Despite being a generally annoying presence around people because of his personality and antics, the one person whose opinion Oliver truly cares about was his son, William.
Oliver and his son weren’t on the best of terms and Oliver initially approached him for money when he was being evicted from his apartment but to no avail. Eventually, he managed to mend the fence and play a more prominent role in his son’s life.
An insightful father
It was William’s assertion that his father was a bloodhound when it came to sniffing out someone’s secret. Back in the 1970s, Oliver partied around with artists and actors and at these parties, he would play the game ‘Son of Sam’ to hone his skills.
And he continued playing this game years later when he was living in the Arconia with his wife and son. Oliver showed William that everyone has a tell when they’re bluffing, and he knew exactly how to spot that tell.
On one particular night, he correctly guessed that his wife wasn’t the ‘killer’ and that it was actually Teddy Dimas because he figured out Teddy’s tell. But William narrates that there is still a way to hide a secret from his father, and that’s if someone doesn’t know the secret they’re hiding.
The big reveal
Wiliam has taken on the task of directing his son’s school play and Oliver is glad that they can now bond over a shared interest. During one of his visits, Oliver tells William that show business is a part of their family roots.
William then brings up the fact that they had to take an ancestry test for his son’s school science project and asks Oliver for help with it.
When the test results come back, William pays Oliver a visit and asks him about his Irish ancestry. When Oliver confirms that he is 100% Irish, William tells him that the ancestry test revealed that he was half African-American like Oliver’s wife but the other half was Greek.
That’s when Oliver realises that there was one secret that escaped his sight all those years ago, that his wife was having an affair with their Greek neighbour, Teddy Dimas.