Woo. Finally I get to contribute to the discussion. (I forgot my login info, sigh). It's been a while, but here goes.

Tim, love the show. Rachel plays Rebecca's guarded personality really well, and I don't think she's getting the credit she deserves from most people. The same goes for the show, actually. The atmosphere, the characters, the music, the disturbing nature of the investigations, it all adds up to make me physically unsettled, yet fascinated. It gets me in the gut. Which is the highest compliment I can give it, and you. Not many shows accomplish that with me.

And I love the subtle way you've gone about revealing bits about the characters (not so much, Paul, I suppose--he just lays it all out--but everyone else) and the investigations. You're leaving and trusting the audience to make the connections themselves (which, granted, could backfire at certain points, but I enjoy having to use my brain). I also agree with whoever said that this is a show where you have to look beneath the surface of what's on the screen, or you miss out on why it's so good. I'm really looking forward to next week. Moral questions abound there.

But specifically about this recent ep, I haven't read anybody mention this. It's my interpretation of Rebecca's motivation for going into Brandt's apartment. Yes, it could be read as mistake by a rookie from an FBI standpoint, but I don't think she went in there in that capacity. I think that was her surface reason, but she went in there primarily for reasons that were strictly personal. Maybe before her conversation with Paul during the stakeout her wanting to go there was case-related, but IMO, it wasn't afterwards.

We know from that conversation (about her past) that she no longer sees herself as Becky George, but as Rebecca Locke, and it pissed her off that Paul would see her as the "lost, little girl" she no longer is. But Becky was strong, Becky got away. And also, Paul accused her of being "defined by her wounds," which also pissed her off. I think her motivation then, for going into Brandt's apartment, was to test herself. To see if, after all this time, she could escape from a similar situation as Becky did--being held captive, alone and restrained by someone who she believed could cause her harm. Could she keep it together? Could she handle it?

The answer turns out to be "No." She went into his apartment, he forcibly kissed her, and immediately after beginning, cuffed her. And she freaked the hell out. Had flashbacks to her kidnapping. She failed her test. She isn't strong enough mentally to deal with that situation. Yet. Which doesn't surprise me, because she did fail her academy psych screening, and that had to have sent that particular red flag up immediately. I don't know if Web hopes she'll gain that strength by doing the job or if he doesn't care, but she could have a serious breakdown.

Obviously she hasn't fully dealt with her childhood ordeal, and she has to, or else she's in trouble. Becky was strong. Becky got away. Rebecca's a different story. Seems to me she's the one who's lost.

(It was a different scenario last week. She was in a public place, for one. And I believe, had Web not shown up, that she could have found a moment to turn the tables on Simon.)

I won't comment on the BDSM, because I know little about the practice, but Brandt was indeed an arrogant asshole. Oh, and has anybody considered the idea that the reason Strong chopped the women's hair was because generally, males have short hair, and Brandt was a male....and....well, you get the picture.

Oh, and has anybody considered the idea that the reason Strong chopped the women's hair was because generally, males have short hair, and Brandt was a male....and....well, you get the picture.

Yep. In fact, I thought that was explicitly pointed out in the episode. He chopped their hair and covered them with Brandt's cologne to make them more like Brandt so he could rape him in proxy.

Ah, score another toaster for me! Yesterday my friend who runs a print shop called about some presswork and told me she watched this week's episode (I'd talked about the show while checking proofs last week) and was impressed enough that she plans to watch regularly. If anyone at the Network asks, we now have the name of at least one grandmotherly type in her late 60s who'll be a weekly viewer.

I think what we haven't figured out is why he kept the hair.

Interesting look at Rebecca, PatK. I agree that she wasn't really there in an investigative capacity, at least not entirely. But I haven't thought through what I do think her motivations were.

The Becky/Rebecca exchange was a highlight of the ep, for sure.

He kept the hair because serial killers are supposed to be trophy keepers. This is TV received wisdom -- I have no idea about real life.

But he wasn't a serial killer in his mind, was he? He was always killing the same person, and it seems backward to keep the parts of the victims that specifically weren't Brandt.

I don't know what most (TV) serial killers think of what they're doing. However, the trophy-keeping (and subsequent discovery by investigators) is standard enough (and perhaps groundless enough) that I don't think it bears dissection.

Do serial killers ever think of themselves as serial killers rather than avengers or something? At least on TV killing mommy over and over seems one of their favourites. Though keeping the hair is a puzzle as you say. Maybe he just liked it.

I think that gets over-dramatized a bit in fiction. A LOT of them just seem to do it for sexual thrills and the sense of godlike power ending another life gives them.

edit: So, not terribly different from Detective Strong's situation.

Wikipedia lists a number of motives:

• Visionary (rarer than you'd think from fiction)
• Power/control
• Hedonistic
• Mission-oriented
• Gain-oriented

Further reading: The Aetiology of Serial Murder: Towards an Integrated Model