Orla McCool

Orla is Erin's cousin and one of the gang at Our Lady Immaculate College, drifting through Derry's chaos on her own strange wavelength. She practices moonwalking in the girls' toilets, answers questions nobody asked, and seems only loosely tethered to whatever conversation is actually happening around her.

Orla could easily be a one-joke weirdo, but Louisa Harland plays her with total sincerity, never winking at the camera, which is exactly why the strangeness lands. She's given the show's most surreal beats — a funeral eulogy, a talent show routine — and treats each with the same guileless commitment, becoming the most purely joyful presence in the group.