Carver (Nip/Tuck)

The Carver
File:Carverx.jpg
First appearance	Naomi Gaines (episode 2.07)
Last appearance	Quentin Costa (episode 3.15)
Created by	Ryan Murphy
Portrayed by	Bruno Campos
In-universe information
Alias	Quentin Costa
Gender	Male
Occupation	Serial Rapist

The Carver is a fictional character on the television show Nip/Tuck, the series' primary villain in the second and third seasons. Template:Spoilers

Background

In the fictitious world of Nip/Tuck, the Carver is a masked psychopath who disfigures, rapes and/or kills his victims. He became upset after Sean McNamara performed corrective surgery on one of his victims. He attacked McNamara in his bathroom and cut one side of his face. He then threatened to murder McNamara if he repaired any more of the Carver's "masterpieces" (Interestingly, the Carver refers to Sean's pro bono work as "fixing" his masterpieces, not ruining or destroying them). McNamara continued to do so, and in the second season finale, the Carver exacted revenge by attacking and raping Sean's best friend and business partner, Christian Troy.

Before raping his victims, and/or carving their cheeks down to the lip to resemble a smile, the Carver tells his victims, "Beauty is a curse on the world."

Motives

The Carver apparently believes that physical beauty is evil and feels compelled to destroy it. He has referred to beauty as a type of prison or cage that people are trapped within and believes it necessary to free such a craftman's pride in his/her work, and considers the resulting disfigurements "art" — a new kind of beauty to grace the world.

Hints and clues to the Carver's identity

Template:Spoiler Prior to the Carver's reveal in the season 3 finale episode "Quentin Costa", the following were the known facts about the Carver:

• The Carver's modus operandi involves (1) injecting the victim with a paralyzing agent ("a variant of mivacurium chloride"), (2) giving a short speech to the victim, which always involves the familiar quote Beauty is a curse on the world, (3) slicing the mouth/face of the victim with a knife in a "smile" pattern, and (4) raping the victim. (Sean McNamara appears to be the only victim not to have been raped).
  • The Carver uses a condom when raping victims.
  • The Carver has some form of access to medical supplies and her or his modus operandi suggests possession of some medical knowledge. The Carver is right handed.
    • The Carver apparently knows an exact dosage to use that will incapacitate — but not overdose — a victim (something a layperson is unlikely to know).
    • The Carver has used only "precise" cuts, a fact mentioned when Christian is repairing Rhea Reynolds' faked Carver attack. Furthermore, when the Carver attacked Sean, Sean's cheek was superficially sliced (instead of the characteristic deep carving that cuts muscle and nerve) and when the Carver attacked Christian, Christian's throat was slashed without severing the jugular.
• The Carver has raped members of both sexes.
• The Carver's known victims are all Caucasian.
• The Carver added homicide to her or his profile with the murder of Rhea Reynolds.
• The Carver has a grudge against Sean, as Sean has "repaired" many of the Carver's victims, against the Carver's warnings.
• Christian was apparently framed for the Carver's attacks (via the planting of a condom containing Christian's DNA at the murder scene of Rhea Reynolds), by a person or persons unknown.
• Kimber was kidnapped and attacked by the Carver moments before she was to wed Christian, leading him to believe she left him at the altar.
  • Neither Matt nor Quentin were present or accounted for at the wedding. Liz was also not seen at the wedding. Sean's whereabouts during Kimber's kidnapping are also unaccounted for (he left everyone's view when he went to gather Kimber for the wedding ceremony).
  • The Carver forced Kimber to write Christian a Dear John letter.
• The Carver is proud, deliberate, vindictive, and occasionally impulsive, when prompted to anger.
  • After threatening Sean, the Carver attacked a teenage girl and left one of McNamara/Troy's business cards at the scene as an apparent dare. He dared him not to fix his work, if he did he wasn't going to be so forgiving.
  • Before murdering Rhea Reynolds, the Carver told her she had "made a mess of things."
  • The Carver's careful MO indicates that he/she is intelligent and exacting.
  • The Carver's rapid response to Rhea Reynolds' fraud and to Christian Troy receiving "credit" for his/her work, show that the Carver will do things on the fly if he/she feels slighted.
• Series creator Ryan Murphy has said that the Carver will be "somebody we know," and added that "It's always a horrible cheat when it's someone like a neighbor who you met once, and they're the killer ^[1]."
• Murphy has said that the Carver could be a male or female ^[2].
  • In the same interview Murphy refers to the Carver as "he" (although the word "he" is often used to identify a person whose gender is unknown). "It's an interesting character because what he's doing is really no different than what plastic surgeons are doing. They are both carving and butchering people."

Unmasking

File:Quentin&kit.jpg

The Carver revealed

The third season's finale (Episode 3.15, "Quentin Costa") revealed the Carver to be Quentin Costa, with assistance from his sister, Kit McGraw.

Exegesis: Summary of Episode 3.15

Detective Kit McGraw brings Dr. Quentin Costa in for questioning, suspecting him to be the Carver, and subsequently finds that due to a medical condition, Costa was born with no penis. Since all of the Carver's victims were raped, Costa is released.

The Carver attacks a group of nine sorority girls. During questioning, one victim recounts walking in on the Carver raping her sorority sister, and was able to see that the Carver did not have a real penis, but rather was wearing a strap-on dildo.

Kit and the police storm Costa's apartment only to find Costa tied to his bed, bearing the trademark cheek slashes of The Carver, and the message "I can't stop" written on the wall behind him in blood.

Once again exonerated from the suspect pool, Costa asks Christian and Sean to repair his face. After initially refusing, Christian and Sean agree to perform the surgery. During this conversation, Costa explains away some potential plot holes from earlier in the season. Specifically:

• When Sean witnessed Costa receiving oral sex at a college party, Costa explains how he paid the girl $100 to pretend to perform fellatio on him.
• When Costa was beginning to have 4-way sex with Christian, Kit and Kimber, he intentionally grabbed Christian's buttocks so he could end the session early and thus retain his secret.

During Costa's operation, Kit arrives with a S.W.A.T. team and arrests Liz, the anesthesiologist, as the next prime suspect. During the interrogation, Kit explains the evidence against Liz:

• A search warrant of Liz' house led to the discovery of a strap-on dildo.
• A receipt for an order of the same drugs the Carver uses on his victims was found at McNamara/Troy with Liz's signature on it.
• Liz had possession of Christian's sperm (in season two, when Liz got pregnant using Christian's sperm via artificial insemination) and therefore could have planted evidence that led to Troy's arrest as a suspect earlier in the season.

Liz attests her innocence during questioning.

Sean checks up on Quentin in recovery. Gina, carved but not dead, is the body in Quentin's bed -- seen only by the audience. The Carver suddenly appears behind Sean, injects him with the paralyzing agent, and unmasks -- revealing the Carver to be Costa.

Sean awakens to find both Christian and himself tied to separate operating tables. Costa cuts off Sean's pinky finger and attempts to force Christian to cut off his own hand. Just before Christian is about to do it, Kit arrives and shoots Costa in the back. Kit tells paramedics to make sure the autopsy on Costa's body is not started without her.

At police headquarters, Kit explains to Christian and Sean that Gina (who was at the office to invite Christian Troy to a Christmas party) called 911, which is why Kit showed up. Kit then explains Quentin's life story:

Costa was born with 5-alpha-reductase deficiency, a dehabilitating disease that left him with no genitalia. He also had a sister, Violet, who suffered severe facial disfigurement. Apparently both medical anomalies were a result of incest. After their parents abandoned them, the two lived in a convent in Maine. Quentin worked his whole life to become a plastic surgeon so he could fix his sister's face, but she died at the age of 29 during her final operation.

In the morgue, we see a body laid out, covered with a sheet. A hand removes the sheet to reveal Quentin Costa, who opens his eyes and sits up, revealing a bullet-proof vest beneath his black suit. "What took so long?" asks Costa.

Kit leaves Miami after closing the case. While talking to Gina, Sean and Christian discover that Gina never called 911, as she was completely paralyzed after being attacked by the Carver.

Christian and Sean take a Red-eye flight to Maine to visit the convent where Costa was raised. When they mention Violet's death, the Mother Superior is confused, explaining that Quentin's sister's name wasn't Violet, it was Katharine; but Quentin always called her Kit. The Mother Superior then shows Sean and Christian a Christmas card that the pair sent her three years before, which includes a photo of Quentin and Kit.

The Carver storyline ends with Quentin and Kit relaxing at a luxury hotel in Málaga, Spain. Although Kit wants to take a brief vacation, Quentin is spurred on by the sight of a woman with breast implants. The scene ends with a shot of the woman lying in a deck chair with Quentin and Kit's shadows hovering over her.

Correct guesses and a premature reveal

Prior to the finale, a few fans were able to correctly guess the identity of the Carver through the use of sound-editing programs. As a promotion for the show, FX set up a profile for the Carver on myspace.com, which included videos of the Carver espousing his philosophy. Within days, various tech-savvy audiophiles took the audio from these videos, filtered out the distortion from the Carver's voice synthesizer, and were able to reveal that at the very least, Bruno Campos was voicing The Carver. [3]

The Carver's identity was also leaked prematurely by none other than FX Networks. One day before the finale episode aired, the press section of the FX Networks website published three pictures which revealed the identity of the Carver. While the pictures were removed from the site later that evening, they had already been re-published on various fan-based message boards.

Trivia

• The Carver's outfit is made by Prada. His top is a black zip-up sweater from the Winter 2004 collection.

• Three knives were used for filming: A sharp, shiny one used for scenes in which the Carver is just brandishing the knife; a dull one for when the Carver "slashes"; and a dull one with a built in blood tube to create a bleeding effect when the knife is pressed against skin (this prop was used in the Season 2 episode in which Sean is carved).

• There was only one Carver mask, custom molded from porcelain and resin. Because it was so fragile, a props manager was in charge of making sure it was handled properly every time it was on the set. [4]

• Bruno Campos wore brown contact lenses when playing the Carver to keep his blue eyes from being seen in the mask.

• Joely Richardson lost a $100 bet to Campos over the Carver's identity. Apparently, she couldn't believe it would be him. He claims to have framed the check.

• On Halloween, 2005, Peter Braunstein disguised himself as a firefighter and assaulted a woman in an attack believed to be inspired by The Carver. ^[5] He was captured on December 16, 2005 ^[6].

• The Carver's Modus Operandi is similar to that used in the movie Se7en. The writing on the walls behind his victims, in blood, or, in Kimber's case, lipstick, is similar to the way John Doe writes the sin committed by the victim somewhere close to them. The shot of Rhea Reynolds lying on her bed with "Fraud" written above her is similar to a shot used in the movie. Christian receiving Kimber's bloodied implants in a box is similar to the way Mills receives Tracy's head in a box.

Notable quotes of the Carver

From the show

• "Beauty is a curse on the world. It keeps us from seeing who the real monsters are."
• "Amazing drug, isn't it? It's a modified form of mivacurium chloride. They use it on violent psych patients... causes a kind of 'waking coma'... should wear off in a few minutes. Mmm... it's like a plane crash, though; a few minutes waiting to hit the ground... can feel like a lifetime. Awful feeling, being totally helpless... having no control... that's how most people spend their lives... slaves to the tyranny of beauty... carb counting, kick-boxing and chemical peels. I'm rescuing them from all that... and you are destroying... my... work."
• "Fix one of my masterpieces again and the next time I'll kill you."
• "They call me the 'Carver.' 'I am an artist. 'You're the 'Carver.' Fifty noses all the same. A thousand flawless breasts. You're the monster carving what's beautiful and real out of life."
• "You've made a mess of things, Rhea. Shhh... That's alright. Because I'm going to give you what you've wanted all along: real pain."

From the MySpace profile and videos

• "I've been called pervert. Sicko. Madman. Maniac. Monster. But I am just a simple person trying to lead my brothers and sisters into the light, to liberate them from the cage of beauty. My only fault is that, no matter how hard I try, I just can't stop giving." - Video 1, "Pervert."
• "I'm currently hard at work on my masterpiece. I must admit, she wasn't much to look at when I started. But when I'm done with her, she will be an icon of beauty. Perfection personified." - Video 2, "Masterpiece."
• "Finding victims isn't as hard as you think. Throw a stick down Beach Boulevard; you'll hit a hundred beauty slaves, their thong bikinis straining under the pressure of their silicone-enhanced breasts. Take your pick — every one of them is desperate for freedom." - Video 3, "Freedom."
• "I love that everyone is trying to find out who I am. Who is the mask behind the mask? They shouldn't bother, though. I'm ten steps ahead of all of you. I will reveal myself at a time and place of my choosing, and you'd all better pray to your gods that you aren't there when it happens." - Video 4, "10 Steps."
• "Some may be wondering who my favorite victim has been. While the models were fun and necessary, none of them could compare to the rush of facing down the doctors of McNamara/Troy. They are the yin to my yang, the Satan to my Saint Michael. The destroyers of my beautiful canvases. A word of warning to my good friends, though: if they continue down the same path, I will not be as forgiving as I was the last time I paid them a personal visit." - Video 5, "Favorite Victim."
• "I fear that the city is becoming desensitized to my methods. Overexposure can be such a bitch. I think I'm going to need to raise the bar a bit. Cut deeper. What can I say? I'm a slave to my public." - Video 6, "Overexposure."
• "You may think you know who I am, but you don't. The only way to know me [Carver unmasks, revealed to be Quentin, and the voice is no longer distorted] is to feel my pain." - Video 7.

Real life similarities

The Carver's modus operandi is somewhat similar to the urban legend of the "Smiley Gang," a group of six men who offered their victims the choice of being raped or having an "eternal smile" cut into their faces. This hoax, predominantly spread by e-mail, spread fear among teens and their parents in both the Netherlands and Belgium in late 2003. [7] The key difference is that The Carver offered his victims no choice; he both cut and raped them.

References

• ^ Entertainment Weekly. September 16, 2005
• ^ ABC Local

See also

• Nip/Tuck

External links

• The Carver's "official" MySpace profile
• The Carver Gallery (photo forum)