Mindhunter season 2: What happened to the tickling principal? Will he return?

Netflix’s chilling crime drama Mindhunter will be returning for season two on August 17. All nine episodes will be dropping on the streaming service in one go for fans to binge-watch. Mindhunter is based on the non-fiction book of the same name, chronicling the FBI’s early work in profiling serial killers in a bid to catch them quickly.

What happened to the tickling principal in Mindhunter?

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Mindhunter season 1

Season one saw Holden Ford (played by Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) teaming up and travelling around America in the 1970s to interview serial killers in a bid to understand their psychology and behaviour.

Along with the spine-tingling interviews with the likes of real-life serial killers Ed Kemper (Cameron Britten) and Richard Speck (Jack Erdie), the pair of the FBI agents were consulting on live cases.

One episode saw Holden approached to do a talk at a primary school about his work.

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Prior to the talk, Holden was given strict instructions by the school’s principal Roger Wade (Marc Kudisch) about what he could say to the young children.

After the talk, Holden was approached by one of the teachers who expressed her concerns about Principal Wade.

She said that the head teacher would punish naughty pupils who’d been sent to his office by tickling their feet.

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Principal Wade would then give the children money for their punishment and believed the child had learnt their lesson.

The teacher and some parents had complained but nothing had been done about the strange behaviour.

Holden tried to confront Principal Wade over the matter but the headteacher dismissed it and pointed out his excellent record at the school.

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Principal Wade’s behaviour was escalated to the school board, who decided to fire him over the tickling.

Holden said it had been the right move as the behaviour could have escalated to paedophilia or even child abuse if a child had resisted.

Nevertheless, Holden’s actions had severe consequences for Principal Wade who was left depressed and unable to get a job.

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He was even seen walking around town aimlessly and lost following his fall from grace.

To make matters worse, Principal Wade’s wife arrived unexpectedly at Holden’s apartment to blame him for what had happened to her husband, revealing her friends no longer came to visit.

The teacher is based on a real-life case but it appears the plot was dramatised for the purposes of the television show.

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Season one doesn’t make clear what happened to Principal Wade but given it was such a striking story thread, it could be explored further in the second outing.

Audiences will have to wait and see what happens with Wade but it would seem strange if season two of Mindhunter didn’t offer some sort of resolution to the storyline.

The storyline is also likely to have caused in part Holden’s anxiety which culminated at the end of the season as he collapsed on the floor as the pressure of everything got too much for him.

Principal Wade’s storyline demonstrated different types of behaviour with the head teacher’s actions falling into pre-offence behaviour.

Mindhunter season 2 will be released on Netflix on August 17

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source: express.co.uk