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->'''Played by:''' Gretchen Mol
''"I'm not allowed to speak! I'm not allowed to live! Why does a man get to do whatever he wants??!!"''
''"I'm not allowed to speak! I'm not allowed to live! Why does a man get to do whatever he wants??!!"''
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[[caption-width-right:297:"I didn't spend my life getting gropped by a bunch of drunks to end in a goddamn poorhouse."]]
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[[caption-width-right:305:"I didn't spend my life getting gropped by a bunch of drunks to end in a goddamn poorhouse."]]
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[[quoteright:301:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Pitt-as-Jimmy-Darmody_7416.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:301:''"I'm what time and circumstance have made me."'' ]]
[[caption-width-right:301:''"I'm what time and circumstance have made me."'' ]]
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[[quoteright:305:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gillian_darmodyvwx2013_5133.jpg]]
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Hot Mom is no longer a trope.
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* HotMom
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* [[spoiler: AnyoneCanDie: What better way for the show to make evident that it does not fuck around, but to kill off the second most prominent character ''in the second season''?]]
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* [[spoiler: AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:AnyoneCanDie: What better way for the show to make evident that it does not fuck around, but to kill off the second most prominent character ''in the second season''?]]
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* AnyoneCanDie: What better way for the show to make evident that it does not fuck around, but to kill off the second most prominent character ''in the second season''?
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* [[spoiler: AnyoneCanDie: What better way for the show to make evident that it does not fuck around, but to kill off the second most prominent character ''in the second season''?season''?]]
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* BigBadDuumvirate: With Commodore Kaestner in Season 2. After succumbing to a stroke at the beginning of the season, Kaestner entrusts Darmody, his son and heir apparent, with the lion's share of running his criminal empire as well as carrying out his plan to neutralize Nucky. However, Darmody never fully eclipses his father as the leader of Atlantic City's political machine as demonstrated in "Georgia Peaches" when Kaestner encourages Eli and Neary to respond to the African American community's strikes with brute force instead of relying on peaceful means pursuant to Darmody's orders.
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* BigBadDuumvirate: With Commodore Kaestner in Season 2. After succumbing to a stroke at the beginning of the season, Kaestner entrusts Darmody, his son and heir apparent, with the lion's share of running his criminal empire as well as carrying out his plan to neutralize Nucky. However, Darmody never fully eclipses his father as the leader of Atlantic City's political machine as demonstrated evidenced in "Georgia Peaches" ''"Georgia Peaches"'' when Kaestner encourages Eli and Neary to respond to the African American community's strikes with brute force instead of relying on peaceful means pursuant to Darmody's orders.
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* {{Deuteragonist}}: He was basically the second most important character in the first two seasons. Which makes it all the more shocking when he is killed at the end of the second season.
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* {{Deuteragonist}}: He was basically the second most important character in the first two seasons. [[spoiler: Which makes it all the more shocking when he is killed at the end of the second season.]]
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* FaceDeathWithDignity: Seeing as he knew what was going to happen when he told Harrow he didn't need him and went to meet Nucky without a gun.
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* [[spoiler: FaceDeathWithDignity: Seeing as he knew what was going to happen when he told Harrow he didn't need him and went to meet Nucky without a gun.]]
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* SacrificialLion
* SelfMadeOrphan: Halfway. He kills the Commodore when he tries to stop Jimmy from killing Gillian.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Halfway. He kills the Commodore when he tries to stop Jimmy from killing Gillian.
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* SacrificialLion
[[spoiler: SacrificialLion]]
* [[spoiler: SelfMadeOrphan: Halfway. He kills the Commodore when he tries to stop Jimmy from killing Gillian.]]
* [[spoiler: SelfMadeOrphan: Halfway. He kills the Commodore when he tries to stop Jimmy from killing Gillian.]]
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* TheStarscream: To Nucky, and later the Commodore (arguably).
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* TheStarscream: To Nucky, [[spoiler: and later the Commodore (arguably).]]
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* BullyingADragon: He first belittles Darmody's participation then goes so far as to strike the visibly unhinged war veteran in the head for his generation's "lack of respect" [[spoiler: and is later killed for it.]]
* EvilCripple:
* EvilCripple:
to:
* BullyingADragon: He first belittles Darmody's participation in WorldWarOne then goes so far as to strike the visibly unhinged war veteran in the head for his generation's "lack of respect" respect." [[spoiler: and He is later killed for it.]]
*EvilCripple: EvilCripple
*
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* GrumpyOldMan: He views the current generation of Americans with barely concealed contempt (notwithstanding the fact that many of them died or experienced irreparable harm fighting for their country in WW I.
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* GrumpyOldMan: He views the current generation of Americans with barely concealed contempt (notwithstanding the fact that many of them died or experienced irreparable harm fighting for their country in WW I.WorldWarOne).
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* BullyingADragon: He first belittles Darmody's participationHe goes so far as to strike a visibly unhinged war veteran in the head for his generation's "lack of respect" [[spoiler: and is later killed for it.]]
to:
* BullyingADragon: He first belittles Darmody's participationHe participation then goes so far as to strike a the visibly unhinged war veteran in the head for his generation's "lack of respect" [[spoiler: and is later killed for it.]]
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* O%ApprovalRating: When he first appears, many of his colleagues seem to view him with contempt and disgust. Whitlock later admits he is not respected.
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* O%ApprovalRating: ZeroPercentApprovalRating: When he first appears, many of his colleagues seem to view him with contempt and disgust. [[spoiler: Whitlock later admits he states his death is not respected.
unlikely to trigger much sympathy among his colleagues.]]
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[[folder:House of Kaestner & Allies]]
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[[folder:House of Kaestner & Allies]]
Kaestner]]
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[[folder:Miscellaneous Allies]]
!!Richard Harrow
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/richard-harrow-boardwalk-empire-promotional-episode-shot_1769.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Would you pay a dime to see this?"]]
A shy, socially stunted former WorldWarOne sniper who lost half his face in the battlefield and carries a tin prosthetic mask to hide what is missing. ''Very'' desensitized to violence, but at the same time craves human relations. He meets Jimmy at a military hospital in Chicago, and becomes his right-hand man. Played by Jack Huston.
!!Tropes:
* ADayInTheLimeLight: Season 2's "Gimcrack & Bunkum". He [[BreakoutCharacter steps to the front]] and definitely becomes a main character from Season 3.
* {{Adorkable}}: His interactions with children, especially Tommy, and Julia.
* AffablyEvil: He's a sensitive and polite young man who is really likable. On the other hand, he's a ruthless killer and his suggested strategy for drawing out an enemy was to kill their innocent family members and associates.
* AManIsNotAVirgin: Averted. The first thing Jimmy does for him is to get him laid, though.
* AntiVillain: [[SlidingScaleOfAntiVillains Type II.]]
* [[spoiler: AnyoneCanDie: His demise is the biggest example since Jimmy's death as he was arguably the show's most well loved and popular character at the time of his death.]]
* AteHisGun: In "Gimcrack and Bunkum". [[InterruptedSuicide He gets better]].
* BackgroundHalo: He gets one from a roof lamp when he meets again with Paul Sagorsky.
* {{Badass}}: Has killed 63 men, both in and out of the First World War. After "Margate Sands", we can add 12 or more to that number.
** BadassLongcoat
** HandicappedBadass
** SubmissiveBadass: Richard is a quiet, sensitive cold-blooded killer who never raises his voice to the people he works for. However, it is a mistake to think that this means that he will not act on his own.
* BattleButler: He isn't quite a butler, but he serves as protector for the Thompson kids in season one and Tommy Darmody in season three.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Subverted. He is horribly disfigured but possibly the most moral criminal on the series.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: So very averted.
* BerserkButton: Disrespecting or hurting anyone close to him: Jimmy, Angela, Tommy, Julia...
* BestServedCold: He waited a year and a half, but in "Resolution" he finally gets revenge on Manny Horvitz for killing Angela. As a sniper he is trained to wait patiently to make his kills.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Richard is easily one of the nicest, most genuinely thoughtful and caring people on the entire show. However, he has, by far, the highest individual body count of anyone in the entire series.
* BreakoutCharacter: Like Chalky White, his popularity in the first season made him quickly promoted to a series regular.
* BloodBrothers: With Jimmy.
* BoomHeadshot: Most likely survived one in the First World War given his injuries. He in turn is very fond of dishing these out.
* CannotTellALie: In his first scene, he claims not to be able to lie. Jimmy gets him to tell a small lie to the hospital staff, and a friendship is born. Since then, his scarce lies have been [[BadLiar easily smelled]].
* CharacterDevelopment: Richard debuts late in the first season saying that he does not believe that people can be emotionally connected to others, and offers to kill the D'Alessio brothers innocent family members just to force them out of hiding, were Jimmy to give him the order. Throughout Season 2, Jimmy reassures him that their relationship is not strictly business but that he actually cares for him. Richard also genuinely connects with Jimmy's wife Angela and is hurt when she is killed by Manny Horvitz. In Season 3, Richard's main drive in life is to look after Jimmy and Angela's orphaned son Tommy. He avenges Angela's death by killing Manny, and even justifies this, differentiating between Angela and Jimmy's deaths - Jimmy was a soldier and knew what he was getting into by meeting with Nucky that night; Angela was an innocent who suffered needlessly due to Manny's DisproportionateRetribution. In Season 4 he returns to the family home in Wisconsin and confides to his sister that he is sick of killing and would like to not do it anymore.
* CleanupCrew: Twice in "Under God's Power She Flourishes". There's a straightforward instance at the end of the episode when Jimmy wakes up to see Richard cleaning up the Commodore's body and washing the blood off the floor, and a [[TearJerker heartbreaking]] allusion earlier in the episode when Richard cries at finding Angela's blood still on the floor.
* ColdSniper
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: [[spoiler: Julia tells him that getting Tommy's custody would be easier if she was married. Richard asks "to whom?".]]
* TheConscience: The one guy out of the Young Turks who will be completely honest with Jimmy, as well as question why Jimmy wants to do something.
* CreepyMonotone: Richard always talks in a dispassionate manner, even when he offers to murder the family members of the D'Alessios or when he threatens to kill Paul Sagorsky.
* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:At the end of season 4, it seems that Richard will finally have a family, something he always wanted. However, he has to perform OneLastJob, and not only he misses his target, but he kills an InnocentBystander and gets gunned down himself.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: In "Gimcrack and Bunkum", a crony of The Commodore disrespects Jimmy and bloodies his face. Harrow, under Jimmy's orders, ''scalps'' him.
* TheDragon: To Jimmy.
* DrivenToSuicide: Luckily for him, it gets interrupted.
* [[spoiler:DyingDream: He makes it back to his old house, where his entire family is waiting. Then we see him with his whole face, and it turns out he's quietly bled to death at the spot where he first spent the night with Julia.]]
* EveryoneHasStandards: While Eli doesn't even hesitate in suggesting they kill Nucky and Capone suggests Richard be the one to do it, Richard himself absolutely refuses.
* EyeScream / FacialHorror / NightmareFace: There. Are. No. Words.
** His face literally makes children cry (Emily cries hysterically when she sees him without his mask on in "Emerald City").
* [[spoiler:FaceDeathWithDignity: Mortally wounded, he makes his way out to the boardwalk and spends his last moments knowing that his family is safe in Wisconsin.]]
* FakeAmerican: Jack Huston is English.
* FreakinessShame
* TheGrotesque: A very sympathetic version who you want to hug (at least when he's not killing people).
* GunsAkimbo: His rampage through the Artemis Club in "Margate Sands".
* GutturalGrowler: Due to his war injuries, he talks in a gravelly, flat voice. He makes TomWaits sound like a choir boy.
** In one of the DVD commentaries, Jack Huston demonstrates the voice and talks about how he's had several people not believe it comes straight from him without electronic tampering.
* HandCannon: When he is not carrying [[SawedOffShotgun an actual cannon]].
* HeroicSacrifice: Not a conventional one but it's made clear that his rescue mission of Tommy and the subsequent killings had set him back to his state in Season 1 in terms of psychological health.
* HiddenDepths: Is a fairly good dancer and has quite a sweet sense of humor.
* HitmanWithAHeart: Cold-blooded sniper who dreams of having a family and loves children.
* HonoraryUncle: To Tommy.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Has a healthy envy of Jimmy's family life and longs to have one of his own.
-->How does it feel, to have everything?
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Justified in that Harrow is an Army-trained sniper. Still manages to pull off an impressive number of BoomHeadshot moments, particularly in "Margate Sands," with handguns, a hip fired shotgun, and a non-aimed rifle.
** Notice that he only ever uses one bullet per mook he kills in the Artemis Club battle. "One shot one kill" indeed.
* ItGetsEasier
* ItsPersonal: He will [[BestServedCold wait as long as it takes]] to get his revenge. On the other hand, he sees no reason to seek revenge for things that occur as part of a war (or a MobWar) if no innocents were harmed. He takes bloody revenge for Angela's murder but sees no cause to avenge Jimmy's death. In his view there is nothing personal about soldiers killing and dying during a war. Similarly, Richard threatens Mickey Doyle after he takes credit for Manny's death at Richard's hands.
* KickTheDog: "I could kill their mother. The sisters. And the dentist. That would make [the D'Alessios] stick their heads up".
* LackOfEmpathy: Starts out like this. It's rather telling that out of a group of himself, Jimmy Darmondy, and Al Capone, the last two ruthless in their own right, Richard is the one who is sent to kill a fourteen year old boy.
* MoeGreeneSpecial: He is a rare, living, breathing example of this trope. Perhaps because of this, he's rather fond of dishing this out to enemies, as Liam, Manny and the [[BullyingADragon poor]] [[TooDumbToLive bastards]] [[{{Mook}} working]] for Rosetti can testify.
* MoralityPet: To Jimmy. Angela, even after her death, Tommy, and Julia are his.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: His reaction to killing Chalky's daughter, which in turn leaves him too stunned to make a break for it after the hit on Narcisse goes wrong, resulting in his getting shot and eventually dying.]]
* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Even the people he kills still deserve respect, according to him.
* NiceHat: Favors a newsboy cap but wears a fedora when he [[spoiler: asks Nucky for a job]] in season 4.
* OminousWalk: Tends toward these when "working".
* OneManArmy: Pulls one off in "Margate Sands".
* PapaWolf: Harming Tommy is one of the quickest ways to get killed on this show. When his first attempt in getting Tommy out of the Artemis Club and Rosetti's hands fails, he returns in an epic rampage that kills almost all of Rosetti's men to get him back.
* ParentalSubstitute: To Tommy, much to [[EvilMatriarch Gillian's]] displeasure.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: His brutal murder of Manny Horvitz, his intimidation of [[{{Jerkass}} Mickey Doyle]] and his full-out slaughter of Gyp Rosetti's men.
* PromotedToOpeningTitles: In the second season.
* RedOniBlueOni: Blue to Sleater's Red. Blue to Jimmy's Red, too.
* RefugeInAudacity: He walks into Nucky's office holding Mickey Doyle at gunpoint and forces him to admit that Mickey's claims that he killed Manny Horvitz were false to Nucky. Why? Because Richard killed Manny for what he did to Angela, and he didn't want Mickey taking the credit.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Gillian kicking him out to separate him from Tommy was a really, ''really'' [[TemptingFate bad move.]] Richard tells her implicitly that he'll be back for Tommy. He comes back and despite there being a small army waiting at the Artemis Club, there is no amount of firepower that can keep him from Tommy.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Very often, Richard has his mask off when he is most vulnerable, or when someone discovers a facet of Richard they didn't know about.[[note]]ex. Angela, that he has a estranged sister; Emma, that he kills men for a living.[[/note]]
* ShellshockedVeteran: To the point where he's so desensitized to violence that he has no qualms about becoming a contract killer.
* ShootTheDog: When he returns to his childhood home, he finds the old family dog is terminally ill and dying so his sister requests that he put it out of its misery. It turns out he can't go through with it so his sister does it instead.
* ShroudedInMyth: Seems to be heading in this direction after anonymously killing Manny Horvitz and 90% of Gyp Rosetti's crew.
* TheStoic
* TenMinuteRetirement: In Season 4, he tells his sister that he is sick of killing and doesn't want to do it anymore. Unfortunately, he decides this after being paid to kill four men, and the employer is not too happy about it.
* ThrowItIn: Jack Huston came up with Harrow's guttural voice himself, using MarlonBrando's cotton-in-the-mouth trick from ''Film/TheGodfather''.
* [[spoiler:TooHappyToLive: In "Farewell Daddy Blues", it seems that Richard will finally be happy; with the help of Nucky, he manages to ensure that Gillian goes to jail, and he and Julia get the custody of Tommy. However, he has to perform one last job for Nucky in exchange. He botches it up, kills an innocent bystander, gets mortally wounded and dies soon after.]]
* TranquilFury: His disfigured face and monotone voice makes it hard for him to express emotions so it's hard to tell when he is angry, with some exceptions:
** When Gillian orders him to stop talking to Tommy about Angela you can feel the anger emanating from his body even though his posture and tone of voice never change.
** The most visibly angry he's gotten is with Paul after he insults both him and his girlfriend, Paul's daughter. Even then, his voice was hardly louder than usual.
* TwoFaced: Literally, and metaphorically.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Jimmy. Later passed to his son, Tommy.
* VillainousBreakdown[=/=]HeroicBSOD: In Season 4, Richard's guilt finally catches up with him and he actually spares the life of man he was hired to kill after finding out he had a family. He futher breaks down when he can't even work up to the nerve to [[ShootTheDog put a dying dog out of its misery]] and declares that he's done with killing.
* WildCard: Following the death of Jimmy.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: You just want to hug him and let him know that it will all be right, but ''Holy Mother Of God'' will he bring down the thunder if you cross those that he cares for.
* [[WouldHitAGirl Would Mob Hit A Girl]]: Conversed with Jimmy. While he seems adamantly averse to laying hands on a woman, he is perfectly fine with dispaching them by other means if it serves the purposes of a MobWar.
* WouldHurtAChild: He shoots 14-year-old Pius D'Alessio to death, even though Pius tries to surrender. To be fair, despite his age, Pius wasn't an innocent child but a violent criminal.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: When Richard attempts to paint himself as a monster for the massacre in the Artemis Club, Paul Sagorsky tells him that it makes him a hero because he [[PayEvilUntoEvil did it all]] to save Tommy.
* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Piss off Richard enough and at best, you'll get off easy, as Paul did with simply getting beaten and choked. At worst, you'll find yourself like Manny Horvitz or like one of Rosetti's men, where having a 10/1 advantage will give you no good.
!!Richard Harrow
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/richard-harrow-boardwalk-empire-promotional-episode-shot_1769.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Would you pay a dime to see this?"]]
A shy, socially stunted former WorldWarOne sniper who lost half his face in the battlefield and carries a tin prosthetic mask to hide what is missing. ''Very'' desensitized to violence, but at the same time craves human relations. He meets Jimmy at a military hospital in Chicago, and becomes his right-hand man. Played by Jack Huston.
!!Tropes:
* ADayInTheLimeLight: Season 2's "Gimcrack & Bunkum". He [[BreakoutCharacter steps to the front]] and definitely becomes a main character from Season 3.
* {{Adorkable}}: His interactions with children, especially Tommy, and Julia.
* AffablyEvil: He's a sensitive and polite young man who is really likable. On the other hand, he's a ruthless killer and his suggested strategy for drawing out an enemy was to kill their innocent family members and associates.
* AManIsNotAVirgin: Averted. The first thing Jimmy does for him is to get him laid, though.
* AntiVillain: [[SlidingScaleOfAntiVillains Type II.]]
* [[spoiler: AnyoneCanDie: His demise is the biggest example since Jimmy's death as he was arguably the show's most well loved and popular character at the time of his death.]]
* AteHisGun: In "Gimcrack and Bunkum". [[InterruptedSuicide He gets better]].
* BackgroundHalo: He gets one from a roof lamp when he meets again with Paul Sagorsky.
* {{Badass}}: Has killed 63 men, both in and out of the First World War. After "Margate Sands", we can add 12 or more to that number.
** BadassLongcoat
** HandicappedBadass
** SubmissiveBadass: Richard is a quiet, sensitive cold-blooded killer who never raises his voice to the people he works for. However, it is a mistake to think that this means that he will not act on his own.
* BattleButler: He isn't quite a butler, but he serves as protector for the Thompson kids in season one and Tommy Darmody in season three.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Subverted. He is horribly disfigured but possibly the most moral criminal on the series.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: So very averted.
* BerserkButton: Disrespecting or hurting anyone close to him: Jimmy, Angela, Tommy, Julia...
* BestServedCold: He waited a year and a half, but in "Resolution" he finally gets revenge on Manny Horvitz for killing Angela. As a sniper he is trained to wait patiently to make his kills.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Richard is easily one of the nicest, most genuinely thoughtful and caring people on the entire show. However, he has, by far, the highest individual body count of anyone in the entire series.
* BreakoutCharacter: Like Chalky White, his popularity in the first season made him quickly promoted to a series regular.
* BloodBrothers: With Jimmy.
* BoomHeadshot: Most likely survived one in the First World War given his injuries. He in turn is very fond of dishing these out.
* CannotTellALie: In his first scene, he claims not to be able to lie. Jimmy gets him to tell a small lie to the hospital staff, and a friendship is born. Since then, his scarce lies have been [[BadLiar easily smelled]].
* CharacterDevelopment: Richard debuts late in the first season saying that he does not believe that people can be emotionally connected to others, and offers to kill the D'Alessio brothers innocent family members just to force them out of hiding, were Jimmy to give him the order. Throughout Season 2, Jimmy reassures him that their relationship is not strictly business but that he actually cares for him. Richard also genuinely connects with Jimmy's wife Angela and is hurt when she is killed by Manny Horvitz. In Season 3, Richard's main drive in life is to look after Jimmy and Angela's orphaned son Tommy. He avenges Angela's death by killing Manny, and even justifies this, differentiating between Angela and Jimmy's deaths - Jimmy was a soldier and knew what he was getting into by meeting with Nucky that night; Angela was an innocent who suffered needlessly due to Manny's DisproportionateRetribution. In Season 4 he returns to the family home in Wisconsin and confides to his sister that he is sick of killing and would like to not do it anymore.
* CleanupCrew: Twice in "Under God's Power She Flourishes". There's a straightforward instance at the end of the episode when Jimmy wakes up to see Richard cleaning up the Commodore's body and washing the blood off the floor, and a [[TearJerker heartbreaking]] allusion earlier in the episode when Richard cries at finding Angela's blood still on the floor.
* ColdSniper
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: [[spoiler: Julia tells him that getting Tommy's custody would be easier if she was married. Richard asks "to whom?".]]
* TheConscience: The one guy out of the Young Turks who will be completely honest with Jimmy, as well as question why Jimmy wants to do something.
* CreepyMonotone: Richard always talks in a dispassionate manner, even when he offers to murder the family members of the D'Alessios or when he threatens to kill Paul Sagorsky.
* DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:At the end of season 4, it seems that Richard will finally have a family, something he always wanted. However, he has to perform OneLastJob, and not only he misses his target, but he kills an InnocentBystander and gets gunned down himself.]]
* DisproportionateRetribution: In "Gimcrack and Bunkum", a crony of The Commodore disrespects Jimmy and bloodies his face. Harrow, under Jimmy's orders, ''scalps'' him.
* TheDragon: To Jimmy.
* DrivenToSuicide: Luckily for him, it gets interrupted.
* [[spoiler:DyingDream: He makes it back to his old house, where his entire family is waiting. Then we see him with his whole face, and it turns out he's quietly bled to death at the spot where he first spent the night with Julia.]]
* EveryoneHasStandards: While Eli doesn't even hesitate in suggesting they kill Nucky and Capone suggests Richard be the one to do it, Richard himself absolutely refuses.
* EyeScream / FacialHorror / NightmareFace: There. Are. No. Words.
** His face literally makes children cry (Emily cries hysterically when she sees him without his mask on in "Emerald City").
* [[spoiler:FaceDeathWithDignity: Mortally wounded, he makes his way out to the boardwalk and spends his last moments knowing that his family is safe in Wisconsin.]]
* FakeAmerican: Jack Huston is English.
* FreakinessShame
* TheGrotesque: A very sympathetic version who you want to hug (at least when he's not killing people).
* GunsAkimbo: His rampage through the Artemis Club in "Margate Sands".
* GutturalGrowler: Due to his war injuries, he talks in a gravelly, flat voice. He makes TomWaits sound like a choir boy.
** In one of the DVD commentaries, Jack Huston demonstrates the voice and talks about how he's had several people not believe it comes straight from him without electronic tampering.
* HandCannon: When he is not carrying [[SawedOffShotgun an actual cannon]].
* HeroicSacrifice: Not a conventional one but it's made clear that his rescue mission of Tommy and the subsequent killings had set him back to his state in Season 1 in terms of psychological health.
* HiddenDepths: Is a fairly good dancer and has quite a sweet sense of humor.
* HitmanWithAHeart: Cold-blooded sniper who dreams of having a family and loves children.
* HonoraryUncle: To Tommy.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Has a healthy envy of Jimmy's family life and longs to have one of his own.
-->How does it feel, to have everything?
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Justified in that Harrow is an Army-trained sniper. Still manages to pull off an impressive number of BoomHeadshot moments, particularly in "Margate Sands," with handguns, a hip fired shotgun, and a non-aimed rifle.
** Notice that he only ever uses one bullet per mook he kills in the Artemis Club battle. "One shot one kill" indeed.
* ItGetsEasier
* ItsPersonal: He will [[BestServedCold wait as long as it takes]] to get his revenge. On the other hand, he sees no reason to seek revenge for things that occur as part of a war (or a MobWar) if no innocents were harmed. He takes bloody revenge for Angela's murder but sees no cause to avenge Jimmy's death. In his view there is nothing personal about soldiers killing and dying during a war. Similarly, Richard threatens Mickey Doyle after he takes credit for Manny's death at Richard's hands.
* KickTheDog: "I could kill their mother. The sisters. And the dentist. That would make [the D'Alessios] stick their heads up".
* LackOfEmpathy: Starts out like this. It's rather telling that out of a group of himself, Jimmy Darmondy, and Al Capone, the last two ruthless in their own right, Richard is the one who is sent to kill a fourteen year old boy.
* MoeGreeneSpecial: He is a rare, living, breathing example of this trope. Perhaps because of this, he's rather fond of dishing this out to enemies, as Liam, Manny and the [[BullyingADragon poor]] [[TooDumbToLive bastards]] [[{{Mook}} working]] for Rosetti can testify.
* MoralityPet: To Jimmy. Angela, even after her death, Tommy, and Julia are his.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: His reaction to killing Chalky's daughter, which in turn leaves him too stunned to make a break for it after the hit on Narcisse goes wrong, resulting in his getting shot and eventually dying.]]
* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead: Even the people he kills still deserve respect, according to him.
* NiceHat: Favors a newsboy cap but wears a fedora when he [[spoiler: asks Nucky for a job]] in season 4.
* OminousWalk: Tends toward these when "working".
* OneManArmy: Pulls one off in "Margate Sands".
* PapaWolf: Harming Tommy is one of the quickest ways to get killed on this show. When his first attempt in getting Tommy out of the Artemis Club and Rosetti's hands fails, he returns in an epic rampage that kills almost all of Rosetti's men to get him back.
* ParentalSubstitute: To Tommy, much to [[EvilMatriarch Gillian's]] displeasure.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: His brutal murder of Manny Horvitz, his intimidation of [[{{Jerkass}} Mickey Doyle]] and his full-out slaughter of Gyp Rosetti's men.
* PromotedToOpeningTitles: In the second season.
* RedOniBlueOni: Blue to Sleater's Red. Blue to Jimmy's Red, too.
* RefugeInAudacity: He walks into Nucky's office holding Mickey Doyle at gunpoint and forces him to admit that Mickey's claims that he killed Manny Horvitz were false to Nucky. Why? Because Richard killed Manny for what he did to Angela, and he didn't want Mickey taking the credit.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Gillian kicking him out to separate him from Tommy was a really, ''really'' [[TemptingFate bad move.]] Richard tells her implicitly that he'll be back for Tommy. He comes back and despite there being a small army waiting at the Artemis Club, there is no amount of firepower that can keep him from Tommy.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Very often, Richard has his mask off when he is most vulnerable, or when someone discovers a facet of Richard they didn't know about.[[note]]ex. Angela, that he has a estranged sister; Emma, that he kills men for a living.[[/note]]
* ShellshockedVeteran: To the point where he's so desensitized to violence that he has no qualms about becoming a contract killer.
* ShootTheDog: When he returns to his childhood home, he finds the old family dog is terminally ill and dying so his sister requests that he put it out of its misery. It turns out he can't go through with it so his sister does it instead.
* ShroudedInMyth: Seems to be heading in this direction after anonymously killing Manny Horvitz and 90% of Gyp Rosetti's crew.
* TheStoic
* TenMinuteRetirement: In Season 4, he tells his sister that he is sick of killing and doesn't want to do it anymore. Unfortunately, he decides this after being paid to kill four men, and the employer is not too happy about it.
* ThrowItIn: Jack Huston came up with Harrow's guttural voice himself, using MarlonBrando's cotton-in-the-mouth trick from ''Film/TheGodfather''.
* [[spoiler:TooHappyToLive: In "Farewell Daddy Blues", it seems that Richard will finally be happy; with the help of Nucky, he manages to ensure that Gillian goes to jail, and he and Julia get the custody of Tommy. However, he has to perform one last job for Nucky in exchange. He botches it up, kills an innocent bystander, gets mortally wounded and dies soon after.]]
* TranquilFury: His disfigured face and monotone voice makes it hard for him to express emotions so it's hard to tell when he is angry, with some exceptions:
** When Gillian orders him to stop talking to Tommy about Angela you can feel the anger emanating from his body even though his posture and tone of voice never change.
** The most visibly angry he's gotten is with Paul after he insults both him and his girlfriend, Paul's daughter. Even then, his voice was hardly louder than usual.
* TwoFaced: Literally, and metaphorically.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Jimmy. Later passed to his son, Tommy.
* VillainousBreakdown[=/=]HeroicBSOD: In Season 4, Richard's guilt finally catches up with him and he actually spares the life of man he was hired to kill after finding out he had a family. He futher breaks down when he can't even work up to the nerve to [[ShootTheDog put a dying dog out of its misery]] and declares that he's done with killing.
* WildCard: Following the death of Jimmy.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: You just want to hug him and let him know that it will all be right, but ''Holy Mother Of God'' will he bring down the thunder if you cross those that he cares for.
* [[WouldHitAGirl Would Mob Hit A Girl]]: Conversed with Jimmy. While he seems adamantly averse to laying hands on a woman, he is perfectly fine with dispaching them by other means if it serves the purposes of a MobWar.
* WouldHurtAChild: He shoots 14-year-old Pius D'Alessio to death, even though Pius tries to surrender. To be fair, despite his age, Pius wasn't an innocent child but a violent criminal.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: When Richard attempts to paint himself as a monster for the massacre in the Artemis Club, Paul Sagorsky tells him that it makes him a hero because he [[PayEvilUntoEvil did it all]] to save Tommy.
* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Piss off Richard enough and at best, you'll get off easy, as Paul did with simply getting beaten and choked. At worst, you'll find yourself like Manny Horvitz or like one of Rosetti's men, where having a 10/1 advantage will give you no good.
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[[caption-width-right:315:''"[W]e have yet to see a dime."'']]
[[caption-width-right:315:''"[W]e have yet to see a dime."'']]
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[[caption-width-right:315: ''"It's high time that you and your whole damn generation learn something about respect."'']]
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* BiggerBad: In Season 2, he and a group of other wealthy financiers back the Commodore's bid to seize power in Atlantic City. [[spoiler: However, when Jimmy Darmody murders him in retaliation for an earlier physical altercation, they withdraw their backing.]]
* BullyingADragon: He smacks a visibly unhinged war veteran in the head with a cane for his generation's "lack of respect" [[spoiler: and is later killed for it.]]
* EvilCripple
* BullyingADragon: He smacks a visibly unhinged war veteran in the head with a cane for his generation's "lack of respect" [[spoiler: and is later killed for it.]]
* EvilCripple
to:
* BiggerBad: In Season 2, he and a group of other extremely wealthy power brokers collectively fit this trope as the primary financiers back of the Commodore's Commodore's bid to seize power in Atlantic City. [[spoiler: However, when Jimmy Darmody murders him in retaliation for an earlier physical altercation, they withdraw their backing.]]
* BullyingADragon: Hesmacks first belittles Darmody's participationHe goes so far as to strike a visibly unhinged war veteran in the head with a cane for his generation's "lack of respect" [[spoiler: and is later killed for it.]]
*EvilCrippleEvilCripple:
* EvilOldFolks
* BullyingADragon: He
*
* EvilOldFolks
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!! Mr. Darlington
[[quoteright:315:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1000px-darlingtonvwx2013_1481.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:315:''"[W]e have yet to see a dime."'']]
An Atlantic City power broker as well as one of several investors who bankrolls the Commodore's coup against Nucky in Season 2.
!!Tropes
* BiggerBad: In Season 2, he and a group of other extremely wealthy power brokers collectively fit this trope as the primary financiers of the Commodore's bid to seize power in Atlantic City. [[spoiler: However, when Jimmy Darmody murders one of his colleagues, Jackson Parkhurst, in retaliation for an earlier physical altercation, they withdraw their backing.]]
* EvilCripple: He uses an ear trumpet to compensate for his hearing loss. This handicap is later accentuated when he becomes visibly agitated when too many people begin talking for his liking.
* EvilOldFolks
* FauxAffablyEvil: He initially acts very courteous and respectful towards Jimmy Darmody by commending him for his service in World War I. However, when the conversation turns to money, he joins in with his colleagues to berate Jimmy for failing to show them a return on their investment.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He admits to using ties with the [[TheKlan Ku Klux Klan to]] deal with the Commodore's ''"colored problem."''
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* CheerfulChild
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* CheerfulChildCheerfulChild: Originally. As a result of his traumatic experiences, he becomes rather quiet and shy.
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* CoolOld Guy
* HeyItsThatGuy: OH! Hey there, [[TheSopranos Uncle Jun']]!
* HeyItsThatGuy: OH! Hey there, [[TheSopranos Uncle Jun']]!
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* CoolOld Guy
CoolOldGuy
* HeyItsThatGuy:OH! OH!! Hey there, [[TheSopranos Uncle Jun']]!
* HeyItsThatGuy:
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* RedOniBlueOni: The Blue Oni to Commodore Louis Kaestner's Red Oni. As Kaestner's most trusted aide and confidante, he serves as the voice of reason and pragmatism in stark contrast to his narcissistic and often hotheaded boss.
to:
* RedOniBlueOni: The Blue Oni to Commodore Louis Kaestner's Red Oni. As Kaestner's most trusted aide and confidante, he serves as the a voice of reason levelheadedness and pragmatism in stark contrast to his narcissistic and often hotheaded boss.
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* BestServedCold: Betrays Gillian as revenge for her role in the Commodore's death, after pretending to be her ally for three years.
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* [[spoiler: BestServedCold: Betrays Gillian as revenge for her role in the Commodore's death, after pretending to be her ally for three years.]]
* HeyItsThatGuy: OH! Hey there, [[TheSopranos Uncle Jun']]!
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* TreacherousAdvisor: To Gillian.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Commodore Louis Kaestner. After the Commodore is incapacitated by a stroke, he takes Jimmy under his wing and counsels him on ruling his father's massive criminal empire (despite being hindered at every turn by Gillian much to his chagrin). After witnessing the Commodore's go down in flames at the hands of Gillian, he obtains vengeance on behalf of his old friend by conspiring to have her incarcerated.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Commodore Louis Kaestner. After the Commodore is incapacitated by a stroke, he takes Jimmy under his wing and counsels him on ruling his father's massive criminal empire (despite being hindered at every turn by Gillian much to his chagrin). After witnessing the Commodore's go down in flames at the hands of Gillian, he obtains vengeance on behalf of his old friend by conspiring to have her incarcerated.
to:
* [[spoiler: TreacherousAdvisor: To Gillian.
Gillian.]]
* UndyingLoyalty: To Commodore Louis Kaestner.After When the Commodore is incapacitated by rest of the Commodore's backers abandon him shortly after he sustains a stroke, he takes alone stays to counsel Jimmy under his wing and counsels him on ruling his father's massive criminal empire (despite being hindered at every turn by Gillian much to his chagrin). [[spoiler: After witnessing the Commodore's go down in flames at the hands of Gillian, he obtains vengeance on behalf of his old friend by conspiring to have her incarcerated.]]
* UndyingLoyalty: To Commodore Louis Kaestner.
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* BiggerBad: In Season 4, he and a group of other wealthy financiers back the Commodore's bid to seize power in Atlantic City. [[spoiler: However, when Jimmy Darmody murders him in retaliation for an earlier physical altercation, they withdraw their backing.]]
to:
* BiggerBad: In Season 4, 2, he and a group of other wealthy financiers back the Commodore's bid to seize power in Atlantic City. [[spoiler: However, when Jimmy Darmody murders him in retaliation for an earlier physical altercation, they withdraw their backing.]]
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[[quoteright:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/parkhurstvwx2013_2623.jpg]]
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* AssholeVictim
* BiggerBad:
* BullyingADragon
* BiggerBad:
* BullyingADragon
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* AssholeVictim
BiggerBad: In Season 4, he and a group of other wealthy financiers back the Commodore's bid to seize power in Atlantic City. [[spoiler: However, when Jimmy Darmody murders him in retaliation for an earlier physical altercation, they withdraw their backing.]]
*BiggerBad:
* BullyingADragonBullyingADragon: He smacks a visibly unhinged war veteran in the head with a cane for his generation's "lack of respect" [[spoiler: and is later killed for it.]]
*
* BullyingADragon
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* GrumpyOldMan
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* GrumpyOldManGrumpyOldMan: He views the current generation of Americans with barely concealed contempt (notwithstanding the fact that many of them died or experienced irreparable harm fighting for their country in WW I.
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* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Despite his position as a member of the Atlantic City Memorial Committee, he dispenses with the formality of congratulating Jimmy Darmody for his service in World War and proceeds to interrogate him regarding the destruction of their alcohol warehouse and demands to see a return on their investment. When Jimmy insults the men after years of
to:
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Despite his position as a member of the Atlantic City Memorial Committee, he dispenses with the formality of congratulating Jimmy Darmody for his service in World War and proceeds to interrogate rudely question him regarding the destruction of their alcohol warehouse and demands to see a as well as the unseen return on their investment. When Jimmy finally insults the men after years of
enduring their berating, Jackson strikes him on the head with a cane.
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* BiggerBad:
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* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
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* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He takes great pride in participating in the U.S. government's genocidal campaign against Native Americans.
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The Commodore's long-term lawyer, and following his death, Gillian's. Played by Dominic Chianese.
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The Commodore's long-term lawyer, lawyer as well as an Atlantic City power-broker. He later serves as an advisor to Jimmy and following his death, Gillian's. (reluctantly) Gillian. Played by Dominic Chianese.Chianese.
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!!Jackson Parkhurst
An Atlantic City power broker and war profiteer who backs the Commodore's coup against Nucky along with a group of wealthy investors.
* AssholeVictim
* BullyingADragon
* EvilCripple
* GrumpyOldMan
* KarmicDeath: He is scalped to death.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
* PettheDog: Unlike the racist Commodore, he is portrayed as a surprisingly pleasant boss to his African-American butler, Alexander.
An Atlantic City power broker and war profiteer who backs the Commodore's coup against Nucky along with a group of wealthy investors.
* AssholeVictim
* BullyingADragon
* EvilCripple
* GrumpyOldMan
* KarmicDeath: He is scalped to death.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
* PettheDog: Unlike the racist Commodore, he is portrayed as a surprisingly pleasant boss to his African-American butler, Alexander.
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[[folder:House of Kaestner]]
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[[folder:House of Kaestner]]
Kaestner & Allies]]
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!!Luann Pratt
[[quoteright:279:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Luann-Pratt_6336.png]]
[[caption-width-right:279:"[[BlackHumor Because if I'd used a shotgun, I'd had to clean the mess myself]]."]]
The Commodore's long-suffering maid, who takes it upon herself to put him out of his misery with long-term poisoning. Played by Johnnie Mae.
!!'''Tropes:'''
* BlatantLies
--> '''Halloran:''' Arsenic was found in the Commodore's food, drinks, even the toothpaste. How do you explain this?
--> '''Luann:''' I guess it musta fell in there somehow by accident.
* TheButlerDidIt
* TheDogBitesBack: Luann herself.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Looking back at Luann's first scene, there are numerous visible hints that she was poisoning the Commodore.
* KarmaHoudini: The Commodore and Gillian see her as this. She did get away with attempted murder, but if ever there was an AssholeVictim, it was the Commodore.
* KickTheDog: Poor Jerry never hurt a soul.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: The Commodore, on the other hand...
* KindlyHousekeeper: Well, she acts kindly enough to most people...
* LargeHam
* {{Mammy}}: Subverted. While she acts the part, Luann is actually quite crafty and has a far from benevolent agenda of her own.
* PerfectPoison: Averted. The Commodore still clings to life after months of continuous poisoning, and Luann eventually gets caught before the payoff.
* PutOnABus: Nucky gives her money and tells her to skip town after her murder attempt is discovered.
* SassyBlackWoman
* ServileSnarker
* UnexpectedInheritance: The Commodore named her his heir before he recognized Jimmy and apparently forgot to change his will even after she was discovered trying to kill him. Jimmy then has the will destroyed.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: As illustrated by her quote, she takes the slow path with the Commodore because she regards the straightforward one as [[PragmaticVillainy messy and impractical]].
[[quoteright:279:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Luann-Pratt_6336.png]]
[[caption-width-right:279:"[[BlackHumor Because if I'd used a shotgun, I'd had to clean the mess myself]]."]]
The Commodore's long-suffering maid, who takes it upon herself to put him out of his misery with long-term poisoning. Played by Johnnie Mae.
!!'''Tropes:'''
* BlatantLies
--> '''Halloran:''' Arsenic was found in the Commodore's food, drinks, even the toothpaste. How do you explain this?
--> '''Luann:''' I guess it musta fell in there somehow by accident.
* TheButlerDidIt
* TheDogBitesBack: Luann herself.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Looking back at Luann's first scene, there are numerous visible hints that she was poisoning the Commodore.
* KarmaHoudini: The Commodore and Gillian see her as this. She did get away with attempted murder, but if ever there was an AssholeVictim, it was the Commodore.
* KickTheDog: Poor Jerry never hurt a soul.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: The Commodore, on the other hand...
* KindlyHousekeeper: Well, she acts kindly enough to most people...
* LargeHam
* {{Mammy}}: Subverted. While she acts the part, Luann is actually quite crafty and has a far from benevolent agenda of her own.
* PerfectPoison: Averted. The Commodore still clings to life after months of continuous poisoning, and Luann eventually gets caught before the payoff.
* PutOnABus: Nucky gives her money and tells her to skip town after her murder attempt is discovered.
* SassyBlackWoman
* ServileSnarker
* UnexpectedInheritance: The Commodore named her his heir before he recognized Jimmy and apparently forgot to change his will even after she was discovered trying to kill him. Jimmy then has the will destroyed.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: As illustrated by her quote, she takes the slow path with the Commodore because she regards the straightforward one as [[PragmaticVillainy messy and impractical]].
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[[quoteright:257:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Leander_Whitlock_3259.png]]
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!!Leander Cephas Whitlock
->'''Played by:''' Dominic Chianese
->"Not every insult requires a response".
The Commodore's long-term lawyer, and following his death, Gillian's. Played by Dominic Chianese.
!!Tropes:
* Advertised Extra: Even if he has only one line, Dominic Chianese will be the first name you see in the closing credits.
* AmoralAttorney
* BestServedCold: Betrays Gillian as revenge for her role in the Commodore's death, after pretending to be her ally for three years.
* TheConsigliere: Used to serve as the Commodore's. Serves as Jimmy's, and reluctantly, Gillian's.
* CoolOld Guy
* TheMentor: Briefly, to Jimmy.
* OnlySaneMan
* PunchclockVillain
* RedOniBlueOni: The Blue Oni to Commodore Louis Kaestner's Red Oni. As Kaestner's most trusted aide and confidante, he serves as the voice of reason and pragmatism in stark contrast to his narcissistic and often hotheaded boss.
* SmartPeopleKnowLatin
* TreacherousAdvisor: To Gillian.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Commodore Louis Kaestner. After the Commodore is incapacitated by a stroke, he takes Jimmy under his wing and counsels him on ruling his father's massive criminal empire (despite being hindered at every turn by Gillian much to his chagrin). After witnessing the Commodore's go down in flames at the hands of Gillian, he obtains vengeance on behalf of his old friend by conspiring to have her incarcerated.
* WorthyOpponent: He sees Nucky as this.
->'''Played by:''' Dominic Chianese
->"Not every insult requires a response".
The Commodore's long-term lawyer, and following his death, Gillian's. Played by Dominic Chianese.
!!Tropes:
* Advertised Extra: Even if he has only one line, Dominic Chianese will be the first name you see in the closing credits.
* AmoralAttorney
* BestServedCold: Betrays Gillian as revenge for her role in the Commodore's death, after pretending to be her ally for three years.
* TheConsigliere: Used to serve as the Commodore's. Serves as Jimmy's, and reluctantly, Gillian's.
* CoolOld Guy
* TheMentor: Briefly, to Jimmy.
* OnlySaneMan
* PunchclockVillain
* RedOniBlueOni: The Blue Oni to Commodore Louis Kaestner's Red Oni. As Kaestner's most trusted aide and confidante, he serves as the voice of reason and pragmatism in stark contrast to his narcissistic and often hotheaded boss.
* SmartPeopleKnowLatin
* TreacherousAdvisor: To Gillian.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Commodore Louis Kaestner. After the Commodore is incapacitated by a stroke, he takes Jimmy under his wing and counsels him on ruling his father's massive criminal empire (despite being hindered at every turn by Gillian much to his chagrin). After witnessing the Commodore's go down in flames at the hands of Gillian, he obtains vengeance on behalf of his old friend by conspiring to have her incarcerated.
* WorthyOpponent: He sees Nucky as this.
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!!Gillian Darmody]]
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!!Gillian Darmody]]
Darmody
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[[/folder]]
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[[/folder]]
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[[folder:James Edison "Jimmy" Darmody]]
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!!James Edison "Jimmy"
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[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gillian Darmody]]
[[folder:Gillian Darmody]]
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[[folder:Gillian
!!Gillian Darmody]]
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[[folder:Angela Darmody, née Ianotti]]
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[[folder:Tommy Darmody]]
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[[folder:Louis "Lou" Kaestner a.k.a. "The Commodore"]]
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!!Louis "Lou" Kaestner a.k.a. "The
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[[folder:James Edison "Jimmy" Darmody]]
->'''Played by:''' Michael Pitt
->''"I'm nothing but a murderer. I'm going to Hell."''
[[quoteright:301:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Pitt-as-Jimmy-Darmody_7416.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:301:''"I'm what time and circumstance have made me."'' ]]
Smart and resourceful, Jimmy was the product of a relationship between his teenage mother and the Commodore. He was more or less raised by Nucky, who pressured him to pursue an education in Princeton, during which he also met his fiancée and later wife, Angela. However, he abandoned all of them to join the army during WorldWarOne and [[ShellshockedVeteran came back different]] - and a ''lot'' more ambitious. Played by Michael Pitt.
!!Tropes:
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil
* AbusiveParents: The more is known about his relationship with Gillian, the more that it looks like an evident case of this.
* [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents Amazingly Embarrassing Mother]]: Oh, boy.
* AffablyEvil: He's an intellectual who is a good friend and tries to be a good father and husband, but he's also a cold-blooded killer.
* AnyoneCanDie: What better way for the show to make evident that it does not fuck around, but to kill off the second most prominent character ''in the second season''?
* BadassInANiceSuit
* BeenThereShapedHistory: He's a completely fictional character who has an important role in the development of organized crime in America.
* BerserkButton:
** People lying about military service/expressing "chickenhawk" attitudes seems to be this for him.
** Never make lewd comments about Jimmy's mom. Or look at her lustfully. Or put your hand on her, one way or the other. In fact, just be very polite to her in his presence.
* BigBadDuumvirate: With Commodore Kaestner in Season 2. After succumbing to a stroke at the beginning of the season, Kaestner entrusts Darmody, his son and heir apparent, with the lion's share of running his criminal empire as well as carrying out his plan to neutralize Nucky. However, Darmody never fully eclipses his father as the leader of Atlantic City's political machine as demonstrated in "Georgia Peaches" when Kaestner encourages Eli and Neary to respond to the African American community's strikes with brute force instead of relying on peaceful means pursuant to Darmody's orders.
* BloodBrothers: With Richard Harrow.
-->'''Richard''': Would you fight for me?
-->'''Jimmy''': Down to the last bullet.
* BloodKnight: He has one hell of a sadistic streak, and tends to crave steak after a nice juicy kill.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: In Season 2.
* CharacterTics: Darmody has a habit of clenching and unclenching his right hand whenever he is getting agitated and would like to deliver a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on someone.
* ClothesMakeTheLegend: His blue suit, a gift from AlCapone.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: And not just WorldWarOne, either. We don't realize until "Under God's Power She Flourishes" just ''how'' dark.
* DawsonCasting: Michael Pitt is 29 at the start of the series, Jimmy is 22-ish.
* DeathByFlashback: A lot of insight into Jimmy's backstory is given in the couple of episodes before his death.
* DeathSeeker: He went to the war expecting to die, and he goes to his final meeting with Nucky unarmed, despite knowing that it's a trap.
* DecoyProtagonist
* {{Deuteragonist}}: He was basically the second most important character in the first two seasons. Which makes it all the more shocking when he is killed at the end of the second season.
* TheDeadHaveNames
* DisproportionateRetribution: Don't hit him. ''You'll regret it''.
* DrivenToSuicide
* EvilSoundsDeep: Perhaps as a side effect of beginning to kill again after the war his voice starts to sound a lot deeper during his time in Chicago especially when compared with the first few episodes, where he sounds like a college kid.
* {{Expy}}: Of ''[[Film/TheGodfather The Godfather]]'''s Michael Corleone: He starts off as a [[UsedToBeASweetKid sweet kid]] completly uninvolved in the mob lifestyle with a boss as a father (or father figure). Attends an [[IvyLeagueForEveryone Ivy League]] school. Goes off to war and comes back different. Commits a shocking act of violence when he gets home, in his case the woods massacre, and takes a sabbatical. Comes back with [[ImportantHaircut slicked back hair]] a full member of the organization. The only difference is his mother issues, which are vaguely reminiscent of [[WhiteHeat another gangster]].
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Seeing as he knew what was going to happen when he told Harrow he didn't need him and went to meet Nucky without a gun.
* GeniusBruiser: Nucky and Angela remind him constantly that he has the brains to be something better than a gangster, but he won't listen.
* GunsAkimbo: In "The Age of Reason".
* HazyFeelTurn
* HookersAndBlow: Taken to an extreme in "Under God's Power She Flourishes". When the hooker part is played by ''[[ParentalIncest your mother]]'', you really have gone off the deep end.
* HotBlooded: A bit of a hothead since the beginning, but gets more and more so as the series goes on.
* HotDad
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Probably because of [[DeliberateValuesDissonance the attitudes of the time]], he has no problem cheating on Angela while he is away and even considers abandoning his family altogether and moving to California before his lover dies, but he reacts violently when he merely suspects that Angela was having a relationship with a photographer while he was in the army. He is, however, surprisingly cool when he learns that she was actually seeing [[BiTheWay the photographer's wife]].
** While working as a bouncer in a Chicago brothel, Jimmy throws a customer out saying that "when the lady says to stop, you stop". The first thing he does after returning to Atlantic City? ''He forces himself on Angela'' until she surrenders and agrees to have sex with him.
* IconicItem: His knife.
* [[InvincibleHero Invincible Anti-Hero]]: He wins every fight that he's in, is never really touched in any confrontation and it's implied that he'd kick the asses of the historically based young gangsters, though this could be attributed to the tendency in historical fiction to make real life characters [[ButtMonkey butt monkeys]] compared to stronger, smarter fictional characters. This is eventually subverted during his fight with the Commodore... who he still manages to deal with...
* ItsPersonal: Pearl's death, which makes him decide to take down Sheridan's entire gang and kill the mook that personally targeted her.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope / TookALevelInJerkass: As soon as the Commodore is paralyzed and Jimmy takes the reins, he gets a ''lot'' more vicious and assholish.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: In "Under God's Power She Flourishes", emotionally broken and high on heroin, he attempts to choke Gillian after she insults and belittles the late Angela's memory.
* KnifeNut: Very skilled with his trench knife, he's very good at delivering a SlashedThroat.
* MeaningfulName: Gillian named him after the first boy that kissed her - the day before the Commodore raped her resulting in Jimmy's conception.
* MommyIssues: While his parental substitute Nucky was decent enough towards him, James has a double or recursive FreudianExcuse; his real father raped Jimmy's orphan, teenage mother and in turn his mother invoked an unhealthy and incestuous relation with Jimmy. This forced him to drop out of college, join the Army and miss the chance of a normal life.
* MuggingTheMonster: He is the "victim" of one in "Ourselves Alone", and it ends exactly like you'd expect.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In "Under God's Power She Flourishes".
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Pretty much any time a fight devolves into physical violence. Once he lays out the first punch, he just can't stop himself.
* OedipusComplex: He and Gillian are ''very'' close, and he only wants to take out his adopted father, Nucky, because Gillian insists he do so. Played up during "Under God's Power She Flourishes" when we flashback to Jimmy's time at Princeton to see that he and Gillian once had a drunken night of sex which drove Jimmy to join the army. The present day storyline of the same episode has Jimmy stabbing his biological father, The Commodore, and finishing him off at his mother's request.
* ParentalIncest
* PassedOverInheritance: The Commodore never changed his will after finding out his faithful maid had been poisoning him. Jimmy tears up the will, after checking that it all goes to him/his son if the will isn't found.
* PerpetualFrowner: The amount of times he smiles in the series is very minimal. It's almost like he's determined to let the world know how gangster he is.
* PetTheDog: His interactions with Richard and Tommy greatly humanize him.
* PosthumousCharacter:[[spoiler: His corpse is later dug up by the cops in 1924, which is able to convict Gillian of murder.]]
* PunchclockVillain
* RedOniBlueOni: Blue, to AlCapone's Red. Then Red to Richard Harrow's Blue.
* ReturningWarVet
* SacrificialLion
* SelfMadeOrphan: Halfway. He kills the Commodore when he tries to stop Jimmy from killing Gillian.
* ShellshockedVeteran: "I died in the trench, years back."
* TheStarscream: To Nucky, and later the Commodore (arguably).
* SonOfAWhore
* StartOfDarkness: The second season episode "Under God's Power She Flourishes" flashes back to his time at Princeton culminating in an incestuous experience with his mother, which lead him to join the army.
* TheStrategist: To Torrio in Season 1. He tries to be one for Nucky, but Nucky's actually a better planner than Jimmy is.
* SuicideByCop: After doing the best he can to settle things in his life, he goes unarmed to a meeting with Nucky, knowing that it's a set-up. His going to the war after that... incident with his mother could also be seen as this since Word of God says that he intended to die and was surprised when he came back.
* TooDumbToLive: A lot of examples can be pointed out, but Jimmy's biggest mistake was how he treated Horvitz. If he would have just paid him the five thousand dollars he owed, things might have went a lot differently for him.
* TraumaCongaLine: The entirety of his mortal existence.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: After meeting with Meyer and Lucky in New York City, Jimmy is mugged by a pair of men. He easily dispatches them with his knife. However, the two men were nephews of Joe Masseria who were sent to talk to Meyer about their gambling den in his territory. Masseria obviously assumes Meyer and Lucky had something to do with their deaths and Rothstein is forced them to pay Masseria two thousand dollars and 10% of their card games. Rothstein then decides to assign Meyer and Lucky as a protection duty on a liquor shipment which leads to the two of them plotting to overthrow Rothstein.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: As Nucky constantly reminds him. Jimmy also appears as this sweet kid in Nucky's dreams, rather than the adult he became.
* VillainProtagonist
* VillainousBSOD: Hits this ''three times'' in "Under God's Power She Flourishes". First, he hits it in flashback: he was thrown out of Princeton, slept with his mother, and joined the army; then hits it after being informed of Angela's death in the present day; then again after attacking his mother and killing his father.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Slides into this in season 2.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gillian Darmody]]
[[quoteright:305:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gillian_darmodyvwx2013_5133.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:305:"I didn't spend my life getting gropped by a bunch of drunks to end in a goddamn poorhouse."]]
Jimmy's surprisingly-young showgirl mother to whom he is a bit too close. While certainly an unconventional parent, she'll do everything for her son's well being - or what she thinks that is. Played by Gretchen Mol.
!!Tropes:
* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: She was impregnated at 13.
* AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted: At the end of the second season, Gillian is left as the sole administrator of the Commodore's fortune. By the beginning of the third, she's running a brothel that serves drinks during Prohibition in Atlantic City... and she's ''losing money''. She is then forced to take a loan, but since Jimmy's body was never found she only can do so after killing a stranger and passing his body as his. It only gets worse in Season 4.
* [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents Amazingly Embarrassing Mother]]: To Jimmy.
* AndStarring: Gretchen Mol gets the "with" credit in season two (only followed by Dabney Coleman), and the final "and" credit starting in season three.
* BadBoss: Her brothel isn't doing well financially and the girls clearly don't like working there. She's not unintelligent, but her emotional problems seem to prevent her from succeeding.
* BestServedCold: She waited a long time to get revenge on the Commodore for raping her.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Underneath a polite and vivacious surface, she's extremely warped and calculating.
* BrokenBird
* BullyingADragon: She seems to think that it is a good idea to threaten Richard Harrow when he won't let Tommy forget Angela.
* ChristmasCake: She tried several times when Jimmy was young, but never got married.
* [[spoiler: CrucifiedHeroShot: Adopts the pose when the Pinkertons ambush her and push her against the ground to keep her from punching and kicking.]]
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The scene in “Nights in Ballygran” where she offers to raise her grandson so Angela can live her life is loaded with this. She makes the kid sleep by giving him milk mixed with whiskey and chain smokes while babysitting him. Angela is outraged, but by the proposal only.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:When Roy Phillips is revealed to be an undercover detective investigating Roger Mcallister's murder.]] Doubles as a VillainousBreakdown.
* EvilMatriarch: Clearly slips into this by the end of Season 2.
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: In Season 4 [[spoiler:she's been degraded from madame to whore]] and barely has any furniture left.
* FauxAffablyEvil
* FemmeFatale: Could have cost Luciano too much if he wasn't "Lucky" Luciano. She is more successful with Roger, the hapless boy who just happened to resemble Jimmy.
* FreudianExcuse: An orphan who was raped and impregnated at 13.
* [[spoiler:FunctionalAddict: In Season 4 she's developed a heroin addiction after Rosetti injected her with the heroin she tried to use on him.]]
* GreenEyedMonster: She is jealous that Richard has a better relationship with Tommy than she does and she eventually kicks him out when, among other reasons, she thinks Richard's girlfriend will supplant her as a maternal figure to Tommy.
* GreenEyedRedhead
* [[spoiler: HeelFaceDoorSlam: She overcomes her heroin addiction, makes peace with Richard, and is ready to start a new life with Roy. Then comes TheReveal that Roy is a Pinkerton, investigating her for murder of Roger Mcallister.]]
* HesJustHiding: In-universe, this is her public reaction to Jimmy's death.
* [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoist By Her Own Petard:]] Tries to kill Gyp Rosetti using the seduction followed by heroin injection method she used on Roger the Jimmy look-a-like, but he catches her, and promptly injects ''her'' instead. She at first appears to die from it, but is later found utterly strung out in the hallway by Nucky and Eli. The next season reveals that [[spoiler:she's still addicted to it eight months later, having lost everything to the habit.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: In "Erlkönig", she confesses to be terrified that if Tommy is raised by other woman he'll forget her and it will be as if she never existed. Uh, remember what were you planning to do with Angela until last year, Gillian?
* KickTheDog:
** One after another in "Under God's Power She Flourishes", all the way to the MoralEventHorizon and beyond.
** In "Two Impostors", after finding out about Richard's relationship with Julia (and that Richard has taken Tommy to meet Julia), she tells Richard that he will never be able to find love, accuses him of not being fully human and orders Rosetti's men to remove him from the brothel.
* LadyMacbeth: She becomes this for the Commodore, and then Jimmy himself, in season 2.
* MissKitty: Season 3 finds her running a high-class brothel.
* MsFanservice: The second most frequent source of nudity in the series, after Lucy.
* MrsRobinson
* MyBelovedSmother: To Jimmy. Also a beloved ''grand''-smother to Tommy.
* ParentalIncest: As season two goes along, the hints of IncestSubtext increasingly become text. Finally confirmed in "Under God's Power She Flourishes."
* PetTheDog: [[spoiler: Ultimately allows Richard and Julia to take custody of Tommy, having seen that the two of them are married, have a house, and genuinely care for Tommy. Her last act with Tommy is to give him Jimmy's dog tags.]]
* PlayingGertrude: Gretchen Mol is only 9 years older than Michael Pitt. Justified by the character's background.
* PromotedToOpeningCredits: In Season 2.
* PrettyInMink: When she has something on, it's usually furry.
* RapeAsBackstory: ''The Commodore'' is Jimmy's father. She doesn't regret having Jimmy but is biding her time to get revenge on the Commodore for pretty much raping her. He also resents Nucky for being the enabler.
* ReallyGetsAround
* SingleMomStripper
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: The implication is that she has been going for this ever since Jimmy was born, albeit in a very deluded - and clueless - fashion.
* StepfordSmiler: A terrifyingly delusional and detached one. Beneath her vivacious façade there is a very damaged person.
** NotSoStoic: "Sunday Best" finally has her hitting bottom and admitting Jimmy is dead. Right before everyone discovers the body of the guy she's passing off as him.
* TeenPregnancy: In her BackStory.
* VillainousBreakdown: A heroin-induced one in "Margate Sands", in which she regresses to childhood and rambles incoherently to Nucky.
-->'''Gillian''': Nucky, you came... I was good... I went upstairs like you said... But the man, he did a very bad thing to me... *cries*
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Angela Darmody, née Ianotti]]
[[quoteright:281:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Angela-Darmody_7524.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:281:"At least we're finally being honest with each other."]]
Jimmy's wife and the mother of his son, Angela finds herself torn in many ways. She loves Jimmy, but his extensive trips away lead her to cheat on him with a [[BiTheWay female]] photographer. She loves her son, but frequently has tension with Gillian, who lives with them. Played by Aleksa Palladino.
!!Tropes:
* AndZoidberg: Angela too often gets the short stick of Jimmy's attention when compared to Gillian. In "Gimcrack and Bunkum", when Jimmy is forced to make a speech on the fly he lists the reasons that soldiers fought in the war as their mothers, their sons and their wives. In that order.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: After her attempt to leave Jimmy at the end of season one is busted, he threatens her indirectly to take Tommy away. By the beginning of season two they have married.
* BiTheWay
* BreakTheCutie: The downward spiral of her relationships with Jimmy and Mary. Evolves into KillTheCutie later.
* BuryYourGays
* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery
* GratuitousItalian: Speaks it in "A Dangerous Maid" with Al.
* HotMom
* {{Housewife}}
* IHaveAFamily: When she pleads for her life to Manny, she tells him that she has a child. Manny shoots her anyway.
* ImportantHaircut: She cuts her long hair at the end of the first season to punish Jimmy.
* INeverGotAnyLetters: Her relation with Jimmy sours further while he is in Chicago because Van Alden is intercepting their mail.
* KillTheCutie
* ThePollyanna
* SacrificialLion
* SlapSlapKiss: When Jimmy basically forces himself on her after returning from Chicago.
* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Murdered by Manny to get back at Jimmy.
* TheQuietOne: On account of her rather depressing situation.
* {{Unperson}}: After she dies, Gillian tries to make Angela's son forget that Angela ever existed and make him think that Gillian is his mother.
* WideEyedIdealist: She prefers to concentrate on her artistic career rather than seeking a job while Jimmy is away. Later, she accepts fleeing to Paris as soon as Mary proposes it, and she still retains a soft spot for her just because Mary sent her a postcard a month after dumping her in the last minute.
* WomenAreWiser: Moreso in season two than season one, though she's still the one to worry about the practicality of things.
* WomanInWhite: Fittingly enough, she wears a white dress throughout "Under God's Power She Flourishes", the episode after she dies in "Georgia Peaches". Her last appearance is a flashback.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tommy Darmody]]
[[quoteright:234:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tommy_Darmody_1859.png]]
[[caption-width-right:234:"I want to go home."]]
The son of Jimmy and Angela Darmody. Played by Brady and Connor Noon.
!!Tropes
* {{Brainwashed}}: After his parents die, Gillian insists that she is his mother, wanting him to forget that Angela even existed.
* CannotTellALie: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since he's a little kid.
* CheerfulChild
* ChildrenAreInnocent
* DisappearedDad: Jimmy is absent for most of Tommy's life, which makes Tommy initially fearful of his father.
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: Gillian raises Tommy as her own son. Seemingly, everyone around her finds it incredibly creepy, especially the ones with suspicions about Gillian's relationship with her real son.
* FromTheMouthsOfBabes: In the first season, Tommy points a photo of a couple to Jimmy and says that it is of "Mommy's kissing friend". Jimmy gives a brutal beatdown to the man. Tommy meant [[BiTheWay the woman]].
* HeartwarmingOrphan
* HeroicBSOD: The Season 4 premiere reveals that he didn't speak for a month after the events in the previous episode.
* MoralityPet: Played with. He humanizes Jimmy who on the other hand is into crime in order to provide for Tommy. A complex example for Richard too.
* ParentalNeglect: Living in a bordello speaks ill of Gillian's "[[InsistentTerminology mother]]"hood. It gets worse: Gillian's apparent idea of raising a child is keeping him to hers and limiting his contact with everyone else. And what's ''even'' worse, she doesn't seem to know ''what'' to do with the kid when she has achieved that, so she leaves him mostly to his own devices... and in a permanent state of loneliness.
* ParentalSubstitute: Gillian, followed by Richard and Julia.
* PrimalScene:
** Witnesses a working girl - who Tommy has a connection with - winning her bread. It was bound to happen sooner or later given that the boy lives in a bordello. It's malignantly invoked by one of the other girls.
** Very narrowly averted in the first season, when Angela and Jimmy where at it while he was sleeping in a bed next to theirs. It probably helped their decision to buy a far bigger house in the next season.
* {{Protectorate}}: Richard's. Of epic proportions.
* RagsToRiches: One of the most [[PlayedForDrama heartbreaking]] versions out there.
** LonelyRichKid: Largely Gillian's fault.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Louis "Lou" Kaestner a.k.a. "The Commodore"]]
[[quoteright:288:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/commodore-coleman_7925.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:288:"Look around, boy. I didn't get any of this by being stupid."]]
Nucky's mentor and predecessor as city boss before being imprisoned as part of a PR campaign by WoodrowWilson in the 1910s. He is the victim of a poisoning attempt during the first season and breaks with Nucky after he refuses to take action against the person responsible, deciding to take Atlantic City back for himself. He is also Jimmy's father. Played by Dabney Coleman.
!!Tropes:
* BadassGrandpa: After he recovers from his illness, he exercises to the point of being able to lift a heavy elephant tusk over his head. Later on, despite still recovering from the stroke, he nearly manages to kill Jimmy, a man thrice younger than him and a war veteran, in melee combat after a surprise attack.
* BigBadDuumvirate: With Jimmy Darmody in Season 2. In the season's opening episodes, he establishes himself as the story arc's BigBad by masterminding a conspiracy that threatens to have Nucky thrown in prison. However, he is incapacitated by a stroke before he can insure that his plans come to fruition. Subsequently, he largely entrusts the running of his criminal empire to his son, Jimmy, whom he hopes will carry on his legacy.
* BrokenPedestal: For Nucky, after the Commodore returns to the power plays.
* CallItKarma: He gets so overexcited at the prospect of having sex with the adult Gillian that he suffers a stroke. This renders him mute and paralyzed, and then Gillian decides that [[BestServedCold it's time to get her vengeance]].
* TheCollectorOfTheStrange: Live and stuffed animals, weapons, Asian statues...
* DemocracyIsBad: Very dismissive about the average voter, whom he views as ignorant and unfit to have any kind of choice, although he doesn't care much for the suffragettes as long as they vote Republican.
* DirtyOldMan: When he was in his 50s, he impregnated a 13 year-old Gillian. He has not changed a little bit.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Want to know his real name? [[AllThereInTheManual Check the HBO website]]. Nucky, Eli, Gillian, and Damian occasionally call him "Lou", though it's very rare, and it's only once halfway through the second season when his full name is finally given onscreen.
* EvilMentor: To Nucky, and later Jimmy.
* EvilOldFolks
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: He stops shaving and combing his hair as he gets sicker in season 1. Then he feels healthier in season 2, so he dyes it. Then he suffers a stroke, so it is white again...
* {{Foreshadowing}}: His early season 2 speech about the stuffed grizzly bear.
* GreatWhiteHunter: Was one when he was younger.
* GrumpyOldMan
* HeManWomanHater
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Tries to do this to Jimmy. Fails.
* {{Jerkass}}: In the first season, he's unpleasant to pretty much everyone, and is one of the most bigoted characters in the show. It does seem that this had something to do with his illness, since when he's recovered in the second season, while not a better person, he's rather avuncular.
* ManipulativeBastard: Ironically, some of the people he wins to his side are convinced by his claim that Nucky is a ManipulativeBastard.
* TheMentor: Straight example in his backstory. He teached Nucky everything about "the business" and Nucky inherited all that he now controls from the Commodore, in a deal the two made together for the Commodore to retire.
* NiceToTheWaiter: Played with, his nastiness is showcased by the deplorable treatment of his maid who in revenge was poisoning him, causing his illness during the first season. Strangely, his will leaves most of his estate to the maid. He did not even change the will after he found out that she tried to poison him and she fled. This adds some significance to the Commodore's seemingly hypocritical line after learning about the poison.
-->'''Commodore''': Do you have any idea what I've done for you? Ignorant bitch!
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: His character is loosely based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Kuehnle Louis Kuehnle]], a successful businessman who founded the Republican political machine which dominated Atlantic City for decades and was similarly known as "The Commodore" for owning a yacht firm. His personality also closely resembles that of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt#Post-presidency U.S. President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt]] given his affinity for hunting as well as his enthusiasm for cultivating an image of robust masculinity despite his advanced age.
* PerfectPoison: Averted. His food, clothes and even toothpaste are poisoned with cyanide for almost a year and while his health worsens considerably he still survives.
* PetTheDog: He showed a lot of affection to his dog Jerry. He also has an oddly ambiguous posthumous PetTheDog when it's revealed that he left the entire estate to his maid Louanne, who had been poisoning him in return for his constant abuse.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He's a vocal misogynist and white supremacist.
* RasputinianDeath: It takes the better part of two seasons, and consequently most of his screentime. First he manages to survive prolonged cyanide poisoning over the course of Season 1, and recovers completely. After this he survives a stroke early in Season 2, which puts him largely [[OutOfFocus out of commission]], except for the occasional [[PrecisionFStrike words of wisdom]]. Finally he is stabbed after a brutal melee struggle by Jimmy, who still has to deliver a FinishingMove before the Commodore is finally off his feet.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Arguably. When he recovers his speech, he keeps secret the fact that Gillian abused him after he got paralyzed, suggesting that he was ashamed of what he had done to her, and he dies trying to save her when a drugged, emotionally broken Jimmy tries to choke Gillian. Ironically, Gillian is the one that convinces Jimmy to finish the Commodore.
* RetiredBadass[=/=]RetiredMonster: The previous [[IOwnThisTown owner]] of Atlantic City and the one who [[PassingTheTorch passed the torch]] to Nucky. He eventually tries to come out of retirement.
* RightHandCat: Averted with Jerry, his little pet dog.
* TheScrooge: Supposedly, he took care of Gillian, but she still needed to sell her jewels to pay for a roof. It's implied that he never got himself a family because he felt it would tamper with his 'reign' over the city.
* SirSwearsALot: He is probably the worst in a very bad mouthed cast. This could be due to [[NotHimself his illness]], [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior his age]], or most likely because [[JerkAss he was always that way]].
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: He doesn't want Nucky killed, but to go to jail like he did.
[[/folder]]
[[Characters/BoardwalkEmpire Return to Boardwalk Empire Characters]]
->'''Played by:''' Michael Pitt
->''"I'm nothing but a murderer. I'm going to Hell."''
[[quoteright:301:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Pitt-as-Jimmy-Darmody_7416.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:301:''"I'm what time and circumstance have made me."'' ]]
Smart and resourceful, Jimmy was the product of a relationship between his teenage mother and the Commodore. He was more or less raised by Nucky, who pressured him to pursue an education in Princeton, during which he also met his fiancée and later wife, Angela. However, he abandoned all of them to join the army during WorldWarOne and [[ShellshockedVeteran came back different]] - and a ''lot'' more ambitious. Played by Michael Pitt.
!!Tropes:
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil
* AbusiveParents: The more is known about his relationship with Gillian, the more that it looks like an evident case of this.
* [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents Amazingly Embarrassing Mother]]: Oh, boy.
* AffablyEvil: He's an intellectual who is a good friend and tries to be a good father and husband, but he's also a cold-blooded killer.
* AnyoneCanDie: What better way for the show to make evident that it does not fuck around, but to kill off the second most prominent character ''in the second season''?
* BadassInANiceSuit
* BeenThereShapedHistory: He's a completely fictional character who has an important role in the development of organized crime in America.
* BerserkButton:
** People lying about military service/expressing "chickenhawk" attitudes seems to be this for him.
** Never make lewd comments about Jimmy's mom. Or look at her lustfully. Or put your hand on her, one way or the other. In fact, just be very polite to her in his presence.
* BigBadDuumvirate: With Commodore Kaestner in Season 2. After succumbing to a stroke at the beginning of the season, Kaestner entrusts Darmody, his son and heir apparent, with the lion's share of running his criminal empire as well as carrying out his plan to neutralize Nucky. However, Darmody never fully eclipses his father as the leader of Atlantic City's political machine as demonstrated in "Georgia Peaches" when Kaestner encourages Eli and Neary to respond to the African American community's strikes with brute force instead of relying on peaceful means pursuant to Darmody's orders.
* BloodBrothers: With Richard Harrow.
-->'''Richard''': Would you fight for me?
-->'''Jimmy''': Down to the last bullet.
* BloodKnight: He has one hell of a sadistic streak, and tends to crave steak after a nice juicy kill.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: In Season 2.
* CharacterTics: Darmody has a habit of clenching and unclenching his right hand whenever he is getting agitated and would like to deliver a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on someone.
* ClothesMakeTheLegend: His blue suit, a gift from AlCapone.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: And not just WorldWarOne, either. We don't realize until "Under God's Power She Flourishes" just ''how'' dark.
* DawsonCasting: Michael Pitt is 29 at the start of the series, Jimmy is 22-ish.
* DeathByFlashback: A lot of insight into Jimmy's backstory is given in the couple of episodes before his death.
* DeathSeeker: He went to the war expecting to die, and he goes to his final meeting with Nucky unarmed, despite knowing that it's a trap.
* DecoyProtagonist
* {{Deuteragonist}}: He was basically the second most important character in the first two seasons. Which makes it all the more shocking when he is killed at the end of the second season.
* TheDeadHaveNames
* DisproportionateRetribution: Don't hit him. ''You'll regret it''.
* DrivenToSuicide
* EvilSoundsDeep: Perhaps as a side effect of beginning to kill again after the war his voice starts to sound a lot deeper during his time in Chicago especially when compared with the first few episodes, where he sounds like a college kid.
* {{Expy}}: Of ''[[Film/TheGodfather The Godfather]]'''s Michael Corleone: He starts off as a [[UsedToBeASweetKid sweet kid]] completly uninvolved in the mob lifestyle with a boss as a father (or father figure). Attends an [[IvyLeagueForEveryone Ivy League]] school. Goes off to war and comes back different. Commits a shocking act of violence when he gets home, in his case the woods massacre, and takes a sabbatical. Comes back with [[ImportantHaircut slicked back hair]] a full member of the organization. The only difference is his mother issues, which are vaguely reminiscent of [[WhiteHeat another gangster]].
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Seeing as he knew what was going to happen when he told Harrow he didn't need him and went to meet Nucky without a gun.
* GeniusBruiser: Nucky and Angela remind him constantly that he has the brains to be something better than a gangster, but he won't listen.
* GunsAkimbo: In "The Age of Reason".
* HazyFeelTurn
* HookersAndBlow: Taken to an extreme in "Under God's Power She Flourishes". When the hooker part is played by ''[[ParentalIncest your mother]]'', you really have gone off the deep end.
* HotBlooded: A bit of a hothead since the beginning, but gets more and more so as the series goes on.
* HotDad
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Probably because of [[DeliberateValuesDissonance the attitudes of the time]], he has no problem cheating on Angela while he is away and even considers abandoning his family altogether and moving to California before his lover dies, but he reacts violently when he merely suspects that Angela was having a relationship with a photographer while he was in the army. He is, however, surprisingly cool when he learns that she was actually seeing [[BiTheWay the photographer's wife]].
** While working as a bouncer in a Chicago brothel, Jimmy throws a customer out saying that "when the lady says to stop, you stop". The first thing he does after returning to Atlantic City? ''He forces himself on Angela'' until she surrenders and agrees to have sex with him.
* IconicItem: His knife.
* [[InvincibleHero Invincible Anti-Hero]]: He wins every fight that he's in, is never really touched in any confrontation and it's implied that he'd kick the asses of the historically based young gangsters, though this could be attributed to the tendency in historical fiction to make real life characters [[ButtMonkey butt monkeys]] compared to stronger, smarter fictional characters. This is eventually subverted during his fight with the Commodore... who he still manages to deal with...
* ItsPersonal: Pearl's death, which makes him decide to take down Sheridan's entire gang and kill the mook that personally targeted her.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope / TookALevelInJerkass: As soon as the Commodore is paralyzed and Jimmy takes the reins, he gets a ''lot'' more vicious and assholish.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: In "Under God's Power She Flourishes", emotionally broken and high on heroin, he attempts to choke Gillian after she insults and belittles the late Angela's memory.
* KnifeNut: Very skilled with his trench knife, he's very good at delivering a SlashedThroat.
* MeaningfulName: Gillian named him after the first boy that kissed her - the day before the Commodore raped her resulting in Jimmy's conception.
* MommyIssues: While his parental substitute Nucky was decent enough towards him, James has a double or recursive FreudianExcuse; his real father raped Jimmy's orphan, teenage mother and in turn his mother invoked an unhealthy and incestuous relation with Jimmy. This forced him to drop out of college, join the Army and miss the chance of a normal life.
* MuggingTheMonster: He is the "victim" of one in "Ourselves Alone", and it ends exactly like you'd expect.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In "Under God's Power She Flourishes".
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Pretty much any time a fight devolves into physical violence. Once he lays out the first punch, he just can't stop himself.
* OedipusComplex: He and Gillian are ''very'' close, and he only wants to take out his adopted father, Nucky, because Gillian insists he do so. Played up during "Under God's Power She Flourishes" when we flashback to Jimmy's time at Princeton to see that he and Gillian once had a drunken night of sex which drove Jimmy to join the army. The present day storyline of the same episode has Jimmy stabbing his biological father, The Commodore, and finishing him off at his mother's request.
* ParentalIncest
* PassedOverInheritance: The Commodore never changed his will after finding out his faithful maid had been poisoning him. Jimmy tears up the will, after checking that it all goes to him/his son if the will isn't found.
* PerpetualFrowner: The amount of times he smiles in the series is very minimal. It's almost like he's determined to let the world know how gangster he is.
* PetTheDog: His interactions with Richard and Tommy greatly humanize him.
* PosthumousCharacter:[[spoiler: His corpse is later dug up by the cops in 1924, which is able to convict Gillian of murder.]]
* PunchclockVillain
* RedOniBlueOni: Blue, to AlCapone's Red. Then Red to Richard Harrow's Blue.
* ReturningWarVet
* SacrificialLion
* SelfMadeOrphan: Halfway. He kills the Commodore when he tries to stop Jimmy from killing Gillian.
* ShellshockedVeteran: "I died in the trench, years back."
* TheStarscream: To Nucky, and later the Commodore (arguably).
* SonOfAWhore
* StartOfDarkness: The second season episode "Under God's Power She Flourishes" flashes back to his time at Princeton culminating in an incestuous experience with his mother, which lead him to join the army.
* TheStrategist: To Torrio in Season 1. He tries to be one for Nucky, but Nucky's actually a better planner than Jimmy is.
* SuicideByCop: After doing the best he can to settle things in his life, he goes unarmed to a meeting with Nucky, knowing that it's a set-up. His going to the war after that... incident with his mother could also be seen as this since Word of God says that he intended to die and was surprised when he came back.
* TooDumbToLive: A lot of examples can be pointed out, but Jimmy's biggest mistake was how he treated Horvitz. If he would have just paid him the five thousand dollars he owed, things might have went a lot differently for him.
* TraumaCongaLine: The entirety of his mortal existence.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: After meeting with Meyer and Lucky in New York City, Jimmy is mugged by a pair of men. He easily dispatches them with his knife. However, the two men were nephews of Joe Masseria who were sent to talk to Meyer about their gambling den in his territory. Masseria obviously assumes Meyer and Lucky had something to do with their deaths and Rothstein is forced them to pay Masseria two thousand dollars and 10% of their card games. Rothstein then decides to assign Meyer and Lucky as a protection duty on a liquor shipment which leads to the two of them plotting to overthrow Rothstein.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: As Nucky constantly reminds him. Jimmy also appears as this sweet kid in Nucky's dreams, rather than the adult he became.
* VillainProtagonist
* VillainousBSOD: Hits this ''three times'' in "Under God's Power She Flourishes". First, he hits it in flashback: he was thrown out of Princeton, slept with his mother, and joined the army; then hits it after being informed of Angela's death in the present day; then again after attacking his mother and killing his father.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Slides into this in season 2.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gillian Darmody]]
[[quoteright:305:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gillian_darmodyvwx2013_5133.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:305:"I didn't spend my life getting gropped by a bunch of drunks to end in a goddamn poorhouse."]]
Jimmy's surprisingly-young showgirl mother to whom he is a bit too close. While certainly an unconventional parent, she'll do everything for her son's well being - or what she thinks that is. Played by Gretchen Mol.
!!Tropes:
* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: She was impregnated at 13.
* AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted: At the end of the second season, Gillian is left as the sole administrator of the Commodore's fortune. By the beginning of the third, she's running a brothel that serves drinks during Prohibition in Atlantic City... and she's ''losing money''. She is then forced to take a loan, but since Jimmy's body was never found she only can do so after killing a stranger and passing his body as his. It only gets worse in Season 4.
* [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents Amazingly Embarrassing Mother]]: To Jimmy.
* AndStarring: Gretchen Mol gets the "with" credit in season two (only followed by Dabney Coleman), and the final "and" credit starting in season three.
* BadBoss: Her brothel isn't doing well financially and the girls clearly don't like working there. She's not unintelligent, but her emotional problems seem to prevent her from succeeding.
* BestServedCold: She waited a long time to get revenge on the Commodore for raping her.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Underneath a polite and vivacious surface, she's extremely warped and calculating.
* BrokenBird
* BullyingADragon: She seems to think that it is a good idea to threaten Richard Harrow when he won't let Tommy forget Angela.
* ChristmasCake: She tried several times when Jimmy was young, but never got married.
* [[spoiler: CrucifiedHeroShot: Adopts the pose when the Pinkertons ambush her and push her against the ground to keep her from punching and kicking.]]
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The scene in “Nights in Ballygran” where she offers to raise her grandson so Angela can live her life is loaded with this. She makes the kid sleep by giving him milk mixed with whiskey and chain smokes while babysitting him. Angela is outraged, but by the proposal only.
* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:When Roy Phillips is revealed to be an undercover detective investigating Roger Mcallister's murder.]] Doubles as a VillainousBreakdown.
* EvilMatriarch: Clearly slips into this by the end of Season 2.
* FallenOnHardTimesJob: In Season 4 [[spoiler:she's been degraded from madame to whore]] and barely has any furniture left.
* FauxAffablyEvil
* FemmeFatale: Could have cost Luciano too much if he wasn't "Lucky" Luciano. She is more successful with Roger, the hapless boy who just happened to resemble Jimmy.
* FreudianExcuse: An orphan who was raped and impregnated at 13.
* [[spoiler:FunctionalAddict: In Season 4 she's developed a heroin addiction after Rosetti injected her with the heroin she tried to use on him.]]
* GreenEyedMonster: She is jealous that Richard has a better relationship with Tommy than she does and she eventually kicks him out when, among other reasons, she thinks Richard's girlfriend will supplant her as a maternal figure to Tommy.
* GreenEyedRedhead
* [[spoiler: HeelFaceDoorSlam: She overcomes her heroin addiction, makes peace with Richard, and is ready to start a new life with Roy. Then comes TheReveal that Roy is a Pinkerton, investigating her for murder of Roger Mcallister.]]
* HesJustHiding: In-universe, this is her public reaction to Jimmy's death.
* [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoist By Her Own Petard:]] Tries to kill Gyp Rosetti using the seduction followed by heroin injection method she used on Roger the Jimmy look-a-like, but he catches her, and promptly injects ''her'' instead. She at first appears to die from it, but is later found utterly strung out in the hallway by Nucky and Eli. The next season reveals that [[spoiler:she's still addicted to it eight months later, having lost everything to the habit.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: In "Erlkönig", she confesses to be terrified that if Tommy is raised by other woman he'll forget her and it will be as if she never existed. Uh, remember what were you planning to do with Angela until last year, Gillian?
* KickTheDog:
** One after another in "Under God's Power She Flourishes", all the way to the MoralEventHorizon and beyond.
** In "Two Impostors", after finding out about Richard's relationship with Julia (and that Richard has taken Tommy to meet Julia), she tells Richard that he will never be able to find love, accuses him of not being fully human and orders Rosetti's men to remove him from the brothel.
* LadyMacbeth: She becomes this for the Commodore, and then Jimmy himself, in season 2.
* MissKitty: Season 3 finds her running a high-class brothel.
* MsFanservice: The second most frequent source of nudity in the series, after Lucy.
* MrsRobinson
* MyBelovedSmother: To Jimmy. Also a beloved ''grand''-smother to Tommy.
* ParentalIncest: As season two goes along, the hints of IncestSubtext increasingly become text. Finally confirmed in "Under God's Power She Flourishes."
* PetTheDog: [[spoiler: Ultimately allows Richard and Julia to take custody of Tommy, having seen that the two of them are married, have a house, and genuinely care for Tommy. Her last act with Tommy is to give him Jimmy's dog tags.]]
* PlayingGertrude: Gretchen Mol is only 9 years older than Michael Pitt. Justified by the character's background.
* PromotedToOpeningCredits: In Season 2.
* PrettyInMink: When she has something on, it's usually furry.
* RapeAsBackstory: ''The Commodore'' is Jimmy's father. She doesn't regret having Jimmy but is biding her time to get revenge on the Commodore for pretty much raping her. He also resents Nucky for being the enabler.
* ReallyGetsAround
* SingleMomStripper
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: The implication is that she has been going for this ever since Jimmy was born, albeit in a very deluded - and clueless - fashion.
* StepfordSmiler: A terrifyingly delusional and detached one. Beneath her vivacious façade there is a very damaged person.
** NotSoStoic: "Sunday Best" finally has her hitting bottom and admitting Jimmy is dead. Right before everyone discovers the body of the guy she's passing off as him.
* TeenPregnancy: In her BackStory.
* VillainousBreakdown: A heroin-induced one in "Margate Sands", in which she regresses to childhood and rambles incoherently to Nucky.
-->'''Gillian''': Nucky, you came... I was good... I went upstairs like you said... But the man, he did a very bad thing to me... *cries*
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Angela Darmody, née Ianotti]]
[[quoteright:281:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Angela-Darmody_7524.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:281:"At least we're finally being honest with each other."]]
Jimmy's wife and the mother of his son, Angela finds herself torn in many ways. She loves Jimmy, but his extensive trips away lead her to cheat on him with a [[BiTheWay female]] photographer. She loves her son, but frequently has tension with Gillian, who lives with them. Played by Aleksa Palladino.
!!Tropes:
* AndZoidberg: Angela too often gets the short stick of Jimmy's attention when compared to Gillian. In "Gimcrack and Bunkum", when Jimmy is forced to make a speech on the fly he lists the reasons that soldiers fought in the war as their mothers, their sons and their wives. In that order.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: After her attempt to leave Jimmy at the end of season one is busted, he threatens her indirectly to take Tommy away. By the beginning of season two they have married.
* BiTheWay
* BreakTheCutie: The downward spiral of her relationships with Jimmy and Mary. Evolves into KillTheCutie later.
* BuryYourGays
* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery
* GratuitousItalian: Speaks it in "A Dangerous Maid" with Al.
* HotMom
* {{Housewife}}
* IHaveAFamily: When she pleads for her life to Manny, she tells him that she has a child. Manny shoots her anyway.
* ImportantHaircut: She cuts her long hair at the end of the first season to punish Jimmy.
* INeverGotAnyLetters: Her relation with Jimmy sours further while he is in Chicago because Van Alden is intercepting their mail.
* KillTheCutie
* ThePollyanna
* SacrificialLion
* SlapSlapKiss: When Jimmy basically forces himself on her after returning from Chicago.
* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Murdered by Manny to get back at Jimmy.
* TheQuietOne: On account of her rather depressing situation.
* {{Unperson}}: After she dies, Gillian tries to make Angela's son forget that Angela ever existed and make him think that Gillian is his mother.
* WideEyedIdealist: She prefers to concentrate on her artistic career rather than seeking a job while Jimmy is away. Later, she accepts fleeing to Paris as soon as Mary proposes it, and she still retains a soft spot for her just because Mary sent her a postcard a month after dumping her in the last minute.
* WomenAreWiser: Moreso in season two than season one, though she's still the one to worry about the practicality of things.
* WomanInWhite: Fittingly enough, she wears a white dress throughout "Under God's Power She Flourishes", the episode after she dies in "Georgia Peaches". Her last appearance is a flashback.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tommy Darmody]]
[[quoteright:234:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tommy_Darmody_1859.png]]
[[caption-width-right:234:"I want to go home."]]
The son of Jimmy and Angela Darmody. Played by Brady and Connor Noon.
!!Tropes
* {{Brainwashed}}: After his parents die, Gillian insists that she is his mother, wanting him to forget that Angela even existed.
* CannotTellALie: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since he's a little kid.
* CheerfulChild
* ChildrenAreInnocent
* DisappearedDad: Jimmy is absent for most of Tommy's life, which makes Tommy initially fearful of his father.
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: Gillian raises Tommy as her own son. Seemingly, everyone around her finds it incredibly creepy, especially the ones with suspicions about Gillian's relationship with her real son.
* FromTheMouthsOfBabes: In the first season, Tommy points a photo of a couple to Jimmy and says that it is of "Mommy's kissing friend". Jimmy gives a brutal beatdown to the man. Tommy meant [[BiTheWay the woman]].
* HeartwarmingOrphan
* HeroicBSOD: The Season 4 premiere reveals that he didn't speak for a month after the events in the previous episode.
* MoralityPet: Played with. He humanizes Jimmy who on the other hand is into crime in order to provide for Tommy. A complex example for Richard too.
* ParentalNeglect: Living in a bordello speaks ill of Gillian's "[[InsistentTerminology mother]]"hood. It gets worse: Gillian's apparent idea of raising a child is keeping him to hers and limiting his contact with everyone else. And what's ''even'' worse, she doesn't seem to know ''what'' to do with the kid when she has achieved that, so she leaves him mostly to his own devices... and in a permanent state of loneliness.
* ParentalSubstitute: Gillian, followed by Richard and Julia.
* PrimalScene:
** Witnesses a working girl - who Tommy has a connection with - winning her bread. It was bound to happen sooner or later given that the boy lives in a bordello. It's malignantly invoked by one of the other girls.
** Very narrowly averted in the first season, when Angela and Jimmy where at it while he was sleeping in a bed next to theirs. It probably helped their decision to buy a far bigger house in the next season.
* {{Protectorate}}: Richard's. Of epic proportions.
* RagsToRiches: One of the most [[PlayedForDrama heartbreaking]] versions out there.
** LonelyRichKid: Largely Gillian's fault.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Louis "Lou" Kaestner a.k.a. "The Commodore"]]
[[quoteright:288:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/commodore-coleman_7925.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:288:"Look around, boy. I didn't get any of this by being stupid."]]
Nucky's mentor and predecessor as city boss before being imprisoned as part of a PR campaign by WoodrowWilson in the 1910s. He is the victim of a poisoning attempt during the first season and breaks with Nucky after he refuses to take action against the person responsible, deciding to take Atlantic City back for himself. He is also Jimmy's father. Played by Dabney Coleman.
!!Tropes:
* BadassGrandpa: After he recovers from his illness, he exercises to the point of being able to lift a heavy elephant tusk over his head. Later on, despite still recovering from the stroke, he nearly manages to kill Jimmy, a man thrice younger than him and a war veteran, in melee combat after a surprise attack.
* BigBadDuumvirate: With Jimmy Darmody in Season 2. In the season's opening episodes, he establishes himself as the story arc's BigBad by masterminding a conspiracy that threatens to have Nucky thrown in prison. However, he is incapacitated by a stroke before he can insure that his plans come to fruition. Subsequently, he largely entrusts the running of his criminal empire to his son, Jimmy, whom he hopes will carry on his legacy.
* BrokenPedestal: For Nucky, after the Commodore returns to the power plays.
* CallItKarma: He gets so overexcited at the prospect of having sex with the adult Gillian that he suffers a stroke. This renders him mute and paralyzed, and then Gillian decides that [[BestServedCold it's time to get her vengeance]].
* TheCollectorOfTheStrange: Live and stuffed animals, weapons, Asian statues...
* DemocracyIsBad: Very dismissive about the average voter, whom he views as ignorant and unfit to have any kind of choice, although he doesn't care much for the suffragettes as long as they vote Republican.
* DirtyOldMan: When he was in his 50s, he impregnated a 13 year-old Gillian. He has not changed a little bit.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Want to know his real name? [[AllThereInTheManual Check the HBO website]]. Nucky, Eli, Gillian, and Damian occasionally call him "Lou", though it's very rare, and it's only once halfway through the second season when his full name is finally given onscreen.
* EvilMentor: To Nucky, and later Jimmy.
* EvilOldFolks
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: He stops shaving and combing his hair as he gets sicker in season 1. Then he feels healthier in season 2, so he dyes it. Then he suffers a stroke, so it is white again...
* {{Foreshadowing}}: His early season 2 speech about the stuffed grizzly bear.
* GreatWhiteHunter: Was one when he was younger.
* GrumpyOldMan
* HeManWomanHater
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Tries to do this to Jimmy. Fails.
* {{Jerkass}}: In the first season, he's unpleasant to pretty much everyone, and is one of the most bigoted characters in the show. It does seem that this had something to do with his illness, since when he's recovered in the second season, while not a better person, he's rather avuncular.
* ManipulativeBastard: Ironically, some of the people he wins to his side are convinced by his claim that Nucky is a ManipulativeBastard.
* TheMentor: Straight example in his backstory. He teached Nucky everything about "the business" and Nucky inherited all that he now controls from the Commodore, in a deal the two made together for the Commodore to retire.
* NiceToTheWaiter: Played with, his nastiness is showcased by the deplorable treatment of his maid who in revenge was poisoning him, causing his illness during the first season. Strangely, his will leaves most of his estate to the maid. He did not even change the will after he found out that she tried to poison him and she fled. This adds some significance to the Commodore's seemingly hypocritical line after learning about the poison.
-->'''Commodore''': Do you have any idea what I've done for you? Ignorant bitch!
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: His character is loosely based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Kuehnle Louis Kuehnle]], a successful businessman who founded the Republican political machine which dominated Atlantic City for decades and was similarly known as "The Commodore" for owning a yacht firm. His personality also closely resembles that of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt#Post-presidency U.S. President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt]] given his affinity for hunting as well as his enthusiasm for cultivating an image of robust masculinity despite his advanced age.
* PerfectPoison: Averted. His food, clothes and even toothpaste are poisoned with cyanide for almost a year and while his health worsens considerably he still survives.
* PetTheDog: He showed a lot of affection to his dog Jerry. He also has an oddly ambiguous posthumous PetTheDog when it's revealed that he left the entire estate to his maid Louanne, who had been poisoning him in return for his constant abuse.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He's a vocal misogynist and white supremacist.
* RasputinianDeath: It takes the better part of two seasons, and consequently most of his screentime. First he manages to survive prolonged cyanide poisoning over the course of Season 1, and recovers completely. After this he survives a stroke early in Season 2, which puts him largely [[OutOfFocus out of commission]], except for the occasional [[PrecisionFStrike words of wisdom]]. Finally he is stabbed after a brutal melee struggle by Jimmy, who still has to deliver a FinishingMove before the Commodore is finally off his feet.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Arguably. When he recovers his speech, he keeps secret the fact that Gillian abused him after he got paralyzed, suggesting that he was ashamed of what he had done to her, and he dies trying to save her when a drugged, emotionally broken Jimmy tries to choke Gillian. Ironically, Gillian is the one that convinces Jimmy to finish the Commodore.
* RetiredBadass[=/=]RetiredMonster: The previous [[IOwnThisTown owner]] of Atlantic City and the one who [[PassingTheTorch passed the torch]] to Nucky. He eventually tries to come out of retirement.
* RightHandCat: Averted with Jerry, his little pet dog.
* TheScrooge: Supposedly, he took care of Gillian, but she still needed to sell her jewels to pay for a roof. It's implied that he never got himself a family because he felt it would tamper with his 'reign' over the city.
* SirSwearsALot: He is probably the worst in a very bad mouthed cast. This could be due to [[NotHimself his illness]], [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior his age]], or most likely because [[JerkAss he was always that way]].
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: He doesn't want Nucky killed, but to go to jail like he did.
[[/folder]]
[[Characters/BoardwalkEmpire Return to Boardwalk Empire Characters]]
