Cynthia Houston

Cynthia Houston is the head of the American Secret Service, also known as the A.S.S. and is Agent Curt Mega's boss. At first glance she seems cold and cruel, but throughout the play we see that deep down she does care for Curt in an almost motherly way, despite often not being able to express how she feels.

We are first introduced to her character in the first scene, when Curt and Owen are escaping the compound, and her position of authority is quickly established through the short interaction with them. When Curt returns to work 4 years after that, we can still see that she is apparently quite cut-off from her emotions, hence her being able to act all cheery and happy one second, then strict the next. She is, however, aware of her coldness, telling Mega that she's been "a big old bitch lately" and explaining the reasons behind it. It's unlikely that her character is too different when she's not under stress, but from what we see you could guess that it would be slightly more caring than we see her during the majority of the show, similar to the final scene.

Cynthia uses extreme methods to make Curt pay attention to her, such as poisoning him while she briefs him and shooting him to see if he's wearing a bulletproof vest just before she sends him out of her office. In her final interaction with Curt, she appears to pay homage to that, leaving a live grenade in his jacket pocket as a parting gift.

It is probable that Cynthia knew the nature of Curt's relationship with Owen and protected him, something that would've meant a lot during that time period. With the government looking for homosexual people, it could have cost Cynthia her job and much more had she been found to have known about Curt's situation, which leads many people to wonder whether Cynthia herself is part of the LGBTQ+ community. She easily could have turned Curt over but didn't, and while she may outwardly appear to be mean and harsh, deep down there is some part of her that feels the need to protect Curt.