User blog:Officer Candy Apple/Pure Evil Proposal - American Horror Story: 1984's Culprit

Hey there, guys, long time no see. Here is my very first PE Proposal made for a villain from American Horror Story. Here we have is the real murderer (and the main antagonist as well) in American Horror Story: 1984 directly responsible for most of the bad events in the series, including the core event of 1970 Camp Redwood Murder.

Warning: Since this installment of AHS returned back to its mystery theme used in the first, second and fifth seasons, there will be Massive MAJOR Spoilers follows in this culprit's introduction.

What's the Work?
American Horror Story: 1984 is the ninth season of FX's anthological horror series, American Horror Story, created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk.

It is set in the summer of 1984, in Los Angeles, where a group of teenagers travel to a place of Camp Redwood, which is infamous for a mass murder in 1970. The alleged murderer of the case, known as Mr. Jingles, killed every counselors of the camp and took one ear per person, with only one counselor as its only survivor. The Camp Redwood is also haunted by a curse, where people who died in certain areas within the camp would become ghosts eternally trapped in the place forever.

However, when Mr. Jingles escaped from the mental hospital where he was take captive, alongside the arrival of the infamous serial killer, Richard Ramirez a.k.a. the Night Stalker, the new and old counselors faced a bloodbath in one night as well as the revelations of their dark past.

Now, here is the information of the true culprit of the case. At first, the alleged murderer was shown to be Mr. Jingles (real name Benjamin Ritcher), and he REALLY killed a couple of people onscreen. However, by the fourth episode, the true culprit is revealed to be...

Who is the culprit and What Have They Done
... Margaret Booth, the religious and pushy Camp Director of Redwood and the aforementioned sole survivor of the 1970 murder case. Actually, she is responsible for the murder and Mr. Jingles is actually innocent. Here is the whole thing:

1970
In 1970, Margaret Booth was once a young counselors who was constantly bullied by other counselors. She resented the young counselors and soon got closer with Benjamin Ritcher, later known as Mr. Jingles, who was actually a kind and nice man but got scorned and isolated by other counselors for his shy personality.

After having his injury being treated by her, Benjamin soon found a common in each other and befriended her, but it was apparent that she only shown her own personal obssession towards him and saw him as a possession (seeing through her morbid look when she sucked out Benjamin's blood of his wound).

As mentioned before, Margaret always resented her own colleagues heavily for bullying her, and she decided to persuade Benjamin to commit murder with her, but Benjamin had no resentment towards other counselors and refused.

As a result, Margaret grew resented towards Benjamin and was, at the same time, encouraged and manipulated by the ghost of Lavinia Richter, Benjamin's mother who hated him for (indirectly) causing the death of his younger brother Bobby, to enact her revenge. In an act of petty retaliation towards Benjamin, Margaret slaughtered the entire camp and cut off everyone but Benjamin's ear, alongside a ear of her own, to frame Benjamin for the murder.

After Benjamin's arrest, Margaret soon took charge of the Camp Redwood and painted herself as the only survivor of the case, leaving poor Benjamin being tortured in a mental hospital and was kept reminded that he was a murderer, thus slowly believing himself to be such and developing his murderous Mr. Jingles personality.

1984-1989
During her charge within Camp Redwood, Margaret disguised herself as a pious Christian and claims she tends to work on making the camp a better place for children. However, she secretly worked with Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, and manipulated all of the sides of the protagonists, Mr. Jingles and Ramirez into killing each other, until she revealed herself to be the true killer of the 1970's crime and an remorseless and selfish sadist who showed no empathy towards others and enjoyed seeing her victims suffering. She eventually recreated the tragedy once more and framed Brooks Thompson (the main heroine) for the murder by the next day, throwing her into prison.

Then, again, Margaret painted herself as a survivor of yet another tragedy and married Trevor Kirchner, another survivor, who reluctantly blackmailed her into marrying him. For the next five years, Margaret gained wealth and fame through her double "survival" and explioting all of the massacre sites as place of interest for tourists, pratically threw away anything that was connected to religion or God, but that was not enough for her.

She later announced to host a Halloween music festival and planned to slaughter every single musician who joined the party, so that the Camp Redwood would soon became a place of interest. She also worked together with Ramirez and another killer named Bruce to enact a plan, killing several dozen of musicians in the process.

Nevertheless, her husband Trevor later had a change of heart after meeting the ghost of Montana Duke, whom he once fell in love with, and rekindled their relationship. Horrified by Margaret's actions, Trevor cancelled the music festival, driving Margaret into killing him outside the camp, so that he wouldn't come back as a ghost (although he was thankfully brought back by Brooks, who escaped from the prison, arrived at Camp Redwood for vengeance against Margaret, and dragged Trevor into the camp).

At that night, Margaret engaged into a fight with Brooks and nearly killed her, but the ghosts of the former counselors and other victims of Margaret saved Brooks and mutilated Margaret alive piece by piece, before throwing her remains into a shredder and spread them outside the camp. However, Margaret already died before her body was shredded, and the wind caused her remains blown back into the camp, making Margaret became a ghost hiding in Camp Redwood and waiting to kill once more.

2019
Thirty years later, Bobby II Ritcher, the son of Mr. Jingles/Benjamin, returned back to Camp Redwood to search for his long lost father. After paying a visit to the ghosts and survivors, Bobby II returned back to Camp Redwood to meet his father's ghost, but that was when Margaret discovered and attacked him. She tried to kill Bobby II twice, but was stopped first by the ghost Benjamin, and then by the ghost of Lavinia, who injured Margaret's ghost and handed her to the other ghosts, making Margaret to gain her eternal punishment at last.

Moral Agency
"They really should bring back the guillotine. I would've paid good money to see her head roll."

- Margaret on the execution of Brooks Thompson Here is the point of this proposal. I already mentioned before that Margaret executed her plan of disproportionate retribution under the manipulation of Lavinia Richter's ghost, with the latter want revenge for her younger son, Bobby, and blamed Benjamin for his death. This might mean that Margaret is a Villain by Proxy, right?

WRONG. She is just a female counterpart of Jeremiah Valeska. Even before Lavinia manipulating her, Margaret was already shown to be rather morbid, if not insane, when she met Benjamin for the very first time, and Lavinia's manipulation only gave her an idea for petty revenge. She was strongly suggested to be willingly agreed with the arrangement of Lavinia, out of free will.

In the fourth episode, Margaret claimed she already had the plan in mind since her murder proposal was rejected by Benjamin, without even mentioning Lavinia's influence as if it was nonexistent. As it was revealed in the later episodes, Margaret is quite awared that the camp was accursed, knowing that her victims were ghosts haunting the area (the said victims did not lay a finger on her because they were tired of haunting people). As a result, Lavinia's role turned out to be just an encouragement, not brainwash, even if Lavinia believed it was her own idea to manipulate Margaret. This further cements that Lavinia is never brainwashed, and quite enjoys the idea of Lavinia.

She later even admitted that she was a pure sadist who pretended to be religious, saying God is merely a justification for her doing anything horrible. This meant she herself is always a sadist who always enjoys suffering, and this is proven in her actions in 1989.

Unlike Benjamin who was tortured and psychologically abused for fourteen years to become a killer (and was shocked by the revelation of his past), Margaret is fully aware what she is on about and cares nothing anyway, only cares about herself, her own profit, at the price of other people's lives. In fact, Lavinia never tries to make her kill people outside the camp, after all, but Margaret planned to lure and kill them en masse so that she can exploit from the tragedy once more. She also relished the feeling of killing other people when murdering Trevor, and even tried to murder the innocent Bobby II so that she will become the "final girl" (and clearly, she won't), while Lavinia already let her hatred bygone.

Fruedian Excuse/Mitigating Factor
Well, other than being manipulated by Lavinia, being bullied could be an excuse for her actions in 1970, but it cannot justify her actions towards the protagonists, Bobby II or the 1989 victims. While it was Lavinia's idea to frame Benjamin for the whole murder, Margaret already had the idea in mind, as I mentioned before, and it seemed all too petty to frame a man genuiuely kind to her for murder. As a result, Margaret only saw Benjamin as her own tool and used his kindness as the factor of his downfall.

Heinous Standards
About American Horror Story, it is in general an anthological series. Even with most of its seasons are connected in one way or another, 1984 can be see as a stand-alone installment because of its story contradicts with other seasons, like how Ramirez ended up trapped in Camp Redwood, instead of dying in prison like his real-life counterpart (which was amplified in the Hotel counterpart of Ramirez). Within 1984, several other antagonists (except Ramirez and Bruce) have their own excuses and people they cared about, but they all redeemed themselves. As for Margaret? Well, she has nobody but herself to care about. Her actions after 1970 have nothing to do with bullies, her action after 1984 have nothing to do with Lavinia, and her actions after 1989 have nothing to do with playing victim anymore. All of her own acts are reserved for enriching herself and, above all, relishing herself in her selfish and morbid obsession of killing.
 * Donna Chambers became obsessed with studying serial killers because of finding out her father was one and saw him committing suicide, but changed her mind once she saw Ramirez came back to life and saw Xavier's disfigurement because she let an insane Benjamin free.
 * Benjamin was framed and driven to insanity through torture, before he was took over by a murderous split personality. He was horrified and regretful when he discovered the truth, and no longer desired killing anymore once he discovered he was just Margaret's puppet. He later became a caring and dutiful father who tried to bring Ramirez to justice in order to avenge his wife and protect his infant son.
 * Montana Duke worked with Ramirez against Brooks to seek revenge for the death of her brother, Ray Powell was shown to be a coward but was against killing innocent people. However, she genuiuely loved her brother and Trevor, and had a change of heart when Brooks forgave her and made Trevor become a ghost in Camp Redwood.
 * Xavier gone murderous after seeing the camp chef dying and disfigured by a brainwashed Mr. Jingles (under Margaret's manipulation, of course), but he no longer desired to kill other people once the ghosts punished Benjamin (though disproportinately), Ramirez and Margaret.
 * Even Lavinia Richter, who orchastrated the entire event to frame her elder son, genuiuely loved Bobby and gone insane after losing him (reminds us of Pamela Voorhees). Her action, murderous as it was, still showed herself to be a caring mother at least to one son of her. She eventually reconciled with Benjamin once she had found out that he was also guilty over Bobby's death and even named his son Bobby in memory of his late brother. She still encouraged Benjamin to commit suicide, but not for grudge against him, but to make him a ghost so that he could enact eternal vengeance against Ramirez and protect his son from the killer.

Final Verdict?
A very firm Yes.