Snap and Kill
(Blood on his hands? Could be some bloody good foreshadowing.)
“At BHU we’ll do whatever it takes to stay on top. We thrive under pressure, and strive for perfection. But no one’s perfect, and the pressure is building to a breaking point. And someone is about to snap, and kill.”
Interestingly enough, if we interpret The Perfectionists’ introductory monologue in its purest sense, in terms of (academic) pressure pushing a student to eventually “snap and kill,” then of the main trio of suspects, Dylan best fits the profile.
Caitlin’s motive would be based on her mom’s political career and her own future ambitions, and being a fake girlfriend to Nolan. While Ava’s would seem to be centered around relationship woes, or possibly something to do with her internship/business.
Sure there’s pressure, and they each have problems with Nolan. But where’s the urgency? I’m not sold on the idea that either of these two are really on the verge of snapping.
“You know, I feel bad about Dylan doing my work. We’re all under enough pressure as it is,” Ava says while lounging by the pool.
Dylan, on the other hand, is shouldering a triple workload at school, his relationship, music scholarship (and identity) are in jeopardy (“music… is everything that I am” / “everything [he’s] worked for”) and he faces possible expulsion.
It’s all very understated, but if you put it together, it really does paint the picture of a student who could “snap” at any minute.
He’s essentially facing death (in a psychological sense), and his back is against the wall. This threat and the drive to survive make him fairly compelling as a potential killer.
Dylan was introduced as the one who’s “always right,” but perhaps more significantly, Nolan called him “the smartest guy I know.“
Considering Mona’s allusion to the “dangerous,” potentially weaponized nature of Nolan’s own intelligence, I’m not sure that was a compliment.
It could hint at some darkness within.
“You have no idea what I’m like when I’m angry,” he warns Nolan.
And I kind of believe him.
After all, this series is titled The Perfectionists for a reason. The truth is "nobody’s perfect,” so we can expect a major theme to be that of presentation versus reality.
“Always said I was a good kid…”
This lyrical match up is a bit chilling, coming after Alison figured out that Dylan wrote the papers, based on repeated patterns throughout his work.
“It’s your gift for words that gave you away,” she tells him.
Much like the blood on his finger, this could be a nice potential foreshadowing of him ultimately getting caught as Nolan’s killer.
The word meticulous appears several times across the papers he wrote. While Dylan does seem to be a detail oriented guy, I don’t think this murder was a meticulous plan by any means.
I’m not convinced it was planned at all.
Perhaps the most important thing to take away from the meeting in the woods is that they part ways with no solutions and no plans moving forward.
Which is okay for Caitlin and Ava. They can go home and go to bed and wake up no worse off than before.
Dylan, however, still faces Alison’s 24-hour ultimatum regarding the plagiarized papers. He either gets expelled, or faces the wrath of Nolan. Neither choice will end well for Dylan. But he still has to make one. He’s got to do something.
Unlike the others, there’s a real urgency and a call to action on Dylan’s part. So do we really believe he just went home with nothing solved?
Up on the rooftop of Thorne Hall, Nolan makes a plea for help. He needs a recruit who’s savvy enough to help take down Beacon Guard, or whoever’s hijacked that system for their own nefarious purposes.
Who better to ask than Dylan, the most dependable and “smartest guy” he knows? The one who always delivers the goods?
“Someone we can trust,” Nolan told Taylor.
Of course trust would come easy when that “someone” is Dylan, who’s already firmly under Nolan’s thumb. Even more so if Dylan has lingering feelings for Nolan, which could be the motivation behind Nolan’s more humbled manner and the “I’m sorry I’ve been such an asshole” speech.
But at this point it’s just salt on the wound. Dylan’s fed up with Nolan’s games, and he’s not about to be put in that position again. He’s on the verge of losing everything. The clock is ticking. The pressure’s on. He’s got the means and motive, and a need to take immediate action.
Perhaps the opportunity presented itself, and the absolute nerve of Nolan wanting more from him after he’s already been stretched so thin is what caused Dylan to finally “snap and kill.”
How ironic would it be for the guy who writes everyone’s papers to turn around and plagiarize Caitlin’s fantasy of killing Nolan?
Remember, Dylan was the one who introduced the idea of murder, saying outright “we could kill him.” The whole time, he kept (jokingly) pushing the idea, almost as if he was feeling them out to see if they would (seriously) go for it. He called Caitlin’s vision “great,” said “murder can be justified,” and hey – Dylan’s always right – so maybe he actually believes it.
With Nolan the provocateur now dead, it’s likely that Alison will drop the plagiarism issue and give Dylan a second chance, considering that it won’t happen again, and the fact that she really wants to help these kids.
Nolan’s death solves most of Dylan’s problems and pressures, while adding a new one.
As for Nolan dying in this particular manner, it sort of draws the main three together as suspects/accomplices by default, adding layers of complexity and confusion to a crime that might actually be very simple and obvious when it’s all said and done.