|“||You got what you want, now get the fuck out of here.... Hey, sheriff. Those girls are still dead... and there ain't nothin' you can do to bring them back. And I don't know what they did, but I do know this: If they're dead, it's 'cause the Crooked Man wanted them dead. That's all it takes. So you can roar, smash the place up. Shit, you can wail on me all you want, but what good is it gonna do ya? 'Cause he ain't in your town. You're in his. And he sure as shit is ready for you.||”|
— Jersey to Bigby about the Crooked Man.
The Jersey Devil, often simply called Jersey, is a Fable appearing as an antagonist in The Wolf Among Us. Working under the Crooked Man, he runs the Lucky Pawn shop in Fabletown. He debuts in In Sheep's Clothing. He is a cryptid that has the ability to freely switch between his human and Fable form at will.
|“||How's your arm? Bloody Mary leaves a bit of a sting, don't she? Jack, did you know that as of this very morning, Bigby's joined the Crooked Man's obedience school for wayward fucking creatures? He's already passed his first class! You see, the sheriff had who he stupidly thought was the murderer, been chasing him for fucking days, right? But the Crooked Man snapped his bony fingers and Bigby handed him over just...like... that.||”|
— Jersey mocks Bigby to Jack (Determinant)
Jersey is first mentioned by Beauty and Beast while Bigby is questioning them in their apartment. They explain to Bigby that he works at the Lucky Pawn and was the one who Beauty took out her loan from. Bigby then decides to either investigate Jersey's shop or The Cut Above butcher shop first, which will vary the circumstances under which Jersey makes his first physical appearance and how he will act.
Additionally, at the butcher shop, Johann refers to Jersey, Dee, Dum and Mary when he cites how the Crooked Man's agents took over his storage and business.
(If Bigby visits the Lucky Pawn first): Bigby notices Jersey and the Woodsman walking up to the shop while confronting Jack. The two enter the building arguing about Woody's axe, which Woody claims was stolen from his apartment and pawned at Jersey's shop. Bigby breaks up the argument.
(If Bigby visits The Cut Above first): Bigby arrives at the pawn shop to find Jersey and Woody in the building arguing about Woody's axe as Jack slips away.
The Fight (Regardless of first or second): Bigby begins questioning Jersey about the Crooked Man while Woody searches for his axe. Jersey starts putting Bigby down for giving up Crane, and Woody notices the empty display case where his axe was kept. Angered, he begins to brawl with Jersey while Bigby watches. Bigby can then choose to restrain one of them, but eventually Jersey transforms and starts to attack them both. Bigby throws him into a safe, breaking the door and revealing the axe. The two fight and Jersey soon has Bigby in a stranglehold, but Woody surprises him with the axe and incapacitates him. Bigby starts questioning him again on the whereabouts of the Crooked Man. Jersey reveals that the door to his hideout is constantly moving around the city, and that the only way to find him is with the Magic Mirror. If Bigby visited the pawn shop last, he then finds Crane's coat and the missing mirror shard. Before leaving, Jersey warns Bigby and Woody that the Crooked Man is far out of their league.
At the end of the episode, Bigby finds the door to the Crooked Man's hideout and enters it to find himself in an old church. Tiny Tim leads him to a meeting room where the crime boss is meeting with his associates, among whom is Jersey. His face is still bruised from his brawl with Bigby and Woody and he momentarily moves forward as if to attack Bigby before being called off by the Crooked Man.
|“||That's a fucking lie! I didn't say anything like that. All I said was that this was your town, and nothing wouldn't happen without your approval, all right? That's it.||”|
— Jersey protesting against Bigby claiming that he betrayed his boss. (Determinant)
Jersey is present at Bigby's first official meeting with the Crooked Man, holding a revolver which the Crooked Man implies is loaded with silver bullets. However, his repeated attempts to threaten Bigby are discouraged by the Crooked Man, who demands that he sit down and be civil. When Georgie is revealed to be the killer, he is the first one to tell Georgie to leave, commenting that he will end up taking him down. This made Vivian call him out on his callousness especially. After the talk breaks down due to Georgie's tantrums, and Mary arrives to escort the Crooked Man away from the scene, Jersey ditches his glamour and attacks Bigby along with Dee, Dum (Determinant), and Georgie. The sheriff quickly gets the better of the henchmen, incapacitating Dee and Georgie. As Vivian helps Georgie through the portal, Bigby throws Jersey into a wall and can then choose to bash him in the back of the head with a coat rack partially shattering his skull or to simply leave him there as he's too weak to keep fighting anyway. His fate thereafter is unknown, as he is not seen through the rest of the game.
Powers and Abilities
He is able to throw punches hard enough to hurt both Bigby and the Woodsman and can even overpower the Woodsman if Bigby fails to intervene during their initial struggle.
In his true form, he is shown to be very strong, as he easily overpowered Woody and held his own against Bigby while he was in his half werewolf form, however Bigby was recovering from the injuries Bloody Mary gave him, so he wasn't at full strength. Aside from strong swipes, punches, and bites, he is able to use his antlers as weapons to impale his enemies. He has also shown to be quite durable, as he was able to survive getting impaled in the chest with one of his antlers, and when he was hacked in the head with Woody's axe.
|“||Just that he's a fucking psycho, and I like to stay out of his way. I typically work when he's not here, but I can call you over when he comes back, alright?||”|
The Jersey Devil can be reasonably assumed to be a corrupt and shady business owner, and his pawn shop seems to be a front for the Crooked Man's loans. Beneath this contrived businessman demeanor, though, belies an extremely devilish (no pun intended), cruel, ruthless, greedy, pitiless, arrogant, sadistic, remorseless, cynical, manipulative, unsympathetic, and absolutely monstrous psychopath, coupled with quite a short temper and a foul mouth. He doesn't care about anyone but himself and his business, as his apathy to the Woodsman for his stolen axe (even though he had known where it was) proves. He is also extremely callous, hateful, opprobrious, and vengeful, and therefore cannot forget a grudge. Despite this, he enjoys taunting and gloating, and is all the more happy to provoke and incite violence against his customers and enemies. This is shown in his interactions towards Bigby in Episode 5, when he prepared to shoot Bigby out and would have had it not been for the Crooked Man's orders. If Bigby reveals the info he got from Jersey to the Crooked Man, Jersey will frantically deny about the Crooked Man wanting the girls dead but this doesn't make the Crooked Man turn against him. He also commented that he wanted Georgie to surrender to Bigby just so that he did not have to go down with him. However, seen by how he laments Bigby in Episode 4 for killing Dum if he killed him, he does not seem to have a complete disregard for the Crooked Man's other allies, but that was probably so that he wouldn't get any heat on him from his boss for Dum's death and not really actual concern.
Book of Fables Entry
"Not all of the Fables who came to this world landed in Fabletown. There are those who scattered across the farthest corners of the Earth. And there are those who simply prefer the Garden State to the Empire State. Such is the Jersey Devil. Reports of its appearance have varied... although most accounts make mention of leathery wings. But an encounter with a certain axe of legend some years ago has temporarily rendered that feature absent."
- He was first revealed as a character in a series of dates and locations tweeted out by Telltale, each referencing an alleged sighting of the Jersey Devil.
- Having said "Oh yeah, that slimy prick, I didn't realize he was back on this side of the river" when Beauty brings him up in In Sheep's Clothing, Bigby apparently knew who Jersey was before the events of the game.
- It is implied by his Book of Fables entry (but not confirmed) that the "axe of legend" which removed his wings was the Woodsman's axe.
- His Human form and personality may have been inspired by Les Gold, a pawn shop owner who is renowned for his toughness and appears on the show Hardcore Pawn. Jersey even owns a Pawn Shop himself.