Minor characters: The Things in Appalachia¶

Minor characters of The Things in Appalachia: the one-scene locals, bystanders, handlers and passing voices who do not have pages of their own.

Angie¶

Angie is the youngest wife of Covenant prophet Elijah Ray. Primenthol Greengrass tells the team she is about twenty-five now, and that she married Elijah at twenty when he was thirty-eight. She is only ever mentioned, and Huell writes down the age gap with a skeptical face. (Appalachia 02)

Apollo's Dry Cleaners Owner¶

The owner of Apollo's Dry Cleaners is embarrassed that the latch on his storage-area double doors had been broken for months. He reimbursed Derek Edwards $100 when the Chewbacca costume Derek had left for cleaning vanished. Shown the dead man's photograph, he recognizes an out-of-town drifter who loitered nearby, sometimes talking on a walkie-talkie, and guesses he was staying at the Motel and Suites. He also offers to clean the blood off Andrew's Bigfoot T-shirt. (Appalachia 06)

Ben¶

Ben is a Spud Hut distribution-center worker who covered the shift of his missing co-worker Aaron Richters along with Edward Nick Sr. The plant needs a three-person crew to service its machinery, so the loss of one man strains the other two. Ben is only mentioned, at the Nicks' dinner table. (Appalachia 02)

Bigfoot Hunters' Redhead¶

A redheaded member of the Circle Chasers films the team's first meeting with the group on a camcorder, telling them to "pretend like I'm not here." Her filming makes Andrew uneasy. In Appalachia 02 a red-haired woman with a camcorder leads the group out of the woods, and Delilah is the one who plays back the footage. (Appalachia 01, Appalachia 02)

Cab Driver¶

A kindly Dahlonega cabbie picks up the bloody, pajama-clad Andrew at dawn after his sleepwalk and assumes "girl trouble." He lays a stained vomit towel on the seat, offers Neosporin and a first-aid kit from his trunk, and drives Andrew to the Smith Hotel for free. When Andrew claims to be an FBI agent, the driver answers with two skeptical thumbs up. (Appalachia 03)

Carlos¶

Carlos is the man who answers the phone when Kurt calls Derek Edwards, the photographer. He gives his name and says he is a friend of Mr. Edwards. (Appalachia 06)

Cartwright (tegu)¶

Cartwright is the very large, fat tegu lizard that climbs Huell's leg when he visits Donald McManley's reptile-filled cottage. McManley warns Huell, "Watch out, Cartwright might come for ya." The name is also the surname of the missing boy Gene Cartwright. The tegu shares the cottage with other lizards and tortoises. (Appalachia 01)

Charlene¶

Charlene is the big-haired, sheepish receptionist at the Spud Hut corporate plant. She first takes the team for reporters, then unlocks the door at the sheriff's urging because "a man exploded today." She explains the fishy smell as the new special taco sauce, recites the "never touched by human hands" guarantee, and leads the team through corridors of potato sacks to her boss, Jan Martense. (Appalachia 08)

Charlie Briggs¶

"Charlie" (Charles) Briggs is the credited photographer of the grainy Bigfoot photograph in the Dahlonega Times, rated by Kurt about "50th percentile" for fakery. No contact details are printed. Appalachia 06 names the photographer of the Gold Bug's Bigfoot photos as Derek Edwards, and the episodes never reconcile the two names. (Appalachia 02, Appalachia 06)

Clover¶

Clover is a shy young Covenant woman in Auraria, roughly Willow Greengrass's peer, who agrees to talk to Kurt as an equal even though she says the team should see Elijah Ray. She tells them Willow had a yeast infection, was sent by Elijah to scout peach orchards, and fought with her sister. She blames the river runoff from the Spud Hut plant for the camp's frequent infections, and she is unmoved by Kurt's women's-shelter cards ("We're getting a boiler"). (Appalachia 04)

Clyde Harvard¶

Clyde Harvard is a complaining Spud Hut accountant who knew about Jan Martense's mine. When Kurt interviews Jan at the Omaha black site, Jan dismisses him ("Fuck him") and names him as the only other insider who might have leaked. His whereabouts are never given. (Walkers 01)

Cold-open Spud Hut Worker¶

The unnamed Spud Hut employee of the second cold open wears a gray jumpsuit and safety glasses and steps outside for a smoke break. He follows baby-like sobbing into a rocky fissure, finds an ancient pickaxe in the sand and raises it before something perched in the crevice attacks him. His smoke break matches the disappearance of Aaron Richters, which Edward Nick Sr. reports later in the same episode. (Appalachia 02)

Congressman Bradley¶

Congressman Bradley chairs the House subcommittee investigating the Marblehead incident. He is polite but probing, pressing Kurt about the worms in the communion wine, the anthelmintic compound, a gap in testimony before the power plant attack, and a road stop off a highway. Big Bill has the last two questions struck on national-security grounds, and Bradley ends the session. See also the House Subcommittee. (Appalachia 01)

Consolidated Gold Mine Tour Guide¶

The old, bearded, suspendered guide of the Consolidated Gold Mine appears in the third cold open, showing visitors gold glints in the rock and warning that sealed shafts have already cost "a couple people." After the search for Frederick he turns out to be the mine's owner, and he doubts that anyone could mine in secret beneath his property, comparing it to "building the Batcave." Andrew's cult theory darkens the sheriff's face, not the guide's. (Appalachia 03)

Cowboy-hat Man¶

Huell glimpses a laughing man in a big cowboy hat and dark sunglasses entering the room next door to the team at the Smith Hotel, and finds him oddly familiar for a split second. He is one of the guests of the mysterious room 111 party. His identity is never established. (Appalachia 03)

Curly-haired Blonde Woman¶

This chatty woman in a bathrobe lives in the room next to the team. She sees a bloodied Andrew in the hall and asks "Are you okay, honey?" before a suited man steers her back inside. Her allegiance is never established. (Appalachia 03)

Dahlonega Deputies¶

The sheriff's deputies who staff the search of the Consolidated Gold Mine are uneasy about caves and greet the dishevelled team with "My lord, what happened?" Earlier, Sheriff Burke admits his deputies should have looked up into the trees where Gene Cartwright's shoe was hung. They are part of the Dahlonega Sheriff's Department. (Appalachia 02, Appalachia 03)

Daniel Boys¶

The Daniel boys are rowdy local hunters, called "river people" or "water people," blamed for the drunken hunting accidents Mrs. Nick and Frotter Comstock describe. Kurt and Zack's table treats "water people" as a running term for them. They are only ever mentioned. (Appalachia 02)

Dr. Arthur¶

Dr. Arthur is Andrew Howard's childhood family doctor and a fellow member of the cult in which Andrew was raised. He works from a home office full of beaded curtains and incense haze, calls Andrew "boy" and "son," and runs blood tests in-house. He explains that ritual healing is a higher power acting through the healer, with backlash: his own testicle retracted after he healed a broken leg. He recommends tampons for Andrew's nosebleeds and offers a meditation seminar in a couple of weeks. (Appalachia 01)

Edward Nick Sr.¶

Edward Nick Sr. is a Spud Hut distribution-center worker and the father of the child witness Edward Nick. He arrives at dinner in gray coveralls, exhausted, to report that his co-worker Aaron left on a smoke break and never returned. He recalls that the last federal agents in the area were ATF, after moonshiners, and that a man lost an arm in the plant's gears last year. (Appalachia 02)

Eric¶

Eric is the teenage counter worker at the Dahlonega McDonald's who fears the store will close and he will be fired. He once tried a trial shift at the Spud Hut plant ("too many frickin' potatoes") and recommends Stigley's Pub and the original Spud Hut to the team. (Appalachia 01)

FBI Translator¶

An unnamed German translator is patched into the sheriff's station break-room speakerphone ("Guten Tag. I can begin whenever you're ready"). Through her, Frederick's mother tells the team what happened in the tunnels. She stays on the line to talk to the sheriff afterward. (Appalachia 04)

Fed-looking Man and Forest Ranger Woman¶

In the Smith Hotel parking lot, a van-life camper and a shiny black Ford truck have a fender bender. The truck's driver looks like a fed, in black sunglasses and suit with a clipboard, and the camper's driver wears a forest-ranger uniform. They swap insurance details while the team watches without approaching, and nothing further is learned about them. (Appalachia 04)

Frederick's Mother¶

The mother of the missing German boy Frederick is first glimpsed in the cold open with a disposable wind-up camera at the front of the Consolidated Gold Mine tour. Later she screams in tears when the team produces her son's shoe. Interviewed by speakerphone, she says Frederick was playing his video game in the "American gold tunnels," that she heard a clatter but no scream, and that he was gone when she turned the corner. (Appalachia 03, Appalachia 04)

Gary Oldman and Patti Smith¶

Gary Oldman, who is billed to talk about Dracula, and musical guest Patti Smith are the other announced guests on the night the Biz appears on Late Night with David Letterman. Oldman's cancellation opens the slot for the Biz, who is sweating through his makeup. (Walkers 01)

Gold Bug Woman¶

An older, pinched newspaper employee at the Gold Bug produces a dusty Rolodex and identifies the photographer of the Bigfoot photos as Derek, with a bigoted remark about him that Andrew snaps back at. She lets Kurt phone Derek Edwards from her desk. The paper itself is described under Gold Bug. (Appalachia 06)

Hotel Breakfast Employee¶

A kid at the hotel's continental breakfast explains "pig tips" ("mostly the front end") among the "wonderful rainbow of pork products." Kurt takes three. (Appalachia 06)

Investigator¶

A chain-smoking man sits in his car at the Spud Hut corporate entrance, investigating the company. Kurt tells him in confidence that the wrecked truck held only dirt and that there has been tunnel activity, and the man guesses "Gold mining?" He salutes, mutters "What kind of Scooby-Doo-ass bullshit is going on in this town?", and warns that the Spud Hut executive is high-strung. It is never established whether he is the auditor of Appalachia 06. (Appalachia 08)

Jan's Bodyguards¶

Two unnamed bodyguards are the last members of the five-person ring behind the gold mining, alongside Jan Martense, the handler Clive and the mercenary who smelted the gold. They are never seen. Their fate is not stated. See Jan's Conspiracy. (Appalachia 09)

Jeff "Apple" Appleby¶

Jeff Appleby, nicknamed Apple, is an old Washington, D.C. drinking buddy and lawyer of the Biz, now newly appointed a federal judge. He pages the Biz and invites him to Las Vegas to celebrate. The Biz recalls talking him down from a Vegas rooftop and stopping him from vomiting off a casino. Appleby says Spud Hut's shrimp scampi once gave him food poisoning. (Appalachia 04)

Jenny Maxine¶

"Jenny Maxine" is the name, with several X's, on the Motel and Suites register for a scatological porn shoot with "gentleman friends." The clerk has barred her from returning and warns the team not to open the green garbage bag of her linens. She is never seen. (Appalachia 06)

Keith¶

At the end of Huell's visit, McManley says, "I should call Keith, too." Keith is never explained. In McManley's bathroom Huell notices a second toothbrush and razor in a cabinet, covered in a fine layer of dust. (Appalachia 01)

KGB Sweepstakes Contact¶

The old-sounding voice on the "Canada maple syrup sweepstakes line" is the Biz's handler. He offers the Biz $10,000 and information on the "Massachusetts matter" in exchange for the favor of planting a camera in room 111. Andre voices him as an old man who calls the Biz "sweetie". See KGB. (Appalachia 01)

Kurt's CIA Boss¶

A silent figure in a black suit and a tie covered in nautilus images sits at Kurt's House subcommittee testimony beside Big Bill. He is the man who gave Kurt the "alligator spiel." (Appalachia 01)

Marlene¶

Marlene is Jan Martense's secretary. In the ninth episode's cold open she warns that reporters are waiting, and Jan snaps "Not now, Marlene" before slipping out the back. (Appalachia 09)

Matthew Napolitano¶

Matthew Napolitano is an invented Italian hitman on the FBI's most-wanted list. Dante invokes him as a joke when Edward Nick's drawing of a crouching hairy figure is judged "dead accurate." He never appears in the story. (Appalachia 02)

McManley's Interns¶

McManley's interns are three teenagers who are trained to sort, bag and dust evidence in his RV lab. They ride a moped back to the RV after going through the dead drifter's trash, and later sweat through the Biz's drunken mock interrogation ("Which one of you was looking at Bill Clinton with a telescope?"). In the Walkers in Skin arc two interns are with McManley in the ambushed Suburban, one with a leg wound. See also McManley's RV and Donald McManley. (Appalachia 04, Appalachia 06, Appalachia 07, Walkers 08, Walkers 09)

Mr. Mitles¶

Mr. Mitles is the local Presbyterian preacher, of average size with a good bass preaching voice and one leg. Huell raises him with Mrs. Nick as a Bigfoot suspect and rules him out: "He only got the one leg." His name is of uncertain spelling. (Appalachia 02)

Omaha Desk Guard¶

The unnamed desk guard at CIA black site Omaha clears Kurt for four hours after he hands over a pack of ordinary cigarettes. Kurt later keeps a promise to Jan Martense by asking the guard for anti-suicide playing cards. (Walkers 01)

River¶

River is Willow Greengrass's close friend, a middle-aged Covenant woman with long dark hair who works the stills. She says Willow was upset because her sister kept pressing her to leave, that they had a big fight a couple of days before the disappearance, and that Elijah Ray discourages contact with family. She does not believe the sister is a murderer. (Appalachia 04)

Room 111 Booker¶

The man who booked room 111 of the Smith Hotel is never seen. The desk clerk describes him as armed, rude, Midwestern and military-looking, with short hair, and says he bribed the clerk $100 for silence. When the Biz hears the description he says, "That is him." See Room 111. (Appalachia 02)

Sarah Nick¶

Sarah Nick (called Mrs. Nick) is Edward Nick's mother, a welcoming, slightly anxious woman with long curly hair. She lets the team in after Kurt says "We're with the Federales," offers tuna green bean casserole, and points them to the bent tree where Gene was last seen. She doubts a bear was responsible and calls the Covenant "heebie-jeebies." (Appalachia 02)

Spud Hut Corporate Auditor¶

A financial auditor from Spud Hut Corporate has been following the team. When Kurt calls him, he meets them at the Spud Hut for lunch and pays, remarking that the case is "more cloak-and-dagger than I'm accustomed to." He does not recognize the dead drifter and says he is not on the employee list. It is never established whether he is the same man as the investigator of Appalachia 08. (Appalachia 06)

Spud Hut Truck Driver¶

The heavyset driver of the seventh cold open eats a congealing hamburger to "Radar Love," with a mustard-stained photo of a blonde on his dash. Something enters through the rear window; he reaches for the Glock under his seat and misses. At the crash site the cab holds blood on every surface, eight gunshots and no body. He is the victim of the Thing That Attacked the Spud Hut Truck. (Appalachia 07, Appalachia 08)

Stacy¶

Stacy is the phone worker at the Spud Hut Regional Distribution Center who jokes about "hunting season." She verifies Andrew's badge by phoning the FBI (about eight minutes), then reports that Aaron Richters did not clock out the day before and has about nine unexcused absences in two years. She offers to connect him to Jan. (Appalachia 03)

Stony Covenant Man¶

At the Auraria community center, Kurt and Huell needle a stony young Covenant man with talk of cheeseburgers and stuffed-crust pizza until he storms off, chanting Latin and calling it "devil talk." See The Covenant. (Appalachia 04)

String Bean¶

String Bean is the absent sheriff's deputy, away with family troubles, whose spare uniform from the trunk of the sheriff's car becomes Andrew's disguise at Spud Hut Corporate. Andrew recites his exact measurements while changing behind the car. The uniform is wrecked in the fight beneath the plant. (Appalachia 08)

Suited Man with Military Haircut¶

In the Smith Hotel hall, a suited man with a military haircut whispers to the bathrobed woman, steers her into the next-door room and glares at Andrew. He is one of the "scary guys" the desk clerk mentions, and it is never established whether he is the man who booked room 111. (Appalachia 03)

Unnamed Homeless Man¶

At the Biz's old park bench, a homeless man retrieves the KGB dead-drop bag for about $50, returning in fifteen minutes with it taped and unopened. He is honest about wanting to open it, propositions the Biz ("I won't kiss you, but I'm game"), and says he will spend the money on heroin. (Appalachia 01)

Walter Sellers¶

Walter Sellers is a regional-level bodybuilder and football player whom Sheriff Burke names as the strongest man in town: "ain't too bright, but strong as hell." The team never meets him. (Appalachia 04)