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Dot Lyon
Dorothy "Dot" Lyon / Nadine Tillman née Bump
"If you want to tussle with me... you better sleep with both eyes open. Because nobody takes what's mine and lives."
Played By: Juno Temple
A housewife and mother in suburban Scandia, Minnesota.
- Action Girl: Dot tends to rely on cunning more than brute strength, but she still manages to put up one hell of a fight whenever physically threatened. When Lorraine has her committed, she promises to fight the orderlies, and sure enough, they're seen with facial wounds as they take her to the hospital.
- Animal Motifs: Jungle cats, especially lions and tigers. In her first scene, she describes herself as a “mama lion” to Indira (which doubles as a pun on her name), and Ole Munch repeatedly describes her as a tiger throughout the season.
- Apologetic Attacker: She is apologetic after injuring the orderlies sent to detain her, as a way to make them think she stopped resisting so they let their guards down before she attacks them again and makes another escape attempt.
- Bait-and-Switch: After her arrest in the first episode, she dreads being fingerprinted, implying that she may be some kind of criminal on the run. As it turns out, it's actually because she was once married to the abusive Roy Tillman, who happens to also be a very corrupt sheriff, and her fingerprints ending up in a police database would give him the means to track her down (which it did).
- Beware the Nice Ones: Dot is a kind, sweet-natured woman and a loving mother and wife. But she is also extremely capable of violence when pushed and not someone to underestimate, as her kidnappers found out.
- Blatant Lies: She claims she was never kidnapped at all and only went out to clear her head, despite the police having an overwhelming amount of evidence indicating a kidnapping took place.
- Booby Trap: She's great at combining this with the Wounded Gazelle Gambit to escape danger. After she escapes her kidnappers, Dot rigs her entire house this way to Wayne's shock.
- Combat Pragmatist: Once she realizes she's being kidnapped, she makes great use of ambushes and improvised weapons to briefly get the upper hand over her assailants. When given the chance to prepare her house later, she resorts to booby trapping every entrance and setting up hiding spots to allow her to ambush any assailants who manage to get past the traps.
- Crazy-Prepared: After her ordeal, she becomes obsessed with fortifying her house, setting up booby traps and improvised weapons all over. When Wayne suggests getting a gun if she's so worried, she begins excitedly listing off what weapons they need and where. Of course, considering her abusive ex, this is all very justified.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": She has completely disavowed her past life and name, refusing to answer to "Nadine" and making clear that she is Dot now.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: She has frequent nightmares of Roy throughout the season, several of which include split second shots of future episodes.
- Earn Your Happy Ending:
- Indira points out that Dot has already done this by the start of the series, having gone through horrific suffering to find a life that actually makes her happy. She's already earned a happy ending, which is why she's so desperate to keep it.
- After having to spend the season fighting to protect herself and her family, and then to escape Roy again, Dot earns an even happier ending: Roy's put away. Gator apologizes (and Dot in turn promises to visit her adopted younger brother in prison). Even with her past exposed, Wayne still loves her and she joins him in running the car dealership. Lorraine finally gives her approval. Lastly, she makes peace with Ole Munch, ending the cycle of debt and violence.
- Foil: She is a foil to Peggy Blumquist from the second season. Both are small town wives mostly known by nicknames living boring lives who, after hurting someone accidentally, find themselves and their families pulled into a world of violence, which they eventually acknowledge despite initially trying to deny anything had changed even after killing a man. The difference is Dot is a woman who has gotten herself out of a violent and horrific situation and is more than willing to go to extreme lengths to keep the happy small town life she has, while Peggy was bored and unhappy with her small town life, causing her to eventually throw herself into violent crime to get away from her boring life. They're also both married to sincere, humble men who care deeply about them but while Peggy privately resents Ed for his lack of ambition and holding her back, Dot truly loves Wayne and will do anything to get back to him.
- Happily Married: She legitimately loves Wayne and is insistent that no matter what Roy or Lorraine want, they will stay together. Their marriage which may not technically be legal thanks to her faked identity is far more stable and tender than any of the others on display this season.
- Improv Fu: She is very good at improvising weapons from around her home and the gas station throughout her fights there, killing Ireland and seriously injuring Munch with hair spray, an ice skate, two bags of ice, and a shovel.
- Kick the Dog: Downplayed. To keep Wayne safe when Tillman's men come for him in the hospital, she chokes a cancer patient in a neighboring room unconscious and swaps the room names to get him kidnapped instead of Wayne. While this ultimately results in the man's death and drives in how desperate Dot is to escape Roy, the patient is also a colossal asshole, meaning there's not much sympathy to be had over his fate.
- Kill It with Fire: Uses this on Donald Ireland, although it doesn't kill him.
- Mama Bear: Dot is very protective of her daughter Scotty, even assaulting a police officer in an effort to remove her from the brawl at the school board meeting.
- Minnesota Nice: After her kidnapping and escape, she leans into this heavily, insisting she is fine when it is clear to everyone in her life there is something deeply wrong.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: It’s all but stated that her Minnesota accent is a put-on, since she presumably grew up near the Tillman ranch in western North Dakota. She drops it in favor of a standard American accent when threatening Lorraine.
- Rape as Backstory: She was repeatedly raped by Roy before and during their marriage. Her comments about wolves circling her from the time she had her first period implies that Roy was not the first man to victimize her.
- The Runaway: She ran away from home at 15, which is what eventually lead her to the Tillmans.
- That Man Is Dead: As Nadine Bump, she dealt with "wolves" chasing her after getting her first period, resulting in her becoming The Runaway and resorting to stealing for food. Then Roy took her in, groomed, and abused her. To escape, she assumed the identity of Dot and finally got a stable, happy family with Wayne Lyon and their daughter, Scotty. Even when not denying her past, she makes it clear she's Dot Lyon now and insists on being referred to as such.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pancakes, which symbolize her desire to return to her mundane but happy family life.
- Used to Be a Tomboy: Implied to have been one as Nadine. She describes her childhood as "scrapped knees and make-believe" and had run-ins with the law after running away from home. This seems to be how she learned to become resourceful at defending herself. While she's mostly set this aside as suburban housewife Dot, she supports Scotty's preference for suits and "boyish" interests. Mother and daughter even bond over making booby-traps.
Wayne Lyon
Wayne Lyon
Played By: David Rysdahl
Dot's husband and Scotty's father. He is a Kia salesman in the Twin Cities suburbs.
- Alone with the Psycho: In the last episode, he entertains Ole Munch on the couch before Dot and Scotty get home. It doesn’t seem to faze him in the slightest.
- Casual Car Giveaway: A variation. Wayne offers to trade a customer's 2005 car for a brand new model with no additional payment. His salesman tries to talk him out of it, but Wayne tunes him out. It's clear his brain is still way too scrambled after his electrocution for him to return to work.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Jerry Lundegaard. Both are mild-mannered car salesmen from the suburbs, but whilst Jerry was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, was incompetent at his job, and arranged the kidnapping of his wife for money while pretending to be worried about her, Wayne is successful at his job and a loving husband and father who is genuinely concerned for Dot and has no involvement at all in the plan to kidnap her.
- Electricity Knocks You Out: He receives a serious shock from an exposed wire on Halloween. Unlike most examples of this trope, this is not also an example of Harmless Electrocution. Even with expert medical care, the shock causes serious brain damage.
- Fee Fi Faux Pas: He compliments a gun store employee on his pirate costume for Halloween, especially the good looking eyepatch. He then gets embarrassed when the employee tells him that the eyepatch is real and from a hunting accident.
- Good Is Dumb: Wayne is one of the dumber characters in the season and a good-hearted genuine man who wants to enjoy a simple life. After suffering brain damage, he becomes unable to remember much of anything or understand his surroundings, but continues to be mostly concerned about his family's safety.
- Happily Married: He truly loves Dot and she loves him back. Even after learning about her past and the danger that Roy can put them in, he still is happy to stay with her.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Mother, actually. Although they get along well enough, it's surprising that somebody as nice as Wayne could have been raised by someone as mean and unpleasant as Lorraine.
- Minnesota Nice: A more positive example of this than his wife.
- Nice Guy: Wayne is a loving husband, a caring father and overall a very sincere and kind man.
- Non-Idle Rich: Wayne's mother is very wealthy, and it's mentioned that he has a trust fund, but Wayne has a successful career of his own selling cars.
Scotty Lyon
Scotty Lyon
Played By: Sienna King
Dot and Wayne's daughter.
- Gender-Blender Name: Scotty is usually a diminutive form of the male name Scott. Doubles as Meaningful Name, since she prefers a tomboy style of dress.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted, she shares a name with Jerry Lundegaard's son from the movie.
- Tomboy: Wears a coat and tie in the family Christmas card picture, which earns her some derision from Lorraine.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Scotty has pancakes made with Bisquick brand baking mix for breakfast most mornings. Dot uses these pancakes to symbolize the happy domestic life she wants to get back to throughout the series and during the gas station firefight stares down a box on the shelf to steel herself for what's to come.
Lorraine Lyon
Lorraine Lyon
Played By: Jennifer Jason Leigh
Dot's wealthy, cold, and conservative mother-in-law and the CEO of Redemption Services, the largest debt collection agency in America.
- Abusive Parents: She is verbally and physically abusive to Wayne, even getting Danish to slap him on her behalf during a phone call.
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: She owns Redemption Services, a multi-billion dollar debt collection company. Early in the season Danish establishes the company is cash rich which means she has uninvested money to throw at whatever issues arise.
- Big Bad Ensemble: She is part of one with Roy Tillman for Season 5 where the two are active and separate antagonists who oppose Dot Lyon. However, Lorraine decides to no longer be a threat to Dot and help her upon learning what Roy did to Dot, leaving Roy to be the main antagonist for the remainder of the season.
- Cruel And Unusual Punishment: When feeling transgressed, she uses her wealth and connections to ensure that the object of her ire suffers horribly for a long time, and takes clear pleasure in telling them exactly what's going to happen to them.
- Deadpan Snarker: Often, at the expense of everyone from Dot to Roy to the bankers.
- Distaff Counterpart: She's a mix of Wade Gustafson from the film and Season 3 characters Emmit Stussy and V.M. Varga.
- Entertainingly Wrong: She is suspicious of Dot and believes she's lying about her past and is out to steal from Wayne. Dot is lying about her past and name but simply because she escaped from a horribly abusive environment and her love for Wayne is entirely genuine.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- As awful as she is at showing it, Lorraine does genuinely care about her family and it's her main humanizing trait. She's openly (by her standards) fond of Scotty, demands the best possible care for Wayne when he's hospitalized, and plays a major role in saving Dot's life once she finally accepts Dot as her daughter-in-law.
- While she's something of a jerk to Danish, Lorraine does value him as a competent employee and she has to take a second to recompose herself after learning Roy killed him. It's learning that Danish died attempting to save Dot that finally brings Lorraine around to Dot's side.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Even being an Evil Debt Collector who wants to kick her daughter-in-law out of the family, she still has some scruples. Sexism towards women (particularly when it leads to men seeing her as less) sends her into Tranquil Fury, Roy Tillman's speech on freedom without responsibility gets her to call him a baby, and she absolutely refuses to let Tillman take Dot after seeing what kind of a man he is. She's also noticeably disturbed when she's given photos of the physical abuse Roy subjected Dot to.
- Even though she is much of an arch-conservative as Roy, she acknowledges that freedom comes with responsibilities and sees the need for a welfare state.
- Evil Debt Collector: She runs a massive debt collection empire. When being interviewed by a reporter, she publicly tries to present her services as “bringing dignity” back to debtors, which is intercut with one of her agents hounding Indira for her husband's medical debt.
- Female Misogynist: She is very dismissive of anyone who lets themselves come under someone else's control. This includes victims of domestic abuse, and she callously implies they should stay with their abusers rather than inconvenience others by trying to escape. That said, when forced to confront the severity of Dot's abuse, and the fact that Dot's escape and building of a new life prove that Dot has many of the qualities Lorraine admires in herself, she is willing to course-correct, though with no explicit apology or backing down.
- Foil: Lorraine serves as a foil to Roy. Both are major antagonists deeply invested in ending Dorothy and Wayne's marriage. Both are extremely conservative Politically Incorrect Villains with a lot of political power and resources to back them up. Both serve as the unquestioned heads of their families as well as massive organizations, and have a small army at their beck and call. Both keep their families in line through physical and verbal abuse, especially their son. Both mostly act through their subordinates. Every one of those similarities only serves to highlight their differences.
- Lorraine wants to end Wayne's marriage to Dot because she thinks Dot is a con artist or is otherwise dangerous to keep around, while Roy wants it because of petty spite and feeling of entitlement towards his ex-wife.
- Lorraine is more nuanced in her conservatism, with an acknowledgment that the government and government officials have some responsibility to their citizens. Roy views his sheriff's position as more like a feudal lord controlling the lives of his people without any real obligation to them.
- Their bigotries even contrast. Lorraine is a deeply classist woman, while Roy is proud of his blue collar background and his misogyny, meaning they are bigoted against each other.
- Roy uses threats, violence, and the knowledge that no one is prepared to physically stop him to keep control. Lorraine derives her power through influence and money and can ruin the lives of those who wrong her without ever laying a hand on them. She also generally tries to play nice first, offering payoffs to resolve the situation cleanly before resorting to other methods, and sometimes backs off or changes tactics if she thinks it's a bad idea to keep pressing the issue or very rarely, if she realizes she has done something wrong. Roy tends to throw his weight around as his first and last option, and refuses to back down out of a sense of pride.
- Lorraine is abusive to her family, but not to the extent that Roy is, and Wink and Wayne have lives outside of her and both ending up quite well-adjusted and sincerely kind people. Roy dominates his family, with Gator desperately trying to follow in his footsteps and the rest of the family trying to do anything to avoid upsetting him and being racist, cowardly and a bully like his dad.
- Lorraine has an army of private security she pays to work for her, while Roy has his deputies and an ideologically motivated militia following him. Lorraine works through Jerome and Danish and she mostly treats them well, while Roy has Gator and a litany of hired crooks that he tends to scapegoat when his plans fail.
- Essentially, Lorraine is evil, but much more reasonable than Roy, and her scattered virtues serve to highlight the depths of his vileness, while Roy makes her look like a saint in comparison.
- Greater-Scope Villain: For season 5, compared to Roy. While Lorraine is the villain who has ruined many lives and has far more resources than Roy, she’s less active in her antagonism towards Dot and even helps her out in the back half, while it’s Roy that’s the antagonist who is most active and drives the plot for Season 5.
- Gun Nut: She insists on the family posing with rifles for their Christmas card, saying it projects an image of strength.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: Lorraine has one during Season 5. While she’s still a ruthless and malicious debt collector who shows no remorse ruining countless lives through her actions, Lorraine goes from being Dot’s enemy and wanting to get rid of her to becoming her ally, finally considering Dot her daughter-in-law.
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Hire the Critic: After listening to Indira criticize her ability to understand people's inner toughness and determination in key situations, Lorraine abruptly offers her a job at her debt collection agency. - Improperly Paranoid: Her mistaken belief that Dot is trying to run a long con on her family drives her to have Dot wrongfully committed to a mental hospital, right at the exact moment that Roy's goons try to kidnap Wayne while Roy himself shows up at her mansion to try and bully her into surrendering Dot to him. When Dot manages to escape, she intervenes to prevent Wayne's kidnapping and decides that Lorraine can't be trusted to protect Scotty, and thus nabs her and stashes her with the Olmsteads. In short, Lorraine's short-sighted idea of "protecting" her family actually put them in greater danger than if she had just left Dot alone.
- Jerkass: Cold, snarky, and classist. Lorraine absolutely despises Dot and never shows her an ounce of kindness. She's a little nicer to Wayne and Scotty, although she still takes a couple shots at Scotty's tomboy style of dress.
- Karma Houdini: Lorraine is unapologically, maliciously ruthless and her entitlement and paranoia inadvertently kick-start all of the season's disastrous events, but she suffers no consequences other than the loss of one of her favorite subordinates. She ends the story using her wealth to undermine the system and ruin others' lives the same as always, with special attention devoted to Roy Tillman.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Lorraine has ruined countless lives through her company and has no regrets about the harm her collection agency has done. However, she is also pragmatic enough to be reasonable and offer bribes and payoffs rather than resorting to force immediately, which contrasts with Roy.
- Mirror Character: Indira observes that Lorraine and Dot are very much alike: two steely women willing to do whatever it takes to defend the lives they built. There are even hints (confirmed by Leigh) that Lorraine's Transatlantic accent, like Dot's Minnesotan one, is a put-upon to disguise rougher origins. This is why Lorraine hates Dot: she can tell Dot is as much of a fighter as she is, but assumes she's a Gold Digger.
- Nice to the Waiter: She is an example of the mean to servants and those she views as beneath her variant of this trope. She chides her attorney Danish Graves for "ruining her entrance" because he walked down the stairs at the same time as her. Later, she wants a nurse fired for asking her to check in at the hospital front desk like everyone else. She is however nice to an actual waiter when negotiating with two bank owners at a restaurant.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: To Dot. Lorraine makes no secret of her disapproval of Dot's marriage to Wayne and seeing Dot as an interloper and gold digger who isn't good enough for their family. She finally relents and accepts Dot after the events of the season.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Since her company owns a large chunk of America’s consumer debt, she has thousands of customers who would be willing to do her a favor in exchange for some financial relief.
- She has Danish select three debtors from North Dakota and pay them to change their names to Roy Tillman and enter the sheriff’s election debate.
- She’s able to get Indira to quit the police department and start working for her by reducing her debt and offering her a much larger salary.
- The last episode of the season shows that she can even do this to large numbers of inmates in the federal prison system.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: She's very classist, looking down on Dot as an interloper and gold digger and expressing disdain for the poor and working class.
- Rich Bitch: Very, very much so.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: She knows the chair of the SEC, and has six state governors on speed dial. And she is happy to use these personal connections to remove any legal obstacles that get in the way of her family or business interests.
- Episode 9 reveals that she is even able to call in favors from the President of the United States himself.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Lorraine softens on Dot significantly after learning she's not a gold digger out to long-con her and Wayne. She's particularly horrified after seeing pictures of the abuse Dot suffered at Roy’s hands.
- By the ninth episode, she seems to have grown a genuine affection for her daughter-in-law. She calls in her federal government connections to save Dot, and even calls her a "daughter of mine" while giving a pep talk on the phone.
- Thicker Than Water: Although she dislikes Dot and would rather have her out of her life, she refuses to hand her over to Roy Tillman.Lorraine: Listen, slick. Nothing would make me happier than to put that girl in a box marked "return to sender," between you and me, but she's married to my son, and he loves her, and she's the mother to my granddaughter, whom I'm fond of, so you need to put your big boy pants on and take the hit.
- Villain Respect: Her response to being called out on her behavior by Indira is to offer her a job on the spot.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: She talks in a posh Transatlantic accent, which one would only have if they were specifically taught to speak that way. It’s heavily implied she puts it on to project an image of strength, since her son ended up with a pretty heavy Minnesota accent.
Wink Lyon
Wink Lyon
Played By: Jan Bos
Lorraine's husband and Wayne's father.
- Breathless Non Sequitur: A lot of Wink’s dialogue is non sequiturs about topics ranging from World War 2 to Ballerinas.
- House Husband: He seems content with his hobbies at home, while Lorraine runs an enormous business.
- Manchild: Wink is seen playing with models, and not in a typical hobbyist way, but more like a kid playing war.
- Nice Guy: He's a bit useless, but rarely anything other than polite, friendly and accommodating.
Danish Graves
Danish Graves
"With all due respect, we've got our own reality."
Played By: Dave Foley
Lorraine Lyon's personal attorney.
- Amoral Attorney: He represents the Lyon family both professionally and personally and is concerned with what is good for the family and especially Lorraine legally over any other concerns. He is even willing to slap Wayne on her behalf when ordered as part of his legal duties, though he is clearly uncomfortable doing it.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Roy kills him for sabotaging his electoral debate and trying to bribe him into releasing Dot.
- The Consigliere: Danish serves as Lorraine's legal majordomo, doing her dirty work in court (and sometimes elsewhere, such as slapping Wayne at Lorraine's command).
- Death by Pragmatism: Danish dies because he knew he could offer Roy a deal that only an idiot would reject. He decides to go in alone at least partially because he believed waiting could cost Dorothy her life. With Roy’s election all but lost and Danish holding all the cards from a legal standpoint, a rational Dirty Cop would be willing to play ball and free her to try and preserve his power. Unfortunately for Danish, Roy Tillman is not a rational man, especially when it comes to Dorothy.
- Disposing of a Body: After Roy kills him, his body is thrown down a well, which is presumably where Roy disposes of his other victims.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite his aforementioned immorality, even he seems concerned when Witt informs him that Roy has taken Dot captive and that she may be in grave danger. His decision not to inform Lorraine of this also implies that he doesn’t trust her to do the right thing in this case. Unfortunately, it’s these standards that get him killed.
- Eyepatch of Power: He sports one over his right eye.
- Nice to the Waiter: He throws a tantrum when a guard on the Lyon property asks him to display ID during a full security lockdown, berating the guard for doing his job.
- Omnidisciplinary Lawyer: His legal specialization seems to be, “whatever Lorraine needs at the moment”. Over the course of the series he handles everything from contract and business law, to filling change of name forms, criminal defense, and election law.
- Tragic Mistake: His decision to go off on his own without backup to negotiate with Roy is born out of a sincere belief that he has an offer Roy cannot refuse and delaying might end up killing Dorothy. The show lingers multiple times on him deciding not to inform Lorraine of what he is doing, which ultimately means that there's no one outside the Tillman ranch who knows he was there when he is murdered.
- Too Dumb to Live: After sabotaging Roy's debate, he decides to visit Roy at the ranch and tries bribing him into returning Dot, thinking that Roy is someone who cares more about his reelection campaign than about Dot. Roy promptly shoots him dead on the spot and disposes of his body.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He knows Roy Tillman is an immature manchild who will throw a public tantrum from being imitated on stage, but also believes that he cares more about his election than keeping Dot prisoner, and thinks Lorraine hates Dot enough to not care about her imprisonment. These two bad calls lead him to head directly to the Tillman ranch to negotiate Dot's release without calling Lorraine first, which ends in Roy killing him and disposing of his body.
Jerome
Jerome
Played By: Kudjo Fiakpui
Lorraine’s other right hand man and assistant.
- Affably Evil: He serves as Lorraine’s right hand man and oversees much of the work of running a predator debt collection agency. He's also friendly enough to politely keep Scotty company while Lorraine and Dot talk shop.
- The Consigliere: Shares this role with Danish, and later with Indira after her hiring and Danish’s death. He’s even the one Lorraine tasks with contacting the president.
