- Simon: Accept it. This is your fate.
Kept Woman is a 2015 Drama/Mystery Made-for-TV Movie, starring Courtney Ford, Shaun Benson, Andrew W. Walker, Rachel Wilson, Jesse Camacho, and Troy Blundelle.
After a violent robbery at their city apartment, Jessica Crowder (Courtney Ford) and her fiance Evan (Andrew Walker) decide to move to a house in the suburbs. They are greeted by their next-door neighbour, Simon (Shaun Benson), an eccentric university professor who's sense of style is very 1950s. After noticing him come home with an unusually large amount of groceries, Jessica is suspicious about Simon's claim that he lives alone, and decides to investigate with the help of her investigator sleuth friend, Oscar (Jesse Camacho). This leads to Simon luring and kidnapping Jessica, taking her into his basement bunker, where he intends to make her and his other "wife", Robin (Rachel Wilson) into his preferred image of the 1950s housewives.
Kept Woman contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: When Simon confronts Jess over Robin's claims that the former was lying about her relationship with him and was plannign to escape back to Evan , he plans to eliminate "cancer that is lying", Jessica. Instead he slits Robin's throat, stating he was aware that she was lying just to get rid of Jess, and figured he was doing her a favour by protecting her from any murder attempts from Robin in the future.
- Berserk Button: Simon really loses his cool whenever Jessica tries to escape or actively defies him, as this goes against the submissiveness of the 50s housewife. Likewise, for Robin, it's when other women fail to reciprociate Simon's affections, admitting to Jessica that she had killed the previous woman, Meghan, for this reason.
- Becoming the Mask: When Jessica looks a little too adjusted to her new life after six weeks, it looks like she may have developed Robin's condition. It's all an act to get Simon to let his guard down.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jessica, with Evan's help, successfully escape's Simon's house, and the latter gets life in prison. Unfortunately, Troy and Robin are dead. Thankfully, Jess is able to reveal Simon's hand in their murders (including Meghan's), thereby giving them some justice. Also, the fact that Jess' book based on her life in captivity became an international bestseller, it's likely that she and Evan's money troubles are all behind them.
- Blaming the Victim: Simon implies that with Jessica looking through his front door window, she was asking to get kidnapped.
- Chekhov's Skill: It's established early on that Jessica can't cook to save her life, her one exception being a rhubarb pie. She bakes a pie for a pretend picnic with Simon, and has him eat it with his hands so that the jam will mark itself on the correct number keys on the door lock. The pie's strong smell also alerts Evan to his fiancee's location.
- Chekhov's Gun: Evan brings up all the times when Jess used to leave lipstick marks on his shirt collar as a way of marking him as hers. She leaves these same marks on Simon's collar before he visits Evan to gift him a bottle of wine. The latter notices the marks, which tips him off that Jess is nearby.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Simon aspires to bring back the family values from the 50s, where he is the head of the house and his wife (or wives) submit to him, obeying his every order without question.
- Freudian Excuse: Simon's original (and legitimate) wife ran off with another man, which may have triggered his desire to kidnap unsuspecting women as wives. That is, assuming he's telling the truth of having had a wife who ran away, and not a "kept woman"—presumably Megan—whom he murdered and gave a false claim about her whereabouts.
- Gory Discretion Shot: After having cut Robin's throat, Simon slowly drags her off to the bathroom, and orders Jess to go to her room and play her music at the highest volume. Jess (and the audience) are treated to the lovely sounds of Robin getting dismembered via electric saw.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Robin becomes increasingly envious when Simon gives more attention to Jessica, and tries to get rid of her so she can have Simon back to herself.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Robin, furious that Jessica is getting all of Simon's attention while also trying to escape, alerts Simon to the latter's escape attempts in hopes that she might get disposed of. Poor Robin gets her own neck slit by Simon as punishment for lying about Jessica.
- Hysterical Woman: When Jessica finds herself locked in the bunker, she punches the door and screams hysterically non-stop for a good four minutes before Simon threatens her. Can you blame her though?
- Inspired by…: The real-life Ariel Castro kidnappings.
- Karma Houdini: The burglar who robbed Jess and Evan's apartment at gunpoint is presumably never caught.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Robin had murdered the previous "kept woman", Meghan when she turned down Simon and tried escaping the bunker. When she tries repeating this on Jessica by getting Simon to kill her, she herself gets killed instead.
- A year after Simon's arrest, Jessica visits him in prison to tell him that she personally fought to have the death penalty lifted and instead have him sentenced to life in prison, so that he may know what it feels like to be trapped against his will.
- Pet the Dog: Simon brings home a few books to help Jessica with her writing skills. Robin, knowing that Jessica can't cook, teacher her how to create some elaborate meals.
- Posthumous Character: Simon's first kept woman, Meghan, died four years before the film's start. She had repeatedly tried escaping from Simon. He gradually lost his patience with her, and forced Robin (whom he had recently kidnapped) to kill her.
- Rape Discretion Shot: The first time we see Jessica in her 50s style dress, Simon takes her into the bedroom and starts kissing her while slowly undressing her. The shot later cuts to Robin, who is listening from the room next door.
- Stockholm Syndrome: Robin. Having been trapped in the bunker for four years, her mind broke so badly that she fell in love with Simon. She is genuinely confused that the other trapped women do not share this sentiment. After Robin's death, Jessica successfully fakes this to gain Simon's trust.
