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Healthcare Professionals
Christopher Duntsch
Dr. Christopher Duntsch, MD-PhD
"It's not my fault! The anesthesiologists, and the nurses, and the fat fucking patients!"
Portrayed By: Joshua Jackson
The eponymous spinal surgeon. He comes to Dallas as a highly recommended prodigy from the University of Tennessee, but his career almost immediately takes a sinister turn.
- A God Am I: He slips into this more than once, with increasing frequency as his world starts to crumble. The pinnacle is a bizarre email that he sends when trying to manipulate Kim, in which he calls himself "something between God, Einstein, and the Antichrist."
- The Alcoholic: He has a serious drinking and drug problem which he refuses to acknowledge, driving and even operating under the influence.
- All Take and No Give: All of Duntsch's relationships are completely one-sided with him turning against everyone the second they cease being useful to him or threaten his colossal ego and he doesn't even seem capable of understanding other people's feelings.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's left open-ended whether Duntsch's botched surgeries were the result of extreme incompetence (and an unwillingness to acknowledge his shortcomings) or intentional malice. Or maybe a combination of the two.
- Bad Boss: He doesn't kill his colleagues or employees, but he endangers their careers by putting them in horrible situations and then blaming them for his screwups. And then there's what he does to Jerry.
- Being Evil Sucks: His actions end up costing him his career, his relationships with everyone who once cared about him, his medical license, everything he owns, and eventually his freedom.
- Believing Their Own Lies: As time goes on, Duntsch genuinely seems to believe in his own skills as a surgeon, and that all the patients hurt or killed under his care were hurt by other people's mistakes, and is sincerely convinced that he hasn't done anything wrong and he will be practicing medicine again soon. It gets to the point where one wonders if he might be truly insane.
- Beneath the Mask: To the world and his patients, Duntsch is a brilliant surgeon, handsome, charming, confident and successful with hospitals and clinics lining up to make use of his skills. Underneath though lies a truly monstrous figure who is capable of unspeakable cruelty, has an ego the size of Jupiter with nothing to back it up and has seemingly no empathy whatsoever.
- Berserk Button: As befits his ego, questioning his skills or his reputation is a major one, especially when done by people he sees as beneath him, or not giving him the respect he feels owed. His defense attorney even brings this up as why she won't put him on the stand as even slight prodding about his crimes and misbehavior causes him to devolve into a rage almost instantly.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's a charming guy who excels at making patients feel at ease, and wins over colleagues easily, but it disappears when in surgery or when he feels slighted. Then we see how horrid he really is.
- Blasphemous Boast: He often makes these, to his religious father's dismay.
- Boisterous Weakling: During his college football days, he did all he could to appear to be a high achieving football player on his way to going pro. However, he couldn't tell left from right on the field, and when he had his falling out with Betts, the much larger student easily held him down despite how much he struggled.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Zig-zagged. Duntsch is near-obsessively hardworking when it comes to things that matter to him, like college football or research. But he cuts corners on everything else.
- Broken Ace: Duntsch is handsome, charming, driven, and highly educated, but also extremely egotistical, callous, irresponsible, and quite likely suffering from some serious mental illness that he refuses to acknowledge.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: While his botched surgeries cause devastating damage or even death, and patients all seriously struggle with the aftereffects, he's never shown giving his patients much thought once he's done with the procedure, not even seeing them post-op to break the bad news or to express sympathy for their conditions.
- Can't Take Criticism: Duntsch has almost no tolerance for any questioning of his imagined genius, especially when it comes from people whom he sees as below him, such as nurses.
- Catchphrase: He is very fond of saying any surgery he performed was "textbook" when questioned about them, no matter the mistakes he made that he is faced with.
- The Charmer: Chris can be very charismatic and good at gaining people's trust when he needs to be. It's part of what sucks in many patients.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Fittingly, for a guy who mangled people's backs. He betrays his patients' trust, bullies colleagues and employers with threats to sue, cheats his business partners when a biotech startup flops, cripples his lifelong best friend, and is cruel to every woman who falls in love with him. In bonus material where Christian Slater chats with the real-like Randall Kirby, Kirby says that even Duntsch's vaunted research was mostly plagiarized or fudged.
- The Determinator: Flashbacks to his college-football career show that he'll do everything he can to achieve his goals in life. Unfortunately, this trait gets applied to his surgical career, and he refuses to quit and finds ways to continue operating while leaving a trail of suffering in his wake.
- Domestic Abuse: While we don't see him hitting Wendy (his real-life counterpart did, enough that she had to go the emergency room, and this occured when she was pregnant), his verbal abuse of her is incredibly cruel.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: It pervades Chris's personality, but is most evident in his relationships with women. When a furious Kim confronts him after learning that he's the father of Wendy's unborn child, Chris promises Kim that he'll "give Wendy two weeks to get her shit together and then fire her after she's had the baby." He's surprised when this deepens Kim's disgust at him.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: As his horrible maiming of patients continues to the point he starts switching hospitals, he starts putting on weight, already have a visible gut by the time he's left Baylor Plano. By the time of his arrest he got at his heaviest.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He has Joshua Jackson's good looks and charm, and is monstrous underneath it.
- Fairweather Friend: All of Duntsch's relationships are entirely one-sided and built around his own benefit. He has no issue abandoning anyone, even his closest friend Jerry, when they cease being useful to him or threaten his inflated ego.
- Fat Bastard: He gets increasingly chubby as his mental state unravels.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's charming, right up until his patients go under anesthesia.
- Formerly Fit: In college he was a fit football player (Though not very good at it), as his medical career and drug use goes overboard, he starts putting on weight until he's hardly recognizable when he's arrested.
- Functional Addict: Averted with his drug and alcohol use. He thinks he's this, but he really isn't and we see the consequences firsthand.
- Handsome Lech: Duntsch attracts several beautiful women over the show's 8 episodes, and is abusive and manipulative with each of them.
- This applies to his patients as well: most of the ones we see are women, whom Duntsch charms into consenting to surgery.
- Hate Sink: As the series goes on, it becomes clear that there's nothing likable or sympathetic about Chris. He's arrogant, vain, entitled, selfish, immature, irresponsible, litigious, sexist, abusive, never shows his patients any empathy, and expresses no remorse. He's a loathsome man whose final downfall is a joy to behold.
- High Hopes, Zero Talent: He'll brag that he could've gone pro as a football star and that it's a question of when, not if, he'll have his neurosurgery empire, there's a constant reminder that he has absolutely no talent for either craft he has taken up with a string of failures defining him.
- Historical Beauty Upgrade: The real Duntsch wasn't quite as handsome as Joshua Jackson, and started getting fat before his career came unstuck.
- Historical Villain Downgrade: Duntsch's behavior, both personal and professional, is actually toned down for the series,
- As nasty as his treatment of Wendy is in the show, it was even worse in real life. The show omits the worst of it, such as a time when he beat her so badly while she was pregnant that she needed to go to the emergency room, or an incident after they'd separated when he drunkenly broke into her apartment and was found covered in blood and bruises while holding a knife and gun with a ransom note written in blood nearby.
- The screenwriters treat Duntsch's research pursuits as legitimate, and portray his interest in biology as his sole redeeming trait. In reality, Duntsch's colleagues at Discgenicsnote have recalled him as a lazy drunkard whose only job was wining and dining prospective investors, and in an interview with Christian Slater, the real Randall Kirby said that he reviewed Duntsch's research and found to be either plagiarized or nonsensical.
- Ignored Epiphany: Has a realization at the end of episode six, when he finally accepts that Texas isn't going to reinstate his licence and begins to accept his many mistakes and start to make amends. It all goes away when is arrested, at which point he is as adamant about not having done anything wrong as ever.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: During his police interrogation he starts and ends every explanation of his surgery victims with the words "Textbook Surgery," before going on to explain how they were far from that. For example, when going over the surgery of Cindy Trombley, he explains he cut a larger than average hole, claiming it was due to her weight, and how the pedicle screw drifted, which happens in 6% of surgeries.
- Incompletely Trained: As Henderson and Kirby learn, he only did a fraction of the required number of surgeries that should've been necessary to pass, and even less in spinal surgery.note This happened because he sacrificed time that normally would have been spent training as a surgeon to focus on research, earning the interest of his instructor, Dr. Skadden, who became the first shareholder of Duntsch's Discgenics companynote . Due to this, Skadden chose to let Duntsch sacrifice surgical training hours to focus on research, but still signed off on Duntsch's credentials to practice independently as a surgeon. When asked at the trial about this, Dr. Henderson says that Duntsch never should've been allowed to practice surgery when he'd spent his training years researching a cure for bone cancer.
- Insistent Terminology: He insists on being referred to as "Doctor" during his trial, even after losing his medical license.
- I Reject Your Reality: By the time his license is finally revoked in Texas and the police are closing in, he's devolved into this. It's especially highlighted during his interrogation, where he doesn't seem to be able to grasp that he's been arrested and can't just go home after the questioning is over. He also can't get it through his head during his trial that his medical career is over and that he'll never even be able to go back to researching, nor that his "empire" doesn't and never will exist as he attacks his defense attorney for tarnishing his legacy and reputation. It's also
possible there was some degree of this in play all along in regards to his surgeries, that he genuinely couldn't fathom that he was making such serious and blatant errors. - It's All About Me: Even as his patients start suffering horrible, bizarre surgical mishaps, Duntsch's only concern is launching a spinal surgery "empire."
- Even after he's arrested, his greatest concern isn't the financial burden that his legal expenses are putting on his family, but rather irritation that the prison he's in is too loud.
- In a stunning moment that showcases how utterly lacking in empathy he is, he goes up to Jerry (who he has just rendered fully quadriplegic) and coldly denounces him for telling everyone they were doing coke the night before the surgery.
- Jerkass: Even before he begins mauling patients, Chris has a nasty streak. It's most evident in the way he treats Wendy.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Duntsch turns on everyone who seems to matter to him.
- Kick the Dog: Gets a number of these moments to show just what a vile person he is underneath his charm:
- He is emotionally abusive to Wendy, constantly insulting her and even outright telling her he can "throw her back into the gutter if he wants," and abandoning her as soon as he can for Kim.
- After botching his surgery and rendering him quadriplegic, he coldly abandons Jerry, who had been his closest friend and most ardent supporter up to that point, for daring to speak about Chris' drug abuse, and tells Jerry that ''Jerry'' "ruined everything."
- In addition to his horrific mishandling of their surgeries, he never sees any of the patients he hurt, as would be expected of a surgeon, not even to express concern or sympathy. It shows how little he actually cares for them behind his charm.
- Kick the Morality Pet: He does this to everyone he seemingly has a positive relationship with, except perhaps his young sonnote .
- Jerry is completely loyal to Chris, and busts his ass helping to set up the surgery practice, only to be maimed and abandoned.
- There's his cruelty towards Wendy, which escalates when she's pregnant. He starts cheating on her so flagrantly that it seems like he's trying to publicly humiliate her.
- After losing his medical license, Chris is forced to move back in with his parents, with his father basically paying for all of his expenses (includes debts and child support), and even wiring him money and bailing him out of jail when he is arrested for shoplifting. After he is arrested over Madeline Bayer's surgery and learns that he has to spend 18 months in prison before trial, Chris unloads on his father, blaming him for not helping him get out on bail during the preliminary hearings.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Duntsch charms laypeople into thinking that he knows what he's talking about, but medical professionals and researchers are quick to realize that he lacks rudimentary knowledge of his purported field, so much so that Kirby and Henderson first suspect he is an impostor, as no actual surgeons would do what he had done unless they were actively trying to hurt patients.
- Lack of Empathy: He never shows the tiniest sign that his patients' deaths or maiming bothers him, or of caring about anyone other than himself. It doesn't even occur to him to apologize when he is reunited with Jerry.
- Mad Doctor: He's dangerously insane, and he gradually loses his ability to mask it.
- Mean Boss: He's rude and abusive to nurses, PAs, and fellow physicians, talking down to them like they're idiots when they try to help him.
- Mistaken for an Imposter: Duntsch's surgeries are so inept that Henderson thinks he's an imposter who stole the real Duntsch's credentials. Henderson's horror only gets worse when he discovers that the individual he's investigating really is the highly-educated Christopher Dunstch.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He's a spinal surgeon and a monstrous narcissist whose patients almost always leave the OR worse off than they'd been when they came in.
- The Narcissist: A textbook case. He is pathologically self-obsessed, cannot see his own flaws, becomes enraged when he feels that his genius isn't being appreciated, and doesn't realize how bad of a surgeon he was until Dr. Henderson unpacks his cases on the witness stand. In his personal life, he views things like friendship, romance, and family as things to be collected for his ego's sake. To boot, Duntsch's behavior during his college football days suggests that his egotism masks extreme insecurity. His own defense attorney even outright calls him one to his face when she warns him that testifying at his own trial would do him more harm than good.
- Never My Fault: Not once in his 38 disastrous surgeries does he admit to screwing up, instead blaming his anesthesiologistsnote , his nurses, and Kim, and even his patients for making surgery difficult by being overweight.
- Oh, Crap!: He has nonverbal one during his trial, shown thanks to some very subtle acting by Jackson. When Henderson delivers a damning testimony describing just how bad Duntsch's surgeries were, Duntsch's facial expression turns panicked. It's the first time that we see his arrogance utterly vanish.
- Pet the Dog: The only time he is ever shown in a positive light is with his son, to whom he is friendly, playful, and kind, never lashing out or talking down to him. At one point he jokingly guesses wrong about the toy that his son got for him in a McDonald's happy meal, which his son teases him about—note that this is the only time he readily and easily admits to being wrong about something.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Sexist as hell, classist, and possibly racist.
- Chris repeatedly treats the women who care about him like objects, especially Wendy, whom he starts preparing to cast aside while she's pregnant.
- He's doubly cruel to Wendy because of her poor background, mocking her for her former work as a stripper and threatening that he "brought you up from the gutter and can throw you back."
- He's rude to Josh in their every interaction, even though Josh is always trying to help him. He doesn't even acknowledge Josh when Josh introduces himself during preoperative rounds, and when Josh politely tells Chris that there's a hole in his scrubs, Chris just snaps "shouldn't you be prepping my OR, nurse?", rubbing Josh's nose in the fact that Chris technically outranks him. The fact that Josh was cast as a black man suggests that Chris may be a racist, too.note
- Kayla, Chris's old flame from his residency days, is a black woman. She reminisces to Shughart that Chris used to say that together they'd be "a black and white power-cookie." That wouldn't such an odd remark if it were uttered by a normal person, but coming from a man like Chris, who sees others as objects, it sounds condescending and creepy.
- Pride: His defining trait. Duntsch is absolutely convinced of his brilliance and that he has done nothing wrong, despite overwhelming evidence that he's incompetent and dangerous. It reaches a psychotic level at times, like when he compares himself to Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, and when sends Kim a deranged email in which he calls himself "god" and "the Antichrist."
- Psychopathic Manchild: He demonstrates extreme arrogance and is unwilling to admit when he's wrong, shows a very juvenile sense of entitlement in his career and his relationships, and reacts to setbacks by whining and sulking like a child.
- Redemption Rejection: When his father learns of Chris's crimes and that he is jeopardizing his family, he tells his son to clean up his act before it's too late. Chris actually seems to consider it, but eventually goes back and and keeps spiraling until he is arrested. Finally, in prison, he starts suggesting that he might surrender his medical license in exchange for freedom and the ability to go back to research, but his father realizes it's too late, and that jail is the only choice.
- Sanity Slippage: As his career starts going under, he becomes increasingly deranged. The nadir is the bizarre, frightening email that he sends to Kim (which can be read in its entirety here
). He was hoping to browbeat Kim into rejoining him; instead, it horrifies her into getting a restraining order, and Shughart produces it as evidence against him in court. - Serial Killer: Not in the conventional sense, but as far as his victims and their relatives are concerned, he might as well have been one. Kirby even calls one of his surgeries "attempted murder."
- Small Name, Big Ego: While certainly intelligent, his surgical skills are nowhere near what his attitude and reputation suggest. Flashbacks show he didn't want to put in the time to train, and looked for shortcuts or exemptions instead.
- Smug Snake: Oozes arrogance, with nothing to back it up.
- The Sociopath: Exactly what is wrong with him is never stated, but he is heavily implied to be this, and fits many of the criteria for the diagnosis. He is extremely manipulative and superficially charming, he abuses drugs and alcohol as a form of stimulation, his relationships are all parasitic, he has a delusionally high opinion of himself, he never admits to any wrongdoing (always blaming his colleagues or his patients), and he never shows remorse for his deeds or empathy towards his victims. The fact that he doesn't even bother feigning empathy suggests that he fundamentally cannot feel it.
- Stalker with a Crush: After Kim leaves his practice, he begins parking outside her house to watch her, and she always spots him, demanding he leave (at one point with a shotgun). When this happens, he hounds her about leaving him without his ideal assistant. A restraining order didn't stop him, so Kim joined the Air Force.
- Surrounded by Idiots: So he claims. In reality, it's the other way around.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: As befits a character played by Joshua Jackson. It's part of how he draws in patients.
- Too Clever by Half: He isn't stupid, having completed medical school and a residency, but he's nowhere near as skilled or brilliant as he believes himself to be, and his blindness to his own flaws causes disaster after disaster.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After losing his medical license, he lives off of his father's savings, relying on his dad even for child support and bail money. After his father admits during Chris's bail hearing that Chris has been trying to reacquire his medical license, Chris tongue-lashes his dad, blaming him for the fact that he has to stay in jail while awaiting trial.
- Villainous Breakdown: After losing his medical license, his reputation, his business, and almost all of his financial assets, he gains a lot of weight and starts behaving bizarrely (such as getting arrested for shoplifting). Toward the end, he's in jail, desperately lashing out and clinging to his imagined medical reputation, as his lawyer implores him to surrender his license in a last-ditch attempt to at least avoid prison.
- Villain with Good Publicity: He successfully sells himself as a brilliant surgeon, and charms people into giving him the benefit of the doubt whenever the mask slips. As a plan B, he threatens to sue former bosses should they fire or report him, which keeps his record spotless for a long time.
- Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: He wears scrub trousers with a large hole over the butt-cheek, keeps them on even after Josh politely points it out to him, and then keeps wearing them in other surgeries over the next few days. This shows his disinterest in doing his job properly, his disregard for even basic rules, and his intolerance for well-intentioned criticism, especially if it comes from people whom he sees as beneath him.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: One of his few relatable emotions is that he craves his father's approval. His father, for the most part, does love and take pride in Chris' achievements but simply thinks his son needs to learn greater humility.
- You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: He had tremendous potential improving people's lives as a researcher, instead he followed the path of a surgeon, with criminal results.
Robert Henderson
Dr. Robert "Bob" Henderson, MD
"Duntsch is never gonna stop ... on his own."
Portrayed By: Alec Baldwin
A respected Dallas orthopedic surgeon and spine specialist who is called in to revise one of Duntsch's surgeries. He is horrified by the mess that he sees, and teams up with Kirby to bring an end to the madness.
- The Ace: He's regarded as one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the state and is highly respected and well-liked by both his peers and younger professionals and regularly shows why with his skill and personality.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Henderson is a formal dresser, and, being played by Alec Baldwin, he has a commanding presence when he dresses up.
- Big Good: Morally upstanding, professional, and with a good head on his shoulders.
- By-the-Book Cop: With a white coat instead of a badge. Henderson believes in the system, and he exhausts all the usual avenues for getting Duntsch suspended before he finally agrees with Kirby and gets the District Attorney involved.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Steps in several times when Kirby starts getting too aggressive, or insulting people Henderson wants to win over.
- Composite Character: He's a composite of the real Henderson, who really did work as hard as he is shown to stop Duntsch, and Dr Martin Lazar, another orthopedic surgeon who testified against Duntsch at trial.
- Consummate Professional: Emphasis on the professional. He cares immensely about his job, and never lets emotion get the better of him when he's practicing medicine.
- Cool Old Guy: He's in his later years with grandchildren, and is a compassionate, pleasant, charming and caring man who is highly respected in his field, and is determined to stop Duntsch from hurting anyone else. He's also played by Alec Baldwin, making him cool by default.
- Deadpan Snarker: Despite his serious and professional persona, he does have his moments, usually around Kirby.
- Doting Grandparent: He loves spending his free time with his grandkids. He's in the middle of taking them bowling when he gets the phone call telling him about Duntsch's arrest.
- Drink-Based Characterization: One of his earliest contrasts with Kirby. While Kirby orders fancy drinks during their lunch meeting, Henderson just nurses a beer.
- Foil: He's Duntsch's polar opposite. While Duntsch is fairly young, Henderson is old enough to have grandchildren. Dunstch can't go five minutes without bragging about his supposed brilliance that masks his real lack of skill while Henderson is quite humble despite being a genuinely very skilled and respected surgeon. Duntsch has bad relationships with women that are undermined by his abusive behavior while Henderson has been happily married for decades and his scenes with his wife show his sweet side. Duntsch is disliked by colleagues, even before his real ineptitude becomes apparent, due to his arrogance while Henderson is well-liked and respected by those he works with, being seen as a mentor by younger doctors. The biggest difference is that while Duntsch's ego massively outweighs his actual skill and he couldn't care less about his patients, Henderson is a truly skilled surgeon who sincerely cares about those under his care and takes their suffering very hard. Henderson is both a good doctor and a good man while Duntsch is neither.
- Happily Married: He usually spends his free time with his wife, whom he clearly adores, and their grandchildren.
- Historical Beauty Upgrade: The real Henderson wasn't as good-looking as Alec Baldwin. He's short and bald, while Baldwin is tall and has a full head of hair.
- My Greatest Failure: He is haunted by a case where he did everything right but the patient still died of a pulmonary embolism. This stands in contrast to Duntsch, who makes blatant and serious mistakes and never gives them any thought afterwards.
- Nice Guy: He's a kind, polite and good-natured person who cares very deeply about helping people, and is well-liked and highly respected by his colleagues.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Episode 4, the mounting frustration in being unable to put a stop to Duntsch results in him imagining attending a party hosted for Duntsch where he tries (and fails) to call out everyone attending for enabling the madman. It culminates in him meeting with Duntsch in the men's restroom, and after Duntsch's goading, he punches the lightweight out cold. This shows that even The Spock has limits to his patience.
- Outliving One's Offspring: He lost his son in a car crash, and agonized for a long time over deciding to end life-support. He shares this story with the husband of one of Duntsch's brain-dead patients.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When he takes the stand at Duntsch's trial, he gives an indirect but blistering one while facing Duntsch, telling the jury how Duntsch broke every tenant of the Hippocratic oath and how if Henderson had handled even one surgery in the same horrific manner in which Duntsch handled dozens, he never would've allowed himself to set foot in an operating room again.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Kirby's red. He is soft-spoken, straight-laced, logical, diplomatic and polite.
- Silver Fox: As a side effect of being played by Alec Baldwin, he has grey hair and is still quite handsome in his later years.
- The Spock: He's methodical, cautious, and pays close attention to details, as befits a surgeon; this eye for fine detail helps him gather and organize medical evidence against Duntsch. He's also very reluctant to go outside of conventional routes to stopping Duntsch, to Kirby's frustration.
Randall Kirby
Dr. Randall Kirby, MD, FACS
"I could've told you he was a hack! What did he do?"
Portrayed By: Christian Slater
A vascular surgeon at Baylor who meets Duntsch shortly after the latter's arrival, and immediately dislikes the newcomer's arrogance. His dislike later turns into horror when he assists Duntsch on a surgery. When he learns that another hospital, Dallas Medical Center, has given Duntsch operating privileges, he goes on the warpath, recruiting Henderson to help him bring Duntsch down.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: The real Kirby has blonde hair and striking blue eyes while here he has Christian Slater's natural black/greying color and brown eyes.
- Arch-Enemy: He arguably qualifies as one to Duntsch. Kirby was the first to notice how botched Duntsch's surgeries were and try to do something about it and is the most adamant and vocal in stopping him by any means necessary and has easily the most intense and personal hatred for him. He even goes out of his way to make sure Duntsch knows it was him who was behind ruining his career and he will make it his mission to ensure Dunstch never practices medicine again.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Before leaving Mrs. Peele at Baylor after he and Dr. Henderson tried to call her out for letting Duntsch strong-arm her into giving him a slap on the wrist, he caps it off with this gem.Dr. Randall Kirby: Would you let Duntsch operate on you?
- Brutal Honesty: Kirby is never afraid to speak his mind or tell anyone exactly what he really thinks of them.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: And he'd be the first to admit it: he's blustering, foul-mouthed, hyperactive, and rarely bites his tongue. Luckily, Henderson is there to put the brakes on Kirby's wilder ideas. Much of his eccentricity is accepted both due to being fairly harmless and the fact that he is a legitimately very skilled surgeon, having privileges at just about every major hospital in Dallas.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Kirby often seems to be on a different wave length than everyone else.
- Composite Character: The series' portray of Kirby is a combination of the real Kirby and R. Mark Hoyle, another vascular surgeon who dealt with Duntsch in the operating room.
- Consummate Professional: Emphasis on the consummate. Kirby is passionate about what he does, and that passion can make him seem ... eccentric.
- Cool Car: He likes to point out that he drives a Jaguar while also joking about how difficult it is to keep running.
- Courtroom Antics: He has a bit of fun the witness stand, such as using his swearing-in to give a rambling, boastful introduction that sounds almost like an advertisement. He doesn't become overtly disruptive, but it's enough to annoy Shughart.
- Cowboy Cop: Or cowboy vigilante medical investigator. When he hears that Duntsch has more surgeries booked, he suggests breaking Duntsch's arms to stop him from operating. Nothing in his tone suggests that this is a joke.
- Cultured Badass: Kirby loves Mozart. When Henderson visits Kirby's house unannounced one evening, he sees Kirby through the kitchen window listening to The Marriage of Figaro and visibly entranced by the music.
- Deadpan Snarker: Tends to snark freely at other people's stupidity and mistakes.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Minor but he always wears Christian Slater's black-rimmed glasses in the show while his real life counterpart doesn't wear lenses.
- Drink-Based Characterization: Kirby is very particular about his tipples.
- He is very fond of fancy cocktails. With little umbrellas.
- He dislikes IPAs, and denounces them in favor of good old-fashioned Bud Light to a bemused Josh.
- Everything is Big in Texas: Kirby is as Texan as they come. He earned his degrees at Rice and Baylornote , and the only time he wears a business suit, he combines it with cowboy boots.
- Foil: To Duntsch. Kirby is the kind of man and doctor who Duntsch only pretends to be.
- Duntsch is outwardly charming and good at winning people over, but is incredibly callous, selfish, and irresponsible underneath it, with a cruel streak a mile wide. Kirby is abrasive and caustic, even to allies, but cares deeply about his patients and has a warm bedside manner when he visits patients, and treats his allies respectfully during his calmer moments, with much of his behavior coming from his anger at a system that allowed Duntsch to get away with his crimes for so long.
- Both are cocky and have little regard for rules, but Kirby's behavior comes from a concern for patients and is backed up by true skill, and he still takes his medical work completely seriously. Duntsch's rulebreaking is completely self-serving, and his arrogance masks incompetence.
- Kirby is tormented and angered by seeing innocent people suffer at the hands of another doctor, and believes it's his duty get them justice. Duntsch is indifferent to the suffering he directly caused and never takes responsibility for any of it.
- Good Counterpart: To Duntsch. Kirby plays the "brash, cowboy surgeon" part to a T, but unlike Duntsch, his arrogance is backed up by the fact that he's actually good at his job, and his concern for his patients is real.
- Hidden Depths: He's a pretty stereotypical Texan who also loves fancy cocktails, classical music, and is an avid outdoorsman who is planning to climb Mount Everest and is coming back from a hike when he gets word of Duntsch's arrest. It's also shown that despite his cocky demeanor and eccentricities, he takes his work completely seriously and cares very much about helping people.
- Historical Beauty Upgrade: Kirby in real life isn't bad looking, but he isn't as handsome as Christian Slater.
- Honor Before Reason: He wants to stop Duntsch and doesn't care how he does it or about taking the slower, more methodical route if it means even the possibility of Duntsch hurting anyone else, leading Henderson and Shughart to reign him in much of the time.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's not nice about it, but he's absolutely correct that simply taking away Duntsch's license in Texas won't stop Duntsch from relocating and doing the same stuff in another state. He's also right that anything short of imprisoning Duntsch won't be enough, and eventually convinces Henderson of this. His denunciations of other hospitals and officials for letting Duntsch simply resign to avoid scandal instead of firing him, thereby allowing him to continue hurting others, are also on point.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's aggressive, blustery, cocky and insulting, even to his allies, and he has a crude sense of humor, even cracking jokes in the OR. But he deeply cares about his patients' wellbeing, is devastated when he sees the damage Duntsch has done, has a warm and gentle bedside manner, and is determined to stop Duntsch from hurting more people. He also does his best to be respectful towards Dr. Henderson, despite their major personal differences, making it clear that he does respect him as a doctor and sees him as a friend. And even though his first meeting with Michelle goes poorly—he's disappointed that a rookie prosecutor got assigned to the case, and doesn't hide it—he warms up, and likes and respects her by the end.
- Large Ham: Kirby doesn't seem to have an "Off" switch. It comes with being played by Christian Slater.
- Manchild: A high-functioning one, seeing that he's a surgeon and a very good one at that, but Kirby has a childlike playfulness, impulsivity, and sense of mischief. During his first scene, he's operating while regaling the anesthesiologist about his new Jaguar, and how he got pulled over for speeding only for the cop to back down at the sight of Kirby's blood-soaked scrubs. Later, when he's bragging to Henderson about his plans to climb Mount Everest, he shows off his fancy new hiking socks by taking his shoes off and putting his feet on Henderson's table.
- The McCoy: He has a big heart, and it's what drives him to do the right thing. This also makes him impulsive, and Henderson and Shughart need to redirect him several times.
- Motor Mouth: Very much so. He is played by Christian Slater after all.
- No Social Skills: It's less that he doesn't have them so much as he just doesn't care enough to use them, bluntly insulting anyone he dislikes and not giving a rat's ass about diplomacy. He even thinks nothing of taking his shoes off and putting his feet on Henderson's desk to show his new socks despite Henderson's clear discomfort.
- Oh, Crap!: He mutters "oh, Christ" when he realizes that he's been assigned to assist Duntsch on a surgery. At this point, he doesn't even know that Duntsch is a bad surgeon; he just knows Duntsch to be an arrogant, smug boor.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He's normally light-hearted and chatty. It's a sign of how much Dunstch's work is wearing on him when he demands silence while performing revision surgery. He's also much calmer and softer-spoken than usual when speaking to one of Duntsch's victims at her bedside, and is clearly sympathetic to her plight.
- Pet the Dog: He gets a number of these moments to show his softer side, most notably when speaking with one of Duntsch's victims where he is noticeably far more soft spoken and genuinely devastated at not being able to do more to help her. He also warms up to Michelle after his initial hostility and shares a vulnerable moment with her in the same episode. He also makes it clear that, despite their differing personalities, he does respect Henderson as a colleague and sees him as a friend.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Kirby is an avid hiker who loves his fancy cocktails.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Henderson's blue. He is emotional, heated, confrontational, blunt, has little regard for proptocal or social niceties and doesn't really care how Duntsch is stopped, only that he is.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Kirby lives by this. Though, his disdain for rules sometimes alienates his allies and makes it hard for him to work with the medical bureaucracy.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: He's a very accomplished surgeon and wears Christian Slater's trademark black-rimmed glasses. Noteable since the real Kirby doesn't wear glasses.
- Troll: A heroic variant. Kirby enjoys baiting people, sometimes deservedly but sometimes for his own amusement. He even leaves a mocking comment on one of Duntsch's social media posts, gloating that it was he who reported Duntsch to the authorities and promising to ensure that Duntsch never practices medicine again.
- Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: He dresses casually in formal settings—cowboy boots at a medical board hearing, jeans and a blazer over a Hawaiian shirt at a gala—which shows his contempt for formalities and indifference towards others' opinions, traits that Henderson has to keep in check so that they don't derail the campaign to stop Duntsch.
Kim Morgan
Maj. Kimberly Morgan, PA
"The worst part about all this is, you don't have to go under your knife or into your bed to get fucked by you."
Portrayed By: Grace Gummer
Duntsch's Physician Assistant and mistress.
- Everyone Has Standards: Kim covers up for Duntsch when she finds his hidden stash of cocaine, and she keeps sleeping with him even after learning that he has a relationship with Wendy, but she becomes disgusted when Chris disparages the pregnant Wendy as "just a wrecked stripper from Memphis" and promises to abandon her.
- Gold Digger: A shameless one. She all but admits that she works as a PA because she wants to marry a rich surgeon, and dresses for her job interview with Chris as if it were a first date.
- Hidden Depths: When she's introduced, she comes across as a Brainless Beauty, whose main goal is finding a doctor to marry. By the time of Chris's trial, she's joined the U.S. Air Force's medical corps and has attained the rank of Major, and her testimony via Skype dooms Chris.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: In the bonus documentary episodes, the real Kim Morgan seems much more selfish and dishonest than her dramatized counterpart.
- In a clip of Kim's real-life testimony, when she's asked why she flushed Duntsch's bag of cocaine down the toilet, she explains that thought that it might have contained anthrax. You can practically hear the prosecutor smirkingnote . Even if she'd truly thought that she'd found anthrax, the right response would've been warning her colleagues, evacuating the building, and telling the FBI and CDC. Saying that you might've caught your boss stockpiling bioweapons, but that instead of telling the authorities you flushed said bioweapon down the crapper, isn't a good look.
- The real Wendy, when recalling Chris's affair with Kim, makes it sound like Kim was very cruel and in-your-face about it.
- Witnesses who were in the OR with Chris and Kim describe her behavior as incredibly unprofessional, with Kim and Chris making sexual innuendoes about "drilling" while Chris was trying to drill hardware into patients' spines.
- Hospital Hottie: Played up. Her first scene shows her rocking a bikini while French pop plays in the background, and she dresses very provocatively for her job interview with Chris. Chris reciprocates, clearly hiring her with the intent of banging her.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She breaks down after Dorothy Burke's fatal surgery.
- Self-Imposed Exile: Her deployment to the Middle East wasn't self imposed, since militaries don't work that way, but it emotionally fills this role for her: she tells Michelle that she'd hoped that "the other side of the world" could cut Duntsch out of her life for good.
- The Stool Pigeon: A less sympathetic form than Josh, since she worked more closely with Duntsch and had more opportunities to stop him. However, her testimony is the turning point in Duntsch's trial.
- Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: She shows up for her job interview at Chris's office dressed as if she were going for a girls' night out in Las Vegas.
Josh Baker
Josh Baker, RN
"Everyone in that operating room coulda done better than him. Sir."
Portrayed By: Hubert Point-Du Jour
The circulating OR nurse at Dallas Medical Center who witnesses Duntsch's incompetence several times, and helps Henderson get the investigation underway. He is mostly based on Kyle Kissinger, a nurse who assisted Duntsch on two of his operations.
- Composite Character: Every incident that Josh witnesses really did happen, but not all of them were witnessed by Kissinger.
- Nice Guy: Josh is mild-mannered, agreeable and professional, and he tries to get along with all his colleagues, however unpleasant they may be. He's also a good host; when Kirby and Henderson visit him unannounced, he invites them to come inside for a drink. Unfortunately, his niceness this becomes a Fatal Flaw, as he gives Duntsch the benefit of the doubt for too long, until Duntsch renders a patient brain-dead by operating while high.
- Oh, Crap!: When he realizes, mid-surgery, that Duntsch is operating while high.
- Only Sane Employee: Fills this role whenever he's in an OR with Duntsch.
- Race Lift: Kyle Kissinger, the real-life person on whom Josh is most based, is white.
- The Stool Pigeon: Of the conscience-driven variety. When Dallas Medical Center's CEO asks him how his first surgery with Duntsch went, he tells her that Duntsch took an abnormally long time performing a fairly simple procedure. When it becomes clear that Duntsch is not merely inefficient but dangerous, he teams up with Henderson and Kirby.
- Token Minority: He's the only African-American who gets major characterization.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Halfway through the series, Shughart replaces him in the trio with Kirby and Henderson. He doesn't appear after that, even during the trial when he'd be an obvious witness to call.
Kayla Gibson
Kayla Gibson, MD
Portrayed By: Medina Singhore
Duntsch's fellow resident at the University of Tennessee, and one-time girlfriend. She left him while they were still residents, after she discovered the extent of his drug problem.
- Broken Pedestal: In spite of Duntsch's faults, she loved and admired him when they were together, and it's hard for her to reconcile her happy memories of him with the monster she's hearing about in the news.
- Hospital Hottie: When we meet her in a flashback, she's a stylish, attractive, confident young woman.
- Pygmalion Plot: Based on what she tells Shughart, she seems to have been Duntsch's first attempt at building a medical "power couple." She sounds less creeped out about it than Wendy was, perhaps because as a fellow MD, she would've been Duntsch's equal in medicine's hierarchy.
- Sassy Black Woman: Downplayed. She gives off this vibe as a young woman, but it's completely gone when Shughart meets her some 15 years later. It's possible that she became more mellow with age. It's also possible that having Chris as a boyfriend just put her in a sour mood.
- The Stool Pigeon: When Shughart interviews her, Kayla reveals that she's the one who filed the anonymous report to the University of Tennessee about Duntsch's drug use. However, she isn't willing to testify in Duntsch's trial, preferring to close this chapter of her life for good.
Law Enforcement
Michelle Shughart
Michelle Shughart
"Like I said, I get it, you're disappointed. I'm probably a little to young. Maybe a little too woman for your liking."
Portrayed By: AnnaSophia Robb
A young Assistant District Attorney in Dallas. Equal parts just and ambitious, she sees Duntsch as her chance to protect the public and while also prosecuting a landmark case.
- Academic Athlete: During her spare time, she's invariably seen playing basketball.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: The real Shughart is a brunette, but AnnaSophia Robb keeps her own natural blonde color.
- Age Lift: In real life, Shughart was young, but not as youthful as she's portrayed here. For reference, Shughart was in her thirties when she prosecuted the case while AnnaSophia Robb was in her late twenties during filming.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Delivers one to Jerry after Duntsch's loyal apologizes to him for his paralysis...That Chris had caused.Michelle Shughart: Did Chris ever apologize to you?
- Crusading Lawyer: Nobody has ever prosecuted a physician criminally for surgical misadventures, and her boss tells her that she's crazy to try. That doesn't stop her.
- Fair Cop: She's a prosecutor played by the stunning AnnaSophia Robb.
- Historical Beauty Upgrade: The real Michelle Shughart isn't an unattractive woman by any means, but she bears very little resemblance to AnnaSophia Robb, and was about a decade older in real life than she's portrayed here.
- The Kirk: She balances Henderson and Kirby out, and it's when she joins their team that they begin making progress on their case against Duntsch.
- Older Than They Look: She could easily pass for a college kid. She knows this, and tries to compensate, lest she not be taken seriously.
- New Meat: A lot of emphasis is put on Shughart being young and early in her career, which compounds the difficulty in trying to prosecute Duntsch in an unprecedented case.
- Smarter Than You Look: An in-universe case. To viewers, it's obvious from the get-go that she's smart, but as a young, pretty, blonde woman, she has to work extra-hard to convince her older, male colleagues that she's a capable attorney.
Ed Yarborough
Ed Yarborough
Portrayed By: Danny Burstein
Dallas's District Attorney, and Shugghart's boss.
- As You Know: It's election season, he's facing a tight reelection campaign, and he doesn't let anyone forget this.
- Benevolent Boss: Despite his Mean Boss tendencies, partof his reluctance to prosecute Duntsch comes from the fact that he cares about Shughart, as he warns her that if the case goes poorly, she'll be in danger of ruining her own career.
- The Cynic: He has very little confidence that prosecuting Duntsch will work: he thinks that the case is too unprecedented for a conviction to be realistic, that the law is too vague to establish that Duntsch did anything illegal, that the burden of proof will be too high, and that the case's dense medical details will overwhelm and bore the jurors (who he thinks would rather be doing something else anyway).
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's right that prosecuting Duntsch is unprecedented, and lies outside of a DA's normal purview.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He comes across as a cynical and self-interested grouch who's focused mostly on getting reelected, but he does care about Michelle, and respects and values her as a colleague. His reluctance to let her prosecute Duntsch is partly because he doesn't want her career to suffer if the case goes badly, as he believes it probably will, but respects her decision to go ahead and wishes her well in doing so.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Shughart eventually convinces him to greenlight her case against Duntsch, but he's pessimistic about her chances of convicting him, and doesn't sugarcoat it to her.
- Mean Boss: Downplayed. He respects Shughart, but his reelection campaign has made him irritable, and Shughart's relentless insistence that she be allowed to pursue the Duntsch case gets under his skin.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: It takes lots and lots of pestering from Shughart before he lets her prosecute Duntsch.
- Sleazy Politician: Played with, but ultimately averted. He's reluctant to pursue the Duntsch case partly for fear of turning a big political donor like Baylor-Plano against him, but this is understandable: he can't gamble with campaign funds during a hotly contested election. He also doesn't seem to care that much about the Duntsch case, but then again, Duntsch is just one man, and his department's job is to prosecute every felon in Dallas. In the end, he trusts Shughart and lets her proceed with the Duntsch case.
Other Characters
Jerry Summers
Jerry Summers
"He's my friend! He's my friend! Chris is my fuckin' friend!"
Portrayed By: Dominic Burgess
Chris's closest friend. Jerry and Chris were high school football teammates, until a neck injury cut Jerry's playing career short. He and Chris reconnect while Chris is back in Memphis for medical school, and Jerry gradually becomes Chris's personal (for want of a better word) valet. He follows Chris to Texas, where Chris hires him as a marketing director.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: When Chris tells Jerry about his research into using stem cells to fix spinal discs, Jerry is impressed, and tells Chris "I'll be your guinea pig."
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: For a guy who has no formal business education, doesn't seem to have held a serious job before teaming up with Chris, and is drunk or high in most of his scenes, Jerry actually is pretty good at marketing.
- Everyone Has Standards: When he first meets Kim with Duntsch, Duntsch brushes Wendy (who is pregnant with his son) off as someone else's wife and a temp. This disturbs Jerry enough to warn his best friend to not mess anything up.
- Gentle Giant: He's big and heavyset, and an absolute sweetheart.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Enters a dysfunctional, abusive partnership with Duntsch.
- Historical Villain Downgrade: The show heavily downplays the anger issues that Jerry develops as a result of being made quadriplegic, with the original podcast detailing an account that he would even use his wheelchair as a battering ram to break furniture and assault his girlfriend.
- Hookers and Blow: Jerry enjoys both.
- Horrible Judge of Character: In Jerry's defense, there's no way he could've known that letting Chris operate on him would leave him a quadriplegic, but he knew all about Chris's substance use, and might've guessed that a cocaine abuser might be a bad doctor. He also witnesses Chris treating Wendy appallingly more than once, but doesn't realize that Chris is the kind of man who'll abandon anyone without a second's remorse.
- Ignored Epiphany: As he watches Chris's relationship with Wendy deteriorate, part of Jerry seemingly starts to realize that something is wrong with his friend. Unfortunately, he doesn't trust his instincts on this.
- Morality Pet: Up until Chris operates on Jerry, crippling him.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Jerry is a hard-drinking, acid-tripping party animal who is a regular at strip clubs in Dallas and Memphis. This doesn't change the fact that Jerry is a decent man, especially compared to Chris.
- Sacrificial Lion: Jerry gets the most characterization, by far, out of all of Chris's victims—both before and after his surgery.
- Sense Loss Sadness: After his surgery leaves him a quadriplegic, he spirals into a depression that the show ends with him never smiling again like he always was before the surgery.
- Undying Loyalty: Even after Duntsch leaves him a quadriplegic and then shows utterly no concern for him afterward, Jerry still refuses to talk to Shughart about Chris and, while in court, recants his accusation that Duntsch used cocaine with him.
Wendy Young
Wendy Renee Young
"You keep telling me I'm smart like you're trying to convince yourself that I am."
Portrayed By: Molly Griggs
A stripper from Memphis with whom Chris strikes up a relationship. She quickly moves in with Chris, eventually following him to Dallas, where shortly afterwards she becomes pregnant.
- Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments, such as when Duntsch asks her how she could be pregnant:"A stork fucked me."
- Hidden Depths: She sees through Chris's façade long before Kim, Jerry, or anyone else does.
- Housewife: She eventually tells Chris that she just wants to raise a family and take good care of her kids. Chris, who had wanted her to be his nurse, promptly loses whatever respect he ever had for her (see under Pygmalion Plot).
- Living Lie Detector: Her disastrous mistake of getting involved with Chris notwithstanding, Wendy seems to have an instinctive gift for detecting bullshit.
- Morality Pet: Averted. Chris is manipulative to her, and as soon as Wendy starts pushing back, he becomes outright cruel.
- Only Sane Man: She's the first member of Duntsch's entourage in Dallas who sees through his charming act.
- Pygmalion Plot: She's the subject of a long and cruel one by Chris, who has a bizarre fixation on having a Physician's Assistant who is also his lover. When Wendy resists this, Chris responds by hiring and screwing Kim Morgan, and rubbing Wendy's face in it.
- Single Mom Stripper: Averted. Even before she leaves Chris, she makes it clear that that chapter in her life is closed, and she keeps her word.
- Smarter Than You Look: Wendy seems to have an observant nature. This often makes her the first person to realize that something is wrong in a situation.
- She's one of the first people to start suspecting that there's something dark behind Chris's charming mask. Even early in their relationship, she remarks that his "support," like praising her intelligence and suggesting that she become a nurse, feels like manipulation.
- When Baylor-Plano rolls out a fancy red carpet for Chris upon hiring him, including free box seats to a Dallas Mavericks game, she gets worried; her body language in the skybox is cold, distant, and anxious (in contrast to Jerry's absolute giddiness). She interrupts Chris's and Jerry's revelry to say that it feels strange that Baylor is already treating Chris like a superstar before his first day on the job.
- Wendy, whose education probably ended after high school, has already deduced that Chris is a crappy surgeon while Kim, a trained and experienced PA, is still working with him.
- She's sharp enough that she notices that each time Chris leaves one hospital and starts working at another, the new place is older, smaller, and (as she puts it once) "looks like a fucking porta-potty." From this, she deduces that he's moving down the ladder, not up it.
- The night before Jerry's surgery, she tells him "you don't need to do this if you don't want to," subtly urging him not to go under Duntsch's knife.
- Struggling Single Mother: She struggles to find decent work and refuses to go on welfare so she's reliant on money from Duntsch's parents to support herself and her son. She refuses to testify against Duntsch because she doesn't want to do anything that might cut off her only lifeline.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It's not mentioned in the dramatized series, but in the companion documentary series, Wendy mentions that Duntsch had offers to go to New York, San Diego, and Dallas, and she chose Dallas because she's a Dallas girl herself. None of what happened is by any fault of hers, but this just so happened to be a state with very weak malpractice laws, which is what allowed the problem to progress so horribly for so long.
Amy Piel
Amy Piel
Portrayed By: Laila Robins
A former nurse who has become the CEO of Baylor-Plano Medical Center.
- Blatant Lies: "I'm not intimidated by you," she tells Duntsch when he threatens to sue her. But her delivery makes it clear that she is very intimidated: it's the first time in the show that her confident, ice-queen persona breaks.
- Bystander Syndrome: Not at first—she's ready to give Duntsch the axe once she realizes what kind of monster he is—but in the end, she decides to avoid a lawsuit by just cutting ties with him and letting him become another hospital's problem.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: She gets rid of Duntsch once she sees how incompetent and amoral he is, and is ready to report him to the Texas Medical Board, but when he threatens to sue her, she caves in and simply lets him resign instead.
- Iron Lady: She styles herself as such, and is usually pretty convincing. Unfortunately, she turns out to be a wimp when Duntsch starts bullying her with threats to sue.
- Living Lie Detector: So she claims: "I'm so fluent in doctor bullshit, I can smell it all the way from Fort Worth." But she isn't fluent enough to detect Duntsch's bullshit for several months, by which time he's already killed one patient and crippled Jerry.
- My Greatest Failure: She's ashamed that she hired Duntsch, wants him out of her hospital and out of her life for good, and dreads having to talk about him.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: She words Duntsch's official termination letter opaquely, so that he won't sue her for defamation. This lets him leave Baylor with a seemingly spotless record.
- Oh, Crap!: When Kirby and Henderson tell her that they want to discuss Christopher Duntsch, she grits her teeth and mutters "hoo, boy."
- Up Through the Ranks: A civilian example. She started out as a nurse, and now runs one of Texas's biggest healthcare institutions.
Don Duntsch
Donald Duntsch, DPT
Portrayed By: Fredric Lehne
Duntsch's father, who practices as a physical therapist in Colorado. Don is a straight-laced, deeply religious man, and a stern but loving father who repeatedly tries to bring his son back to his senses.
- As the Good Book Says...: He invokes the Biblenote when warning Chris against the dangers of hubris.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Many of Donald's beliefs are very conservative, such as his ethical opposition to embryonic stem cell research.
- I Have No Son!: Averted. Even after sitting through the entire trial, hearing what his son did, and seeing Chris get convicted, Don shows that he loves his son. He still recognizes that his son's conviction was just, but he hopes that Chris will find spiritual redemption in prison.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Chris inherited none of his father's integrity, charity, or loyalty.
- Parents as People: Don tries to be a good father under ugly, painful circumstances. He wants to support his son as far as his personal morals will let him, but without enabling Chris's descent into criminality.
- So Proud of You: He eventually overcomes his initial skepticism about Chris's passion for practicing medicine, and starts believing that Chris truly has a bright future in neurosurgery, but the illusion doesn't last long.
- Thicker Than Water: No matter how far Chris falls, Don keeps showing his son that he still cares.
- Undying Loyalty: Don is always there for Chris, even after it's clear that Chris has ignored everything that Don tried to teach him. But this doesn't stop him from truthfully testifying that Chris is a flight risk at Chris's bail hearing.
Chris Beteaux
Chris "Betts" Beteaux
Portrayed By: Spencer House
An upperclassman football player at Colorado State University who befriends Duntsch when Duntsch makes the team, and briefly takes the dedicated rookie under his wing.
- Apologetic Attacker: More accurately an apologetic defender. When Duntsch snaps and starts a fight, Betts restrains him as gently as possible, all the while asking Chris to stop making him fight.
- Big Man on Campus: He embodies the type, right down to the varsity letter jacket.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Betts is fun-loving and extremely strong.
- Foil: He's what Jerry might have become in a different life. Both are happy-go-lucky party animals whom Duntsch befriends through football, and both are impressed by Duntsch's brains and ambition. But Betts is good enough to play football at a very high-level university program, whereas Jerry's football career ended in high school thanks to a neck injury. Betts charms coeds with his good looks and football prowess, while Jerry is out of shape and gets most of his fun through Hookers and Blow. Betts eventually sees through Duntsch and ends their friendship, whereas Jerry is in permanent denial over Duntsch's dark side.
- Gentle Giant: When he isn't hitting guys on the football field, Betts is mellow. Even when Duntsch goes berserk and starts a scrap, Betts (who is strong enough that he could've beaten Duntsch to a pulp) just puts Duntsch in a hold and tries to talk some sense into him.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Duntsch was trying to become this with Betts, before their falling-out.
- Lovable Jock: Betts is an incredibly good friend, and humors Duntsch's weirder points.
- Mr. Vice Guy: He's a sweet-natured jock who likes beer, weed, and sorority girls.
- Pygmalion Plot: A heterosexual variant. When Duntsch decides to transfer to the University of Tennessee, he tries persuading Betts to come with him and become his right-hand man in the biomed industry.
- Smarter Than You Look: Despite being a party loving college jock, he pegs Duntsch for a phoney as soon as Chris reveals he's moving home. Duntsch claims that he doesn't care about football but he's still wearing the Jersey, which Betts notices and points out. Also, when Duntsch complains that he isn't eligible to play anymore, Betts asks if he's more upset about his idea of football rather than the sport itself.
