While digging around Esther's room, Kate uncovers a Bible stuffed with pictures of middle-aged men and the label "Saarne Institute." Upon contacting the facility, Kate learns that it's a mental institution from which Esther, who is actually a 33-year-old Estonian woman named Leena with a rare form of proportional dwarfism, escaped. In fact, the ribbons worn around her neck and wrists are to hide the scars she got while trying to break free of a straitjacket.
After fleeing the hospital, Esther became a sex worker in Estonia. She avoided jail time by using her dwarfism to her advantage and pretending she was a child. Upon recognizing the power of her condition, she began posing as an orphan to seduce unsuspecting adoptive dads. John, whom she attempts to woo while wearing a homemade black dress and makeup, is her latest target.
The big question is, why? Ultimately, inappropriate attention from a paternal figure is the only kind of affection Esther knows. From infancy, her own father sexually abused her. When he eventually stops, it is because Esther would "never be a real woman" due to her condition.
Esther may be at the root of many heinous crimes, but her unnatural upbringing caused her to be trapped in a continuous cycle of insanity. Over and over, she tries to re-create the taboo relationship her father forced upon her. When the adoptive father rejects her in favor of his wife, the insecurities come flooding back. All she wants is to be treated like any other woman, but it's a feat that proves impossible.
