Thomas Dinley

Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details.

Thomas Dinley
Biographical
Home	Knocker's Hole
Occupation	Barber and Surgeon
Status	Unknown
Relationships
Affiliation	Dark Lord
Appearences
Portrayed By	Marilyn Manson
Season(s)	3
Episode Count	6
First Appearance	The Heart Is A Devil
Last Appearance	Black Sunday

“	Most of us die as we are born. In agony.	”
	— Dinley to Isaac[src]

Thomas Dinley is a barber and surgeon who worked in Knocker's Hole, also providing services as a mortician when needed. Dinley was a devoted servant of the Dark Lord, acting as a spy on his behalf and reporting to Baron Sebastian Von Marburg.

Thomas Dinley is a guest character in the third season of Salem. He's portrayed by Marilyn Manson.

Character Description

Thomas Dinley is a barber and surgeon who is the go-to man in Salem, from a shave and a haircut to being leeched, bled, sliced open or sewn up.

Physical Appearance

Thomas Daley is a tall man with a pale complexion, black hair, and shaggy beard. He wears a pair of eyeglasses with a metallic finish frame. As befits the historical period, he wears humble black clothes together with a leather apron due to his work as a surgeon and barber.

Personality

Thomas Dinley is a peculiar character with grotesque and bizarre behaviour, including a morbid appetite for unusual foods like leeches engorged with the blood of fresh corpses. He has no moral balance. His areas of expertise as a barber, surgeon, and mortician allow him to have relations with the most disparate kinds of people, allowing him to gain a quite useful knowledge of the neighbourhood and its inhabitants.

Throughout the Salem Series

Season Three

The mortician services of Thomas Dinley are required when Isaac Walton, self-styled night watchman of Knocker's Hole, asks to the disturbing surgeon to establish the reasons that have caused the death of Nick Land, a resident of the area found in the street in a pool of blood with every bone in his body broken. Thomas Dinley shows itself willing to help the young man, also providing valuable information about the identity of the man and his dishonest activities. Dinley's lab is visited again a few days later by Magistrate Hathorne, who is suffering from a terrible infection of Canker blossom, an infectious disease that causes blisters and sores on the body of the sick, and that Dinley tries to treat with some of his potions and poultices, but without success.

At the barber shop, Dinley was shaving Treasurer Putnam's beard, while the latter was basking in the hope of having dethroned Hathorne from the seat of magistracy among the selectmen, and also taking off John Alden out of the way. While Putnam continued his talk, Dinley cuts his throat with a razor with a decisive flick of the wrist. As Putnam collapsed on the shop floor in a pool of blood, trying in vain to reach the door, Baron Sebastian Von Marburg comes out to pay Dinley his services, complaining also of why the barber didn't kill him first, sparing him Putnam's noxious voice. Dinley Thomas replied that he had committed the murder just for the Dark Lord's honour. Or just for the sheer pleasure of it. Whereupon, Baron Von Marburg asked if he needed help to get rid of the corpse, but Dinley replied that he didn't need it while cooking some sausages in a pan. He also offered to the Baron a meat pie for the road, hinting that Dinley cooks and eat people whom he kills.

When John Alden returned to Salem after the mission in Deerfield, and the subsequent clash with Indian and French, Thomas Dinley dealt with mending Alden's wounds in his barbershop. Offering meat pie to John Alden and Hathorne, both men declined, with Hathorne paying Dinley for Alden's surgery. < Regarded for his loyalty to the Dark Lord and his cause, Dinley was commissioned by the Sentinel guarding The Instrument in his barbershop. He expressed his respect for the Sentinel, offering food and drink as refreshment; The sentry accepted a glass of liquor.

After the fight with the Sentinel, Alden headed by Dinley's to mend his wounds and heal the terrible burns on the hands caused by hot coals. Thomas Dinley willingly offered his help, intending to cut Alden's throat as soon as he had been distracted. Unfortunately for the barber, Alden foresaw his intentions and attacked him, tying him to a chair for questioning. Thomas Dinley categorically refused to confess until it was evident from his smug expression that John Alden was helpless before the clicking sound of the Instrument, well hidden in plain sight on a shelf.

Tied to the chair, Thomas Dinley watched smugly John Alden's desperate attempts to tamper with the Instrument, and even more delighted by the clash that occurred between Alden and Sebastian Von Marburg, resulting in the death of the Baron. During the clash between the two, Thomas was even wounded in the shoulder.

Appearances

Season Three
Episode	Appearance Status
After the Fall	Absent
The Heart Is A Devil	Appears
The Reckoning	Absent
Night's Black Agents	Absent
The Commonwealth of Hell	Appears
Wednesday's Child	Appears
The Man Who Was Thursday	Absent
Friday's Knights	Appears
Saturday Mourning	Appears
Black Sunday	Appears

Memorable Quotes

Dinley: "Most men die as they are born in agony, but this man's agony must have been exceptional. Every bone in his body has been crushed."

Isaac Walton: "A suspicious death, then?"

Dinley: "Well, in Knockers Hole, all deaths are suspicious."

— The Heart Is A Devil

______________________________

Dinley: "Ah, 'tis true Venus' curse is as harsh as her glove is soft."

Hathorne: "Dinley, you bloviating blowhard, shut up and tell me what it is!"

Dinley: "I've seen a lot of canker blossoms since the new brothel's opened, but nothing quite like this. Let me see what I've got. We're gonna need something to relieve the itch and something to lessen the stench."

— The Heart Is A Devil

_______________________________

Sebastian Von Marburg (about Putnam's murder): "You could have done it sooner and spared my ears his noxious voice."

Dinley: "See, I listen until it builds into something like a roar. And then I wait for that perfect moment to silence him. See, murder is a fine art."

— The Commonwealth of Hell

_______________________________

Dinley (after receiving money for Putnam's murder): "I would have done it just for the Dark Lord's honor. Or just for the sheer pleasure of it."

— The Commonwealth of Hell

_______________________________

Dinley (to Sebastian): "Would you like a meat pie for the road?"?"

— The Commonwealth of Hell

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Gallery

• Promotional
• Episode Stills
• Screencaps
• Behind the Scenes

Videos

WGN America’s Salem- Season 3 Marilyn Manson ​

WGN America's Salem Season 3 Marilyn Manson Behind The Scenes

WGN America's Salem Season 3 302 Marilyn Manson

WGN America's Salem 306 Hawthorne, John and Dinley

Trivia

• On January 21st, 2016 it was revealed that Marilyn Manson, also songwriter and singer of the theme song, will join the cast as a special guest cast.
• Designer J. Zachary revealed to Louisiana Film & Video Magazine #16 that Thomas Dinley will have his own barber shop, a creepy shop where other than trimming beards he provides other services with his razor.
• In the same interview, Thomas Dinley has been described as a Salem version of Sweeney Todd, a fictional character who first appeared as the protagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls(1846–47) and recently become known to the general public thanks to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), a film directed by Tim Burton. In real life 19th century it wasn't so strange for a barber to also work as a temporary surgeon for lower class citizens.
• On August 5, 2016, Entertainment Weekly has released some interesting previews about the upcoming character. Brannon Braga described him as a mix between Vidal Sassoon, Jack the Ripper, and Sweeney Todd. Manson tells EW that Dinley’s agenda consists of more than just haircuts and surgeries. He’ll be teaming up with the devil to create hell on Earth.