LJ Folger is a major antagonist in the TV series Snowpiercer. The daughter of Robert and Lilah Folger, LJ is a psychopathic serial killer who is one of the main antagonists of the first season and a supporting antagonist thereafter.
She was portrayed by Annalise Basso.
Personality[]
Initially shy, LJ was a reserved member of First but paid close attention to what occurred around her; particularly pertaining to the status of Layton's murder investigation. Later, her dark, sadistic personality would emerge, wherein Layton realized that LJ herself had castrated Sean Wise for no apparent reason other than pleasure. After she was found out, she acted aggressively and attempted to hurt Layton.
Despite the connection between her and Erik, when LJ heard of his death, she began to fake cry as a way to cover up her guilt, whilst giving a snide smirk behind her grieving parents' back.
LJ appears to be a psychopath, feeling no remorse or care for her actions and manipulating all around her to her own ends. As revealed by her mother, as a 7-year old child, LJ poked out her father's left eye with a fork in a fit of temper. She subsequently is shown to enjoy playing with the glass eye he got as a replacement in her mouth. This, ironically, leads to her accidental death when LJ plays with the eye again as an act of self-comfort and chokes on it.
Despite her demeanor, LJ is not completely emotionless as seen with her reaction to Miss Audrey singing about unrequited love. However, she quickly composed herself before anyone noticed. She also genuinely appears to love Oz, although she is unwilling to let that love get in the way of her ambitions for power. In contrast, Oz lacks her sheer ambition and becomes more and more fearful of LJ and her actions following her murder of Kevin McMahon, siding with Layton against Wilford even when LJ joins Wilford's side.
After Wilford's exile and as the separation of the two trains, LJ appears to be left despondent as her plans come to nothing and Oz decides to go to New Eden without her when LJ refuses to join him. As a result, LJ's own selfishness and hunger for power leaves her alone with no one who cares about her, something that, although she tries to hide it, clearly bothers LJ who rather unconvincingly insists that she's a survivor and will come out on top with LJ crying in a rare act of genuine sadness once Oz is gone.
Biography[]
Background[]
Little is known about LJ's life before the Freeze. However, when she was 7, LJ tore out her father's eye with a fork. Despite the obvious signs that LJ was mentally disturbed, her parents chose to coddle her, which only nurtured her psychopathic side.
Snowpiercer murders[]
About four years into Snowpiercer's journey, LJ convinced her bodyguard and boyfriend Erik Sotto to become a serial killing team. The two murdered a man named Edward and framed Nikki Genêt for it.
Three years later, LJ and Erik resumed their killing spree which Melanie Cavill brought in Andre Layton, who was a detective before the world ended, to solve. This time, LJ would castrate their victims after their murders. Layton's investigation leads him to identify LJ and Erik as the killers. Erik is killed by the train's Jackboots while Layton, after pretending to play along with LJ, has her arrested for the murders.
LJ is placed on trial for her crimes with LJ's mother convincing her to claim that Erik had forced her to partake in the murders. Despite LJ's lies and manipulations, the tribunal finds her guilty. However, fearing that LJ knows more than she's letting on about the Drawers, Melanie reluctantly intervenes as "Mr. Wilford" to commute her sentence.
The Revolution[]
Recalling LJ's love of secrets, Layton later invites her to learn the dirtiest secret on the train and has his adopted son Miles show LJ that Melanie is actually pretending to be Joseph Wilford. LJ reveals this to her parents and First Class, causing them to also revolt against Melanie's leadership alongside the Jackboots.
LJ later pushes her parents to assert their authority when Layton is supposedly about to surrender rather than allowing Commander Nolan Grey and Ruth Wardell to take over. However, Layton, Melanie, Miles, and Bennett Knox send Robert, Lilah, Grey and their army into the Freeze, killing them and leaving LJ, who had remained behind in First Class, an orphan. With Layton and the Tailies victorious, Pike, a high-ranking Tailie, asserts his newly-found power and kicks LJ out of her First Class quarters.
Supporting Wilford[]
Forced to work as a janitor in Third Class, LJ befriends and later falls in love with former Brakeman John "Oz" Osweiller. The two, LJ especially, are some of Wilford's biggest supporters. The two seemingly take control of janitorial after the former head Terence is killed by Pike on Layton's orders.
LJ and Oz are later assigned by Wilford to run the Night Car after the abduction of Miss Audrey by Layton and his forces. Wilford stages a public wedding for LJ and Oz to boost morale. After Layton retakes the train, LJ kills Kevin McMahon for his actions so as to portray herself as a member of the resistance and end up on the good side of the winning team.
Even after Audrey's return, LJ and Oz are allowed to continue running the Nightcar because of Audrey's exile by Layton for her actions. As Snowpiercer gets closer to New Eden, LJ secretly pledges her support to Mrs. Headwood and Wilford's remaining supporters and helps in his escape, by supplying a vial of poison that Wilford later used to kill three Brakemen guarding his cell. However, Oz chooses to side with Layton instead, having grown cold towards LJ after she physically threatened him with a knife and refused to share her plans with him.
Death[]
When the trains split apart, Oz decides to go to New Eden with Layton rather than remaining on Snowpiercer with Melanie and LJ. Oz ends his relationship with LJ for good in favor of what the future outside of the train holds for him. LJ is disgusted with her husband's decision to make a change and leave behind her and the chance for power, declaring rather unconvincingly that she'll make it and that she's a survivor.
Following Oz's departure, a despondent LJ is left alone with all of her plans having come to nothing and her selfishness and hunger for power leaving LJ with no one who cares about her, something that clearly bothers LJ despite her protests to the contrary. Having gotten her father's spare glass eye with the help of Audrey, LJ indulges in one of her favorite habits by placing the eye in her mouth and playing with it as an act of self-comfort. In the process, a passing man bumps into LJ, causing her to accidentally swallow the eye and choke to death on it, dying completely alone with no one to help her or care that she's gone.
A year later, having become a drunken hermit, Oz believes that voices he's hearing are a sign that Snowpiercer's passengers have all died horribly and that he's being haunted by LJ's ghost. After the kidnapping of Liana Layton, Sam Roche explains to Oz that he wasn't hearing ghosts but rather people who were spying on New Eden.
Trivia[]
- The song playing when LJ dies is "Sealed With a Kiss" by Brian Hyland, the same song that LJ was dancing to when Layton realized that she was the serial killer in Without Their Maker and which is implied to be listened to by LJ as she was performing her murders.