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| “ | No more self-loathing. You'll go into the light, and you'll feel loved. And I'll go on to help others who are lost. | „ |
| ~ Jane attempting kill one of her victims. |
Jane Gould is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Today I Do". She is a narcissistic stalker and burgeoning serial killer who abducts women and tries to "fix" them with her own brand of therapy, only to kill them when they resist.
She was portrayed by Rebecca Field.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Jane's parents died when was a child, and she was raised by her grandparents. They died when she was 12, and she was placed in foster care. She began acting out by committing vandalism and self-harm to get attention, which resulted in her getting kicked out of two foster homes. By the time she reached adulthood, she had become a full-blown narcissist with a pathological need for constant attention and praise, and set her sights on becoming a health care worker in hopes of receiving it.
She worked at a series of jobs in the health care field, but faked her educational credentials, as her narcissism would not allow her to accept the idea that she did not know something. When her employers found out that she lied to them, they fired her. She eventually became a "freelance social worker".
Her first "client" was Gail Langston, whom she met while trolling Syracuse General Hospital, one of her former employers. She began stalking Gail, hacking into the hospital's network to learn everything about her. Jane learns that Gail had been hospitalized for depression, and befriended her, boosting her self-esteem by showering her with attention. When Gail began getting better and more independent, however, Jane felt small and insignificant, so she kidnapped Gail in order to feel special again. While Gail was her captive, Jane "treated" her by beating her on the legs and feet with a hammer whenever she displeased her, calling it "ego therapy". During one of these sessions, Jane lost control and beat her to death, and dumped her body in a nearby lake.
In "Today I Do"[]
By the time the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) starts investigating Gail's murder, Jane has begun stalking Molly Grandin, hacking into the hospital's network and finding out that she being treated for anorexia and had been hospitalized before for broken bones inflicted by her ex-boyfriend, Lyle Donaldson. As she had with Gail, Jane befriends Molly and starts to make her feel better, and kidnaps her when she fears that Molly no longer needs her. Jane also breaks Molly's leg so she cannot run away, and will be even more dependent on her.
Jane also comes to believe (correctly) that Molly still has feelings for Lyle, and resolves to get rid of him. She learns everything she can about him from Molly, and arranges a chance meeting with him at a bar. She takes him back to her house and has sex with him, recording the encounter with her phone. She then chains him to her bed and goes to show Molly the recording in an effort to make her realize that she no longer needs him. When Molly says that she no longer needs her, either, Jane becomes enraged, kills Lyle when he breaks free, and forcibly takes Molly to a nearby lake to drown her.
Meanwhile, the agents of the BAU realize that the same person who murdered Gail also kidnapped Molly, and profile their suspect as a narcissistic woman who works as a caregiver and poses as a source of comfort to get her victims to trust her. They begin investigating area hospitals, eventually finding Rebecca's personnel file, and realizing that she is the killer they are looking for. They find her just as she is about to drown Molly, who uses the distraction to get out of Jane's clutches. Rebecca tries to chase her, but the BAU and the local police apprehend her. As she is taken into custody, she tells Molly's father, who has arrived to care for his injured daughter, that she was only trying to help her. Jane is presumably imprisoned for life for kidnapping and murder.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Jane is inspired by multiple real-life and fictional criminals:
- Joe Clark, a.k.a. “The Bone Breaker”, a teen sadist responsible for kidnapping and torturing two boys in his small Wisconsin neighborhood by snapping their joints and breaking their bones, killing the first boy and caught once the second boy escaped and called the police.
- Alyssa Bustamante, a mentally ill murderer who, as a teenager, lost her parents at a young age, cut herself, and was responsible for the murder of Elizabeth Olten.
- Genene Jones, a serial killer guilty of the poisonings of dozens of infants while she worked as a nurse, having a history of attention seeking as a child, especially after her adoptive family died, which would motivate her crimes.
- Kristen Gilbert, a serial killer nurse at a veteran's hospital guilty of the murders and assaults of numerous patients with various poisons to get attention for pretending to resuscitate them. She also committed other crimes to prevent herself from getting caught and divert the investigation from the motives of the murders.
- Annie Wilkes, the villain of Stephen King's novel Misery and its film adaptation; a serial killer and stalker nurse who holds a writer captive and tortures him with hammer blows like Jane. Wilkes, in turn, was inspired by real serial killer nurse Genene Jones.
External Links[]
- Jane Gould on the Criminal Minds Wiki
