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| “ | There's a storm coming, Agent Hotchner, and you're about to be swept away. | „ |
| ~ Slade threatening Aaron Hotchner. |
Antonia Slade is a supporting antagonist in the TV crime drama series Criminal Minds. She is a psychopathic criminal mastermind who conspires with serial killer Peter Lewis and her son, Asher Douglas, to frame FBI Agent Aaron Hotchner for terrorism.
She was portrayed by Frances Fisher, who also portrayed Ruth DeWitt Bukater in Titanic and Susan Boyd in Law & Order.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Slade was born in 1959, the only child of a Lutheran minister in Kansas. At age 14, she was impregnated by her boyfriend, and her father took her out of school to give birth to the child, a boy, at home, and later forced her to give him up for adoption. He also murdered her boyfriend and made his death look like a hunting accident.
As an adult, Slade moved to Virginia and became a therapist, specializing in the treatment of teenage boys. She also started a helpline for teenage runaways, promising to connect them with social services. Her philanthropy was merely a cover for her real, far darker motivations, however; she lured the runaways who called the helpline to her house and murdered them to fulfill a twisted fantasy in which they were surrogates for her own, hated self. She was assisted in her crimes by a submissive partner in crime, accountant Phil Garmon.
She was eventually caught after a would-be victim, Hector Ramon, escaped. She was arrested by the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), then led by Supervisory Agent Jason Gideon, while Garmon committed suicide. She was found guilty of nine murders and sentenced to life in prison. She tried on one occasion to escape, but she was caught.
"Devil's Backbone"[]
In 2017, she was contacted by her former patient Claude Barlow, who was obsessed with her. Slade manipulated him into kidnapping several young boys so she could vicariously relive the power she felt during her killing spree. She also sent coded messages to Barlow to send her packages of the boys' clothes stained with dogs' blood.
The BAU, now led by the now-deceased Gideon's former partner David Rossi, interviews Slade in prison about the man who they believe is killing teenage boys in the same way she did. Agent Aaron Hotchner tries to grill her about the packages of bloodied clothes, but she ignores him before passing him a note full of insulting comments. Next, Agent Jennifer Jareau, a mother of two, tries appealing to her maternal instinct to protect her son. Slade toys with her as well, however, by insinuating that she is not as respected within the BAU as her male colleagues, and never will be. She then demands a transfer to a federal facility in return for her help on the case; when Jareau says she cannot do that, Slade stops talking to her.
Agent Spencer Reid approaches Slade while she is eating lunch with a copy of one of her coded messages and asks where the original is. Slade ignores the question and tells Reid that she can tell that he has recently lost someone; Reid replies that his friend and fellow BAU Agent Derek Morgan has recently retired. Appreciating Reid's honesty, Slade offers to decode the message. She then grabs Reid's hand, spits her food into it, writes the letters "CH" in the mush with her finger, and tells Reid that the boys are still alive.
Rossi and fellow BAU Agent Tara Lewis are the next to interview Slade, and they goad her into talking by remarking to each other that Gideon had always doubted the official psychological profile of her as an extreme narcissist and suspected that there was at least one person she cared about. Taking the bait, Slade says that she will tell them anything they want to know if they transfer her to a federal facility in Kentucky. Rossi promises to recommend she be transferred if her information proves useful.
Slade then asks to be alone with Lewis, and asks her about her childhood. Lewis tells her a story about living in Germany as a child with her military family, and being beaten up in grade school by two neo-Nazi classmates. Slade accuses her of lying, however, and says that this incident happened not to her, but someone close to her. When Lewis demands that she confess what she knows, an impressed Slade says she is merely trying to give a chance to redeem herself for failing to protect someone she loves. Lewis, who is in fact making a veiled reference to her younger brother Gabriel, refuses to talk about it, and leaves.
Eventually, the BAU tells Slade that they have no choice but to arrange a transfer for her, and personally takes her to a facility in Kentucky on their private plane. During the flight, Slade once again taunts Lewis, trying to find out who her abused loved one is. Lewis responds that she will tell her the truth once the investigation is over.
Meanwhile, Reid figures out that Slade had not written "CH", but "C++", which eventually helps the BAU to discover that Barlow, Slade's former patient who is now a computer programmer, is the kidnapper. Slade directs them to Barlow's apartment, where they find him with his latest kidnapping victim, a teenage boy. Barlow holds the boy at gunpoint, threatening to kill him unless he can talk to Slade. Rossi lets Slade talk to Barlow; she whispers something in his ear, and he promptly turns his weapon on himself and commits suicide.
Afterwards, Slade is taken back to Virginia, the proposed transfer having been nothing but a ploy to get her to lead the BAU to the kidnapper, something that Rossi believes that Slade knew all along. She tries one last time to get Lewis to tell her what really happened in Germany, but Lewis declines. Slade then tells Hotchner that "a storm is coming", and that he is going to be "swept away".
"The Storm"[]
Soon afterward, Hotchner is framed for murder by serial killer Peter Lewis, a recurring nemesis of the BAU, with help from Slade's now-adult son, Asher Douglas. After the BAU discovers that Lewis' accomplice is Slade's son, Jareau interrogates her to find out where they can find him. Slade is defiant at first, but Jareau manages to get under her skin by saying that the SWAT team that arrested Hotchner will not be happy about having been used and will not hesitate to kill her son. In an uncharacteristic display of humanity, Slade begs Jareau to tell SWAT to spare his life; when Jareau agrees, Slade reveals her son's name and how to find him. Jareau and the rest of the BAU then apprehend Douglas and foil Lewis' plot, thus exonerating Hotchner.
Trivia[]
- Slade is primarily inspired by Gordon Stewart Northcott, a serial kidnapper, rapist, and murderer of boys whom he held captive on his farm, with the complicity of his mother and nephew, the latter who was beaten and raped regularly by Northcott. Northcott is coincidentally the main villain of the film Changeling.
External Links[]
- Antonia Slade on the Criminal Minds Wiki
