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Big Bill

Big Bill Nelson is the senior FBI official to whom Andrew Howard reports, and the superior who shields, scolds and cleans up after the Paranatural Incident Task Force from its founding until he is forced out in January 1993.
Type NPC
Aliases Big Bill Nelson; Nelson; Bill
Affiliation FBI; head of the Foreign Influence Task Force
Status Alive; fired (as of Roulet Estate 03)
First appearance Radford Horror 01 (named); Summer Service 03 (heard)
Played by Andre

Description

Big Bill is heard far more often than he is seen: for most of the campaign he is a voice on a payphone or a number on a pager. When he finally walks into the office he proves to be about six foot seven, heavy and middle-aged. (Roulet Estate 01)

On the phone he is skeptical but quick, gruff but protective of his agents, and by his own account fine with being called "Sir." Andrew considers him the one person in his chain of command who is "actually intimidating." As the 1992 election approaches he sounds increasingly stressed and weary, and his last appearance is warm but defeated. (Summer Service 03, Summer Service 04, Walkers 04, Walkers 06, Roulet Estate 01)

He is married; his wife appears only in one cold open, asking what "they" want in the middle of the night. He has an unnamed male secretary. (Summer Service 06, Summer Service 03)

Position

Big Bill is the head of the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force, which became the parent of Andrew's team "since it was determined that alien visitations are foreign by definition." Andre later calls it "the umbrella organization of the task force." Big Bill has "a lot of sway within the FBI." (Summer Service 03, Appalachia 07)

The chain of command given at the task force's founding runs from Andrew to Big Bill, then to Deputy Director Floyd Clark, then to President George H. W. Bush, which puts the agents "three levels down from the president." Roulet Estate 02 instead has him working directly under the FBI Director. Reports on the team's cases are code-word classified SKYHOOK, and the full version of each goes to Big Bill. (Radford Horror 01, Summer Service 03, Appalachia 01, Roulet Estate 02)

History

The Radford Horror

Big Bill is named, but never seen, when the task force is set up. His one standing instruction is that anything unusual the team finds goes up the chain of command, which Andrew takes to mean "tell your boss first." (Radford Horror 01, Radford Horror 05)

Among the burned papers taken from Agent Murphy (Murphy's briefcase and documents) is a fragment reading "…ig Bill," which Kurt guesses is "Big Bill." Nothing more comes of it. (Radford Horror 04)

The Summer Service

Big Bill speaks for the first time when Andrew briefs him by phone from Marblehead on the dive, the stealth wreck and its capacitor turret, the humming lit vessel (the angel thing), the Sons of Adam, the crystal marbles and the communion wine. He treats it as a counterintelligence matter, says he will take it to the Oval Office and try for a Navy submarine survey, promises Andrew he will be the first to know if they find a big squid, and orders the team to find the missing EPA/USGS survey team before the National Guard arrives. His secretary later takes Kurt Larson's request to have Jordan Gramoire assigned to the deployment. (Summer Service 03)

The next day he reports that a Los Angeles-class attack submarine has been retasked and is hours away, while the Guard is delayed by washed-out roads. Andrew tells him the wine is full of worms; Kurt, shivering, admits to "chicken pox and nerve agent and worms." Big Bill's order is to keep Larson alive. (Summer Service 04)

During the siege of the hotel he cannot be reached, and the switchboard can only promise to wake him. (Summer Service 05)

The finale opens on him: a phone rings in a dark bedroom and he tells his wife he has to go to work. At the end he is fifteen miles from Marblehead behind roads four feet under water, waiting for a boat, after two days stuck in mud with a convoy. He confirms that a submarine was lost and orders that the true purpose of Andrew's task force stay out of everything but the classified report. The public explanation is to be "terrorists" (see Terrorist cover story). (Summer Service 06)

The Things in Appalachia

In October 1992 Big Bill sits beside Kurt at a House subcommittee hearing on Marblehead and has two of the chairman's questions struck on national-security grounds. He then sends Huell Kendrick, on his day off, to check on Donald McManley. (Appalachia 01)

Once the Georgia case turns out to involve the Covenant, he relays through McManley that it must be handled strictly by the book, with warrants, paperwork and clean hands, because of Ruby Ridge and "that thing in Marblehead." (Appalachia 03)

When the Clinton surveillance scandal breaks, every pager on the team shows his number. He berates Andrew, demands an inventory of men and equipment and an itinerary by fax, does not want to hear about bears, and is told the body count. He orders silence and says he will brief the President and fly down. His later pages go unanswered because the phones at the Spud Hut distribution center are down; Rita says the next call from him is Andrew's main worry. (Appalachia 07, Appalachia 08)

The Walkers in Skin

Big Bill gives Andrew several hard refusals to share his ape-man photographs with fandom contacts, then approves the Utah trip and its airfare: it is Andrew's task force. The players read the approval as a wish to get the team out of the public eye days before the election, as with Georgia. He phones ahead to the FBI Salt Lake City field office. (Walkers 01, Walkers 02)

When a judge with religious objections refuses the exhumation of Shelly Wilmarth, Andrew calls Big Bill, who talks to the judge for twenty minutes and leaves him shaken and compliant. Later, at Kurt's request and with reluctance about one more complication on top of "the political stuff," he puts the Utah National Guard on standby. (Walkers 04, Walkers 06)

The Roulet Estate

A flashback shows the aftermath in Roosevelt. The agents send word up the chain of a government cover-up, and Big Bill flies in because at least fifty or sixty Guardsmen are dead. His debrief begins apoplectic and works its way down. He then builds the public story: a radical domestic insurgency, a cult compound beneath the community center, and a Jonestown-style killing when investigators arrived. (Roulet Estate 01)

On Christmas Eve 1992 he visits the PITF office in person, eats two biscochitos and half a gingerbread man, and delivers the news. President-elect Ross Perot believes the task force was a cover for Bush's use of the FBI against political enemies; Perot has asked Bill to resign, will disband and reassign the task force on Inauguration Day, and is forming his own. He hands Andrew a padded envelope from an FBI courier, pockets three more cookies and leaves. (Roulet Estate 01)

On Inauguration Day he is due to be fired and does not pick up when Andrew calls from Rhode Island. Afterward he is confirmed fired, and Andrew, seen as his "pet," is kept on desk duty. (Roulet Estate 02, Roulet Estate 03)

Relationships

Memorable quotes

Quote

"Sir's fine." Andre (as Big Bill) (Summer Service 03)

Quote

"The last time I heard most of the words you just said was back when Reagan's Star Wars proposal was still being pretty heavily discussed." Andre (as Big Bill) (Summer Service 03)

Quote

"I have to go into work. The Protestants are trying to kill my detectives." Andre (as Big Bill) (Summer Service 06)

Quote

"Howard, I do not care about the bears." Andre (as Big Bill) (Appalachia 07)

Quote

"Howard, don't fuck this up." Andre (as Big Bill) (Appalachia 07)

Trivia

  • His surname, Nelson, is spoken only in The Radford Horror and The Summer Service, where he answers the phone as "Big Bill Nelson" or "Nelson here." From The Things in Appalachia onward he is only ever "Big Bill." (Radford Horror 01, Summer Service 03, Summer Service 06)
  • "The Protestants" in his cold-open line are evidently the armed Sons of Adam congregation besieging the team's hotel. (Summer Service 06)
  • At the end of his call with Kurt about the National Guard he signs off "Do your best, Howard." (Walkers 06)
  • The ape-man Big Bob is briefly misnamed "Big Bill" at the table and corrected. (Appalachia 09)
  • By his count there are only four FBI officers in Georgia, which is why a state police claim of FBI surveillance in Dahlonega points straight at Andrew's team. (Appalachia 07)
  • He promised to fly down to Dahlonega, but the arc's finale, Appalachia 10, was never recorded, and no later episode says whether he arrived.

Appearances