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| “ | I have to show her that I can take everything that she has. Then she's going to remember me. | „ |
| ~ Diane Turner revealing her motive for stalking Donovan. |
Diane Turner is the secondary antagonist of Criminal Minds season eight. She is a deranged graduate student who stalks and kidnaps one of her professors, Maeve Donovan, as revenge for rejecting her doctoral thesis.
She was portrayed by the late Michelle Trachtenberg, who also played Georgina Sparks in Gossip Girl.
Biography[]
Early life[]
When Turner was a child, her parents died in a murder-suicide. She dealt with the trauma by convincing herself that her parents were not mentally ill, but that their suicidal depression had been caused by spontaneous cell death.
As an adult, she became a graduate research assistant in the neuroscience department of Mendel University, working on a doctoral thesis stating that cell death causes suicidal ideation. She submitted her thesis to Professor Maeve Donovan, who rejected it because Turner included her own personal experiences with her parents in her research. Turner became obsessed with destroying Donovan and began stalking her.
Frightened for her life, Donovan became a hermit and ended her engagement to her fiancé, Bobby Putnam, whom Turner then began dating as part of her plan to take away everything Donovan loved. She changed her name to Diane Huntington and began using Putnam to keep tabs on Donovan. When Donovan began a new relationship with Spencer Reid, an agent with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), Turner started stalking him, as well.
"Zugzwang"[]
Aware that Putnam is still in love with Donovan, Turner convinces him to follow her on her date with Reid. When Reid sees Putnam and believes him to be Donovan's stalker, he calls her to warn her off.
After staking out Donovan's apartment, Turner kidnaps her, sending Reid a taunting message reading "zugzwang", a chess term meaning that a player's defeat is inevitable, and they must choose between resigning the game or playing it to the bitter end. When Reid and fellow BAU Agent Aaron Hotchner question Putnam, Turner leaves the room, but she later asks Reid what is going on, addressing him as "doctor" even though he had not been introduced to her as such. This, along with the kidnapper's use of black eyeliner found in Putnam's apartment to write the ransom note, leads Reid to realize that she is the kidnapper.
Meanwhile, Turner puts on Donovan's clothes in an attempt to seduce Putnam, but he merely compares her unfavorably to Donovan. Turner knocks Putnam unconscious with a wine bottle in a fit of rage. She then holds him and Donovan hostage and tells Donovan she had never understood what was so special about her until she saw her with Reid; she then says she wants what they have. She puts a gun to Putnam's head and threatens to kill him unless Donovan gives her information about Reid. Donovan complies, but Turner kills Putnam anyway, dismissing him as "superfluous".
When Reid and the rest of the BAU team contact Donovan via webcam, Turner takes her to the roof, accusing her of rejecting her thesis out of jealousy. Finally remembering who Turner is, Donovan tells her that the rejection of her thesis was not personal and that she is sorry for her parents' deaths. This sets Turner off into another fit of rage, and she forces Donovan to the ledge. Before she can send Donovan off the ledge, however, Reid shows her a written sign reading "Me For Her". Turner responds by sending a message to Reid through Donovan, reading, "I left you a present; if you want to find it, it's as easy as pie." Reid realizes that the message is a punning reference to pi and writes out a mathematical equation that reveals her location.
The BAU goes to Turner's apartment, and find a gift for Reid, a blindfold, referencing a story Reid had told Donovan about being blindfolded and beaten up by bullies in high school. Reid puts it on and allows Turner to take him hostage. He placates Turner by complimenting her thesis and tries to save Donovan by telling her that he loves Turner, not her. Turner kisses Reid, but she notices his lack of enthusiasm and realizes that he is lying to her. She then shoots him in the arm. Seeing that her life is over, she decides to avoid prison while punishing Donovan and Reid by shooting herself at such an angle that the bullet passes through her head and into Donovan's, killing them both.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Turner is inspired by two real-life stalkers and murderers:
- Ming Sen Shiue, who in 1980 stalked, kidnapped, and raped his former high school algebra teacher, Mary Stauffer, also kidnapping her six-year-old daughter and murdering a six-year-old boy who inadvertently witnessed the kidnapping. Shiue had been obsessed with Stauffer for years, blaming her without basis for his failure to be accepted to college just because she had once given him a B- grade.
- The late Sinedu Tadesse, an Ethiopian-American Harvard student who in 1995 stalked and murdered her roommate, Trang Phuang Ho, before committing suicide.
- Turner is one of the murderers portrayed in Criminal Minds whose M.O. and signature is copied by John Curtis, a villain the BAU faces later on in the eighth season.
- She is the seventh villain in Criminal Minds to suffer from erotomania. The others being: Vincent Shyer, Maggie Lowe, Mike Hicks, Ben Bradstone, Bill Rogers, Carl Finster, Dana Seavers, and Kevin Peck.
External links[]
- Diane Turner on the Criminal Minds Wiki
