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Why were TFC students upset, comparing Kendall to Jim Jones?

The 900+ deaths in Guyana in '78 affected the Toccoa Falls community for the similar narrative of a religious group practically sequestered in the North Georgia mountains. A landmark of death from the flood killing 39 in 1977, these Georgia residents were tenderised into quickly reacting towards events relating death upon the unexpected faithful.

But whispers of "Jonestown" may have its onset due to the competitive nature and thunder stealing of the school's Kappa Rho society during initiation week 1979.

The participants, in each year's welcome-to-TFC freshman taunting, generally will have the newbies acting out embarrassingly; in a sense, putting them in their place vis-à-vis the elder classmen showing who's in charge. But the eyes of the school are being steered by Kappa Rho, not onto the so-called underlings being demeaned, but to the charismatic Kendall demanding worship.

Yes, he has the Jim-jones look and aura, and yes he has bodyguards with machine guns (including squirt guns to fend off the apostates), and yes he is driven around campus in the oversized luxury of a white cadillac (where he barely escapes an assassins glass of tea (blocked by a quick raising of the window) but he requires and demands cheering, signs lifted up with his countenance, and his "faithful"... willing to lay on the ground and quake in kendall's site while wearing sackcloth - their ashes possibly scattered on the Kappa Rho tombstones, declaring faith til death.

Well, death comes from Kendall's heavy-heartedness as his very own will bring him down.

Unfortunately, this transpires moments after Kendall rallies his companions during lunch, (a trip to the bathroom) bringing a decision to end his dictatorship by offering the "jonestown" whisperers a hand to shake. But stepping out, they pounce on him, bringing irony of the flood as they soak him with a barrage of water.

Although bodyguard Rick Barker furiously smashes his plastic machine gun in anger, Kendall takes it in stride. He'll live to shake his preacher's fist another day.