Other things may change us, but we start and end with family...

[a_blackpanther]

This is the discussion post for Episode 7x16 - "A Family Affair". Watch out for SPOILERS in the comments.

Comments

[gsyh.livejournal.com]

Vaguely - in that case, we have a passive aggressive father who probably fantasize about killing his wife, but didn't - and he might or might not have influenced his son into thinking that the mother deserved to die or was less than a person. When the son killed the mother, the father knew, and didn't tell - and he remained protective of the freedoms of the son who acted out what he couldn't - but he didn't take part in the killings, and he didn't center his life or the rest of the world around his son.

Misogynist mothers like Mrs.Collins are a very special brand of pathology...their id is externalized in their sons, usually one son. No girl would ever be the equal of their son, "I'll get you another girl", other women are just something she views as having value if her son could use them, and the only woman, the only person, who have a right in the place of her son's life is the mother herself

IRL Mrs.Collins would be the likes of Ronnie Shelton's mother - Shelton had a steady girlfriend and he was charming enough to seduce willing woman, but he believes he has a right to do whatever he wants regardless of what someone else's wants, and he acted on it - he broke in and he was an exploitative rapist who assaulted and humiliated his victims. His mother defended him fiercely in court and along with his sister, they actually stalked and harassed his victims!

Then there is Louisa Northcott, the mother of the man, Gordon, who molested little boys, keeping them imprisoned in chicken coops before murdering them.

trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/gordon_stewart_northcott/6.html
That same month, Northcott's mother confessed to Walter Collins' murder. At her trial, she testified that she dealt the final blow to the boy

Gordon had been assaulting children for a long time, but Walter was the first victim he murdered, on the advice of his mother, who said that the little boy had to die because that one knows who Gordon is.


In show, I think the one closer to Mrs.Collin, would be the mother from "Blood Hungry", Mary Mays, who cleaned up the fridge full of blood, and actually locked up Eddie's last victim! Wally Brisbane was a scared little boy who witnessed the murder of his grandmother before Eddie abducted him and brought him to his mother, in his delusion believing that he was offering his mother an angel. Know what that bitch did? She took the little boy herself, drove him far out of the city, and locked him in a rural shack and just left him there. Considering her method of dealing with things she don't like, if the BAU haven't found Wally, either she would have gone back to kill him once she got the nerve, or she would have just left him there to die of thirst.

The show didn't have to say it, but they showed it well. Mrs.Collins have no remorse about what she and her son did to those girls, their deaths meant nothing to her. Only the life of her son and her relationship with him matters (not even his feelings when he asked her to leave the last girl alone), it is kinda Freudianly creepy (even before the last girl found the bloody necklace, she wanted the last girl dead because her son slammed the door on her for the girl).

The sex therapist girl was wrapped in plastic - by the mother, the mother who coldly met her at the door, and since this one was not a prostitute, she was a sex therapist who looked like she cared for her patients and was closer in personality to the last girl, I think the mother was jealous too. The other bodies before, that wasn't wrapped, but were posed nurturingly - thta was done by the father who had wanted a daughter.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, the obvious differences but, I think, variations on a theme: the unsub's parent who either knows, or suspects, or should have suspected. The common theme is that, no matter what their sociopathic/psychopathic/psychotic child has done they still find a way to justify or excuse it or, in extreme cases like "Family Affair", actively assist in the crime.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

Except, of course, that the Mom in "Family Affair" it totally bugfuck crazy.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

I can only speak for myself, but. I have three children I love dearly, but cleaning up after they murder someone? Just not happening.

And going out to kill myself, with a confession in my pocket in order to cover for him? WTF are you thinking? Do you really think he's going to stop at this point? How do they explain the murders that you should know are going to keep happening?