Brad Dourif really does a fantastic job of like -- giving you a character who is just a deeply unnerving presence, and not ever softening that in his performance, and making you care tremendously about him regardless. (innerbrat and I talk a lot about the Everyone Stays AU in which they get to actually just keep having all the interesting one- or two-off characters they encounter throughout the story as opposed to constantly winnowing things back down to core cast.)