Billie Eilish at the Swarm Premiere
Billie Eilish at the Swarm Premiere
News NXIVM The Cult of Keith Raniere TV & Film

NXIVM’s Raniere Inspires Billie Eilish Character

Donald Glover and Janine Nabers bring us #Swarm, a series about ultraviolent kids and low IQ adults. Episode 4 features Billie Eilish as a female Keith Raniere, complete with magical healing powers and a cult-like following.

Swarm, the ultraviolent children’s and low IQ adult series created by Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, follows the story of the heroine, a young black woman, Dre (Dominique Fishback), who idolizes a pop star, Ni’Jah, who goes on a cross-country killing spree to avenge anyone who insults Ni’Jah’s reputation.

Pop singer Billie Eilish plays Eva, who the producers say is a female Keith Raniere, in episode #4 of Swarm, titled “Running Scared.”

Billie Eilish at the Swarm Premiere
Billie Eilish at the Swarm Premiere

In the episode, Dre has a violent encounter with Ni’Jah,  but she does not kill her idol and ends up in Manchester, Tennessee, eager to see her idol in concert.

Without a wristband and after a tense encounter with a cop, Dre finds refuge with a group of white women who indulge in a high-end, holistic lifestyle.

Things turn predictably cliche when the women Dre encounters believe that their leader, Eva, played by Eilish, possesses magical healing powers, similar to cult leader Keith Raniere of NXIVM.

The women also have initials carved into their bodies, as NXIVM’s sorority DOS members did, but anatomically higher.

The initials are on the women’s shoulders in Swarm.

Co-creator Janine Nabers confirms that Raniere was her inspiration for Eilish’s character, Eva.

The episode predictably explores the cult-like mentality of seeking a savior and illustrates perfectly the mind-numbing, mindless dumbing down of low IQ violence + woke television.

The murderous Dre and Eilish a singer possibly bombing out on TV as the female Keith Raniere
The murderous Dre and Eilish, a singer, possibly bombing out on TV as the female Keith Raniere.

The creators chose to focus on women making the Raniere character female.

After taking a walk with Eva, [Raniere likes to take walks with women], she invites Dre to a private room [a library?] and offers her a psychological experience similar to an exploration of meaning or Scientology auditing.

It is not clear as of press time whether Dre saw a blue light.

In Swarm, Eva uses a therapy technique called a “grounding point” on Dre, causing the mentally insane and violent hero to get up, get in a car, and run over Eva not once but twice.

Fishback and Nabers told Rolling Stone that Dre’s violence was amply justified because Eilish brought the fate upon herself by doing what is, in effect, unlicensed therapy.

Eilish may be headed to career suicide with this bizarre and offbeat role, much like John Denver sunk his career in playing the likable dummy in Oh God.

About the author

Richard Luthmann

Richard Luthmann is a writer, commentator, satirist, and investigative journalist with degrees from Columbia University and the University of Miami. Once a fixture in New York City and State politics, Luthmann is a recovering attorney who lives in Southwest Florida and a proud member of the National Writers Union. 

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