Criminal Minds s05e13 Episode Script

* I have made you an * * enemy * * I have been my own * * enemy * * I am asking * * for you to forgive me * * for everything * * if you don't * * you're worthy of compassion * * if you do * * you're a better man than I am * * if you don't know * * you're my family * * enemy * * I'm sorry * * oh * Ok.
I'll see what I can do.
Thanks.
I'm not sure what we have here, But I just got a call and some case files From a sheriff samuel in uinta county, wyoming.
teens were found hanging Hanging? In their bedrooms.
Trish leake was dead when she was found.
Ryan krouse was revived on scene, but then died a few days later In the hospital.
I know we don't handle suicides.
But the previous Friday, two more boys A few towns over were found hanging On the backs of their doors.
same rural county in a week? That's, uh, way above the national average.
I know.
These kids don't fit the pattern.
No drug or alcohol abuse, no antidepressants, No prior arrests.
These are just plain good kids Who decided to hang themselves At approximately the same time on a Friday night.
When someone feels trapped In what feels like a hopeless situation, Pulling the trigger or swallowing pills or hanging yourself Seems like the only way out.
None of that seems to exist here.
Something's really wrong.
Hotch, I can feel it.
Look, all these events happened on a Friday.
It's Wednesday.
We're not on another case right now.
All right.
Generate an equivocal death investigation And get everybody on the jet.
We will determine whether these are homicides or suicides.
And even if they are suicides There's definitely something wrong here.
"life is a game.
Play it.
Life is too precious.
Do not destroy it.
" Mother teresa.
Sir, it's not that I'm not glad to be coming with you, Because I am.
I just don't understand the why.
One of the aspects Of an equivocal death investigation When suicide is a probability Is an indirect personality assessment.
Our victims are all internet generation kids.
There should be invaluable personal data On their computers to mine for the evaluation.
If they committed suicide, Evidence of it will probably in their cyber world.
So I'm gonna snoop through dead kids' computers? This plane seldom makes pleasure trips.
We've all been over the files.
Let's talk about victimology.
Ok.
All 4 kids were decent students, From different neighboring towns But the same school and the same county.
Active in sports and community.
Intact families, no mental disorders, No precipitating events.
These are just average good kids.
There has to be some underlying issue.
Besides relative proximity There's no obvious connection between any of them.
It seems to rule out an overt suicide pact.
The first few days leading up to a teenager's suicide Are usually very telling.
Their behavior is transparent.
There's a multitude of indicators.
Yeah, but the most common don't exist here.
There's no prior attempts, No period of deep depression, No withdrawal from family members, No spontaneous proclamations of love.
Spontaneous proclamations of love? Sometimes a suicidal person, In the days leading up to the act, Will just blurt out "I love you" to family, Sort of like a goodbye.
We'll start with the latest two victims.
If they were suicides, let's find out what drove them to it.
Hello.
Rhonda samuel.
Hi.
Agent jareau.
We spoke on the phone.
Thanks for coming out.
My county's getting pretty shook up.
I got this reporter won't stop calling.
I'm holding him off, but he's connecting the dots On the number of suicides.
Should I call him back? No, not just yet.
We need to be very careful About when we release this information.
Sensationalizing these deaths may cause a domino effect with other kids.
The term is suicide contagion.
The spread of suicidal thoughts Among a group of people That sometimes results in copycat acts.
It's especially prevalent in teen cases, And studies suggest that media coverage Is sometimes associated with more deaths.
Is there a good place for me to set up? Don't have much of a command center.
Oh, fret not.
I got my own command center.
I just need your juice.
You got it.
Hello, sir.
We're with the fbi behavioral analysis unit.
She was so excited about graduating high school next year.
She couldn't wait for her sats.
Was trish dating anybody? No.
Billy sullivan.
Yes.
It that who she's-- What is it, mr.
Leake? She ran up over $100 texting last month.
And, we, um, we grounded her and we took away her cell.
Not we.
Me.
I did that.
Why didn't you tell me she had a boyfriend? Because you would have freaked out.
No, I wouldn't.
You are right now.
Not because she had a boyfriend, Because I may have caused-- Mr.
Leake, if your daughter committed suicide, It wouldn't have been because of some punishment.
It's so much more complicated than that.
If? Excuse me? You said "if" she committed suicide.
Would you mind showing us trish's room? Um Yeah.
Sure.
It's this way.
I knew he didn't kill himself.
He wouldn't do that to us.
I'm sorry? Uh, that's, uh, that's why you're here.
The fbi wouldn't be investigating A suicide, right? That's not exactly true.
Uh, sometimes we do what's called An equivocal death investigation To try to figure out the manner of death.
It may turn out that-- Our investigation will try and sort it all out for you.
I'm sorry.
She certainly was accomplished.
There's nothing unusual in her diary-- No fury, no angst.
Do you really have to go through all her personal stuff? She was such a private girl.
We are terribly sorry to have to do this.
We care about trish, And we want to make sure this doesn't happen to anybody else's daughter.
Mr.
And mrs.
Leake, There's a form I need you both to fill out.
Can you come with me? If you need anything Thank you.
Those poor people.
I just hope we haven't made it worse for them.
Could we? Are you sure I can't get anyone something to drink? Yes, ma'am, thank you.
Well, if you change your mind Do you think someone killed her? Ma'am Sharon Why would you say "if" she committed suicide? Ma'am, I-- I mean, why would she say that If she didn't think-- if she thought-- Why would you say that? Well, personal touches show she was comfortable here.
Sat prep books, college brochures.
She's a low suicide risk if I ever saw one.
Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious Trish had everything to live for.
Maybe garcia will find something on the laptop That we're not seeing here.
Ok.
There's no secret hiding places.
Or drug paraphernalia.
Is this ryan's girlfriend? Uh, shaunna.
They seemed really good together.
Did he ever date trish leake? I never heard of trish leake UntilWhen we met her parents At the hospital, uh, Friday.
Seems like he got pretty good grades.
And this letter from the football coach? Uh, coach barswell wanted him to Be in varsity next year.
Quarterback.
Uh, where is ryan's computer? Um, we have--we have one in the family room.
He didn't have his own? Uh We were worried about, uh, Unsupervised online time, So we wanted him in the middle of everyone.
I can--I can go show you.
Actually, if you just get us the, uh, Network ip address, I believe our technical analyst Can go over it off site.
If it helps prove that ryan didn't kill himself, You can have anything you need.
Hey, you ready to delve into trish leake's online world? If by ready you mean extremely capable and even more reluctant.
Yeah, something like that.
How are the leakes holding out? Oh, probably as well as can be expected.
Yeah.
They're strong people.
Good.
Well, that's weird.
There's nothing here.
What? Nothing useful? Nothing at all.
Look, there's no root directory, There's no operating system.
The registry appears to be blank.
But why would she have an empty computer set up? I did not say empty, I said appears to be blank.
Meaning? I'm gonna need a little while.
Jj.
I know.
I know.
I never should have said "if.
" Believe me, the last thing I want Is to make things worse for these families.
Look, I'm not invested in these not being suicides.
I justWant to try and keep this Friday from being like the last two.
I got it! It was--it was just a basic trojan horse.
It just hid the directories, didn't erase them.
Oh, god.
What is it? She was on a choking game site the night she died.
A what? Uh, it's a game kids play where they choke themselves to get a buzz, to get high.
They call it the good kids' high.
You get lightheaded And a sense of euphoria even though no actual drugs are involved.
It's something kids in high school play.
Did ryan have a computer? Not in his room.
Yeah, he did.
What about a gaming system? Teenagers will find a way to get online.
I have the, uh, ip address.
Oh.
That will help.
Bingo.
Ryan was on the same site on the same night.
It wasn't suicide.
Hang on, this is a text to voice icon.
Let's see what happens.
Computer voice: Come on, try it.
We all do it.
I dare you.
I dare you? Someone was orchestrating this, Purposely getting the kids to choke themselves.
Computer voice: Make sure you close the door.
Tomorrow's the big night.
We're all gonna play the game.
There's a whole subculture around this game.
They make up names for it, they do it at parties.
But someone is daring these kids in this area To play the game.
It's a contest.
And there are rules.
Come on, evans high, this is the big one.
Garfield edged out casper high last week.
You gonna let them diss us? Diss--sounds like a kid.
Who else would pit schools against each other? Reckless teenage competition.
The school that logs the most high time this Friday wins.
Friday, tomorrow.
Get your friends on board.
Practice makes the high last longer.
Gotta do it alone and video it with your webcam And upload it to the site for it to count.
Doing it alone requires ligatures.
He's basically encouraging them to play the deadliest form of the game With no one there to revive them.
Garcia, shut the site down.
Sir, I can totally do that, But I don't think you want me to.
Why? Right now this site is our only way to track the unsub, And if I cut into it, he will certainly know we're watching him, In which case he'll shut it down And he'll write a simple change in code, bring it back up In a more covert fashion.
Plus there's no telling How many servers it's replicated on, anyway.
You're right.
We're ready to give the profile.
We believe the unsub responsible for these deaths May be a teenager.
He's a loner.
He doesn't participate in team sports Or group activities.
He's withdrawn, very low self-esteem.
His only form of pure interaction is online.
He engages in activity that draws attention to himself Yet isolates him from his peers.
Parents and teachers should watch out for the warning signs-- Kids with bloodshot eyes, Marks on their necks, Severe headaches, disorientation.
In real life, he considers himself a loser.
In cyberspace, he can pull strings.
Makes him feel powerful.
Does this kid know that other kids are dying because of him? He's choking himself and daring others to do it, So we're most likely looking at reckless homicides here.
It you see anything that's unusual or suspicious, Just call the sheriff's department And we will try to direct you as best we can.
Thank you.
Well, we've told as many parents as we could.
Do you think it helped? Not as much as getting through to the kids will.
Two different mechanisms, Strangulation and hyperventilation, Create the same effec t- oxygen deprivation in the brain.
Um Hey, kid.
Not a good idea.
Let me see it.
"what planet is this dude from?" "he doesn't want us to win the contest.
" UmI--uh--uh-- I think the more accurate statement Would be, "he doesn't want us to participate in the contest at all.
" This was ryan's desk, right? This is where ryan sat? You guys remember ryan.
He, uh, played football.
Took--took shaunna to prom.
I'm assuming that some of you Were probably even friends with ryan.
Ryan wanted to win the contest, too, But the way ryan choked himself, He cut off all the oxygen to his brain, Which sent a distress signal to his heart, Slowing it down.
Then his brain, in an effort to preserve itself, Shut off all no n-essential bodily functions.
His arms gave out.
His legs gave out.
Which means he couldn't loosen the tie around his neck, At which point panic set in, And in ryan's case, it escalated to cardiac arrest.
Which means that his heart stopped.
Brain damage began, And within 4 minutes, He is completely and totally brain dead.
He died scared and probably in a lot of pain And unable to stop what he thought he had complete control of.
All because he wanted to participate In what I consider to be a prett y- -pretty lame game.
So, I mean, your text is actually completely accurate.
I don't want you to win the contest, Because I don't want you to play the game.
You all believe this crap? You don't? Why don't you come up here and tell us what you think.
Whatever.
Hey.
Hey! Hey! Hey, come here! Come here! Kid, stop! Uhh! Uhh! You all right? Let me go! Just relax.
Let me go! Then stop fighting.
Stop fighting.
Stop it.
Let me go.
It's all right.
You ok? Yeah.
I'm fine.
Why'd you run? Morgan, look at his neck.
Let me look at your neck.
Don't touch that! Hey, what'd I say? Relax.
Different colors mean different stages of healing.
You've been doing this to yourself for a long time, haven't you? There's no telling how much his brain has suffered.
Dr.
Reid.
You think it's him? He's a pretty likely candidate.
Woman on pa: Dr.
Spire to er.
I'm wilson summers.
The school called and said my son was injured.
Will.
You know him? Professionally.
He works for the fire department.
Sheriff.
This is dr.
Reid.
Ahh.
Is my son all right, doctor? Actually, um, I'm not that type of doctor.
I'm with the fbi.
Fbi? Your son christopher has been choking himself.
I don't understand.
You know the kids that have died recently? The suicides.
They may not be suicides.
It's a game that kids his age tend to play Where they force themselves to pass out For the, uh, the buzz that it gives them.
How long has christopher been dressing in the gothic fashion? The black nails and the eyes and A while.
He's been having a rough time.
Why's that? His mother died a few years ago, And he's been wearing black ever since.
Does christopher spend a lot of time on the computer? just every waking Why? We think your son may have created a website Encouraging kids to compete in this choking contest.
What are you saying? Dad.
Hey, buddy.
Take him inside.
Your son needs to go in for some tests.
Will.
When he's done, We're gonna need to talk to him down in my office.
there hasn't been Any activity all night.
It's not Friday yet.
I appreciate you letting us take a look at his computer.
You're making a mistake, rhonda.
Chris is a good kid.
I really hope that's true.
Here it is.
Well, if this all works out, I promise I'll give it back to him as soon as possible.
Christopher, we know you've been Going through a lot since your mother died.
When bad things happen to us, We get frustrated, kid.
Sometimes we act out And we do things we're not proud of.
He's not very engaged.
Give them some time.
Well, it's almost Friday.
We don't have any time.
Well, as long as he's here, he can't post Anything new to his website.
True, but the kids are still gonna play the game.
Here's the full background you wanted.
Thank you.
No wonder he's a loner.
They've moved 3 times since his mother died.
Cut off his peer support.
That is a lot of adjustment for a kid to have to make.
I want you to know that we're going to be Confiscating your computer.
Our analyst is going through all of it.
So that we can uncover the truth.
Sure you will.
Truth.
He doesn't seem worried about us finding anything.
They aren't building any rapport.
They're back.
Mary, this christopher kid is fantastical.
He's got a segmented hard drive, Serious firewalls, major league encryption.
No reason for all that unless he's hiding something serious.
Ok, so that's why he isn't worried.
This is--uhh! Unusual.
Every attack I launch is shot down immediately.
What's that? Somebody just uploaded a new video to the game site.
It's 12:01.
It's Friday.
They're playing.
It's only a matter of time before some of them go wrong.
Guys, I'm gonna keep dead-ending on this Until I get a beat on how he set up his security system.
Hope you got a plan "b.
" Garcia, I think that this kid will relate to you better than anybody else.
I want you to talk to him, see if you can get him to open up.
Um.
Sir, I have never done that before.
What if I mess up? You'll be fine.
Hi there.
I'm penelope.
Good for you.
Can I sit down? You're the cop.
Um, I look like a cop to you? Yeah.
What, you aren't? No.
Fbi tech analyst.
I just have some administrative cyber crud To go over with you.
Just a geekette.
Cool.
You are glum.
Time is a great healer.
You have no idea how I feel.
I lost my mom and my dad when I was about your age, though.
I don't know.
I think I have a pretty good idea.
And I felt totally alone.
Till I found netizens.
Btdt.
Hey, I'm I'm not lying.
It'll totally get better.
Btw, I like your nails.
Thanks.
You into goth? You know, I don't think I'm supposed to be anymore, But the love is still there.
So you're fbi? Yeah, I know.
It's crazy, but I love it.
I enjoy your earring, too.
Where did you score that? Ebay.
It's supposed to be johnny d.
's From that pirate movie.
Most awesome.
She's good.
Established rapport when morgan and reid couldn't.
We should bring her out all the time.
Ok, your whole pgp disc encryption system Is like crazy impressive.
Yeah, I'm into that kind of stuff.
Stuff? Dude, you do not understand.
I am jealous.
That is state-of-the-art technology The feeb does not have.
Whatever.
Ok.
How did you get your anonymizing service? I got it from some link from some dude online.
What do you care? I just think it's uber cool how you set your whole system up.
Like how you use an e-shredder To obliterate your net activity And a window wiper as your secondary trash eraser.
Who does that? Everybody does that.
The interview's over.
Interview? I was just-- his father invoked.
Dad.
I'm getting you a lawyer.
I screwed up and failed you when your mother died.
Not this time.
Unless you people have something to charge him with.
We're leaving.
Syl, miss p.
By the way, I do miss my mom.
She's not your friend.
She was trying to trick you.
Sir, I'm sorry, I tried.
If he invokes, he invokes.
Concentrate on cracking the encryption.
Yeah.
Judging by sheer volume, Christopher's mother was sick quite a bit.
His father brought her into the er repeatedly.
She's described as being violently ill each time.
A couple of days in the icu, miraculous recovery, Only to be repeated time and again.
No diagnosis, no discernable cause.
There's another video going up.
That's 4 kids playing in half an hour.
How many kids go to this school? Its catchment is the whole county.
It's almost 2,000.
Garcia, we really need to gain administrative access to the website.
I've written down a number of things Christopher may have used as the password.
I've already eliminated birthdays, holidays, Pet names, and pop culture icons.
No, there was something pathetic about him, Not criminal.
When he was leaving, he said he misses his mom.
What's his mother's name? Cynthia summers.
That's it.
All right, log in as administrator, shut down the main source.
Already on it, my friend.
Kids are still posting videos through independent servers.
Pull up the website history.
See if you can learn anything from historical posts.
Christopher's er eval shows his bruises Were caused by manual and ligature strangulation over time.
Take a look at this.
He's also shown To have layered bruising on his sternum.
It looks like a cpr artifact.
But there's no record of resuscitations.
Wait, all these transmissions Are transcripts of the same administrator? Yeah, there's only one handle.
This is weird.
In the posts his voice changes.
At times he's using more articles, more precise verbiage, Like he's trying to throw us off.
That's pretty sophisticated behavior for a kid.
A writer can disguise his own writing style To make himself appear younger or less educated.
Yeah, but it's virtually impossible To pull off making yourself appear older And more educated than you actually are.
There are actually 2 distinct writing style.
One teen and one adult.
Christopher was being manipulated by an adult.
The mother's death is a textbook case Of munchausen by proxy.
Surreptitious poisoning.
The kid has been choked and revived on multiple occasions.
You said the father worked for the fire department, right? Yeah, for a couple of months now.
In what capacity? As an emt.
Emt.
That's our unsub.
Christopher didn't even understand The wiping systems on his computer.
So the father poses as a classmate And invites local kids to join the game.
Bumps up the stakes and encourages them To use their riskiest methods.
He works on Friday nights.
Which means he gets called out to do the rescues.
He's not just collecting video tapes.
His munchausen has evolved.
I'll put out an apb for his truck.
He'll find a place to download the video tapes.
They're his trophies.
After that, he'll clean up his mess.
Christopher's the only witness against him.
Clear.
Clear! You need to see this.
There's dozens of discs here.
I was right here.
I never even looked around.
Well, we only had consent for the laptop, And he knew it was encrypted.
We didn't have probable cause for a warrant.
Mr.
Summers didn't have a chance to come back and get his trophies.
He'll definitely try to download the videos tonight.
This kid was doing everything he could just to survive.
The extreme abuse conditioned him to shield his father.
When his father came in the room, he seemed genuinely relieved.
His burden had been lifted.
He was elated when his father rescued him.
We need to rethink everything.
Where are we going? To see your mom.
Now, let's focus on the behavior.
What's the pattern? Things boil over, the father moves on.
New town, new sadistic m.
O.
Christopher knows his father's pattern.
So that we can uncover the truth.
sure you will.
Truth.
In his mind, it will never end.
Unless christopher's decided to end it.
Garcia? Yes, sir? When you were talking to christopher, Did he say anything to you to suggest that he was giving up? Giving up? Was he trying to say good-bye? I don't understand.
Did he give you anything? Yeah.
How did you know that? What did he give you? When--when we were talking, He gave me this pirate's earring.
He's made up his mind.
Suicide-- The only victory over his sadistic father.
He may also see it as reuniting with his mother.
The father's going to want to download Those videos from somewhere, garcia And we got to stop that process.
I'm already on that.
I replaced the website with a phishing site.
I'm downloading it to the servers now.
When he logs onto that website, He's going to be rerouted to our server, And we can capture his information.
Stay on that site, garcia.
Yeah.
Let's go.
Come on.
It will buy us some time.
Where are they headed? Wait.
What about the mother? It's all about the mother.
Garcia, where is cynthia summers buried? Give me a second.
You know, for christopher, A cemetery would be a place of refuge, But for the father He's revisiting a body disposal site.
Oaklawn cemetery, halfway between here and glenrock.
Ok.
He would willingly go there with his father.
Well, the father still needs to download the videos.
And he might need a power source.
There's a chapel.
They use it for burials.
Let's go.
Garcia, we'll call you from the car.
You know the drill.
This won't take long.
That's his suv.
yeah, garcia? Sir, mr.
Summers just logged on.
He's caught in the phishing site.
Is he downloading the videos? He's trying to, but all he's going to get is snow.
Oh, come on.
I don't want to die.
I decide when you die.
Fbi! You guys good? Well, I can't tell you how much I appreciate y'all coming out here.
I'm just glad it ended up ok.
Oh, come on.
Smal l-time county sheriff calls the fbi About potential suicides, and you drop what you're doing And you come here? We're an asset for all levels of law enforcement.
It's what we do.
Well, it's incredible.
Thank you.
Would you like to come with us? We're going to tell the parents what really happened.
Uh, no.
We need to be getting back.
You sure? I mean, I know it won't bring them back, But I would think that knowing that it wasn't intentional Might bring some level of comfort.
It will, definitely.
You go ahead.
Good luck, sheriff.
Well, thank you.
What is that? It's called a star puzzle.
It's basically impossible to figure out.
You have to put all of the pieces back together to form a perfect star.
But the origin of it is, um, kind of a romantic tale.
There was this young prince Who wanted to win the heart Of the fairest maiden in the land, So he climbed to the top of the tallest tower in the kingdom, And he caught a falling star for her.
Unfortunately, he was so excited, he dropped it, And it smashed into all of these pieces, So he frantically put it back together again To prove his undying love to her, And he succeeded, and they lived happily ever after.
That doesn't make any sense.
What do you mean? You can't catch a falling star.
It would burn up in the atmosphere.
Yeah, but it's not literal, reid.
It's a fable.
But there's no moral.
Fables have morals.
Ok.
So it's just a romantic little story.
And the point is, it's basically impossible to do Because you have to take all of those pieces And put them together exactly There's a lot to hate about you, dr.
Reid.
Play poker with him sometime.
Try playing chess with him.
Or go.
Hey.
Hey.
Coffee? Thanks.
I just wanted to say thank you.
If you hadn't pushed it, we would never have gone.
Hotch J.
J.
, You don't have to.
My sister gave this to me When I was 11.
She just came into my bedroom one afternoon And told me that no matter what happened, She loved me.
This was her favorite necklace, So I told her I couldn't take it, But she insisted.
I, of course, was secretly very happy, 'cause I always wanted one just like hers.
That's the last time-- I never I'm sorry.
I think about her every day.
It does get better, hotch.
Losing someone is Never easy.
But one day, You'll remember her, and it won't hurt.
You'll be happy.
Thank you.
Thank you for everything.
"experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn.
My god, do you learn.
" c.
S.
Lewis.