Think you’ve seen television’s worst serial killer? Unless you’re watching The Following, you may have to change your definition of “terrifying.”
We here at Hypable are fans of a wide range of thrilling TV shows. From the mildly scary, like Teen Wolf, to the downright twisted, like Hannibal, we’ve seen our fair share of murderers.
The Following falls on the more extreme end of the spectrum. Sure, we’ve had some insane killers on the show, like Joe Carroll and Mark Gray, but none of them come close to the mysterious Theo.
Theo has, in his short time on the show, proven he can evade detection for years at a time, kill people and make it look like suicide, easily manipulate and recruit followers, build air-tight alternate personalities and lives, and get to anyone at any time — including FBI agent Ryan Hardy. He smart, he’s brutal, and he’s efficient. That’s a dangerous formula.
So if you think you’ve seen a more monstrous murderer on television, please let us know. Until then, we’re going to take some of the better known TV serial killers and tell you why Theo Noble would make even them shake in their boots.
Dexter from ‘Dexter’
Dexter and Theo actually have a lot in common. In particular, they’re both able to assume alternate identities and (for the most part) stay off the authorities’ radar. In Dexter’s case, however, his menace is lessened by the fact that he only kills other killers. That is the point of the show after all — Dexter is a “good” serial killer.
Theo is not. Theo kills the innocent, and he has absolutely no remorse for what he’s done. He enjoys it — he revels in it — and he doesn’t have a little voice in the back of his head telling him he should be doing something better with his talents. Where Dexter would take pause, Theo would deliver the final blow.
The Flirtual Killer from ‘Eye Candy’
The Flirtual Killer certainly did a great job of hiding in plain sight, though his downfall was his own obsession. Having taken a particular interest in Lindy’s well-being, and his potential relationship with her, the Flirtual Killer came out of hiding in the hopes that Lindy would be swept off her feet. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t quite the reaction Lindy had.
Theo is a shark beneath the surface. He is a lone killer, deadly and primal. When we first met him, we learned he had a beautiful family consisting of a wife and two children. But if you thought that would’ve held him back from doing what he loved, you would’ve been dead wrong. And although it has been revealed that Theo has a sister he loves very much, her alignment with his deadly personality proves to push him forward more than hold him back.
Mr. Yin from ‘Psych’
Mr. Yin and Mr. Yang are both elusive serial killers, but where Mr. Yang followed a set of rules, Mr. Yin was completely unpredictable. He did a great job of setting up impossible situations that Shawn had to then think his way out of, but when it came down to it, he was out-smarted by one of his own. If that hadn’t been the case, maybe he would still be at large.
Theo, though, is even more elusive than Mr. Yin. He rarely comes out of hiding, choosing to use technology to mask his identity and do his dirty work for him. He also doesn’t play by any rules, but where Mr. Yin tends to be a bit more theatrical, Theo is strictly business. He’s horribly efficient, and that means he’s even more deadly.
The Trinity Killer from ‘Dexter’
The Trinity Killer’s most notorious trait is that his kill cycle was always more complicated than any agency discovered. He killed three people in the same methods as his sister, mother, and father. He also killed young boys, though as he buried the sedated children alive in concrete there was never a body found for the fourth victims. He also spread his killing spree around thanks to his work with a charity that built houses for families, and was at large for nearly 30 years before Dexter Morgan saw through him.
Theo has no established kill cycle or method of killing. He doesn’t have trademarks that he leaves behind, and he doesn’t tend to favor one sort of weapon over another. His lack of an identifying pattern is part of what makes him so terrifying. There is no mark to his crime scenes that identifies them as a Theo Noble victim. It’s almost as if all of his victims are similar to the young boys that the Trinity Killer murdered. There’s no evidence to point the way, and the crime goes undiscovered.
Rene Lenier (AKA Drew Marshall) from ‘True Blood’
In a series chock full of dead people (some walking and some not) and piles of bloody goo, it’s horrifying to realize that there is a completely human serial killer involved that may have been one of the series’ greatest twists. Rene Lenier hid in plain sight for much of the show’s first, third, and fourth seasons, and did so while making audiences and other characters like him.
Theo may have been on our radar from the start, but his ability to slip through the cracks is just one of the reasons he’s so terrifying. His ability to stalk Max Hardy completely undetected through the office of the IT firm that she was investigating, and go undiscovered by his co-workers for many years proves that he has skills superior to those of Rene Lenier, and that is definitely saying something.
This article was written in conjunction with Kristen Kranz.
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