Criminal Minds s14e12 Episode Script
Hamelin
1 [Dog barking.]
[Sprinkler.]
[Whispered voice.]
[Indistinct whispers.]
[Indistinct whisper.]
[Door closes.]
[Indistinct whisper.]
[Indistinct whisper.]
[Indistinct whisper.]
Reid: Something wrong? Oh, it's my mom.
A pipe burst last night, and now her living room is flooded.
Ugh.
Yeah.
Repairs are gonna take 3 weeks minimum, and she has asked to stay with me.
That's good, right? I mean, out of all the people in her life, you're the one that she chose to Yeah, I was her only option, Spence.
Ah.
Trust me, she would much rather rent something on her own closer to home, but apparently money's a little tight.
I know our relationship hasn't always been smooth sailing, but I don't know, maybe this time it'll be different.
Maybe it will.
Didn't you tell me your house is having a top-to-bottom paint job this week? Mm-hmm.
As of this morning.
What are you gonna do? Well, Will took the boys to Florida for a couple days.
I just rented a hotel room in the city.
Ooh, I guess I better upgrade to that junior suite now, huh? Let me know if you need anything Books, food, shoulder to cry on.
Mmm.
What was that last one? [Chuckles.]
All right, just please keep your phone handy.
Simmons: What do we have? Garcia: Last night 3 10-year-old kids went missing from their homes in Wesser, Iowa.
The parents didn't notice they were gone until they woke up this morning.
Alvez: Well, all of the families slept through the abductions.
There must not have been much of a struggle.
No signs of forced entry, either.
Neighbors didn't hear a sound.
Lewis: Look, I'm not minimizing this, but is it possible this wasn't an abduction at all? I mean, group of 10-year-olds, tip-toe exit in the middle of the night.
She's got a good point.
I mean, what if the kids just made a bad decision to sneak out on a big adventure together? Prentiss: I was wondering that myself, but it was nearly freezing last night, and it appears all the kids left wearing their pajamas.
None of them took any clothing or food.
Simmons: Maybe it's a straight-up kidnapping.
The ransom demands could be on their way.
Prentiss: JJ has some personal business to attend to here, but she will be consulting by phone.
For the rest of us, wheels up.
Oh, no.
Guys, guys, guys.
There's something that just came in.
You need to see it.
It's from Wesser P.
D.
It's surveillance footage from a neighborhood park.
Alvez: Those are the kids.
What the hell is going on? Garcia, can you zoom in on that, please? Rossi: "There is always one moment in childhood" when the door opens and lets the future in.
" Graham Greene.
40 years in law enforcement, I've never seen an abduction like this.
The children appear to be complicit.
I mean, they went to the unsub voluntarily.
Reid: Yeah, but watch the last child's face.
It's like he senses something wrong at the last moment.
There's still no ransom demand.
That plus the tape, this is looking less and less like a kidnapping.
Normally I'd think this was a sex offender, but pedophiles almost never abduct more than one child at a time.
If for no other reason than it's hard to control multiple victims.
I don't know.
The kids on the swing set looked pretty damn controlled.
Maybe they were drugged somehow earlier.
What do we know about these kids? Simmons: They were all good students, stable homes, no behavioral issues at all.
Prentiss: When we land, I'll coordinate with Agent Channing who's already on the ground with her child abduction rapid deployment team.
The rest of you pair up, go to the children's homes, talk to their parents.
We need to get a sense of these kids.
Someone or something got ahold of them.
We need to find out what.
Prentiss: Ok, catch me up, Agent Channing.
We've got local P.
D.
canvassing the neighborhood looking for home surveillance cameras.
Good.
We'll set up monitors here for viewing.
Our CARD team has handled hundreds of child abduction cases.
But something like this, we're in uncharted territory.
Have you met the mayor yet? - No.
- Buckle up.
Are you the other FBI person? SSA Prentiss.
I understand you're the mayor.
Rob Tremaine.
Can someone please tell me what's being done to get to the bottom of this? Our BAU team is in place, Mayor, and we're very good at what we do.
I'm talking about specifics.
What specifically are you doing? Honey, I'm going home with Timmy.
Take a deep breath.
Look, I'm sorry.
I don't mean to come on strong, but a thing like this.
I understand.
But it is important for you to present a calm and confident face to your community right now.
Well, that's easier said than done.
3 kids in one night? How do we know that this maniac isn't going to take more? We don't.
[Indistinct police radio transmissions.]
[Sobs.]
This can't be happening.
It's like a nightmare and I can't wake up.
Rossi: Your son was plugged in.
Joey's addicted to his screens.
I have kids myself.
I know what you mean.
Did your son make this? Yes.
He loved doing papier-mache.
It's practically the only thing that could tear him away from his electronics.
Do you think that this is how this person got Joey, like a chat room or something? We'll know more once we have a chance to look at his computer.
'Cause we monitored his online activity as best we could.
We put in filters, safeguards.
But Joey and his friends, they know how to get around all of it.
[Sighs.]
Oh, god.
This cyber stuff, it's their world, not ours.
Prentiss: So why these kids and why now? The behavior in the video, it appears as though they're responding to a post-hypnotic suggestion.
If true, that's an awfully elaborate ruse.
The seeds for this abduction must have been planted a long time ago.
But the parents have confirmed that these kids didn't really know one another.
They went to different schools.
They didn't hang out socially.
So where's the overlap? Maybe there isn't any.
I mean, they could have been selected randomly online.
Except if this is a form of hypnosis, the unsub would need to know that the children are susceptible to suggestion.
[Cell phone rings.]
You're on speaker, Garcia.
Garcia, on telephone: Ok, I've gone through the registered sex offenders in a 50-mile radius of Wesser.
And at the conclusion of this phone call, I am going to take 3, maybe 4, showers, scrub myself with steel wool, during which time I'm gonna tent the office, fumigate it, and when it clears out, I'm gonna fill it with kittens.
You find anything? His name is Arthur Brodie.
What about him? 50 years old.
He's got a long rap sheet of sexual deviancy, including but not limited to voyeurism, indecent exposure, possession of child pornography, the stealing of young women's undergarments.
I'm definitely gonna need 4 showers.
Why did Brodie pop out more than any others? Well, thing one is he was released a month ago after serving a 12-year sentence for statutory rape.
Thing two, he owns a white van that is eerily like the one from the surveillance video.
Reid: Does Brodie live in town? Yes.
He lives with his mom.
He works the graveyard shift at an assembly plant in town.
And if you'd like another pop for this weasel, last night when the kids went missing, guess which bra thief called in sick to work.
[Pounding on door.]
Child: Let me out! Let me out! Please, let me out! Let me out! Let me out! Please! [Gasps.]
I don't want to die.
Don't worry.
We're gonna get out of here.
[Indistinct chatter.]
[Camera shutter clicks.]
Reid: Arthur Brodie? FBI.
Your mother told us we might find you here.
What's the problem? I'm minding my own business.
You minding your business or theirs? Heh.
"Assembly and maintenance of your Corvell 350 vacuum cleaner.
" Come on, Brodie.
You want to pretend you're here to read, you got to do better than that.
That your white van parked over there? You can't touch it without a warrant.
I've got my rights.
Yes, we can.
And no, you don't.
You're on parole.
That's all the warrant we need.
The hell with you people.
We're not done yet.
Ahh! [Handcuffs click.]
Now we're done.
Jareau: All right, Mom, here we are.
All these years, I can't believe this is the first time I've seen where you work.
Wow.
Ha ha! You're sure you don't want me to take you to the mall? You could shop, watch a movie.
No, right here's fine.
You just do what you need to do, and I will sit here, quiet as a mouse.
Ok.
[Phone beeps.]
Oh.
Don't.
Ok, uh, heh! I'm sorry.
I was just Don't look in the files.
It can be difficult to process Ok? Ok.
Sorry.
It's ok.
[Sighs.]
[Exhales.]
Ok.
You know what I thought might be fun? The two of us take a drive out to Ocean City this weekend.
I'm consulting on an active case, Mom, so until we close it, there are no weekends.
I haven't been to ocean city since you and Roz were just little things.
That's where your dad and I took you girls to have lobster for the first time, remember? No, not really.
Yeah, funniest thing.
The lobsters were in a tank out front so the customers could pick the one they wanted, but when the man reached in to grab the one you picked What? Well, it hit you that that poor fish was about to go get cooked.
So you told that man to put it right back where it was, and we had to order you a hot dog instead.
That's funny, I really I don't remember that at all.
Well, I should have known you were gonna be an FBI agent.
Even back then, you were all about saving lives.
Rossi: What's that abrasion on his forehead? Prentiss: Apparently he gave Lewis a shove and Reid went a little cell block "D" on him.
Nice.
Mr.
Brodie, where were you last night? I don't got to say a thing.
Well, actually, you do.
That's one of the rights a person gives up for assaulting underage girls.
Nobody got assaulted.
And it was a girl.
One.
Me and Brandi were in love.
That would be Brandi Nichols, eighth grader.
Who was all of 13 years old in 2004 when you first began having sex with her.
Hey, if that's a crime, you better get out there and slap the cuffs on Shakespeare, too.
Excuse me? Romeo and Juliet.
You know how old she was? 13.
So how come with her, it's this great romance, but when it was me and Brandi, I'm a pervert? Now, my Shakespeare's a little rusty, but I don't remember Romeo being a 50-year-old degenerate who collects girls' underwear.
Prentiss: You didn't answer my question, Mr.
Brodie.
Where were you last night between the hours of 9 P.
M.
and 4 A.
M.
? At home with my mom.
Call and ask.
Now, if you're not gonna charge me with anything, then I'm Oh, we're definitely gonna charge you with something.
Parole violation, assault on a federal agent.
That should get the ball rolling.
Wait.
I'm going to jail? Well, look at it this way.
Someone asks you wherefore art thou, you know what to say.
Ok, so we have a citywide curfew in place tonight.
I heard the good news about Brodie.
I'm scheduling a press conference to announce that we have our primary suspect in custody.
That's a little premature, Mayor.
Why? Well, because people are gonna think the danger is passed.
It hasn't.
Brodie's still a person of interest, but his van came back clean and he has an alibi.
[Scoffs.]
You mean his mom? And the only reason the van is clean is because he cleaned it.
We'll hold a press conference when it's appropriate.
Oh, good.
When would that be, when the next batch of kids goes missing? Unbelievable.
Hmm.
Look, I know he wants to tie this all off in a tidy bow, but come on.
You think Brodie's our guy? No, no.
The guy's a moron.
And morons don't grab children? Yeah, but this unsub isn't grabbing.
The kids are going to him.
For an offender to sink in their hooks that deep requires patience, planning, and smarts, none of which is Brodie.
At least this town's on high alert.
I doubt there's a door in Wesser, Iowa that hasn't been double- and triple-bolted.
Let's hope that's enough.
[Indistinct whispering.]
[Indistinct whispering.]
The unsub's sending a message "take all the precautions you want, I can still get your kids.
" Katie's father not only double-locked the front door, he barricaded it with a couch.
Did their daughter know any of the other missing kids? No, she was homeschooled.
These kids are linked somehow.
We need to widen out, look into extracurricular activities Sports, summer camps.
The kids on the surveillance video, they looked like they were on auto-pilot, right? More like zombified.
But Katie's parents put up a barricade.
So she was forced to use in-the-moment cognitive skills to circumvent the obstacle.
Evaluate, problem-solve, improvise.
Not your average zombie's strong suit.
Making it even more likely that the unsub had previous personal interactions with the children.
The unsub dropped a packet off at the local newspaper.
It's on its way here now.
[Shivering.]
I'm so cold.
It'll be warmer if we sit close together.
Come on.
It was found outside the newspaper offices.
Nobody saw who left it.
Names of the first 3 kids.
Nail clippings.
So why send proof of life with no ransom demand? There was a flash drive in the envelope, too.
Man, on tape: How does it feel? What did he say? How does it feel? Our unsub used the expression "how does it feel?".
This indicates that, while he abducted the kids, our unsub's anger is focused on someone else.
Alvez: It also explains why there appears to be no deliberate harm to the children.
The kids are merely a means to an end.
He's not a sexual predator nor a kidnapper in a traditional sense.
This person is an injustice collector, and as such is motivated by revenge.
Reid: None of the children's parents, however, are in professions that typically evoke revenge-based anger Doctors, judges, lawyers.
Rossi: We believe the unsub is in his mid-30s to mid-40s.
He's thorough, intelligent, and calculating.
He may have also suffered the loss of a child recently.
That could be what's triggered these current abductions.
Now, whether this was a literal death, a physical separation, or purely a symbolic loss isn't clear.
Simmons: The children are apparently responding to a form of post-hypnotic suggestion.
Lewis: He's also technological savvy and capable of bonding with children.
In fact, his cyber expertise may be his entrée into their world.
Reid: And this person is known to your children, and he might even be known to you.
He is a local and not a transient, which will make identifying him even more difficult.
Hyper-vigilance is key.
It's not enough to lock the doors and the windows.
Adults cannot take their eyes off of children, not even for a minute.
Prentiss: Even if you think your kids are secure and protected, this unsub has demonstrated to us that they are not.
Thank you.
Ahem.
- Good.
- Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So, um, I got a call from your insurance adjustor.
Mm-hmm.
He was calling to confirm that you had declined a benefit.
Your policy provides a generous rental allowance if you're displaced from your home.
So now you know.
Mom, why would you make up that story that you had no other options? Because I wanted to spend time with you, and I was afraid if I asked, you would tell me no.
Why would I do that? Oh, come on, JJ.
You are perfectly happy up here with your life just as it is.
The same way you are perfectly happy with your life in East Allegheny, right? It does not mean that Oh, you think I'm happy? You think I'm happy in that house all alone, your dad off with his new wife, one daughter who never saw 17, and the other The other what, Mom? The other what? Who left.
Who went away and stayed away.
I came back.
Yeah, after 20 years.
Can you blame me? Look, the terrible memories, what happened to Roz, they're It's all there In that place.
Well, I'm there, too, remember? Lewis: Well, we're checking every industrial space in the area.
So far nothing.
Look at this photo from Katie Linz's bedroom.
She was making something out of papier-mache, just like Joey Pryor.
School project, maybe.
No, no, Katie was homeschooled.
I'll have Garcia look into it.
Yeah.
[Indistinct conversation in adjacent room.]
Well, the sun's going down.
Every last patrol officer's walking the streets.
This little town's turned into a fortress.
Think the unsub will be discouraged? Yeah, me, neither.
Woman: Well, how much longer will you be? No, no.
I'm just making up a spare bed.
Timmy's sleeping in our room tonight, whether he likes it or not.
Mom, why can't I watch TV? Listen, I need to get started on dinner.
Love you, too.
[Hangs up.]
[Knock on door.]
Somebody's at the door.
[Knock on door.]
[Sighs.]
[Knock on door.]
What are you doing here? [Police radio transmissions.]
What's going on? There's a disturbance at the mayor's house.
A neighbor said she heard a child scream.
[Sizzling.]
Reid: Call an ambulance.
It's ok.
Help is on the way.
Rossi: Ambulance is almost here.
It's too late.
She's already dead.
Simmons: What the hell happened here? Mrs.
Tremaine's skull was crushed, and the boy's missing.
That's a big change in M.
O.
, but this had to have been our unsub.
Judging by the volume of blood, she was most likely attacked here and left for dead.
But I thought Mrs.
Tremaine was in the kitchen fixing dinner.
That was after the attack.
Come again.
Her neocortex was destroyed, but her paleocortex must have remained intact.
It's the more primitive part of the brain that guides instinct and habitual action.
Rossi: Like when it's dinnertime, you go fix dinner.
Ok.
Well, that's a sharp escalation of violence.
And the unsub didn't try to lure Timmy out like he did the others.
Or he tried and failed.
Man: Mayor, you can't go in Mayor: It's my house.
Let me in.
They said, uh [Labored breathing.]
Joan is dead.
Mayor Where's my boy? He's gone, isn't he? We're gonna find your son.
You have my word on that.
Mayor Tremaine, I know it's difficult to think clearly right now, but it's incredibly important that we know if Timmy had a cell phone or a computer.
Yeah.
It's upstairs in my office.
It's in your office? Mayor: Timmy didn't do his chores, so we took it away for a few days.
Simmons: Ok.
Let's get you out of here.
Ok? Come on.
Well, that explains it.
The kids are being lured via the Internet, but Timmy was offline.
So the unsub got an ax and went back to basics.
So the wife and the son of the mayor.
That can't be a coincidence.
Yeah, and the packet was sent to the town newspaper.
I mean, this unsub's anger isn't directed - [cell phone rings.]
- at any specific parents.
He's got a grudge against the town as a whole.
Garcia, what have you got? It turns out that Joey Pryor and Katie Linz took a papier-mache class together as part of this summer activities program located at the county fairgrounds.
Now, I know what you're thinking, and before you ask I'm sorry the instructor was a retired nurse in her seventies.
That's about as un-unsubby as they come.
Were the other kids enrolled? Garcia: Not in that class, but in that activities program, yes.
Let's see.
Aiden Lyson was taking a woodworking course.
Olivia Woolsey went the 4-H Route, learning about chickens.
Ok, so the unsub cherry picked the kids from the other classes.
I think we just found our guy's hunting grounds.
Garcia: But I've gone through all the instructors, and nobody matches the unsub's profile.
Ok, what about parents or fairground employees? No, nobody.
And the thing is, that place is open to the public.
Tons of people go in and out, it could be practically anybody in town.
We found these encrypted emails in Timmy's inbox.
The date of the first one is the night the 3 children vanished.
So Timmy was meant to be part of the first group of abductions.
[Tapping.]
[Indistinct voices on computer.]
This is an ASMR video Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.
It's a tactile sensory stimulation that can evoke low-grade euphoria, particularly in children and young adults.
I've never heard of it.
Euphoria.
So that must be the drug that our unsub was using to induce a suggestible state to the kids he abducted.
[Beep.]
Uh, what just happened? I was afraid of this.
The emails are programmed to self-delete after being viewed.
That's why we didn't find anything on the other computers.
Ok, he sent 4 more identical emails, so we'll just film the next video and have a record of it.
To do this, the technical level of expertise would have to be off the charts.
I'm talking Penelope Garcia level.
Channing: Well, that narrows the suspect pool.
That's good, right? Prentiss: Yeah, but it also means our unsub is a lot more formidable than we thought, and that's bad.
[Tapping on video.]
[Children shuddering.]
[Tapping on video.]
Euphoria ain't what it used to be.
[Sighs.]
Ok.
Well, let's walk through it.
The kids crawl into bed, they go to sleep.
Ping, they get an email.
They open it, watch the video, go wandering out into the night to be taken by a stranger.
That feels like a stretch.
Prentiss: Yeah, I agree.
Sandpaper, whispering.
It's just not enough to induce the behavior we saw on that surveillance tape.
So something must be added to the mix Subliminal messaging, maybe.
You mean, the old "eat popcorn" thing, because that turned out to be a hoax.
Prentiss: Well, they weren't all hoaxes.
It's a serious enough phenomenon that subliminal advertising's been banned in the U.
K.
Alvez: That might explain the papier-mache.
It's a tactile, immersive activity [cell phone rings.]
Like finger-painting or working a Potter's wheel.
Give us something good, Garcia.
Ok, I went through the ASMR video for sub-visual clues.
Nada.
Then I looked for sub-audio clues, and I found this running throughout.
[Squeaking on video.]
That's like the back and forth of a playground swing.
Alvez: It might be the unsub's subliminal message to the kids on where to go.
Garcia: And at no additional cost to the American taxpayer, I scanned for back masking, which is messages played backwards or under other audio tracks, you know like, "I buried Paul.
" [Imitates Liverpool accent.]
And I found this.
Man: Hamelin.
Hamelin.
Hamelin.
Is that Hamelin? Of "Pied Piper" fame.
He played a flute and lured the town's children from their homes.
The unsub must see himself as a 21st-century version of that, except he traded in the flute for a laptop.
Garcia: Guys, I think I blocked it out and I'm not sure I want to unblock it back in, but what eventually happened to the kids from Hamelin? They were all led to a riverbank and drowned.
Lewis: He had these kids right where he wanted them.
ASMR, susceptibility to tactile stimulation, subliminal messaging, plus, they're at the most vulnerable age for psychological manipulation.
A perfect storm.
What have you got? Employment records for the summer activities program.
The first set of payroll checks were issued on June 15th, except for one.
The computer teacher didn't get hers until July 8th.
I looked back, discovered that the original teacher, Wayne Hollis, was fired after only 3 weeks on the job for suspected inappropriate behavior with the students.
Lewis: I think that thud we just heard is a dart hitting a bull's-eye.
What kind of inappropriate behavior? Reid: Undetermined and maybe nonexistent.
Apparently, he would meet with children after school to teach them things, sometimes at the park or in the mall.
Anyway, the parents found out, they started talking, things snowballed, and people wondered if he was molesting them.
So once the gossip machine revved up, it didn't slow down.
I bet you the parents of some of these abducted children were right in the middle, stirring the pot.
Does Hollis have a regular job? He does.
He's a research consultant at a hi-tech firm in Des Moines.
He's also a single father to a 15-year-old son named Garrett.
Garcia has the address.
I'll send Luke and Dave.
[Swing set squeaking.]
Hollis' utility bill hasn't been paid in two months, and the teenager, Garrett, hasn't been to class in 3 weeks.
Father and son just packed up and left? Maybe.
Garrett was ridiculed at school for the molestation rumors surrounding his father.
The advisor said he was worried about the kid that he was spiraling down.
Ohh, what a cute baby.
Thank you.
How old is he? Or is it a she? He's a little boy, and he's almost 8 months old.
It's hard to believe that people were ever so innocent, so pure and untainted.
Why do you hurt him? Pardon me? Why hurt your boy? Why do such terrible, unthinkable things to him? Because that's what I heard from your neighbors, your friends, the people you thought you could trust, the same way all of you talked about me.
Leave me alone.
[Woman screams.]
Stay put.
Do not move.
Stop! [Crying.]
Hollis: Any of you move, I kill her.
Please don't hurt me! Hollis: Do not move a step! So the Hollis house was empty? Yeah, except for a chair that was knocked over in the middle of the living room.
Like there'd been a struggle? That's what we thought, and then looked up at the ceiling.
It was hung over a roof beam.
Matt said that Hollis' son Garrett had been teased and tormented in school over rumors surrounding his father.
Garrett must have hung himself.
His father found him and cut him down.
And buried him.
There was freshly turned dirt in the backyard.
It's being excavated as we speak.
We have a hostage situation in Legacy Park.
Tara and Matt are in the area.
Hollis: I'm serious.
Don't move, people! Do not move! Run away, I kill her.
Wayne Hollis, FBI.
Let her go.
Drop the weapon.
Hollis: No, no, no, no.
Everybody in this town talks except me.
Gossip, rumor, innuendo.
You think I hurt your children, but I didn't.
It was a lie.
We know about your son, Wayne.
Think about Garrett.
This is not how he'd want you to react.
It doesn't matter what Garrett wants or doesn't want.
He's dead, because of you, all of you.
He had hopes and dreams, and you took it all away with your lies.
Lies! Well, now I'm taking something away from you.
By the time you find your children, it'll be too late.
And that will haunt you for the rest of your lives.
- Simmons: No! - [Gunshot.]
[Sighs.]
No wallet.
Pockets are empty.
What is it? Well, I don't know.
It's unlike any mud I've ever seen.
Let's get a rush analysis on that.
Woman: Here you go, Agent.
Thank you.
Lab results on the mud.
- And? - Sample contains large amounts of proteases.
- And? - Proteolytic enzymes.
They break down the peptide bonds between amino acids found in complex proteins.
It's commonly found in meat tenderizers.
Garcia.
Uh Got it.
Great plains meat tenderizer.
The company was based out of Wesser, Iowa, until it went out of business 20 years ago.
I'm sending the address now.
Anybody in there? Aiden, Olivia, Joey.
Now, this unit's locked up tight.
Kids, we're the police.
You're ok now.
Rossi: There's gonna be a loud noise.
We need to knock the lock off the door.
All right.
Watch out.
Hey.
Look at me.
We're here to help you.
Simmons: Hey, Joey, we got you.
Come on.
All right.
[Police radio transmissions.]
No chance I can change your mind? Mm.
No, sweetheart.
I need to go home.
I really wish you'd stay.
You ever project yourself into the future? How do you mean? Imagine what your life's gonna look like down the road, but really see it, like it's a movie and you're sitting in the theater watching.
I guess I've always just been too wrapped up in the craziness of now.
Yeah.
When I was younger, I played this movie in my head all the time.
You and Roz all grown.
Your dad and I in a house out in the country, grandkids running all around, food cooking in the kitchen.
That sounds nice.
Yeah.
Except it was all make-believe.
After Roz died, I threw that stupid movie in the trash for good.
I blamed your father.
I blamed myself.
I blamed the whole damn world.
I got so caught up in all my troubles that I forgot there was another little girl under my roof who had just lost her sister.
You needed me, and I wasn't there.
You did the best you could.
No.
No, I did not do my best, and I realize that now, and I am truly sorry.
Mom.
[Sniffles.]
Now we know the truth about Roz.
Yes.
Thanks to you.
I'm proud of you.
I don't think I've ever told you that.
Every morning you get up and you go to work, and you make a difference in people's lives.
You look in those folders so the rest of us don't have to.
[Sniffles.]
Thanks, Mom.
That means more than you'll ever know.
Man: This way.
Different man: Over here.
Right here.
[Indistinct conversations.]
Girl: Dad, it's ok.
I'm ok.
A lot of wounds to heal, but it's started.
I missed you guys! Let's head home.
Prentiss: "It isn't what they say about you", it's what they whisper.
" Errol Flynn.
I'm so happy to hear that.
And where's your mom now? JJ: Oh, she's saying good-bye to Garcia.
She wants me to drive her back to Pennsylvania tonight.
Well, give her my love.
Yeah, I will.
Uh, Spence, have you Have you ever projected yourself into an imagined future? You know, given that particles can travel faster than the speed of light, it's always kind of felt like pointless speculation.
You'd have to, obviously, solve that first.
Mm.
Yeah, yeah.
You're right.
We would definitely have to solve that first.
But to answer your question, yes, I actually have 3 or 4 imagined futures.
Really? You sound surprised.
I am.
Tell me about it someday.
It's a date.
Ok.
So I have a proposal.
Let's postpone East Allegheny for a day, and we take that drive to Ocean City tomorrow.
You sure? Yeah.
Why not? Let's do it.
All right.
Do you think that seafood restaurant's still there? Oh, yeah, we could check.
I think I've helped save enough lives today.
I want a lobster do-over.
[Sprinkler.]
[Whispered voice.]
[Indistinct whispers.]
[Indistinct whisper.]
[Door closes.]
[Indistinct whisper.]
[Indistinct whisper.]
[Indistinct whisper.]
Reid: Something wrong? Oh, it's my mom.
A pipe burst last night, and now her living room is flooded.
Ugh.
Yeah.
Repairs are gonna take 3 weeks minimum, and she has asked to stay with me.
That's good, right? I mean, out of all the people in her life, you're the one that she chose to Yeah, I was her only option, Spence.
Ah.
Trust me, she would much rather rent something on her own closer to home, but apparently money's a little tight.
I know our relationship hasn't always been smooth sailing, but I don't know, maybe this time it'll be different.
Maybe it will.
Didn't you tell me your house is having a top-to-bottom paint job this week? Mm-hmm.
As of this morning.
What are you gonna do? Well, Will took the boys to Florida for a couple days.
I just rented a hotel room in the city.
Ooh, I guess I better upgrade to that junior suite now, huh? Let me know if you need anything Books, food, shoulder to cry on.
Mmm.
What was that last one? [Chuckles.]
All right, just please keep your phone handy.
Simmons: What do we have? Garcia: Last night 3 10-year-old kids went missing from their homes in Wesser, Iowa.
The parents didn't notice they were gone until they woke up this morning.
Alvez: Well, all of the families slept through the abductions.
There must not have been much of a struggle.
No signs of forced entry, either.
Neighbors didn't hear a sound.
Lewis: Look, I'm not minimizing this, but is it possible this wasn't an abduction at all? I mean, group of 10-year-olds, tip-toe exit in the middle of the night.
She's got a good point.
I mean, what if the kids just made a bad decision to sneak out on a big adventure together? Prentiss: I was wondering that myself, but it was nearly freezing last night, and it appears all the kids left wearing their pajamas.
None of them took any clothing or food.
Simmons: Maybe it's a straight-up kidnapping.
The ransom demands could be on their way.
Prentiss: JJ has some personal business to attend to here, but she will be consulting by phone.
For the rest of us, wheels up.
Oh, no.
Guys, guys, guys.
There's something that just came in.
You need to see it.
It's from Wesser P.
D.
It's surveillance footage from a neighborhood park.
Alvez: Those are the kids.
What the hell is going on? Garcia, can you zoom in on that, please? Rossi: "There is always one moment in childhood" when the door opens and lets the future in.
" Graham Greene.
40 years in law enforcement, I've never seen an abduction like this.
The children appear to be complicit.
I mean, they went to the unsub voluntarily.
Reid: Yeah, but watch the last child's face.
It's like he senses something wrong at the last moment.
There's still no ransom demand.
That plus the tape, this is looking less and less like a kidnapping.
Normally I'd think this was a sex offender, but pedophiles almost never abduct more than one child at a time.
If for no other reason than it's hard to control multiple victims.
I don't know.
The kids on the swing set looked pretty damn controlled.
Maybe they were drugged somehow earlier.
What do we know about these kids? Simmons: They were all good students, stable homes, no behavioral issues at all.
Prentiss: When we land, I'll coordinate with Agent Channing who's already on the ground with her child abduction rapid deployment team.
The rest of you pair up, go to the children's homes, talk to their parents.
We need to get a sense of these kids.
Someone or something got ahold of them.
We need to find out what.
Prentiss: Ok, catch me up, Agent Channing.
We've got local P.
D.
canvassing the neighborhood looking for home surveillance cameras.
Good.
We'll set up monitors here for viewing.
Our CARD team has handled hundreds of child abduction cases.
But something like this, we're in uncharted territory.
Have you met the mayor yet? - No.
- Buckle up.
Are you the other FBI person? SSA Prentiss.
I understand you're the mayor.
Rob Tremaine.
Can someone please tell me what's being done to get to the bottom of this? Our BAU team is in place, Mayor, and we're very good at what we do.
I'm talking about specifics.
What specifically are you doing? Honey, I'm going home with Timmy.
Take a deep breath.
Look, I'm sorry.
I don't mean to come on strong, but a thing like this.
I understand.
But it is important for you to present a calm and confident face to your community right now.
Well, that's easier said than done.
3 kids in one night? How do we know that this maniac isn't going to take more? We don't.
[Indistinct police radio transmissions.]
[Sobs.]
This can't be happening.
It's like a nightmare and I can't wake up.
Rossi: Your son was plugged in.
Joey's addicted to his screens.
I have kids myself.
I know what you mean.
Did your son make this? Yes.
He loved doing papier-mache.
It's practically the only thing that could tear him away from his electronics.
Do you think that this is how this person got Joey, like a chat room or something? We'll know more once we have a chance to look at his computer.
'Cause we monitored his online activity as best we could.
We put in filters, safeguards.
But Joey and his friends, they know how to get around all of it.
[Sighs.]
Oh, god.
This cyber stuff, it's their world, not ours.
Prentiss: So why these kids and why now? The behavior in the video, it appears as though they're responding to a post-hypnotic suggestion.
If true, that's an awfully elaborate ruse.
The seeds for this abduction must have been planted a long time ago.
But the parents have confirmed that these kids didn't really know one another.
They went to different schools.
They didn't hang out socially.
So where's the overlap? Maybe there isn't any.
I mean, they could have been selected randomly online.
Except if this is a form of hypnosis, the unsub would need to know that the children are susceptible to suggestion.
[Cell phone rings.]
You're on speaker, Garcia.
Garcia, on telephone: Ok, I've gone through the registered sex offenders in a 50-mile radius of Wesser.
And at the conclusion of this phone call, I am going to take 3, maybe 4, showers, scrub myself with steel wool, during which time I'm gonna tent the office, fumigate it, and when it clears out, I'm gonna fill it with kittens.
You find anything? His name is Arthur Brodie.
What about him? 50 years old.
He's got a long rap sheet of sexual deviancy, including but not limited to voyeurism, indecent exposure, possession of child pornography, the stealing of young women's undergarments.
I'm definitely gonna need 4 showers.
Why did Brodie pop out more than any others? Well, thing one is he was released a month ago after serving a 12-year sentence for statutory rape.
Thing two, he owns a white van that is eerily like the one from the surveillance video.
Reid: Does Brodie live in town? Yes.
He lives with his mom.
He works the graveyard shift at an assembly plant in town.
And if you'd like another pop for this weasel, last night when the kids went missing, guess which bra thief called in sick to work.
[Pounding on door.]
Child: Let me out! Let me out! Please, let me out! Let me out! Let me out! Please! [Gasps.]
I don't want to die.
Don't worry.
We're gonna get out of here.
[Indistinct chatter.]
[Camera shutter clicks.]
Reid: Arthur Brodie? FBI.
Your mother told us we might find you here.
What's the problem? I'm minding my own business.
You minding your business or theirs? Heh.
"Assembly and maintenance of your Corvell 350 vacuum cleaner.
" Come on, Brodie.
You want to pretend you're here to read, you got to do better than that.
That your white van parked over there? You can't touch it without a warrant.
I've got my rights.
Yes, we can.
And no, you don't.
You're on parole.
That's all the warrant we need.
The hell with you people.
We're not done yet.
Ahh! [Handcuffs click.]
Now we're done.
Jareau: All right, Mom, here we are.
All these years, I can't believe this is the first time I've seen where you work.
Wow.
Ha ha! You're sure you don't want me to take you to the mall? You could shop, watch a movie.
No, right here's fine.
You just do what you need to do, and I will sit here, quiet as a mouse.
Ok.
[Phone beeps.]
Oh.
Don't.
Ok, uh, heh! I'm sorry.
I was just Don't look in the files.
It can be difficult to process Ok? Ok.
Sorry.
It's ok.
[Sighs.]
[Exhales.]
Ok.
You know what I thought might be fun? The two of us take a drive out to Ocean City this weekend.
I'm consulting on an active case, Mom, so until we close it, there are no weekends.
I haven't been to ocean city since you and Roz were just little things.
That's where your dad and I took you girls to have lobster for the first time, remember? No, not really.
Yeah, funniest thing.
The lobsters were in a tank out front so the customers could pick the one they wanted, but when the man reached in to grab the one you picked What? Well, it hit you that that poor fish was about to go get cooked.
So you told that man to put it right back where it was, and we had to order you a hot dog instead.
That's funny, I really I don't remember that at all.
Well, I should have known you were gonna be an FBI agent.
Even back then, you were all about saving lives.
Rossi: What's that abrasion on his forehead? Prentiss: Apparently he gave Lewis a shove and Reid went a little cell block "D" on him.
Nice.
Mr.
Brodie, where were you last night? I don't got to say a thing.
Well, actually, you do.
That's one of the rights a person gives up for assaulting underage girls.
Nobody got assaulted.
And it was a girl.
One.
Me and Brandi were in love.
That would be Brandi Nichols, eighth grader.
Who was all of 13 years old in 2004 when you first began having sex with her.
Hey, if that's a crime, you better get out there and slap the cuffs on Shakespeare, too.
Excuse me? Romeo and Juliet.
You know how old she was? 13.
So how come with her, it's this great romance, but when it was me and Brandi, I'm a pervert? Now, my Shakespeare's a little rusty, but I don't remember Romeo being a 50-year-old degenerate who collects girls' underwear.
Prentiss: You didn't answer my question, Mr.
Brodie.
Where were you last night between the hours of 9 P.
M.
and 4 A.
M.
? At home with my mom.
Call and ask.
Now, if you're not gonna charge me with anything, then I'm Oh, we're definitely gonna charge you with something.
Parole violation, assault on a federal agent.
That should get the ball rolling.
Wait.
I'm going to jail? Well, look at it this way.
Someone asks you wherefore art thou, you know what to say.
Ok, so we have a citywide curfew in place tonight.
I heard the good news about Brodie.
I'm scheduling a press conference to announce that we have our primary suspect in custody.
That's a little premature, Mayor.
Why? Well, because people are gonna think the danger is passed.
It hasn't.
Brodie's still a person of interest, but his van came back clean and he has an alibi.
[Scoffs.]
You mean his mom? And the only reason the van is clean is because he cleaned it.
We'll hold a press conference when it's appropriate.
Oh, good.
When would that be, when the next batch of kids goes missing? Unbelievable.
Hmm.
Look, I know he wants to tie this all off in a tidy bow, but come on.
You think Brodie's our guy? No, no.
The guy's a moron.
And morons don't grab children? Yeah, but this unsub isn't grabbing.
The kids are going to him.
For an offender to sink in their hooks that deep requires patience, planning, and smarts, none of which is Brodie.
At least this town's on high alert.
I doubt there's a door in Wesser, Iowa that hasn't been double- and triple-bolted.
Let's hope that's enough.
[Indistinct whispering.]
[Indistinct whispering.]
The unsub's sending a message "take all the precautions you want, I can still get your kids.
" Katie's father not only double-locked the front door, he barricaded it with a couch.
Did their daughter know any of the other missing kids? No, she was homeschooled.
These kids are linked somehow.
We need to widen out, look into extracurricular activities Sports, summer camps.
The kids on the surveillance video, they looked like they were on auto-pilot, right? More like zombified.
But Katie's parents put up a barricade.
So she was forced to use in-the-moment cognitive skills to circumvent the obstacle.
Evaluate, problem-solve, improvise.
Not your average zombie's strong suit.
Making it even more likely that the unsub had previous personal interactions with the children.
The unsub dropped a packet off at the local newspaper.
It's on its way here now.
[Shivering.]
I'm so cold.
It'll be warmer if we sit close together.
Come on.
It was found outside the newspaper offices.
Nobody saw who left it.
Names of the first 3 kids.
Nail clippings.
So why send proof of life with no ransom demand? There was a flash drive in the envelope, too.
Man, on tape: How does it feel? What did he say? How does it feel? Our unsub used the expression "how does it feel?".
This indicates that, while he abducted the kids, our unsub's anger is focused on someone else.
Alvez: It also explains why there appears to be no deliberate harm to the children.
The kids are merely a means to an end.
He's not a sexual predator nor a kidnapper in a traditional sense.
This person is an injustice collector, and as such is motivated by revenge.
Reid: None of the children's parents, however, are in professions that typically evoke revenge-based anger Doctors, judges, lawyers.
Rossi: We believe the unsub is in his mid-30s to mid-40s.
He's thorough, intelligent, and calculating.
He may have also suffered the loss of a child recently.
That could be what's triggered these current abductions.
Now, whether this was a literal death, a physical separation, or purely a symbolic loss isn't clear.
Simmons: The children are apparently responding to a form of post-hypnotic suggestion.
Lewis: He's also technological savvy and capable of bonding with children.
In fact, his cyber expertise may be his entrée into their world.
Reid: And this person is known to your children, and he might even be known to you.
He is a local and not a transient, which will make identifying him even more difficult.
Hyper-vigilance is key.
It's not enough to lock the doors and the windows.
Adults cannot take their eyes off of children, not even for a minute.
Prentiss: Even if you think your kids are secure and protected, this unsub has demonstrated to us that they are not.
Thank you.
Ahem.
- Good.
- Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So, um, I got a call from your insurance adjustor.
Mm-hmm.
He was calling to confirm that you had declined a benefit.
Your policy provides a generous rental allowance if you're displaced from your home.
So now you know.
Mom, why would you make up that story that you had no other options? Because I wanted to spend time with you, and I was afraid if I asked, you would tell me no.
Why would I do that? Oh, come on, JJ.
You are perfectly happy up here with your life just as it is.
The same way you are perfectly happy with your life in East Allegheny, right? It does not mean that Oh, you think I'm happy? You think I'm happy in that house all alone, your dad off with his new wife, one daughter who never saw 17, and the other The other what, Mom? The other what? Who left.
Who went away and stayed away.
I came back.
Yeah, after 20 years.
Can you blame me? Look, the terrible memories, what happened to Roz, they're It's all there In that place.
Well, I'm there, too, remember? Lewis: Well, we're checking every industrial space in the area.
So far nothing.
Look at this photo from Katie Linz's bedroom.
She was making something out of papier-mache, just like Joey Pryor.
School project, maybe.
No, no, Katie was homeschooled.
I'll have Garcia look into it.
Yeah.
[Indistinct conversation in adjacent room.]
Well, the sun's going down.
Every last patrol officer's walking the streets.
This little town's turned into a fortress.
Think the unsub will be discouraged? Yeah, me, neither.
Woman: Well, how much longer will you be? No, no.
I'm just making up a spare bed.
Timmy's sleeping in our room tonight, whether he likes it or not.
Mom, why can't I watch TV? Listen, I need to get started on dinner.
Love you, too.
[Hangs up.]
[Knock on door.]
Somebody's at the door.
[Knock on door.]
[Sighs.]
[Knock on door.]
What are you doing here? [Police radio transmissions.]
What's going on? There's a disturbance at the mayor's house.
A neighbor said she heard a child scream.
[Sizzling.]
Reid: Call an ambulance.
It's ok.
Help is on the way.
Rossi: Ambulance is almost here.
It's too late.
She's already dead.
Simmons: What the hell happened here? Mrs.
Tremaine's skull was crushed, and the boy's missing.
That's a big change in M.
O.
, but this had to have been our unsub.
Judging by the volume of blood, she was most likely attacked here and left for dead.
But I thought Mrs.
Tremaine was in the kitchen fixing dinner.
That was after the attack.
Come again.
Her neocortex was destroyed, but her paleocortex must have remained intact.
It's the more primitive part of the brain that guides instinct and habitual action.
Rossi: Like when it's dinnertime, you go fix dinner.
Ok.
Well, that's a sharp escalation of violence.
And the unsub didn't try to lure Timmy out like he did the others.
Or he tried and failed.
Man: Mayor, you can't go in Mayor: It's my house.
Let me in.
They said, uh [Labored breathing.]
Joan is dead.
Mayor Where's my boy? He's gone, isn't he? We're gonna find your son.
You have my word on that.
Mayor Tremaine, I know it's difficult to think clearly right now, but it's incredibly important that we know if Timmy had a cell phone or a computer.
Yeah.
It's upstairs in my office.
It's in your office? Mayor: Timmy didn't do his chores, so we took it away for a few days.
Simmons: Ok.
Let's get you out of here.
Ok? Come on.
Well, that explains it.
The kids are being lured via the Internet, but Timmy was offline.
So the unsub got an ax and went back to basics.
So the wife and the son of the mayor.
That can't be a coincidence.
Yeah, and the packet was sent to the town newspaper.
I mean, this unsub's anger isn't directed - [cell phone rings.]
- at any specific parents.
He's got a grudge against the town as a whole.
Garcia, what have you got? It turns out that Joey Pryor and Katie Linz took a papier-mache class together as part of this summer activities program located at the county fairgrounds.
Now, I know what you're thinking, and before you ask I'm sorry the instructor was a retired nurse in her seventies.
That's about as un-unsubby as they come.
Were the other kids enrolled? Garcia: Not in that class, but in that activities program, yes.
Let's see.
Aiden Lyson was taking a woodworking course.
Olivia Woolsey went the 4-H Route, learning about chickens.
Ok, so the unsub cherry picked the kids from the other classes.
I think we just found our guy's hunting grounds.
Garcia: But I've gone through all the instructors, and nobody matches the unsub's profile.
Ok, what about parents or fairground employees? No, nobody.
And the thing is, that place is open to the public.
Tons of people go in and out, it could be practically anybody in town.
We found these encrypted emails in Timmy's inbox.
The date of the first one is the night the 3 children vanished.
So Timmy was meant to be part of the first group of abductions.
[Tapping.]
[Indistinct voices on computer.]
This is an ASMR video Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.
It's a tactile sensory stimulation that can evoke low-grade euphoria, particularly in children and young adults.
I've never heard of it.
Euphoria.
So that must be the drug that our unsub was using to induce a suggestible state to the kids he abducted.
[Beep.]
Uh, what just happened? I was afraid of this.
The emails are programmed to self-delete after being viewed.
That's why we didn't find anything on the other computers.
Ok, he sent 4 more identical emails, so we'll just film the next video and have a record of it.
To do this, the technical level of expertise would have to be off the charts.
I'm talking Penelope Garcia level.
Channing: Well, that narrows the suspect pool.
That's good, right? Prentiss: Yeah, but it also means our unsub is a lot more formidable than we thought, and that's bad.
[Tapping on video.]
[Children shuddering.]
[Tapping on video.]
Euphoria ain't what it used to be.
[Sighs.]
Ok.
Well, let's walk through it.
The kids crawl into bed, they go to sleep.
Ping, they get an email.
They open it, watch the video, go wandering out into the night to be taken by a stranger.
That feels like a stretch.
Prentiss: Yeah, I agree.
Sandpaper, whispering.
It's just not enough to induce the behavior we saw on that surveillance tape.
So something must be added to the mix Subliminal messaging, maybe.
You mean, the old "eat popcorn" thing, because that turned out to be a hoax.
Prentiss: Well, they weren't all hoaxes.
It's a serious enough phenomenon that subliminal advertising's been banned in the U.
K.
Alvez: That might explain the papier-mache.
It's a tactile, immersive activity [cell phone rings.]
Like finger-painting or working a Potter's wheel.
Give us something good, Garcia.
Ok, I went through the ASMR video for sub-visual clues.
Nada.
Then I looked for sub-audio clues, and I found this running throughout.
[Squeaking on video.]
That's like the back and forth of a playground swing.
Alvez: It might be the unsub's subliminal message to the kids on where to go.
Garcia: And at no additional cost to the American taxpayer, I scanned for back masking, which is messages played backwards or under other audio tracks, you know like, "I buried Paul.
" [Imitates Liverpool accent.]
And I found this.
Man: Hamelin.
Hamelin.
Hamelin.
Is that Hamelin? Of "Pied Piper" fame.
He played a flute and lured the town's children from their homes.
The unsub must see himself as a 21st-century version of that, except he traded in the flute for a laptop.
Garcia: Guys, I think I blocked it out and I'm not sure I want to unblock it back in, but what eventually happened to the kids from Hamelin? They were all led to a riverbank and drowned.
Lewis: He had these kids right where he wanted them.
ASMR, susceptibility to tactile stimulation, subliminal messaging, plus, they're at the most vulnerable age for psychological manipulation.
A perfect storm.
What have you got? Employment records for the summer activities program.
The first set of payroll checks were issued on June 15th, except for one.
The computer teacher didn't get hers until July 8th.
I looked back, discovered that the original teacher, Wayne Hollis, was fired after only 3 weeks on the job for suspected inappropriate behavior with the students.
Lewis: I think that thud we just heard is a dart hitting a bull's-eye.
What kind of inappropriate behavior? Reid: Undetermined and maybe nonexistent.
Apparently, he would meet with children after school to teach them things, sometimes at the park or in the mall.
Anyway, the parents found out, they started talking, things snowballed, and people wondered if he was molesting them.
So once the gossip machine revved up, it didn't slow down.
I bet you the parents of some of these abducted children were right in the middle, stirring the pot.
Does Hollis have a regular job? He does.
He's a research consultant at a hi-tech firm in Des Moines.
He's also a single father to a 15-year-old son named Garrett.
Garcia has the address.
I'll send Luke and Dave.
[Swing set squeaking.]
Hollis' utility bill hasn't been paid in two months, and the teenager, Garrett, hasn't been to class in 3 weeks.
Father and son just packed up and left? Maybe.
Garrett was ridiculed at school for the molestation rumors surrounding his father.
The advisor said he was worried about the kid that he was spiraling down.
Ohh, what a cute baby.
Thank you.
How old is he? Or is it a she? He's a little boy, and he's almost 8 months old.
It's hard to believe that people were ever so innocent, so pure and untainted.
Why do you hurt him? Pardon me? Why hurt your boy? Why do such terrible, unthinkable things to him? Because that's what I heard from your neighbors, your friends, the people you thought you could trust, the same way all of you talked about me.
Leave me alone.
[Woman screams.]
Stay put.
Do not move.
Stop! [Crying.]
Hollis: Any of you move, I kill her.
Please don't hurt me! Hollis: Do not move a step! So the Hollis house was empty? Yeah, except for a chair that was knocked over in the middle of the living room.
Like there'd been a struggle? That's what we thought, and then looked up at the ceiling.
It was hung over a roof beam.
Matt said that Hollis' son Garrett had been teased and tormented in school over rumors surrounding his father.
Garrett must have hung himself.
His father found him and cut him down.
And buried him.
There was freshly turned dirt in the backyard.
It's being excavated as we speak.
We have a hostage situation in Legacy Park.
Tara and Matt are in the area.
Hollis: I'm serious.
Don't move, people! Do not move! Run away, I kill her.
Wayne Hollis, FBI.
Let her go.
Drop the weapon.
Hollis: No, no, no, no.
Everybody in this town talks except me.
Gossip, rumor, innuendo.
You think I hurt your children, but I didn't.
It was a lie.
We know about your son, Wayne.
Think about Garrett.
This is not how he'd want you to react.
It doesn't matter what Garrett wants or doesn't want.
He's dead, because of you, all of you.
He had hopes and dreams, and you took it all away with your lies.
Lies! Well, now I'm taking something away from you.
By the time you find your children, it'll be too late.
And that will haunt you for the rest of your lives.
- Simmons: No! - [Gunshot.]
[Sighs.]
No wallet.
Pockets are empty.
What is it? Well, I don't know.
It's unlike any mud I've ever seen.
Let's get a rush analysis on that.
Woman: Here you go, Agent.
Thank you.
Lab results on the mud.
- And? - Sample contains large amounts of proteases.
- And? - Proteolytic enzymes.
They break down the peptide bonds between amino acids found in complex proteins.
It's commonly found in meat tenderizers.
Garcia.
Uh Got it.
Great plains meat tenderizer.
The company was based out of Wesser, Iowa, until it went out of business 20 years ago.
I'm sending the address now.
Anybody in there? Aiden, Olivia, Joey.
Now, this unit's locked up tight.
Kids, we're the police.
You're ok now.
Rossi: There's gonna be a loud noise.
We need to knock the lock off the door.
All right.
Watch out.
Hey.
Look at me.
We're here to help you.
Simmons: Hey, Joey, we got you.
Come on.
All right.
[Police radio transmissions.]
No chance I can change your mind? Mm.
No, sweetheart.
I need to go home.
I really wish you'd stay.
You ever project yourself into the future? How do you mean? Imagine what your life's gonna look like down the road, but really see it, like it's a movie and you're sitting in the theater watching.
I guess I've always just been too wrapped up in the craziness of now.
Yeah.
When I was younger, I played this movie in my head all the time.
You and Roz all grown.
Your dad and I in a house out in the country, grandkids running all around, food cooking in the kitchen.
That sounds nice.
Yeah.
Except it was all make-believe.
After Roz died, I threw that stupid movie in the trash for good.
I blamed your father.
I blamed myself.
I blamed the whole damn world.
I got so caught up in all my troubles that I forgot there was another little girl under my roof who had just lost her sister.
You needed me, and I wasn't there.
You did the best you could.
No.
No, I did not do my best, and I realize that now, and I am truly sorry.
Mom.
[Sniffles.]
Now we know the truth about Roz.
Yes.
Thanks to you.
I'm proud of you.
I don't think I've ever told you that.
Every morning you get up and you go to work, and you make a difference in people's lives.
You look in those folders so the rest of us don't have to.
[Sniffles.]
Thanks, Mom.
That means more than you'll ever know.
Man: This way.
Different man: Over here.
Right here.
[Indistinct conversations.]
Girl: Dad, it's ok.
I'm ok.
A lot of wounds to heal, but it's started.
I missed you guys! Let's head home.
Prentiss: "It isn't what they say about you", it's what they whisper.
" Errol Flynn.
I'm so happy to hear that.
And where's your mom now? JJ: Oh, she's saying good-bye to Garcia.
She wants me to drive her back to Pennsylvania tonight.
Well, give her my love.
Yeah, I will.
Uh, Spence, have you Have you ever projected yourself into an imagined future? You know, given that particles can travel faster than the speed of light, it's always kind of felt like pointless speculation.
You'd have to, obviously, solve that first.
Mm.
Yeah, yeah.
You're right.
We would definitely have to solve that first.
But to answer your question, yes, I actually have 3 or 4 imagined futures.
Really? You sound surprised.
I am.
Tell me about it someday.
It's a date.
Ok.
So I have a proposal.
Let's postpone East Allegheny for a day, and we take that drive to Ocean City tomorrow.
You sure? Yeah.
Why not? Let's do it.
All right.
Do you think that seafood restaurant's still there? Oh, yeah, we could check.
I think I've helped save enough lives today.
I want a lobster do-over.