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THE PRAYING (not preying) MANTIS is rumoured to rip off her partner's head after mating. What an apt name for Sarah Downes. (I think Wendy coined the name.)

NAME/NICK: Sarah Downes (Gentry and a dozen other names), The Mantis, The Black Widow

EPISODE: “BLIND LOVE”

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Large face, split ends.

EVIL DEEDS/WHY WE HATE HER: She intentionally set out to have Jimmy killed and didn’t even try to stop it. She probably took his virginity (though we’re not sure). She lied to Sam, she caused Jimmy to resent his friends and quit his job. She’s a murderess. The chick couldn’t act. She ‘accidently’ leaves her blouse buttons undone. She slept with three different men in one episode (OK, I don’t know that for sure.)

HOW SHE SHOULD DIE: Well I guess she was probably hanged which would be fun to watch but I would have also liked to have seen Jimmy mistake her for a tree.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES: She was the first of a long series of evil women to deceive the boys and ruin the show.

MOST ANNOYING SCENE OR QUOTE: She swears she’s not a tree but she’s just as wooden.

“Don’t shoot, I swear I’m not a tree.” (complete with hands in the air.)

“It’s so bewwwwdiful here.”

“Probably the same thing that makes me want to know all of them.”

ANAGRAMS OF ‘SARAH DOWNES’:

Rearranging the letters of Sarah’s name perfectly illustrates her character.

Whore and ass - She is both

Whored an ass - Indeed, and it was her own.

Rash as on wed - Refers to the men that rashly wed her

Worn ass-head - Probably refers to her late husband

Shadows near - Sarah casts a shadow upon all she is near. Jimmy was always talking about shadows and darkness. “Shadowmen”, “Stepping into the Shadows” etc.

He! onward ass! - What we were yelling when the horse dragged her

Harassed, won - She harassed men and won, but not this time.

Harass on wed - Refers to her multiple weddings

Swore and ash - To do with vows and charred remains. Not sure.

These words can also be found using some of the letters of her name.

Harassed, hardness, warheads, ass-head, shadows

EVIL MANTIS IMAGE GALLERY

I even found a poem about a Mantis.

PrAying Mantis

Two eyes, brown, wet, and

wild: your twin saucers brimfilled

with tea (unspilled, unspoken, bone china

broken). Your hair starts swirling,

deep and curling and the red words

whirling as you search me, pierce me,

fire. Licking my lips, I¹m copulating

greenly -- a sudden tender motion --

quick snap jaws -- and you repel me,

headless, flailing, fertilizing still.

Sinews bend and flap, loose arteries wave,

the epiglottal skin caps neatly your bloomless

neck. I should have pierced harder,

deeper, quicker, thicker -- too much

beauty gyrates in your severed head, those muddy

eyes, tea leaves in the sod,

gummy with your lover¹s sweet

saliva and spat upon the ground like an

untold fortune. Thin blind stalk,

you wildly fling your reedy arms,

those spindly curves that one time meshed and mingled

with my own, before the blood was let,

before the brown bloom fell, a time

when you, upright, would strike my open knees and

in that hollow space and time I knelt

and smelt your body tall before me,

fell to soiling mud in which your once-firm head

now rolls. Back, forth, back, forth, still.

My palms clasp in prayer. The

right hand presses -- give, give. The left

hand cries -- he has nothing, is nothing.

Unscrews your rib cage. Fingers and discards

each flat, unnecessary bone, groping for

the juice, the meaty substance, thick and sweet

your seedless innards.

Kalee Geiderman Magnani