Characters / The Knick

Dr. John W. Thackery

"'Played By:"' Clive Owen

A gifted doctor who seeks to push the advances of science and medicine. Is addicted to Cocaine, which has disastrous consequences

Tropes:

• Archnemesis Dad: He recalls his father as a violent, mean drunk that he found morally repugnant.
• Broken Ace: A gifted surgeon but a deeply messed up individual
• Byronic Hero: Handsome, implied from a wealthy background, addicted to drugs, likes to use sex to cope as well, tormented by his job, but deeply noble and dedicated. He checks nearly all the boxes.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even before he accepts Edwards he's genuinely disgusted when Bunky Collier threatens to kill Edwards and string him up.
• Establishing Character Moment: He gives a speech at his mentor's funeral in the first episode where, despite his clear grief, he maintains that the medical cause is worthwhile and that every bit of life they give to their patients and snatch from death is worth the struggle.
• For Science!: His only real desire is advancing medical science, with everything else being either a help or hindrance.
• Functional Addict: As long as he can shoot up, he’s a superman who can research all night and work all day. But without it, he’s in real trouble.
• Hates Everyone Equally: He's eventually revealed as this, as while he's irritated by having to allow a black doctor in, that was merely because he didn't want to spend time navigating the politics of it. When Edwards turns out to be an asset in advancing medical science, he warms to him considerably and becomes his ardent defender.
• Hookers and Blow: He spends his nights at a Chinatown cathouse smoking opium and sleeping with prostitutes, though we never see the latter.
• Married to the Job: It’s shown via flashback that he frankly loves doing what he wants so much that he can’t ever really be a good partner.
• Pet the Dog: While he's definitely a cokehead, he also doesn't hesitate to give up the last of his stash when they run out during a crisis and need anaesthetic for surgeries. He may be an addict, but he still won't put his own needs above that of a patient's.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He implies that his drug use is in part compelled by the shocking things he sees, alongside regular reasons for addiction.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: As Clive Owen's characters usually are.

Dr. Algernon C. Edwards

An African-American surgeon with an extremely impressive resumé who returns from a career in Europe in the first episode. Despite some struggle, he is hired as the new assistant head of surgery at the Knick, and he immediately begins changing its ways for the better, as well as starting a secret free clinic in the basement for African-Americans who can't get quality treatment at regular hospitals. Decisive, strong, and strategic, Edwards reflects both the success of the medical practice and the struggles it faces on a social level.

Tropes:

• Cool Teacher: Begins teaching people how to be assistants in his free clinic, and has both an eye for talent and the skill to keep it growing.
• Fish out of Water: He implies that he's been being treated much more respectfully in Europe and is once again getting re-acquainted with the American attitudes towards black people.
• Humble Hero: His parents were servants in the Robertsons' home, working as a maid and a footman, respectively.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: While he's impeccably polite, when a man in his boarding house properly messes with him and doesn't seem capable of backing off, he decisively punches him out. And then drops some medicine on his limp body. He's later seen in more than one bar fight, and seems to have had training as an amateur boxer, good enough to tangle with a pro briefly, even if he loses.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: While this is de riguer for doctors of the time, Edwards' suits are especially nice and perfectly arranged, and he looks good in them.

Cornelia Robertson

The adult daughter of the very wealthy Robertson family, and their representative on the Knick's board of directors. While she often irritates Thack with whatever she insists on, she has a genuine passion for medicine and can provide funds and connections no one else can.

Tropes:

• Daddy's Girl: Her father is very fond of her without being overbearing, and early episodes often start with them having breakfast.
• Establishing Character Moment: In the first episode, she's been established as uber-privileged and naive-seeming, and seems about to make a huge mistake telling a child that her mother is now dying from her illness. But she manages to navigate the situation very well, communicate to the mother what she needs to know, and avoid upsetting the child with this news all by herself, all with warmth and sincerity. She may not know everything about how hospitals work, but she knows what matters.
• Spoiled Sweet: Genuinely. Having to work with as diverse a crowd as the Knick and its patients seems to dispel this quick anyway.

Herman Barrow

The manager of the Knick, responsible for mundane day-to-day administration and maintenance. While he's not involved in the medical field personally, he's managed to complicate his life by stealing funds from the hospital, getting in debt to the mob, having a spendthrift wife, and carrying on an affair with a callgirl. And we see that while his role is comparatively mundane, it has BIG effects on what happens to the patients...

Tropes:

• The Tooth Hurts: Gets one of his teeth pulled out in the second episode because of his gambling debts.
• Token Evil Teammate: He's probably the most straightforwardly dickish of the group with the least excuse for being that way. Most of his moves simply seem to be about digging himself out of the mess his stupid ways got him into.

Dr. Betram "Bertie" Chickering Jr.

The youngest surgeon in attendance at the Knick, Bertie is the son of a wealthy doctor himself, and is currently stuck between the chance to keep working with Thack and the chance to make more steady money working at his father's practice.

Tropes:

• Deadpan Snarker: Has a touch of this.
• The Heart: Everyone likes him, and most of his conflict is simply built around people disagreeing about what’s best for him.
• Romantic Runner-Up: Harbors a crush on Lucy Elkins and asks her out more than once in the first season, but it becomes clear she’s more interested in his mentor Thackery.
• Token Good Teammate: He’s the nicest and most happy doctor on the team and the one most likely to make up for whatever dickishness the others have done that episode.

Tom Cleary

One of the boys in charge of the ambulance at the Knick. While he's a bit of a huckster, he proves himself an important asset in the hospital doing its job.

Tropes:

• Big Fun: Perpetually good-humored, especially at the bar.
• The Big Guy: Six foot two, big-bellied, and muscular, capable of winning bar scrapes and street fights and more.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was an orphan raised in a particularly harsh Catholic orphanage. Amongst other things, he was beaten ruthlessly for being left-handed, since an old Christian tradition holds that being left-handed is sinful.
• Fighting Irish: Has a pronounced Irish accent and is clearly proud of it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He’s rough and a huckster, but he’s ultimately courageous and loyal and can change his mind on things.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: By his own admission. An ambo run where he picks up a girl dying of a botched self-inflicted abortion ends up being especially shaking:

  Cleary: I have seen … some crazy bad shit sister, but the look in that girl’s eyes. The terror. That was too much. Even for me.

• Those Two Guys: Eventually forms this with Sister Harriet.

Sister Harriet

One of the nuns that assists in providing conventional care to customers, Sister Harriet is canny, tough, and dedicated to medical care. We also soon learn that she's a clandestine abortionist, offering her services to women who need it. Through her we see the convergence of religion, medicine, women's needs, and Irishness in this place and time.

Tropes:

• Back-Alley Doctor: Her abortionist services. In this case, though, she tends to visit women in their homes and administer the treatment there, though typically late at night.
• Badass Preacher: Serves this function.
• Deadpan Snarker: Very sharp and willing to mix it up, especially with Leary.
• Everyone Has Standards: Refuses to administer an abortion to a woman seven months pregnant as she can feel it kicking, although this is also a case of medical necessity.
• Fighting Irish: Has an Irish accent and doesn’t take any crap.
• The Heart: Everyone seems to like her, and everyone would mourn her absence.
• Rules Lawyer: Invoked during the race riot. She organizes the colored people behind her and then walks out holding a cross, warning that anyone who touches them is going straight to hell via her authority. It works very well.
• Those Two Guys: Eventually forms this with Leary.

Nurse Lucy Elkins

A new nurse at the start of the series, Nurse Elkins proves to be a trusty and capable assistant during surgeries and crises, and finds herself attracted to chief of surgery Dr. Thack.

Tropes:

• Country Mouse: From rural Virginia, and speaks with a slight country accent.
• Love Cannot Overcome: The outcome of her romance with Thack.
• Nice Girl: Restrained, but ultimately quite compassionate.
• Their First Time: Loses her virginity to Thack after a day of saving lives, and while their romance doesn’t end perfectly, the experience itself seems to have been positive.

Dr. Everett Gallinger

"'Played By:"' Eric Johnson (Actor)

The man who was originally going to be deputy head of surgeon before Edwards got the job. While he first seems like a reliable Number Two to Thack, being passed over for promotion for Edwards ends up inciting a nasty chain of incidents that see his life spiral out of control.

Tropes:

• Butt-Monkey: For Season 1. Virtually everything he cares about is stripped away in the course of two months.

  Thack: Take a few days. Go home.

  Everett: Go home to what!?

• Dr. Jerk: Lacks the dedication of Thack, the friendliness of Bertie, or the suaveness of Edwards. His family seems to have been the nicest thing about him, and he loses that quite quickly.
• Evil Is Petty: In an early episode, he ends up stealing a copy of a paper Edwards wrote just to avoid having to ask him for help on something.
• Green-Eyed Monster: While the causes of his problems are numerous, he ends up fixating on Edwards as their cause, as everything truly did start spiraling the day he got the job over him.
• Jerkass: Possibly the biggest one aside from Barrow, although at least he suffers a lot too.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Is the most comfortable being racist in the main cast. When pushed, he drops the N-word quite easily, and he ends up being an early proponent of eugenics.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ends up infecting his daughter with meningitis because he picked up a clipboard next to a meningitis patient and brushed one of his injuries with one finger, picking off a spot of dried blood. He then briefly put that finger in his daughter's mouth while holding her, and that was all it needed. Doubly gut-wrenching because the hospital KNOWS about germ theory, and he'd definitely have washed up if he'd noticed it was there.

Jacob Speight

A health department inspector who works for the knick. Slick, slimy, and incisive, he reflects both the newness of the health department and its high utility in preventing disease.

Tropes:

• Corrupt Cop: He's first seen extorting a landlord for bribes to avoid being booked for his homes not meeting code. However, he turns out to be fairly capable of doing his job despite that.
• Inspector Javert: Ends up being the officer pursuing the Mary Mallon case, AKA the Typhoid Mary case. While he's a bit aggressive in his language towards her, in this case he is actually correct about her being a danger.

Eleanor Gallinger

The sweet young wife of Dr. Everett Gallinger. Over the course of the first season, her life spirals out of control alongside Everett's, and she ends up with a mental disorder. Through her, we see the state of mental health medicine in the year 1900.

Tropes:

• Butt-Monkey: No one in the series suffers more pain for less reason than her.
• Cunning Linguist: Is first introduced trying to translate a medical paper written in French for her husband. However, she points out the French she knows is about coffee orders and social events, not ligations and hernias and hemorrhages. As anyone training their profession in another language will tell you, even seasoned bilingual speakers won't understand advanced technical jargon off the bat.
• Death of a Child: Her poor baby ends up dying from meningitis because her husband brushed a patient's arm with one finger while picking up a clipboard and then later put that finger in his baby's mouth for one second while holding her.
• It's All My Fault: Is hit very hard by her baby's death and ends up turning her blame inward. Made worse, since she probably does so to avoid blaming her husband, who they know directly caused it.
• The Ophelia: After her baby dies, she seems to lose lucidity altogether, acting as if the baby is still alive and her still caring for it.
• Nice Girl: Deconstructed. Her pathological unwillingness to be even a little angry with her husband for something that was his fault leads to her blaming herself in an insane way. If she'd been able to express her anger healthily, she might not have spiraled. But she wasn't.
• Spoiled Sweet: Though she seems to be an upper-class daughter of privilege, when first seen she's very sweet with her somewhat gruff husband and genuinely selfless when it comes to helping him succeed.
• The Woobie: You'll be weeping over her by the time the first season is done.