Rav Mulcair

## Ravioli "Rav" Mulcair

**Ravioli or "Rav" Mulcair** is a character in the HBO television series *Avenue 5*, portrayed by actress Nikki Amuka-Bird. She is head of Judd Mission Control on Earth.

## Personality

HBO describes the character as "extremely intelligent, intense, and slightly odd," but also "frustrated and exhausted by lack of control." Mulcair is racked with guilt at having sent her two best friends into space in an attempt to fix their failing marriage.

## Appearance

Rav is a very thin Black British woman with black, curly hair and brown eyes. She is probably part of Generation Alpha.

## Occupation

Rav is the Head of Mission Control for the Judd Brand. She's there to make sure all departments are working seamlessly during the Avenue 5's eight week journey. Despite her experience she has found everything falling apart after the gravity shift and doesn't appear to be handling things well. She works with the aid of Alan Lewis and Lori Hernandez primarily.

## Character Biography

### Avenue 5

As head of Mission Control it is left down to her to try and fix everything from Earth after the gravity shift incident. She reaches out to NASA originally for aid and actually gets them to agree - despite the huge price - until Herman Judd insults both Susan and NASA. Rav then tries to speak with Susan and get her back on board with the idea but this is to no avail.

When she learns that Judd had hired actors to pretend to be family members outside Mission Control for a vigil she wants to have them disband so no one finds out that it's all lies and makes the Judd Brand look any worse, however, it's pointed out to her by Alan Lewis that doing that would look even more suspicious.

Right after Ryan Clark and Billie McEvoy save the Avenue 5 after the wetsuit rupture in He's Only There To Stop His Skeleton Falling Over, she informs Alan that she was going to The White House to do some 'corporate begging'. While on her way to Buffalo, New York Alan tells her about the faecal matter forming a ring around the ship which is just another thing Rav is forced to add to her pile of problems.

Once in Buffalo she's told by one of the President's liaison that they will help once it's cleared with The Other President, though slightly confused since Rav had thought both presidents would have signed off at the same time she still agrees and goes with the woman. When she makes her case with the Other President, she states that they urgently need rescue funds in the number of $4.23 trillion. She is informed that they will transfer the funds but to consider the removal of five-hundred people. Rav points out the moral implications of this but the AI is unconcerned and ends the conversation. She then speaks to Ryan, Billie, Karen, Iris and Frank aboard the ship via a communication device to inform them that they have funding but that the Other President suggested getting rid of five-hundred NEPs (Non-essential Personnels). However, the connection breaks up before her refusal to kill all those people is broadcast.

During Are You a Spider, Matt? it becomes clear that her visit to the White House wasn't all together a good one. Word has incorrectly spread that Rav ordered the deaths of five-hundred people aboard the ship which leads to a protest outside Judd Mission Control. Alan points out that she's Head of Mission Control and yet everyone seems to think she no longer has any control; the public is starting to lose faith in her. One headline reads 'Fury Grows Over Massacre Plans' showing the extent of the hatred that has started to brew. She eventually comes up with the idea to bring Judd back on the emergency supplies shuttle so she can shoft the blame for all the Avenue 5's problems onto him. Fearing what the public will do to her as their rage increases she tells Alan that she's going to go and get Judd herself. She chucks the food flavorings out of the passenger seat on the shuttle and screams when the shuttle is launched much to the pilot's irritation.

After running away from Alan Lewis for the ship Rav ends up travelling to Avenue 5 in This Is Physically Hurting Me without a real idea of what her plan is. As a result she's left making awkward small talk with the pilot. She makes a joke about swapping jobs but the pilot laughs at her claiming running Mission Control to be a 'shit show' which only makes Rav feel worse. When she finally arrives at Avenue 5 it is in the wake of seven people's deaths as they'd jumped out the airlock. She tries to suggest that the pilot didn't need a seat to return but as he's the pilot it isn't an option and he tells her that she had three options, either she goes back to Earth, Judd goes back, or they both go back if one had eaten the other. Rav reluctantly accepts her situation and tries to look on the positive side of things only for all the frozen dead passengers who'd been jettisoned to smash into the shuttle's windows and terrify her.

Upon arriving at the Avenue 5 in Eight Arms But No Hands she insists to her pilot that the journey officially is that nothing of any import happened and it was perfectly ordinary, a clear order not to speak of the people who'd smashed and shattered into the ship. She orders him to stay in his seat and wait for her. She quickly goes in and tries to figure out what had been going in, Rav lies to a few passengers and says she was in the spa so she'd missed things and learns about people throwing themselves out the airlock which horrifies her. Rav doesn't miss a beat though and quickly starts to assess if the Judd Brand is liable for the deaths and if there are people willing to swear to that in a court of law. When she stumbles across Iris Kimura dragging a horse statue with Karen Kelly's aid she stops them and demands to be taken to Judd.

She goes to the conference room only to find Mia, Doug and Spike Martin. Rav is obviously uncomfortable with the situation and she gets into a pushing match with Mia until Mads storms in and tells her to get away from his girlfriend; a comment which confuses her. This sparks a fight between Mads and Doug that Iris ends by pointing out they're running out of time to jettison the items. When she manages to track down Judd she demands an apology which he doesn't give and Rav ends up slapping him twice which felt fantastic. He scurries off to the shuttle then leaving everyone to follow, but thanks to Jordan Hatwal Judd decides to remain on the ship instead of going back to Earth. Unfortunately this sparks a fight over who can go back to Earth in the spare seat. In the end Iris is forced to return to Earth when the autopilot lock traps her on the shuttle.

Trapped aboard the ship for the next decade, it has become Rav's unofficial task to try to solve their food situation. To everyone's disappointment, she doesn't have good news for them. Her plan is to essentially sort the passengers and crew into two groups called the 'guaranteed' and the 'pioneers' with the latter group being sealed in the lower decks to fend for themselves. She is very nervous about this plan and isn't a fan of it herself, like the rest of those in the meeting, but would rather the plan be hated than her for coming up with it. Spike goes so far as to call it 'industrial slaughter', while Ryan refers to her plan as 'Rav Mulcair's Festival of Murder'.

As they are aware no one will respond well to the knowledge they're not going home in a month, Matt and Rav begrudgingly decide to use Frank's show - Frank's Kitchen - to inform everyone about the eight year extension. Here she and Matt accidentally reveal that Frank has been lying to his wife about the entire ship hating her. This discovery causes Rav to panic as she doesn't do well with chaos. When Karen attacks Frank after Ryan arrives, Rav wants somebody to tranquillize Karen but in the end Karen just passes out in Ryan's arms.

She joins Matt to watch Ryan tell everyone about the journey extension only for Billie to reveal to everyone that they're now headed for the Sun. This causes panic and Rav rushes away since they now have bigger problems.

## Quotes

* "There's even a soft play area. Yay. I want one." (About *Avenue 5*)
* "I'm going to do 600 push ups then throw up in the sink." (Rav to Alan)
* "I don't do well with chaos. Could somebody please get me a weighted blanket and a red inhaler." (Rav after learning Karen doesn't know the passengers haven't been informed of the journey extension)
* "I like your hands. Left and right, a classic." (Rav attempting to make small talk)
* "The mood on the ship is pre-post-apocalyptic."
* "You'd rather let a cannibal loose than admit to being casually racist?" (Rav to Frank)

## Trivia

* She arrived on the ship with a very limited wardrobe and so was reduced to taking clothing from the dead which she calls 'borrowing'.
* She doesn't do well with stress.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1  HBO. Armando Iannucci to Bring Humor to Space with ‘Avenue 5’ hbo.com. Retrieved on November 24, 2019.