|
In Reply to: Definitely no coincidence posted by Perry on March 30, 2005 at 02:33:00:
The episode was definitely based on TF, but in a parallel universe kind of way. The cult was called Children of the Divine, and it promoted adult/child sex in a child training handbook called The Book of David. The cult had literature purges and blamed abuses on individuals who had misinterpreted the writings. It also claimed that it had long ago rectified any problems within the organization. Names of characters were changed only slightly so there was no mistaking, for us exmembers at least, who they represented. For example, Ricky became Richard, who was known as David in the cult. He murdered his childhood nanny to try to get to his mother, but in this show his suicide attempt failed. It mentioned how as a teen he had been sent to a "Victory Camp" in the Philippines. You get the picture.
Of course, it was a fictionalized account, squeezed into 45 minutes, so some of the plot was kind of thin or absurd. For example, the cult leader Shelby/Zerby was first arrested by being enticed to a meeting by her daughter who had left years earlier. She was arrested and then the charges were dropped mid-trial and she was let go. The prosecutors then came up with a plan to bring her to trial on another charge of murdering another son by drug overdose. McCoy said something like, "bring her in before she leaves the country" and they did. If only reality was that simple. I doubt that Zerby would let herself be entrapped that easily and even if she did, once released she would go underground quickly.
It was kind of sensationalized, but what can you expect from a tv drama such as this. Still, that is an extremely popular show and perhaps that's the only way some people will ever hear about a nefarious cult such as TF. And it did a pretty good job of highlighting how a group like that plays loose with the truth, covers up crimes and deceives the courts and the general public.
