Gillian Darmody

Gillian Darmody drifts through Atlantic City's high life on the arm of powerful men, beautiful and precise in every gesture. She is Jimmy's mother, still young herself, and treats her son's return from the war as both a joy and a complication to manage. Charm comes easily to her; so does calculation.

Gretchen Mol plays her like glass over wire—soft voice, wide eyes, and underneath it a will that never stops working. The writing lets you mistake her fragility for the whole story before slowly revealing how much of it is armor. You watch her and keep revising what you think she wants.