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The Dead Boy Detectives Agency
Edwin Payne
Edwin Payne
Species: Ghost
Played By: George Rexstrew, Ty Tennant
The "brains" of the agency and the first of the two boys to die, due a technicality he was taken to Hell when he died but later escaped.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: He was blond in the comics.
- Age Lift: As in Doom Patrol, he is portrayed as a few years older than in the comics.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Even if he's a ghost, and deals with a large number of supernatural happenings every single day, Edwin doesn't believe in astrology.
- Brains Versus Brawn: Edwin is the brain to Charles' Brawn. As the latter states himself in the opening scene.
- Comfort the Dying: In an episode 7 flashback we see that's the way Edwin met Charles, as the latter was dying and Edwin stayed to comfort him. Charles decided to stay with him as a ghost after dying with Edwin by his side.
- The Comically Serious: Edwin is very serious-minded, and frequently the funniest character on the show because of it.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Due to Edwin's old fashioned sensibilities, when Niko suggests that Monty might have a crush on him, he thinks that it's preposterous since they're both boys — despite the fact that he's battling his own Gayngst.
- Gay Best Friend. He becomes this to Niko. She becomes a Shipper on Deck about his relationship with Monty and Edwin confides in her that the real person he loves is Charlesnote .
- Gayngst: Struggles with his sexuality to the point that he only confessed it to Charles, his best friend that he's known for decades, in modern times. He was also killed by his classmates in an incident of violent homophobic bullyingnote .
- Like Brother and Sister: He and Niko become close as the series progresses and they enjoy each other's company. This is most obvious in the final episode, where Edwin comforts her when Niko is afraid of being friendless again and turns into a tearful mess when she is killed.
- Pals with Jesus: Well, if the embodiment of Despair says you're friends now, it sort of counts. Not that he seems to like it much.
- Precision F-Strike: Drops one when when Charles comes to hell to rescue him.Edwin: That is so fucking stupid, it's unbelievable!
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: calm, rational, serious Edwin is the blue to Charle's red.
- Trauma Conga Line : Poor Edwin doesn't have a good time at all in the final episodes. He is betrayed by someone he considered a friend, he is dragged to Hell for the second time, he meets the person responsible for his death and remains in debt to Despair, the boy he loves rejects him, he is captured and tortured by Esther just to appease her fingers of power, and he watches helplessly as Niko is murdered.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When Despair compliments him on his vengeful and unsympathetic treatment of Simon, gloating over the other boy's punishment in Hell, it causes Edwin to be ashamed of his behaviour and be more forgiving with Simon.
Charles Rowland
Charles Rowland
Species: Ghost
Played By: Jayden Revri, Sebastian Croft
The "brawn" of the agency and the last of the two boys to die, unlike Edwin he has never been assigned a place in the afterlife as he left before Death had a chance.
- Age Lift: As in Doom Patrol, he is portrayed as a few years older than in the comics.
- Ambiguously Bi: When Edwin finally confesses his romantic love for him, Charles doesn't exactly reciprocate immediately but he heavily implies it's not out of the question either.
- Batter Up!: His preferred weapon is an enchanted cricket bat. The snake breaks it in the season finale.
- Berserk Button: Has a visceral reaction to abusive fathers, due to his own upbringing, and to a lesser extent bullies in general.
- Brains Versus Brawn: Charles is the Brawn to Edwin's Brain. As he states himself in the opening scene.
- Discovering Your Own Dead Body: In episode 7, while speaking with Edwin, he stands and wanders to the window, his outfit different than what he was previously wearing. When he turns back to Edwin, they both realize that Charles has left his body behind.
- Race Lift: Caucasian in the comics (and in his portrayal in Doom Patrol) but played by an actor of Indian descent here.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: cheerful, friendly, brash Charles is red to Edwin's blue.
- Undying Loyalty: To Edwin, who he decided to stick with and run from Death without even knowing what the afterlife had in store for him and then later went to literal Hell to save him.
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace Surname-Von Hoverkraft
Species: Psychic Human
Played By: Kassius Nelson, Madalyn Horcher
A psychic/medium who the boys rescue from demonic possession and who goes on to join the agency.
- Genetic Memory: Eventually discovers that she is able to tap into the memories and power of her female ancestors, all of whom shared her psychic powers.
- I Hate Past Me: Once she regains her memories, she is horrified to discover what a bad person she was.
- Jerkass: It's eventually revealed that Crystal was a terrible person before losing her memories; she used her powers to lie, steal and even force people to kill themselves. Crystal is appropriately horrified to learn that she was bad even before meeting David.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: After David is exorcised by the boys, Crystal finds herself short of most of her memories.
- Prophet Eyes: Her eyes turn white when she uses her psychic powers.
- Psychic Powers: Crystal has these, and they serve to forward the plot on more than one occasion. Her ability to see ghosts and enter in other people's minds are vital.
- Race Lift: She is Caucasian in the comics and played by an actress of Filipino descent in Doom Patrol, but here she is portrayed by a Black actressnote .
Port Townsend
Humans
Niko
Niko Sasaki
Species: Human
Played By: Yuyu Kitamura
Crystal's fellow renter above Jenny's butcher shop whom she and the boys save from possession, after which she begins helping with their cases.
- Back from the Dead: What seems to be her fate at the end of episode 8.
- The Baby of the Bunch⁚ She is clearly the youngest of the main cast in both appearance and attitude. Edwin, Crystal and sometimes Jenny treat her like a little sister. It made the loss of her all the harder.
- Cloudcuckoolander: We don't see much of her before her possession incident, but after she's exorcised, she displays a rather... colorful personality.
- Genki Girl: Always bright and cheerful, wears colorful clothing and decorates in a very bright and cartoonish style.
- Hidden Depths: She may not seem like the brightest bulb, but she's a rather curious, open-minded and studious person. She single-handedly stopped the Night Nurse by playing with her own rules, reading from her own book/lodger, learning and understanding perfectly the afterlife procedures in a very short time, and finding a loophole she can exploit, before she takes the Boys to the afterlife.
- Like Brother and Sister: She and Edwin become close as the series progresses and they enjoy each other's company. She is the one who tries to teach Edwin that there is nothing wrong with being in love with another boy and becomes a Shipper on Deck about his relationship with Monty.
- Locked into Strangeness: After her possession and near-death at the hands of the Dandelion Sprites her hair turns completely white.
- My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: In the finale, Niko experiences this as she takes the killing blow for Crystal.
- Otaku: Her bedroom above the butcher shop is covered wall to wall with posters and manga from fictional anime and manga franchises.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She is possibly the most genuinely kind, pure hearted character in the entire show, sacrificing herself to save Crystal's life.
Jenny the Butcher
Jenny Green
Species: Human
Played By: Briana Cuoco
Crystal and Niko's landlady who runs a butcher shop.
- Alone with the Psycho: Not that she knew of it, at first.
- Deadpan Snarker: Gifted with an acid tongue and a very cynical view of life.
- The Eeyore: More on the snarky and angry way than in the typical dour and depressive, but nonetheless she has very, very little good things to talk about.
- Goth: It especially contrasts nicely with the otherwise regular folk around town, and she's always listening to harsh sounding music.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Cynical and standoffish but is a good person underneath all her gruff and genuinely cares about her tenants.
Maxine
Maxine
Species: Human
Played By: Lindsey Gort
A local librarian with a secret crush on Jenny.
- Broken Bird: What she eventually becomes in Hell, a sobbing mess still desperately in denial of her own crimes and wondering why she's being tortured.
- Love Makes You Evil: She has a huge crush on Jenny to a psychotic degree and Jenny's rejection causes Maxine to attempt to harm her.
- Stalker with a Crush: Has been stalking Jenny and when Jenny discovers this Maxine becomes violent.
Supernatural Entities
Esther Finch
Species: Witch
Played By: Jenn Lyon
A powerful Wicked Witch who's inhabited the area that eventually became Port Townsend for centuries.
- A God Am I: Discussed but averted, she intends to install herself as one after absorbing Edwin's suffering: forcing the citizens of Port Townsend to worship her and offer her their daughters as sacrifices.
- Faux Affably Evil: Esther is outwardly gregarious and quick-witted, but as soon as things don't go her way she betrays her true viciousness.
- Big Bad: For Season 1, her schemes for both revenge and power carry over into each episode despite the Mystery of the Week format and culminate in the season finale.
- Immortality Seeker: What Esther was: she got her immortality but forgot to ask for youth. She stays young by feeding little girls to a magical snake instead.
- Vain Sorceress: Was granted immortality by Lilith but not eternal youth, her quest to maintain her youth kicks off much of the plot.
Monty
Species: Crow Familiar
Played By: Joshua Colley
Esther's crow familiar who aids her in her schemes.
- Forced Transformation: Changed into a purposefully attractive human young man by Esther as a Honey Trap for Edwin.
- Heel–Face Turn: After experiencing human emotion via Forced Transformation Monty the Crow develops real feelings for Edwin and ends up helping him and Charles against his mistress, Esther.
- Honey Trap: Esther designed his human form to be purposefully attractive in order to entrap Edwin.
- In Love with the Mark: Esther has him become friends with the boys so that she can get them out of the way, but he begins to seriously fall for Edwin.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After Lilith disposes of Esther and the boys go back to London, it's not specified what will become of Monty now.
The Cat King
Thomas, The Cat King
Species: Magical Cat
Played By: Lukas Gage
The ruler of all the cats in Port Townsend, a shapeshifter who has 9 lives.
- All There in the Script: Never referred to onscreen as Thomas but confirmed to be his name by official sources.
- Anti-Villain: He absolutely despises the Big Bad Esther, revealing the witch's past to Crystal and Niko so they can defeat her.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: After Esther kills him he instantly comes back to life yelling at her for wasting one of his nine lives.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: He really doesn't like Monty. The cats he sends to spy on Edwin comment that the king won't be happy when they see Monty approaching Edwin. During the confrontation in the forest, the Cat King kisses Monty "stealing" Edwin's first kiss and is happy to expose him as Esther's crow so that Edwin will disown him.
- Depraved Homosexual: Downplayed, but after the Cat King traps Edwin in town as punishment for using magic on a cat, he offers to free him if he has sex with him. When Edwin balks at this, the Cat King says he values consent (although though his offer — and general interest in Edwin — is already questionable when it comes to consent).
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being an Abhorrent Admirer to Edwin, he never forced him to have sexual relations with him saying that he values consent, implying he hates the idea of rape.
- Ladykiller in Love: He shows his attraction to Edwin in inappropriate and borderline stalker-y ways but ultimately helps save him and they part on mostly friendly terms with the Cat King bemoaning having developed sincere feelings for him.
- Noodle Incident: After Esther kills him, costing one of his nine lives, he mentions that that's the third life he's lost. It's never specified how he lost the first two.
Tragic Mick
Mick
Species: Human (Transformed Walrus)
Played By: Michael Beach
The owner of a local magic shop who is long tortured by his past as Walrus.
- Humanity Ensues: He was a walrus in the retinue of the sea goddess Sedna, but he wished to experience dry land and when he disobeyed her wishes she said he would never rejoin them in the sea. He instantly transformed into a human upon touching the beach and has been trying to transform back ever since.
Afterlife
Administration
The Night Nurse
Species: Trans-dimensional being
Played By: Ruth Connell
- Even Evil Has Standards: Though she's not exactly evil she is an antagonistic force toward Edwin and Charles and even she is visibly touched upon witnessing how they met and the depths of their bond.
- Inspector Javert: While she's not the most pleasant "person" to ever walk the earth or the afterlife, her entire work and function is to reclaim lost children's souls back to the afterlife, using every method she has under her disposal, including paperwork and supernatural powers. She doesn't do this out of malice because it's her entire purpose in life, though she doesn't appreciate and becomes bitter to those that trick and escape her. It shows that, through loopholes and evidence, she can be temporarily stopped on her tracks, because order and place is the most important thing for her in the entire existence.
- Mind Rape: A variation; she uses her powers to dig into the person's/ghost's memories, usually using it to corroborate what happened to them that leave them in their current state and, in the case of ghosts, why they haven't still crossed to the afterlife. A side effect, however, is that the person/ghost subjected to this will perfectly re-experience their most traumatic moments, including the moment where they die.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Despite being fairly unpleasant, the Night Nurse is just a minor afterlife functionary trying to put Edwin and Charles in their proper place. When she notices a problem with Edwin's records, she agrees to temporarily pause her efforts to reclaim them until the situation is sorted out.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: She's so effective, according to her Principal, that she's reassigned to leave the dull, bureaucratic halls of the Lost & Found Department, and now serves as the manager and, technically, babysitter of the Dead Boy Detectives, which she absolute despises.
The Principal
Species: Trans-dimensional being
Played By: Tamlyn Tomita
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She allows Edwin and Charles to remain on Earth in exchange for continuing to solve unresolved mysteries for the dead since the afterlife is struggling to get a handle on the ever-increasing number of humans living and dying (while forcing the Night Nurse to stay with them as a chaperone).
Hell
"Babyface"
Species: Demon
Played By: N/A
- Implacable Man: Implied to have been trying to get Edwin back into their clutches ever since he escaped.
- No Name Given: Never actually named, nicknamed "babyface" by fandom.
- Spiders Are Scary: A spider-shaped demon made from baby doll parts that eats souls "alive" on repeat.
Simon
Species: Deceased Human
Played By: Gabriel Drake
- Love Makes You Evil: The reason for Edwin's death. Simon made a clumsy attempt to come on to Edwin and thought he'd been rejected (plus his own humiliation at possibly exposing his own homosexual tendencies) which caused him to lash out at Edwin, leading to the campaign of bullying that culminated in their deaths.
Other Characters
Supernatural Entities
Death
See Character sheet for The Sandman (2022)
Despair
See Character sheet for The Sandman (2022)
David the Demon
Species: Demon
Played By: David Iacono (possessed body)
- Entitled to Have You: Acts like Crystal belongs to him and is very abusive and controlling.
- Fiendish Fish: Seems associated with fish heavily, one of the first signs to Emma that Crystal's possessed is her eating a fish out of a dumpster, during the exorcism David summons fish to wash away the runes and when Crystal and Jenny confront him in the end Jenny says his lair smells of dead fish.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: It's revealed that that face and appearance we the audience and Crystal knew him by is just another person he's been possessing, so when he and Crystal were in a romantic relationship he was using this man's body to have sex without his consent.
Lilith
Species: Goddess
Played By: Rochelle Okoye
- Enigmatic Empowering Entity: A powerful primordial goddess of women and blood magic who blessed her worshipper Esther with immortality (but not eternal youth) she never says a word and her appearances never betray her true motivations.
- Everybody Has Standards: She may be a goddess of blood magic and witchcraft, but she's a matron of women first and foremost, so when Crystal informs her of all of the innocent girls Esther has harmed in her eternal life, she literally shows up at her front door and drags her away.
- Deus ex Machina: In episode 8, Lilith's intervention in taking out Esther is a very literal example of this: a goddess that comes in and saves our protagonists at the last moment.
The Dandelion Sprites
Litty and Kingham
Species: Dandelion Sprites
Played By: Caitlin Reilly and Max Jenkins
- A God Am I: Claim godhood when being expelled from Niko's body and trapped in the jar. Given the folklore surrounding the "little people" being the end result of what happens when Gods Need Prayer Badly goes wrong, they may not be completely lying.
- Troll: Spend the majority of their screentime hurling insults at every other character.
The Ghost Postman
Species: Ghost
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Does this constantly much to the boys annoyance.
The Washer Woman
Species: Oracle
- The Omniscient: Has complete knowledge of past, present, and future.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Gives advice, prophecies and secrets in the form of riddles. The characters openly discuss how unhelpful some of what she says seems to be at first glance till it makes sense later.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: She only ever helps out those who's need is great. Seems motivated to prevent as much death as possible, and is burdened by all the unnecessary deaths she can't stop.
Unclassified
Kashina
Species: Not Disclaimed
Played By: Cheech Manohar
- Ambiguously Human: Not stated if he's alive or if he's a ghost, or if he is/was even human. Whatever he is, he looks fantastic and cheerful for a man who has been swallowed whole by a gigantic sea monster.
- Hero of Another Story: He says he has lived many lives before, and had many adventures, not disclosing if he means it metaphorically or literally. He's just in his latest adventure when the Night Nurse finds him inside Angie, the giant sea monster, and apparently he's having a good time.
- Inexplicably Awesome: The Night Nurse doesn't, or can't even, tell if he's either living or dead, implying he might not even be human. He doesn't display any magical abilities (that can be seen), but he's shown to be able to talk to Angie, a giant sea monster, and be perfectly understood and obeyed.
- Ice-Cream Koan: What the Night Nurse thinks of his advice. Until she realizes the man is not (as) crazy as it seems.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: If he's a regular human, or if he's some sort of supernatural being, whatever he is, the Night Nurse doesn't know, and he's not telling.
- Mellow Fellow: Very friendly and very chill, advice-giving and patient, especially under his circumstances.
- Swallowed Whole: He lives inside Angie since a long time, but he doesn't say how long.
- Trickster Mentor: A seemingly crazy man who gives some advice and one of his (numerous) rings to the Night Nurse, kick-starting her very slow character development.
- Vague Age: He claims to be an old man, when he's clearly seen to be at least middle-aged.
- Walking Spoiler: It can't be talked more about his role in the show without disclosing that he's been living inside Angie for a long time.
