy back to the CIA in exchange for getting half of his seized money back, Cissy shoots Teddy dead.
- Morality Pet: She is one of the few non-criminals Franklin still listens to as he gets deeper and deeper into the business.
- Put on a Bus: She moves to Cuba at the end of season 4.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Alton exposes Franklin's ties to the CIA in a misguided attempt to get Franklin out of the drug business, while Franklin chooses to dig in his heels, an exasperated Cissy decides to leave LA.
- Spanner in the Works: In the penultimate episode, she kills Teddy before he can return Franklin's money, leaving Franklin destitute.
- Team Mom: Besides being Franklin's mother, she serves as a surrogate mother figure for Lee and Wanda.
Veronique
Veronique Saint
- Played by: Devyn A Taylor
A former con artist, and Franklin Saint's wife.
- Forced into Evil: Her mother Cassandra was a con artist, and raised her as an accomplice.
- Happily Married: She genuinely loves Franklin.
Leon
Leon "Lil' Lee" Simmons
- Played by: Isaiah John
Franklin's childhood friend, and later his right-hand man. In season 4, he ventures out on his own running a crew in the Projects.
- The Atoner: In the final season, he reluctantly returns to Los Angeles to try and atone for his past by helping vulnerable people relocate to Ghana. He also hopes to broker peace between Franklin and Louie. "Ballad of the Bear" finally gives him some peace, as Skully forgives him for shooting Tianna. The final episode reveals that he left the projects, went back to Ghana for a while, and after getting his head back on straight, he returned to start a legal clinic in the projects.
- Hot-Blooded: Leon can be calm much of the time, but he has a fiery violent temper.
- Malcolm Xerox: In season 5, he becomes embittered by the constant police raids on the Projects and starts talking about organizing his people to strike back, even turning to Avi in the hopes of acquiring heavy weaponry. Cissy tries to talk him out of it, pointing out that the cops have spent years preparing for whatever he's planning to do.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In "Expansion", he and his gang try to hit what they think is Skully's stash house. The plan goes horribly, horribly wrong, and he ends up shooting Skully's five-year-old daughter by accident.
- Naturalized Name: He adopts the name Gyata after moving to Ghana.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His attempt to attack Skully on his own results in the death of Skully's daughter, ensuring that Skully will be even more paranoid and vengeful than he already was. Making matters worse, Skully's wife happens to be Manboy's sister, and thus Manboy also seeks his head.
Ruben
Ruben
- Played by: Alejandro Edda
A Cuban spy who recruits Cissy, and later Franklin, into his operations against Teddy.
- The Chessmaster: He plays Frankllin and Teddy against each other, most notably by murdering Avi and making sure that neither Teddy nor Franklin know who did it.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Cissy and Franklin are satisfied that he's only after Teddy because of the latter's CIA operations in Central America, but there are signs that he has some greater plan in the works.
- Straight Gay: He has a male lover at home who is apparently unaware of what he actually does for a living, and is annoyed at how often he's away at work.
Peaches
DeJohn "Peaches" Hill
- Played by: De Ray Davis
An old war buddy of Jerome's who now works as Franklin's personal bodyguard.
- Back for the Finale: He returns in the final episode, only for Franklin to shoot him dead while searching for a stash of his money.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: He's almost always just referred to as "Peaches", because he lived on canned peaches during the war. We only learn his real name in "Lying in a Hammock", because Jerome is searching for him at the VA office.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Season five reveals that Peaches has been suffering from PTSD for years, but has used heroin to cover it up.
Kane
Kane Hamilton
- Played by: De Vaughn Nixon
The older brother of Kev Hamilton, and a particularly brutal OG. He is a major antagonist in season five.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: His reason for setting aside his feud with Franklin is entirely financial; his operation can't compete with Louie's now that she has the CIA bankrolling her, while Franklin is one of the few players in the game who has consistently made a profit."Franklin Saint is a ho... but hos make money."
- Enemy Mine: In the final season, he and Franklin are forced into an uneasy alliance when Louie goes after both of them. This partnership dissolves after Kane captures Louie and tries to set her up for a gang rape; as angry as Franklin is at his aunt, he's still not down with that.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When accused of putting out a hit on Franklin's whole family, he insists that he was only targeting Franklin and his associates, but that the gangbangers he hired were sloppy, resulting in Cissy, Louie, and Veronique being targeted as well.
- It's Personal: He's sworn vengeance against Franklin for killing his little brother Kev.
- Killed Off for Real: Jerome shoots him dead after he kidnaps Louie and tries to pimp her out.
- Mutual Kill: Kane and Jerome trade shots during their final confrontation, with Kane dying first but managing to hit Jerome in the chest, culminating with Jerome immediately falling dead.
- We Used to Be Friends: He was a mentor to Franklin, Leon, and Kev back when they were kids, but Kev's accidental death at Franklin's hands causes him to swear vengeance against them.
Buckley
Det. Beau Buckley
- Played by: Brandon Jay McLaren
The latest LAPD officer to come after Franklin's organization in season five.
- Dirty Cop: He somehow manages to be even more crooked than Nix. While he professes to want to bring down Franklin's organization, in reality, he's an addict, and Louie has managed to keep him under her thumb by keeping him well supplied with product and giving him the occasional tip. She even manages to bribe him into trying to kill Kane, which backfires terribly, as Kane survives, but Buckley's partner is killed, causing Buckley to get suspended.
Manboy
Drew "Manboy" Miller
- Played by: Melvin Gregg
An ambitious young dealer who challenges Franklin in season 3. When Franklin is wounded in a shooting, Manboy captures Compton, setting off a gang war with his longtime rival Skully.
- Big Brother Instinct: His Start of Darkness came when he and his little sister Khadijah were separated by child services, and Khadijah ended up in an abusive foster home. He tracked her down and murdered the foster dad.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The reason he hasn't murdered Skully yet is that his sister Khadijah is Skully's wife, which makes Skully's daughter his niece. When Lee accidentally kills Tianna, he readily offers Skully his assistance in finding Lee.
- Face Death with Dignity: Even after getting shot, Manboy doesn’t let off insulting Franklin and his crew without begging for his life before Franklin shoots him twice more and culminating in finally finishing him off.
- Faux Affably Evil: Beneath his pleasant and civil demeanor, he is a ruthless, cold-blooded bastard.
- Too Clever by Half: After almost a whole season of playing Franklin and Khadijah against each other to spectacular and bloody effect, Franklin pulls a Batman Gambit that leads him into a fatal ambush.
- Motor Mouth: As Franklin notes after finishing him off: "Nigga did talked too much."
- Worthy Opponent: He respects Franklin just enough to not have him killed.
Skully
Terrance "Skully" Brown
- Played by: Deaundre Bonds
A religious fanatic, and Manboy's chief rival. During Franklin Saint's absence from the cocaine game, he manages to capture Inglewood, enabling him to challenge both Manboy and Saint.
- Ax-Crazy: He's the kind of crazy bastard who shows up to as battle high as a kite.
- Character Development: He initially appears as an unstable, unpredictable lunatic, but over time, he matures into a more peaceful, introspective character.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely loves his wife Khadijah, and his daughter Tianna.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While he's terribly unstable, he usually honors his deals and only expands his turf if he feels its necessary to protect his operations. Or if he thinks God has told him to.
- The Fundamentalist: He is obsessed with crucifying those who cross him.
- Villainous Breakdown: Tianna's death sends him into a deep grief, making him utterly useless.
- Wild Card: In season 5, he's an X-factor in the growing divide between Franklin and Louie, as Franklin is ostensibly his supplier, but Louie and Jerome have been the people dealing with him.
Khadijah
Khadijah Brown
- Played by: Geffri Maya
Skully's wife, and later the de facto head of his gang. She also happens to be Manboy's sister.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: At the opening of season 4, she's just Skully's wife. As the season progresses, her rage and grief, coupled with her access to Manboy and Skully's weapons, makes her a considerable threat to Franklin's operation.
- Rejected Apology: When held at gunpoint by Black Diamond and Dallas. Leon apologizes for accidentally killing her daughter but she doesn't accept it, instead wanting his head. This prompts Jerome to put a bullet in her for good.
- Rape as Backstory: She was molested by her foster dad.
- Too Clever by Half: She has some of her older brother's cunning, but none of his discipline or impulse control. The result is a lot of meaningless carnage.
Melody
Melody Wright
Franklin's initial Love Interest, Melody is pretty, smart and the Girl Next Door - and she's also the daughter of the local police office Andre Wright.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Everyone initially assumes that because Melody is a straight A student bound for college that she wouldn't get hooked on rock the same way Wanda has - but she not only does end up on a downward spiral she also borrows and loses her father's car when trying to get more supply to be able to keep using when she goes off to college. Once she realises Franklin killed her father, she doesn't even bother trying to be careful like her father was, instead shooting Franklin multiple times the first chance she gets.
Wanda
Wanda Bell
- Played by: Gail Bean
Lee's girlfriend, and later his wife. After trying crack, she ends up on a bad downward spiral.
- Adopted to the House: After she gets clean, her family wants nothing to do with her, so Cissy takes her in.
- The Atoner: In season 5, she's gotten clean and is now trying to get her life back together and make amends for the things she did while on the pipe.
- The Load: After becoming a crack addict, her erratic behavior makes her a liability to Lee.
- Really Gets Around: When she and Lee return to the Projects in the final season, local hoodlum Big D makes a comment implying that she used to turn tricks there for crack.
- Toxic Friend Influence: While Mel discovers crack on her own, Wanda shows her where to find more, which contributes to Mel's own downward spiral.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She helps Mel find more crack, which sets off a chain of events in season 3 that culminates in the death of Andre Wright, the shooting of Franklin Saint, and the eruption of a gang war.
Irene
Irene Abe
- Played by: Suzy Nakamura
A reporter for the Herald Examiner who starts investigating Franklin Saint and uncovers his ties to the CIA.
- The Alcoholic: She has a tendency to drink. Franklin notices this when he first meets her.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She was one of the Americans of Japanese descent who was interned at Manzanar during World War II. She survived and made a life for herself, but her life has not been easy.
- Hero Antagonist: Irene tries to use her credentials as a journalist to expose a major Government Conspiracy, that surpresses a minority, much as the minority she herself was a member of got oppressed, at a great risk to herself. Unfortunately for her, this is a show centred on Villain Protagonists, so she ends up getting killed.
- Intrepid Reporter: She relishes the opportunity to expose a secret CIA operation.
- Too Dumb to Live: She decides to drink with Teddy after she tries to expose his identity on the radio. She ended up drugged & suffocated by Teddy and her death was made to be accidental drunk driving on the news.
Alton
Alton Williams
- Played by: Kevin Carroll
Cissy Saint's ex-husband, and Franklin's father. When the series opens, he is estranged from his family due to alcoholism, and living on the streets, but the second season sees him get sober and attempt to reconcile with Cissy.
- The Alcoholic: When the series opens, he is living on the streets because of his drinking.
- Alcoholic Parent: He was this to Franklin when Franklin was growing up. Franklin still hasn't completely forgiven him for it.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was a Black Panther back in his youth. When his cousin, who was also in the Panthers, became a snitch, Alton was forced to kill him because the Panthers were planning to torture him to death. The trauma of doing that sent Alton down a deep, dark hole.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: He doesn't look too bad when he finally gets clean and gets a shave.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In season 4, he goes to the paper and exposes the CIA's role in the crack epidemic. His hope was that Franklin would be forced out of the drug business. Instead, the CIA is all too happy to make Franklin a scapegoat, and he and Cissy lose their last hope of ever going into legitimate business.
Kev
Kevin "Kev" Hamilton
- Played by: Malcolm M Mays
A childhood friend of Franklin, and one of the founding members of his crew.
- Killed Off for Real: Franklin shoots him in the leg in the hopes of stopping him from starting a war with the Mexican gangs. Unfortunately for Franklin, the shot hit a major artery and Kev ends up bleeding to death.
- Revenge Over Reason: Kev decides that the deaths of his cousin and his friend must be avenged, even if it risks causing a gang war.
Matt McDonald
- Played by: Jonathan Tucker
- Friendly Target: Matt is held hostage by two Colombian drug dealers to ensure Teddy pays an outstanding debt. The dealers continually force Matt to snort a tremendous amount of cocaine over the course of two days. This permanently damages Matt's heart and he has at least two heart attacks, with one being fatal.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Where Teddy is cold and calculating, Matt is jovial and impulsive. Where Teddy always tries to assert control over a situation and tell people what to do, even if it isn't a smart move socially, Matt knows how to be friendly with people and butter them up to give him what he wants instead.
