So.. how could you like Tate ever after you found out about all of the horrible shit he has done? (Raping Vivienne, killing the kids at the school, killing the gay guys, ALMOST killing ben but saving him for Violet) Please tell me, I'm curious.
*Gets ready to answer this question - stretches arms and interlocking palm stretches*
- Never judge a serial killer without looking at their motives.
- Let’s look at his crimes individually and understand why he carried out each one.
- Raping Vivien
We know Nora wanted a child because she’s a desperate bitch. So who better then to do that for her then Tate Langdon, who to some extent was psychologically imbalanced and easily influenced. We know that Tate has this instant urge to please women, to gain a satisfaction from the, to feel belonged and wanted. He looked up to Nora as a mother figure who he felt replaced his real mother Constance who seemed to neglect him as she wondered in her world of love and affair. Tate raped Vivien in order to please Nora and to carry out her commands.
- Killing the gay guys
The gay guys were the ones who wanted a baby. The middle man had to be executed in order for Nora to retrieve the baby and not this couple. The gay guys would ruin Tate’s plan to give Nora her baby hence why he had no choice but to eliminate the stubborn un-negotiable couple.
- Killing the kids in his high school
It’s debatable as to what were his real motives here. You could say that Tate was treated badly possibly bullied by these people without them paying attention to him. Many of them claimed to not have even known him such as Kyle Greenwell - we don’t know how credible Kyle is but we can assume that they probably hurt Tate subconsciously and indirectly.
Tate was probably depressed and suicidal. He was treated badly at home - his mother neglecting him and his father leaving at the age of 6 - having been shot by his mother. He had 3 disabled siblings - you can imagine the stress he had to go through whilst his mother would be fucking Larry next door. And to make things worse for him, Larry, whom he cannot trust, enters his family home and takes over. It probably got to point where he planned intrinsically how to get rid of the people who ruined his life. Even if they didn’t happen to ruin him, you can imagine what psychological effect this had on him, an accumulation of responsibility, neglection, mistrust etc transforming into a big negative atomic bomb. If anything - he probably felt insecure and probably bottom of the social ladder, didn’t have any aims for the future and didn’t like the world in general.
We can confirm the following that he hated high school when he tells Violet - “They’re probably high school assholes, the worlds full of them, it’s always the mean popular kids,” (not exact quote but that’s from my memory)
Also when he says his noble speech he talks about “It’s a filthy world we live in..” and “honestly, I feel like I’m helping away take them from the shit, and the piss and the vomit that run in the streets,” Clearly the ideology he presents here - he has no interest in the world at all and it disgusts him, he wants to kill people in order for them to be free just like him.
It’s likely that Tate did commit suicide, either way he initiated he wanted to be shot by the SWAT team by the Suicide Cop method - trying to use his hand as a gun to his head presenting no remorse towards them or what he has done and hence indicating his pleasure to be shot.
Whatever it was that drove him to shoot the kids - he did it most definitely in my opinion for his freedom of mind and the moment where he could “play God,” and hold someones life in his own hands and decides who lives and dies. This moment for him would have been a great significance, as he couldn’t control his surroundings or events that surrounded his life, or how his family treated him or how the kids in school may have treated him. He wanted some form of power of the people, and this was the way he managed to gain it.
- Burning Larry - is similar to the situation I explained above. “one less high school bitch is for a public good,” ”I kill people I like,” “Take them somewhere clean and kind,”
Almost killing Ben - was just a threat. He wanted to stay with the one girl he truly loved - the only girl who came into his life. He would do anything for her to stay. Even if it meant to kill. That describes how unhealthy his relationship and dependence on Violet. It also explains his attitudes and why he has a need to please women. His attachment to Violet shows how strong it is and possibly he’s never experienced that before. Once you got it, you don’t want to let go.
The ideologies interlock.
Tate Langdon is not a psychopath. He may have been depressed. He was clearly intelligent. What he did doesn’t mean was right. But what he did was understandable. And he did it for reasons that the majority of people would not/could not/won’t ever begin to comprehend. Because to fully understand what he did and why he did, you would have to step into his shoes and breath his soul and enter his mind and be him. So for now - on assumptions - He did it for reasons that I can understand.
He’s interesting, and that’s why I like him.
