What Will Jane's Backstory Be?
We've had plenty of Cal and Xavier backstory (plus a whole pre-death, Cal-in-the-bunker episode). We've had Billy backstory. Sintra backstory. A bitta Gabriella backstory. Even crazed librarian backstory!
At this point, a Jane backstory episode feels inevitable. Heck, I think it is inevitable!
So, I wanna know, what's your idea for what Jane's backstory oughta be?
Our cheery, murderous Wii enthusiast is now one of the show's hottest remaining mysteries. If you were writing the Jane flashback episode for Season II of Paradise, what history might you invent to explain or develop her character?
Here's my pitch (scroll down to "picture this" to skip the reasoning):
Jane is the daughter of a brutal Russian arms merchant, raised in periods of both luxury and squaller, but always in a state of abandonment and neglect.
Jane seems to be a textbook psychopath - lacking all empathy - but she also has a deeply juvenile affect, interests and understanding of human emotion. Jane seems to suffer from an extreme sensitivity about her mental faculties with Dan Fogelman stating that Jane shot Sinatra primarily because Sinatra called her insane., not specifically over getting her hands on Cal's Wii.
Obviously, the first two claims aren't tough to prove, but forgive a brief digression.
Jane revels in the knowledge that killing her own lover establishes her as the "biggest motherfucker," shoots Sinatra without blinking an eye in order to ensure the billionaire schemer will still be of "use" to her, and seems genuinely more concerned with snagging that Wii than the dilemma of possibly having to murder a child.
Psychopathic lack of empathy? Check.
Jane's juvenile behaviour is, of course, most obvious in her obsession with the Wii - and her inability to understand how batshit any normal person would find her asking for it in that exact moment - but we also see Jane's underdeveloped sensibilities manifest in other ways. She's gleeful at going to the fair, she shops for ice cream for Pressley's abduction, and Robinson even mocks her for her childish demeanor - "Holly Hobbie with a gun." One might have concluded this was all an act - a form of playing dumb - but given the Wii incident, we know it's not.
I think establishing where all this comes from is vital to Jane's backstory, but this level of delusion and sociopathic behaviour can't be explained by generic "trauma." The two most common causes of stunted emotional development in women are childhood sexual abuse and childhood neglect or abandonment. For many reasons, I think neglect and abandonment are the better options here. In terms of psychopathic tendences, this has a genetic element and can be - at least partially - hereditary.
Now, picture this, a homicidal maniac is born...
Sequence No. 1 - 10 years old (child actor)
Eating breakfast with Jane ("Zhanna") and her American mother, Jane's Russian arms dealer father steps outside to deal with some business brought to him by one of his thick-necked lackeys - "Sir, we have him. In yard." Jane's dad heads out onto the patio and disappears out of sight. We hear shouting. Then the sounds of a beating. Mom is nervous, but both Mom and Jane keep eating... until a body is hurled through the plate glass patio door. Mom screams! Dad continues pummeling the man to a bloody pulp. It's gruesome. But after a half dozen more blows, the dad stops, gestures for his thugs to cart the unconscious body away, then sits down and continues eating like nothing happened. Mom is terrified... But Jane goes back to eating, same as Dad.
Jane then sits alone in her room playing make believe as her parents slug it out in a screaming match down the hall.
Later that night, Jane's mother comes to get her hoping to flee under cover of darkness. Jane won't go. She wants to stay with her father. Her mother leaves anyway. Jane watches from the window as her father's guards catch the mother trying to escape. Mom is dragged away. Jane tucks herself back into bed. BANG! Mom's shot.
Sequence No. 2 - 13 years old (same child actor)
A funeral. Jane's dad is dead. Once again, she's left playing alone. Some of her father's Russian speaking thugs talk in earshot about Jane's father having been gunned down in his limo at the hands of men hired by a Chinese competitor. This time, Jane's aunt comes to get her. She tells Jane not to worry: Her and her husband are there to take Jane back to America.
Jane is transported to a rundown, threadbare bungalow - a hovel, compared to anything she's known. Jane steals money in internet scams. Gets in fights at school. Ignores her uncle, trying to school her. The aunt and uncle argue. Unc wants her gone. Taking her in was supposed to come with big bags of dirty Russian cash. Auntie snaps back: Guess we could just ask the Russian mob where all the money went? The bickering fosterents spot Jane eavesdropping and chase her off, telling her to go to her room. Her room is a girlishly corner in a dank basement with a cot and a clothes rack.
Sequence No. 3 - 16 years old (the adult actor)
Jane's aunt drops her off for a high school basketball game. She'll be back in 2 hours and wants Jane waiting out on the corner, not a minute late. OK, OK. Jane watches as her aunt leaves, then ducks around the front side of the school instead of heading in through the brightly lit gymnasium entrance. She goes to her locker where she extracts a school backpack and huge hiking pack.
Jane shows up next at an intercity bus station. She walks out on the platform, sits on the bench and waits. A man approaches. He sits. He's Russian. He says he's a friend of her father's. She's dubious. He admits he was a "business associate." Jane asks why he'd want to help after all these years. He says he doesn't: "I leave you out here, a runaway, you're dead in one year. But you are your father's daughter. His blood in your veins. Someone like that will always have value. And [like Jane said to Sinatra] you're no use to me if you're dead."
We've had plenty of Cal and Xavier backstory (plus a whole pre-death, Cal-in-the-bunker episode). We've had Billy backstory. Sintra backstory. A bitta Gabriella backstory. Even crazed librarian backstory!
At this point, a Jane backstory episode feels inevitable. Heck, I think it is inevitable!
So, I wanna know, what's your idea for what Jane's backstory oughta be?
Our cheery, murderous Wii enthusiast is now one of the show's hottest remaining mysteries. If you were writing the Jane flashback episode for Season II of Paradise, what history might you invent to explain or develop her character?
Here's my pitch (scroll down to "picture this" to skip the reasoning):
Jane is the daughter of a brutal Russian arms merchant, raised in periods of both luxury and squaller, but always in a state of abandonment and neglect.
Jane seems to be a textbook psychopath - lacking all empathy - but she also has a deeply juvenile affect, interests and understanding of human emotion. Jane seems to suffer from an extreme sensitivity about her mental faculties with Dan Fogelman stating that Jane shot Sinatra primarily because Sinatra called her insane., not specifically over getting her hands on Cal's Wii.
Obviously, the first two claims aren't tough to prove, but forgive a brief digression.
Jane revels in the knowledge that killing her own lover establishes her as the "biggest motherfucker," shoots Sinatra without blinking an eye in order to ensure the billionaire schemer will still be of "use" to her, and seems genuinely more concerned with snagging that Wii than the dilemma of possibly having to murder a child.
Psychopathic lack of empathy? Check.
Jane's juvenile behaviour is, of course, most obvious in her obsession with the Wii - and her inability to understand how batshit any normal person would find her asking for it in that exact moment - but we also see Jane's underdeveloped sensibilities manifest in other ways. She's gleeful at going to the fair, she shops for ice cream for Pressley's abduction, and Robinson even mocks her for her childish demeanor - "Holly Hobbie with a gun." One might have concluded this was all an act - a form of playing dumb - but given the Wii incident, we know it's not.
I think establishing where all this comes from is vital to Jane's backstory, but this level of delusion and sociopathic behaviour can't be explained by generic "trauma." The two most common causes of stunted emotional development in women are childhood sexual abuse and childhood neglect or abandonment. For many reasons, I think neglect and abandonment are the better options here. In terms of psychopathic tendences, this has a genetic element and can be - at least partially - hereditary.
Now, picture this, a homicidal maniac is born...
Sequence No. 1 - 10 years old (child actor)
Eating breakfast with Jane ("Zhanna") and her American mother, Jane's Russian arms dealer father steps outside to deal with some business brought to him by one of his thick-necked lackeys - "Sir, we have him. In yard." Jane's dad heads out onto the patio and disappears out of sight. We hear shouting. Then the sounds of a beating. Mom is nervous, but both Mom and Jane keep eating... until a body is hurled through the plate glass patio door. Mom screams! Dad continues pummeling the man to a bloody pulp. It's gruesome. But after a half dozen more blows, the dad stops, gestures for his thugs to cart the unconscious body away, then sits down and continues eating like nothing happened. Mom is terrified... But Jane goes back to eating, same as Dad.
Jane then sits alone in her room playing make believe as her parents slug it out in a screaming match down the hall.
Later that night, Jane's mother comes to get her hoping to flee under cover of darkness. Jane won't go. She wants to stay with her father. Her mother leaves anyway. Jane watches from the window as her father's guards catch the mother trying to escape. Mom is dragged away. Jane tucks herself back into bed. BANG! Mom's shot.
Sequence No. 2 - 13 years old (same child actor)
A funeral. Jane's dad is dead. Once again, she's left playing alone. Some of her father's Russian speaking thugs talk in earshot about Jane's father having been gunned down in his limo at the hands of men hired by a Chinese competitor. This time, Jane's aunt comes to get her. She tells Jane not to worry: Her and her husband are there to take Jane back to America.
Jane is transported to a rundown, threadbare bungalow - a hovel, compared to anything she's known. Jane steals money in internet scams. Gets in fights at school. Ignores her uncle, trying to school her. The aunt and uncle argue. Unc wants her gone. Taking her in was supposed to come with big bags of dirty Russian cash. Auntie snaps back: Guess we could just ask the Russian mob where all the money went? The bickering fosterents spot Jane eavesdropping and chase her off, telling her to go to her room. Her room is a girlishly corner in a dank basement with a cot and a clothes rack.
Sequence No. 3 - 16 years old (the adult actor)
Jane's aunt drops her off for a high school basketball game. She'll be back in 2 hours and wants Jane waiting out on the corner, not a minute late. OK, OK. Jane watches as her aunt leaves, then ducks around the front side of the school instead of heading in through the brightly lit gymnasium entrance. She goes to her locker where she extracts a school backpack and huge hiking pack.
Jane shows up next at an intercity bus station. She walks out on the platform, sits on the bench and waits. A man approaches. He sits. He's Russian. He says he's a friend of her father's. She's dubious. He admits he was a "business associate." Jane asks why he'd want to help after all these years. He says he doesn't: "I leave you out here, a runaway, you're dead in one year. But you are your father's daughter. His blood in your veins. Someone like that will always have value. And [like Jane said to Sinatra] you're no use to me if you're dead."