there's truly just something about the lieutenants in the terror that really fascinates and depresses me because they all serve such a unique narrative purpose that makes them SO distinctive
like you have little, who suffers from the chain of command, who is constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place because on the one hand as first lieutenant he's in charge of terror whenever crozier is off the ship (or suffering from severe withdrawal) and that ultimately does nothing for him during the last mutiny. edward spends all of his time angry or miserable, knowing that he has to obey crozier even when he's aware he shouldn't, and that obedience is the most heartbreaking trait of all because crozier commands him to live and he does, he lives until the very end, he only dies when crozier returns.
hodgson comes from means (and, retroactively, ends up as the great-great uncle of elizabeth ii, which is insane), served in the opium wars with fitzjames, and (most crucially) consistently tries to keep a cheerful disposition— which fails him phenomenally once irving is killed and hickey starts getting in his head about being the one lieutenant that doesn't actually matter. he symbolizes hunger, mentioning food constantly throughout the show, and has an emotionally charged monologue that ends in him admitting that he would kill hickey if he were braver, despite constantly and consistently proving his worth even after making cowardly choices. his very last act is trying to free everyone from the chains hickey put on them.
irving, by word of god, is incredibly repressed and has a superiority complex that he takes out on crew members that are below him, but he also has a rarely seen sweeter side that comes out here and there, and he notably (as hickey predicts) doesn't out hickey and gibson to crozier after finding them. in fact, he tries to offer hickey advice on how to curb "ungodly" urges through acts of creativity. yes, it's in very poor form, but he means well and he only goes to crozier about hickey's 'dirtiness' when it's clear that hickey was insubordinate. his murder is the final catalyst for everything going to absolute hell, and it's right on the cusp of salvation, on communicating and sharing food and prized possessions with the netsilik people. salvation is in their grasp and it's ripped away from them because irving dies violently.
and then on erebus, you have gore, who is both depicted and described as an outstanding individual, who shows kindness and positivity and is clearly an excellent leader— and he is the first violent sacrifice made to the narrative to show that there's something else out there that's hunting them, that it's not just scurvy, lead, exposure, or famine that wants them dead. his death creates the downward spiral for sir john, and it's his eulogy that's read out loud for sir john's funeral as well. his death has a lasting impact on the entire show despite happening so suddenly. and it's gore who writes all well on the victory point note, and whose death starts it all.
le vesconte, fitzjames's closest friend, is the last lieutenant standing on erebus for the majority of the show and doesn't ever seem to be offered even a modicum of assistance at any point regarding it. it's his friendship with fitzjames that gets him on the expedition, it's his talent for surveying that permanently mutilates him in a scene that's all but a passing thought for his situation (stanley is barely even paying attention while he amputates dundy's toes and then cauterizes them), and it's fitzjames's death that sends him into a spiral that ultimately gets him killed and cannibalized. every single aspect of the show works against him, but it's only towards the end that it finally gets to him.
fairholme, whom we know the least about, is appropriately an off-screen beacon of hope once he and his sledge party are sent off to try and find their way back to the mainland. it's fairholme we know the least about, yet potential rescue in the entire first and second acts of the show is contingent on fairholme making it back and sending a rescue party to the ships— and it's the discovery of that same sledge party that not only sends morfin into utter despair that results in the final nail on the coffin of the crew's distrust in crozier, but it also leads to the mutiny when hickey uses that knowledge against crozier and recruits tozer to do the same.
for an added bonus, you have jopson and des voeux. jopson is promoted to fourth lieutenant in one of the only genuinely joyful scenes towards the end of the show, and it bites them all in the ass when it gives hickey ammunition against hodgson. it also ends up being a mostly symbolic promotion, because despite his new seniority, it doesn't matter. he stays loyal, he stays good, and he's still left behind with the rest of the sick and dying.
des voeux by all rights should have been promoted the instant erebus lost both gore and fairholme, since he'd passed his test to become a lieutenant (and how ironic is it that he's never made fourth lieutenant despite his qualifications, but jopson is despite having none) but he stays as a mate which presumably only adds to his sour and cruel personality, plus gives him more reason to want to mutiny. and none of it matters, because he dies a lonely, miserable, pathetic death anyway.
all eight of them—because i do count jopson and des voeux—are so interesting and sometimes they fall by the wayside in the grand scheme of things but they all affect the narrative in ways that set the course from start to finish.
god, i love the lieutenants. and that mean little mate, too.
