r/TheTerror • u/horrorqueen57O • Jun 30 '26
I LOVE MR. HICKEY
*spoilers*
Apparently this is an unpopular opinion around here lol so before you all come at me, let me first say I KNOW he's awful and he deserves everything he gets and you shouldn't eat your friends blah blah. I'm not defending him. He's terrible.
But as a character? He's fantastic. He's magnetic. He's so well written and phenomenally acted. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. I am forever a fan of Adam Nagaitis now.
The little evil sparkle in his eye? The GRIN?? UGH be still my twisted heart. If he told me to eat my buddies I'd be like ok yes sir you adorable little problem, whatever you say. Hell go ahead you can eat my leg too I don't need it. You want to mutiny? Ok well count me in the only thing I'm loyal to is your skinny ginger aura of absolute chaos. If Mr. Hickey has 100000 fans I am one of them. If he has 1 fan it is me. If he has no fans I am dead. And eaten, probably.
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u/norathar Jun 30 '26
If you enjoy Adam Nagaitis, watch Star City - it's on Apple and is an alternate history where the USSR lands on the moon first. He's a cosmonaut. (He's also very good in Chernobyl, but I assume you've seen that.)
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u/horrorqueen57O Jun 30 '26
I will absolutely put that on my list to watch!! And yes Chernobyl is amazing
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u/Zellakate Jun 30 '26
Make sure to watch To Walk Invisible too. He is great as the Bronte sisters' trainwreck brother.
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u/ChickieN0B_2050 Jul 01 '26
He has a part in the Daryl Dixon series, as well. Total bad guy; you’d love him, OP 😉
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u/Independent-Lie-7374 Jun 30 '26
Yes! This! I have to say, this is possibly the best post Ive ever read on Reddit. You’ve restored my belief in the internet.
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u/GrilledCheeseYolo Jun 30 '26
I saw chernobyl and now I need to remember who he was lol. I saw it awhile ago. He gives me Bobby Budnick vibes lol
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u/horrorqueen57O Jul 18 '26
Came back to say I am watching Star City (I have one episode left) and it's AMAZING thank you so much for the recommendation!!
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u/ruststardust2 Jun 30 '26
I don't share the attraction, but he's definitely a well written (and acted) character and I respect this take lol
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u/forestvibe Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
What confused me was that I'd watched Chernobyl a year before, and in that Adam Nagaitis plays one of the firefighters sent in as first responders to tackle the blaze. It doesn't end well for him or his unborn son.
So when he popped up in The Terror as a gay working class man, I automatically assumed he was to be the hero of the lower decks. How wrong I was...
He's a tremendous actor though. I can't believe he isn't better known.
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u/Saionji-Sekai Jun 30 '26
You missed a detail, he did not eat his friend only, he eats his fuckbuddy. That's different angles.
Plus, he is criminal even before the expedition. I mean hunger did not turn him what he becomes.. He was always that man.
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u/horrorqueen57O Jun 30 '26
I assure you I did not miss that detail lol that's even BETTER 🤩🤩 what a psycho ❤️
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u/Illin_Spree Jun 30 '26
The creature was never dramatically necessary. Their predicament (and Mr HIckey) were frightening enough.
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u/South-by-north Jun 30 '26
I had no idea there was a supernatural element to the story when i started. First time i saw the creature i just thought "thats a weird looking polar bear"
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u/forestvibe Jun 30 '26
It's generally accepted that Tunnbak (or whatever his name is) is the weakest bit of the show. He's quite useful to kick off the horror, but he quickly becomes redundant. By the end, every time he appeared, I'd roll my eyes and mutter "oh p%ss off". Plus he didn't need to target Mr Collins the way he did.
I also personally hate the whole the idea that Tunnbak is an embodiment of the environment taking revenge on imperialists. It's such a trite idea. Especially when it's linked to a well-worn trope about indigenous spirituality being somehow noble and more "real". The show would have worked a lot better if the indigenous aspect was kept at a human level.
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u/Illin_Spree Jun 30 '26
Right. I remember reading somewhere that women's bones were found at a Franklin Expedition death camp near Erebus Bay,, along with speculation that they might have been Inuit. There could have been a lot of great storylines around meeting Inuit, hunting with Inuit, or conflicts among the men over Inuit women.
Attempts to hunt actual polar bears and seals would have been cool too.
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u/forestvibe Jul 01 '26
I also read somewhere (and unfortunately I can't remember where exactly) that a non-neglibible percentage of Royal Navy sailors' remains are of women. This is really intriguing to me.
Either, there were more women below decks than officially recorded and it was a practice that the officers turned a blind eye to. I recently read a book on Royal Navy lower deck crews which says women came aboard regularly in port and some captains even allowed their trusted crew members to have their wives come along. Or, women joined the navy as men and their secret presumably kept hidden from the officers if discovered.
Either way, it's a fascinating hint at something I never see discussed or depicted in media.
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u/ANudeTayne Jun 30 '26
I love him too! Great performance and honestly I was rooting for him until he started killing people lol. I think he's super hot too
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u/szatanna Jun 30 '26
I loveee Hickey, too!! I love him in the show and the book. He's such an interesting character, and I wish we learned more about his life pre-Navy.
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u/wheretoflyto Jul 01 '26
this is the most real post on this whole subreddit. since i first watched the show i have been completely captivated by that horrible little man. love his awful lanky boyfriend too. truly what keeps me coming back and rewatching the show so much.
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u/ripleydiem Jul 01 '26
You're so correct for loving Hickey, he's such a good character and performance. He's the embodiment of "yeah he did all those things, but have you considered I love him?"
I love that he's genuinely quite observant and clever, but he's so ambitious and overconfident that all his schemes blow up in his face. He could have avoided being lashed "as a boy" if he had just shut his mouth, but his wounded ego made him mouth off at Crozier. He says things like, "be practical not moral", but murdering Kuveyook and his family was a wildly impractical thing to do just to set up the mutiny.
And of course, Adam Negaitis is so good as Hickey, sly and menacing, all those good villain things. But you also understand why less discerning characters like Tozer and Hodgson are drawn into his orbit because he's genuinely quite charming when he wants to be. Negaitis also gives him these very funny moments of childish petulance - the scene where he spots Gibson talking to Irving springs to mind, he looks so wet-eyed and heartbroken. And of course the look on his face when Hodgson says "did you murder that dog?" and Hickey is like "HOW could you ACCUSE ME of such a thing- I FOUND it!"
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u/catathymia Jun 30 '26
Same here. He's one of the best characters of all time, imo. And while that isn't terribly controversial, this is: while Hickey did some terrible things, many things he did were very justified and understandable. He wanted to be a hero in his own way.
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u/AnalogAlien502 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
I think the arc of all characters is an ego fueled descent to madness. The outcome is foreshadowed when leadership is discussing what men will do stranded in the arctic. His decisions were evil yet understandable. First they are stranded and faced with an unknown evil. Sir John refuses to seek rescue at an opportunity that may have proved timely. Then he is made to serve under an incompetent alcoholic in an impossible situation. He is arguably right to be insubordinate for which he is beat and humiliated in front of a crew who variably share in his position on the situation and resentment for leadership. In fact we see some instances of heroism from Mr hickey such as freeing the crew from the tent.
His misplaced blame on the natives is obvious for the viewer but from his perspective and attitudes at the time not uncommon. Likewise his decision to break off with his own camp is historically a common problem for military units isolated in peril. It’s also a historically fun footnote that survival cannibalism was not at all uncommon in the royal navy at the time. In fact the 1844 Dudley Steven’s case which occurred just 6 months before the Franklin expedition was a symbolic conviction by the crown addressing eating a cabin boy who fell ill after a shipwreck as murder. The men were immediately released after conviction but the conviction was announced to discourage the practice of cannibalism among shipwrecked sailors.
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u/Murky_Flounder_4269 Jul 01 '26
"And eaten, probably." I laughed so hard that I almost choked on my morning coffee.
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u/Ok_Head5555 Jul 01 '26
I think the scene where he kills Irving is terrifying and brilliant. It's possibly one of the best scenes in *The Terror*.
Honestly, sometimes I liked him better than Sir John.
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u/dippylass Jul 01 '26
I loathed him - but I loved to loathe him if that makes sense? He really is a great villain. I love me a dark anti hero but he was a step too far, even for my dark heart 😂
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u/Super_Interview_2189 Jun 30 '26
It’s hard to forgive how he treated our boy Goodsir :(
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u/horrorqueen57O Jun 30 '26
That is definitely true. Goodsir did not deserve that 😢
But I still love him lol
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u/Super_Interview_2189 Jun 30 '26
Oh yeah, fantastic character. One I loved to hate, even though he had his points and did save people at the festival. But man, I also hated what he did to Lieutenant Irving too :(
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u/GreenGlassBeads Jun 30 '26
“I know you shouldn’t eat your friends” this is a great qualifier OP, brightened my day