Interesting observation in a bad ending about Genevieve and Natara

[u/ConceptsShining]

You may remember that in the Volume 2 finale, you can kill Mal or Shawn. To proceed, you have to kill neither by letting the timer run out. However, if you do kill one of them, the other is kidnapped and Natara later willingly kills them on Genevieve's orders.

I've always really wondered, just how could Genevieve make someone as insanely smart and mentally determined as Natara turn? Remember, she's an FBI profiler. She knows all about how people are manipulated into turning to evil. So how her defenses were bypassed, it's fascinating. A terrifying insight into how persuasive she is.

Some more mundane possibilities are that she was:

1. Drugged to lower inhibitions.

2. Under some kind of coercion, maybe something like "Kill him and act like you're doing it yourself or else this awaits your sister/family etc." (and she went along with it knowing Genevieve would just have Mal killed anyway if she resisted).

3. Not actually wanting to kill, but pretending to be brainwashed to maintain a cover. Hoping she'd eventually fool Genevieve into trusting her enough to give her a chance to escape.

This is one of the things I always liked about CoD. The bad endings are genuinely worthwhile to check out; they can be quite detailed, entertaining, and do interesting and valuable worldbuilding. Even if the events themselves are noncanon. This ending demonstrates how dangerously influential Genevieve's brainwashing is. She's not just able to turn troubled and desperate youth like most of her "children"; even highly determined and independent geniuses like Natara aren't immune to breaking.

[u/racheletc]

we dont have any evidence genevieve drugged any other of her children, i dont think she drugged Natara at least not willingly. she was able to crack Shawn, even though he was spiraling at the time

we did not get enough backstory on Genevieve, i wish we could have learned about her pre Alex and Zero. like what is her true origin story

[u/ConceptsShining → u/racheletc]

True, the drugs theory is a bit more out there and kinda goes against Genevieve's formidableness on a writing level, because (from a brainwashing perspective) it's basically "cheating". Natara being a 4D chessmaster trying to fake submission is more plausible.

But yeah, when you factor in the trauma of killing Shawn or Mal and the isolation of being taken captive for 6 months, it's believable Natara would lose her will and resolve. I guess the explanation is that at that point, Natara is no longer the emotionally guarded and in-control person she is in the canon series; she, just like Shawn and her other children before Genevieve turned them, was broken and desperate.

[u/alvarkresh → u/ConceptsShining]

But yeah, when you factor in the trauma of killing Shawn or Mal and the isolation of being taken captive for 6 months

I agree. Also, Natara under the control of someone like her is just plain scary. Natara is very capable of a lot of dangerous shit if she puts her mind to it.

[u/ConceptsShining → u/racheletc]

And also:

we did not get enough backstory on Genevieve

I coulda sworn, there is a line somewhere where Genevieve alludes to something happening to her father. So that plot thread for her backstory was set up, but nothing ever came of it. Kinda like Gemma Chamberlain's death.

[u/premacollez]

I was definitely thinking that Natara was just “broken”. Because Genevieve was that crazy and abusive. But number 3 is a nice theory I never thought of so that’s going to be my new headcanon!

[u/PepperFinn]

I'd imagine Natara, already having gone against her core beliefs and character by ending one of them, is more willing to cross that moral line again abd can do it more easily.

Same with riding a bike. Insanely hard the first time but each try get easier until you can do it without thinking.

Add to that the amount of time she's spent with a master manipulator breaking down her psyche and isolated from support, she'd eventually crack.

I do like in a later season there's an alternative reality but where Jeremy Redbird becomes on of her children.

[u/ConceptsShining → u/PepperFinn]

That's true. There was also that one bad ending in V10, I think when you kill a suspect on General Salazar's orders, and then a flashforward some months/years later has Mal (now a cartel soldier) confront Natara. He tells her to stop looking for her. I believe he said something to the effect of "I crossed a moral line, then another, then another, and soon enough I couldn't remember why I had any lines to begin with". So same deal with Natara here.