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“ | We can start over here. I have built a safe place for you! Remember why we left! This is our destiny! Don't let them scare you! | „ |
~ Ward manipulating his followers |
Elijah Ward is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders episode “Lost Souls”. Ward is an American cult leader responsible for setting up the Brunswick Mission Church compound in Tanzania, solidified in a staged mass kidnapping of his followers.
He was portrayed by Steve Kazee.
Biography[]
The youngest of eight children, Ward was born to paranoid, fanatically religious parents who abused their kids, except for Ward, whom they believed was chosen by God. Ward would harbor such delusions himself after his parents were arrested for child abuse and his family was split up by the foster system. Believing himself a savior and a prophet, Ward formed a cult, with 12 disciples to evoke Jesus’ following, Jacob Ross being Ward’s lieutenant in the cult. The group brainwashed nine women from abusive backgrounds to join him, including Rebecca Moore, who brought her son Nicholas into the cult, as well.
Ward wanted to establish an isolated “paradise” in Tanzania, in a region rumored to have harbored the Garden of Eden, so he arranged for his followers to travel to the country as missionaries. With the women and Nicholas, Ward boarded a train, where in addition to his disciples, he paid several locals to take the followers hostage and remove them from the train without their belongings, all to portray their kidnapping as being committed by local organized crime and distract authorities. The followers are marched to a bus that drives them to the compound, where Ward presents himself and reveals the planning was all his and in the interest of “testing” his cult. Jacob, having been at odds with Ward’s leadership, privately challenges Ward’s actions and beliefs, resulting in Ward beating and stabbing him to death, leaving him behind.
When the followers arrive at the compound, Nicholas says he wants to go home, but Ward, seeing Nicholas being afraid as “weak”, drowns him in a violent “baptism” to rattle the child. Once Nicholas is returned to Rebecca, he makes the commune pray with him. When the International Response Team arrive with local police, they engage in an armed standoff with the disciples. Agent Jack Garrett tries to appeal to the followers, revealing Jacob’s murder over a challenge of Ward’s leadership. In spite of Ward saying Garrett is the Devi and he “saved” the followers, Garrett has the women choose, and they choose Garrett’s word. Ward grabs a pistol and is intent on shooting Garrett, but Garrett says it was in the cards the raid would happen because of his crimes. When Ward moves to commit suicide, Garrett implores if he doesn’t want to be seen as a sinner by his former followers, he should peacefully surrender. Ward agreed, and he was arrested and eventually imprisoned with his accomplices.
Trivia[]
- Ward is primarily inspired by the late Jim Jones, the leader of the People’s Temple cult, who ordered his followers to commit mass suicide.
External links[]
- Elijah Ward on the Criminal Minds Wiki