Octopus Pie - Other Characters

Other Characters

Park Chao Intelligent and extraordinarily ambitious, Park temporarily returned to the city after graduating law school, and soon reignited a romantic relationship with Eve, his high school sweetheart. Although he cared for Eve, his frank and sometimes domineering nature was a frequent source of conflict during their turbulent relationship, as he didn't approve of Hanna or her circle of friends and thought Eve suffered from a lack of ambition. He eventually found an entry-level law job in Chicago, and asked Eve to come with him. She eventually refused, and the couple split. Eve has not had a serious boyfriend since their breakup.

Olly Turner A manipulative, overstressed workaholic, Olly is the founder and proprietor of Olly's Organix. Olly is often underhanded and abusive towards his employees and his vendors, and he frequently abuses Eve's hard-working nature to save the store from a perpetually looming economic disaster. His business practices are often shady, and it has been suggested that all of his employees are paid off the books. His foul-mouthed, aggressive attitude is often a smokescreen for his deep insecurities and anxieties, and one of Olly's angry tirades can instantly dissolve into pathetic tears of despair. Olly is obsessed with seeing his exacting visions realized down to the finest detail, despite the indifference of his wife and employees. Despite his many faults, there is a strange nobility to Olly's underhanded desperation, and his store's constant financial problems have been shown to be a result of his idealism and refusal to stock popular brands that he doesn't believe are truly healthy.

Jacob Marley One of Eve's co-workers at Olly's Organix, Jacob is jaded and cynical, and is typically indifferent to Olly's emotional rants and pleas. He's kind of a jerk, and his taste in women seems to be entirely superficial. Jacob claims to be used to and even to enjoy being used by women, as his impossibly high standards frequently lead him into such relationships. His naive co-worker Julie is madly in love with him, a fact that Jacob is indifferent to, although he hasn't been above exploiting her feelings for the occasional sexual rendezvous.

Julie Clark Julie is a naive, impressionable, optimistic employee of Olly's Organix. Her standards for choosing personal heroes are quite low, as both Eve and Olly seem to have made her list, and she is prone to mythologizing about them. She is hopelessly in love with her co-worker Jacob, despite his cynical, emotionally abusive attitude and his complete indifference to her. Eve has often tried to persuade her to get over Jacob and finds Julie's love for him completely inexplicable. Eventually, an encounter with the barista Painter Line Jane causes Julie to cast her first doubts on her feelings towards Jacob.

Mrs. Ning Eve's mom is a smug, snarky and domineering divorcee. She's a strongly nationalistic conservative and believes all Americans must be vigilant because "there's a 9/11 lurking around every corner." However, it has been suggested that she was once an "enormous hippie." Mrs. Ning is protective and controlling of Eve, and it was her flippant, unauthorized decision to offer Hanna a room in Eve's apartment that began Octopus Pie. Mrs. Ning has a harsh, vindictive demeanor that many find intimidating, although surprisingly, Hanna seems to get along with her. It was Mrs. Ning who decided that her children should be named after her favorite mountains.