History Film / Sleepers

* TokenGoodTeammate: The unnamed black guard at Wilkinson's. Unlike the others, he doesn't abuse his power against the boys and silently admonishes Nokes for doing so.

* ParentalSubstitute: Father Bobby acts as a positive, paternal figure to the four boys.

* BackfireOnTheWitnessStand: {{Invoked}} by Michael. In regard to the trial scheme, a great deal of Michael's plan relied on tarnishing Nokes' reputation ''without'' giving away John and Tommy's admittedly righteous motive to murder him. As Michael is acting as the prosecutor, he needs a witness to "backfire" on him in the defendant's favor. He manages to convince the judge to allow him to call a character witness to ostensibly frame the victim in a positive light and, consequently, make the defendants look like criminals who randomly kill people because they felt like it. Which, truth be told, they are but not in this case. Snyder/O'Connor is ordered to ask compromising questions about Nokes's and, by extension, Ferguson's activities as guards at Wilkinson's. When he's done with Ferguson, now the jury and the judge are aware of how much of an AssholeVictim Nokes is and why someone, who might be unrelated to the defendants, would want to dispose of him.

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie / BasedOnATrueStory: Lorenzo Carcaterra claims the majority of the story is factual, with names, dates, and locations changed in order to protect those involved. Many [[https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/22/movies/sleepers-debate-renewed-how-true-is-a-true-story.html sources]] have challenged this fact. There are some claims against the story that are actually addressed in the book itself (the book states that the location of the murder trial was ''not'' Manhattan, the records of the boys being at Wilkinson were destroyed after seven years, and measures were taken to fix the books so that no one would know the four boys had been absent from school for a year) -- while others are harder to explain away. Some argue that it doesn't matter if the details of the story actually happened to Carcaterra and his friends because what the book and film want to shine a light on (sexual, physical, and emotional abuse carried out by guards against inmate boys) has very likely happened on several occasions throughout the country, throughout the years, and that the truth of the theme is what's most important. Others feel that such claims actually hurt the cause the story trying to fight for. Carcaterra himself stands by the story to this day.

* CacophonyCoverUp: When Rizzo's older brother, Little Caesar, orders the execution of one of his little brother's torturers and murderers under the pretense of the former guard owing him 8000 dollars, they approach an airport so the overwhelming noise of a landing airliner will drown the sound of the many shots they fire.

* AntiHero: Both Michael and Shakes do illegal actions to get both Michael and Tommy off on the murder they ''are'' responsible for. However, the victim was one of the four men who repeatedly tortured, beat, and raped them.

* APlaceHoldsMemories: Shakes is chatting with Fat Mancho about the ongoing plot to get John and Tommy acquitted for the murder of Noakes and bring attention to the child molestation going on at Wilkinson — only to find himself distracted by the sight of a broken-down fire hydrant. He then flashes back to his childhood when he, John, Tommy, and Michael would play around the same hydrant, back before the four of them were sent to Wilkinson and put on the downward spiral that left them in their current predicament.

** Also, considering the rest of the guards helped Nokes beat Rizzo to death, this trope could also apply to them as well[[note]]the four sleepers are white and were also tortured, but ultimately left alive[[/note]].
* PoorCommunicationKills: Michael and Carol's relationship ended because he wouldn't let Carol close beyond a certain point. During the trial when Carol found out about the abuse, she says maybe things could've been different if he told her. Given she's a social worker and almost certainly would've seen similar behavior from others who'd been abused in her job, it's perhaps a slight case of IdiotBall that she didn't appear to consider even the possibility. Or not, since there's a reason social workers are not allowed to work on the cases of people close to them -- the emotional bond understandably makes them prone to bias.

* ThePowerOfHate: While Tommy and John encountered their former molester only by sheer dumb luck and shot him to death in a fit of rage, Michael has been planning his revenge for possibly more than a decade. From going to Law School to slowly gathering incriminating information of their abusers to pit them against the Public Justice system or a drug lord. Shakes is a downplayed case since he didn't obsess about revenge (noted by the fact he hasn't read ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' in years) but only needed a little convincing to join Michael's schemes in a patient and devoted fashion.

* APlaceHoldsMemories: Shakes is chatting with Fat Mancho about the ongoing plot to get John and Tommy acquitted for the murder of Noakes and bring attention to the child molestation going on at Wilkinson — only to find himself distracted by the sight of a broken-down fire hydrant. He then flashes back to his childhood when  he, John, Tommy, and Michael  would play around the same hydrant, back before the four of them were sent to Wilkinson and put on the downward spiral that left them in their current predicament.

It tells the story of four boys who grow up together under tough circumstances in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood during TheSixties. The group is composed of Michael, John, Tommy, and Lorenzo (called "Shakes", short for Shakespeare since he loves to read). Despite the rough conditions of the neighbourhood and their growing ties to mobster King Benny (Vittorio Gassman) the four boys mostly stay out of trouble, partially through the guidance of the local priest, Father Bobby (Creator/RobertDeNiro). They also have a close bond to Michael's girlfriend, Carol. One day the boys pull a prank that goes horribly wrong, severely injuring an old man and leaving another man deprived of his business, and the four friends are sent to Wilkinson's Home for Boys for a period to a year (Shakes) and eighteen months (the other three). At Wilkinson's the four boys soon become targets for a group of sadistic guards who beat, torture, and sexually molest them in an increasingly brutal fashion.

* AntiHero: Both Michael and Shakes do illegal actions to get both Michae and Tommy off on the murder they ''are'' responsible for. However, the victim was one of the four men who repeatedly tortured, beat, and raped them.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Fat Mancho may sound like he barely tolerates the boys but it's evident that he deeply cares for them, seeing as how he helps them run their highly illegal play in the last third of the film. The book mentions that Shakes is one of the few people that Fat Mancho has absolute trust in.
* BackfireOnTheWitnessStand: {{Invoked}} by Michael. In regard to the trial scheme, a great deal of Michael's plan relied on tarnishing Nokes' reputation ''without'' giving away John and Tommy's admittedly righteous motive to murder him. As Michael is acting as the prosecutor, he needs a witness to "backfire" on him in the defendant's favor. He manages to convince the judge to allow him to call a character witness to ostensibly frame the victim in a positive light and, consequently, make the defendants look like criminals that randomly kill people because they felt like it. Which, truth be told, they are but not in this case. Snyder/O'Connor is ordered to ask compromising questions about Nokes' and, by extension, Ferguson's activities as guards at Wilkinson's. When he's done with Ferguson, now the jury and the judge are aware how much of an AssholeVictim Nokes is and why someone, who might be unrelated to the defendants, would want to dispose of.
* BadassPreacher: As Shakes puts it, Father Bobby is just as comfortable sitting on a bar-stool as standing at an altar. He also states that Father Bobby lived a life of petty crime before his calling, which implies the priest knows his way among the scoundrels and he's just as tough as everybody else in the neighborhood. He also has no issue threatening John's abusive stepfather after he puts the kid in the hospital due to a punctured lung. Even King Benny thinks that Father Bobby would have made a good hitman.

--> '''Father Bobby''': What are you, about 220, 230 [pounds]? You're a big guy. How much do you think Jonny Reilly weights? 80, 85? That's not even a featherweight. If this were a fight, you'd be way out of your division.

* BestServedCold: The ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' is {{invoked}} at least thrice through the film and each time the characters allude to the eponymous character's path of well-prepared, long-awaited revenge that is all the more satisfactory because of it. In the case of the sleepers, they sustained horrific psychological, physical, and sexual abuse from four reformatory guards with no means of retaliating nor defending themselves. Thirteen years later, two of the sleepers fortuitously find the leader of the guards (Nokes) with the roles inverted. Nokes is unarmed and defenseless against two very armed, merciless, hardened mafia killers. Then it's revealed a third sleeper has been compiling compromising files about their tormentors and has become a lawyer with the express purpose of exposing the abuse and putting the former guards into jail. He takes advantage of the opportunity his two friends provided to avenge the four sleepers. The fourth sleeper happily agrees to play along and collaborate with the scheme. However, it has to be noted that despite the relief and gratification the revenge provided them, it didn't heal their trauma nor made them better men.
* BigBrotherInstinct: [[spoiler:Addison is killed by Rizzo's older brother, after said brother learned that Addison was one of the people who murdered him and covered it up]].

* ABirthdayNotABreak: It was Shakes' 14th birthday when he and his friends were first raped by the four guards.
* BittersweetEnding: Lorenzo and Michael (with the help of Fat Mancho, Carol, King Benny, and the testimony of Father Bobby) finish what John and Tommy started and get revenge against the three other guards. They also expose the atrocities that went on at the Wilkinson home for boys. However, John and Tommy resume the life of crime and [[spoiler: die a few years after their acquittal]]. Michael quits law and leaves New York for the English countryside and lives in relative seclusion. Lorenzo, the narrator, is the only one left to speak for them.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Lorenzo and Michael involve Carol and rely on the amoral Fat Mancho and King Benny to carry out their illegal plan to acquit John and Tommy of a crime they are guilty of. This is all an effort to give the guards that abused them their well-deserved comeuppance as well as expose the atrocities that went (and presumably continue to go on) during the four boys' stay at the juvenile center.

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: When Tommy and John encounter Nokes years later, he doesn't remember who they are, even when Tommy tells him "take your time, it'll come to you." After they identify themselves, Nokes remembers and mocks them for it, resulting in him getting killed.
* ButNowIMustGo: Michael departs for a quiet, solitary life in the English countryside after the events of the film. Shakes' narration states that Michael is still afraid of the past and unable to let it go.

* ClearTheirName: {{Inverted}}. Tommy and John did commit the crime (Nokes' murder) and their friends (Michael, Shakes, and King Benny) set out to help them literally get away with murder. However, the murdered man tortured and molested them when they were preteens, so he more than deserved to be killed and is a very controversial topic whether such retaliations (victims against their abusers) are true, and thus punishable, crimes.
* CharacterDevelopment: As a result of their plights in the juvenile center, the four sleepers are very different in adulthood than they were in their childhood. All of them are heavily traumatized but express it in different ways. John and Tom took violent crimes (paid or for fun) and drugs as outlets. Michael became obsessed with evening out the field against their abusers to the point of compiling compromising information about them for years and going to Law School only for this purpose. Shakes seem to be the most successful at reintegrating into society but is no longer outgoing and playful and no longer wants to be a priest. Character development, however, stops here and there. Despite their victory, Shakes narrates they were unchanged, returning to the same personal problems they had before the trial in the following weeks.

* TheChessmaster: Michael was the one to concoct the entire plan to get Tommy and John freed and getting revenge on the four guards who brutalized them.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Carol and John were friends in their youth but become a couple as adults.

* CrusadingLawyer: Zigzagged. The AntiHero Michael becomes a lawyer as an adult and uses many illegal means (with Shakes' help) to free Tommy and John and condemn the guard who abused them.

** King Benny had his teeth taken from him, became involved in gang life, and it's implied he may have been sexually abused as a child.

* DomesticAbuse: Shakes’s father is shown on more than one occasion slapping his wife (Shakes’ mother) or whipping her with his belt for just pissing him off or for very petty reasons. Surprisingly he doesn’t beat Shakes. Or, at least, he's not shown doing so and Shakes never mentions or hints at abuse from him. He's still very emotionally neglectful towards his son -- after Shakes told Father Bobby and Carol about his plights in the juvenile center, he tried opening about it with his father who brusquely interrupted him twice and merely asked him if he was doing good (presumably, in his life). It's also implied that he suffered similar abuse from guards like Nokes as a young man too but is still unable to talk about it.
--> '''Shakes’s father''': ''[slaming the door]'' Shut the fuck up! I buried one fucking wife, I could bury another one.[[note]]The time he mentioned having done after the cart stealing was seven years for killing his first wife[[/note]]

* DudeMagnet: Carol gained the attraction of Michael, Shakes and John at various points.

** For these two, there's also their romantic involvement with Carol. Michael and she were a couple back in their preteen years and maybe adolescence, but his trauma prevented their relationship from progressing both sexually and emotionally. At an unspecified moment in the time skip, Carol and John started dating despite all of his criminal deeds and with Carol revealing to Shakes that John has something special in him. It seems that romance-wise, their roles are inverted in regards to who is the best adjusted one.
** Father Bobby and King Benny are both {{mentor}} figures for the four sleepers and, more relevantly, are {{Mirror Character}}s to each other. Both share a backstory of "petty crime" as Shakes' narration puts it. Yet one decided to be a man of the cloth and provide guidance and comfort the Hell's Kitchen's kids (Father Bobby) while the other escalated his crimes and ambitiously climbed to his position as Hell's Kitchen's crime lord (King Benny). Interestingly enough, both of them are morally gray since King Benny's management of the neighborhood ensured for it to be a safety net for children, and Father Bobby never shied from violent threats against those who hurt the kids and even perjured himself to help those kids (now adults).

* {{Futureshadowing}}: A badly-beaten Shakes is seen thrown into solitary confinement before the reason is shown.
* GloryDays: The film ends with a flashback to their childhood days, and Shakes' final words relay how bright the future seemed for them back then.
* GoodShepherd: Father Bobby is this trope incarnate. He goes out of his way to look after Hell's Kitchen's children, providing them with understanding words and solid advice while never invalidating their feelings. His caring even goes to the point of lying-in court for the sleepers after discovering the horrific abuse they endured.

* MustMakeAmends. {{Implied}}. Michael was the one to come up with the idea to prank the hotdogs vendor by holding his cart at the top of some stairs. The situation went [[DeadlyPrank haywire]] and an elderly man was hit by the heavy cart when it slipped from the boys' hands. As a result, the foursome was sent to Wilkinson's Home for Boys and suffered sickening abuse at the hands of the guards. Michael is also the most obsessed with revenge (marked by the fact he has apparently read ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'' several times since) and had it meticulously planned before Nokes' murder. It's possible that, along with all of his [[ThePowerOfHate hatred]], he also felt guilty of condemning himself and his friends to such a terrible fate in the first place.

* NotProven: {{Downplayed}}. What both lawyers successfully pull off in the trial. By carefully orchestrating the questions Snyder/O'Connor (the defendants' official lawyer) should ask the two witnesses, Michael manages to highlight that they didn't really see John and Tommy shooting at Nokes. One of them had his back turned and the other one only saw them pass by and heard the shots, but she was distracted when the first bullet was fired and when the rest bullets followed, she along with the other witness sheltered themselves under their table and closed their eyes, praying to be spared. There's also the fact the female witness could be considered drunk (and thus, her testimony dubious) by the time the crime happened. Granted, this stunt was not enough to acquit John and Tommy but was the necessary setup to rend Father Bobby's perjured testimony all the more believable.

* TheOneThatGotAway: Carol to Michael, as they latter couldn't explain to her the trauma he endured, and they broke up. The ending shows he still has feelings for her.
* OneWordTitle: ''Sleepers''. On a related note, the term sleeper is old slang for a person who was sent to a juvenile reformatory, just like the four main characters, Father Bobby (who is the boys' {{mentor}}), and Shakes' father. It has a double-meaning in that in espionage, a "sleeper agent" is one who remains out of sight (figuratively asleep) until an opportunity presents itself.
* PapaWolf: Father Bob to the four boys. He encourages them to keep on the straight path and threatens to harm the boyfriend of John's mother, after said boyfriend hit John. [[spoiler:He ultimately decided to lie in court in order to get justice for both John and Tommy]].
* ParentalSubstitute: Father Bobby acts a positive, paternal figure to the four boys.

* APlaceHoldsMemories: Shakes is chatting with Fat Mancho about the ongoing plot to get John and Tommy acquitted for the murder of Noakes and bring attention to the child molestation going on at Wilkinson — only to find himself distracted by the sight of a broken-down fire hydrant. He then flashes back to his childhood when he, John, Tommy, and Michael would play around the same hydrant, back before the four of them were sent to Wilkinson and put on the downward spiral that left them in their current predicament.

* RapeDiscretionShot: The rapes of the boys are never seen, the audience only hear their screams of pain while it is horrifically described by Shakes.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The reason why the Johnny and Tommy are {{Sympathetic Murderer}}s is that their [[AssholeVictim victim used to rape them when they were children]]. Not only their loved ones are extremely sympathetic toward them (and their friends Michael and Shakes who were also molested) when they are told about the abuse, but one of them goes as far as to perjure himself to help them. Additionally, their plot of revenge hinges on this trope. By uncovering the rapist's true nature in court and exploiting that nobody really saw Johnny and Tommy kill Nokes, they get the judge horrified and disgusted enough to acquit them.

* ShamefulStrip: Ordering the boys to do this was the first look at Nokes' perverted behavior.

* TrueCompanions: Shakes, Michael, Tommy, and John. Shakes even opens the narration by saying "this is a true story about friendship that runs deeper than blood. This is my story and that of the only three friends in my life that truly mattered". Carol and Father Bobby can also be considered part of the group since they loyally remained by the boys' side despite everything.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: While mischievous and nonchalant about getting money by doing jobs to mob leader King Benny, the four sleepers were good, cheerful boys. Shakes and John, in particular, were the kindest of them all and wanted to be priests in a neighborhood where the only career option is being a criminal. After their time in the youth detention center, John and Tommy turned into violent, addicted-to-drugs killers, while Michael and Shakes lost their faith in the Legal System and police officers. Hence, the foursome's ability to take revenge via illegal means, namely outright murder and corruption.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: For John, Tommy, Michael, and Carol in the movie. The book includes many more characters in this, including Father Bobby, Fat Mancho, and Marlboro, the one guard who stood up for the boys at Wilkinson.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: John and Tommy's execution of Nokes. Everything about it, from their taunting of him to their prolonging it (most of the bullets were shooted at non-vital parts/organs), would establish them as evil were Nokes not so thoroughly deserving of such a demise.

-> '''Michael''' [to Shakes]: Do you still sleep with the light on?

* TheChick: Carol, by virtue of not being a sleeper[[note]]old slang for someone who was sent to a juvenile reformatory at some point in their life[[/note]]. She's been a friend since childhood to all of them and the girlfriend of at least two of them -- Michael when they were kids and John as adults. Her undying loyalty to the boys may have helped make their rough post-Wilkinson's lives that little bit happier if nothing else.

-->'''Nokes:''' You two motherfuckers are going to burn in Hell. You're going to burn in Hell...
-->'''John:''' Yeah, after you. ''[shoots him]''

* SpiritualPredecessor: It can be viewed as such for ''Film/{{Spotlight}}'' in that it deals with sexual abuse of young boys carried out by men in a position of power, which is covered up by those in the know. It helps that Billy Crudup appears as one of the adult sleepers in this movie and as an attorney in ''Spotlight''. A major dissimilarity between the two films, however, is that in ''Sleepers'' the catholic church is a safe haven and a place of comfort and security, and the priest they interact with the most is a protective father figure.
* SpiritualSuccessor: The way Michael and Shakes communicate during the trial, and the secrecy involved with the whole operation, brings to mind ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen''. Creator/RogerEbert even compared the two of them.

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Roger Ebert accused the movie of being [[https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sleepers-1996 homophobic]] since the sexual abuse is emphasized as the biggest crime, trumping murder even. However, it's more accurate to say that twelve-year-olds being raped by grown-ups is the biggest crime, not the aspect of sexuality. In one sexual abuse scene, indeed, it is hinted that the guards would be doing the same thing to their victim's mother if she was available.

* SmurfettePrinciple: Carol is the only female member of her friendship with the boys, as well as the only female character with a serious importance to the plot.

* CharacterDevelopment: As a result of their plights in the juvenile center, the four sleepers are very different in adulthood than they were in their childhood. All of them are heavily traumatized but express it in different ways. John and Tom took violent crimes (paid or for fun) and drugs as outlets. Michael became obsessed with evening out the field against their abusers to the point of compiling comprising information about them for years and going to Law School only for this purpose. Shakes seem to be the most successful at reintegrating into society but is no longer outgoing and playful and no longer wants to be a priest. Character development, however, stops here and there. Despite their victory, Shakes narrates they were unchanged, returning to the same personal problems they had before the trial in the following weeks.

* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Tommy. This effect was probably unintentional as, though he looks like he's led a hard life of crime, severe trauma and substance abuse, it doesn't change the fact that he's played by Creator/BillyCrudup in all his youthful glory.
* LossOfInnocence: The torture, beatings, and rapes that were inflicted on the boys greatly traumatizes them.

->"''This is a true story about friendship that runs deeper than blood. This is my story and that of the only three friends in my life that truly mattered. Two of them were killers who never made it past the age of 30. The other's a non-practicing attorney living with the pain of his past - too afraid to let it go, never confronting its horror. I'm the only one who can speak for them, and the children we were.''"

* DomesticAbuse: Shakes’s father is shown on more than one occasion slapping his wife (Shakes’ mother) or whipping her with his belt for just pissing him off or for very petty reasons. Surprisingly he doesn’t beat Shakes. Or, at least, he's not shown doing so. He's still very emotionally neglectful towards his son -- after Shakes told Father Bobby and Carol about his plights in the juvenile center, he tried opening about it with his father who brusquely interrupted him twice and merely asked him if he was doing good (presumably, in his life).

* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Tommy. This effect was probably unintentional as, though he looks like he's led a hard life of crime and substance abuse, it doesn't change the fact that he's played by Creator/BillyCrudup.

* [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy Someone To Remember Them By]]: Carol has a child with John, a son she names after the father, Michael, and Tommy. Her pet name for her son is Shakes.

* AffablyEvil: Even after John and Tommy became bandits, they have their affable moments. Despite clearly disagreeing with two Republican bar patrons, they buy them a drink on the condition that they drop all talk of politics. They also apologize to the bar staff after murdering Nokes, and pay for their meal before leaving.

* [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther Aww They Really Care About Each Other]]: Fat Mancho may sound like he barely tolerates the boys but it's evident that he deeply cares for them, seeing as how he helps them run their highly illegal play in the last third of the film. The book mentions that Shakes is one of the few people that Fat Mancho has absolute trust in.

* BackfireOnTheWitnessStand: {{Invoked}} by Michael. In regards to the trial scheme, a great deal of Michael's plan relied on tarnishing Nokes' reputation ''without'' giving away John and Tommy's admittedly righteous motive to murder him. As Michael is acting as the prosecutor, he needs a witness to "backfire" on him in the defendant's favor. He manages to convince the judge to allow him to call a character witness to ostensibly frame the victim in a positive light and, consequently, make the defendants look like criminals that randomly kill people because they felt like it. Which, truth be told, they are but not in this case. Snyder/O'Connor is ordered to ask compromising questions about Nokes' and, by extension, Ferguson's activities as guards at Wilkinson's. When he's done with Ferguson, now the jury and the judge are aware how much of an AssholeVictim Nokes is and why someone, who might be unrelated to the defendants, would want to dispose of.

* BatmanGambit: The Count of Montecristo-inspired revenge(i.e., waiting and preparing before making a move) of the Sleepers against their abusers heavily relies on people behaving in expected ways. The trial scheme hinges upon King Benny's influence on the community of Hell's Kitchen and the loyalty within to fool the authorities and hide/obtain key information until the time has come. And also, to obtain a semi-competent lawyer who will follow the script without questioning. The revenge against Addison depends on Rizzo's older brother, a drug lord, avenging his death after finding out the truth.

* BlackAndGrayMorality / HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: Lorenzo and Michael involve Carol and rely on the amoral Fat Mancho and King Benny to carry out their illegal plan to acquit John and Tommy of a crime they are guilty of. This is all an effort to give the guards that abused them their well-deserved comeuppance as well as expose the atrocities that went (and presumably continue to go on) during the four boys' stay at the juvenile center.

* CharacterDevelopment: As a result of their plights in the juvenile center, the four sleepers are very different in adulthood than they were in their childhood. All of them are heavily traumatized, but express it in different ways. John and Tom took violent crimes (paid or for fun) and drugs as outlets. Michael became obsessed with evening out the field against their abusers to the point of compiling comprising information about them for years and going to Law School only for this purpose. Shakes seem to be the most successful at reintegrating into society, but is no longer outgoing and playful and no longer wants to be a priest. Character development, however, stops here and there. Despite their victory, Shakes narrates they were unchanged, returning to the same personal problems they had before the trial in the following weeks.

* GoodShepherd: Father Bobby is this trope incarnate. He goes out of his way to look after Hell's Kitchen's children, providing them with understanding words and solid advice while never invalidating their feelings. His caring even goes to the point of lying in court for the sleepers after discovering the horrific abuse they endured.

* OhCrap: The expression on Nokes' face is a perfect example of this trope when he suddenly realizes that the two armed men he's talking to are the boys he used to rape and torture and that both of them remember him and are in no way in a forgiving mood.

* AffablyEvil: Even after John and Tommy became bandits, they have their affable moments. They buy somebody a drink, however on the condition to drop the political and religious talk. They also apologize to the bar staff after murdering Nokes, and paying for their meal before leaving.

* BadassPreacher: As Shakes puts it, Father Bobby is just as comfortable sitting on a bar-stool as standing at an altar. He also states that Father Bobby lived a life of petty crime before his calling, which implies the priest knows his way among the scoundrel and it's tough as everybody else in the neighborhood. He also has no issue threatening John's abusive stepfather after he puts the kid in the hospital due to a punctured lung.