This to catch a predator video reminded me of my villains

I knew within seconds that this wasn’t going to be like the others that this to catch a predator video wasn’t like the others.

I’ve watched plenty of predator sting videos. Most of them blur together—panic, excuses, denial, and overtalking. Plus the usual laundry list of excuses.

This one didn’t.

In the video, the man barely spoke. He clocked the situation almost instantly, asked to get his lawyer, made a phone call for someone to “pick up the van,” and then he shut down like a guy who had already rehearsed this moment.

I don’t know who he was, and I don’t know what could be proven. That said, I knew this guy was gonna be different. Right up there with the top catch of 2025 from Scaling Up Catches.

The van and the phone call were the cold spine moments

This guy quickly delegated, calling a friend (or partner) to pick up the van, and quietly relaying he was caught in a sting. He also acted (and the text messages to the decoy strongly implied) like he had done this before.

That gave me more than just predatory vibes. Not saying that this guy was the next step beyond a predator or anything like that, but he wasn’t doing himself any favors.

The shutting down part, too, with no rambling, no excuses, nor even a montage of blatant compulsive lying—most of which you see from most preds.

What I’m reacting to isn’t a crime label, but the presence of infrastructure, contingency, and emotional flattening.

He was indeed an outlier. What’s more? He reminded me of my villains in so many of my own upcoming and even some of my past works. Not a mustache-twirling archetype, or even one who rants or panics with a massive monologue.

Instead, this guy and my villains acted like they knew the game and were ahead on the chessboard.

This pred reminded me of one particular untrustworthy character

On Tuesday, I talked about going to bat for one of my characters, Ella Kinnunen, in a short but impactful lucid dream. Now, I’m providing commentary for my main character in that dark paranormal fantasy series, Kaija Jokiharju.

Why? There’s a part in my first full book of the series, Cursed Mage, that depicts Kaija realizing, in a disturbing manner, that someone untrustworthy entered her life.

That character is the ultimate wolf in sheep’s clothing. What’s worse for Kaija is that, shortly before they reveal their true colors, their body language mimicked this pred to a T.

I won’t give away who that character is—you can find out for yourself in Cursed Mage. But shutting down, burying their face in their hands, and being seemingly at a loss for words, all while they had not a van but an SUV with tinted windows waiting, the similarities were uncanny.

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