Carver (Nip/Tuck)

File:Thecarver.jpg

The Carver in his/her trademark costume.

The Carver is a fictitious serial rapist on the television show Nip/Tuck who disfigures his victims' faces with a knife.

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 surgeries on one of his victims. He 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 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. It keeps us from seeing who the real monsters are."

A madman's motives

The Carver apparently believes that physical beauty is a type of evil (a "curse on the world") and feels compelled to do something about 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 unfortunates by disfiguring them. Besides performing what s/he sees as a "public service," The Carver takes a craftman's pride in his/her work, and considers the resulting disfigurements "art"—a new kind of beauty to grace the world.

Of course, it is entirely possible that The Carver's stated motives are completely false and are part of an extensive and elaborate hoax to cloak his/her true motives.

Hints and clues to The Carver's identity

The following are known facts about The Carver:

• The Carver's modus operandi involves (1) injecting the victim with a paralyzing agent ("a rarefied form of metachurine 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.
  • The Carver has raped all of his/her known victims except Sean McNamara (and possibly Kimber Henry and Kit McGraw).
  • The Carver uses a condom when he/she rapes his/her victims.
  • The Carver has some form of access to medical supplies, and his/her MO suggest he/she possesses some medical knowledge and 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, s/he superficially sliced his cheek (instead of his/her characteristic deep carving that cuts muscle and nerve) and when The Carver attacked Christian, s/he was able to cut his throat without severing the jugular.
• The Carver has raped members of both sexes.
  • In addition to numerous female victims, The Carver has raped at least two men: a male model and Christian Troy.
• The Carver's known victims are all Caucasian.
• The Carver added homicide to his/her 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 and 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 prone to rash action when prompted to anger.
  • The Carver refers to his/her victims as "masterpieces," although whenever Sean performed pro bono work on them, The Carver believed Sean was "fixing" them.
  • 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.
  • 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]."
• Series creator Ryan Murphy has said that The Carver could be a male or female ^[2].
  • In the same interview Murphy refers to The Carver as "he" (though in English, 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."
  • In an interview, Bruno Campos (who plays Quentin Costa) stated that The Carver's identity is "unguessable."

The unmasking

File:Quentin&kit.jpg

The Carver revealed

In the third season finale, which aired December 20th, 2005, finally revealed the identity of The Carver. The episode, titled Cherry Peck; Quentin Costa, was, as usual, very provocative, and gave its viewers a sense of surprise at the end.

In her search for the Carver, Kit arrested, firstly, Quentin Costa. Kit obtained a warrant for a search on Quentin, including everything from fingerprints to DNA testing. In the process, she found that Quentin had no penis, thus resulting in his release.

After a sorority was found to have been hit by The Carver, nine girls, they found a vital piece of information: The Carver did not have a penis, but he used a strap-on dildo. Thus, the police went, once again, to arrest Quentin. When they arrived, the Doctor was found on tied to his bed, carved. Above the bed was, in blood red lettering, "I can't stop". This evidence fully took Quentin off the spectrum of being a suspect.

Quentin then went to Christian and Sean to repair him. After a brief breakdown, the pair decided to operate on him. During the operation, Kit arrived, and arrested Liz, Mcnamara/Troy's anethesiologist, and took her into custody. Liz was, at that point, pretty much the prime suspect. There was evidence she had numerous visits to "sperm banks" and also ordered many bottles of the liquid The Carver used to paralyze his victims.

The next scene showed Sean checking up on Quentin (someone else was in his bed -- Gina -- visible to the audience but not Sean) when The Carver suddenly appears behind him and drugs him. The Carver took off his mask and is revealed as Quentin Costa, but that would only be part of a much bigger story.

Quentin then tied Sean, along with his partner Christian, to the operation tables. He gave them his reasoning for doing what he did. After cutting off Sean's pinky finger, Quentin was just about to make Christian cut off his own hand. However, fate intervened, and Kit showed up and shot the Carver.

Next, Kit told the pair of doctors the life story of Quentin and why he had become what he had: They found out that he had a sister, Violet, who was deformed as a result of incest. Quentin, who loved his sister dearly, worked his whole life to fix her, but, it was said that she died at the age of 29 in her final operation.

The next scene showed a body bag, and someone, dressed in a black suit, approaching it. They unzipped the bag, and Quentin stood up, a bullet-proof vest attached to his chest. "What took so long?"

After Kit left Miami, Sean and Christian discovered that she had lied about who called the police that brought her to the rescue (she claimed Gina did). They discovered in fact, that she was Quentin's sister, Violet (actually Katherine - Kit for short).

Now located in Spain, Kit (now conveniently missing her British accent, throwing into question every bit of her previously mentioned past) and Quentin are on the verge of helping other prisoners of beauty in their own unique way.

It should be noted that the Carver's identity was correctly revealed by tech savy audio-files. By sampling the Carver's voice, they were able to filter out most of the synthetic speed portions and identify the Carver's identity months ago. Drama writers in the future will have to remain one step up on the technical community. In addition, the above picture of Quentin and Kit wielding the Carver's trademark paraphernalia, along with several other equally incriminating pictures, had been available for quite some time prior to the season finale and the Carver's official unmasking.

Unanswered questions and plot holes

The revelation that Quentin is the Carver has left several unanswered questions and plot holes, including:

• How did Quentin's "body" get all the way to the morgue without a doctor or paramedic ever checking for a pulse?
• Why do Quentin and Kit frame Christian for the crimes, only to provide him an alibi shortly thereafter?
• Why did Kit bring Liz in for questioning right before she knew Quentin was going to reveal himself to the doctors? Just to have a little fun torturing her with questions?
• Why did Kit tell the doctors that Gina had made a 911 call, when she knew they would probably talk to her about it?
• Why is Kit allowed to stay on the case after numerous bumblings and clear conflicts of interest, including:
  • Arresting two innocent people for the crime (Christian and Liz).
  • Having a sexual relationship with one of the suspects (Christian).
  • Being the sister of another suspect (Quentin).
  • Being an apparent victim of the Carver herself.
• The fact that the Carver's own sister is brought in to solve the crimes is a pretty big coincidence.
• After the doctors found out about the sister they didn't go looking for her or the body. It looks like they didn't even report it.
• For Quentin to have the reputation as "the best face man in the country," he must have done a LOT of unnecssary cosmetic surgeries, something he (by his own admission) abhors.

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 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. But it's alright. I can give you what you've always wanted: 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—everyone 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.

References

• ^ Entertainment Weekly. September 16, 2005

See also

• Nip/Tuck

External links

• The Carver's "official" MySpace profile