The Housemaid is Watching

Enzo Accardi is Millie’s husband and the father of Ada and Nico. He works as a landscaper and first met Millie when he worked as a landscaper for the Winchesters in The Housemaid. Originally from Sicily, Enzo had to flee Italy after he nearly beat to death his sister’s husband Dario, who had abused her so badly she died from her injuries. Enzo and Millie dated briefly before the events of The Housemaid’s Secret and got back together at the end of that novel. At the start of The Housemaid Is Watching, Enzo and Millie have been married for 10 years. To support the family’s move to Long Island into a larger house, Enzo works longer hours and spends less time with his family; he also helps Suzette with her yard in exchange for referrals to her clients, which upsets Millie. Enzo keeps secret from Millie his decision to help Martha, Suzette’s housemaid, escape her abusive marriage.

Enzo feels obligated to help women in dangerous situations, given that he couldn’t save his sister and lives with the guilt of his failure. After giving Ada the knife she uses to stab Jonathan, Enzo takes the fall for the murder to protect his daughter; neither Ada nor Enzo knows that it was actually Martha who killed Jonathan.

Enzo is a static character, as his character undergoes little change in the narrative. Millie’s perception of him fluctuates, however, making the reader’s experience of Enzo dynamic: At first, his lies make her suspicious, even leading her to briefly believe he’s having an intimate affair with Suzette; he reveals that he has been helping Martha, in keeping with his motivation to help women in need and with his core values, Millie once again sees him as a committed and loving father and partner.

Suzette Lowell is one of the antagonists in The Housemaid Is Watching. She lives next door to the Accardis and is married to Jonathan, the sadistic child-killer who murdered Braden Lundie and abuses Nico. Suzette is described as very conventionally attractive, with blonde hair and blue eyes and a very fit body. She works as a real estate agent, but she was not the one to sell the Accardis their house. Suzette is very attracted to Enzo and flirts with him frequently and intensely, even in front of Millie and Jonathan, though she later claims it is Enzo who is obsessed with her, which is untrue. Suzette levies many petty insults at Millie whenever they interact, particularly about the smaller size of the Accardis’ house and about Millie’s physical appearance. Suzette has no children and claims to not want them, though there is some suggestion that she chose not to have children because of Jonathan’s depraved tendencies.

Although at first Suzette’s main antagonist role seems to be flaunting both her good looks and her money in front of Millie and Enzo, it eventually emerges that she is actually an accomplice after the fact in Braden Lundie’s murder. When she found out Jonathan killed Braden, Suzette did not turn Jonathan in, mostly because she did not want to be known as the wife of a child killer. Though she tries to justify her actions, arguing that she stayed with Jonathan to protect other children, this self-serving excuse either illustrates her self-deception that she really was doing the right thing or demonstrates the lengths she’ll pursue to preserve her reputation.

Jonathan Lowell is the most dangerous antagonist of The Housemaid Is Watching. He is married to Suzette and is described as pale and slightly overweight, with thinning hair. Jonathan works in finance; though he never explains exactly what he does, it is implied to be lucrative. Like she did Andrew in The Housemaid, Millie initially views Jonathan as sympathetic as he is less pretentious than Suzette. Millie also pities Jonathan because Suzette is controlling. However, Suzette’s contempt for Jonathan is later revealed to be the result of her knowledge that Jonathan killed Braden Lundie.

Jonathan, who murdered Braden Lundie years prior to the start of the novel, abuses Nico in demeaning and vaguely sexual ways. Though Suzette makes him send Nico away, he forces Nico to sneak out and return under threat of murdering Nico’s family.

Jonathan’s true demeanor, which Nico and Ada see, is violent and rageful. He also shows this side of himself to Martha when he finds her stealing Suzette’s jewelry. Jonathan’s character does not change; instead, the perception of him changes when the narrative switches from Millie to Ada’s point of view: Millie misreads Jonathan as put-upon, slightly oblivious man, while Ada identifies him as the cruel killer that he truly is. In this way, he is a static character, though the revelation that he is a murderer is one of the mystery’s plot twists.

Nine-year-old Nico Accardi is Millie and Enzo’s youngest son. He looks very similar to Enzo, with dark hair and dark eyes. Nico is a boisterous young boy who enjoys playing sports and has a propensity for accidentally breaking things. Nico makes friends easily at his new school, but he becomes more sullen and reserved after he is forced to perform chores at the Lowells’ house for accidentally hitting a baseball through their window. This is because instead of doing chores, Nico is being tormented and abused by Jonathan Lowell, who makes him play with toys while being filmed and locked in a small room under the stairs. During one incident, Jonathan refuses to let Nico use the bathroom, so Nico wets his pants.

Nico’s shame about the experience, coupled with Jonathan’s threats of bankrupting or killing Nico’s family, leads him to keep the traumatic experience a secret. The Psychological Impact of Trauma leads to a change in Nico’s personality: He becomes impulsive and violent, punching two kids in emotional outbursts; he also distances himself from Ada, whom he was previously close to. After Jonathan’s death, Nico begins to heal and become himself one more.

11-year-old Ada Accardi is Millie and Enzo’s eldest daughter. She is described as very pretty, with dark hair and dark eyes. She is named after Enzo’s sister Antonia, who was murdered by her abusive husband Dario. Ada is a devoted older sister to Nico, whom she loves deeply. Ada experiences sexual harassment in the Bronx, which is one of the reasons Millie and Enzo decide to move to Long Island. There, Ada excels at school, though she has anxiety about social situations.

At her new school, boys still harass her, but Enzo gives her a pocketknife to defend herself. Ada is the only person in the Accardi family who figures out that Nico is acting out because of abuse and acts to stop it from happening. When she confronts Jonathan about harming Nico, Jonathan attacks her, so she uses Enzo’s knife to stab Jonathan in self-defense.

Ada serves as a foil to her mother, who also killed someone to defend someone she cares about (though Ada was not the one to actually kill Jonathan) and who has spent her life standing up for women in abusive situations. Likewise, Ada threatens to castrate her classmate Hunter if he keeps harassing her or any other girls. Ada also notices that she looks more and more like her mother, adding a physical element to their connection.