Benjamin Ovich

**Benjamin "Benji" Ovich** was a former hockey player from Beartown. At the beginning of the series, he was 17-years old.

With "sad eyes and a wild heart", Benji was recognized to have great potential, being the "fighter" on the Beartown Ice Hockey team. The sport seemed to be the only thing he had in the small town, though events unravel that test his relationships and all that he was.

Benji was portrayed by Otto Fahlgren in the television series adaption. His character biography reads as follows: "Kevin's best friend and one of Beartown's best hockey players, Benji is more of an individual than his teammates. Though loyal to Beartown, Benji keeps a quiet distance so he can live his life without scrutiny".

## Biography

### *Beartown*

Benji had three older sisters named Adri, Katia, and Gaby, all of whom looked after and cared for him. He was raised by a single mother, where they lived in a row house in the Hollow. His father, Alan, committed suicide in the forest one night, when Benji was very young. While Benji did not hold any resentment for this and routinely visited his father's grave, his mother was deeply affected, and his sisters were "somewhere in between". His sisters feared that he would meet the same fate as their father.

Benji took on the role of an enforcer and protected his fellow best friend and teammate, Kevin Erdahl, on the ice. He recognised that he was the "insurance policy" for Kevin, and thus, would not be kicked off the team. When Maya Andersson was raped by Kevin at a party one night, this severed their friendship. In an argument Benji called Kevin a coward, and Kevin implied that he knew about Benji's sexuality.

Peter Andersson wanted to have justice for his daughter, and residents went into public outrage for the hockey club's future. Alliances were quickly formed, with a majority of hockey parents publicly in favour of letting Kevin play. When Kevin was taken by the police right before the final, residents blamed the Andersson family when they lost. The investigation and charges against Kevin were dropped due to inconclusive evidence, and Benjamin confronted Kevin one last time on their island, before leaving for good.

### *Us Against You*

A year later the Erdahl family moved out of town, and David switched to coach the Hed Hockey team, bringing along Beartown's best players. Benji chose not to join them, remaining in Beartown. When Beartown's hockey club was threatened to be shut down, politician Richard Theo became intent on building the team again, able to persuade Peter. Elizabeth Zackell was hired as the new Junior A-Team's coach, and Benji was designated as the team's captain, placing unwanted responsibility on his shoulders.

Benji met the Man in a Polo Shirt at the Barn, where they formed a connection. The Man was surprised Benji read Friedrich Nietzsche, making Benji respond, "There are lots of things I don't look like". Upon Benji wanting to pick a fight with four men from Hed who entered the bar, Katia convinced him not to start, so he left. The man followed after, and they went to the man's cabin in the outskirts of Hed. Spending one night together, they never expected to see each other again. Once the same man became the new teacher at Beartown School, the man showed hesitance in any interaction with Benji.

Sometime later when Benji helped Ana take care of her alcoholic father, she initiated a kiss. Benji rejected her advances, pulling away. In a moment of hurt, Ana followed him and saw him go to the cabin, kissing their teacher. Ana took photos and posted them online as revenge, resulting in the teacher being laid off and Benji becoming a new target by homophobic or those who bore any sort of ill towards him individuals.

Pretending to be unbothered by everything, Benji had newfound pressures he did not want to deal with. Maya knew it was Ana who took the photos, as the frame matched Ana's broken camera lens, which led to her informing Benji. Their bond grew closer, as both were given unwanted attention and being discriminated against within the town. Benji decided not to participate in the game against Hed, though at last minute played in the final period, where they lost 4-3. The Pack, a local gang known for violence, supported Beartown, letting them know their loyalty was still with them. Benji left on the train station to find himself, and Maya gave him one of her poems, hoping he would get a happy ending.

### *The Winners*

Benji decided to leave Beartown for a while, "drunk and free", though drank to the point of excess with frequent hangovers. One of the continents he visited was Asia. When the news of Ramona's death reached him, he returned home. Concerned with the reaction from citizens, he felt alienated, no longer a hockey player, and was followed by the rumours of being a coward and a drug addict. On a Sunday in the churchyard for Ramona's funeral service, he overheard a boy commenting about his sexuality, causing him to leave. The Pack follow close behind, warmly welcome, and treat him normally. Later on, Benji reunited with hockey players Bobo, Amat, and Mumble, the latter who switched over from Hed Hockey. He eventually bonded with Aleksandr, the newly recruited hockey player nicknamed "Big City".

When a young boy named Matteo wanted vengeance for his older sister, Ruth, who was raped by Rodri, he took a pistol with the intention of murdering the perpetrators. One of them was Mumble, who did nothing to help her. Benji managed to save Mumble's and Alicia's lives by throwing himself in the way, getting fatally shot in the heart, twice. He was buried beside his father and mourned by the town. In the newspaper's obituary, it had the quotation of Swedish poet Bodil Malmsten's words, "This hurts too much to touch with words".

## Appearance

Benji was described to have long, thick, messy hair, and a bear tattoo on his arm in tribute to his hometown. He has a scar on his chin and is of a toned build. He was said to be handsome with "sad eyes".

Upon returning to Beartown after two years away in *"The Winners"*, he was thinner, tanner, and had longer hair. He is implied to have gotten more tattoos.

## Personality

Benji was extremely loyal and protective to those he loved, though was also well-guarded. His greatest weakness was the inability to hurt the people he loved, and fear of responsibility.

Benji had trouble with authority, either not listening or acting careless, and was known to antagonize William Lyt, but usually for good reason. When teasing their female teacher, Jeanette, Benji understood the wrongness in the situation, later apologising for his behaviour. Growing up with three sisters and a single mother, it had made him more sensitive to the issues of sexism and privilege, though along with this, pressures to fit in. Despite being aloof, Benji was known to be an influence on the rest of his team, with Jeanette observing, "a single word from Benji can make any hockey player in the entire school start or stop doing anything". This was demonstrated when Benji was assigned to be the captain, and the rest of the team followed him without any eloquent speech.

Often using alcohol and marijuana to cope, Benji hid his sexuality of being gay, as he feared would result in exclusion from the rest of his team, and where he'd witnessed homophobia. Having fleeting romances, always leaving in the morning, Benji had shown to have once been in love with Kevin. When he was outed to the town, he refused to become any mascot or a label, and only wanted to play hockey. All his life he became what people wanted him to be and maintained a strong exterior. Despite being described by others as tough-spirited, when he left town for two years, he wasn't "as strong as he used to be" and no longer "wild". He had been described as the "loneliest" person Maya had ever met, though he welcomed the silence, because no one could hurt him when he was alone.

## Relationships

### Family

#### Adri Ovich

The eldest sister of Benji, who protected. Ever since witnessing her father's death that night, she had nightmares that the same thing would happen to Benji, so she hid the key to the rifle cabinet under her pillow. She taught Benji how to fight.

#### Katia Ovich

The second-eldest sister of Benji, who solved problems. She was known to dote on and was gentle with Benji. When they were younger, Benji used to say she was his "favorite sister" as a tactic to get away with most things, since Katia wanted Benji to love her the most. She wished Benji "a different life" where he could be himself, and milder.

#### Gaby Ovich

The youngest-eldest sister of Benji. She has two children who adored their uncle.

### Romances

#### Bass Player

The Bass Player moved to Hed to be in his cousin's band, after a bad relationship. Benji and the Bass Player meet in the Barn, a bar in Hed, where Benji's older sister Katia works, They become romantically interested in eachother instantly, but Benji keeps pushing him away, afraid of close intimacy and his sexuality. They kiss for the first time when Benji decides to teach the Bass Player to skate. Eventually, the Bass Player has to return home, leaving Benji. He tries to call Benji, but Benji doesn't reply.

In ten years time, he will see a clip from one of Maya's concerts; a song for Benji's birthday. He'll see Benjamin's face on television, and remember him. He approaches Maya and becomes her bass player after sharing his relationship with Benji to her. The book says, "No one will play her songs like him. No one will cry as much as him", suggesting he stills harbours feelings for Benji after all those years.

#### Man in the Polo Shirt

The Man in the Polo Shirt is an unnamed man at the Barn, who has lived in Beartown for four hours. They met at a pub in Hed, and ended up sleeping together. Later, Benji found out that the man was the new teacher at his school. They continued their relationship in secret until both were outed, and the teacher moved away.

### Friends

#### Kevin Erdahl

Kevin Erdahl was Benji's best friend. The two met around the age of primary school, where Kevin was getting beat up by older kids of the players he'd won against on the ice. Benji came along and rescued him. Sometime later, Benji showed up at a hockey practice and had been a protector ever since. They had sleepovers for several months, and Benji learned that Kevin was often under pressure to be perfect and succeed in everything by his parents. Kevin was never able to lie to Benji, and wished that he had the ability, like Benji, to not care about anything, and to get away with it.

Terrified of being alone, and scared that his friendship with Benji never meant anything, their friendship ended the day after the night of the party, when they argued. The two shared a place located at the island, hidden from view. Benji's last words were "I hope you find him, Kev".

When William Lyt confronted and asked if Benji was in love with Kevin, he confessed that he did. Kevin was named as the "love of Benji's life", and Benji blamed himself for what happened to Maya at the party. Jealous of the way Kevin looked at Maya, he believed that if he never left, then Maya could've almost been happy, and Kevin would've played in the NHL.

#### David

David was a hockey coach for the junior A-team and an idol figure to Benji. When Kevin and Benji were quite young, both went through David's bag and found the wristwatch that was passed down from David's father. David, initially furious upon catching them, began a ritual where, if they played exceptional games, he would give the watch to that boy to wear until the next game. This tradition stopped when they got older.

He had ingrained the belief, "Don't pay any attention to what people say, Benji. They'll like us well enough when we start winning" and remarked of Benji being the "heart of the team" and just like him—"prepared to do whatever it takes". Along with this, David accepted Benji's temperament, and rather than described it as fighting, said that Benji was simply protecting.

In effort to connect the team, the coach would occasionally use homophobic jokes to try to lighten the atmosphere. When David witnessed Benji kissing another man, he felt ashamed that Benji was never comfortable to confide in him. David placed a puck on Alan's gravestone that read "Still the bravest bastard I know" and the wristwatch for Benji to see. Despite moving to Hed Hockey and bringing along most of the Beartown players, David refused to let anyone wear the number 16, and hoped that Benji would come back to him. After the Hed versus Beartown game, Benji visited David's house to give back the wristwatch, though kept the puck. David apologized, and Benji responded that he was the best coach Benji's ever had.

#### Ramona

When Adri found Benji in the forest, afraid that he had committed the same fate as their father, she and her sisters convince Ramona for him to have a job at the Bearskin pub. In her own way, Ramona comforted Benji, and saw that he struggled with personal issues. When Benji was outed, he tentatively asked if Ramona was also disappointed in him, though Ramona assured him, "I've always been very fond of you. I wish you a happy life".

When Ramona's death was announced, Benji immediately travelled back to Beartown. She was seen like a second mother to him, where he cared about her, even keeping a postcard that he would've sent. In *The Winners*, Benji said that he had given up that anyone would be proud of him, but at least Ramona didn't think he was a "total disappointment".

#### Maya Andersson

Benji was one of the few known characters who believed that Maya was raped by Kevin. Because of their social groups in school, they rarely interacted, though Benji led her and Ana to the island, which used to be his and Kevin's place. When Benji was outed, Maya said to him at school, "Don't let the bastards see you cry". They entered the building, where she waited for him, and they walked side-by-side.

Although Maya was furious that Ana was the one who outed Benji, he advised for her to forgive, since they were like sisters. Later on, when Benji went to the train station, Maya found him, and gave poetry. The poem wished Benji courage, a way out, and a happy ending. She thought of him as the "wildest, loneliest person she knows". When both arrive back home at the news of Ramona's death, they continue to hang out. When watching the hockey A-team training session, they sit together on the bleachers and joke around, becoming close friends. Upon Benji's death, she would sing about him in most of her songs.

#### Aleksandr

Benji and Aleksandr first met in a practice hockey game with them, Amat, Bobo, Mumble, Peter, Maya, Sune, and Fatima in attendance. When Amat joked that Aleksandr was better than Benji on the ice, this caused him to go out on the rink. In one attempt, Aleksandr managed to get past Benji, causing him to fall. Later on, they went camping with Maya and Ana in a campervan. When the girls went to sleep, the two sat outside and watched the stars. They discussed hockey, where Benji asked if Aleksandr had previous concussions, reminding him of Kevin.

They were merely friends, where Aleksandr admitted, "If I liked guys, I could really fucking fall for you".

### Enemies

#### William Lyt

William was a fellow hockey player who was jealous of Benji, competing against him for everything. Ever since Benji became Kevin's best friend, William had done everything he could to bring down Benji. He teased Benji's secondhand clothes and gave the nickname "Sledge", because he wasn't driven to practices, but rather, rode a bicycle with a sledge behind. Benji responded by fighting back, which resulted in William's two teeth knocked out and publicly humiliated. Ever since, he wielded anger and resentment.

In the Beartown School's cafeteria, William and his friends taunted that Benji ran away from a fight, which led Benji to charge at them. As Benji began to walk away after it ended, William added "goddamn homo", making Benji filled with anxiety that they knew about him. However, William was talking about their hockey coach, Elizabeth Zackell. Benji left the school, pretending to remain unfazed, though once he entered the forest, unleashed his anger.

Later on, Benji suspected that William set the pub on fire (even though he didn't), and they fought each other on the running track on the Heights. Suddenly, William brought up the memory when all three of them were friends, and used to play hockey in his house's basement, since it rained outside. He confessed that he looked forward to whenever it rained, and any discord between them vanished as they went their separate ways.

## Etymology

'Benjamin' has Hebrew origins, meaning "son of the right hand" (place of honor). The expression "the Benjamin of the family" alludes to Biblical text, meaning the youngest son. This can be accurate, as Benji is the youngest of his family.

'-ovich' means "belonging to a male" in Croatian, and is often used in patronymics for men. This may relate to Benji's nationality roots.

## Trivia

* It is mentioned in Chapter 47 of *The Winners* that "his own language" is Swedish.
* The author "based him on someone [he] knew and cared about".
* It is mentioned that the Ovich's are not Swedish by blood and speak another language at home, however; it is never specified where they're from.
* The website, *The Book Report Network*, wrote, "We adore Benji, so from the very first page our hearts are broken. Backman writes frankly about Benji, his hopes and dreams, and makes us fall completely in love with him before he meets his tragic, heroic end".

## References

1. ↑ "HBO Max Nordic (@HBOMaxNordic)". *Twitter*. 23 September 2020.
2. ↑ *Beartown*, Chapter 24
3. ↑ *The Winners*, Chapter 47
4. ↑ *Beartown*, Chapter 48
5. ↑ *The Winners*, Chapter 72
6. ↑ *The Winners*, Chapter 93
7. ↑ Kramer, Pamela (28 September 2022). "The Winners". *The Book Report Network*.