Unmarked spoilers ahead. You Have Been Warned
Dust & Bones
A woman who was basically raised by snakes because of her neglectful mother, has been kidnapping women who look like her favorized younger sister and disfiguring them, working her way up to her sister.Tropes
- Attack Animal: The UnSub uses an Eastern brown snake to incapacitate her victims. The small amount of venom in the snake's bite weakens her victims long enough for her to get them to her lair, so she can get them the antivenom so they don't die before she can carry out her mutilations.
- Animal Motif: The UnSub has an obsession with snakes, keeping several as pets, wearing snake-eye contact lenses and having her tongue forked, along with a number of other snake-themed tattoos and body modifications. Her mother used to lock her in a snake-infested shed, but the reptiles, although curious about Desi, never attacked her and Desi came to see them as the only creatures that ever showed her affection.
- Abusive Parents: Desi's first ten years of life were largely spent locked up in the garden shed. Desi's hatred for her sister is exacerbated by the fact that their mother didn't abuse Tina.
- Cain and Abel: Desi is the Cain to her sister Tina’s Abel. Desi resented the fact her sister received a better childhood than her since their mother took classes on parenting. Desi kidnaps her sister and tries to kill her via a snake.
- Child Hater: Desi's mother to Desi in her childhood. Desi grew to loath her mother in return.
- Cruel Mercy: Alvez tries to convince Desi to surrender with the prospect of telling her side of the story, and that her mother will have to live forever defamed as an abusive parent. It doesn't work.
- Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: The UnSub wears smudged black eye makeup. The black lipstick combo invokes Makeup Is Evil.
- Facial Horror: The UnSub disfigures her victims' faces.
- Freudian Excuse: Desi was born to a teenage mother who neglected and emotionally abused her. Although her mother ultimately tried to turn her life around and repair her relationship with Desi, by that point the damage was done and Desi despised both her mother for the abuse and her younger sister for having the affectionate relationship with their mother that she never got.
- Hellish Pupils: Desi has gold eyes with slitted pupils to resemble a snake’s. Unlike most examples, it’s most likely due to her wearing contacts.
- I Am a Monster: Desi calls herself one, thanks to her mother's abuse.Desi Gutierrez: You told me you wished I was never born! That I was an ugly little girl, inside and out! Well, congratulations, Mom. You were right. I am a monster!
- Rejected Apology: The UnSub angrily shrugs off her mother's attempts to apologise for giving her a miserable childhood.Lara Gutierrez: I'm sorry, is that what you want to hear? You were a child, and I was angry and I did everything wrong. I'd give anything to go back and treat you better.
Desi Gutierrez: There's no going back. - Shout-Out: The soundtrack is Marilyn Manson.
- Suicide by Cop: Desi tries to run away when the BAU find her, but faced with the option to stand down, she decides to force Matt to shoot her instead.
- Tattooed Crook: Desi has numerous tattoos and body modifications (it's heavily implied these are to help reduce her resemblance to her hated mother).
- Tongue Trauma: The UnSub splits her victim's tongue to resemble her own (And a serpent's). She also severs the victim's frenulum. As the Red Herring suspect points out, doing that would lead to the person choking on their own tongue.
- The Unfavorite: The UnSub's mother clearly favoured her younger daughter over the elder.
- Villain with Good Publicity: What pushed the UnSub over the edge was seeing an article in a local newspaper praising her abusive mother.Desi Gutierrez: I tried so hard to erase any sign of her from my life, and there she was on the front page! They all thought she was the perfect woman, the perfect mother! None of them knew what she was capable of!
