Character page for THEM (2021).
Season 1: Covenant
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The Emory Household
Henry Emory
Played by: Ashley Thomas
The patriarch of the family.
- Cerebus Retcon: In the first episode, it's mentioned that Henry enjoys watching movies. The tenth episode reveals the home invasion happened while he took Ruby and Gracie to the movies, and they weren't supposed to go for another hour. He believes he could've prevented the tragedy.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Marty and Earl torture him in front of Ruby and Gracie, believing he did something to Betty. They beat his head, cut off one of his fingers, and attempt hanging him in the basement.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He fought in World War II and is bitter that colored soldiers were treated as more expendable, which lead to them being deployed and experimented on with weapons like mustard gas, in addition to their lack of respect after the war.
- Does Not Like Spam: Can’t stand sweets because the mustard gas he inhaled in the trenches smelled sweet and as a result, he can barely bring himself to eat a cake that Gracie Jean makes for him.
- Fingore: Marty snips off two of his fingers during his Cold-Blooded Torture.
- Good Parents: He tries his hardest to be this, although his PTSD causes him to struggle. When a younger Ruby makes him a peach pie and he has an episode that scares her, since the smell is reminiscent of mustard gas, he cries that he can't eat what she made him. This is somewhat deconstructed when he takes his daughters to the movies and unknowingly leaves Lucky at the mercy of the home invaders.
- Madness Mantra: In the last episode, when the house is surrounded by fire with the neighbours outside crying for their blood, as Da Tap-Dance Man torments Henry, he tells him to give into his rage, go outside and show the neighbours what they came to see: "A beast of the field". Henry begins repeating these words whilst beating his chest until Lucky turns up and pulls him back to sanity.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Moving his family into a white neighborhood worsens their family's trauma (even discounting the paranormal activities) and makes them the target of the neighborhood's wrath.
- Papa Wolf: He beats the crap out of Marty for torturing him and threatening to kill his children. This is also enforced by his guilt from not being able to protect Lucky and Chester, and Da Tap Dance Man utilizes this guilt to convince him to take it out on his white neighbors.
- Trigger The sweet smell of mustard gas from World War 2 has left him with a serious trigger when it comes to sweet food of any kind.
- Sanity Slippage: He starts off the story as a kind, protective father who wants the best for his wife and daughters, but as the discrimination escalates and he's pushed further and further into cynicism, as well as his PTSD making a comeback, he starts becoming more unhinged, to the point where he kills a police officer and nearly kills a pregnant woman. Thankfully, Lucky pulls him from the brink at the last minute.
- Would Hurt a Child: Close to Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, he threatens to shoot Nat in the womb to teach Marty what it's like to lose a child just as he did. Fortunately, Ruby and Gracie interrupt him before he can do it and he backs off.
Livia "Lucky" Emory
Played by: Deborah Ayorinde
The matriarch of the family.
- Anti-Hero: She is probably the only family member to outright start the show as this. On the first few days, she waves a gun around on her lawn, demonstrating that she's not afraid to use it if any of her racist neighbors try to harm her family.
- Big Damn Heroes: She breaks out of the asylum just in time to save her family from their personal demons.
- Broken Bird: She was badly traumatized by the home invasion, and moving into a white neighborhood makes it go From Bad to Worse.
- Catapult Nightmare: In the Cold Opening of the sixth episode, she has one when she dreams of smashing Ruby's head open with an axe in the middle of the night.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She was home alone with Chester when an old white woman and three white men invaded her home and raped her and killed Chester by tossing him around in a bag.
- Does Not Like Spam: Lucky was slicing peaches on the morning of the day her son was murdered and when Gracie Jean presents her with a bowl of peaches she has sliced for her, Lucky vomits. Poor Gracie can't get a break when it comes to serving her parents food.
- Housewife: Deconstructed. She was helpless and alone when she was raped and Chester was killed, leaving her with a strong trauma against white people, having trouble staying as a housewife in the present, and being much more protective of her family.
- Mama Bear: She's the one who saves everyone from Epps and his machinations in the end.
- My Greatest Failure: Chester's murder.
- Proper Lady: She’s stylishly yet sensibly dressed, well-educated as she’s a qualified teacher, a good wife and mother and will be perfectly civilised and polite up until you decide to mess with her family.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: She was raped in a home invasion while they killed Chester.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: She defeats Epps in a Talking the Monster to Death/Shut Up, Hannibal! moment, saying that although they may have been traumatized by the loss of their children, she chooses to move forward and neither stagnant or downward, which is what makes them Not So Similar.
- Trigger: She's triggered whenever she feels she and her family are being threatened or attacked, stemming from her trauma of the home invasion. She has flashbacks to previous racial aggressions and becomes aggressively defensive, like pulling out her gun and waving it around on the lawn when she thinks the neighbors broke into their house.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She calls out Henry for moving them into a white neighborhood, especially since she thought their new home was going to be closer to family and that leaving their white trauma behind was why they moved in the first place.
- Would Hurt a Child: She finds one of the neighbor boys urinating on her sheets while she was drying them, who then brandishes a stick at her when she confronts him. She disarms him and chases him with it through the neighborhood. Naturally, this looks bad, not that the neighbors care about what really happened.
Ruby Lee Emory
Played by: Shahadi Wright Joseph
The eldest daughter of the family.
- All of the Other Reindeer: She's the only black student at her school and is predictably ostracized and mistreated by her students and teachers.
- Ambiguously Gay: Doris and Ruby kiss, and with the reveal that Doris is really a spirit using Ruby's insecurities against her, this basically means Ruby is
literally imagining kissing another girl. Whether this is because of Ruby's insecurities (she essentially sees a girl like Doris as the standard of beauty, so the kiss could be Ruby subconsciously worshipping Doris) or that Ruby is convinced Doris is real and developed a crush on her is up in the air. - Big Brother Instinct: She's protective of Gracie, best shown when she axes Earl after he turns to attack Gracie. When Lucky is unable to care for them, such as when she was suffering from her trauma of the home invasion or was taken to the mental hospital, Ruby takes on a semi-maternal role to care for Gracie.
- Boomerang Bigot: Subverted: The Season Finale reveals she was very close to becoming this, like her being resentful of her mother, afraid of ending up crazy like her, and wanting to be accepted by her white classmates. The demon, however, is responsible for putting these thoughts in her head and she realizes this in time to overcome it.
- Mommy Issues: While she loves her mom, she's afraid that she'll end up like her — helpless when Chester was killed and hysterical after his death. Ruby's arc is about finding her identity as an African American teenager and being accepted.
- Sanity Slippage: Ruby, in desperate need for a friend, hallucinates Doris as a white girl who finally accepts her, but still sees her being black as a flaw instead of a trait, really reflecting Ruby's insecurities towards herself. Ruby then imagines joining the white cheerleading squad, until it culminates in her painting herself white and showing up at her classmates' bonfire party.
Gracie Jean Emory
Played by: Melody Hurd
The youngest daughter of the family.
- Big Brother Instinct: When a cop aggressively asks about where Chester is upon seeing him in a photo with Lucky, she gets upset and yells at him to not touch her brother, even if he's dead.
- Creepy Child: Zigzagged. Gracie herself isn't this usually, as she's talkative, emotional and kind of silly, but whenever Miss Vera is around, she suddenly starts acting a lot more like this trope (saying weird things, being cryptic, lashing out violently).
- Genki Girl: Gracie is upbeat and takes little nonsense, which is a harsh contrast to the world the rest of her family has to deal with.
- You Go, Girl!: Has this reaction when her mom finally slaps Betty in the face.
Chester Emory
Played by:
The family's late infant son and baby brother, who died before the events of the main story.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The home invaders put him in a pillowcase and tossed him and swung him around like "a cat in a bag" until he died.
- Foregone Conclusion: He appears in the Cold Opening of the first episode, and when we jump forward to 1953, he's nowhere to be seen. Given the topic of the series, it's pretty easy to guess something bad happened to him.
- Gory Discretion Shot: We don't see his body after he's killed, just his unmoving silhouette and his blood seeping through the pillowcase.
Neighbors
Elizabeth "Betty" Wendell
Played by: Allison Pill
The de jure leader of the neighborhood.
- Abusive Parents: Her parents are manipulative and controlling given that her father is the head of an oil company and that Betty is envious of her lack of a financial resource and any power; it's implied they wish she was born a boy so that they would have an heir. She reaches out to them after years of estrangement to ask them for "a loan", which they laugh at her for.
- Affectionate Nickname: Betts, by Clarke and her friends.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Surprisingly enough, yes. She has Abusive Parents who wished she was born a boy, finds out her husband has been secretly taking from their savings, and seeks out solace in an old friend who turns out to be a Stalker with a Crush and traps her in his bunker.
- Alpha Bitch
- Ambiguous Situation: Her parents are undoubtedly verbally abusive, but its slightly hinted that her father's abuse may have been sexual. When she asks to borrow money, the incentive is for her to take a bath, despite it being in the middle of the day, with her father being the one to draw the bath, despite that they have servants. The fact that her mother seems dismissive and spiteful towards Betty doesn't make it much better.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The human Big Bad.
- Break the Haughty: An African American family moves into the house across the street in her racially-pure neighborhood, her husband won't support her in her racist endeavors, she tries to resort to moving out and humiliates herself by asking her abusive parents for money (and they don't), finds out that her husband has also been stealing money from their savings, and the sole person she thought she could connect with is a stalker who ends up killing her.
- Compensating for Something: It's implied that her neighborly attitude is because she's bored and she can't spend that time raising a family due to infertility or lack of commitment from Clarke, and she knows it.
- Dirty Coward: She helped organize the harassment and abuse of the Emory family, but doesn't speak a word when Lucky finally slaps her and runs back into her house when she can.
- Dramatic Irony:
- She's right that the Emorys moved into Compton because they came from a bad place and wanted to find a good place to call their new home, and that to drive them away, they need to make Compton even worse than what the endured in their old home. By the middle of the season, she resorts to moving away, completely ignorant that the problem with the Emorys isn't them but her, so her misery of other races existing will still follow her no matter where she goes.
- She wants to keep Compton completely white and believes the Emorys need to be run out of town before more blacks join them. In the present day, Compton has a prominent black population due to this time period.
- Betty spends the whole season obsessed with the danger the black family across the street would cause to her or their white neighbors, yet, she is ultimately kidnapped and killed by her completely unnassuming white milkman.
- Freudian Excuse: Her father is a rich oil tycoon in Beverly Hills and both he and her mother are psychologically abusive, which explains her similar Alpha Bitch and Lady Macbeth tendencies.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: It becomes increasingly clear that her standing in the community is based on her harassment against the Emorys, and that absolutely nobody likes her besides that. Her parents are dismissive, her implied-to-be-gay husband is only with her for appearances and her family's money, one of her own "friends" admits to hating her after she goes missing, and even her Stalker with a Crush George is willing to shoot her to hide the fact that he kidnapped her. In the finale, the white men who attack Henry not so much because they think he kidnapped Betty, but because they think he kidnapped ''a'' white woman.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She struggles to stay composed when she learns Midge is pregnant, not helped when Midge tries to assure her that she and Clarke could keep trying.
- Happily Married: With Clarke... though it falls apart when he won't support her in harassing the Emorys and she finds out he's been stealing their savings.
- Hate Sink: She is an utterly loathsome human being who is responsible for rallying the neighborhood against the Emory's and turning their lives into a living hell simply because she didn't want black people in her neighborhood. She's also a mean-spirited Control Freak with a stunning Lack of Empathy, and a Dirty Coward who tries to manipulate others into doing her bidding.
- Housewife:
- Deconstructed. She envies this, being financially dependent on Clarke as the sole breadwinner and only asking for a loan from her rich Abusive Parents was a last resort. Being humiliated by her parents and finding out that Clarke secretly used up their savings, thus ridding her of her backup plan to move out, are catalysts to her Break the Haughty.
- When her parents ask her if she has kids with Clarke, she answers no and claims it's because they don't have that kind of time on their hands since she's busy running the neighborhood despite that clearly being a choice. Considering she's a housewife with nothing else to do, this implies she channels her time and energy into being an Alpha Bitch in place of not being able to use those to raise her own children.
- The show also covers housewives being seen as objects, with George being obsessed with her and a possible interpretation of her marriage with Clarke being that he wanted her for her money.
- Lady Macbeth: This being the 1950's, people would be more accepting of a male leader than a female leader, so convinces a reluctant Clarke to lead the effort to harass the Emorys, though he's not as driven as her and isn't as outwardly racist as her. She's pissed when Clarke is a no-show at the meeting.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: She goes deeper into Tranquil Fury when Midge reveals she's pregnant and that she and Clarke could keep trying, Lucky countering that she doesn't have children to consider unlike her with Ruby and Gracie seems to be a sore spot, and when her father asks if she has children, she says no but claims it's because of a lack of time from being a Nosy Neighbor.
- Missing White Woman Syndrome: She wrecks her house in a Villainous Breakdown and runs off with her purse and keys. The neighbors are quick to assume the Emorys did something to her and it leads to Marty and Earl attacking the family, though Clarke is sure it's just as simple as running off and might come back after she's done being mad. They're both onto something — she did take off because she was pissed though intended to come back, except she was kidnapped and killed by the seemingly friendly white milkman.
- Nosy Neighbor
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Naturally, given the time period.
- Rousing Speech: She has a villainous one in the second episode to persuade the neighborhood to drive out the Emorys, comparing them to a "mold that can only grow and can't be scrubbed out". Despite everyone being receptive to it, she thought she embarrassed herself.
- Tantrum Throwing: In the seventh episode, she wrecks her house after Lucky slaps her, which was the final straw after her Humiliation Conga.
- Tranquil Fury: In the second episode, the scene tenses up when Midge tells her that because her husband Dale got a better job, they're moving away to Anaheim, and that she's also pregnant. Midge also mentions that Betty and Clarke could've had what they're having before Betty cuts her off and leaves. While this is happening, the camera gets screwy, the music becomes intense, and Betty tries taking her anger out on a boiled egg and glares daggers at Dale and Midge's new car.
- The Unsmile: Her default expression is a toothy smile that doesn't match her eyes.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: She thinks George let her go from the bunker and she tries to run off free, only to be suddenly shot by George from a distance.
Clarke Wendell
Played by: Liam McIntyre
Betty's husband, who is usually away at work and not wholeheartedly ready to join the effort to run the Emorys out of town...
- Accomplice by Inaction: He's one of the few white characters in the show that isn't, though he's constantly pushed around by the other characters into doing so lest they see him as a traitor. That said, he doesn't do much to help the Emorys outside of weaseling out of harassing them, notably when he's had enough of the neighbors being violent to the family and decides to just leave instead of trying to stop the riot. It's implied Lucky doesn't see him as any better than the other racist whites, as he's in her nightmares glaring at her with the neighbors, even after seeing him trying to keep Marty and Earl from attacking them in the season's climax.
- Ambiguously Bi: He does seem to genuinely love Betty, and Bull says that he was seen at a place that "looks like a normal bar from the outside" with a panicking Clarke trying to excuse it as things another guy like Bull would understand. At first, this sounds like either Clarke was seeing prostitutes, though it's also possible he was going to a gay bar (or seeing gay prostitutes), which would contextualize his sympathy for other races.
- Closet Gay: Implied. He was caught seen at "a bar that looks normal from the outside", "a place that he shouldn't be in". While the first thing that comes to mind is that he was paying women for sex, it's also possible he was at an underground gay bar, a popular phenomenon in the 1950's, strengthened when his Rage Breaking Point is Marty not only calling him a traitor, but also a "faggot". This would also contextualize his sympathy for the Emorys while also contextualizing why he's too afraid to help them outright. This also makes the idea that he's been cheating on Betty a little more sympathetic — it's not hard to imagine how she would treat him if she knew.
- Commonality Connection: It's implied that the reason why he sympathizes with the Emorys is because as a Closet Gay, they both endure discrimination from society.
- Dirty Coward: His wife and neighbors see him as this for not wanting to lead their effort to drive the Emorys out of Compton. On the other hand, despite being sympathetic towards them, he doesn't actively help the Emorys out of fear of being further ostracized by other whites. It's implied he does feel guilty about not helping them, best shown when he exchanges looks with Lucky as he leaves the neighborhood.
- The Dog Bites Back: After finding out Marty and Earl did Cold-Blooded Torture on Henry and threatened his daughters, along with Marty calling him a coward and race traitor, Clarke stomps on Marty's injured leg and spits on him before leaving.
- Everybody Has Standards: He only reluctantly participates in harassing the Emorys, believing that it's wrong yet is too afraid to explicitly shut it down. When the men discuss what methods they could use, he merely suggests thumbtacking their cars and he objects to throwing rocks through the Emorys' windows, knowing they have children and that they may hit them.
- Foreshadowing: His wife and friends complain that it always seems he's working overtime, since he comes home from work later than most guys.
- Gold Digger: In the sixth episode, Betty finds out that their shared savings account of $6,000 is now just $400. She didn't take out a single penny.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: It's implied he's been unfaithful to Betty, but it's mostly sympathetic because it's hinted he's a Closeted Gay secretly visiting gay bars and that she more than likely would turn against him if she discovered he was gay.
- Happily Married: With Betty... until she realizes he won't support her racist endeavors. We then learn that they've secretly been not-so-happy for a while — they're unable to have children (whether it's because they're infertile or if Clarke won't commit is unclear — the latter is possible given he may be a Closeted Gay), she learns that he drained their savings, and the both of them have been having affairs. Just like mold behind a wallpaper...
- Henpecked Husband: Betty tries to persuade him to lead the neighborhood against the Emorys, which he's reluctant to do and ultimately stands her up on. This causes a permanent rift in their relationship, as she sees it as proof that he's not reliable. Marty and Earl agree.
- Heroic Neutral: A tragic and depressing example. He's one of the few "good" white characters in the show, but he's kept from being head-on against racism due to being too afraid of being ostracized — made slightly more sympathetic when it's hinted that he's a Closet Gay, though points taken off for stealing money from his wife.
- If Youre So Evil Then Eat This Kitten: He has to be goaded into participating in his wife and neighbors' racist acts against the Emorys, and his repeated failure to do it autonomously strains his relationships with them.
- Karma Houdini: He never finds out that Betty disappeared because she found out he drained their savings, nor does he find out Betty cheated on him, was kidnapped, and murdered. He's also never punished for implicitly hiring prostitutes since Betty never finds out, though that may be YMMV on the severity of that and if it was actually that or him being a Closet Gay, making this a case of Good Adultery, Bad Adultery.
- Kick the Dog: He's been secretly spending his and Betty's shared savings, generally an extreme violation of trust that can end a marriage.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Literally. When Marty calls him a fag, he kicks him over and stamps on his leg hard enough to break it, then spits on him as a final gesture of disrespect before leaving.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: It's implied he and Betty have been trying for children. Betty claims they just haven't had the time but more likely, he's unwilling to sleep with her because of his latent homosexuality. Alternatively, It's all but stated that Betty has been sexually abused by her father and it's possible that this has left her infertile.
- No Sympathy: He's unsympathetic to Marty when he learns that he was subject to The Dog Bites Back from attacking the Emorys in their home, and all but says that Earl's death is not the Emorys' fault.
- Only Sane Man: He tries to avoid conflict with the Emorys the most, trying to calm his neighbors down and suggest non-violent options. Unfortunately, this just means he's seen as useless, spineless, and at worst, a traitor.
- Out of Focus: He's largely uninvolved because he's away at work or actively trying to avoiding hanging out with Betty and his racist neighbors.
- Rage Breaking Point: Marty and Earl finally attacking the Emorys, with Earl being killed in the process, the entire neighborhood about to stage a violent mob against the Emorys, and Marty turning against him and calling him a traitor and a faggot ends up being the straw that breaks the camel's back, with Clarke viciously beating Marty and screwing out of town.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When he, Earl, and Marty try intimidating Henry while he's setting up the satellite dish regarding Lucky chasing after a boy, he's the most reluctant, being mostly quiet compared to his buddies and suggesting that they let Henry tell his side of the story and attempting to keep the tension low by telling them they can discuss further how to deal with this at the meeting later that night. That said, he doesn't counter to anything else Earl and Marty do.
- He tries to stop Earl and Marty from confronting the Emorys and even tries to wrestle them.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Betty's Red Oni. Betty is actively an Alpha Bitch whereas Clarke is much calmer and understanding.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He drives out of the neighborhood during the riot, sick of being associated with his violent racist neighbors.
- Spiteful Spit: He does this to Marty in his The Dog Bites Back moment.
- Stood Up: Clarke reluctantly accepts being the leader of the movement to harass the Emorys from Betty, though he's displeased when Earl and Marty try confronting Henry and conveniently doesn't show up at the meeting, causing a rift between him and Betty.
- The Unreveal: What was he spending his and Betty's savings on? From what we know, either he was spending them on nice things like the car or on male hookers?
- Would Not Hurt A Child: He shoots down the suggestion to throwing rocks at the Emorys' windows, since this may hurt their kids.
Marty Dixon
Played By: Pat Healy
- Big Bad Wannabe: In the second episode, when Clarke doesn't show up to lead the meeting, he tries to take up the reins only for Betty to be unimpressed and take it up herself. He does take this from Clarke in spite of Betty's efforts of trying to convince him to do so.
- Black-and-White Insanity: He sees black people as violent animals and dismisses any attempts at humanizing them, while believing that torturing them is necessary to protect everyone else.
- Dirty Coward: As repeatedly shown with the neighbours, when the tables are turned on him, he quickly becomes frightened, runs and pathetically begs for mercy.
- Dragon Ascendant: Since Betty goes MIA in the climax and Clarke isn't committed, he becomes the human Big Bad in place of them.
- Hypocrite: He goes on about how the Emorys are a danger to other families and claims to be attacking them for the sake of his own family, but he's not only incredibly verbally abusive to his pregnant wife, but is somehow completely fine with endangering Henry's own family, despite the kids not being involved in any way. This even falls into a Moral Myopia in some form; When he tortures Henry its "justified" because the Emorys are violent animals that could hurt his family, but when Henry holds him at gunpoint and beats him up in retaliation for mutilating him and hurting his daughters, it's suddenly unjustified and Henry is a "crazy coon."
- Entertainingly Wrong: He and Earl are convinced Henry is responsible for Betty's disappearance.
- Jerkass: He's verbally abusive towards his wife and also a violent, murderous, racist thug.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He claims to be doing everything to protect his wife and unborn child but he speaks to his wife very disrespectfully and is worried that her "cowardice" will cause his baby to turn out to be a coward as well.
- Politically Incorrect Villain:
- Obviously, he's very openly racist and is quickest to want to deal with the Emorys violently, to the point that he's Betty's The Dragon.
- He's also a dick to his wife, telling her to shut up when she begs him to just gather enough money so that they can move instead of violently confronting the Emorys. He calls her a coward and that her cowardice will seep into the baby if she keeps it up, and calls her and Earl women if they don't join him.
- In his final scene, he calls Clarke a faggot and yells at Nat to "shut up, bitch!" when she screams in horror at him aiming his gun at Clarke.
- Psychological Projection: Weirdly enough, during his torture of Henry, Marty seems to be putting some of his insecurities on open display, such as asking how much Henry makes and then claiming not to care (despite having asked), insisting that Henry must have taken Betty because of how pretty she is, and calling Henry a " crazy coon" despite being the one to break into Henry's house and torture him in the first place.
- Think of the Children!: He's motivated to drive the Emorys out of town because he thinks they're a threat to his family. This is really ironic given that he is perfectly content with harming Henry's kids.
- Would Hurt a Child: He and Earl threaten to shoot Ruby and Gracie while torturing Henry for Betty's whereabouts.
- Villains Want Mercy: He resorts to begging when Henry has both him and his pregnant wife at gunpoint.
Nat Dixon
Played By: Abbie Cobb
- Even Evil Has Standards: She's racist, but she tries to persuade Marty to not attack the Emorys in the season's climax.
- Everybody Has Standards: She's horrified when Marty pulls his gun on Clarke in their own home and screams for him not to do it.
- Pragmatic Villainy: She was fine with Betty's racist movement, though when Betty goes missing and Marty becomes leader in her place, she tries to talk him down because it's dangerous and stress isn't good for the baby.
- Smoking Is Cool: She smokes while pregnant. This being the 1950's, it was believed smoking was healthy.
- What You Are in the Dark: After Marty becomes the Dragon Ascendant, she tries to talk him down, saying that they could just move. She also reveals she doesn't actually like Betty that much for her Holier Than Thou attitude.
Earl
Played By: John Patrick Jordan
- Asshole Victim: Ruby axes him in the back to save Henry, whom he and Marty were trying to lynch.
- Satellite Character: He doesn't do much other than serve as Marty's Number Two, being his righthand man in everything he does.
- Would Hurt a Child: He and Marty threaten to shoot Ruby and Gracie while torturing Henry for Betty's whereabouts. He also kicks Gracie when she bites him.
Mr. Berks
Played by: P. J. Byrne
Henry's boss. Also an arsehole.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Starts off as nice, albeit slightly patronising to Henry but becomes increasingly aggressive and belittling towards him.
- The Bully: Tells Henry that he overestimated his ability to cope with a high pressure job that requires a lot of intelligence after Henry doesn't do someone else's work along with his own. As a result, he demotes him. This is largely because Henry talked to the head of the company who seemed very impressed with him, making Berks insanely jealous.
- Expy: Being a bespectacled, nasty little man who is the employer of the male protagonist and enjoys exercising power of him, he could be one of Mr. Huph from The Incredibles.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Wears glasses and demotes Henry out of petty jealousy.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Tells Henry not to talk to the boss at a workplace party. Henry defies him by going over and shaking the boss's hand and introducing himself, causing the boss to be quite impressed. Berks can tell that Henry is a lot smarter than he is and also fears that he'll go further than him in the company.
- Jerkass: Smug, patronising, racist and a bully.
- Meaningful Name: Berks is the name of the directory used to list members of the peerage in Great Britain and Berks holds a lordly position over Henry Emory as his employer and likes to "lord it over" him. A berk is also a mild pejorative for a stupid or badly-behaved person in Britain, similar to "wanker" or "twat", but much less profane. Downplayed in that Berks is not British.
School
Doris
For tropes about Doris, see under Paranormal Horrors in a folder labeled "Ruby's friend (Spoiler Character)".
Janitor
Played By: Tim Russ
- Commonality Connection: He connects with Ruby because they're both the only African Americans in the school. He warns her to "be better" so she won't get in trouble and knows her parents wanted a better life for her if they moved her to a predominantly white area.
Others
Helen Koistra
Played by: Brooke Smith
The real estate agent who sells the house to the Emorys and Johnsons.
- Commonality Connection: It's implied she sympathizes with people of color because both women and people of color endure societal discrimination.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: In the fifth episode, in a flashback to earlier the day the Emorys arrived, she was threatened with rape for selling houses to black people.
Sergeant Bull Wheatley
Played by: Derek Philips
A local police officer who keeps the peace in Compton, especially with the recent black familes moving into the community.
- Bait the Dog: Seems like a nice, open minded, police officer whom sees how the white neighbors are reacting negatively to the Emory's moving into their community and tries to prevent any violence. However, a later episode during the Season show's he is just as racist as the rest of them and is only tolerating the Emory's and other black families moving into Compton out of a deal he made with Helen. He is banking on getting a huge payout once the white neighbors get fed up enough to move out of the community, and leave the houses left behind to sell for a much higher price to black families. And he threatens Helen when she tries to quit out of guilt.
- Boom, Headshot!: After Henry shoots Wheatly a couple of times, he finishes him off with a pavement splattering headshot.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: He claims that he doesn't care who the Emorys are, as in their race, which sounds similar to the "colorblind to race" claim people use in regards to the topic of racism.
- Killed Off for Real: Is murdered by an unhinged Henry after he pulls Henry over and questions him about Beatty's disappearance in a hostile manner.
- Only in It for the Money: Only tolerates the Emory's and other black families moving into Compton, because he found a way to profit off of it.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Zigzagged. He de-escalates the situation when the neighborhood and his men get riled up about Lucky waving her gun around on her lawn and hears the Emorys out, though he later tells Lucky that it's on her to make people not want to hurt her. In a flashback, he also asks Helen how much force he should apply on the the then-coming Emorys "in case they go Kong" while claiming he doesn't care who they are.
Eila Mae
Played by: Anika Noni Rose
Hazel
Played by: Paula Jai Parker
Henry's cousin.- Deadpan Snarker: She's dry and witty and keeps Lucky upbeat with her warm and humorous demeanour.
- Hope Spot: The scenes where Lucky is at her sister-in-law's house are a happy moment of respite for her and the audience.
- Plucky Comic Relief: As noted under Deadpan Snarker, she's dry and funny.
George
Played by: Ryan Kwanten
The neighborhood milkman.
- If I Can't Have You…: He kills Betty when she won't stay with him, citing this.
- Karma Houdini: By the end of the first season, he's received no punishment for his kidnapping and killing of Betty, and he's still at large.
- Outside-Context Problem: Nobody knows about him except for Betty, which is what makes her disappearance so easy for him to do. This also results in the neighbors accusing the Emorys of being responsible for her disappearance because they're the most obvious suspects as opposed to the friendly milkman.
- Red Herring: It seems that Betty calling in a favor from him will be a Chekhov's Gun and a Godzilla Threshold for things escalating against the Emorys in the climax, and he is... but not in the way anyone expected. His role in the series is instead to cover the Missing White Woman Syndrome trope by abducting Betty rather than directly attack the Emorys.
- Serial Killer: Implied, When he tells Betty after she attacked him that other women also rejected him, but he learned to let them go, and he seemingly lets her go too... but only to snipe her once she thought she was safe. He lives on an isolated farmland away from the city, and he knows how to blend into a crowd with hardly anyone noticing.
- Stalker with a Crush: Turns out he's obsessed with Betty, wanting her to be his housewife in his secret bunker.
Mrs. Beaumont
Played by:
The mother of the first black family that moved to East Compton.
- Outliving Your Own Offspring: She killed her son and husband because the Black Hat Man drove her crazy, convincing her being black is a sin.
Dr. Frances Moynihan
Played by: Kate McNeil
A psychiatrist.
- Asshole Victim: Lucky bashes her head in during her escape, and given the security guard let her go without a hassle, she probably won't be getting immediate medical attention.
- Dr. Jerk: She refuses to let Lucky see her family and vice versa, lying to Lucky that her family doesn't want to see her because they think she's dangerous. She's also self-assured that she knows what black women need.
- Hate Sink: She's meant to represent medical officials who are dismissive of the pain that people-of-color — most infamously, black women — go through.
Miles Epps
Played by:
Reverend Epps's adopted son.
- Creepy Child: He never speaks but he's always nearby and completely calm whenever things are going badly wrong. He also directs Epps to the passage in the Old Testament about the Curse of Ham, to justify oppressing black people.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Fitting considering he's the lord of all demons who was once an angel!
- Deal with the Devil: He tells Epps to make Them suffer, to create Hell for Them, or else he will go to hell. Epps accepts.
- Devil, but No God: He reveals that he is the one who answered Epps's prayers while God remained silent.
- Foreshadowing: One of his first lines is asking his adoptive father Epps how his growing blindness is going. Turns out he's responsible for it, just making sure things are going according to plan.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He's the Devil (or at least one his high-ranking generals), responsible for the creation of the Black Hat Man, the reveal that East Compton was built on Unholy Ground, and intent on making black people suffer.
- Ironic Name: Epps named him Miles, meaning "merciful", because he believed he was a sign of God's mercy. Turns out he's actually Satan in disguise, and he's anything but merciful.
- Meaningful Name: Epps names him Miles, which means "merciful", as he believes Miles was sent to him as a sign from God of His mercy and good will towards his believers.
- Morality Pet: Is one to Epps. Unfortunately he turns out to be an Immorality Pet as he's the bloody Devil.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Satan wants Epps to torture and kill black people, apparently just to spread hatred and division among humanity.
- Psychotic Smirk: Gives a terrifying one while Martha and Grafton are being blinded.
- Title Drop: When he makes the Deal with the Devil with Epps, he tells him to make Them (black people) suffer, and once he agrees, he says "the covenant is sealed".
Martha and Grafton
Played by:
An African American couple that planned to settle near Sacremento, but ended up stuck in Eidolon after their wagon broke down near by.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if Martha was somehow involved in witchcraft, since she curses Epps and says that his Bible should catch fire from using the Lord's words to be wicked, which is exactly what happens. Alternatively, this could have been the doing of God or Satan.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Held down while their eyes were branded out, humiliated in front of the entire town, and then lynched by the mob.
- Dying Curse: Martha curses Epps and the villagers shortly before they lynch her for witchcraft.
- Eye Scream: Epps has the villagers brand their eyes out.
- Guardian Entity: Implied. Martha's Dying Curse includes a fire burning Epps's bible and possibly all of Eidolon for using God for their racist agenda against them. In the finale, a supernatural fire suddenly surrounds the Emorys' house when Lucky marches in to save her family from Epps and his ghosts, preventing the neighborhood mob from following her or attacking the house while the Emorys battle their demons.
- Meaningful Name:
- One Biblical story tells of two sisters named Martha and Mary, who hosted Jesus in their home. Mary left Martha to do the work of being hospitable while Mary listened to Jesus, leaving Martha upset that she had to do it alone. When she complained about it to Jesus, he revealed the lesson is that listening to the word of the Lord is more important than anything else, so Mary was actually in the right. In the show, Martha and Grafton felt guilty for staying in Eidolon without doing any work despite Epps's insistence, allowing the other villagers to manipulate them into working for them.
- In a subsequent story from the Bible, Martha and Mary's brother Lazarus would die but be resurrected from the dead by Jesus. Martha and Grafton are integral to why Epps lives on as a demonic ghost.
Eidolon
Played By:
A Dutch settler village in California during the Civil War.- Kill It with Fire: Epps's bible suddenly sets on fire when Martha curses him and says that the Lord's words should catch fire at the sound of his wickedness. And while lynching Martha and Grafton, they set them on fire using a candle, and then the whole town supernaturally catches fire, killing everyone but Epps and Miles.
- Only Sane Man: One of the women objects to punishing Martha and Grafton, reminding everyone that Epps said mistreating guests is a damnable offense in the eyes of the Lord. Everyone ignores her, and sadly, she is given the same fate as all of them.
- Karmic Death: Even the ones who don't take part in Martha and Grafton's torture and murder watch with glee as the innocent couple are blinded, strung up by their ankles and burned alive. They are subsequently consumed in the blaze.
- Meaningful Name: An eidolon
is a spirit-image of a living or dead person, like a hallucination, apparition, a ghost, and so on. By definition, Epps and the Emorys suffer from seeing "eidolons", and are metaphorically and psychologically haunted by ghosts. - Politically Incorrect Villain:
- The women teasingly ask Martha if she and mother had a language before English (indirectly calling them stupid for being illiterate/language-less/culture-less) and if black babies are born "like ponies, they just get up and walk away".
- Luther blames black people for why the country has been torn by a civil war.
- Unholy Ground: East Compton was built on the ruins of Eidolon and the Emorys house was built directly over the basement of the Church where the horrors took place, making the house the manifestation ground for Epps and his demonic minions.
Paranormal Horrors
In general
- Evil Counterpart: Each of them chooses to pick on an individual member of the family, preying on their personal insecurities and only the family member they torment can initially see them.
- Lean and Mean: All of them are very thin.
- The Man Behind the Man: It's implied that they're all avatars of the lead ghost, the Black Hat Man.
- Manipulative Bastard: Prey on the fears and insecurities of black tenants in South Compton to drive them to insanity, violence and death.
- Paper Tiger: Like the neighbours, they fold quite easily when their prey are no longer afraid of them.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Are driven to prey on black people who settle on the land and use racially charged language to belittle their intended victims.
- Smug Snake: All of them are very confident that their targets have no chance against them which leads them to...
- Underestimating Badassery: The Emorys manage to overcome their fears and anxieties, enabling them to destroy their respective tormentors easily.
Da Tap Dance Man
Played by: Jeremiah Birkett
A mysterious monstrous-looking man in blackface that appears to Henry.
- Blackface: He's a black man wearing terrifying blackface, representing white people who see black people as monsters and caricatures and Henry's fear that his respectable demeanour causes others to see him as nothing more than a performing minstrel. Turns out he's actually a white guy wearing two coats of blackface.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Henry dispatches him.
- Character Catchphrase: "Whatcha gon do?"
- Consummate Liar: Claims in life he was a black slave who had three of his fingers cut off for stealing peaches. After Henry kills him, he wipes away some of his makeup, revealing him to be white underneath.
- Giggling Villain: So much so that he even giggles as he dies, having failed to drive Henry mad.
- Monster Clown: As a demon in makeup who's supposed to represent white people's fear of black people, he evokes this.
- Minstrel Shows: He is dressed as a common minstrel in the 1940s, and embodies many of the characteristics of a minstrel performer in the most stereotypical sense, such as wearing black face, gaudy clothing, being very goofy and loud, and speaking with the exaggerated vernacular of what a white person thinks a black person speaks like.
- Plucky Comic Relief: He's the only humorous and bombastic one among the apparitions.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Lets out an abrupt squeal as he hits the wall after Henry shoots him.
- Slasher Smile: Always wears one of these and his white painted lips emphasise the effect. Overlaps with Smug Smiler.
- Smug Snake: Smugly gloats his catchphrase to Henry, fully convinced that he'll be able to drive him into a murderous rampage. Henry just shoots him between the eyes.
- Would Hurt a Child: He tries to goad Henry into shooting a pregnant Nat and taunts him about Ruby and Gracie's well-beings.
Miss Vera
Played By: Dirk Rogers
- Humanoid Abomination: Unlike all of the other spirits, she never tries to even resemble a potentially normal human, being unnaturally tall and gaunt with black eyes. While she doesn't look overtly monstrous, her general vibe is always menacing.
- The Quiet One: Unlike the other spirits, she never talks or tries to even interact with Gracie, at least beyond roars and groans.
- Sadist Teacher: Gives off these vibes. It's implied that she represents a corrupt teacher of a racist school system on some level, as she appears whenever Gracie is doing something school-related. She even spanks Gracie for reading a book, as she thinks a black girl shouldn't be able to read.
- Obsolete Mentor: Even by the 1940s standards, she looks and thinks in a very archaic way. Her style of outfit is more similiar to colonial American schoolteachers, she believes in Corporal Punishment, and she thinks black children should not learn how to read, a line of thinking that was mostly common in the 1800s. By comparison, Gracie's actual teacher, while still mildly racist, wears much more 1940s style clothing and teaches Gracie like the other kids up until she gets in trouble, and there's no implication that she hits them. This is justified as Miss Vera is based off of a character from a book that was written way before Gracie was born.
Brother Hiram Epps, the Black Hat Man
Played by: Christopher Heyerdahl
A religious ghoul that appears to Lucky.
- All of the Other Reindeer: The other villagers see him as too religious that he's almost heretic, believing he sees himself as higher than them because of it. He's also kind and welcoming to Grafton and Martha, a black couple, which further alienates him from the villagers.
- Asshole Victim: After seeing him torture and kill so many innocent black families with a remorseless sense of self-righteousness, it's deeply satisfying to see him burn in Hell.
- As the Good Book Says...: Uses The Bible to justify his actions, particularly the Curse of Ham in the Old Testament.
- Beard of Evil: Has a scraggly beard and is very evil.
- Berserk Button: Touching his crucifix seems to be one of them.
- Big Bad: He's the head ghost and it's possible that the other two are just his avatars, rather than spectres of real people who died.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The ninth episode reveals he Was Once a Man from a Dutch reverend in Civil War-era California, having had a crisis of faith when his children died. He adopted a child named Miles, viewing him as a sign from God, and was hospitable to a black couple whose wagon had broken down near Eidolon. His blindness made him go crazy, causing him to believe black people are monsters and leading to him getting the town to brutally kill them.
- Dark Is Evil: Wears a black hat and clothes.
- Dark Messiah: The people of Eidolon come to see him as a prophet because of his belief that he can talk to God and the fact that everything the "god" he talks to, proves to work in their favour. Unfortunately the deity he's talking to isn't the one they or he initially think.
- Driven to Madness: In life, he started to see Martha and Grafton as literal monsters due to his growing paranormal blindness inflicted on him by the Devil.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Resents his neighbours their happiness and families and it's probably one of the reasons he takes pleasure in destroying so many black families.
- Evil Counterpart: To Lucky, being the ghost that antagonises her and accuses her of breaking her "covenant" by failing to protect her son, just as he did. Interesting that he could just as easily pick on Henry for that reason. Presumably he sees Lucky as the weak link in the chain, suggesting sexism on top of his racism, but as he comes to learn, she's actually the strongest.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Has a deep, gravelly voice.
- Expy: Could be considered one for the Pharisee in The Parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, being a prideful man who praises himself and damns others in his own prayers.
- A God Am I: Satan, pretending to be God, tells Epps that he sees him more as a little brother than a servant, something which Epps is all to happy to believe. Upon seeing him for the first time, Lucky says that he talked "like he was some sort of god."
- Just the First Citizen: Serves the function of a reverend in the California community of Eidolon but none of the citizens have titles and simply refer to one another as "brother" and "sister" because they live by no law but "the Good Book". Notably, the others come to look upon him as their spiritual leader and eventually as the head of their community and a prophet.
- Kill It with Fire: Has Martha and Grafton burned alive and when Lucky defies him, breaking his power and leaves him in the darkness of the basement, he's consumed by hellfire. There's even a flashback to Martha and Grafton burning, to heighten the effect.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: The death of his son drove him to this. In his prayers he admits that he feels nothing but contempt and envy for his neighbours when he sees them being happy.
- Misanthrope Supreme: Seems to have it in for all of humanity but especially the blacks.
- Nice Guy: He used to be this, being a strong believer in God and doing good things, like adopting an orphan and providing hospitality for a stranded black couple.
- Not So Similar: He relates to Lucky having failed their covenants — protecting their children. However, Lucky makes it clear that they aren't the same, because she chooses to move forward while Epps wallows in his grief and takes it out on the innocent people in the house.
- Outside-Context Problem: No one outside of the Emorys, Johnsons, and Beaumonts has any idea that they were being terrorized by a demon, not that they would ever believe them. The closest they get to any proof is the Emorys' house suddenly being surrounded by fire in the finale and that fire mysteriously dying out at the end.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He believes black people are inherently sinful because of their race. Even before his Face–Heel Turn when he's being nice to the black guests in Eidolon, he admits in his prayers that he feels revulsion for them due to their skin.
- Pride: Even before his temptation by the Devil, the townspeople say that he always seemed to regard himself as above them. He loves it when the townspeople come to regard him as a prophet and saviour but initially rebukes himself for this however Satan strokes his ego by telling him that pride in a faithful servant is not a sin. Epps willingly believes this and comes to eventually see himself as a demigod.
- Pitiful Worms: Calls Lucky his sow and his broodmare.
- Rage Against the Heavens: A quiet version. In the flashback in ninth episode's Cold Opening, he prays to God, asking him why he took his son and daughter from him and to answer him just this once.
- Sadist: Seems to take great pleasure in having Martha and Grafton enslaved, blinded and ultimately burned alive.
- Sinister Minister: To Frollo-like levels! He's an insane religious fanatic, drunk with power, prejudiced against an entire group of people and willing to burn them to death, not helped by the fact that the Devil is literally talking to him.
- Slut-Shaming: While going crazy, he accuses Martha of not actually being married to Grafton since she doesn't wear a ring and that they're no different than two pigs having sex.
- Smug Snake: Sees blacks as inferior to whites and regards himself as entirely superior even among whites. The Devil tempts him by appealing to his pride, offering him power and life eternal if he breaks every black person who moves onto the land. He's convinced that Lucky and her family stand no chance against him and he's completely taken aback when Lucky overcomes her fear of him and without the fear of his victims, like Pennywise, he's powerless.
- The Sociopath: What he eventually becomes: a power-mad, sadistic, pyromaniac, megalomaniac, consumed with rage and hatred, completely lacking in empathy and remorse. He sees himself as a god and is able to use his charisma to control others.
- Tragic Villain: He was a good man Driven to Madness by Satan.
Ruby's friend (Spoiler Character)
Played By: Sophie Guest
- Ambiguously Gay: She only interacts with Ruby, and openly comments on her attractiveness. The two of them even kiss, although with the reveal that Doris is a projection of Ruby's insecurities, it says more about Ruby's potential sexuality than hers.
- Allegorical Character: It's implied Doris is meant to represent what Ruby wishes she was; a pretty white girl who doesn't have to deal with the baggage, ridicule and trauma that comes with being black, as her family's dysfunctionality mostly stem from racism they've faced. Doris' true nature is revealed when its shown she is merely a spirit trying to drive Ruby mad, and she disappears when Ruby accepts her mother.
- Commonality Connection: She befriends Ruby while they're waiting at the office, because she also did something to get in trouble. In her opinion, "[we] might as well give all these looky-loos something to stare at".
- False Friend: She is actually an avatar of Brother Epps, and has been trying to drive Ruby to the brink by dragging her insecurities about her race and her family into the light.
- The Peeping Tom: She takes Ruby to watch two of their classmates having sex in the school basement because she thinks it's funny.
- Tomato in the Mirror: It's heavily implied during the Season Finale that Doris is what Ruby dreams of looking like in order to be accepted by her white peers, revealing that recent traumas had her battling with self-hate issues and the demon was taking advantage of this to try and drive her crazy. She gets better, and defeats Doris.
- Wham Shot: After the janitor finds her and Ruby in the closet, she's nowhere to be seen, implying there was a Time Skip and Ruby dozed off. Then as the janitor closes the door after Ruby leaves, we see a shot of Doris's corpse sitting where she was supposed to be.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: Her first scene is genuinely complimenting Ruby, saying that she has a pretty name and face... for a colored girl.
