Criminal Minds s01e04 Episode Script

Plain Sight

Criminal Minds Season 1 Episode 4 Get a good shot at her face Make a wish! Come on man! Blow, baby blow! I thought you are a ******** Come on, Reid.
They're trick candles, Spence Okay? They gonna come back on every time.
Oh, mommy to rescue you! Mommy? Is it amazing you knows what he knows he's only 24? *******I'm about 50.
Hope you like chocolate.
Agent Hotchner? You having fun? Yes, definitely.
I'm definitely having fun.
Make a wish? Can I take this hat off? I wouldn't.
Hey Spence, first piece for the birthday boy.
Do you know she's the only person in the whole world who calls me "Spence"? - Thank you.
- Birthday boy.
Sorry, guys, the party's over.
We're going to San Diego.
Not for the surfing, huh? They're calling him the Tommy killer.
That's a short fuse.
And getting shorter.
The first 2 were 8 days apart then the next 4 in 2 weeks.
Rapid escalation.
Do you think he's regressing to a psychopathic frenzy? No, he's too controlled for that.
See you on the plane.
Why the Tommy killer? You know the rock opera? This unsub glues the victims' eyes wide open.
He wants them to see him.
And feel him.
French poet Jacques Rigaut said "don't forget that I cannot see myself that my role is limited to being the one who looks in the mirror.
" Brenda Samms was found yesterday by her children when they got home from school.
She had been strangled with a thin ligature, possibly a wire.
No weapon left at the scene.
Residue on the wrist and mouth indicate that duct tape was used and then removed.
Also not found at the scene.
Brought it with him, took it with him.
He also started leaving messages at the fourth scene.
This was on the mirrors.
"Fair lady, throw those costly robes aside.
No longer may you glory in your pride.
Take leave of all your carnal, vain delight.
" "I've come to summon you away this night.
" It's a ballad from the late 1600s.
A dialogue betwixt death and a lady.
A 17th century ballad? Essentially, a woman begging death to live.
What kind of person knows this ballad? Are we looking for a literature professor? Anyone with an internet connection, actually.
You should see what comes in when you type the word "death" into a search engine.
Reid, no wonder you can't get a date.
Reid, you stay on the messages.
See if there's a deeper meaning.
It definitely looks like he ransacked the crime scene pretty well.
A lot of damage, nothing taken.
The eyes are the thing, the signature.
The behavior that isn't necessary for the murder, but necessary for the emotional release.
That's what he's there for.
There used to be a widely held belief that the eyes record a snapshot of the last thing a person sees before they die.
Yeah, that's right.
People used to write poems about talking to death.
Ballads.
Whatever.
You think they'll ever run out of new things to do with their victims? Well, finding new ways to hurt each other is what we're good at.
Captain Griffith, task force commander.
Sorry, we all get tunnel vision.
I'm special agent Hotchner, this is agent Jareau, our liaison.
I appreciate you coming out.
Thanks, hope we can help.
Hi, you've reached the Chandlers.
Leave a message, and have a beautiful day.
What a good soccer game.
I'm so proud of you.
When's mommy coming in? Happy anniversary, honey.
Love you.
Ready for bed, mom.
Will you tuck me in? This unsub glues the victims' eyes wide open.
They're calling him the Tommy killer.
It definitely looks like he ransacked the crime scene.
Do you have a lot of homework, sweetie? Mom? Mom? Mom, where are you? "My name is death.
Have you not heard of me? You may as well be mute" creepy, huh? Actually, conversations between death and his victims was a fairly popular literary and artistic theme throughout the renaissance.
Yeah, creepy.
He strikes during the day in upper-middle-class neighborhoods.
Extremely high-risk victims at a high-risk time.
He's confident in his ability.
Looks to be about a 5-square mile radius.
So he probably has a vehicle.
You wanna see that crime scene? It's still taped off.
The husband won't go back inside.
Let's go.
All right, so we need answers to these questions.
What does the evidence tell you about the sexual aspect? What kind of rapist is he independent of the homicides? I'm on it.
It looks like what he's written at the scenes are most of the first 3 verses of the same ballad.
Most of? It's only one part of the conversation.
There's no "betwixt".
Death speaks, but the lady never answers.
Maybe he feels like their bodies are answer enough.
Very nice.
This profiling really works? It's a tool.
You can tell all about a guy from looking at the scene.
Well, the scene's only part of it.
We also use victimology, precedent.
We can usually get a fairly clear picture of the guy.
Our guys went over it pretty well.
I'm sure they did.
Local officers aren't trained to look for the things we look for.
What's that? Hate, insecurity, fear, anger.
That's all at the scene? It's all in his behavior.
You know anything about our guy yet? Yeah.
He isn't gonna stop until he's caught.
You increased patrols in these neighborhoods when the pattern was identified? After the fourth victim.
Bosses cancelled days off, vacations.
Neighborhood full of cruisers, and he still struck 2 more times.
He blends.
Gideon.
There may have been another attempt 6 blocks from the station house.
Attempt? The husband interrupted, and the attacker got away but Elle and I are headed over there right now.
Well, we're already at the last crime scene.
Let us know if you identify a suspect.
Suspect? There might have been another attack not far from your station.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Where you going? Over there.
Well, units are already heading that way.
We can get more accomplished here.
You're kidding me, right? No.
If there's an arrest what we find here will help you prosecute.
The scene won't be pristine forever.
- Guys, knock yourselves out.
- Thank you.
Hey, wait a minute.
The unsub went through the back, right? The family room.
It's the window full of print dust.
Gideon, I'm going around the house.
Ok, not that easy to maneuver.
That means I'm a little bit athletic.
All right.
I messed with something in here.
Broken cappuccino machine.
Took the appliances, which are upstairs.
Why? Why would I take the time? Lucky woman.
You know what, she's probably not feeling so lucky right about now.
You're absolutely sure about that, Mr.
Gordon? He was black and 6 feet tall.
I watched him run out that back door.
Get a description out in the field A.
S.
A.
P.
Inter-racial serial sex crimes are rare.
Are they impossible? No.
Then what's your point? Only to provide you with information.
I'm gonna go talk to her.
May I ask why? She's surrounded by men.
Mrs.
Gordon? I'm Elle.
Would you like to go outside? It's all right.
We're just gonna go some place quiet.
Here's where I got the china.
The silver.
I didn't take it, I broke it.
Why wouldn't she hear me? Because I did it after.
"You may as well be mute.
There is no time at all for vain dispute your riches, gold, and garments, jewels bright your house and land must on new owners light.
" I really don't know that much about him.
Well, you don't have to.
Just take a little time to collect your thoughts to just sit here, breathe.
You don't want to ask me questions? Not until you're ready.
I'll be right behind that doorway.
I didn't even know he was in the house.
Is that common? Very.
She had a workout video on.
Step aerobics.
Step aerobics? With the platforms? Step up, step down, step up, step down? Where's the platform? He spent a lot of time here.
What, so he vacuumed? I mean, there's no marks from the platforms.
A lot of time.
The broken things.
She must have already been dead or incapacitated when he did that.
Cappuccino maker from the kitchen, dishes, vases, broken jewelry.
Symbols.
"Your riches, gold, garments, jewels bright.
Your house and land must on new owners light.
" Her riches.
Right.
Ever feel like there's something obvious right in front of you, you just can't see it? Yeah, usually right before a woman dumps me.
He slapped me from behind he pulled me down on the floor.
I tried to scratch him and bite him, but he was so strong.
And then my husband came home from work.
He screamed, and the man ran out the door.
He was a black man.
Bill was sure of it, but II only remember his eyes.
When we were fighting, I kept staring him right in the eyes.
I remember thinking, "if he's gonna kill me then he's gonna have to look at me while he does.
" And he just kept staring back at me through the ski mask.
A ski mask.
Yeah.
It's all right.
You did good.
The verses.
Found something? Not an answer, a question.
I found the full text.
He's pretty much following it to a t, at least the death side of the conversation.
But? Why didn't he leave them at the first 3 murders? I mean, this ballad is 10 verses long just on the death side.
He's got plenty to work with.
But if it's not part of his signature it isn't something that he has to do for an emotional reason then, I mean, why start? JJ, find out when the press ran the first story on this unsub.
When? After which victim.
Yeah, you got it.
What're you thinking? He wasn't getting enough attention.
The police department sometimes don't even realize they're looking at a pattern.
Yeah, until somebody tells 'em.
The first story ran the morning after the fourth victim was found.
The increased patrols didn't begin until after the fourth victim, either.
Yeah, the police didn't realize what was happening he writes his verse, and-- and everyone knows that he was there.
The offender in this new attempt is a black male.
Black male? That's cross racial.
That doesn't happen.
What about Herbert Mullin? He killed 14 different people of completely varying ages, races, and creeds.
But there was no sexual component to his crimes.
And he wore a ski mask.
This attacker wore a ski mask.
Tell 'em we're ready.
For a profile? We're gonna make Tommy contact us.
The unsub brought the weapons with him tape, glue, wire.
He did not leave them at the scene.
He took them when he left.
He has a kind of killing kit that he carries.
Organized killers usually have a skilled job, likely technology related which may involve the use of the hands.
The crime scenes are far enough apart that he needs a vehicle.
This will be well kept, obsessively clean, as will be his home.
He's diurnal, the attacks occurred during the day so the vehicle may be related to his work, possibly a company car or truck.
We believe he watches the victims for a time learns the rhythms of the home, knows his time frame.
You're not gonna catch him accidentally.
He destroys symbols of wealth in the victim's homes.
He harbors envy of and hatred toward people of a higher social class.
He feels invisible around them.
Class is the theme of the poem which he left at the various crime scenes.
At one point in the poem, the women attempts to bribe death but he doesn't accept it.
He says this is the one moment when riches mean nothing when death comes, the poor and the rich are exactly alike.
So he's poor.
Probably middle-class.
A decidedly lower-class person would stick out in a highly patrolled neighborhood.
This guy appears to belong there.
He blends in.
Why does he glue the eyes open? The unsub is an exploitative rapist.
Most rape victims close their eyes during the attack, turn their heads.
For some rapists, this ruins the fantasy.
For this type of rapist, the goal is more related to the victim watching him than the act itself.
The verses, the staging, the aggressive language, "I am death," this is a guy who, while being in control of the crime scene almost certainly feels inadequate in the rest of his life.
That's why he couldn't wait for you to figure out what he'd done.
Why he needed to make sure all his crimes were counted.
His victims, they represent whatever it is that's controlling him and he wants that control back.
He is under the thumb of a powerful woman who frightens him.
And a final point.
He is white.
We have witnesses that identify him as a black male.
The attacker was black.
He is not the Tommy killer.
Mrs.
Gordon's husband came home at the same time that he always does.
The Tommy killer would've known that.
And Mrs.
Gordon's attacker wore a ski mask.
The unsub knows when he walks into a house he's going to kill the woman who lives there.
If you're not leaving any witnesses, why wear a ski mask? And he wants the victim to see him anyway.
Your attempted rapist is a garden variety disorganized young man.
As the victim's age goes up, generally the attacker's age goes down.
Mrs.
Gordon is about 60, which puts her rapist at about 20.
And it takes years to develop the level of calm and sophistication that Tommy displays at a crime scene.
The rapist is far too young for that.
Mrs.
Gordon told me that there's a young man who delivers groceries to their home.
He fits a lot of what we're describing here.
Great.
So we're back to zero on Tommy.
Not at all.
May I see you in your office for a moment? You have a tip line for the public? Yes.
We have a technician at quantico who can tap into your phone system.
He's gonna call us? Well, he's gone out of his way to show you how scary he is.
And when the 11:00 news leads with the capture of a 6 foot tall black man in connection with his crimes he's gonna be furious.
Furious enough to call.
Later, man.
See ya.
FBI.
You're under arrest.
You're under arrest for the attempted rape of Marcia Gordon.
What?! The FBI's behavioral analysis unit was called in yesterday afternoon by the San Diego police department to assist in the ongoing Tommy killer investigation.
The unit is headed-- I can now announce that our office has assisted in making an arrest in connection with the investigation.
That's all I can say at this time.
He confessed to Mrs.
Gordon's attack before we even got to the car.
Thanks, Elle.
Should just make the 11:00 news.
Did they get good footage? Yeah, couldn't miss him.
Good.
Now we wait.
Contact Garcia.
Go for Mrs.
Penelope Garcia.
Ready with the trap and trace? Peaches, this is the office of unmitigated superiority.
I am always ready.
With the awesome power I have in this room all I need is 15 seconds on the phone to nail this skeevy perv.
If that.
I can now announce that our office has assisted in making an arrest in connection with the investigation.
That's really all I can say at this time.
Turn that damn television down! I'm sorry.
We're still waiting, Garcia.
God, I hate waiting like this.
Do you think it's weird that I knew that ballad? I don't know how it is that you know half the things you know but I'm glad you do.
Do you think it's why I can't get a date? You ever ask anyone out? No.
That's why you can't get a date.
Detective Martin.
Hey.
Hey.
Line 6, Penelope.
Line 6.
You stupid, incompetent sons of bitches! I don't make mistakes! I am death! You hear me?! I am death! You'll see now.
Tomorrow, mark my words, you will see.
And while I'm taking her, I'm gonna be thinking of you.
Anything? Are you kidding me? I don't know how this is possible because there was definitely enough time for me to get a location but I got nothing.
I got absolutely nothing.
Let me work on this.
She said she got nothing.
Nothing? We missed him? We have an undercover car for each of your teams and the entire damn department out there, too.
Remember, a truck.
Maybe a work truck in excellent condition.
Everyone knows.
All right, he might make a mistake today.
He's angry, and he probably hasn't done the kind of surveillance he'd like.
Yeah, well, neither have we.
Let's go, Reid.
I'll bring the car around.
We'll find him.
That's the last place he watched.
That house.
Morgan said the family hasn't moved back in.
Probably never will.
It's the eyes.
Excuse me? It's the eyes, Elle.
Just something not right about the eyes.
If you mean what he does to them, yeah, I agree.
No.
It's almost a classic move for an exploitative rapist to force a victim to watch.
But? We're missing something about it.
It's 10:30 already.
All he said was tomorrow.
He didn't specify morning.
Reid, this guy's gotta spend a lot of time in that house.
A lot.
He needs it to be morning.
Are we sure this is a good spot? It's the main artery through the neighborhood.
True, but 3 victims in the same block could mean he's done with the area.
Or that he's just really familiar with it.
And comfortable in it.
But then, on the other hand the other victims lived more than a mile in either direction.
Right.
God, I hate not having a plan.
We're looking for a needle in a haystack here.
Actually, it's more like we're looking for a needle in a pile of needles.
What? A needle would stand out in a haystack.
Ok.
And we're not looking for someone who stands out? No.
We're looking for a particular needle in a pile of needles.
Can I help you folks with something? FBI.
Oh, sorry.
After the fourth killing, P.
D.
Doubled the patrol in these neighborhoods, then double them again after the fifth and sixth.
Yet our unsub still watched the houses.
How could he not have been seen? Is that an oriole? No.
A black-headed grosbeak.
Grosbeak? Grosbeak, female.
Orson Welles said all the birds that belong to our sex have prettier feathers 'cause males have got to try to justify their existence.
We spend all our time screaming, "look at me.
Look at me.
" "Mommy, mommy.
Look at me.
" Yeah? Look at me.
Ok.
Garcia couldn't get a fix on the call because it was routed through 25 different substations.
He wanted them to see him.
We established that.
He's meticulous.
Nothing is an accident.
He vacuumed.
Seeing is about domination.
His creation.
He positioned everything exactly the way he wanted it.
And? If the eyes were so they could watch the attack why are they all facing away from it? In that position, they couldn't see him during.
He wanted them to see him afterward.
Office of unfettered omniscience.
Penelope Garcia is in.
Speak, oh fortunate one.
Garcia, it's Elle.
Could you get into the phone repair records in San Diego? Sunshine I can run centcom from here and still participate in simultaneous tetris tournaments.
I'm looking for repairmen cross-referenced with the murders in San Diego.
It could be as much as four or five days prior.
See if there are any common names.
Total cake.
Stay on the line.
What you got? He's a phone technician, Hotch.
Police are looking for someone walking around the neighborhood in broad daylight.
Who notices a phone guy up on a pole? He can watch for husbands leaving for work watch for police patrols, know when the neighborhood's quiet.
He knows when he'll have plenty of time.
He can even tap into a phone line to make sure someone's home.
How about routing a call through 25 substations? Backyard? Hey, he's just looking for a pole.
Got tape? Course he does.
Wire? He's a repairman.
Sounds right, Jason.
It is right, and we have his name.
There you go.
Oh, that's a good boy.
You want some juice, big boy? You want some juice? Ok.
Mommy.
Ooh, yes, I know.
We're gonna have some apple juice, pookie.
That's your favorite.
I know.
I know you love it.
FBI.
I need to know where one of your technicians is.
FBI? Where are your technicians? They're all out in the field.
Listen! I need Franklin Graney right now.
Now you'll lay down.
Please.
Please don't hurt me.
I have a baby.
Cooperate and you'll be all right.
Please.
Oh! Cooperate and you'll be all right.
He's on service calls in the area of Orange and Chandler.
Get a hold of Hotch.
Tell him to bring the team and any S.
D.
Cops he can round up.
This is his truck.
Fan out.
Go through yards.
Look at telephone poles.
He's around here.
Let me out.
Let me out.
Never acknowledge me.
Neverthink of me.
I'll shoot her.
No, you won't, Franklin.
Yes, I will.
If you hurt her, I'll kill you.
I'll just say we caught a low-life burglar.
You didn't turn out to be Tommy after all.
You will remain uncaught.
After a while, people will forget you.
You'll be nothing.
Once every 5 or 10 years, they'll do a TV show.
They'll ask, "what ever happened to that Tommy guy? Why'd he disappear?" Then they'll stop talking about it altogether.
Put the gun down.
Come on.
Walk outta here with me.
I'll make sure your face is splashed across every newspaper and TV in the country.
Tommy killer: Franklin Graney.
Everyone will see you then.
Bundy, Dahmer, Graney.
Whole world will know who you are.
It's up to you, Franklin.
You can be famous, or you can be invisible.
You'll tell everyone? I have a media specialist outside right now.
It is your choice.
Promise? Yes, sir.
I promise.
Back away from the gun.
Where's my baby? My baby! He's fine.
He's just fine.
You're ok.
Thank you.
It's ok.
It's ok.
Rose Kennedy once said, "birds sing after a storm.
"Why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?" Oh, I almost forgot.
I have something for you.
Oh, yeah? Forgot to give it to you at the party.
But you don't give birthday presents.
The "red.
skins.
" It's a V.
I.
P.
Box.
Thank you so much.
Every been to a pro football game? No, I honestly didn't even know this was football.
You're gonna love it.
We are.
You're coming with me, right? No.
Someone else on the plane is a huge skins fan.
Who? Only person in the world who calls you Spence.
JJ? She's a huge redskins fan.
Wh-what should I say? Checkmate.
Heard you're, uh, a fan of football.

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