Sue Lynn Blackbird is a woman from an indigenous background who runs the local Tribal Casino.
History[]
Mother's Attack[]
When she was young and her father was away at war, a man broke into her house. Her mother put her and three siblings in the closet, but she could see what was happening through the key hole. The attacker threw her mother down on the bed, ready to rape her, but Sue Lynn shot him before he could succeed.[1]
Nina's Disappearance[]
When Sue Lynn's only grandchild, Nina, disappeared, she asked Dex to find her, knowing Dex has experience finding people from her time in the military. Dex found Nina quickly, but while she was bringing Nina back to her grandmother, Nina was taken again. Dex continued her investigation, but then Sue Lynn told the police Nina was back home, though she wouldn't allow her to speak to the police, saying she was with her mother. She was upset with Dex for not retrieving Nina as promised and said it was her own fault for getting someone who wasn't suited to the job. Dex quickly figured out that Nina was still missing and her captors were demanding a ransom. When she went to talk to Nina's boyfriend, she realized he was involved in the kidnapping. While she subdued the kidnappers, Michael escaped with Nina and went to trade her for the money Sue Lynn was bringing. As they did the exchange, Dex arrived, followed by a train of cops. Michael, Dill, and Whale were arrested and Nina was safe with her grandmother. Sue Lynn thanked Dex and said Dex was the right person for the job.[2]
Warning Dex[]
When Sue Lynn learned that Dex was working for Candace Tapper, the estranged wife of a colleague of hers, she went to warn Dex to back off. She said Randall Tapper was a friend of the Confederated Tribes and Dex should be careful. Dex made it clear that she wouldn't back off.[3]
When Dex didn't back off, Sue Lynn told Dex that Randall was threatening to pull out of the school project. She in turned threatened to turn Dex in for an unpaid marker, which she had previously said she'd clear in exchange for finding Nina. She gave Dex 10 days to make her decision. When Dex learned that Randall was using the school as a front to move drugs, she took that information to Sue Lynn. The two then worked together to get Randall to confess to drug trafficking on camera and used that to blackmail him into finishing the school at his own expense, stopping the drug trafficking, and giving full custody of Mila to Candace.[4]
Threats[]
Sue Lynn became worried when there were a series of events she interpreted as threats to take her down. She hired Dex to investigate them. Dex resisted, believing it was nothing, but then an explosion drew them outside, where Sue Lynn's car was on fire. Sue Lynn gave Dex a list of 141 enemies she'd made over the years. When Dex said the attacked seemed personal and wanted to look within the Tribe, Sue Lynn paired her with Naomi Blackbird, Benny's ex-wife, so she could have access to everyone and everything. Dex found out that Leigh Green, Hollis's nephew, was staging a coup to overthrow Sue Lynn and used that to get Hollis to give her the names of everyone who'd been disenrolled from the tribe. One of those, Russ Foster, was arrested with explosives and immediately confessed, though he said he wasn't trying to hurt Sue Lynn. He'd given opiates to three teens on the reservation, which killed them. Sue Lynn and Hollis went to the police station to pick up Russ, saying he'd be re-enrolled and the problem would be handled internally. Sue Lynn then told Dex that she'd been hasty kicking Russ out when he needed them most.[5]
Helping Dex[]
Dex came to Sue Lynn to fill in gaps in her memory of her night with Liz. Sue Lynn helped her review the security footage, which showed that Liz spent the night getting Dex drunk without drinking herself. Before Dex left, Sue Lynn advised her to get her life together, starting with literally making her bed, advice she took.[6]
Reuniting Jeremy's Family[]
When Dex went to Sue Lynn for help dealing with another nearby Indian Reservation, Sue Lynn also informed her that the adoption agency her client had been adopted through had a history of forcibly removing Native children from their homes and having them adopted by white, Christian parents. She was able to track down a few members of Jeremy's birth family and introduced him to them.[7]
Hiding Max[]
After Grey and Max escaped from the bust, Grey quickly realized they were being followed by police. He called Dex for a favor and then drove Max onto the reservation, where they were met by Sue Lynn and Hollis, who told the police they were breaking the law by chasing Grey and Max onto tribal land. Once the police backed off and left, Sue Lynn gave them permission to drive through the reservation and said they needed to get going before the police figured out she'd lied to them.[8]
Learning the Truth About Benny[]
Sue Lynn was working with a horse when Dex came to visit her and told her that the day Benny died, she had refused to let the military torture a woman, Hajira Abbassin, who may have had information that may have prevented Benny's death. Sue Lynn assured her that Benny wouldn't have let them torture the woman either and that she did the right thing, something Sue Lynn admired about her.[9]
Dex came to Sue Lynn when she learned that Benny's unit was dirty, which led to his death. She asked Sue Lynn for the letters he'd sent her. She tried to say that she'd destroyed them, but Hollis gave them to Dex anyway. Sue Lynn said she wasn't proud of what was in the letters, as Benny hated that she broke up him and Dex and they never got a chance to make amends.
Later, when Dex fled the police, she and Ansel went to Sue Lynn's. Sue Lynn helped settle Ansel in the for the night and then gave Dex a gun so she could go take care of things.
After Dex shot and killed Robert Wolfe, the murderer of Benny, Thomas Junes, and Kale Murphy, when he attacked her, Sue Lynn talked to her at Benny's grave. She told Dex now it was time to go on, as the past 12 years had been dedicated to this.[10]
Personality[]
Relationships[]
Familial[]
Her son, Benjamin, fell in love with Dex after his marriage fell apart and he joined the Army. He planned to propose to her, but his family didn't approve, so he didn't. When he finally decided to do it despite his family, he died before he could get to her, leaving behind his daughter, Nina, Sue Lynn's only grandchild.[11]
She has three siblings. The four of them were left along with their mother while her father served in a war.[12]
Professional[]
She had a professional relationship with Randall Tapper. He was considered a friend of the Confederated Tribes until the truth of his operations came to light.[13]
Career[]
She runs the operations for a local Tribal Casino.
Notes and Trivia[]
- She knits.[14]
- She doesn't trust the police and prefers to keep them out of her family's business.[15]
- She doesn't drink beer.[16]
Gallery[]
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A more complete gallery with pictures of Sue Lynn Blackbird can be found here. |
Notable Episodes[]
Memorable Quotes[]
Appearances[]
| Stumptown, Season 1 | |||||||
| #01 | "Forget It Dex, It's Stumptown." | #07 | "November Surprise" | #13 | "The Dex Factor" | ||
| #02 | "Missed Connections" | #08 | "The Other Woman" | #14 | "Til Dex Do Us Part" | ||
| #03 | "Rip City Dicks" | #09 | "Dex Education" | #15 | "At All Costs: The Conrad Costas Chronicles" | ||
| #04 | "Family Ties" | #10 | "Reality Checks Don't Bounce" | #16 | "All Quiet on the Dextern Front" | ||
| #05 | "Bad Alibis" | #11 | "The Past and the Furious" | #17 | "The Dex Files" | ||
| #06 | "Dex, Drugs and Rock & Roll" | #12 | "Dirty Dexy Money" | #18 | "All Hands on Dex" | ||
References
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| Main Characters of Stumptown |
|---|
| Dex Parios • Grey McConnell • Sue Lynn Blackbird • Ansel Parios • Tookie Alvarez • Lieutenant Bobby Cosgrove • Detective Miles Hoffman |