Dr. Johann Pryce

""Compassion doesn't suit you, Olivia. I miss that venomous disposition and the heart the size of a caraway seed.""

- Johann to Olivia

Dr Johann Pryce is a scientist and a visionary who believes that he can create life from death. His most prominent experiment that involves a baby’s corpse infused with phosphorus then supported in a extrauterine environment to full adult size in an effort to provide evidence to the world that his creation can support life once more.

Pryce is a man who will do anything to pursue his agenda. With the full backing and support of the Godfrey Institute and its wealthy Upir benefactor, it would appear the sky's the limit for this modern day mad scientist. All this, and the fact that he almost always appears devoid of any real human emotion, makes Dr Pryce one of the deadlier residents in Hemlock Grove.

Early Life
The origins of Dr Johann Pryce are largely a mystery. Throughout the series, we come to learn that he had a cruel, heartless tyrant of a father, who punished him by locking him away in solitary darkness any time the young Johann failed to impress him.

Early on in the series, in a flashback, we see J.R. Godfrey drive up to the Godfrey Institute with a small coffin containing a deceased Shelley Godfrey.

Dr Pryce was able to reanimate her, but she became terribly disfigured, unnaturally tall, and unable to speak, with necrotic tissue covering both hands. She also developed a brilliant blue glow whenever she felt a strong emotion, leading Pryce to nickname her “Glow-worm.”

Dr Pryce formed a genuine connection with her, revealing an unexpected softer side of Pryce, capable of sacrificing his life's work for.

Throughout The Series
Dr. Johann Pryce/Season 1|Season 1 Dr. Johann Pryce/Season 2|Season 1 Dr. Johann Pryce/Season 3|Season 3

Personality
Dr Johann Pryce has a very clear sense of what he wants and is not prepared to allow anything, including his humanity, to get in the way of achieving his goals. Well-educated, articulate, at times condescending, and a workaholic, he is at times quite mysterious in the way he goes about getting what he wants.

Disconnected from feeling, sometimes Pryce processes emotion almost via third party. He doesn’t respond how a person would normally respond and this gels very well with his persona as the modern-day mad scientist.

We get to see Pryce’s humanity in his love for Shelley. He’s trying to live in this world and be good, whatever he thinks that means.

Physical Appearance
Born of Asian decent, Dr Johann Pryce has straight, coarse, black hair that frames his round, fair-skinned face, with dark eyes.

Smaller than the average male in size and height, but always immaculately dressed, Dr Pryce has a commanding presence that rarely goes unnoticed, yet it's not necessarily for the right reasons.

Relationships
For many years Pryce was required to perform unspeakable tasks at the behest of Olivia which he did to ensure the continuance of her financial support of his life's work throught the Godfrey Institute. Aware of Olivia's Upirism Pryce constructed a purpose built waste facility designed to satiate the Upir appetite, while discarding his many once living test subjects, thus creating a clever way to conceal what he was doing within the walls of the White Tower whilst at the same time keeping Olivia fed. Pure genius! While he has no feeling for her at all Pryce clearly tolerates Olivia out of fear and necessity and rightly so.
 * -|Olivia Godfrey =
 * Olivia Godfrey: Olivia and Dr Pryce had a complicated relationship. Johann worked for Olivia after the death of her husband J.R. Godfrey when she was made the sole beneficiary of the Godfrey Institute and its vast fortune until her small son Roman was to come of age.

Pryce stated that nobody else meant more in this world to him than Shelley. Pryce and Shelley were extremely close she called him "Uncle Johann" and Pryce referred to her as "Glow Worm". After Shelley went missing and was found by Norman she was badly injured having lost alot of blood not only from the gunshot wound but from the recent attack of an axe in her back after she went to the aid of her small friend. With the town of Hemlock Grove out for Shelley's blood, believing her to be a killer, Pryce kept her hidden in the White Tower until again she was well. It was then that Pryce made the decision to give Shelley the opportunity of a better life without persecution by offering up his life's work "Prycilla" as Shelly's new host. Pryce then terminated Project Ouroboros, his lifes work, in the belief that releasing "Prycilla" from her uterine environment would save and free Shelley. However Olivia, after being convinced by the Russian Doctor that she too could benefit from this, killed Prycilla after feeding on her and in turn almost ended Shelly's life in the process. When Shelley was revived by Norman, after he found her clinically dead, and she had found out what had happened to Prycilla she had a complete mental breakdown and had to be restrained by 5 guards and taken to the facilities Behavioral Unit to be sedated. Pryce was noticeably shaken deeply over what had happened to his Shelley.
 * -|Shelley Godfrey =
 * Shelley Godfrey: After Shelley died at birth it was Dr Pryce who gave her life after her father J.R. Godfrey accompanied by her Uncle Norman Godfrey took her lifeless body in the tiny coffin to the White Tower on that fateful night.


 * -|Roman Godfrey =
 * Roman Godfrey: Pryce and Roman did not see eye to eye most of the time especially when Roman had taken over the company, Roman would often get in the way of Pryce's research. However they did see eye to eye when Roman decided that he wanted to become human because he feared his blood-lust and Pryce found a powerless Roman better to manipulate.


 * -|Prycilla =
 * Prycilla: Pryce has spent 20 long years creating Prycilla the first artificial human being, however when he found out that Prycilla could be used as a host body for Shelley he deiced to kill Prycilla and use her body to store Shelley's consciences. This all went well until Olivia had killed Prycilla. When Prycilla had died Pryce was shown to be extremely upset not only because Prycilla was his life's work but because when she died a part of Shelley died with her.

The only thing Norman and Pryce had in common was there unwavering love of Shelley.
 * -|Norman Godfrey =
 * Norman Godfrey: Norman never liked or got along with Pryce and he blamed him for Shelleys appearance. Norman was even of the impression that together with Olivia that they were in some way responsible for Letha falling pregnant. After Letha died giving birth due to a pulmonary embolism and subsequent blood loss, in the purpose built new obstetrics wing at the White Tower that was funded by Olivia, Norman begged Pryce to bring Letha back to life however he was told it could not be done. Norman was convinced that Pryce did something that lead to her death so he decided to file a wrongful death suit against Pryce and The Godfrey Institute.

Powers & Abilities

 * Enhanced Strength: Pryce suffers from an abnormality in his adrenal glands, which can give him hysterical strength, the occurrence normal human being feels excited or experiencing fight or flight mode, to the point that their adrenaline levels heighten until it makes them strong beyond their level until they calm down. Pryce has this strength all the time. He has the strength to shove a full Upir, but can be easily pinned down by a full Upir. His artificial stimulants seem to counteract his condition, possibly due to the potential damage of an adrenaline overdose. These drugs, while allowing him to cope with his strength, and potentially his childhood trauma and possible damaged psyche as well, also were highly addictive and caused him to become frenzied and utterly unstable, both mentally and emotionally.

Weaknesses

 * Mortality: Due to Johann only being a human with the enhanced strength he does not have the ability to heal rapidly, Johann can be killed any way that an ordinary human can be by any fatal physical harm or disease.

Name

 * Johann is a male name is the Germanized form of the originally Hebrew language name "Yohanan" meaning "God is merciful".
 * Pryce is of Welsh origin meaning "son of rhys".

Quote

 * And like many beautiful things, deceiving. It grows, feeds, breaths, and is not a living thing." (season 1, episode 4)
 * "My concern is that his dislike of me is eclipsed only by his hatred of you." (season 2, episode 2)
 * "You sure you want to talk about locked doors? Hidden rooms with their secret contents? And this from a man who literally lives in a glass house." (season 2, episode 3)
 * "Start tearing down my house; you may be surprised by what comes crawling out of the rubble." (season 2, episode 4)