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“ | Give a message to my flock, tell them this is a test. | „ |
~ Grant after being arrested for murder by the BAU. |
Colton Grant is the secondary antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "The Forever People". He is the psychopathic leader of the eponymous cult for which the episode is named, and is intially suspected of the murders which the BAU is investigating, however they are revealed to be the work of one of his cult members.
He was portrayed by Grant Show.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Nothing is known about Grant's past prior to founding his doomsday "Forever People" cult. However it can be assumed he started the cult to satisfy his psychopathic and narcissistic need for power and control over others. His cult targeted disenfranchised people, and used a variety of psychological brainwashing techniques to break its members down, including depriving their diet of protein but keeping it high in sugar and electrolytes in order to weaken their reasoning abilities, and telling them to cut ties with friends and family. Grant also instructed his followers to donate to a shell non-profit called the Global Warming Awareness Fund, run by Grant, on a monthly basis to keep the cult well-funded, and made them sign a contract before the freezing ritual. The cult's known victims included Tommy Fallon, who lost his fingers in the cult's freezing and revival ritual, and Sarah Rhoades, who joined the cult with her son Bobby and cut off all contact with the outside world shortly after. After Sarah's murder by Jon Kanak, Grant kept Bobby in the cult, causing his father and Sarah's former romantic partner to infiltrate it in an attempt to rescue him.
The Forever People[]
Grant is first shown (although his face is not seen) picking Carl Mason up from a bus stop and handcuffing him before bringing him aboard. He then places Carl in the freezer after confirming that he is aware of what he signed. After leaving him in the freezer long enough to cause him to nearly freeze to death, Grant removes him from the freezer and revives him with bags of warm water to warm him up and a defibrillator. Once Carl regains consciousness Grant and the cult welcome him as a new full-fledged member.
Later, the cult's newest member, Adam Lewis, breaks down crying from having been put through the freezing ritual and from being starved during a concentration exercise in which Grant gives a short sermon about fear being what truly kills and consumes people. As a result, Grant has him taken away. Lewis is later abducted and frozen to death by Jon Kanak. Grant is later shown giving an annoucement stating that some of the members are ready to advance to Level Three in the cult after conversing with "The Elders". However, before he can finish the BAU arrives on the scene and takes him away for questioning.
Grant is joined by his lawyer, who states that if his religous beliefs are denigrated in any way, he will not speak with them. When Grant is shown the photos of the frozen bodies of Rhoades and Lewis, he invokes his right to remain silent, prompting the BAU to arrest him for their murders. Grant tells his lawyer to tell the cult not to lose faith in light of his arrest. However the BAU knows Grant did not actually commit the murders, as he had a look of genuine surprise and shock when the photos were presented to him, and he was only arrested as a diversion for the real murderer. When he is finally found and arrested however, Grant is likely arrested as well for keeping Bobby in the cult, as well as for his various other offenses.
Trivia[]
- Grant is an amalgamation of multiple real-life cult leaders:
- L. Ron Hubbard, a sci-if author and the founder of the Church of Scientology, which has long been criticized for its brainwashing, isolation to prevent outside contact, and unethical therapies that in fact endanger the lives of their members.
- Jim Jones, the founder of the People’s Temple cult and the Jonestown colony in South America, which tortured its members and barred escapee Timothy Stoen from retrieving his son John from the commune, which led to members shooting at congress officials and the eventual Jonestown massacre, where the hundreds of members still present suicided and murdered each other, including Jones.
- Shin Ok-ju, the founder of the Grace Road Church, a doomsday cult once sued by a member for medical endangerment that resulted in the loss of his leg after developing gangrene.
External Links[]
Colton Grant on the Criminal Minds wiki.