Nathan fucking Prescott. Listen to me, you guys. Shit on Nathan Prescott all you want. What he did was inexcusable. It was horrid. It was hard to unravel it all, even though I knew what was going to happen. But, while you’re talking about how shitty he is, and what he’s done, please keep these things in mind:
Nathan Prescott is a victim of abuse. He never even got the chance to be called a “survivor,” because he didn’t survive. He died while being abused, as a direct result of his abuse.
Nathan Prescott’s abusers were both father figures; his literal father and then a mentor he saw as his father. These people were adults that were supposed to be there for him–they were supposed to take care of him.
Nathan Prescott’s abusers were both incredibly high-profile people. What do I mean by that? What significance does this have? Because they are such important figures, people are going to go light on them or disregard the things that they’ve done. “He wouldn’t do that, he’s your father.” “But that’s Mr.Prescott! He’s too prestigious to do that,” “Mark Jefferson is a famous photographer, not a–” This. THIS factor right here is what keeps so many victims silent for so long. Such as the Duggar family situation and Bill Cosby.
It is evident that the Prescotts probably come from a long line of abuse. In the barn, when Max is looking around, she finds a note from 1903 and says, “I guess the Prescotts were just born bastards.” Abuse can stay within a family. It trickles down. My great grandparents abused my grandparents, my grandparents abused my parents. My parents didn’t sexually abuse me, but they abuse me. This means that this is normal to him. I’m not saying it doesn’t hurt, I’m saying that he probably wouldn’t know how to react or what to do with himself if his parents started treating him better.
I’d also really like for you guys to see this post.
I know that it isn’t 100% confirmed that Nathan was sexually abused. But he was still very obviously emotionally abused by both abusers at hand. His father often manipulated him (and almost definitely gaslighted him), and would do things like hurt him and then coddle him. Sean Prescott (with no doubt in my mind) PAID for the Dark Room. He gave Nathan a “#1 Son” certificate. Do you know what he’s doing? It’s hush money (this phenomenon is particularly found in victims of sexual abuse; spoiling your child with materialistic items, which is what made me feel like there was sexual abuse with his father). Sean Prescott will coddle him and has conditioned Nathan to think “My dad’s such an asshole–I love my dad, he’ll protect me.” He may be interpreting his dad “owning the police force” as “my dad loves me” rather than “My dad cares about his reputation,” (think to when you stop Warren from beating Nathan, and he limps away saying “My dad is coming! You’re all fucked!” it makes me feel like a little kid running to their parent because they’re afraid of something for protection–he says it almost affectionately) as a lot of people really want their parents to love them. Which brings me to my next point:
Nathan probably just wants for people to love him/care about him. The Vortex club/Mr.Jefferson are great examples of that. In one night, Nathan bought around $250,000 worth of several types of drugs for a Vortex Club party. (Again, no doubt, Sean really paid for this: “I know you’ve got hella cash” “That’s my parents–not me.”) The parties, the drugs, the food, the entertainment, etc. It really comes off as “Look what I can provide for you–please be my friend.” Nathan is lonely. If you go into the boys’ locker room with Chloe when you break into the school, his locker is very far away from everyone elses (another sign I took as sexual abuse: wanting to be as far away from someone as possible when in such close quarters, especially if you have to be more nude than usual). He feels detached from these people. It comes off like he fears and craves intimacy.
And back to Mr.Jefferson. Mr.Jefferson, being both an adult and an already abuser, chose Nathan for several reasons. One: he could just tell that Nathan would be an easy target. First of all, body language. Nathan always kind of is hunched over, and he’s always fidgeting. He’s always scared, and he’s always in a “fight-or-flight” state of response. (2) This is common in abuse survivors of all kinds. Mr.Jefferson could see this, and he could see, as an adult that Nathan doesn’t really have any real friends. Maybe Victoria, but not nearly as much as Nathan would want. All it would take (IF this much) is a couple of class periods to tell that he had issues with his father in particularly (honestly, Mr.Jefferson probably assumed it was his father too, as abuse occurs within the family more so than ever, and he KNOWS how the “trickle effect” works). So, what does he do? He praises Nathan–genuine praise: “You’ve got a good eye,” “You’re work is amazing,” “You’ve got a gift.” He knew that this (3) rich kid would be easy to manipulate because it’s already happened before. All he had to do was ease into this; “Hi, I’m Mark.” “I know, adults are terrible. I don’t blame you.” “You have such amazing work! x5634″ “I would like to work with you.” “Isn’t this fun? I accept you and I would like to mentor you.” “Let’s keep doing more and more fucked up works.” “Hey… I have an idea. Maybe you could be one of my subjects? We’ll need…. Ah, yes, the barn! perfect” “Good work, Nathan. But, you know what… Maybe… We could do this together. I have an idea…” Mr.Jefferson exploited and abused Nathan for his money, his lack of security/emotional strength, and his need for acceptance–particularly for a father figure in life–to get what he wanted. Mr.Jefferson never cared about Nathan.
I don’t know why Mr.Jefferson killed Nathan. It could have just been a cover-up the writers used because they got lazy as hell in Polarized. However, I could also imagine it’s because he didn’t see him as useful anymore. Remember the note in The Darkroom? “Stop this, or you’re on your own.” Let’s talk about this for a second: you’re on your own. This implies that Mr.Jefferson convinced Nathan that this is something HE wanted to do, and that Mr.Jefferson was just doing it with him. Keeping Nathan in check like this would be crucial: “This was your idea, Nathan.” This is more implication for me that there was sexual abuse with Mr.Jefferson: he convinced Nathan this was his idea, and the whole “Please stop ignoring me–I just want to do projects with you again” note. Nathan seemed a bit more attached to Mr.Jefferson than it seems one would be with a father figure. And even if there wasn’t sexual abuse with Mr.Jefferson, this is also a sign of sexual abuse from his father: he doesn’t really know what’s normal in a relationship with others, particularly fatherly figures. (This is also why a lot of victims of sexual abuse will act out sexually, or try to do things with other family members that are wildly inappropriate [at younger ages[). Anyway, Mr.Jefferson may have also killed Nathan because he didn’t react well to getting Victoria, his seemingly only real friend. He may have killed him off because he sensed that Nathan was becoming too unstable. Perhaps he made one too many mistakes. Or, maybe, Mr.Jefferson had planned to kill Nathan from the very beginning.
(Side note: Hayden seemed to care about him beyond the parties: “He’s everybody’s voodoo doll! Kill the rich kid! He’s actually not that bad a guy. Fuck the haters.” And then we have Victoria “They’re like brother and sister…. Or….. Something…” Literally everyone at the party was like “Idk, idc, ask Victoria. She’s the only one who actually cares about Nathan.”)
Nathan Prescott is a wonderfully written character. It’s fucked up as hell and kind of a cop-out that he got killed, but whatever. If you know the full story, and you play through again, his actions are, not excused, but almost “understandable, if that is how he was to interpret it.” As in, abuse changes all kinds of people in all kinds of ways.
If you have anything to add on/questions/etc, please feel free to do so/contact me.
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