Andy Armstrong’s Squealer starts with a harrowing scene wherein we witness an unclothed woman running continuously. The woman was disoriented and probably running from someone wanting to harm her. An old couple driving down the road found her and took her to the hospital. The woman’s entire body was punctured with needles, and she had blood stains all over her body. Her condition was dire, and the doctor had to perform a carotid to help her breathe. The woman kept saying that someone had taken her captive and was looking for her. Cops and the doctor, on the other hand, said she was a drug addict and was talking gibberish. So, who was the woman running from? The nightmare she was having suggested that her kidnapper had been keeping her on a farm. Maybe he was a hunter, as his house was full of all sorts of animal skins and horns.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did the Cops Never Investigate the Missing Women?
Lisa (Danielle Burgio), a social worker, was brought in to help the woman, but she was too afraid to open up to her. In fear and disorientation, she ran out of the hospital and collided with oncoming traffic before Lisa could learn anything. Lisa was a social worker with empathy for others and was constantly working to help women with addiction. Lisa had also helped many sex workers earn an honest living. Lisa used to be a drug addict, and her marriage with Jack (Wes Chatham) ended because of it. But, thanks to her sponsors, Lisa beat that addiction. Lisa believed that there was more to the story than meets the eye since the woman wasn’t the first to be abducted. In fact, many women were kidnapped over the course of the previous few years. They were mostly prostitutes and whores, and despite filing and making multiple reports, nobody was taken into custody. The cops believed that these women were reported missing most of the time, but sooner or later, most reports turned out to be nothing. For them, these ladies were nomads, always on the go in search of new places to score drugs and have a good time. Lisa also found out from the doctors that the nameless woman had an acrid smell, which was common with pig farms. In addition, the couple that found her said they were driving on the west side of the city, which mainly houses farms and barren lands.
What Was Squealer Doing With the Women?
Squealer (Ronnie Gene Blevins) was the town’s butcher and also the man who had been abducting the hookers. The reason he was only targeting sex workers was because no one cared about them. They were seen as street trash and rarely had families. The squealer lured them into his farm by offering them drugs, and since most of these women were addicts, they couldn’t refuse. Squealer drugged these women and killed them while they were half awake, and later chopped them up in the grinder and kept their valuables. However, this was just the tip of the iceberg, as Squealer was also secretly supplying the town’s whole population with cuts of human meat. He also had an armada of pigs on his farm, who often helped him take care of the bodies.
If you thought Squealer was just a random pig farmer, you would be mistaken. He was a multimillionaire who had gotten rich by selling his uncle’s farm. Squealer received 8 million dollars for that piece of land. Also, Squealer wasn’t working alone and was in cahoots with a red-haired woman whom Lisa encountered in the bar. Lisa was Squealer’s partner-in-crime and helped him procure his targets. She also told Squealer that a woman named Lisa had been asking questions about the recent kidnappings. Just like that, Earline had helped Squealer for years but was starting to have second thoughts when he was starting to get careless in his rampage.
What Became Of Jack, Sadie, And Lisa?
Squealer’s hatred toward women stemmed from the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother. Even though he was born on a pig farm, he’d never wanted to be a butcher, but his mother used to beat him daily and slaughter his piglets. She called him feeble (not in a polite way) and often said she should’ve killed him when he was born. As for Sadie (Sydney Carvill), she was one of the girls Lisa had helped. Before she met Lisa, she was a prostitute and a drug addict, but Lisa made her see the light and helped her get sober. She also got a sponsor and a receptionist job at the Lincoln Hotel. Lisa also allowed her to stay with her until she got a place of her own. Sadie was very happy with her life and thanked Lisa every day for saving her. Unfortunately, she made one mistake when she invited Squealer into the house and paid the price. Jack found her cold body lying in Lisa’s bed when he arrived at the house to meet Lisa.
Remember Earline (Kate Moennig), the red-haired woman Lisa was looking for? Well, Lisa’s doctor friend found Earline and told Lisa that she lived on Squealer’s farm. However, Earline bailed out when she feared that cops were hot on her trail. Lisa left a message for Jack, informing him that she was heading to the pig farm. Jack reached the farm before her and was killed by Squealer. He even sent graphic pictures of Jack to warn Lisa about what would happen if she came looking for him. Lisa wanted Squealer to pay for what he had done to Jack and all those other girls. Unfortunately, when she arrived there, she found out that the place was a maze, and Lisa couldn’t get out. Squealer laughed at her predicament, telling Lisa how he’d electrocuted Jack before ripping his heart out. He mocked her every step of the way and even broke her leg. However, he admired Lisa’s courage to willingly enter the lion’s den, knowing it wouldn’t turn out the way she had hoped. Fortunately, Lisa gained the upper hand and pushed him into the meat shredder Squealer was planning to put her in. She made him pay for all the helpless animals and the unconscious woman he had murdered.
Squealer was a psycho who thought he would never get caught, as he had evaded police for years and was planning to continue to do so. The townsfolk never cared about the disappeared women, and rather than raising their voices, they called them drifters and addicts. Whenever someone like Lisa urged the cops to investigate, they were shown the statistics that stated that most of the reports were false. Squealer capitalized on this mentality and claimed the lives of many. Unlike other serial killers, Squealer wasn’t looking for fame or money, as he just wanted to kill and never be caught. He rarely visited the town’s center and had hired Earline as a helper to avoid drawing suspicion. Earline eventually read the room and realized that Squealer, sooner or later, would get arrested. So, to save herself, Earline jumped into town.
