Criminal Minds s08e04 Episode Script

Hello.
Hello, sir.
I just wanted to remind you that our normal checkout time is 11 a.
m.
But if you'd like a later checkout time, I can go ahead and take care of that for you now.
Sir, would you like a later checkout time? Sir? Hello? Are you there? Uh! Uh! Ohh No.
No.
Hello? - What's wrong? - Nothing.
Well, it's not Sunday.
We talk on Sunday.
I know.
I, um, I just thought I'd call.
Oh.
You scared me.
Sorry.
I thought it was an emergency.
No, it's not an emergency.
Yeah? Are you sure? How are your headaches? Good.
I mean-- I mean they're gone.
Yeah? Are you taking your riboflavin and the magnesium? In equal doses and a sporadic shot of B2 like you said.
And sleep? Are you letting your gray matter rest? I'm--I'm working on it.
What's so funny? What? I didn't laugh.
Something's amusing you.
I can hear it.
You can hear my body language? I'm a very good listener.
Um I guess I just-- I think it's funny how we've been doing this for 6 months and we've never met.
You know, like one Google search of me and you'll find my FBI file photo, but I have absolutely no idea what you look like.
I've shaved, by the way, since then.
I used to be sort of fascinated with the yeti and I thought that maybe if I-- I don't know what you look like either.
Really? No.
The only intimate part of you I've seen is your brain when I studied the MRI you sent me.
That's when I said, this is a guy I need to get to know.
Thanks.
That's really nice of you to say.
What happened? Something just happened.
Sorry.
It's work.
I actually have to go.
Ok.
Well, uh, we'll talk Sunday.
- Be safe.
- Ok.
Wait.
Are you being safe? Yes.
Yes, I'm being safe.
Do you--do you think he knows about us? No.
As far as I can tell he doesn't.
And we need to keep it that way.
Well, my friends, you are heading to New Mexico.
But pack your thermals, 'cause this case will make you go "brr.
" Our unsub du jour is taking right legs.
The most recent victim, Tony Anders.
He was dumped at a local motel.
He's in surgery now.
Looks like he's gonna pull through.
The first victim, not so lucky.
Richard Hubbell.
He died during the leg absconding process, and his body was dumped just over the border in Juarez, Mexico.
Juarez is on the front lines of the cartels.
Any drug connections between the victims? They both just said no.
Tony Anders had I.
V.
bruising and surgical sutures on his stump.
So the unsub operated on both victims.
We're looking at a doctor.
That's a first.
Were the victims patients anywhere? No.
They were the vision of health.
Tony had hypodermic needle marks on his neck.
The unsub could have drugged him and brought him into the hospital for surgery.
Unlikely he could hide in a hospital.
Even the most experienced surgeon can't operate without supervision.
The goal of amputation is to remove dead tissue to preserve an otherwise healthy limb.
Any first-year medical student will tell you that.
But this unsub stitched the skin flap so tightly over Tony's stump that it didn't allow for proper blood flow and led to gangrene.
He's not a surgeon.
What is he? A butcher.
What happened? Shh.
Everything's fine.
Was there was there an accident? It's fine.
Everything's fine.
We just need to operate.
Operate? No, it's ok.
It's ok.
You're in good hands.
Did someone call my wife? She should know.
I will take care of it.
I should really call her, because she'll be worried.
I told you, we'll take care of it.
I, uh, have coverage.
My HMO hospital is St.
Mary's, I think.
Is this--am I at St.
Mary's? Not quite.
Hey, what are you doing? Hey! Hey! Hey! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, "When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals.
He has the nerve and he has the knowledge.
" So, this unsub's got a thing for right legs and he's moving fast.
Two victims in a week.
What's the compulsion? You know, the fact that one of the victims was left in a motel room makes me think it's not a compulsion at all.
Maybe it's black market.
What's the going rate for a leg these days? Mm, pretty good.
In 2002, tendons were shipped from South Africa to the U.
S.
And sold through private medical and biotech companies.
The body parts trade coexists with the drug trade in border towns.
Let's say it's a chop shop.
That means we're looking for a small team or network.
One that usually deals with the dead before the living.
Did Garcia find any overlap with victimology? Just that they were both organ donors.
She cross-referencing with the United Network for Organ Sharing.
U.
N.
O.
S.
deals with vital organs, but we're talking limbs.
Yeah, but hospitals around the country are networked into it.
If the unsub is a medical professional, he might have access to it, and by extension, the victims.
Reid, you and JJ go to Juarez and look at Richard Hubbell's body.
Morgan and Dave, go talk to Tony Anders.
And Blake and I will investigate the black market angle here.
Hey.
Detective Gonzalez.
I'm glad you guys could make it.
I hate the weird ones.
I'm Agent Hotchner.
This is Agent Blake.
Thanks for inviting us.
Absolutely.
Come on in.
I've got the board set up for you in here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Go ahead, Garcia.
You're on speaker.
Ok, so I quadruple-checked with U.
N.
O.
S and there's no way the unsub is using them, because like me, they quadruple-check everything and their redundancies have redundancies, and so there's no chance there could be any hanky-panky.
He could still be using medical records to find them, though.
All right, thanks, Garcia.
Welcome, welcome.
Were you able to contact the specialist we asked about? The doctor who sold on the black market? Yeah.
The prison said no way they would release him.
We'll just have to go to him, then.
I remember walking out of organic chemistry, and then nothing.
What about when you woke up? There was a beeping, like that, and there was a mask over my face, I think.
I can't remember, man.
It's all a blur.
Tony, do me a favor.
Close your eyes.
Just humor me, ok? All right.
Think back to that room.
That bed.
That beeping.
It probably smelled a lot like this room.
You were out.
You should have stayed out.
But you didn't.
Now Wake up! Tony, something just came to you.
What was it? I can't explain it.
Don't think it, just say it.
It was a door.
A garage door.
I was in somebody's garage.
I need to, uh, ask you some questions.
If you want this to go well, I suggest you answer honestly.
Have you eaten anything in the past 12 hours? Uh, yeah.
Have you consumed alcohol? No.
Just wait a-- You had surgery before? Yes.
Please, just tell me-- Any complications? No, no.
It was Lasik.
Anything you'd like to ask before we begin? Why are you doing this to me? Now, I'm going to count backwards from 10.
Please--please-- Good afternoon.
I'm Alex Blake with the FBI.
I'm here to see if you can cooperate on this-- Let me see the file.
Right now it's just a missing limb case.
Your expertise can tell us if he's selling legs on the black market.
We felt that to find the best, we should go to the best.
Can you help us, Mr.
Smith? First of all, it's Dr.
Smith, not Mr.
Smith.
Second, the only way I'll give you my expert opinion is if we cut a deal, right now.
I could do that Or I could stop wasting my time with you.
This guy's not doing it for the money.
If you knew that for sure you wouldn't be here.
What I do know is what kind of medicine you practiced.
What do the eyes go for in Beijing, a grand? The skin you sent to Moscow, that netted you what, 15? So when you looked at the last picture, I know what you saw.
You saw an amateur who could make a lot more money if he took more than the right leg.
After all, you did.
Listen, Agent.
Actually, it's doctor.
Unlike you, I still have my degree.
But you have a good day, Mr.
Smith.
It could be dumping the body down here was a forensic countermeasure.
Probably, but it's the deviation in M.
O.
that stumps me.
Pun intended.
Two different victims, two different amputations.
All right, so what do you see, doctor? This amputation was transtibial, but the survivor was transfemoral.
So his leg was cut below the knee, and Tony's was cut above.
The cutting here was pristine, nerve and vascular dissection was careful, well-ligated.
I mean, this unsub definitely knew what he was doing medically.
I thought you said the unsub wasn't a doctor.
I said he wasn't a surgeon, but his knowledge of anatomy and procedure shows definite medical training.
Hey, Spence.
The hole in the bone-- it's perfectly circular.
The medical examiner said that was most likely caused by animals.
It's bored in.
It's like he drilled it.
Not with any surgical tool that I'm familiar with.
Well, maybe this is what he's been trying to hide from us.
Based on the way this unsub treats his victims, we need to look at this case a different way.
We know it's not for profit and we know he's not a killer.
So what is he? A scientist, or at least he sees himself that way.
Which means he sees his victims as test subjects.
And if we're right, we're not going to see the usual signature or consistent victimology.
There's no compulsion, sexual or otherwise.
So there won't be a trigger or a stressor either.
That doesn't leave a lot to profile.
Not true.
We do have his medical technique.
And based on the remnants of Hubbell's surgery, I think the unsub's experimenting.
With what? A new way to amputate? The hole in his knee makes us think it's more radical than that.
Amputating the leg is not the unsub's goal.
Reattaching it is.
You think this unsub's performing transplants? It explains why he only wanted Tony Anders' leg.
I think that's the experiment.
He wants to see if he can put a foreign leg on someone else's body.
Can you-- can you help-- can you--can you help-- Ma'am, the doctor can't diagnose you over the phone.
Ma'am, I don't know what you want me to do.
You need to come in.
The doctor can't diagnose you over the phone.
Please I need someone No, ma'am, I'm sorry.
You need to come in.
Somebody help me! Hey, sir, what's your problem? It's my leg.
Ok, does it hurt? No, it's been cut.
Ok.
Can you get me some scissors? Ok, what happened? Did you cut it? No.
It's not My leg.
Did the camera pick up anything? He dropped him off a block away.
This poor guy limped into the hospital on a leg that wasn't his.
What's the note say? The unsub helpfully suggests a high dose of cyclosporine for his patient, Carl Timmons.
It wouldn't have made any difference.
I mean, gangrene and sepsis had already set in.
There's nothing the hospital could have done.
Reid, you getting a migraine? No.
No, I haven't had one of those for months, ever since, um This doesn't make any sense, Morgan.
Well, does it ever, Reid? This unsub is supposed to have a background in science, right? Why is his science so bad? He amputated Carl's leg, sewed it up, and then reopened the sutures for transplant? You find anything on the knee? He left his handiwork in this time.
It's a surgical implant.
Maybe that's what he was trying to perfect, transplanting the leg onto an amputee.
Medically impossible.
You can't graft a leg onto someone else's stump.
Well, you and I know that, and this guy must know that, but maybe he just won't stop until he succeeds.
A doctor that can't admit he's wrong? It's time to give the profile.
The unsub we're looking for is a doctor with a severe God complex.
His narcissism makes him believe that he can defy human biology and anatomy.
His narcissism has likely caused problems in his career.
So look for doctors who've lost their licenses or medical students who've had ethical violations.
With a psychopath like this, shouldn't we also be looking at released mental patients? We don't think he is a psychopath.
Psychopaths rarely have the training and discipline for medical school or residency.
So this unsub won't behave in an antisocial manner.
He's probably successful, respectful, outgoing.
We think that he can maintain healthy relationships, and his neighbors probably know him well.
And his background makes us think he lives a mid-to upper class lifestyle.
He may be married and have kids.
If so, he would be devoted to both.
So don't look for the weirdo in the van with no windows.
Look for the pillars of the community.
Yeah, but if he's so well-known, how's he hiding these operations from all these people? Through a psychological process called doubling.
He acts one way professionally, but he acts another way at home.
It's occurred before in history.
Like the Nazi doctors in Auschwitz and Dachau.
They could separate their genocidal actions from their normal lives as fathers, healers, and husbands.
And like the doctors under Hitler's regime, this unsub's sense of superiority supersedes the Hippocratic oath.
Yes, well, the trial phase is almost complete.
I'll, uh, I'll send it to you once I've compiled it.
Yes.
Yes, thank you.
That didn't sound good.
The investors want to see all my data.
And you're not ready.
I came close last night, but I'm in trouble.
Ok, breathe, honey.
We're gonna get through this.
If they pull their funding-- - They won't.
- we lose everything.
The equipment in the garage, the house.
It's not going to happen.
How do you know that? Because I know you.
But you have to let yourself off the hook if you're gonna figure this out.
I almost had it, you know? That's what's so frustrating.
If I could just get it right one time, you and I can-- we can lead a better life.
Honey, I have a great life.
Don't worry about me.
Worry about those little mice out in your lab.
Hmm.
Well, I hate to tell you, but I've moved up from mice in the last couple of weeks.
Ok.
Whatever critters you have out there, I don't want to know.
But if it's a choice between them or the house, well, a couple more might have to give their life up to science.
Oh, I love you so much.
Mmm.
Stop worrying.
Mm.
Well, these are doctors and med students in the area, and there are a lot of washouts who fit the profile.
What about the prosthetic attachment from Carl Timmons' leg? Is there anything identifiable on it? Yeah.
I just sent you the chemical breakdown from our lab.
It's mostly a thick polymer designed to withstand the constant mobility of the leg.
So the resin is coated in plastic? Mm-hmm.
It's a combination of organic and inorganic materials.
That's probably to stave off rejection.
Garcia, is the resin biodegradable? As a matter of fact, yes.
How is it you know everything? All this time we assumed he's a doctor.
But what if he isn't? What if he has the training in cutting and stitching but never went to medical school? Where do you get training like that? I see.
So you think this man is a mortician.
It's one of the theories we're pursuing.
But we think this implant is the key to his training.
Is this something your employees would use? Yes.
We use it for reattachment on our dearly beloved.
Sometimes they come to us in more than one piece, and we need to perform some reassembly for an open casket funeral.
The biodegradability is for what, cremation? Precisely.
And unlike a surgeon, a mortician would want to reattach a limb at a movable joint like a knee or an elbow? It's easier to use dead bone than muscle or vasculature.
Would you excuse me? Thank you for your help.
Of course.
So, we know the unsub got started in a place like this, but how's he finding his victims now? Well, he's equipped his garage with medical equipment.
He might not be a doctor, but he could be posing as one.
Look, I'm sorry, but I can't remember anyone like you're talking about.
Now, just take a second and think.
Is there any medical care that you've had that this guy could have had access to.
I haven't even been sick lately.
Did you change doctors? What doctor? I'm in college.
How about student health services? Or an outreach on campus.
A health drive.
Maybe you gave blood.
Wait a second.
Yeah.
I give blood all the time.
When was the last time? A couple weeks ago.
It was a long line because there was just one guy in the truck.
What did the guy look like? I don't remember.
I was more focused on the needle going into my arm.
But you gave him your contact info, your medical history.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
That's how he found you.
Hi.
Hi.
You said there was something wrong with my test? It's probably nothing.
We just need to take another sample.
Help - What is wrong? - Help me.
Please please help me.
Please.
I can't.
The victim's name is Maria Rodriguez.
First time he's operated on a woman.
He transplanted a left leg this time.
She died from blood loss.
There's no gangrene on the transplanted leg, which means the surgery's fresh.
You think he still has the other woman? It justifies his haste in dumping her here.
Why didn't he go to the desert or a hospital? It also means he's speeding up his surgeries.
Reid, where are you going? Reid.
Yeah, yeah, I'm still combing through morticians.
Garcia, I actually need something else.
Can you tell me where the nearest pay phone is? Sorry? Pay phone.
Like a phone you pay to make phone calls on.
Oh, my sweet analog Luddite.
That is what your cell is for.
Garcia, please.
Ok.
Someone is being mysterious.
It's gonna take me a second.
Pay phones gave gone the way of the Dodo birds.
They don't show up on Google maps.
All right, try local telecoms.
Yes, I know that.
I'm doing it right now.
And there is one I just texted it to your cell phone, which you can also use to call people.
Thanks much.
Alex.
Blake, wait.
Where are you going? Hotch called.
He wants us back at the station ASAP.
Can you give me a ride to 5th and Main? It's on the way.
Uh yeah, sure.
What's at 5th and Main? I need to talk to somebody.
Uh ok, sure.
What What happened? You survived the surgery.
Quite well, in fact.
Surgery? What are you-- oh, my God.
I know.
Congratulations.
Whose--whose leg is that? Ah.
She didn't survive the transplant.
But you did.
I can't I can't move it.
You will, in a few days.
Shh, shh, shh, shh.
Just relax.
Now that I've found a suitable match, I'll let you rest a little before we do the next one.
No.
No, wait.
Please.
Please.
Don't take my other leg! Please! Do you want me to wait? Uh, you know, it might take a while, so I'll just take a cab back.
Thanks anyway.
Bye.
What's the deal? Something's not right, Spencer.
What do you mean? Why did you come back? Don't answer a question with a question.
Look, a while back, I had some medical issues-- headaches--and there was a geneticist that I reached out to.
And this has to do with the case how? I think that my friend might be able to help me see something that we missed.
You have 4 of the best minds I know back at the station.
I know, but sometimes a different perspective helps me think better, ok? Why are you being so ambiguous? I don't know what you mean? You're not using words like him or her.
You're saying things like "they are," "my friends.
" So? It begs a bigger question.
Why did you ask me to bring you here? Can we just talk about this later, please? No.
Why not Morgan or JJ? Alex, please-- Just answer the question! Because I don't want them to know about her.
Ok? It's nothing bad, it's just personal.
Ok.
I'm here.
I'm here.
Spencer, why are you calling me right now? I know.
I know.
It's important.
Baby girl, what'd you find? Sorry, my love.
There's no overlap between morticians and bloodmobile techs.
Most of them are volunteers.
If this guy's running his own rig, he's not gonna show up.
What are we missing? At first I just thought he was taking whoever was available.
Except he's operating a bloodmobile.
Yes, thank you, exactly.
That's not an accident.
He's obviously using it as a cover to screen for something, and that's why I'm calling you.
I'm hoping that you can help me figure out what he's screening for.
Maybe the unsub is an amputee.
So he's working on a solution for his own condition.
The rest of the profile applies.
He's got a God complex.
He thinks he's perfect.
Infallible, even.
Hard to maintain that if you're missing a leg.
It's almost ironic.
Most amputees have a healthier psychology than this unsub.
You know, what you're describing reminds me of Josef Mengele.
Yeah, we worked doubling into the profile.
No, I mean Mengele's experiments on twins.
He operated on thousands of them.
Why? I don't know, actually.
He thought he could repopulate Germany faster if he could figure out a way to get women to conceive with multiple embryos.
So you think this guy's pursuing his own impossible cause.
What if he's not trying to fix himself, but somebody else? That would fit his God complex.
Like who? A spouse or a child, maybe.
Someone he can ultimately heal by sacrificing these victims.
Mm.
Ah.
Shh.
Shh.
What is it? Everything ok? I need you to see something.
Before he transplants, he turns them into amputees.
That's part of his experiment.
What if there's a condition the victim shares, something involving amputation? It doesn't make sense.
He couldn't screen for that genetically.
Unless it's congenital, something that caused the amputation in utero? The way Thalidomide caused birth defects in pregnant moms.
Exactly.
So I guess the question is, what else causes birth defects? That's a long list.
Chromosomal, fetal alcohol syndrome.
What if we focused on what causes limb deformities specifically? Uh, rubella, herpes, among others.
Herpes is most common, but it isn't screened for when you donate blood.
But there are a lot of different strains of herpes.
You know, chickenpox, for instance.
If a mother isn't inoculated and she passes the virus in utero, can't that cause birth defects? Yeah.
Among other things, it can lead to limb hypoplasia.
The binding of which would appear similar to amputation.
But if it's a condition in the mother, why operate on men the first 3 times? Those were trial runs.
Now that he's operating on women, he thinks he's found an answer.
Move.
Move! You ready? Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Ok.
Ok.
Honey, are you sure about this? I promise.
This is everything we've been working towards.
I'm ready for you, you son of a bitch! Look.
There she is.
There who is? John-- No! No! There who is? What are you operating on out here? I had a breakthrough.
One of my subjects survived, but she's gone! - She's gone.
- People? You've been doing this to people?! Aah! John! Aah! John! John! Linda! Linda! Linda! No! Help! What's happening? Garcia, did you get the mortician's records? Ready and waiting.
Isolate the married ones.
We're looking for limb deformities in the wife caused by chickenpox.
That's about as narrow as it gets.
Eureka! Linda Nelson, married to John Nelson.
Quit his job at the funeral home two months ago.
Sending address now.
Take Rossi and JJ.
Bring him in for questioning.
Thanks.
Aah! Put down the scalpel.
You come any closer and I take out her eye.
John! John! Ok.
Ok.
You win.
You win.
You can go.
Go ahead.
Ok? You can walk right out of here.
But please, just-- don't hurt her.
Go ahead.
You can just walk right out, ok? There's the door.
See? Aah! John! John, stop it! John, don't do this.
Stop this! This is my success, honey.
She showed me what I was doing wrong.
I don't care! She's a human being.
FBI! John Nelson, put the needle down.
I have potassium chloride in this.
If you don't get out of here right now, this is a dead woman.
John, don't do this! Doctor, the experiment is over.
If you kill her, no one will see your work.
My work.
My work.
You don't understand.
I've perfected this.
This is my last test.
Drop it now! Then I can fix you.
I never wanted to be fixed.
Linda.
Linda.
You are the one that he loves.
You're the only one that can convince him what he's doing is wrong.
John.
John, look at me.
Huh.
It's over.
But I can make you better.
I'm not the one who's sick, John.
Now drop the needle or I'll tell them to shoot.
Oh, John! It's ok.
It's ok.
On your knees.
Let's go.
"Body and soul cannot be separated "for purposes of treatment, for they are one indivisible.
Sick minds must be healed as well as sick bodies.
" Dr.
Jeff Miller.
Ok, kid.
Out with it.
Out with what? Out with the weirdness and the secrecy.
That phone call that you could only make out of a phone booth.
I got a consultation.
What's the big deal? Reid, you left that crime scene and came back with a major break.
That's one hell of a consult.
Hmm.
It was.
All right, you don't want to talk, that's fine.
But listen.
Seriously, I-- I feel like you and I haven't had a chance to talk in a while.
It's nobody's fault.
It happens.
But if you've got somebody new in your life to talk to I'd just like to know who she is.
She's gotta be one hell of a woman to keep up with you.
Who told you? Oh, just a little birdie.
You might know her.
Garcia told me.
And she says you have been acting a little squirrelly.
So I just filled the rest in.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Uh-huh.
Play on, playa.
Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
So I just wanted to say thank you.
You really helped a lot.
I can't believe we've been able to talk this much.
That's a new record.
I know.
I like it.
Maybe we could test it out.
You know, talking more often.
Or not.
Uh, I have to go.
But why? No, it's nothing.
You're not the only one that can hear body language.
Did I--did I say something wrong? I, um I'm just not sure it's safe for us to talk right now.
Do you think it's going to be like this forever? I don't know.
It's not how I want us to be, I know that.
My team and I are really good at what we do.
Why can't you just let me help you? No, you can't ask that.
I can help you.
I'm not doing this for me.
I'm doing this for you, because I cannot let him hurt you, because if he knew, he would-- Please don't cry.
I get it.
I get it, ok? This is--this is how it has to be.
I understand.
Are you still there? Yes.
I'm still here.
And, yes, this is how it has to be, for today, at least.
Ok.
Well, guess I'll talk to you next Sunday.
Bye.
Bye.
Love you.