Criminal Minds s13e22 Episode Script

1 Search is clear.
Good.
Go.
Hold.
All right, hold it.
Back up.
We got a body.
Open it.
Right.
It's cut.
Alpha's made entry.
Still warm.
This kill is fresh.
Owen.
You know this guy? Hey.
We were too late.
We tried.
Now we need to tell the team.
Get off me! Right there! Drop the weapon! Owen! Hold it.
Hold it.
- Owen, wait.
- Drop your weapon! No, no, no, no, no.
This man is on the job.
FBI special agent Owen Quinn, badge number 2310-niner-5.
Owen, look at me.
Reid? - Prentiss.
- Yes.
You're safe now, Owen.
You're home.
How long? Don't worry about that right now.
We need to make sure that you're ok.
What year is it? It's 2018.
No! You're safe now.
You're safe.
No, I'm not! I'm not! “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
” Oscar Wilde.
Who remembers this agent? I do not.
That's agent Owen Quinn.
He worked here until he quit a year ago.
He worked in the violent crimes apprehension program on the 5th floor, but he aspired to be a profiler.
So, why'd he quit? He was convinced there was an unsub we missed working up and down the northeast corridor.
He named him “The Strangler.
” Naming the unsub.
That's exactly what we don't do.
That wasn't his only mistake.
Yeah, we reviewed his report.
He started with a single victim A woman in Maryland who'd been strangled and had the hyoid bone at the front of her throat removed, but she was his only confirmed victim.
Oh, one murder doesn't make you a serial killer.
Yeah, we told him that.
So he started forcing missing persons into his victimology to fit his profile.
In the end, 5 of his 7 victims showed up alive and unharmed, 2 were inconclusive.
First sin of profiling.
Trying to fit the evidence to match a theory.
Quinn took the criticism personally and quit, said he'd pursue the investigation on his own.
That's a little impulsive.
So, how did we find him in the storage unit? - I got an e-mail.
- Got an e-mail? You hate e-mail.
I do.
I was even more surprised when I saw that it was an anonymous sender.
Garcia, can you put the message on the board? That's Quinn's FBI ID badge.
That's a big piece of bait.
I mean, the unsub knows we have to take it.
Someone left us breadcrumbs to a former federal agent, who sure as hell looked dead.
So did the unsub think he was dead when he left him there for us, or was he leaving us some kind of witness? Or to put it another way, is this guy trying to help us or taunt us? Right now, Quinn has all the answers.
Reid will interview him.
Luke, Tara, go to the storage unit, see what you can uncover.
Matt, JJ, I need you to reach out to his wife and son.
Hey Tell me not to worry.
About what? You got an e-mail? Ok, maybe I'll buy that.
Maybe.
But why didn't you just call the rest of us? And why take a SWA team to a storage unit in the middle of the night? You're keeping secrets, ok? And when you keep secrets, I get nervous.
Because the last time I went to prison for a murder that I didn't commit.
Yeah.
So Tell me not to worry.
Whoever did this wanted me to find Quinn, and I needed to know why.
Do you even know him that well? No.
I mean, I've seen him in the building occasionally, but that just made the whole thing weirder.
So, I told Prentiss that I needed an exigent circumstances exemption to the sabbatical.
She made it happen, and Now you know everything.
Everything? Everything.
All right.
Uh-uh.
Uh-uh.
Uh-uh.
Uh-uh.
- Uh-uh.
- Owen Owen, you're in Quantico now.
There are 7 floors and 200 agents in this building alone.
You are completely protected.
Did you find The Strangler? No, we didn't, but we found you.
Then I'm not protected! Is that why you tried to kill yourself? It was that bad? Tell me about your investigation.
You found something.
You found something that we missed.
What was it? The news.
He really liked the News.
Then, like newspapers? The News.
New London New Haven Newark.
That's where he hunted.
I predicted he would hit New Rochelle next.
He liked college bars.
He liked hunting in them.
So I hunted for him, and then And then she came up to me.
She got my guard down, slipped something in my drink She? Then there's more than one of 'em? - Mm-hmm.
- It was a team.
- It was a man and a woman? - Mm-hmm.
Did you get their names? You don't know how bad it was.
From the moment I w-woke up in their house how bad.
Ugh! You're gonna be late! Theo! Let's go, let's go, let's go! Traffic's gonna be a nightmare.
Hey, Dad, can I borrow the car tomorrow night? Another date with April? Things are getting serious I hope you're treating her with the respect she deserves, young man.
- Geez, Dad.
Yes.
Bye, Mom.
- Bye.
I thought we'd never get a moment alone.
Aaahh! That was just the beginning.
I learned to survive by playing dead.
I slowed down my heartbeat, my breathing.
That was the only way I could get them to stop.
You got so good at it, you fooled us last night.
And the boy Theo.
His name is Theo.
He would feed me sometimes.
Why would the parents risk exposing their son to a captive like you? I don't know, I don't know.
He just he fed me sometimes.
He talked to me like I was human.
I begged him to let me go, but he couldn't defy them.
Oh, god Oh, god God And you think we're being played? You tell me if you buy this A husband-and-wife killing team raising a sun in the middle of suburbia like Ozzie and Harriet.
Faking trauma.
That's a dangerous game to play against profilers.
What's he trying to hide from us? He could be covering for whoever locked him in that storage unit.
My mind goes to The Strangler.
And there's more going on between them than he's letting on.
You know where my mind goes To serial killers like Tony Costa, Israel Keyes, Fred West.
Suspects who killed themselves once they were taken into custody.
Like Quinn tried to do last night.
You think maybe he's The Strangler? I think we leave all theories on the table until we verify his story.
And I think we verify his story by going back to where it started.
Luke, what have you got? So far, we can tell you that the unit was rented in Quinn's name 2 days ago, all paid for in cash.
Security camera footage caught footage of a hooded male hefting Quinn and everything else into the unit on that same day.
We sent it over to Garcia, but it's too grainy to ID.
What else have you found in there? Looks like someone stuffed an entire girl's dorm room in here Linens, clothes Reads to us as young and female.
So, someone with the physical strength to carry Quinn around also packs up his daughter's or his girlfriend's college dorm room.
What's the pattern here? We're asking ourselves the same question.
Keep us posted on what you find.
All right.
Will do.
Oh, my god, Alvez.
I got something.
What? Your mom.
Oh, really.
Mom jokes? Wait until you meet her, and you say that, right, because what she's gonna do is crush you with just a look.
You see that look? That's my mom.
I already feel the need to apologize for breaking curfew and not cleaning up my room.
You should.
- Whoa.
- Oh, come on, Tara, not again.
I'm gonna need an evidence bag.
Actually, I'm gonna need 7.
Hyoid bones.
Quinn said The Strangler removed these from the necks of his victims and kept them as trophies.
They've got dates on them.
All right.
I'm gonna have Garcia run these dates against his whereabouts.
I mean, either Quinn's the unluckiest agent in the history of the Bureau, or He's the guiltiest.
Hi.
Are you Shane? Yeah.
I'm SSA Jennifer Jareau with the FBI.
This is SSA Matt Simmons.
Is your mom home? Mom? I knew it.
I just knew.
Knew what? That he wouldn't walk out on us, like Mom said.
He was a great dad.
He wouldn't do that.
So Can I see him? Well, that's why we're here.
Um But we need to warn you that he might not be the same man that you remember.
Why? What happened to him? What happened to him? What about what happened to me? What did happen? He became obsessed with that case.
The Strangler? He started thinking like him.
He said that's how he'd get into the mind of a madman.
It ended with him Did he hurt you? No But he wanted to.
He wanted to choke me, to know how it felt.
He kept asking, demanding So I kicked him out of the house.
I filed for divorce, and I never saw him again.
Shane is offering to cooperate.
No! Absolutely not! Well, he's 18, and he doesn't need anyone's permission.
Fine.
Let me grab my purse.
All right, Owen.
I want you to paint me a picture, and I want you to just focus on the details Ok, the mundane, the day-in and the day-out.
It's gonna keep you from feeling overwhelmed.
Did they keep you in the living room for the entire year? No.
They moved me To the basement.
All right, describe the basement.
Cold No windows Echo-y Because I screamed, screamed so much.
How did they feed you? Theo did.
Please, don't go.
Don't go.
I have to.
They'll get suspicious.
Was there a toilet? There was a bucket.
I knew a new day had begun when they would come downstairs and ask me the same questions.
How did you find us? What did we give away? How'd you do it? Tell us, Quinn.
Tell us, and we'll stop hurting you.
Tell us, so we can get away with murder.
They were already getting away with murder.
And you're not a profiler.
You were in ViCAP.
Maybe I had value as a hostage.
I don't know.
God, her perfume it almost choked me, it was so strong.
Whose perfume? The wife's? What did it smell like? I can't I can't describe it.
Owen, you just said it choked you.
Why can't you describe it? What, do you think I'm lying? Do you think I did this? No.
You know what I think, Owen? I think that you haven't given me a single piece of evidence that validates your story.
Evidence? Here's my evidence.
All right.
Theo.
Theo.
Their son.
You said that he treated you like a human.
Yes.
He talked to me.
What did he talk to you about? - College.
- Which one? I don't know.
Is there anything that you do know? I asked him.
He wouldn't tell me.
Instead, he'd ask me questions about his coursework.
“How do you find an anchor point in a geoprofile?” “what's the difference between fixated and regressive typology?” He was taking classes in profiling.
Did he ask you about re-offense statistics for female sexual offenders? Yes! Exactly.
How'd you know that? Because I taught it.
Theo was in my class at Marbury university.
That's how he got my e-mail.
I included it in the syllabus.
Ok There are 9 Theo and Theodores enrolled at Marbury.
None of them are enrolled in your class.
Too much of a paper trail.
He was most likely just auditing.
It's experience by an offender that precipitates subsequent behavior, whereas a stressor is a longer-term pattern of behavior or circumstances which push a person into behaving differently than they normally would.
Him.
Theo Holston.
On it.
Ok, guys, let's talk this through.
We need to make this make sense.
Well, one theory is that Quinn has been the killer all along.
Theo somehow trapped him, left him in the storage unit for me to find, and Quinn's post-traumatic decompensation act is just that it's an act.
His behavior doesn't match someone who's been traumatized for a year.
Or Quinn's telling the truth.
Theo put him in there to frame him, probably under his parents' orders.
Ok.
Theo Holston's parents are Jerry and Donna Holston.
Jerry is an insurance salesman, just got “employee of the month” Donna's a housewife, no criminal record.
Not exactly the psychopathic team that Quinn painted.
Alexandria's a short drive.
Reid, I want you to stand down.
Alvez and Simmons will lead on this.
Open door right! Start your search.
Rear of the house is clear.
We're clear.
Over here.
Hey, Luke! Looks like he changed his M.
O.
Where's Theo? That's a .
40 caliber shell.
That was Quinn's personal backup weapon.
He kept it even after he turned in his badge.
So, whoever killed these two They used Quinn's gun to do it.
Thanks.
Appreciate it.
So, the lands and grooves match to Quinn's gun? Yeah, they do.
You think he did it? We've got what his wife said about him.
Bones all around him, his gun used to kill all the victims in the basement? Um, yeah.
How do you square the fact that their kid went to Reid's class? That's a hell of a coincidence.
He's almost certainly the one that put Quinn in the storage unit.
I mean, when we do find him, we can ask him why.
By the way, aren't you the one that thought Quinn was playing us? Yeah, that was me.
This case Doesn't add up.
Like the comment Quinn said to Reid.
“Her perfume it choked me.
It was so strong.
” Linguistic profile would call that leakage.
I mean, the use of the word “choke,” it's a subconscious admission of guilt.
They inventoried this whole place.
There wasn't a drop of perfume in it.
Doesn't add up.
- Come in.
- Hi.
Agent Prentiss? I'm special Agent Meadows.
From ViCAP? I have Owen's uh, agent Quinn's file on The Strangler that you requested.
Thank you.
Mary, right? Right there is fine.
Um, I'm sorry, but I have something to say, and it's not just me.
Close the door.
Well, Rossi's on one of his “doesn't add up” tears.
Uh-oh.
Yeah.
I'm guessing he's not the only one.
Can't see it In this case.
I mean, is he a suspect, or is he a victim? The worst part is, I can't see why I can't see it.
I don't remember Quinn quitting.
One day he was here, the next he wasn't.
So I went back to see when that was, and I found out it was 2 weeks after you were arrested for murder.
You knew that, didn't you? It's not connected.
But your rational brain is telling you that, and that part's right.
I also know there is a part of you that you don't show anyone.
And that part of you is trying to figure out why did Spencer Reid get out of his prison, you know, when Quinn didn't.
The answer is family This family We fought to get you out of there, the same way we fought to save Prentiss from Mr.
Scratch.
We fought to save this team from getting shut down.
And now, family will help us figure out what we're missing.
How? Quinn's family is downstairs.
How he responds to them could really tell us who he is.
No! Just don't.
All right.
Dad.
I thought I'd never see you again.
Get your hands off of him! - No, wait! - Don't! Theo! Mom! Who's Theo? Who's Theo? - Theo! - Who's Theo? Ok, we all want a profile that explains everything, wraps everything up neatly, but we don't have that here.
So, instead, I'd like to hear everyone's best theories, and we're gonna rebuild this case from the ground up.
Well, Quinn as The Strangler still gets my vote.
I mean, start with how he treated his wife.
It's textbook precursor behavior.
Ok, then when he worked here, he did his best to throw us off.
And when he felt confident he could get away with it, he quit to kill with impunity.
Until Theo caught him for us.
That's where I tap out.
A 19-year-old kid gets the drop on an experienced FBI agent? The agent's also a serial killer who just killed the kid's parents? No.
So what's your theory, Rossi? I don't have one.
Let's consider this.
Quinn just called his own son “Theo.
” Classic example of parapraxis.
A Freudian slip.
Literally defined as an unconscious wish or subdued desire.
So, why, in the middle of an emotional reconnection with his own flesh and blood would he call out someone else's name? He built a bond with Theo.
That may be born from Stockholm syndrome? Could you all follow me, please? You all know the ViCAP team from the 5th floor? Once they heard about our investigation, they asked us to consider some new information about Quinn.
Go ahead, Mary.
We just we wanted to say we worked with Owen, side-by-side, and He wasn't a killer.
Eccentric, maybe obsessed, but not a killer.
I sat next to him for 3 years.
He was a dedicated public servant.
He believed in what we did here.
Well, if he was so dedicated to the FBI, then why did he quit? He thought he could save lives.
He couldn't just let The Strangler keep killing.
And the victims he thought he found, they were college-age kids, a little older than his own son.
He couldn't stand the idea of those parents not knowing what happened to their child.
You have to admit, the unsub's hunting ground New haven, New Rochelle, New Brunswick He was right on.
And we get it.
We're not the profilers.
You are.
But if he was a psychopath, we would have noticed.
Thank you.
All right.
Well, let's just say for the sake of argument we take Quinn's story at face value.
What does that leave us with? Theo.
Maybe he's not a killer, but he's involved and he's gone out of his way to stay off our radar.
Garcia, look at Theo's classmates and focus on the name “April.
” According to Quinn, that was his girlfriend's name.
They may have met on campus.
Hello, gorgeous.
April Pearson took a linguistics class with Theo.
She lives in an apartment just off-campus Which she just moved out of.
Well, that would explain the additional belongings we found at the storage unit with Quinn.
Ok, we need to find her.
Where are you going? I need to talk to him.
Where is April? Who? Theo didn't just hide you.
He hid her, too.
Where is she? I had to.
What you said about the perfume How it was so strong, it choked you You weren't talking about the wife.
You were talking about April.
What? What is this? It's time for Theo's final test.
No, no, no, no, no! Dad! Dad, no! Oh, just as we thought.
You turned him into your pet, haven't you? Why are you doing this? Because it's time for you to make a choice A choice that starts with the acceptance that there is a killer inside everyone.
Everyone.
Here, I'll show you.
Kill the girl.
She's standing in the way of our son's potential.
No! Then we will kill Theo, then her, then you.
I'm sorry.
Aggghh! The next thing I know, I woke up in the storage unit.
We found your captors dead in the basement.
I think I know what happened.
Can we do it quickly, at least? That's why Theo's in hiding from us.
He killed his own parents.
Garcia just matched Jerry Holston's travel for work with abductions in New London, New haven, and New Rochelle.
The dates on the bones were a perfect match.
You were telling us the truth the whole time, and Theo was giving us the evidence to prove it.
Except Theo was raised by two psychopaths.
And now that he's killed them Who knows what he's gonna do next.
What do you mean she won't sleep? Ok, ok, we've Yeah.
Put her on the phone.
Hi, honey.
Mom says you don't want to go to sleep.
What's what's why not? Tell you what.
You go to sleep right now, 'cause tomorrow morning when you wake up Excuse me.
Can you tell me Uhh! Uhh Uhh Uhh Uhh! Security footage positively IDed Theo.
He's definitely our gunman.
All right, well, I'm thinking bang and then bang victim number 2 falls here.
Theo walks up, pulls the trigger with no hesitation.
Cold.
Post-traumatic snap, maybe.
You know, Theo felt threatened.
Something his parents did reminded him of that, and it fits the profile.
Poor guy tried to crawl away.
Quinn said The Strangler's wife burned off his fingerprints.
But am I crazy, or is this guy missing them, too? Tara's not crazy.
According to the M.
E.
, both victims had their prints burned off, most likely with hydrochloric acid.
So, what do we know about these two? Oh, no wallets, no cell phone on him.
We looked over his phone.
Hadn't been activated.
He had an earbud in.
They're faking it.
So these victims weren't random at all.
They were stalking Theo.
Without weapons.
So, the plan must have been to overwhelm him, take him to a secondary location.
But this approach The 2-on-1, no IDs, it feels almost paramilitary.
But what paramilitary group would burn off fingerprints and invite a husband- and-wife killing team in? Well, whoever they are, they are the reason that Theo's been so hard to find.
He's not hiding from us.
He's hiding from them.
Help me profile this.
Let's start with April.
Tell me everything you can about her.
I can only tell you what Theo felt safe telling me.
That was that young love, you know, the kind you only feel when you're 19 or 20.
Made me wonder if I'd survive to see my son that happy.
That's why she was a threat to Theo's parents.
She showed him that there was a world outside of their insanity.
To do that, she What? When we found you in the storage unit, you were surrounded by her things.
That tells me that Theo didn't just do this for you.
I suppose.
I don't really know.
I mean, think about his state of mind right now.
He has no resources, he has no place to go, except someplace where he knows he'll never be found.
A place she showed him.
He saved her life.
Now she's gonna save his.
If they're on the run from some group that's hunting them, they wouldn't go to a place tied to his history.
No.
They'd go to a place tied to hers.
Garcia, what direction was that train going? Uh, the blue line south.
It terminates in Springfield.
Look for any connection to her in that area A second apartment, a family home.
If you can't find anything, keep going south.
Booyah.
April's grandfather owns a cabin on Lake Accotink.
Good place to hide out from whoever's still after them.
We can get to them first.
We can, but we have to keep SWAT outside the door.
Theo and April are paranoid, believing correctly that they're being hunted.
We have to defuse them.
What do you have in mind? Theo, it's me.
You got my message? I did, yes.
You made it! Did you get them, all of them? That's the only way we're safe is if they're all gone.
All of whom? Oh, my god! You don't know.
Theo, they don't know! How could you not know? I left you all the clues in the storage unit.
We know your father was The Strangler and that he killed 7 victims, and we know that your mother helped.
No, no.
How can you not see this? How could you miss this? What did we miss? My father didn't kill them.
He abducted them, and then he handed them over to The Messiah.
The Messiah? And then The Messiah would kill them in front of us, his followers, to inspire us.
Don't you see? This isn't one serial killer or a couple.
It's a cult.
It's ok.
It's ok.
It's ok.
Prove your allegiance.
Uhh! Aah! Aah! Aaaahh! Aaahhh! Good.
Now listen closely because the end is nigh.
Give me a sense of how big this cult is.
How many people are in it? I never saw more than a handful of 'em at a time.
The faces always changed.
That's how The Messiah liked it.
And this Messiah Who is he? His name is Benjamin Merva.
And what about this group? What do they call themselves? The Believers, because they believe they could inherit the Earth.
You know about any of this? No.
Nothing.
Could you do something for me, when this is all over? The Believers were a small group obsessed with the end times, similar to Heaven's gate.
- Violent? - Just the opposite.
They prepared themselves by fasting, meditation, giving away their earthly possessions.
That doesn't make sense The Holstons joining up with a group that are basically a bunch of pacifists.
Maybe they stopped being pacifists after their prediction about the end of the world didn't come true.
I mean, that's when a cult would tend to destabilize, and it's easier for a violent or charismatic personality to take over.
The Messiah needs to be our focus.
What do we know about him? He has no criminal or online record.
I'm searching for locations tied to him now.
If he killed 7 people, he's probably keeping a low profile.
Yeah, but he's still attracting followers somehow, most likely men who get turned on by watching him kill in front of an audience.
So, it's not just a cult.
It's a cult of potential serial killers.
Exactly the kind of crowd Theo's parents would want to hang out with.
Garcia, can you point us in a direction where Merva would be now? Yeah.
He bought a warehouse on the edge of the district.
Not the kind of place I'd go to church, but ideal if human sacrifice is your thing.
If we can arrest the cult leader, we can stop the cult.
Let's go.
Shh FBI! Show us your hands.
Benjamin David Merva, you're under arrest for the murder of 7 people.
Where are your followers, Ben? Oh, I have no followers Only students.
And what you see is all I have.
May I have everyone's attention? Metro PD and the Bureau have been made aware of The Believers and possible activity following their leader's arrest, but taking Theo at his word Well, we arrested 3.
There's probably more out there.
But if they follow cult dynamics, they'll break down without The Messiah.
Typical cult.
You think it's a cast of thousands, when really it's just 4 wackos sitting around in the dark.
I think we deserve some decompression time, and Rossi is kind enough to host.
And I have some top-shelf wine picked just for the occasion.
Yes! Ok, I have to do a systems check.
Please do not have too much fun without me.
I will meet you all there Unfortunately, I don't think I'm gonna be able to make it tonight.
Tell me not to worry.
Don't.
I'm good.
I'm really good.
Ok.
Well It's not family without you there.
I know.
There's another family that could use my help right now.
Ah.
What's this for? It's for all the times you worried about me.
I never said thank you.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Is my dad coming? He's finishing up his final debrief interview.
I'll keep you company until he comes down.
Can you tell me what happened to him now? First thing that you need to know is that your father is a hero.
- Ok.
- It's true.
Shut up.
It's true! There are actual sexual positions that produce ugly babies? Yes.
It's been proven.
Well, by who? Your mom? Oh ho! All right.
You want a war? I will bring it.
- It's on.
- Come at me, bro.
Emily, please.
Let it go.
I know.
Maybe it's the curse of being team leader, but something is bugging me about this.
Well, I'll tell you what bugs me.
We found a cult leader but no cult.
That's not it.
I mean, that's it, but that's not it.
Well, what is it, then? In the warehouse where we arrested The Messiah, there were these Petri dishes on the floor filled with hydrochloric acid.
Perfect for burning off fingerprints.
I mean, that's what the drug lord El Chapo did in Mexico.
And based on the two dead guys in the subway, maybe that was their initiation.
You want to join, you burn off your fingerprints.
Where you going with this? It's just one nagging question.
Why did they burn off Quinn's fingerprints? Well, they tortured him.
With their initiation rite? I mean, maybe, but Or maybe we somehow misread Quinn all this time.
Maybe there was cult programming Theo didn't know about.
What if they did convert him? And we left him in the building where The Messiah is being held in custody.
All right, I'll call Spence and Garcia.
Guys, we need to get back to Quantico right now.
Right this way, Owen.
Your son is waiting for you downstairs.
Oh, wait! Uh This phone, this phone, this phone.
JJ? I am on my way.
Argh! Lost her.
So, I will text.
“JJ, I'm on my way.
” I knew you didn't do it.
I just knew.
And I can't tell you what a privilege it's been working with the A-team on this case.
“A-team”? Ohh A-team.
And Owen, if we time this right, you might actually get out of here before the sunrise.
Draw your gun.
- What? - Draw your gun! Hey, JJ, what's up? What was that? Stay here.
Put your hands up, Quinn! What happened? It's her.
What? She's one of them.
Drop your gun, agent Reid.
It's been you the whole time.
Yes, it was.
Quinn somehow figured it out first.
Pity having to shoot him, but he can't give me what I want, and you can.
What's that? You and I are gonna go upstairs and free my messiah.
You're in the heart of the FBI.
As soon as the rest of my team figures out it's you, you'll be dead before you're out the door.
Then we need to work quickly.
I'm not cooperating with you.
Might as well shoot me.
I have a better idea.
Now, what's it gonna be? Because you can either join us, or she dies.
Spencer, just shoot her! Shoot her!