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| “ | Your government underestimated our faith. Now you'll see. | „ |
| ~ Meadows while taking Spencer Reid hostage. |
Mary Meadows is the secondary antagonist of the Criminal Minds episodes "Believers" and "300". She is a rogue FBI agent and a member of a cult called The Believers who murder people and take their hyoid bones.
She was portrayed by Karen David.
Early life[]
Meadows was born into a polygamist religious cult called the Separatarian Sect. As a child, she was one of Separatarian leader Benjamin Cyrus' "wives", and endured years of sexual abuse at his hands.
In 2008, the Separatarians' compound was infiltrated by Agents Emily Prentiss and Spencer Reid of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), and Cyrus was shot dead by Agent Derek Morgan. The compound was destroyed by another of Cyrus' wives, but Meadows and a few other cult members, including Benjamin Merva, survived. They went into the witness protection program, but they remained devout followers of Cyrus' teachings, and so they started another cult they called The Believers, with Merva as their leader.
The Believers dedicated themselves to murdering people and taking their hyoid bones, believing that presenting 300 of them to God would bring about the "End Times" and send them to paradise; they also developed an intricate plan to get revenge against the FBI, particularly Reid, whom they viewed as an "infidel" because of his belief in science and reason over religion and faith; he would be the 300th sacrifice that would supposedly bring on the end of the world. Meadows served as Merva's right-hand disciple and enforcer, ensuring new recruits' compliance with his will by physically and psychologically torturing them into obedience.
Meadows joined the FBI as a means of infiltrating it, specializing in maintaining the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) database. While Prentiss and Reid saw her nearly every day at work, they did not recognize her as a member of Cyrus' cult. By 2018, she had gathered enough data on Reid and the other agents of the BAU to finally set the cult's plan into action.
Appearances[]
"Believer"[]
After the BAU arrests Merva for ordering hundreds of murders, Meadows inserted herself into the investigation to get close to Reid. She then ambushes Reid, BAU Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia, and Theo Holston, a teenager who was raised by the Separatarians as their "chosen one" but rejected the cult and takes them hostage in order to free Merva. Reid finally recognizes Meadows and sends a secret message to his BAU colleagues revealing the real identities of his captors.
"300"[]
When former FBI agent Owen Quinn tries to rescue the hostages, Meadows shoots him in the chest. She then frees Merva and escapes with him and their hostages in tow. They hold Garcia and Reid prisoner in a warehouse and force Garcia to hack into the FBI's mainframe to conceal the Separatarians' theft of a large cache of firearms.
Reid, Garcia, and Theo devise an escape plan and try to make a run for it, but Meadows shoots and kills Theo and recaptures Reid; Garcia, meanwhile, shoots her in the arm and escapes. After Merva puts her arm in a cast, he escapes with her and Reid before the police arrive and hides out with them at the Separatarians' compound. Meadows and Merva show Reid the 299 hyoid bones from their victims and inform him that he is to be the 300th and final sacrifice.
Meanwhile, Prentiss and Garcia receive Reid's message about the Separatarians being an offshoot of Cyrus' cult, and together they deduce that they will conduct their final sacrificial ritual in his honor in a place that would have emotional significance to him: his hometown of La Plata, Colorado. Prentiss and Agents Matt Simmons and Luke Alvez, backed up by a SWAT team, storm the compound and rescue Reid, killing Merva and wounding Meadows in the process. Meadows is then imprisoned for life for murder and kidnapping.
External links[]
- Mary Meadows on the Criminal Minds Wiki
