| “ | Where there is light, there is shadow! | „ |
| ~ Mary Lou. |
| “ | Hear my words and heed my warning and laugh if you dare: witches live among us! | „ |
| ~ Marry Lou's believe in the existence of wizards. |
Mary Lou Barebone is a major antagonist in the 2016 fantasy film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
An American No-Maj (the name American wizards and witches give to non-magical people) in the 20th century, Mary Lou sought to eradicate all witches and wizards from the United States of America. She was the adoptive mother of Chastity, Modesty and Credence Barebone, the latter whom she loved to beat up, indirectly causing his Obscurial powers to develop and set the film series into motion.
She was portrayed by Samantha Morton, who also played Alpha in The Walking Dead.
Biography[]
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them[]
Possessing an intense hatred for wizardkind, Mary established the New Salem Philanthropic Society, and situated it in New York. Her distaste for wizards and witches led her to adopting children of magical backgrounds, and harshly suppressing their abilities. Eventually, Mary adopted three children - Chastity, Modesty, and Credence - by December 1926. Mary singled Credence out and remorselessly punished him for his repeated failures. Unbeknownst to her, she was unintentionally making Credence an Obscurial by suppressing his magical abilities. Credence would end up becoming one of the most, if not the most powerful Obscurial there had ever been. In addition, Mary was assaulted by the Auror Porpentina Goldstein when she was physically attacking Credence. This one act causes Tina to lose her position in the Magical Congress of the United States of America as she had unintentionally exposed herself when she was trying to defend Credence.
Later in the film, Mary Lou attempts to convince Henry Shaw Senior, owner of an important newspaper, that the attacks occurring in New York were supernatural in origin, attempting to convince him into making the NSPS the headline for his newspaper. However, Shaw, who considers Mary Lou and her organization insane fanatics, declines her demands and orders her to leave his office. Mary Lou merely begs him to reconsider if the attacks were to continue and then leaves, with her children following her.
Later, back at the NSPS headquarter, Credence finds out that his little sister Modesty was performing magic. To protect her from Mary Lou's wrath, Credence takes her wand with the intent of hiding it. However, Mary Lou enters the room at that same moment. Assuming that Modesty's wand belongs to Credence, Mary snaps the wand and prepares to beat Credence, even openly insulting his real mother. At this point, Modesty confesses to owning the wand, prompting Mary to punish her instead. Before she can though, without any warning, Credence unleashes his Obscurial powers, killing Mary instantly, as well as Chastity by accident. The New Salem Philanthropic Society presumably comes to an end with her demise.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald[]
Mary Lou does not appear in The Crimes of Grindelwald, due to her being already dead. However, Gellert Grindelwald bitterly mentions her to his followers, remarking that the woman who raised Credence Barebone was the one who nearly destroyed him. She is also briefly mentioned by Credence when he meets Irma Dugard, the half-elf housekeeper of the Lestrange family, who tells him that she was the one who delivered him to Mary Lou under Corvus Lestrange's orders (mistaking him for Lestrange's son), as well as the one Mary Lou assumed to be Credence's mother. When asked by Credence why she left him with Barebone, Irma replied that she thought it was necessary.
Trivia[]
- Mary Lou Barebone serves as a non-magical counterpart of magical racists like Dolores Umbridge and the Death Eaters as a whole. While Umbridge and the Death Eaters are pure-blood wizards supremacists who tries to eliminate non-magical people as well as Muggle-born wizards and witches in England, Mary's ideas represents the polar opposite of their ideology as she is strongly against wizards of all kind and tried to destroy all of the wizards in the United States.
