Dandy Mott is the son of Gloria Mott. He is a character in Freak Show primarily portrayed by Finn Wittrock. Though physically beautiful, Dandy finds himself more in common with the performers of Elsa Mars's freak show and aspires to join the troupe. After being denied by Jimmy Darling, his mother hires a twisted clown for his amusement, and he becomes the serial killer's self-appointed protégé. However, he eventually decides to become a serial killer himself, which makes him a threat to everyone living in Jupiter.
Background[]
Dandy is Gloria Mott's only child and was spoiled throughout his entire life. He lived in a mansion with his mother and their maid, Dora, who grew up with her daughter, Regina. While Gloria loved Dandy and gave him everything he wanted, she also raised him the way her own parents raised her, and thus became an absentee mother who was never there when he needed her most. Dandy is a descendant of wealthy Edward Philippe Mott, who while not evil was described as a “mentally disturbed introvert”. Due to genetic disorders, it became apparent that madness always ran in the Mott family. The family line ended when Dandy Mott died in Florida in early 1953.[2]
Appearance and Personality[]
Although Dandy was considered good-looking, as the Freaks themselves eventually realized, this was in no way reflected by his personality, and metaphorically, he was the most rotten apple of his family tree. He was emotionally and psychologically disturbed, along with being a scion who finds passion in violence. After having every whim catered by his mother (though eventually, Dandy decided that he needn't of her anymore), Dandy became a spoiled man-child. Despite being an adult, he enjoyed children's toys and playing dress-up, along with having a room full of stuffed animals.
Because he felt and thinks that the world revolves around him, he reacted negatively when his desires were not met, He tended toward raging malevolent tantrums, along with threatening and harming others including animals. He would still pretend in his luxurious recreation room and despite there being only two apples left in his family tree (including himself), he had no aspirations to fall in love and start a family as he considered the women presented to him as "smelly cows" and babies as "boring", though he grew interested in having a family when he met Bette and Dot.
However, he eventually made it clear that he did not truly love them, as he would not have killed their family otherwise. In his youth, he took pleasure in killing small animals and presumably played a role in another boy’s disappearance, which was a tell-tale sign of his psychopathy, along with the numerous murders he would later commit in his adult life. His psychopathic traits were often stimulated by boredom and malice, as a result of him feeling like he had nothing else left to achieve.
He considered himself superior to others in his community and fancied himself a living "God," above the law and above society in general. He used his family's status and wealth to manipulate the authorities so they would look away from his atrocious behavior and vile actions (though his therapist himself warned Gloria that it would be in her best interest to take action after noticing signs of Dandy's insanity in the sessions), showing that he was crafty and emotionally manipulative.
During his therapy session, Dandy admitted that he considered having an interest of bathing in people’s blood, which he began doing after killing his mother. He also entertained the idea of cannibalism, though he didn’t end up eating any of his victims.
He proved himself to be a much worse owner than Elsa, as unlike Elsa herself, he did not care about the freaks at all. Additionally, he made Ima Wiggles feel uncomfortable around him by playing "Here comes the airplane". And while he didn’t go through with it, he proposed the idea of mutilating the freaks to make them more exciting, which was a contributing factor to them leaving employment.
Unfortunately for him, he was proven wrong about the world revolving around him when the Freaks worked together to bring him down, including the Tattler Twins, who he assumed he could emotionally manipulate (as with the case with his mother), but was proven wrong. He was likely in his mid to late twenties.
Story[]
Dandy attended Elsa Mars's freak show with his mother Gloria as he waits in anticipation for the "freaks", who made the questionable decision of buying every seat in the freak show and not allowing anyone else inside. After an introduction provided from bearded lady Ethel, he and his mother watch Elsa perform "Life on Mars", then the two offer to purchase Bette and Dot for $15,000. The twins decline the offer, in which Gloria mocks Elsa's performance in return as the two exit the camp.[3]
At the Mott manor, Dandy and Gloria have dinner in which Dandy flicks his fork, implying his boredom. He refuses to eat the dish he ordered, then fills a nipple cup with cognac. Gloria suggests a female companion, but Dandy says he just wants to be an actor. She disagrees and he runs off. The maid tells Gloria she found remains of the neighbor's cat, implying she thinks Dandy is the culprit, but Gloria won't believe it.[4]
While driving down a road Gloria comes across a clown, Twisty, and despite his intimidating appearance, she decides he might be the thing who would cheer up Dandy. This is when Dandy and Twisty first come in contact. Twisty catches Dandy going through Twisty's belongings and knocks him down with a juggling pin. He then leaves, but Dandy tracks him down and finds out he's the one kidnapping and killing people in the town. He decides to assist. One of the girls tries to get away, and Jimmy Darling sees it. Dandy and Twisty decide to put on a show, knowing nothing of the legend. As Twisty joined Edward Mordrake’s circus, Dandy ends up becoming the owner of his mask. The mask gives him enough power to kill the cook, though he wasn’t quite able to do before.[5]
Directly the night after, Gloria then discovers Dora's corpse at Mott Manor and immediately accuses Dandy of this. She yells at Dandy and chastises him for the killing, reminding him that Dora had been a mother. Dandy offers to help her hide the body by digging a hole in their backyard by the potagerie. Gloria laments that she must clean up after Dandy, just as she has always done with all of his other messes, Gloria orders Dandy to stay in his room for the whole day as a punishment. Dandy walks away crying, but with his back turned, he secretly shows no remorse at having killed Dora.
Gloria instructs the gardeners to dig a six-foot deep hole, despite her new garden only requiring 18 inches. Dandy apologizes to his mother for Dora's death. Gloria reveals that Dandy's father and the entire Mott family were prone to insanity due to extensive inbreeding, which was done to preserve wealth and keep the family estate. Gloria intends to find a safe way for Dandy to indulge his violent impulses.
Dandy works out in the playroom while soliloquizing about wanting to be an actor, but realizing his potential as the perfect murderer. He finds his way into a gay bar, where he finds prostitute, Andy. Dandy leads a skeptical Andy into the bus. Dandy has paid Andy $100 but insists he is not gay. Dandy, in an effort to salvage the situation, offers that they strip naked facing away from each other. When Andy turns, Dandy is indeed clothed only in briefs— and Twisty's mask. Dandy stabs and begins to dismember a still living Andy, disposing of his limbs in a tub of acid. Andy awakes and begs for death, but Dandy elects simply to continue sawing off Andy's limbs.
Regina Ross, Dora's daughter, calls from the Barbizon after her mother missed their weekly phone call. Gloria initially puts her off, saying that Dora is too busy to call. As they are about to hang up, Gloria recalls that Regina used to live with them and played with Dandy, and asks what she thought of Gloria as a mother. Regina recalls that Gloria was never really there as a mother, and Gloria defends herself, saying she raised Dandy how she was raised growing up. She recalls a moment in Dandy's childhood when he was sick and called her to his room, and Gloria didn't know what to do and didn't want to get infected and sent his governess instead; following that incident, Dandy never called for her ever again. Regina uncomfortably hangs up. Dandy appears, in his underwear and covered in blood, much to Gloria's horror.[6]
At Mott Manor, Gloria presents Dandy with condoms, acknowledging his needs as a young man, but urging him to prevent any unwanted unions between his inbred genes and the twins' faulty genes. Dandy refuses to have sex with the twins, as he did not want to violate them and wishes to marry them. Gloria states marriage is a bad idea, but Dandy says Gloria needs to accept he has found a new woman.
Bette is falling for Dandy's affections but Dot isn't fooled. She remains wary that the Motts are keeping them captive, and wants to return to the freak show. Dandy reads to them about the Brodie twins, explaining that they were Siamese twins who had been separated into two people. Dot then realizes that she needs Dandy's money to fund the operation and fantasizes about being famous and normal. She pictures herself in Jimmy's arms and decides to play along with Dandy.
At the drugstore, Paul tries to buy Penny's favorite perfume but is discriminated against by the clerk. Paul sees Dandy purchasing pairs of feminine items and recalls Dandy's name since he's seen him with Gloria before. Dandy shuns him and persuades the clerk to send him out. Paul stands up for himself, leaving and spitting outside the door.
Back at the manor, Bette and Dot share their opinions about the death of one of the Brodie twins and Dot asserts that her thoughts are her own. Dandy notes that Dot never shares her thoughts and always keeps her diary locked. He tries to persuade her by telling him a secret, as he thinks they shouldn't have secrets between them. Dandy lies and tells them that he was the real hero for killing Twisty and that Jimmy was passed out at the time. Dandy then insists that Dot tells him a secret, but she refuses, making him fly into a rage.
While the twins stroll the grounds, Gloria finds Dandy crying in his playroom. Dandy has read Dot's diary entries calling Dandy boring and not amusing, and that she is only there because she wants the Mott family's money for the twins' operation. Gloria suggests he dote on Bette instead to inspire envy in Dot, but he goes into a rage, saying he doesn't want to "buy love" and she doesn't understand how he feels. He responds that the twins nourished his soul, but that nothing is left inside him but a wasteland. Now, he says that he will know no mercy and accept his "emptiness" as a blessing, not a curse. He says his new purpose is to "bring death", tucking a Nazi dagger into the back of his waistband. Gloria follows him downstairs to the ringing doorbell. Jimmy arrives, and Dandy tells Gloria to let him in as he will be picking the twins up.[7]
Dandy and Gloria Mott usher Jimmy into the playroom of their manor to see Bette and Dot. Jimmy tells the girls that they are nothing more than a curiosity to the Motts and pleads that they return to a community that can protect them. Gloria counters that they would never let any harm come to their expensive purchase. Bette challenges Jimmy with Dandy's lie that he was the true hero on Halloween night. This gives Jimmy an epiphany about the identity of Twisty's apprentice clown, and he fears for the twins' safety with Dandy. Jimmy insists that the twins leave with him immediately. Dandy shouts him down and assures Bette that he will prevent the surgery that she fears. Realizing that Dandy has read her diary, Dot demands that they leave. Dandy avows his love for Bette and entreats her to stay. She opts for solidarity with her sister and they leave with Jimmy. Dandy seethes with tears visible on his cheeks and Gloria watches with fear.[8]
Regina eventually turns up looking for Dora. Dandy, being Dora’s killer, realizes that Regina could get him sent to the electric chair, so he attempts to manipulate Gloria into killing her. Gloria, however, doesn’t want to kill Regina, and instead intends to flee the countryside as she imagines the police will catch on to Dandy’s actions. But Dandy decides to kill her so that he doesn’t have to leave and because he was angry at her for not allowing him to become an actor. He gloats to the maid's child and starts to take a bath of blood that he got from the Tupperware Party Massacre. She says she's going to get the cops. Dandy, delusional with power and prestige, doesn't care. When she does come back, Dandy pays the cop she came back with to kill her and then persuades the cop to work for him. He uses this to frame Jimmy Darling for the murders at the Tupperware Party, partly to help prevent further police investigation and partly to get even with him for taking the twins away from his manor.[9]
Elsa leaves the whole troupe behind to go to Hollywood after selling the Freak Show to Dandy. None of the carnies like him, in no small part due to his unreasonable demands. After Paul decides he's had enough of being ordered around by Dandy, he stands up to him and tells him off. Then the freaks decide to quit on Dandy, throwing him into a fit of rage, even though his actions were responsible for the freaks turning on him in the first place.
The next day, Dandy goes on a murder rampage, killing all of the freaks, except for Desiree Dupree who kept herself well hidden, and Bette and Dot who he kidnaps. He stages a wedding and has Bette and Dot marry him, which they go along with. During their celebratory dinner, Dandy realizes his food and drink has been spiked by Desiree, who is posing as a maid. Bette and Dot gleam with awe as Dandy passes out. He wakes up back in the freak show chained in the bottom of the Chinese water trap the freak show possesses. Jimmy, Desiree, Bette and Dot watch as Dandy demands to be freed. He tries convincing Bette to let him go, but she angrily admonishes him for killing her friends. Jimmy then turns the hose to the Chinese water trap on filling it up with water as Dandy drowns inside. Jimmy, Desiree, Bette and Dot watch with satisfaction as Dandy drowns and dies.
Quotes[]
- To Twisty: "Your silence is utterly provocative."
- To Twisty: "You're going to have to do a better job at confinement if we are going to have any fun."
- Dandy: "I will be the U.S. Steel of murder."
- Regarding Bette and Dot: "I didn't think I could feel love until I met them. My heart was lost and it took a woman with the vision of four eyes to find it, and the love of two hearts to give it back to me."
- To Gloria Mott: "Because they're freaks? So am I, mother! When I'm with them I feel normal."
- To Bette and Dot: "I did not lie you bitch! I don't like this game anymore! You're not playing by the rules!"
- To Dr. Feinbloom, foreshadowing what he does later: "Do you think it's possible to take someone's power by eating their flesh? Or could you do it just by, bathing in their blood?"
- Dandy, showcasing his extremely dangerous mentality: "I am above the law! Beyond the law! I am the law!"
- Regarding Bette and Dot, and to Gloria Mott: "I wish you could be inside my body for one minute to know what it feels like to be me. It’s like when I had tuberculosis and you took me out to the Utah desert, and there was nothing but dry, open space for hundreds of miles around us - that is what is inside of me. Those girls were a cool stream of Glacier Water; my heart bloomed as they nourished it. And now it’s all gone. There is nothing left but the dust and the scorpions inside of me. I was never destined to feel love. The desert knows no mercy. Anything you try to plant out there dies. I must accept this emptiness as a blessing, not a curse. I know why I was put here, Mother. My purpose is to bring death."
- Dandy explaining his purpose.: "I was just doing what God put me on this Earth to do, y-you can't punish a man for fulfilling his purpose!"
- Dandy's temper tantrum catchphrase: "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"
Notes[]
- He is the first character portrayed by Finn Wittrock. For a complete list of his characters, see Cast.
- Wittrock's portrayal of Dandy earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.
- In Freak Show, Dandy Mott killed about 25 people, though some are unconfirmed: Emil, a childhood playmate, Dora Brown, Andy, his mother Gloria, "the Avon lady", four housewives, Regina Ross by bribing a lieutenant to shot her, and several carnies of Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities, including Amazon Eve, Legless Suzi, Toulouse, Paul, Ima Wiggles, and Penny.
- This made him the most prolific serial killer in the entire series until James March entered the scene in Hotel, with an unknown yet higher body count.
- Dandy Mott is the second mass murderer in the series; The first was Tate Langdon.
- In the sixth season, subtitled Roanoke, we learned from historian Doris Kearns Goodwin that Dandy Mott was the last surviving member of the Mott family.
- Dandy bears some similarities to Shion Sonozaki from the visual novel series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and may have been inspired by her. In terms of background and personality, both characters are main antagonists, are serial killers, known for being high-class, possess firearms (taser and revolver), have mentors (Kasai and Twisty), have their own catchphrases ("許せない!" and "I HATE YOU!"), were used for fanservice, laughed after murdering someone (Dora and Rika), were infamous for their unstable, violent behavior, betrayed (and even murdered) innocent people without any remorse, were known for having an estranged relationship with their families, and both died in a decade where the number ends in "3" (Shion died in 1983 in the episode "Conviction" and Dandy died in 1953 in the episode "Curtain Call"), along with both episodes being the finales of Meakashi-hen and Freak Show respectively.[citation needed]
- The difference between him and Shion however, is that Shion's murders were committed under the influence of the Hinamizawa Syndrome, while Dandy's murders were done out of him showcasing that he will be the "U.S. Steel of Murder" and his purpose to bring death.[citation needed]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Mentioned by Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in the documentary My Roanoke Nightmare
- ↑ Episode: Chapter 5
- ↑ Episode: Monsters Among Us
- ↑ Episode: Massacres and Matinees
- ↑ Episode: Edward Mordrake: Part 1
- ↑ Episode: Pink Cupcakes
- ↑ Episode: Bullseye
- ↑ Episode: Test of Strength
- ↑ Episode: Blood Bath
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