Criminal Minds s06e01 Episode Script

Previously on Criminal Minds The press has named him the Prince of Darkness.
The dark is his signature, and we'll find that he's always killed this way.
He shows up during a blackout, he robs, he kills, he leaves a witness.
He got away with it for 26 years.
Why did he come back? Joe and Sylvia Spicer were killed.
Those are my parents.
Why is he doing this? He keeps a survivor so they'll never forget him, but with you it goes beyond that.
He believes he turned you into the city's hero.
And he wants that recognition.
He wants everyone to know what he's done.
Is that your daughter? Where is she? She's with my sister.
That's Morgan on the other line.
We're gonna meet him at Kristin's house.
Let's get over there.
This is about you.
There's no history at your sister's place.
He probably took them to Santa Monica to your old house.
It's only a matter of time before the cell phone reception goes.
We lost Morgan.
Reid? Great.
Put the gun down, or she dies.
- No, pick it up! - On your knees.
Don't do it! It's my Don't do it! Don't! No! What is wrong with you? No! No! We will find you, you sick son of a bitch.
Is that another promise? Please, please.
Ellie, I will find you! ## # I went down to the place # # Where I knew she lay waiting # # Under the marble and the snow # # I said, "Mother, I'm frightened # # "The thunder and the lightning # # I'll never come through this alone" # # She said, "I'll be with you # # "My shawl wrapped around you # # My hand on your head when you go" # # And the night came on # # It was very calm # # I wanted the night to go on # This is what you're all afraid of.
The power grid has overloaded and gone completely down, plunging Los Angeles County into near-total darkness.
City officials are unable or unwilling to speculate on when the lights might be back on.
Between the blackout and the Prince of Darkness running around out there, they advise locking doors tight and staying very alert.
As one official said off the record, it's going to be a long, long night.
Help me! Let me in, please! He's coming! Please, please, let me in! - Let me in! - Stop! - She's a child.
- Let me in! Okay, I'll call Look, I'll call the police, okay? - There's no time! - Do not let her in the house.
Spicer's sister's not in her apartment.
The building manager said she left hours ago.
Morgan and Spicer? No one's been in or out since the power went down.
Morgan said they were coming here, right? And he was a lot closer than any of us.
Something must have changed.
The cells are down.
Now how the hell do we find them? What would cause Morgan to change his mind like that when he knows he can't tell us? The unsub had Spicer's sister and daughter.
Morgan knew he didn't have a lot of time.
So his first guess had to be right.
The unsub attacked Spicer specifically through his family.
How long has Spicer's sister lived here? Six, seven months.
That's why they didn't come here.
If the unsub wants to hurt Spicer, he'll do it someplace that means something to him.
Morgan must have realized the same thing.
The unsub and Spicer do share one place in common.
- Santa Monica.
- Where he killed his parents.
Let's go.
This is Kurzbard in Major Crimes.
I need a priority response.
Kristin.
Kristin.
Kristin.
Ohh Kristin.
It's getting harder to breathe.
Just try to slow your breathing.
Just slow everything down.
We have to get her back.
She's just a baby.
Look at me.
Kristin, look at me.
I need you to tell me everything that you remember about the guy who took Ellie.
I don't want to remember.
I know.
Kristin, I know you don't, but right now I really need you to try.
Ellie needs it.
My team is going to find us.
They're gonna go to your apartment where we said we were going.
When they see that we're not there, they're gonna figure out where we are the same way I did.
And when they do, we will bring Ellie home, but in order to do that, I need you to think.
Is Matt Is he dead? Kristin, please, just try to focus on remembering.
Okay.
This guy has been traveling all over the country.
How? How did he bring you here? In an RV.
An old, filthy RV.
Hungry? Ellie? Don't worry.
You'll get used to it.
You let me get away on purpose, didn't you? So that they'd open their door.
We're gonna make a great team.
Spicer? Kurz, we got here as fast as we could.
What about Kristin? She was beaten and sexually assaulted.
She's out in the ambulance.
And you already know the bad guy took Ellie with him.
One more thing there was another couple murdered a mile from here an hour ago.
We've got a team there, but we're pretty sure it was the same guy.
Where's Matt? Ah! Damn it.
Just put a bandage on it and leave me alone.
How is he? It's nothing, Hotch.
He needs a CAT scan, stitches, and a lot of rest.
She's right, Morgan.
Guys, I'm not going to any hospital until we find that little girl.
Now, please, just put a bandage on it.
Morgan, what's the notebook? I asked the sister to tell me everything she could remember about the unsub.
And what's her condition? It's bad.
I'll go check on her.
Hold on a second, fellas.
Kristin, I'm Agent Prentiss.
I work with Agent Morgan.
Is it okay if I ride along with you? If you're coming, we need to go now.
Thank you.
Okay, we're good.
How many cops are there in L.
A? City or County? You actually know the answer? I know both answers.
It's white and extremely dirty.
A very old RV.
With a male white in his 50s, accompanied by an 8-year-old girl.
Derek.
I'm all right.
You don't look all right.
- Reid, drop it.
- Sorry.
The local bureau office found us these satellite phones.
It should bypass any outage problems on the ground.
- Good.
- Any word on Ellie? - I was just - It's not you.
Between the blackout and the Prince of Darkness running around out there, they advise locking doors I forgot something.
Put the mask back on.
- I forgot the radio.
- What? He listens to his car radio constantly.
The news.
He would stop whenever he would hear something about him - The radio He listens - Okay, I got it.
- Put the mask on.
- He listens to the radio.
Something else.
The other agent you have to tell him.
I made him promise Garcia.
Baby boy, you all good? Listen, I need you to run something for me.
You really had us worried.
And by us, I mean me.
- I didn't know where you were - Now, Garcia.
Okay.
I'm looking for an old RV.
Partial California plates Michael-David-3.
That's all she was able to get.
The victim thinks it may have been the first three letters of the plate, but she's not sure.
Yes, sir.
Call me back on this number as soon as you get a bite.
You know, she really needs to be more professional sometimes.
She gets the job done every time.
I told him, Hotch.
I told him that we should wait for backup, but he wouldn't listen to me.
We split up, and he headed around back before I could stop him.
Morgan, sometimes, when it comes to family, common sense and procedure go out the window.
You do the best you can.
This unsub raped the aunt and then beat her for no reason.
She didn't resist, man, and he still pistol-whipped her until her ribs were crushed.
He killed Spicer while he was on his knees.
He was unarmed.
This guy's a pure psychopath.
- I want this guy.
- We'll get him.
Well, we better do it fast.
Taking Ellie was like a game to him.
The sick bastard thought it was funny.
He's gonna get pissed off at her, man.
She's nothing but a little girl.
She's gonna show him fear.
And when she does he's gonna kill her.
new permits, which provide a sense of future home construction, fell 3.
1%, from 565,000 We're not a team.
You got us in.
We did it together.
But I I didn't know.
And if I didn't know, we aren't a team.
Yet.
Why do you have to kill people? My dad says people who hurt other people are cowards, that they never hurt someone who can protect themselves.
So how would he explain what happened to him tonight? He let you go so that you wouldn't hurt me.
That doesn't make you brave.
He let me go? To save me.
You're really not like him at all.
Get back.
law enforcement officers than at any time since 9/11 Come here.
Come here! Should we kill him? What? No! You see, Ellie? We are a team.
You just decided to let that man live.
Except the question isn't why do I kill people.
The question is why I don't kill everybody.
I decide who dies, but mostly, I decide who lives.
I'm like God.
And now you are, too.
from L.
A.
Police.
They're now saying that the Prince of Darkness may be in an older white RV making its way around Los Angeles tonight.
Police are advising that anyone seeing a dirty, poorly maintained white RV contact them immediately, and do not, under any circumstances Uh-oh.
Approach it.
What are you doing? Even a god finds that sometimes people just have bad luck.
Calling someone? Just calling AAA.
I got a flat.
Just, uh, trying to get it fixed.
No! No! No! Ohh! Police are also saying that the Prince of Darkness may now be traveling with a young girl, an 8-year-old girl, as a hostage.
She's described as having long brown hair.
Police ask that you notify authorities immediately if you spot her.
All right, what we have is an unsub in complete behavioral chaos.
Meaning? Serial offenders, especially long-term successful ones, don't just suddenly change what they do or how they do it.
Going after a high-risk target like a police detective and then all of a sudden abducting a child is fairly unheard of.
- Fairly? - Sometimes they devolve as they know we're getting closer to them and their time's running out.
But this unsub doesn't appear to be devolving.
Devolution generally means loss of control.
They find it harder and harder to keep the outside world from noticing them.
If anything, he's becoming more controlled.
He spent a lifetime murdering seemingly random victims, then out of nowhere sought out Spicer, recreated his parents' murder, lured him into a trap, killed him, and took his daughter.
The behavioral spectrum is alarmingly different.
Yeah, Garcia.
Hi.
I want to have better news, mon ami, but there are zero RVs in the state of California with MD3 in that order on the plate.
- I'm sorry.
- Sorry's not helping anybody.
I need results.
Garcia's got nothing on the partial plate.
Maybe Kristin's wrong.
It's not surprising, considering her situation at the time.
So how the hell are we supposed to find this guy? We can contact him.
## # Dance me to your beauty # # With a burned violin # # Dance me through the panic # # Till I'm gathered safely in # # Lift me like an olive branch # # Be my homeward dove # # Yeah, dance me # # To the end of love # # La la # # La la la la la la # lasers and other technology so sophisticated, images will depict individual telephone poles and boulders.
Images will help determine erosion and sea-level changes and also provide critical information from flood Kristin remembered in the ambulance that the unsub listens to news radio incessantly.
He would even stop assaulting her if the broadcaster said anything about the Prince of Darkness.
Makes sense for a narcissist.
- Oh, no.
- What is it? The LAPD just put all the information they have out to the press.
- What do you mean? - A spokesperson at the crime scene was talking about the RV and about Ellie.
So this guy knows exactly what we know.
That might force him to dump the RV.
Or kill No.
I don't think so.
Why not, Rossi? He could have killed you and the sister.
He didn't.
He kept you alive.
He can't be surprised that we know what he's driving and that he has a hostage.
But how many news radio stations are there in Los Angeles? I don't know, 20 or so.
We can't just guess which one he listens to.
What about the emergency alert system? It would be a way to communicate over all the stations simultaneously.
How do we do that? I don't really know.
How hard could it be to work out? Is this your son's bicycle? What the hell? I I may have run it over.
What'd you do, back over it again? Actually, twice.
Honey? What was that? Ellie.
Paul? You see, Ellie? Bicycles mean kids, and kids mean parents who are easy to control.
So go get the boy.
Bring him to the parents' room.
- Paul! - What are you gonna do? I have a widow to comfort.
Go on.
I am acutely aware that this is an unusual request.
It's an unusual situation.
Then I need to speak to your boss.
No, I'm not calling back.
Transfer me.
Uh, yes, who who is this? Uh, and what's your title, sir? Okay, uh, I'm agent Jennifer Jareau, the communications liaison for the FBI's behavioral analysis unit.
I need access to the emergency alert system in Los Angeles, and I was directed to your office.
Yeah, the emergency alert system.
Get the boy in the closet.
- What? - Do it! Now! It'll be okay, I promise.
Don't close the door all the way.
What are you doing? I got the boy, and I got the clothes.
So? So you said if I did what you told me, then you'd let them live.
Ellie, go in the bathroom and close the door.
Damn it! He has a brother.
I told him to tell the neighbors to call the police and then tell the next house and the next house and the next house.
You know, he's probably told the whole block by now.
Can't kill them all, can you? I can try.
Come on.
Kristin wanted me to tell you she's sorry she made you promise her brother.
She said it wasn't fair.
You want to tell me what she made you promise? That I wouldn't let anything happen to Ellie.
Well, she's right.
That's not fair.
How is anything we handle out here fair? Every time they put me on hold, I get one layer higher at Homeland Security.
The EAS is coordinated by the FCC, FEMA, and the National Weather Service.
It's a bureaucratic pile of steaming - Ma'am? - Yes.
- Thank you for holding.
- Yes, um, I'm with the FBI.
We're here in Los Angeles.
A boy just woke up his neighbors.
He said he escaped from the Prince of Darkness.
What? He said they're still in his house right now.
- They? - There's a girl with him.
- Let me know.
- Yeah.
- Across the street? - No, look.
I see him now.
There he is! That's him! Get in there.
The keys.
Always by the door.
Come on.
Go on.
Go on! Get in the car! Go on! What's the matter? Scared? Shut up.
Come on out! The neighbors all banded together and came after him, but he was already in the car.
Ballsy neighbors.
California has its moments.
First units all got here within four minutes of the call.
Local watch commander locked down a 5-square-mile grid, and there's an APB on the car.
We believe they never made it out of the area.
Tell your officers not to approach him if they spot him.
He's getting desperate.
Won't be easy with a cop-killer.
Then you'd better ask them how they feel about getting that cop's daughter killed.
He cut her hair.
I swear to God, when I get my hands on this son of a That actually might be good.
Why disguise someone you're gonna kill? Here's how he stays awake all night.
Look at this article on Spicer.
We already know he's obsessed with all the attention Spicer was getting.
Yeah, but look what's underlined three times.
"8-year-old Ellie, a bright, happy child.
" This one's just special.
"I don't normally take to kids, but this one's just special.
" - What? - That's what he said back at the house.
Ellie was his target all along, not Spicer.
Yes.
Yes, I'm still here.
Yep, I'm always gonna be here.
Okay.
My name is Jennifer No.
You know what? I'm not going to explain this entire thing again to another mid-level bureaucrat who can't give me a sufficient answer.
Put someone on the damn phone who can authorize what I need.
He wasn't after Spicer.
We were just coming to the same conclusion.
It doesn't make sense he hasn't killed the girl if she wasn't what he was after.
He disguised her to keep her.
Look at this.
There's a stack of them in the RV.
Reid's reading them all right now.
So we profiled his obsession with Spicer was over not getting credit for his law enforcement career.
But maybe it's the daughter he's not getting credit for.
He thinks he's responsible for her.
Well, she wouldn't even be here if he hadn't allowed Spicer to live 25 years ago.
A bastardized version of a grandparent.
That's a pretty twisted delusion.
Well, it only has to make sense to him.
And when a delusion like that crashes, it crashes hard.
Hey, guys.
The murders we found in Orange County in 1985, they might not have been his first.
Why did you do this? - We were gonna be a - I told you.
We're not a team.
Not a team? We were going to I was nice to you.
The lights are back on, just in time for morning, of course.
In other news, the noose is getting tighter around the Prince of Darkness, as the LAPD believe they've narrowed down the area of the city he's in.
Yes.
I'm Yes, ma'am.
Uh, yes, Madam Secretary.
I'm so sorry to bother you this early, but it's very Oh, you have.
Fully briefed, great.
Um Yeah, of course.
I'm writing down the number right now.
Great.
Thank you so much, Madam Secretary.
Yeah, yeah, I will let you know how it goes.
Great.
Thank you.
Hotchner.
We have access to the local Emergency Alert System.
The Secretary personally set it up herself.
It's in the city command center.
Good.
Get an LAPD unit to take you over there, get the system up and running, and I need you to start talking to him immediately.
Excuse me? It's gonna take me too long to get there from here.
I need you to talk to him, JJ.
- Me.
- I'll give you some strategies.
The unsub may still be in this area, and if he surfaces, we need to be close.
I'm not a hostage negotiator.
I'm sorry.
You are today.
Dr.
Reid, you're on your own cellular.
Yeah.
The power came on back here a few minutes ago.
How's my main man doing? On the completely safe assumption that you're not talking about me, let's just say I wouldn't want to be this unsub when Morgan finally gets his hands on him.
That bad, huh? Has he ever yelled at you before? Touché.
How can I be of service? How far back can you go with your records, Garcia? How far back we talkin'? Uh, a murder investigation from 1968.
This is the room.
So what do I do? Flip that switch when you're ready, and you'll cut into every signal on the radio bands, AM and FM.
That's it? It's made to be easy.
Okay.
Thank you.
- JJ.
- I'm here.
We're gathering some background information on Flynn that can be very helpful.
- Just sit tight for a minute.
- Okay.
You okay? Hotch what if I mess up? Don't worry.
You won't.
I'll call you right back.
# Oh, the sisters of mercy # # They are not departed or gone # # They were waiting for me # # When I thought that I just can't go on # # And they brought me their comfort # # And later they brought me this song # Now get inside.
Get inside and don't come out until I call for you! Already? You doubted? Yeah, I'll put you on speaker.
Okay.
Let me preface this by saying that a 40-year-old murder in a suburb of Los Angeles is an absurdly impossible request.
Having said that, yours truly happens to know that the Pollack Library at Cal State - Garcia.
- Yes, sir, sorry, uh, anyway, this murder was quite the scandal.
For Southern California in the '60s, that's saying something.
Okay, I don't know who was talking right then, but word.
So Nora Flynn was a prostitute and a drug addict living in a desert community just outside of Los Angeles.
It appears bikers were her stock in trade, rough bikers, and one fateful day, her and her client were murdered by her 13-year-old son Billy.
Shot to death.
The customer, ironically named John, was able to tell the police before he died that Billy made him beg for his life and then shot him anyway.
- That's him.
- Mm-hmm.
And he was convicted, but - He's a juvenile.
- Right.
So at 18, he was released in 1973, never heard from again.
Oh, he was heard from.
And he never released a statement as to why he killed them, although it does appear his childhood was horrific.
I'm sending you a picture of him on the day he was released to your PDAs.
- Make sure you send the files to JJ.
- Of course, my liege.
Garcia bids you ad Garcia, wait a minute.
Hey.
Hey back.
Baby girl, I'm sorry for taking your head off.
Oh, darling, our love is a rock.
No bad day can come between us.
Word.
Come home safe.
I'll leave a light on.
Hotch.
JJ, listen.
The most important thing is that you build rapport with him.
Uh, rapport.
Okay.
I'm asking you to do one of the hardest things that anybody in our position ever has to do.
I need you to empathize with him.
Sympathize.
Don't judge the things he's done.
Garcia's sending you a file on him and his childhood.
Look it over.
It'll help.
If he hears that you care about him, that's how you're gonna get him to care about Ellie.
He has to understand that he's putting her through the same pain he went through as a child.
Uh, okay.
But it has to be his decision because power is all-important to him.
Power? Okay.
You're gonna be fine.
- Just talk to him.
- All right.
Look over the file and start when you're ready.
Oh, wait.
You're gonna be on the line, right? I'll be listening.
And the heat wave continues to be the top story in the Southland, with temperatures expected to top 105 degrees, and excessive heat Come on, Billy, I bought you from your mama.
This man paid good money.
Mom! Stop it! Do as you're told! Mom! Make him stop! I'll be gentle, Billy.
Don't worry.
No! Billy? Billy Flynn? Did you Who's Billy Flynn? Mr.
Flynn, I I don't know for sure that you can hear me, but My name is Jennifer Jareau.
I work for the FBI as a communications liaison for the the behavioral, uh Okay.
Mr.
Flynn, I I I want to talk to you about letting Ellie Spicer go.
I mean, I want to ask you to.
Uh, see, I'm not a hostage negotiator.
Uh, I've never done anything like this at all ever, but, um, sometimes circumstances, it's Look.
You can tell I'm not a hostage negotiator.
But I am a mother.
And I I know what your mother did to you when you were little, what she was, what she made you watch, what she let men do to you, and it makes me so It's just not fair.
And no one no one can make that better.
I wish I could.
I do.
But If I If I could somehow go back there and, you know, make what was happening to you stop, if I could just you know, pick you up and just tell you that it'll all be okay.
That's what moms are supposed to do.
They're not supposed to be the cause of your pain.
They're supposed to make it go away.
They're supposed to hold you and tell you everything is gonna be all right.
They're supposed to tell you that thunder is angels bowling and that it's okay to be afraid of the dark and that it's not silly to think there might be monsters in your closet and that it's okay that if you want to climb in bed with them just this once, 'cause it's scary in the room all alone.
They're supposed to say it's okay to be afraid and not be the thing you're afraid of.
But most importantly, they're supposed to love you no matter what.
What happened to you isn't fair.
It's not right.
But, um I'm supposed to empathize with you.
Sympathize.
Understand.
But I can't.
That That would be a lie.
The truth is I don't understand what you've done.
I don't sympathize with you killing people all these years.
And I especially don't understand you taking Ellie.
What I can do is tell you what a mother should tell you that you can't take away your pain by hurting someone else.
That it doesn't make all the nights you went to bed scared and alone any better if you scare someone else the way you're scaring Ellie.
What happened to you, it isn't fair.
But what you're doing to her isn't fair, either, and if anyone should understand what that feels like, it's you.
You have the power.
You can do what you want to do.
But for once, you can choose to use that power to do for Ellie what should have been done for you.
You can choose letting her go.
You can choose teaching her that, yes, there are monsters, and it's okay to be afraid of them.
But it's not okay to let them win.
And it's not okay to be one.
Agent Prentiss.
Yes.
Hello, Doctor.
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Both of Kristin's lungs collapsed.
She died a few minutes ago.
Ellie's got no one now.
Kurzbard.
He let her go.
Where? He got out of the car, and he just let her go.
She's in a house about six blocks from here.
Where is he now? He's in another house, up the street.
JJ, I don't know if you know.
He let her go.
You did it.
We have SWAT on the way, Kurz.
And an HPT team.
Yeah, but they'll be a while.
We had a phone sent in with a direct line to this one, but so far He's watching us.
This is Detective Kurzbard, LAPD.
He wants to talk to you.
What? - He wants me to come in.
- Morgan.
I know this guy, Hotch.
He didn't kill me before.
He's not gonna kill me this time.
No.
I believe in my original profile.
He will not hurt me unless I show him fear.
- Listen - When you needed us, we were there for you.
This one is mine.
You sure? As I've ever been.
In here, Agent.
It's over, Flynn.
Five years ago, I would have just killed you right there in that bedroom.
You couldn't.
Couldn't? I'm not afraid of you.
You really think that matters that much to me? Then shoot me.
Go ahead.
Shoot me.
You can't do it.
I study guys like you for a living.
I know more about you than you know about yourself.
Well, you may not be afraid, but they are.
You point that gun at them, and I will kill you, and that is another promise.
My mother used to dance with me.
You know who Cyd Charisse was? She kind of looked like her.
Put the gun down and get up.
When I shot her she looked at me with such She was I think relieved.
I think I helped her escape.
Was that really true, or did I just imagine it to make killing her easier to live with? Did I help her escape? Did I set her free? Is that what you think you've been doing all these years? Helping people? Well, no, I suppose not.
Do you believe in heaven? This is your last chance.
You think I might see her there? Maybe get a second chance? I'd really like that.
## # And who by fire # # Who by water # # Who in sunshine # # Who in the nighttime # A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another.
If these minds love one another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden.
But if these minds get out of harmony with one another, it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden.
The Buddha.
#ls calling? # # And who in her lonely slip # # Who by barbiturate # # Who by powder # # Who for his greed # # Who for his hunger # # And who # # Shall I say # # Is calling? # # And who by brave assent # # Who by accident # # Who in solitude # # Who in this mirror # # Who by his lady's command # # Who by his own hand # # Who in mortal chains # # Who in power # # And who # # Shall I say # # Is calling? #