The Haves and the Have Nots (TV series)

Series overview

The series follows three families and their lifestyles as they intersect with one another in Savannah, Georgia: the rich, powerful, and locally very public Cryer and Harrington families (dubbed "The Haves") and the poor and destitute Young family (dubbed "The Have Nots"). The Young family is headed by Hanna, a single mother who works as the Cryer family's maid and also serves as the best friend and confidante of the lady of the house, Katheryn. Included as part of The Have Nots is another maid of the Cryer family's, Celine Gonzales. While the Young family versus the Cryer and Harrington families lead polar opposite lifestyles in terms of social class, economics, social status, and surroundings, they are each similar in that they lead exceedingly dysfunctional lifestyles. Each of the three families experience similarly overwhelming hardships and plights. Often, the plights, predicaments, and hardships that the three families encounter are of a juicy, scandalous, and controversial nature. Among the serious issues that have been tackled on the program to date have included: infidelity, cancer, substance abuse, homosexuality, suicide, prostitution, poverty, rape, law/crime, abortion, religion/Christianity, politics, and mental health. All of the main characters in the program have proven to be devious, immoral, vile, or at least nasty in their behaviors at one point or another, if not regularly.

The show's cast is multiracial: one of the upper class families are Caucasian American and the other is African American; the poor family is also African American; in addition to this, there is a poor maid who's Hispanic. To that end, when Angela Robinson (the actress who plays Veronica Harrington) was interviewed about her new role on the series in late June 2013, she stated, "This is one of the only shows on television with a diverse cast that looks like America: Black, White, Latino, straight, gay, rich, and poor." The characters are filled with experiences, typically of a serious and shocking nature, that they attempt to keep secret from one another; however, their secrets tend to dramatically come to light when all is said and done.

The Haves

The Cryer family

James "Jim" Cryer (John Schneider): The take-charge but destructively thoughtless patriarch of the Cryer family, and a Savannah criminal courts judge who has his eyes set on becoming Governor of Georgia. A major reason for Jim's rising to where he's at professionally and socioeconomically is because of Katheryn's family. Although a kind-hearted and sensitive man at heart, Jim's urges, vices, greed, and self-preservation often get the better of him and cause him to act rashly, disloyally, destructively inconsiderate, and even abusively as far as his rank and power. Given his position as a wealthy judge in high society, Jim has certain dirty measures at his disposal from which to gain the upper hand on anyone that crosses him. Jim often uses the catchphrase "I'll handle it" as a signal of his taking to such measures. His wife, Katheryn, is all too well aware of his power to gain the upper hand and fight dirty, sometimes even instructing Jim to resort to his foul play tactics by telling him to "handle it."

Jim's power plays and abuse are generally used when desperate times call for desperate measures. Although they're moves that are devoid of all scruples, he has typically only used them as scare tactics unless gravely offended by an act. These drastic lengths Jim has gone to typically call for the bringing in of reinforcements and people who owe him debts; for example, he has a history of setting his secret army of thugs ("The Malones") in action so as to get his way in particularly trying circumstances. Jim has a gruff, abrasive nature about him and can be headstrong and obstinate in getting things done.Highlighting Jim's dirtiness, he has knowingly covered for his son Wyatt's constructive manslaughter of a 6-year-old girl and serious injury of Hanna's son Benny. All the while doing this, he contemptuously informed Hanna of his intentions of being dishonest as to Wyatt's culpability in the matter; he then followed this by having Hanna falsely arrested and jailed.Jim is also philandering and two-timing, having a long, elaborate history of cheating on his wife. He and Katheryn aren't close anymore because of it. However, they present themselves to the public as having a strong and loving marriage. No sooner than they're left in private, however, do they both shift into their surly attitudes towards one another, exchanging sardonic remarks between each other. Among the many women Jim has had affairs with is Candace. Out of all the women he has had affairs with (one of which was his own employee, Celine Gonzales, who wants him back), Jim finds himself most intrigued by Candace, acting with reckless abandonment in his extramarital affairs with her.Jim is incorrigible and always seems to submit to his vices and negative ways. While Jim is harsh and rough in his parenting of Wyatt (who seems to have the scruples that his father lacks), he's more gentle and tactful in his parenting of his daughter Amanda, because of how "fragile" he perceives her to be. It is later revealed that Jim has two more children with Celine, a grown son named "Carlos" and a 7-year-old boy named after Jim. Despite his anger at Hanna, after she puts him in his place, he does allow her to comfort him after he breaks down in Amanda's room. Much later, Jim finds out that Veronica Harrington had Wyatt raped in prison. Thoroughly enraged after his confrontation with her husband, David, Jim orders a bloodbath, with Officer Terrell, Professor Cannon (Amanda's rapist), and Veronica being the targets of his latest revenge. One of Jim's arch-enemies is assistant District Attorney, Jennifer Sallison.

Katheryn Cryer (née Hargrave) (Renee Lawless): Katheryn is Jim's deeply warm, sensitive, caring but highly passive-aggressive wife. Katheryn often displays her anger, hatred, bitterness, and stress in a suppressed but still very detectable fashion. She is filled with melancholy, rancor, and sullen indignation primarily as result of the various trials and tribulations brought upon her as it relates to her family, particularly her husband. Due to Katheryn's overwhelming stress, un-forthcoming nature, and tendency to hold her feelings in, she has been known to express herself in ways that are unhealthy, passive-aggressive, at times even volatile and explosive. Her reputation in the community has been a major reason for her restraint and unhealthy expressions of pent-up rage. A prime example of this is in Katheryn's attempts to keep her bout with breast cancer away from everyone. As a result, she was constantly snapping on her maid, Hanna, but once she finally opened up to Hanna about what was going on, the two developed a close bond.

An heiress, Katheryn was born into one of Savannah's oldest and wealthiest families, considered to be old-money (her father was also revealed to be an alcoholic during an argument with Jim). Very intuitive, she always has some idea of what's going on without things being directly revealed to her, especially with regards to her close friends and family. At the same time, Katheryn often feigns ignorance to certain matters that she's well-aware of. As an example, she once secretly revealed to Hanna that she only remains married to Jim as part of one big passive-aggressive scheme to make his life more miserable.She well understands that her family and she herself keep a lot of secrets from each other, largely due to their very public position in high society. Katheryn has two best friends: 1) One is Hanna. This is despite Katheryn discovering that Hanna's daughter is Candace, a fact that Hanna herself revealed to Katheryn. 2) The other is Veronica, although Katheryn has detected other seedy sides to Veronica and thus doesn't consider her the closest friend. Moreover, Katheryn remains unaware that Veronica had her son raped in prison.While Katheryn is discontented in her dysfunctional family life and particularly her marriage to Jim (knowing all too well of his many affairs), she often doesn't let on as such. Rather, she's two-faced, acting romantically content and loving with Jim when around strangers but bitter and saturnine with Jim when in private. Much of her discontentment, sullenness, and pessimism stems from Jim's constant adultery; her battles with breast cancer; and the sexual abuse of her children and their resultant corruption.Katheryn has an inclination to refer to Jim's long line of mistresses by the numerical and chronological order in which Jim has messed around with them as opposed to their given names, passive-aggressively highlighting her contempt. She greatly despises Candace, whom she calls "Nine," because of the upheaval Candace has caused with her affair with Jim and her friendship with Amanda. She also has sheer animosity towards her other employee, Celine (whom she calls "Four"), due to her past affair with Jim and also for the disrespect that Celine shows towards Hanna.Unlike Jim, she was much harder on her now-deceased daughter Amanda, but more gentle and tactful with Wyatt, though she will not tolerate his more extreme behaviors. Because of her position in high society and connections with people in power, Katheryn is more than able to help friends in need, such as her best friend Hanna. Almost two years after losing Amanda to suicide, Katheryn had almost lost Wyatt to his own demons. In this case, he was presumed dead after a drug overdose, but was later revealed to still be alive and was only unconscious for 32 hours.In the season 4 finale "Promises Kept," after being pushed to her limits; from Jeffery tells her that his mother arranged for Wyatt to be raped to not getting control of his inheritance, Katheryn shoots D.A. Jennifer Sallison multiple times in the stomach, killing her while she and Veronica are at her house having a meeting and wants Veronica to get her off.In the Season 5 premiere, Katheryn is well-aware of Veronica's early life and knows she is not as powerful as she appears to be and threats to have the bank, where she is a board member, foreclose everything if Veronica ever tries to mess with her and vows to make her pay after she arranged for Wyatt to be raped in prison.

Wyatt Cryer (Aaron O'Connell): Wyatt is the son of Jim and Katheryn. In the first episode, it's learned that Wyatt is so incorrigible in his vices that he's on his third stint in rehab for drug abuse and alcoholism. Wyatt's current rehabilitation program is run by the Harrington family and is on an outpatient basis on the condition that he is monitored 24/7 by Jeffery Harrington.

Very hostile and ill-natured, Wyatt is constantly copping attitude and making snippy remarks, even in moments in which his redeeming sides are shown. In his redeeming moments, he has shown that he'll take up for those whom he considers his friends, such as Jeffery. In general, however, Wyatt is antagonistic towards Jeffery and knows that he's gay. Wyatt also had suspicions of his father having an affair with Candace before it was ultimately confirmed. Often, he spewed innuendos at Candace over this, making insinuations as to her lust for older men. Jim is able to subjugate Wyatt with his regular tough, sometimes even abusive treatment of him, deterring Wyatt from confronting him on these matters.In the Season 1 finale, Wyatt informs Jeffery in cutting and unsparing fashion that he's neither gay nor bisexual, and is uninterested in him. Following that, he gets strung out on heroin; while intoxicated, he is involved in a fatal hit and run which kills a six-year-old girl named Lizzie and critically injures Hanna's son Benny, leaving him on life support. Wyatt is eventually arrested for vehicular homicide (Lizzie's death) after confessing to the hit-and-run, which shows that he does have more of a conscience than his corrupt father. Katheryn decides that Wyatt should be held responsible for his actions and compels Jim not to protect Wyatt anymore.Early in Season 3, Wyatt confirms that Jim was indeed cheating by seeing his dad's texts with his constant mistresses over the years. After getting drunk, he confronts Celine about his half-brother, Carlos, and then has a fight with his mother. Wyatt is later devastated to find out that his sister is dead. In "In Crisis," Jim and Wyatt have a huge fight in the kitchen where Wyatt reveals all the affairs that Jim has had over the years (besides the known ones with Celine and Candace, it is revealed that Jim has had affairs with Wyatt's various babysitters as well as his high school math teacher) and also discloses that Jim was out with Celine when he (Wyatt) was being molested at camp. In the mid-season finale, Wyatt is preparing to go to prison for vehicular homicide. While in prison, though, Wyatt is raped by an inmate on the orders of Veronica Harrington.In the Season 3 finale, Wyatt turns his parents over to the authorities with the help of Jeffery, and he strikes a deal with Jennifer, the district attorney. The deal is that Wyatt and Jeffery will both be given immunity if they testify at their parents' trial. In Season 4, as Wyatt prepares to testify, Jennifer helps him get his inheritance - $12 million - in an attempt to avoid his parents and get his own place if they get out of jail.Sadly though, it was revealed that Wyatt succumbed to his drug addictions again, and had "died" of a drug overdose. Later, though, it was revealed Wyatt is still alive and was unconscious for 32 hours after his overdose. He fully awakens from his coma in the fifth season premiere.

Amanda Cryer (Jaclyn Betham): (Seasons 1–2) Amanda was Jim and Katheryn's naïve college-aged daughter who was friends with her father's mistress, Candace. Until the Season 2 finale, Amanda is unaware that Candace was her father's mistress. Amanda has had issues with self-harm and suicide in the past, having engaged in cutting herself. It has been hinted in the series that the reasons for Amanda's battles with self-harm may stem from some traumatic sex abuse incident from her distant past, involving Wyatt and a priest. Compounded with this, she was raped by Professor Cannon, one of her law school teachers in Season 1's "The Criminal."

Amanda is portrayed as very fragile, self-doubting, and unassertive, lacking self-confidence and afraid to speak up for herself, except when there's something wrong with her. She is also portrayed as innocent, unsuspecting, and naive. Despite her suicidal past and self-doubting nature, Amanda is also bright, cheery, warm, affable, and easy to talk to. Shortly before her death, Amanda, with Candace's support, was in the process of suing her parents for her inheritance from her grandfather.Before her death, it was revealed that Amanda was going through some very deep-seated emotional/psychological problems that she needed medication for. Resulting from this problem, her temperament became touchy, mercurial, and often nutty. She even stalked Cannon, going so far as to stab him in broad daylight in her final encounter with him. Her problems were grim enough to the point that she was nearing an emotional breakdown.Amanda's mental problems became increasingly worse as time went on, and she purchased a gun and struck up a sort of relationship with Quincy, Candace's former lover. In the Season 2 finale, she sang her "Eeny meeny miney moe" song while running through the house with the gun, which she pointed at Wyatt and Katheryn. The season ended with her laughing just before a gunshot is fired. Her fate is left unresolved until episode four of Season 3, "Amanda's Room," in which Hanna discovers Amanda dead in her room. At the end of the subsequent episode, "The Press Conference," a reporter announces that Amanda has died in an apparent suicide. In the next episode, "A Tragic Day," her death was held to be a homicide, but was later proven that Amanda had indeed committed suicide. However, in the season 4 episode "An Accident", D.A. Jennifer Salliston revealed to David (Peter Parros) the possibility that Amanda's death was a homicide.

The Harrington family

Veronica Harrington (Angela Robinson): Although refined, composed, and classy on the surface, Veronica (wife of David and mother of Jeffrey) is actually an extremely no-holds-barred, vicious, malicious, cold, calculating, coercive, manipulative, overbearing, antagonistic, and catty snob underneath it all. She's used to delivering zingers in her trademarked cool, calm, collected yet trenchant, stinging, and outwitting fashion. Very obdurate, she has proven to be set in her anti-gay and diabolic ways. Resulting from the character's very one-of-a-kind brand of villainy and vile levels she's proven more than willing to stoop to, Veronica has been advertised by OWN and various media outlets as "The Ice Queen."

Veronica is a success story who has lived a rags-to-riches life: she started out in poor, struggling conditions, living from the dangerous projects, which speaks to her self-proclaimed "tough hood" side; however, through hard work and determination, she has fought her way up into luxury and the elite. Adding to her advancements in life, Veronica is a recovered pill addict, her addiction spawning from an abortion she feels has haunted her throughout her whole life. She later started up the drug rehab program that Wyatt's enrolled in.Although Veronica's from South Side, Chicago, she is Ivy League educated. Further, she had a stint as a practicing attorney from which she drew an indomitable and highly proficient reputation; it is in this forum where Veronica's sharp intelligence is portrayed as intimidating and formidable. She gains Hanna's favor after helping Benny through a legal predicament, a job which Veronica reluctantly took up for free at Katheryn's request (Katheryn informed Hanna that Veronica "owes [her] big time" for some unmentioned act).Veronica has expressed vitriolic intolerance of her son Jeffrey's homosexuality, often reducing him to feelings of grief and sorrow. As examples, she has harassingly instructed and coerced Jeffery to get a girlfriend; sabotaged Jeffery's relations with Wyatt; impassionedly told Jeffrey that she rather the survival of her sons that didn't make it due to an abortion and miscarriages than a homosexual like himself; asserted that Jeffery's being gay is a punishment from God; etc.As of the second season, Veronica's controlling behavior, intolerance, and overall devilry has gotten so extreme that it's prompted her husband, David, to move out of their home until she changes her ways. Veronica has gotten to the point where she blames Jeffery for his father's presumed dalliance with Maggie Day, his and Jim's campaign manager. In the episode "In Crisis," Katheryn tries to tell Veronica that Jeffery is gay, but she refuses to accept this and sharply so; this solidifies the fact that Veronica isn't, nor was she ever, a true friend to Katheryn.Veronica tries to get Hanna out of Katheryn's life, but Katheryn rather prefers Hanna's friendship and company over her, much to Veronica's dismay. In the mid-season finale, Veronica's life is crashing down around her, with Jeffrey telling her off for arranging for him to impregnate Melissa with his child so he'd be forced to marry her, as well as David insisting on getting her psychiatric help. She later helps Benny bail out of jail again, seduces him and gives him her car, then she finally snaps and tries to burn David to death while he's sleeping in bed.Veronica begins a relationship with Benny, to the dismay of his mother, Hanna. Also, Veronica has become increasingly vindictive and malicious, having ordered an inmate to rape Wyatt while he's in prison; this infuriated Jim enough to the point where he attempts to strangle her and later calls for her death. She, along with her husband, Jim and Katheryn were arrested for tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice.It was revealed that Veronica had killed Maggie. She felt that even though she was cheating on David with Benny, nobody else could have David except her. This has disgusted David to the point where he had finally had enough of Veronica and he filed divorce papers against her, for her adultery, as well as her purely venomous doings. He even had her forcibly removed from his car.In the Season 5 Premiere, much of Veronica's early and current life is revealed by Katheryn: her mother was a prostitute, her father played numbers and women, her four siblings all hate her and it is implied that she slept with Katheryn's elderly father for a scholarship when she was in college. It is also revealed that she is not as powerful as she appears to be: her mortgages are worth more than her net worth, makes payments and she's in debt with the bank Katheryn is a board member.

David Harrington (Peter Parros): David is the level-headed, grim, and gravelly-voiced husband of Veronica and father of Jeffrey who often acts as a voice of reason. He is a judge and is also Jim's business partner and friend. He spends most of his time trying to clean up Jim's messes and cover up for his (Jim's) extramarital affairs as his career path is currently aligned with Jim's. As a result of trying to clean up Jim's messes at every other turn, David has gotten himself into serious plights and predicaments of his own. In an effort to frame Candace to avenge Jim, David unintentionally framed Candace's brother and Hanna's son Benny; consequently, Benny was arrested and incarcerated for drug possession, which resulted in a large, complex mess that David at the center of.

David has once implicitly admitted to having extramarital affairs, but this has not as of yet been a focus of the series. Conversely, when asked by Maggie in season 2, he denies ever having an affair. In one episode, Veronica suspects David of having an affair with Candace, but this was later invalidated. She later then accused David of having an affair with Maggie, but this was also invalidated.David frequently admonishes Veronica whenever he perceives her behavior as getting out of control, such as in the case of her bigotry towards their gay son, Jeffrey. In contrast to Veronica, David has shown acceptance of their son Jeffery and disapprobation and shame of his wife. David goes so far as moving out of the house he shares with Veronica because of her cattiness and nastiness towards Jeffery. In season 3, he is caught with Maggie and Veronica blames Jeffery for what she perceives as his father's infidelity. David is finally convinced by Candace that Veronica is dangerous and extremely wicked, especially after he finds out from her that his wife ordered Quincy, Candace's former paramour, to brutalize Jeffery. David's own life is placed in jeopardy when Veronica proceeds to dump gasoline around their bed and attempts to burn him to death.Though he awakens to escape in time, he learns of Veronica's involvement in his near-death and tells no one but Jim of what transpired. He also learns of his wife's ordering of Wyatt being raped by an inmate. This has really caused David to really question Veronica and her evil ways. David and Jim's friendship has sundered when the latter strangles Veronica upon realizing that she had ordered a rapist to rape his son, Wyatt. Later on, David, along with Veronica, Jim and Katheryn were arrested for tampering with evidence and obstruction of Justice. Landon and Maggie leak some information which succeeds in getting David out of jail, where he finds out about Veronica's relationship with Benny Young.

Jeffery Harrington (Gavin Houston): Jeffery is David and Veronica's son. He is Wyatt's 24/7 substance abuse counselor in the Harrington family's drug rehab program. Much to Wyatt's displeasure, Jeffery's counseling is full of preachy remarks and frequent urgings for Wyatt to open up about his feelings.

A topical matter in the series has been Jeffery's sexual orientation. Closeted throughout much of the first season, Jeffery spends most of his time immersed in his job of monitoring Wyatt. Although the two grew up with each other, Jeffery finds that the more time he spends with Wyatt, the more he seems to develop feelings for him. Still, Jeffery struggles to remain the consummate professional and suppresses his attraction to Wyatt while in the presence of others but not before attempting to thwart every plan that Wyatt had to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend Laura.Unbeknownst to Jeffery, Wyatt already strongly suspected Jeffery of being gay [before Jeffery came out] and as a result would oftentimes behave snappishly and hostilely towards him. Although suspected by almost everyone close to him, Jeffery doesn't come out about his sexuality until the final episode of the first season, "No More Hiding." In this episode, Jeffery desperately brings the matter to his parents' attention, resulting in a compassionate reaction from his father and a harshly disapproving and disappointed reaction from his mother.In the second season, Jeffery gains Candace's support and also gains an admirer from afar in a man named Landon, who works for Maggie Day, the campaign manager of his dad's friend, Jim Cryer. Jeffery considers an interest in Landon, despite his mother's homophobia and her constant manipulations: His mother, at one point, goes so far as coercing Jeffery into treating a woman he has no interest in as his girlfriend otherwise be thrown in jail.In Season 3, Veronica goes so far as to blame Jeffery for his father's presumed dalliance with his campaign manager, Maggie Day. In "A Tragic Day," a drunk Wyatt tries to put the moves on Jeffery. In the episode "In Crisis," Jeffery is brutally assaulted by Quincy, Candace's former paramour, on his mother's orders. In the season finale, Jeffery learns that his mother arranged for him to get Melissa pregnant so he'd be forced to marry her; this causes him to finally stand up to his mother and leave the house. He then proceeds to bed Landon, the man he wants, and finally feels free to be the person he wants to be at long last.Later on, Jeffrey and Candace fight her ex-paramour, Quincy, stabbing him to death, Jeffrey is arrested for this, and is sexually harassed by an officer named Justin. However, he and Justin do reach an understanding.

The Have Nots

The Young family & Celine Gonzales

Candace "Candy" Young (Tika Sumpter): Candace is Hanna's estranged daughter, Benny's older half-sister, and Jim's latest mistress who's less than half his age. She is portrayed as a roguish, crafty jezebel with a very mischievous, flippant, saucy, presumptuous, and extremely nervy attitude. Often, Candace subjugates others through her many forms of manipulation; extortion; low blows; and dirt she's able to obtain on people. Unprincipled and unscrupulous, Candace has pulled many cons; has acted as a prostitute and a mistress; has engaged in elaborate forms of blackmail; etc.

Candace also has many redeeming qualities about her however, such shown in her genuine love and concern for her brother, Benny, her friend Jeffery and her late friend Amanda. In addition, she is very gay-friendly and has assisted Jeffery through his struggles in dealing with his mother's anti-gay behaviors, and she's done so in her typical bold fashion. She has also shown that underneath all of her bitterness, animosity and hostility for her mother that she loves her at the end of the day, once purchasing her a brand new car without her knowing about it. Candace has expressed a discontentment with growing up with nothing and the dysfunctional family life she feels was brought on by her mother's bad choices and sexual immoralities. She is covetous and aspiring of the wealth and riches that the Cryer family possesses. She will go to any and all lengths to partake in it.Most inauspiciously for Jim, Candace was also friends with his daughter Amanda. Katheryn disdains Candace, passive-aggressively labeling her as "Nine" [after the number of mistresses Jim has had]. Candace was guiding Katheryn and Jim's daughter, Amanda, in suing them for Amanda's inheritance before Amanda's death. Candace has also opened up to Jeffery about how she learned her many artifices and maneuvers from a deceased mentor/close comrade of hers, who was a tranvestite.It has been revealed in the series that Candace has a baby whose whereabouts and status are unknown. Quincy, the father of her baby, is released from prison by Veronica to take control over Candace. Candace's mother frequently harasses Candace to bring her this baby. She later reveals to her mother that the baby was dead, killed by Quincy. However, it's later discovered that the baby, a now young boy named Quincy Jr. (or Q, as he is called) is alive. Moreover, it's also revealed in season 3 that one of Hanna's ex-boyfriends raped Candace. In the scene Hanna passionately expresses her remorse, though up until that point Hanna had been verbally, emotionally and even physically abusive towards her daughter throughout the entire series.In the Season 3 finale, Candace and Jeffery eventually stab Quincy to death, and in Season 4, Candace attempts to hide evidence that he was killed. Quincy reawakens after days of unconsciousness, and despite pleas for help, Candace refuses to help Quincy. Candace eventually gets Benny to help her hide evidence of Quincy's murder in the Season 4 episode "Immunity."

Hanna Young (Crystal Fox): Hanna is Benny and Candace's mother, and the Cryer's maid. She raised her two children as a single mother. Hanna is very soulful, religious, nurturing, grandmotherly, persevering, and compassionate, though has a harshly overreactive, draconian, rancorous, virulent, vituperative, and even violent side about her as well. Haggard and long-suffering, she often displays the effects of overwhelming stress, overwork, and worry in her behavior. Still, she is very much a trouper who is uncomplaining, assiduous, and always hard-working. Compounded with this, Hanna is also trustworthy and reliable and can be confided in about anything; this has won her the respect of her superiors and even a close bond with her boss Katheryn.

Hanna is often confronted with many hardships and obstacles, but she has relied on her strong Christian faith to pull through. Hanna has an unprincipled, reckless distant past with regards to her sexual behavior. For example, Hanna had sex with a married man named Tony Watson (though unknowingly, as Tony neglected to share this information) which lead to the birth of Benny. Another example, Hanna had one-night stand which left her pregnant with Candace. In addition, one of Hanna's ex-boyfriends raped her daughter Candace, which is indicated as possibly explaining some of her daughter's own sexually reckless ways. Hanna maintains, however, that God has long forgiven her for her reckless sexual past, rendering this all null and void in her mind.Thick-skinned and even-tempered, Hanna is typically slow to offense and anger, though the two people she shows no patience for is her daughter Candace and Benny's absentee father, treating the both of them with great amounts of venom and vituperation. Hanna regularly shows deep-seated disgust with Candace because of her unethical choices and sexual immoralities. Because of Hanna's own sexual immoralities and constant emotional and physical abuse especially of her daughter, she often comes across as sanctimonious and holier-than-thou. On the other hand, Hanna is deeply proud of her son because of his more upright choices and hard work ethic. Despite her deep-seated acrimony for her daughter, Hanna has proven that she will protect and defend her daughter when push comes to shove, such as shown when she learned of the Cryers physically abusing Candace.During the second season, Hanna was in contention with Tony about keeping Benny on life support after the hit-and-run accident, and fell prey to her evil employer Jim. Hanna quits her job as a housekeeper in the Cryer home due to Jim's conniving, and later reunites with her best friend Katheryn, who wants her to come back to her job as her housekeeper; Hanna agrees but only after Benny is settled in. She returns to work, and is the one who discovers Amanda dead in her bedroom. She also becomes more snarky and confrontational with Celine, having finally had enough with Celine's nasty ways. Previously, Hanna was regularly bullied and abused by Celine with little to no response. Currently, Hanna is overjoyed at finally having her grandson, Q, in her life, and is filing for custody of her grandson.

Benjamin "Benny" Young (Tyler Lepley): Benny is Hanna's son and Candace's older half-brother. He operates a tow truck company. In comparison to his conniving sister, he is less prone to cause trouble for his mother. Benny is personable, dutiful, and hard-working. He's very tough and overprotective and takes his role as man of the house very seriously, sometimes recklessly and foolhardily so. He has unconditional love and care for his mother and sister and is willing to put his own life on the line to avenge or defend them.

Benny's also often caught in the middle of his mother's and Candace's acrimonious relationship with each other. Despite the fact that his mother has completely given up on Candace, Benny still shows he loves and believes in Candace. Secretly behind his mother's back, Benny has close ties to Candace and keeps in contact with her. This involvement in Candace's affairs has landed Benny in prison. In the episode "No More Hiding," Benny sharply called out his mother for her treatment of Candace, reminding Hanna that she herself has a colorful history of sexual immoralities. It is also in this episode that Benny learns that his father is Tony and shames his mother upon discovering this for keeping that information from him.In the season one finale, Benny is changing a tire when he is dramatically run down by a strung out Wyatt Cryer, which leaves him in a coma and on life support. He is ultimately removed from life support and supposedly passes away, leaving his mother and sister to grieve him. However, it is revealed that he still has some brain activity indicating he's still alive after being moved to a private hospital from the county general hospital (which was revealed to have been the doing of Katheryn, who also pays the bill for Benny's hospital stay). Benny eventually makes a full recovery.By mid-season 3, Benny slowly discovers why his family is so dysfunctional. For example, the rape of young Candace at the hands of one of his mother's boyfriends, and his estranged father's actions while he was on life support. In the season finale, Benny discovered that Quincy had hit his mother, and in a fit of rage proceeds to take vengeance and wreak all havoc on Quincy. He also begins an affair with Veronica Harrington, who bails him out. After he bails Quincy out, he proceeds to thrash him again and then frame him for drug charges. He also finally locates his nephew, Q, and brings him to Hanna. So overjoyed is she that she has her grandchild, that she promptly initiates custody proceedings for him.

Celine Gonzales (Eva Tamargo): (Seasons 1–3) Celine is a former maid in the Cryer home and ex-friend of Hanna. She was originally depicted as a casual, relaxed woman, often fostering a friendly, informal atmosphere. She was also depicted as savvy and well-informed, and gossipy, given to divulging useful inside information about life at the Cryer's to Hanna. However, as time passed on and Hanna appeared to become closer to Katheryn and gain favor within the Cryer household, Celine's demeanor changed: she began to take on more jealous, bullying and antagonistic behaviors, largely towards Hanna and later towards Katheryn as well.

Prior to the dissolution of their friendship, Celine reveals through conversation with Hanna that she is currently married to a man named Humberto and that the marriage is troubled and distant, if not all together dysfunctional. Despite her marriage, Celine happens to be another one of Jim's former mistresses and due to a lack of knowledge of Jim's infatuation with Candace, she continually tried to rekindle her relationship with Jim. Each of her attempts to seduce him were met with rejection which also adds to her aggravation. Because of her history with Jim, Katheryn disdains Celine and passive-aggressively refers to her as "Four", the number she comes up among Jim's long line of mistresses (in similar fashion to the way Katheryn refers to Candace as "Nine").Katheryn has stated that she allows Celine to stick around under employment for passive-aggressive purposes as she revels in the grief she suffers from Jim's rejections. Though in the season 2 episode "Family Issues," the two seem to have their first major confrontation when Katheryn sharply calls out Celine for only pretending to telephone Hanna so as to get her [Hanna] into trouble with Katheryn. Katheryn informs that she's well aware of Celine's shenanigans towards her friend in more ways than one and that she'll be fired if she keeps it up. However, Celine shuts down Katheryn by letting her know that she won't be firing her what with how much she values her reputation and all the information she [Celine] has on her [Katheryn] family. (Because of what she knows, she forges an arrangement, one which Katheryn does not approve of, which keeps her job sacrosanct)In season 3, it's revealed that Celine and Jim have two sons. One is a near grown son named Carlos as well as a seven-year-old named Jim, Jr. Shortly prior to Amanda's death, Celine enjoyed needling Katheryn. In the season 3 episode "A Tragic Day", Katheryn wildly snapped on Celine and fires her. She doesn't go down without a fight, though, which enrages Katheryn so much that she throws a vase at Celine. Celine is finally thrown out of the house in the episode "April 7, 1979" when Katheryn gets into yet another fight with the former housekeeper. In the next episode, Celine gets into an argument with Hanna about a parking space, and Hanna, who finally sees Celine for the conniving and scheming woman that she really is, firmly tells her that she was fired. Finally, Jim tells Celine that she is fired and for her to leave the house. Celine leaves. She makes one more appearance before Amanda's funeral, but was thrown out. Jim visits Celine and stuns her with the announcement that he had never loved her, that she was only good for one thing, sex. She would receive child support for their youngest son, but he refers to the child as a bastard. The amount would be quite small, as he is using his power as a judge to set the amount. She does not return for the fourth season.

Other main characters

These main characters do not appear in the opening sequence like the shows title characters ("The Haves": The Cryers and The Harringtons and "The Have Nots": The Youngs and Celine), but also receive star billing.

D.A. Jennifer Sallison (Shari Headley): (Season 4; recurring seasons 2–3): The district attorney who has been gunning for the Cryers and the Harringtons for some time. After a striking a deal with Wyatt for immunity for both him and Jeffery at the end of Season 3, she finally manages to arrest the Cryer and Harrington families for tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice. She also succeeds in getting Wyatt's inheritance for him, which is sure to anger his parents. In the Season 4 finale, Katheryn pulls out a gun and fatally shoots Jennifer multiple times, thus killing her.

Margaret "Maggie" Day (Allison McAtee): (Season 4; recurring Seasons 2–3) A campaign manager hired by Jim's staff, who has feelings for David. She and her assistant, Landon (whom is attracted to David's son Jeffrey), manage to get David released and he learns of Veronica's infidelity. In the mid-season 4 premiere, she was shot multiple times in the stomach by a gunman, being mistaken as Veronica, whom Jim intended to be killed. David witnesses her and the gunman's bodies covered in sheets at the crime scene of the shooting and mistakes her as Veronica. It was later revealed that Veronica set Maggie up to die herself.

LaQuita "Quita" Maxwell (Danielle Deadwyler): (Season 4; Guest in Season 3; recurring season 5) Quincy's sister who had been watching over Quincy's son before Benny rescued him. She acts as an antagonist throughout the series' run towards several characters, particularly Candace due to the mysterious absence of her brother Quincy.

Justin Lewis (Nicholas James): (Season 4–present) A suspicious officer, who comes to Candace's house, minutes after Quincy had been stabbed, to check out a noise complaint from his mother, Candace's neighbor. At one point, he tries to rape Jeffrey. At another point, he threatens to kill Jeffrey after harassing him. He later becomes more nicer and enters a sexual relationship with Jeffery .

Warrick "Warlock/War" Lewis (Jon Chaffin): (Season 4; Guest in Season 2; recurring seasons 3, 5) A friend of Candace, who helps extort money from Jim, but learns that Candace lied about the amount. He becomes the main villain of the show, after Quincy and starts to threaten and verbally and physically abuse Candace, going so far as to threaten to kill Benny and sexually assault Candace against a fence at Benny's tow yard, which Mitch witnesses. Mitch has him thrown in jail, by putting drugs in his car which don't belong to him and he at first thinks it is Candace who set him up. He is unfortunately let of out jail by Jim and on the look out to kill Candace, once again. In the Season Five Mid-Finale, it is revealed that he is working with Erica.

Mitchell "Mitch" Malone (Brett Davis): (Season 4–present; recurring season 3) A friend of Benny's, who is recruited to work at Benny's new tow truck business. Mitch is later revealed to be related to the Malone crime family, but chooses to live a straight and narrow life. After suspecting War as bad news and witnessing War sexually assault Candace at the tow yard, he protects her and Benny, by throwing War in jail, putting drugs in his car to make it look as if they were his.

Erica (Presilah Nunez): (Season 4–present; guest in season 3) A woman who sold Benny her boyfriend's car after a bad break-up. It turns out that she and Candace are working together. She becomes a love interest to David (originally as a set-up), igniting a feud between her and his wife Veronica. In the Season Five Mid-Finale, it is revealed that she is working with Warlock and hopes for Candace's downfall.

Charles Frederickson (Nick Sager): (Season 5–present) The president-elect and the love interest to Candace, whom she uses to help her get her money back.

Recurring characters

Tony (Patrick Faucette): (Seasons 1–2; Guest in season 3) Tony is Benny's estranged father whom he doesn't find out is his father until it is accidentally revealed by his mom. Benny only knew his as "Mr. Watts", before finding out, because he goes to church with him and Hanna. Hanna had a one-night-stand with Tony, which resulted in her pregnancy with Benny. In the second season, Tony tries to get Benny taken off life support, so that he could have his kidneys, not showing any sincere feelings of remorse and compassion for his son's well-being. In the third season, when Hanna reveals to Benny that Tony tried to take him off life support, Benny had Tony to come over and explain why. Tony, feeling guiltly, says he didn't want his son to have to worry about not being able to walk and suffering through pain.

Laura (Susie Abromeit): (Season 1) Laura is Wyatt's longtime girlfriend, who he had not seen since rehab. When she and Wyatt reunites, Jeffery becomes jealous and tries to keep her away, and lies to Wyatt, telling him she's dating someone else, whom she hasn't seen since highschool. Once Jeffery is revealed to Wyatt by Laura, Laura calls out Jeffery for his behavior calling him a mean, cruel person.

Quincy Maxwell (Medina Islam): (Seasons 2–3; Guest in Season 4) Quincy is one of the main antagonists of the Young family. He had once had a relationship with Candace, with whom he produced a child, Quincy Daylon "Q" Young. Hanna doesn't like Quincy because he kept her grandson away from her, and Benny doesn't like Quincy for all the trouble he has caused. Quincy was also known for harassing the Harrington family, after Veronica let him out of prison to wreak havoc on Candace. On Veronica's orders, Quincy beats up her son, Jeffery, because he would not tell him where Candace was. In the third mid-season finale, Benny discovers that Quincy had slapped his mother, tracks him down at a strip club, rams his car into Quincy's, and then proceeds to thrash Quincy for his crimes towards his family. Eventually, Benny again does physical damage to Quincy and finally succeeds in getting his nephew away from his degenerate father and brings him to Hanna. Quincy reappears at his sister's apartment clearly injured and is told that not having Quincy is going to effect her welfare benefits. While there the police show up after she is suspected of child abuse and instead leaves the card of the social worker and doesn't properly check to see if there are other children being abused in her custody. Quincy later appears at the hospital after tracking down the social worker and assaults her while young Q looks on terrified. Then he leaves and security is increased for the next time he shows up, he also, runs a car through Hanna's home burning down the place she has worked all her life to be able to afford. He eventually finds Candace's home and attacks her until he is stabbed to death by both her and Jeffrey after he arrives with the latter delivering the final blow. In the second episode of season 4, he awakes briefly, pleading to Candace for help, who refuses and lets him completely die.

Professor Cannon (Robert Pralgo): (Seasons 1–2; Guest in Season 3) Cannon is Candace and Amanda's law professor. In Season 1's "The Criminal," Cannon agrees to give Amanda a makeup exam after seeing her sexy makeover. Later, he comes by her and Candace's apartment and makes unwelcome advances towards Amanda, even threatening to fail her if she doesn't sleep with him. He then proceeds to rape Amanda. Amanda later takes to stalking Cannon, breaking into his house twice and threatening him with a gun. In their final encounter, Amanda stabs Cannon in his shoulder in broad daylight. In Season 3, Jim and Katheryn finally find out that Cannon raped their daughter and confront the professor. Jim brutally assaults his late daughter's rapist until Katheryn tells him to stop. Later on, Jim orders for Cannon to be killed along with Officer Terrell and Veronica.

Landon (Kristian Kordula): (Season 2–present) Landon is a guy who works at the campaign office and has feelings for Jeffery, who also has feelings for him, but still feels something for Wyatt. He and Jeffery met at a gay bar, in the second season. In season three, Landon sleeps with Jeffery, after Jeffery decides he's free to be whoever he wants to be. In season four, after finding out his Friend/Boss Maggie was murdered at Veronica's house, In the twelfth episode, he lashes out at Jeffery and decides to leave town. His fate for season five is unknown.

Melissa (Antoinette Robertson): (Season 2–present) Melissa is a young lady who Veronica set up for Jeffery to date. In season three, she was impregnated by Jeffery after getting him to have sex with her while watching "Gay Porn". In season four, Veronica set up for Jeffery and Melissa to move In together and get married, but Jeffery refused to go along with the plan. In the Season Five Mid-Finale, she attempts suicide in their bed when she learns that her father died from her mother.

Byron (Leith Burke): (Season 2; Guest in Season 3) Byron is a homicide detective. He meets Hanna in the second season and becomes one of her close friends. When Hanna finds out that he was working with Jim to protect Wyatt, she become furious with him, and when he shows up at the party, in the third-season premiere she orders him to leave.

Darlene (Dasha Chadwick): (Season 2) is an old friend and classmate of Benny's. She works at the county hospital where Benny was placed to by Katheryn.

Michael (Jerome Brooks): (Seasons 2–3) Michael is the grandfather of Lizzie, The girl killed by Wyatt Cryer. He becomes a close friend to Hanna and they both comfort each other dealing with each other their situation. In The third season, he starts having feelings for Hanna and seduces her into having sex with him, in the third episode of the third season, until being interrupted and caught by Benny who is shown to be horrified and disgusted.

Carlos (Gerald Celasco): (Seasons 2–3) Carlos ls Jim Cryer's estanged son whom he shares with Celine. Carlos reveals to Jim that he is his son in the season 2 finale. He tries to convince his mother that Jim doesn't Love or care about her, Jim or his little brother, but she disagrees and claims that he only loves her and not his wife, Katheryn.

Brandon Wallace / "Oscar" (Philip Boyd): (Season 3–present) Oscar is a strange guy who Candace notices spoting her at the sarandon hotel. He shows interest in Candace and wants to get to know her, but she continues to reject him, until he reveals his life story to her, telling her about his wife's death and how after her death, he would sleep with any woman, to keep from mourning. After this, him and Candace have sex and both start to fall in love with each other. When Candace realizes she has no money in her Bank account, she confronts him about it and he shows his true colors and admits that he took the money and only used her for sex, which breaks her heart. As she attempts to right him, Quincy comes in and fights him off of her, and he then runs away.

Pearl (Maree Cheatham): (Season 4–present): Pearl is Justin's mother and Candace's nosy neighbor who lives in front of her and watched everything that goes on. She also revealed that she saw Quincy go into Candace's house and never come out.

Alliyah Delong (Yaani King): (Seasons 3–4) Alliyah Delong is a social worker for Child welfare. She helps Hanna get custody of Quincy Jr. much to Candace's dismay. When Candace suspects Alliyah of working for Oscar, she calls her friend Erica over so that they can both confront her. When Alliyah claims she doesn't know anything about Oscar or about him giving her money, Candace and Erica Begin to beat her up, until she tells the truth. She then admits that he gave her 25 Thousand Dollars. Candace orders her to give her the money back and give her custody of her son Quincy Jr.

Daylon (Quincy Brown): (Season 4) A friend of Quita who helps her try to track down Quincy. He and Quita get arrested after getting caught breaking into Candace's house.

Angela Robinson (Veronica Harrington)

As a central and very one-of-a-kind antagonist in the program, the "Veronica Harrington" character has drawn increasing attention in the media, promoted as "the ice queen with ice water running through her veins." An NBC News article characterized the character as a "well-dressed woman that everyone loves to hate" and "a bougie buppie, diabolical diva who crawled her way to the top of Savannah's high society."

In August 2015, the Broadway veteran actress playing the role, Angela Robinson, was dubbed by an NBC News article as "Tyler Perry's breakout star" from her role in The Haves and The Have Nots. Described in her on-air role as a "sophisticated villainess," she was hailed as "slowly becoming a household name and gaining a cult-like following from the hit series." The actress was reported as becoming choked up in an August 2015 conference call when a journalist asked her: "How does it feel being the fiercest (black female character) on prime time television this summer?" The actress was reported as having to take a moment to compose herself before answering the question.

Ratings and broadcast history

The Haves and the Have Nots premiered on Tuesday, May 28, 2013, at 9/8c on the Oprah Winfrey Network. The Haves and the Have Nots is the first scripted television series to air on OWN. Both the show's first and second episodes aired back to back on its premiere night. Each episode of the series runs for an hour (42 minutes plus commercials).

The Haves and the Have Nots set a record for OWN, scoring the highest ratings ever for a series premiere on the network. During the show's first season, The Haves and the Have Nots received numerous widely publicized series highs in ratings, including with its July 30 episode, its August 6 episode, its August 13 episode, its August 27 episode, and most notably with its season 1 finale on September 3. The season 1 finale of The Haves And the Have Nots was the third most watched telecast in OWN history, bested only by an interview with Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina and episodes of Oprah's Next Chapter featuring Lance Armstrong.

Within its first season alone, Variety had recognized The Haves and the Have Nots as "OWN's most popular series to date." Also within only its first season, The Haves and the Have Nots had been critically acclaimed as being "one of OWN's biggest success stories with its weekly dose of soapy fun, filled with the typical betrayals, affairs, manipulations and a bitch slap or two." Recognizing the show's increasing popularity, OWN renewed the drama series for a 2nd season midway into the first season. The 2nd season was originally to consist of 16 episodes and bring the series to 32 in total by the completion of season 2; however on August 21, it was announced that the network had ordered 4 additional episodes for the 2nd season, which will bring the series to 36 episodes in total by season 2's completion.

Season 2 of The Haves and the Have Nots premiered on Tuesday, January 7, 2014. Continuing on with its ratings records from season 1, the show debuted its 2nd season with series and network high ratings. Throughout season 2, the soap has achieved several more series highs. On February 4, 2014, for example, the drama series came in as the most watched television program in all of cable television with an estimated 3.4 million viewers. Among all of OWN programming since the network's January 2011 debut, only a March 2012 Oprah's Next Chapter interview with Bobbi Kristina has drawn more viewers (3.5 million) than the February 4, 2014 episode of The Haves and the Have Nots. The Haves and the Have Nots episode in question is "Why Didn't You Tell Me?" On Tuesday, March 11, 2014, however, the mid-season 2 finale of The Haves and the Have Nots set a record for all of OWN programming, scoring the highest ratings in the station's history. The record-breaking episode brought in 3.6 million viewers, surpassing the 3.5 million that tuned in for Oprah Winfrey's interview with Bobbi Kristina. Not only was the episode the most watched broadcast in all of OWN history but it came in at number 1 among all of cable television and number 4 among all shows on television for its airing night. Season 3 premiered on January 6, 2015. Production of season 3 began in August 2014 following a 25 episode order which will bring the episode count to 61 through 2015.

In May 2015, it was reported that the 3rd season of "The Haves and the Have Nots" was primetime's #1 original cable series among African-American women and total viewers, regularly attracting more than three million viewers.