Clyde Spendelworth (Classic Gerosha)

Clyde Spendelworth is the regional manager / CEO of Sleet Mountain Lower Northern, a water bottling plant based in Stanwood, MI. While never officially named in the original miniseries of Blood Over Water, his influence is felt on the greater Big Rapids region all throughout the runtime. He was portrayed from behind by actor Zach Foster; filling in for the originally-assigned actor, Nathan Meadows.

Character bio
Clyde decided at some point in 2009 that Sleet Mountain wasn't turning enough of a profit. Its shares were down as a company. The bottling plant was inefficient, and produced a lot of waste. His solution was to dump said waste into a pond not far from the plant. However, he lied about having proper waste removal companies continue to take the pond water away. This was so that he could avoid penalties from the EPA.

He initially involved three of his most trusted men in on the conspiracy: Mark Stefflin, Chris Kennal, and George Lawence. However, Mark, in Chris' words, "thought he was too good for the plan." When Mark steals a "Confidential" manilla envelope filled with folders containing redacted files on Clyde's scheme, Clyde orders Chris and Ashley to head over to Mark's house and assassinate him.

The plan proves largely successful, with Ashley getting Mark to open the door and Chris able to strangle Mark to death. However, Chris fails to find the "Classified" information. He has a meeting with George and conspiracy newcomer Kyle Tugrass about their need to go over and look. When Aaron Stefflin gets involved due to his curiosity at Mark's disappearance, Clyde's plans begin falling apart rapidly. He sits back quietly in the background, however, trusting that Chris and George will handle everything.

However, Clyde overestimates Chris' loyalty. When Chris murders George and Kyle in order to avoid having to execute Aaron and Monica, Clyde demands that Chris come in and "fix things." Chris instead tells Clyde off and then flees town. Clyde is left to his own devices to distance himself from the murders, as well as to keep Sleet Mountain from being shut down due to the heavy lawsuits brought on it by the EPA when they learn how they've been tricked.

Personality
Clyde is depicted as being "cold" and "unfeeling." He is also shown to be insanely greedy, arrogant, and insensitive. He coldly insists that Chris hunt Aaron and Monica down, and that he "do whatever it takes" to "fix" the crisis they're in. That Chris is feeling remorse for having committed at least three murders doesn't register with Clyde in the slightest.

Unlike latter versions of him, who are revealed to be truly manipulative masterminds, this one is a money-seeking shark who seems to be terminally reliant on executing only one particular scheme. He is also terminally dependent on keeping all of his minions in line in order to succeed at the only scheme he seems to be capable of devising. His lack of flexibility and imagination are his downfall, leaving him powerless without Chris. He thus finds his company at risk of being shut down, after the EPA fines Sleet Mountain for all the millions of dollars that Clyde thought he was going to save.

Development
Clyde's small role was hinted at all throughout production. However, only in part 5 of the miniseries was there any effort to explicitly depict him as a character. Even then, he is never named in the actual footage. There was a lot of discussion amongst class members regarding whom the final villain reveal would be. Initially, the class didn't want the villain to have anything to do with water pollution or the EPA as subplots. However, class instructor Nathan Meadows insisted there be an environmental theme shoehorned into the plot somewhere. The class did what it could to trivialize this shoehorned-in subplot. Clyde's role was a case of doing the bare minimum to appease the instructor.

Angelica ensured Clyde was the mastermind figure specifically, as a way to complete the script's honoring of the Theory of Narrative Causality. Before that, it was unclear why the other Sleet Mountain employees were even the tiniest bit interested in trying to defraud the EPA - or how they could have orchestrated the plot.

Trivia

 * Originally just "the CEO," Clyde's last name was meant to be a direct pun of "spend all worth," implying that he wanted to scam his way to glory. The man he takes over Sleet Mountain for, Bob Lusital, was also a play on words: "Loose it all."  Bob loses everything to Clyde - including his company's reputation!
 * Much like with Vance and Bob, Clyde's background details and story relevance were explained more in supplemental material. These details never made it into the final miniseries product.
 * The class instructor, Nathan Meadows, was originally supposed to portray Clyde. However, he never showed up for shooting.  No stand-in actors were available from the theater department, given theater students' contempt for TDMP students.  Therefore, Zach Foster played Clyde from behind.  Voice pitch modulation addressed making Clyde sound a lot older.