Phil Burbank

Phil is a rancher in 1925 Montana. He studied classics at Yale, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He manages a big ranch which he co-owns with his brother George. Apparently all of his knowledge about being a cowboy and living in the wild comes from a man called Bronco Henry, who is a local legend.

For almost 25 years Phil's life has been quite peaceful until his brother decides to marry a widow called Rose Gordon. The marriage also means that Rose's teenage son becomes part of the family as well. As the boy is quite effeminate, Phil starts a campaign of bullying and humiliation against him right from their first meeting, even before George and Rose get married. After the wedding Peter goes away to study medicine and Rose moves in with George and Phil. Phil does everything he can to make Rose's life miserable and she soon develops an addiction to alcohol as a way to cope.

When Peter comes to the ranch, Phil's initial plan is to befriend him with the sole purpose of "stealing" him from Rose as yet another way of making her suffer. However soon Phil discovers that he and Peter actually have a lot in common and starts to consider him a friend, with the relationship becoming an understated flirt on Phil's part. He starts to braid a rope that he promisses to gift to Peter before the season is over, something that becomes an obsession for Phil. Unfortunately Peter doesn't reciprocate Phil's feelings and his only concern is his mother's wellbeing. After Rose sells Phil's hides that he was saving to use for the rope, Peter offers to help. He then gives Phil - who has an open wound on his hand, something that Peter is aware of - hides he procured from a cow which died of anthrax poisoning. Phil soon falls ill and shortly after dies. The physician rules he died of anthrax poisoning, although no one knows that Peter intentionally poisoned him to save his mother.

However, in this version, Phil survived the poisoning. Peter is long-gone, having gone back to his studies. After the incident, Phil became more closed-off and harsh.

Phil is a middle-aged Caucasian man. Always paying attention to performing his masculinity to the fullest, he is often quite ragged and dirty, especially as he refuses to wash himself. He wears a beard and mustache and dresses in a way typical for a cowboy, often wearing leather. He has dark brown hair, that is slicked back. However, his hair is starting to grey with his age.

Phil is a bully who revels in other people's misery. His greatest pleasure seems to be humiliating other people and making them suffer in any way possible. He calls his broter a "fatso" on a daily basis, He continously puts down both Rose and Peter and makes sure they know they aren't welcome at his home. Even his interest in music - he plays banjo - becomes a weapon and a way of showing Rose that she's no good at anything. He also hates sharing with others and every year he burns unused hides rather than sell them to the natives interested in buying them.

He is a proficient and effective rancher and cowboy, skilled in everything from braiding ropes to riding horses to castrating bulls. Despite his difficult character, Phil is highly respected by his employees, who see him not only as their boss, but also as a leader of their little community.

Phil is a gay man, who is not only deeply in the closet, but also repressing his homosexuality to a harmful degree. Because of this he overperforms his masculinity and is averse to anything he sees as not "man enough". One example of this is his refusal to use bath even when he is smelly - Phil claims he likes to be stinky and the only way he ever washes is by swimming naked in a river - and another is his constant derision of the effeminate Peter. Even when Peter discovers that Phil is gay (by discovering his secret stash of magazines featuring pictures of naked athetic men) Phil is unable to have an open conversation about the subject and talks in metaphors and understatements instead.

Past Relationships: Bronco Henry: Bronco was a friend of the Burbank family and is still a legend in the local community, even many years after his death. He apparently taught both Phil and George all they know about running a ranch and surviving in the wild. Bronco and Phil had an intense relationship and most probably were lovers (with Phil telling Peter how they slept in one sleeping bag for warmth). This relationship still has a profound influence on Phil and he can be seen oiling Bronco's saddle as a way to deal with stress and later sniffing his handkerchief and masturbating with it.

Peter Gordon: Phil's attitude towards Peter changes greatly over time. He starts by making merciless fun of the boy whose effeminate behavior is in stark contrast with Phil's own brand of hyper-masculinity. When Peter comes to the ranch, Phil decides to befriend him with the sole purpose of "stealing" him from Rose in order to hurt her. However, he soon discovers that him and Peter have actually a lot in common and see the world in a similar way that is not understood by anyone else. This makes Phil see Peter differently and he befriends the boy, even flirting with him in a very understated way and pretty much coming out to him by telling him about the relationship he had with Bronco Henry. He decides to braid a rope for Peter and it becomes a real obsession for him, revealing that he's really come to care quite deeply about the boy. Unfortunately Peter doesn't reciprocate Phil's affection, but instead chooses to use the relationship to kill Phil - in order to save Rose from his bullying - and poisons him by gifting him hides he procured from a cow that died of anthrax poisoning.