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Season 1
The Devil
Scotty / The Devil
Portrayed By: Scott MacArthur
"Do you have any idea the things I can do with my body?"
A stuntman and the ringleader of the blackmailers targeting Jesse.
- Ax-Crazy: Scotty is a vicious, cruel man with a quick temper. He turns violent very quickly, views other people as puppets to be used and discarded and has a nasty streak of sadism running through the core of who he is. Although he's generally incompetent, he manages to be very intimidating simply by virtue of his tendency toward impulsive acts of violence.
- Bad Boss: Although he's supposedly allies with Gideon and girlfriend Lucy, he treats them more like subordinates. When Lucy is seemingly killed, he's upset for a few minutes before coldly trying to dump the body... except she isn't actually dead. He also attacks Gideon, and treats him pretty poorly in general, even stealing his lunch.
- Beard of Evil: He's a bearded psychopath.
- Faux Affably Evil: When he infiltrates Jesse's household, he shockingly manages to throw on a convincing facade of a stuntman with a wild past who's turned to Jesus and repented. Of course, Jesse isn't too bright and is riding the high of thinking he's put the blackmail episode behind him, but Scotty still does a pretty impressive job that fools everyone who isn't already wise to him.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It's unclear if he was always this unstable, but after the blackmail scheme goes awry he becomes very short-tempered, largely to his own detriment.
- Hate Sink: He's one of the few characters in the series who is more loathsome and unlikable than the Gemstones.
- Jerkass: A short-tempered, violent and rude man.
- Manipulative Bastard: Although not particularly bright, he does manages to keep Gideon under his thumb through a combination of implied violence, seemingly sincere friendship, and playing on Gideon's relationship with Jesse.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: His criminal rampage consists of one failure after another, and much of it can be blamed on Scotty's own incompetence and temper. He's run over by a car, fights Gideon to a standstill the day after, winds up living in his truck before getting run off the road (injuring him further) and then has to live in a shitty tent he can't even put up correctly. He starts to turn it all around by posing as a friend of Gideon's, but Gideon's change of heart seems to put an end to all his plans when he can't bring himself to shoot his former friend. Then he turns it all around by losing his mind completely and forcing Jesse, Gideon and Eli at gunpoint into leading him to the Gemstone family vault.
- Stupid Crooks: Scotty's not particularly bright, but since he's so violent, it doesn't make him any less dangerous.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Gets his brains blown out minutes after his heist.
- Villainous Breakdown: After things go wrong during his blackmail attempt, Scotty is in a permanent state of frustrated outrage.
Season 2
The Cycle Ninjas
The Cycle Ninjas
A gang of teen/young adult orphans that Lyle Lissons recruit to kill Eli Gemstone.
- Assassination Attempt: They fail to kill Eli twice. They succeed with the Lissons.
- Combat Pragmatist: Their modus operandi is basically to catch their victim off guard and unload their guns from a safe distance. If that doesn't work? Drive off and live to fight another day.
- Faceless Goons: Justified since they're a biker gang.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: They rain down bullets on the Gemstones several times without ever hitting any of them save for Eli, and even he survived without permanent damage.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: They're dressed in all black and their bikes and helmets are outfitted with distinctive glowing red accents
- Child Soldiers: Lyle uses them as his own personal army.
- Heel–Face Turn: They end up working for the Gemstones after Lyle flakes on them.
- Teens Are Monsters
- Troubled Teen: Invoked as a reason that Lyle uses them.
The Lissons
Lyle & Lindy Lissons
Portrayed By: Eric André & Jessica Lowe
"First borns!"
A televangelist couple from Texas who rope Jesse and Amber into investing in a Christian resort in Florida.
- Asshole Victim: After seemingly getting away for their crimes against the Gemstones, Martin calls the same bikers they had hired to go after them. Lindy is gunned down while Lyle freezes to death and has his corpse eaten by wolves.
- Big Bad: For Season 2, with virtually all the events of the season resulting from their actions.
- Big Brother Bully: Lyle tells Jesse that he cut his sister out of the family business when their father got sick and urges Jesse to get his own siblings out of his way. He says that oldest children are born to be ruthless leaders and that’s why he and Lindy are good together.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Scotty was an outsider threatening the Gemstone empire due to his own greed, an Ax-Crazy Hate Sink who was too incompetent to really get anything done. The Lissons are uber-wealthy, from within the world of the Gemstones and very nearly get away with everything.
- Deadlier Than The Male: Lindy's shown to be a little more trigger-happy than her husband. Also, while Lyle was more verbally abusive towards his father, Lindy just right up slaps him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all their faults, they do seem to sincerely love one another and are never seen at odds.
- Everything Is Bigger In Texas: The whole aesthetic of the Lissons and their church. Their church sports a humongous Texas flag, they live on a ranch, play Texas-themed music and of course have a Texas-sized bank account.
- Evil Counterpart: They have all of Jesse and Amber's worst qualities cranked up, with none of the qualities that redeem them:
- Like Jesse, Lyle has a group of dimwitted friends with whom he shares dark secrets that are ripe for blackmailing...unlike Jesse, his secrets are far worse to the point that he's willing to kill to protect them. Nor does he care for his friends beyond their utility as accomplices, ruthlessly murdering them when he thinks they're a liability.
- Like Jesse, Lyle is a "Well Done, Son" Guy who wants to prove to his father he is worthy of inheriting what he built. Unlike Jesse, Lyle is willing to betray his father, stuff him in a home and permit him to be abused while cutting out his sibling.
- Like Amber, Lindy is an attractive woman who married into a successful evangelical family and has ambitions of making it to the top, however Lindy treats Lyle's father with utter contempt and abuse.
- Fair-Weather Friend: They appear to be this to Jesse and Amber. When Jesse and Amber have to back out of the deal, Lyle throws a tantrum and abandons them. It later turns out that the money was secondary, and Lyle really did want to be friends with Jesse...but he considered the money proof of their friendship.
- Faux Affably Evil: They come across as a charismatic, likable couple...which disguises the depths of their depravity.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: They are killed when the Gemstones manage to turn the teenage assassins they trained against them.
- Just Desserts: Lyle's ultimate fate is to freeze to death in the wilderness and get eaten by a pack of wolves after Lindy is gunned down.
- Mirror Character: They serve as this to Jesse and Amber, being a televangelist couple of similar age, with the difference being that the Lissons aren't dependent on a patriarch like Eli, though we find out that is because they cut Papa Lissons out at the first sign of weakness.
- The Mole: For Thaniel Block, to whom he was feeding information about other televangelists to thin out the competition.
- Pedophile Priest: Block implies he’s sitting on information about Lyle being one, and Lyle doesn’t dispute it.
Season 3
Stephen & Kristy
Stephen & Kristy Downes
Portrayed By: Stephen Schneider & Casey Wilson
"I hate Kristy. I wish I could chop her fucking head off while she's making omelettes."
A guitarist for Judy's band and his nagging wife.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Kristy is introduced as upset that Stephen got fired, might be back on cocaine and also insulted her haircut.
- Awful Wedded Life: They absolutely loathe each other.
- Beard of Evil
- Blackmail: Kristy expects to be compensated for Stephen and Judy's affair, and she is.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being a relentless, stalkery douchebag, Stephen seems uncomfortable with Kristy blackmailing the church. Though it doesn't stop him from shooting his shot with Judy again later.
- Evil Counterpart: They are one for BJ and Judy.
- Judy and Stephen are both self-absorbed, sexually aggressive church musicians who participate in a 'no sex' affair. However, Judy is wracked with guilt while Stephen is completely remorseless.
- BJ and Kristy are both the wronged partner in the affair who take dramatic action in retaliation for the affair. Kristy seems to be a normal person, the way BJ is, however she's volatile and selfish, refusing to consider working on her marriage and instead demanding a handout from the church.
- As a couple, Judy and BJ are mostly happy despite their weirdness, whereas Kristy and Stephen seem ordinary and suburban but are toxic and miserable.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Stephen didn't plan it, but BJ enters his house and picks a fight with him while he's masturbating. He doesn't have any reservations about beating the ever-loving crap out of BJ while butt-naked.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Stephen to BJ.
- Hen Pecked Husband
- Jaded Washout: Kristy accuses Stephen of this, being a man in his forties with two children still wearing ripped jeans and sporting frosted tips.
- Jerkass: They're both deeply unpleasant, but Kristy is especially callous when Stephen and Judy's affair is revealed, both treating Stephen like a whipped dog and rubbing Judy's face in it even after she gets her money.
- Manipulative Bastard: Stephen.
- Rage Breaking Point: Kristy snaps and hits Stephen with a blender after he unleashes a torrent of verbal abuse on her.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He calls BJ a homophobic slur for protesting his graphic sex talk.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Seemingly incapable of taking rejection and will lash out about it.
- Stalker with a Crush: Stephen not leave Judy alone. Even after the church pays to make he and Kristy go away, he will not relent.
- Unwanted Spouse: Stephen hates Kristy and the feeling seems mutual.
- Yandere: He says he'd murder his family to be with Judy.
Peter
Peter Montgomery
Portrayed By: Steve Zahn
"God Saves. Money? Money just gets you stuff"
Eli's estranged brother-in-law who leads a religious, right-wing militia called Brothers of Tomorrow's Fires after being released from prison.- A Day in the Limelight: "Interlude III" focuses on Peter's Start of Darkness and the rift between the Montgomerys and the Gemstones. Peter, buying into the narrative about Y2K that Eli was pushing, spent all of the family's savings on survivalist buckets. May-May refused Eli's offer to buy them back and it drove Peter to rob a bank, killing a security guard in the process.
- Abusive Parent: Zig-zagged and played with. Peter treats his sons horribly as adults, belittling Karl and physically torturing his own subordinates to scare them. However, he seemed to be a fairly ordinary father to them when they were kids, if too much of a Hen Pecked Husband to stick up for them when May-May smacked them around.
- An Arm and a Leg: Loses a leg in the explosion he intended to destroy the Gemstone church with.
- Ax-Crazy: Slices off part of a guy's ear just to upset his sons.
- Bad Boss: Tortures a random militia member to get his sons to confess their (alleged) betrayal. Eventually the militia gets sick of him and kick him and Chuck out.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The Lissons were wealthy outsiders who had no real personal grudge against the Gemstones, just a desire to get their way by whatever means necessary. Peter is part of the family, and driven purely by anger at the Gemstones.
- Crazy Survivalist: A gun-stockpiling, government hating militia leader who lives on a hidden rural compound.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Spent over 20 years in prison after a robbery gone wrong.
- Despair Event Horizon: Chuck's "death" crystallizes his desire to blow up the Gemstone church, because he's got nothing left.
- Did Not Think This Through: Peter is an impulsive man who seems to plan by the seat of his pants, which is why his plans constantly seem on the verge of falling apart.
- The Dreaded: Eli can't even stand to hear his name and May-May is petrified of him.
- Expy: His facial scar, glasses and gun-loving militia evoke Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His Start of Darkness was caused by a desperate need to provide for his family. Eventually, it's his love for them that redeems him.
- Everyone Has Standards: He's a far-right militia leader who's open to things like poisoning the water supplies of cities, and is pretty Ax-Crazy himself; but even he thinks Marshall's fixation on counter-protesting Confederate statue protests is a stupid waste of time and resources.
- Evil Is Petty: Peter bullies Karl for no real reason other than he seems to think it's funny.
- Evil Uncle: To the Gemstone kids. He abducts them and plans to murder at least one of them.
- Foil: To his ex-brother-in-law Eli.
- Both are talented public speakers capable of wooing crowds of people to their causes. Both are also varying degrees of terrible to their adult kids. However, Eli is a decadent, financially successful businessman and preaches a mainstream politically vague/neutral evangelicalism; while Peter is purposefully scraggly, right-wing, and embraces fringe fanaticism.
- Also, both are far from perfect fathers; but Eli feels immense guilt whenever he goes too far, while Peter's default mode of parenting is to psychologically terrorize his sons without remorse.
- Eli was also a loving and devoted husband who never had a bad thing to say about Aimee-Leigh, especially not around his kids, while Peter smears May-May to the boys relentlessly and she's afraid of him after his stint in prison.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Went from an unassuming, seemingly meek pentecostal preacher to a militia leader plotting acts of terrorism.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Seems remarkably adept at building explosives and detonators with minimal resources.
- Heel–Face Turn: He realizes the error of his ways and saves the family from his bomb.
- Henpecked Husband: "Interlude III" reveals that his wife used to treat him this way.
- Hypocrite: Calls the Gemstones out for claiming to be men of God when they don't behave like it, but he himself doesn't follow the Bible at all in his leadership; threatening his followers with violence to keep them in line and teaching a way of war rather than peace.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Drives his bomb away from the church, intending to sacrifice himself to save his family after realizing his mistakes. He ends up blowing part of his leg off but survives, and is later seen with the entire extended family wearing a prosthetic.
- Huge Girl, Tiny Guy: 5'7" Peter is married to 6'0" May-May.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Surprisingly becomes this after the Gemstone siblings are rescued from his compound. His men turn on him, despite his desperate attempts to keep them under control, and after he thinks Chuck's died he's a blubbering mess.
- Karma Houdini: The last scene of season 3 reveals he survived the explosion of the Smut Busters van, albeit at the cost of part of his leg. He also didn't seem to face any legal consequences for either truck bombing or his actions with the militia.
- Meaningful Name: The Biblical Peter was a friend of Jesus who abandoned him and eventually reconciled with him. This mirror's Peter's relationship to both his family and the Gemstones.
- Never My Fault: Invoked. He can't take accountability for his own part in what put him in prison, but a plague of locusts manage to put it into perspective.
- Revenge Before Reason: He could have let go of trying to specifically targeting the Gemstones and disappeared into the woodwork with a fairly loyal group of fanatics, but his single-minded desire to hurt Eli drove everyone, even Chuck, away in the end.
- Small Parent, Huge Child: He's a foot shorter than his younger son, Karl.
- Smug Snake: He thinks he has complete and total control over his situation. He really, really doesn't.
- Start of Darkness: "Interlude III" focuses on his.
- Straw Misogynist: Mostly directed at Judy and Kelvin, but also his own men.
- Tragic Villain: He invested way too much money in the Gemstones' Y2K emergency kits. When the apocalypse didn't happen, they ended up worthless and Eli offered to buy back everything he had. But Peter's wife was too proud to accept Eli's help. The family fell into poverty. Peter robbed a bank, got sent to jail, and got involved in right-wing militias.
- We Used to Be Friends: He and Eli.
- Villain Has a Point: His callout of the Gemstones is accurate, but it doesn't make him less of a monster.
The Brothers of Tomorrow's Fires
The Brothers of Tomorrow's Fires
Portrayed By: Steve Zahn, Sturgill Simpson, Lukas Haas
A right-wing, doomsday-prepping evangelical militia led by Eli Gemstone's ex-brother-in-law.
- Ax-Crazy: Several of the members are more gung-ho for violence than others.
- The Cast Show Off: Singer Sturgill Simpson is allowed to sing a song during the group's worship.
- Conspiracy Theorist: At least one member wants to blow up 5G towers for...some reason.
- Crazy Survivalist: Eli explicitly calls them "preppers."
- Jerkass Has a Point: The militiamen were definitely right to call out Peter for squandering every bit of leverage they possibly had and forcing them to go on the run.
- Real Men Love Jesus: A violent, gun-loving all-man group obsessed with masculinity, who also sing praise songs to Jesus Christ.
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic
- Politically Incorrect Villain: They insult each other by saying others are "acting like a woman" repeatedly, and Marshall's whole thing is wanting to protest people protesting Confederate monuments.
- Pretentious Latin Motto: "Non decor, duco." Translated, it means "no beauty, I say." Hinting at Peter's It's Personal grudge against the Gemstones and their lavish, showy lifestyle rather than a firm philosophy for the group.
The Simkins Family
Vance, Shay and Craig Simkins
Portrayed By: Steven Dorff, Iliza Shlesinger, Gogo Lomo-David
Shay, Vance and Craig.
Rival evangelist siblings that butt up against the Gemstones, competing for Dusty Daniels' estate.- The Ace: Vance seems to be this.
- Always Someone Better: How Jesse sees them.
- Blonde Republican Sex Kitten: Shay has shades of this combined with the wardrobe of a kindergarten teacher.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Deliberately invoked by them. Their parents died in a plane crash, leaving Vance to raise his siblings.
- Dirty Coward: Vance leaves behind his siblings and kids at the first sign of danger, even knocking over Dusty on his way out.
- Foil: Vance to Jesse. They're both ambitious oldest siblings of a megachurch empire. But Jesse is openly foul-mouthed with a hair-trigger temper, and an inability to read a room; while Vance is collected and affable. Jesse constantly argues with his siblings, while Vance gets along with his. Vance comes across as a Good Shepherd, while Jesse is extremely selfish. However, when the chips are down, Vance reveals himself to be a Dirty Coward whose affability is mostly schmoozing; while Jesse's instinct is to put his life on the line to save both his family and anybody else caught in the crossfires.
- Good Counterpart: Basically the Gemstone siblings if they weren't (openly) jerkasses and treated each other kindly. This is subverted when it's revealed Vance is even more self-serving than Jesse, and just as petty
- Happily Adopted: Craig.
- Hero Antagonist: "Hero" is pushing it since they're also a money-hungry and somewhat manipulative trio; but besides some flattery they're not presented as crooked like the Gemstone siblings. In fact, Jesse strikes Vance first.
- Laser-Guided Karma: While fleeing from the locusts at Bible Bonkers, Vance knocks over Dusty Daniels and doesn't help him back up; but Jesse does. This leads to their church losing Daniels as a congregant to the Gemstones.
- Mirror Character: To the Gemstones siblings.
- Vance and Jesse are the eldest brothers, both somewhat smug "main deciders," but Vance is actually competent.
- Shay and Judy are the middle children and only girls, both curly-haired and shown using flirtatious behavior.
- Craig and Kelvin are the younger brothers, both slightly separate from their siblings (Craig being adopted, Kelvin being Practically Different Generations). Craig seems to share Kelvin's tendency to be vain/image conscious.
- Not So Above It All: They try to pretend they're better than the Gemstones, but when the chips are down, they're the same. Vance particularly shows himself to be just as petty and mean as Jesse during their Cloak and Pistol meetings. When the locusts attack Bible Bonkers, he leaves his siblings and Dusty behind.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: So far, they're not criminals or threats to the Gemstones' lives like the rest of the antagonists. Instead, they're rival evangelical industrial complex figures.
- Remember the New Guy?: They act like they've been rivals with the Gemstone siblings for a while, but there was no mention of them prior to Season 3.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Shay and Craig slap Vance for leaving them behind to escape the locusts.
