Travis Leich

Millie Morris

Murray Markowitz

Mindy Markowitz

Lonny Flash

Roxy Jones

Joe Mizushima

Sister Harriet

Tobias

**Travis Leich** is one of the main antagonists in *Hunters*. He is portrayed by Greg Austin. He is an American golden boy who was radicalized by the Nazis.

## Biography

### Background

Travis’s backstory is largely unknown but he does fill in some gaps. He explains to Joe that in his youth, his parents sent him to rehabilitation and therapy to treat his psychiatric issues. Despite their efforts, Travis harbored an intense urge to inflict harm and even the act of killing but he was good at hiding it. Presumably he learned to hide and control them in order to blend in because of the help he received from social workers, mentioning that he was even converted to Christianity in the process by crying to Jesus every time for forgiveness.

Growing up, Travis became radicalized by the ideologies of the Nazi Party and embraced a warped creed of racial superiority and social Darwinism. In the labyrinth of his twisted convictions, weakness became a damning sin, a malady infecting mankind. His sinister aspirations took root in a malevolent desire to shape a world where only the most malevolent and perverted individuals thrived, crafting a future where strength, distorted by his insidious beliefs, reigned supreme, casting a foreboding shadow over generations to come. His thoughts combined with his homicidal urges escalated to committing anti-semitic hate crimes targeted at the town's significant Jewish community in Skokie. These heinous acts drew the attention of the Nazi underground, ultimately leading to his recruitment into the Fourth Reich. Within this organisation, he assumed the roles of a hitman, informant and courier, where he was allowed to employ his urges.

## Throughout the Series

### Season One

In the Belly of the Whale

In Washington D.C. Travis arrives at the barbeque massacre and Biff hands Travis the gun and an envelope, letting him shoot him in the arm to give the illusion he's the sole survivor of a shoot-out.

The Mourner's Kaddish

Travis abducts the Sommer Household and holds them up at gunpoint, forcing them to divulge information about Millie.

While Visions of Safta Danced in His Head

Millie heads to church to pray, while Travis watches from the shadows intent on taking her out.

Travis phones Biff for instructions as he learns The Colonel is keeping them out of the loop. He attempts to make a deal with Travis but he’s having none of it, proceeding to hang up on him. Instead, Travis continues to keep an eye on Mollie as she visits Ron Davis, an investigator that feeds back more information about seniors being killed including the man in the toy store Jonah visited earlier in the series.

Millie arrives at the scene and begins investigating, deducing there were two killers. As she heads into the back, she finds a jacket with Jonah’s name on but Travis gets there first, posing as an officer. He rips the name tag off and watches from afar to make sure the officers don’t get too close to the truth. One thing they do find however, is a Nazi medallion and photographs leading them to Ruth.

Travis phones The Colonel and informs her Heinz Richter is dead, along with how troublesome Millie is becoming regarding her investigation. Having gained Jonah’s name, Travis switches targets to hunt him while Millie finds out about Ruth, which of course leads her to Jonah as well.

The Pious Thieves

Millie visits Jonah’s house but finds nothing, while Travis waits around inside the house. Before he leaves, he overhears two kids outside talking about Arthur and he learns that Jonah was supposed to be there that night.

At Night, All Birds are Black

 Tobias tasks Travis with another order – this one delivering a bag to a specific address.

As Meyer and the others head out of Tauer’s house their car suddenly explodes, leading to a shootout as Travis reveals himself and grabs a shotgun, circling Meyer while Roxy lies passed out on the ground. As sirens wail overhead, the shootout is left to be continued, as Travis growls in frustration and leaves the house.

(Ruth 1:16)

Tobias, Travis and The Colonel meet to discuss Meyer, where the latter tells Tobias to use his fury to his advantage. However, Travis interjects and tells them he can get the job done, leading to some internal tension to begin simmering between them.

Meyer returns home and immediately notices something afoul as both Travis and Tobias break into his house through the skyline. Following the faint smell of burning, Meyer opens the secret room in his house and finds all the records and information lost in the midst of an inferno raging around him, where the episode ends.

Shalom Motherf\*\*\*er

Travis phoning Millie Morris and telling her to look outside her door, where an envelope holding information about Meyer is located. Travis wishes her Merry Christmas and hangs up the phone while sucking on a red, white and blue lolly.

Day turns to night, and the group converge at the station, where Jonah finds Travis walking casually down the stairs. He hurries after him, keeping an eye from afar.

Back in the train station, Travis slips past Jonah and Murray, but not past Lonny who follows him from afar. However, Travis doesn’t have his bag with him, having left it on the train.

The Jewish Question

Tobias and Travis finally come to blows, with Travis berating his colleague for calling him weak and kicking him repeatedly in the head until he dies.

The Great Ole Nazi Cookout of '77

 At Schidler Corporation, Travis feeds back to The Colonel exactly what he’s done, as she stands and tells him the fittest will survive and he’ll now be rewarded for his actions. That reward comes from drinking a pure concoction as The Colonel discusses starting a new blood line.

Travis and the colonel catch Lonny impersonating a scientist in the main chamber.

After holding them off momentarily, the rest of the group burst in and a gunfight ensues and the corn syrup fries.

Travis and Jonah go head to head, leading to him about to shoot Travis until Millie interjects and tells him not to.

Eilu v' Eilu

Millie heads in to prison and seeing Travis. She offers a deal but he sees right through it – knowing that she’s only here because she has nothing on him. As she leaves, he gives her one last warning while biding his time to escape.

Travis speaks to his lawyer and tells him he wants to stay inside the prison. In order to do that and prove a point to the inmates, he murders this Jewish man and goes on to rally the inmates to his cause.

## Appearance

Leich’s appearance is characterized by a blend of sophistication and menace. He typically dons tailored and stylish clothing, often opting for suits that exude a sense of authority. Travis has a lean and somewhat imposing stature, which adds to his commanding presence. His dirty blonde hair is neatly groomed, complementing his sharp facial features. His blue eyes, however, hold a certain intensity and coldness, reflecting the darkness within his character. Overall, his appearance combines an outward refinement with an underlying aura of danger, making him visually striking and formidable.

## Personality

Travis is a callous, sadistic, immoral and heartless monster, practically a walking textbook definition of psychopathy: totally lacking empathy or any regard for the lives of others, and is totally capable of blending in with the rest of society if needed (though he typically doesn't). Although his actions are somewhat motivated by the Nazi beliefs, he's much less a supremacist and much more a chaotic Darwinist, and would kill anybody regardless of their "inferiority", even his comrades. He's rather sick as far as Nazis go, his cruel nature standing out even from those whose shoulders he stands on. He is not insane or simply "following orders" from The Colonel; he revels in the suffering of others and knows what he does is evil, referring to himself as both a monster and villain, even claiming that he's better at being one than the Nazis.

Travis has no inhibitions when it comes to committing horrifying acts, notably when he murders Detective Sommers' family, showing he'd murder even unborn children without hesitation. He takes pleasure in committing such acts, smiling and joking about them, and singing songs while murdering others and mutilating corpses. He also doesn't need any particular reason to perpetrate such acts, shown when he shoots and kills a flamingo after walking out of the Sommers household. He'll monologue to his victims about nature and natural selection, relating his examples to modern cultural heterogeneity and "inferior races".

While he does act on orders from The Colonel, she seems to be the only authority figure he has any respect for and would murder his other superiors simply because he could. Even then, he feigns his respect for The Colonel simply to stay in good with the organization that lets him kill, and secretly believes that she is inherently worth less than him because she is a woman. When he discovers that The Colonel intends to take over the neo-Nazi movement, he decides he would rather kill her than allow a woman to lead.

Travis can instill fear in others, thanks in part to multiple factors, one being how terrifyingly stoic he is. Travis shows almost no emotion, speaking in an eerie and monotonous tone. Even when he does display false emotion, it's unnerving due to his inability to feel such emotions. He plays mind games with his targets by doing this, unsettling them to the point of yielding to his request or being inflicted with terror. He's made even more terrifying when he performs unexpected acts, often accompanied by show tunes or an impassive monologue.

Travis displays a wide range of knowledge regarding nature and history, such as knowing where flamingos truly get their pink pigment, the use of the color orange throughout history, etc. This knowledge is heavily connected to his deep belief in social Darwinism, wherein some naturally prosper and others are doomed to die; he uses these facts to support said ideology, relaying them to his victims in order to terrify them, typically in their last moments before he takes their lives.

## Notes & Trivia

* Travis is easily one of the evilest characters in the show, far more so than many of the Nazis who precede him. This is mostly due to his lack of care for anything (as many of the Nazis still had, despite their vile actions and beliefs), as well as having no delusions about what he is: a villain, and one who's only personal code is to kill those he hates or believes are inferior to him, and this most certainly isn't limited to the Nazis' supremacist hierarchy.
* Travis has a wide-ranging knowledge of many things, including facts and history of nature/evolution, having deeply subscribed to the theories from Charles Darwin; he also comprehends the zeitgeist of prior decades, having at least basic knowledge of the popular culture of said times and several songs and musical numbers from the 50s and 60s, possibly due to his young age and developing appreciation of the arts and sciences early on. Notable examples are:
	+ - His interest in both popular and obscure literature (i.e. *Are You My Mother* and *Vril*respectively).
		- Him championing the theory of natural selection - "survival of the fittest".
		- Him knowing where flamingos get their pink appearance (pigment chemicals found in their prey).
		- His dramatic sing of the lyrics to *The Impossible Dream*, *Put Your Head on My Shoulder*, and *West Side Story: Act I: Tonight*.
		- The history and use of the color orange (i.e. the color of illumination in Buddhism, signifying nobility in Elizabethan England).

* Travis' final words of the season and his chant inside the prison, "Jews will not replace us", was a chant used by alt-right and neo-Nazi protestors during the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
	+ This reinforces that Travis emulates modern neo-Nazism that remains at least somewhat prevalent in the United States.
* Travis can be seen as the antithesis of Jonah since both were recruited for a secret organization led by an elder whom they look up to, and are fiercely good at their jobs, whether for better or worse.