Raymer
North Bath’s chief of police suffers from pathologically low self-esteem. Though he’s self-involved, he has very little insight into his own feelings or how other people perceive him. He spends a huge amount of time dwelling on what he perceives to be his deficiencies, which distorts his sense of self-worth.
Soon after the snake incident at the Morrison Arms, Raymer hits the peak of what has been a long-brewing identity crisis. Since boyhood, he’s always had a vague sense that he doesn’t know who he is. Over the course of a chaotic weekend, he experiences this existential crisis more acutely. Having suffered from job dissatisfaction and imposter syndrome for some time, he finally admits that he wants to resign. By the end of the weekend, Raymer has overcome the worst of his crisis. He acknowledges his feelings for Charice and decides to continue as police chief.
Sully
Sully is a guy who values people and experiences over material things. Now in his seventies, he’s financially stable for the first time in his life, but he seems to take perverse pleasure in living in a trailer and driving an old truck with a dog urine-soaked interior. He’s frequently generous, offering financial and practical assistance to friends such as Carl, Rub, and Ruth, often without being asked. But he can also be casually cruel, especially to Rub, a trait that seems to spring more from the legacy of his abusive father than from any inherent meanness.
Like most of the men in North Bath, Sully hates himself. When doctors tell him he needs surgery to live, he feels like his life doesn’t really matter to anyone, including himself. He doesn’t particularly wish himself dead, but he can’t quite find a reason to prolong his life. His trajectory as a character is about discovering within himself the will to live. Once he does, he can see how much he matters to people such as Ruth and Peter, his son.