S2E4 - “Psychodrama”
We open on a bloodied and security guard handcuffed to a table leg. Actually- this opening is pretty cool. We see what is happening NOW, interspersed with flashbacks of the events that occurred a few moments ago. We see security guard currently, and then flashback to see a masked bank robber handcuffing him to the table. We see bank customers huddled together looking terrified, and the same bank robber shooting and threatening the customers with guns. All the bank hostages are in the bras and underwear and look absolutely terrified.
Cut to BAU headquarters where JJ tells us that over the past few months the FBI has been tracking a series of bank robberies in the LA area. There’s been 4 robberies, perpetrated by a lone unsub always wearing a ski mask. The robber makes everyone take off their clothes, locks the clothes in the vault, and then takes the cash. In the last robbery, the unsub forced two pairs of victims together at gunpoint and forced them to “simulate sex” with another. To which Reid says: “It’s remarkable. By utilizing a practical MO the unsub has stumbled on to a psychological signature. It’s fascinating”. Elle is DISGUSTED. She says: “He’s a sex offender now.”
Hailey shows up at the BAU and Hotch is like “Hi/bye” and Hailey is like “You really don’t know why I’m here?” Apparently Baby Jack has a “condition that’s treatable but he’ll be okay”. But Hotch completely forgot. Hailey says: “I know this job is important to you. But we’re important too. I don’t want you to wake up some day in some random city and realize that you don’t know your own son.” Hotch offers to stay but Hailey tells him to go, BUT CLEARLY SHE WANTS HIM TO STAY!!
The team flies the jet (oh hi girl) to LA. Morgan and Gideon visit the most recent crime scene. Reid and JJ work on the unsub’s geographic profile to find the unsub’s hunting ground. Elle and Hotch try to work on victimology to figure out where he might strike next. Morgan attempts to reenact the crime, and tries to figure out what triggered the emotional response that caused the unsub to start sex offending. The only difference is that the unsub both disarmed and attacked the security guard, but only disarmed guards at the previous banks. Morgan says that it was because this guard was wearing a suit, determines the unsub has issues with men in suits, meaning his must have spent time in prison????
Elle and Hotch review tapes with the statements of those who were assault by the unsub. The bank manager and his wife, The Hendersons were one of the couples who were forced to simulate sex, and apparently their kids were there and forced to watch. Mr. Henderson erased the footage of the sexual assaults after the bank robber left, saying he was disoriented and didn’t realize what he was doing. But he later admits to Gideon he was embarrassed and didn’t want anyone to see them.
Garcia uses her digital analysis software to figure out the length and width of the unsub. Garcia realizes that the unsub in the first three robberies were 6’1in the last he was 5’10. He was wearing LIFTS!
UNSUB
- Went to jail between the ages of 18-22 and spent 5-10 years inside
- Currently between the ages of 23-35
- A sexual sadist intent on humiliation
- Sacrificing safety of having just a few hostages to contain, for the satisfaction of having more hostages to control
- Will be less interested in money and more interested in sadistically manipulating his captives
- Likely on drugs
- Planning
- What makes this unsub unique is his fractured psyche: a cold, organized bank robber / a disorganized sexual sadist full of bottled up rage
While the BAU delivers this profile, we watch the unsub take another bank under control. We see that one of the hostages has a phone and is making a call, really showing off the phone. Whoever it is, they call the LAPD who inform the BAU. Unfortunately, the unsub finds out and takes off. A police officer was about to give him a ticket, and he sucker-punches her and takes off on his motorcycle. We can see his long luscious hair!
There’s a car chase where the BAU attempts to catch up with the unsub, but he gets away. The BAU investigates the latest scene, where the unsub has murdered a hostage who refused to remove his clothes. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HERO HOSTAGE WHO CALL THE POLICE WHILE THE ROBBERY WAS IN PROCESS??? WHERE IS HE??
Hotch is feeling sad that he is such a shitty Daddy. Watching a video of Jack’s first steps, which of course he missed.
Meanwhile Reid, JJ, and Elle look through a huge list of possible candidates. Reid tells us that gun nuts and bank robbers aren’t typically sex offenders? They look into Roland Lynch. Morgan and Gideon talk to Lynch’s parole officer who says that Roland is a pimp who used to “punish his girls by raping them in front of his little sisters”????? And Gideon and Morgan have no follow up questions?? They arrest Lynch at a strip club. Gideon says: “If I were you, I wouldn’t even worry about the murder charge. Wait until what happens when word gets around that you’re a pervert.” To which Lynch says: “Yeah, well, I made my living being a pervert.” But WE can tell that Lynch isn’t the unsub because his hair is short.
As Gideon and Reid are about to arrest Lynch, JJ gets a call that a man in a ski mask took a restaurant hostage in the east bay, is making people undress, and just shot a 14 year old kid. The BAU reviews the surveillance footage of the latest crime. In this hostage crisis, the unsub forced one of the kid to hit his mother. When he told the kid to hit his mother harder and the kid refused, the unsub shot him. Hotch is still feeling like Daddy Bad, so he can’t accept why the unsub is now using children this way.
Darren Henderson, the son of the bank manager who was forced to simulate sex with his wife, comes forward to tell the BAU that the unsub apologized at the end of the encounter. Which means he’s not a sadist. Elle says: “He doesn’t derive any sadistic pleasure from these fantasies- they’re more like a compulsion.” Reid says: “It’s like he’s compelled to direct these fantasies, using these people as actors.”
The BAU realizes that the unsub is using the hostages as surrogates in a psychodrama. Reid explains: “A form of psychotherapy in which actors serve as surrogates for actual people in the patient’s life.” There’s a famous Psychodrama pilot program at a local jail call San Luis Obispo. The BAU narrows down the list of potential suspects down to those who did time in San Luis. They realize the unsub is Dale Shepard. Yes, it’s definitely him- look at that hair!
The BAU talk to Shepard’s mom. She’s an opioid addict and as Hotch says “completely out of her mind.” Shepard’s father died when he was young, and Shepard’s sister committed suicide six years ago. Shepard is on crystal meth, without his mask, and walking around on foot.
Shepard wanders into a child’s birthday party nearby a public park, and tells the birthday boy to shoot his mother. The BAU shows up and Hotch shoots Shepard and arrests him. He says: “Look a these people. Look at them! They’re children. They’re children! For God’s sake!”
Rating Criteria (out of 20)
Criminal/Serial Killer: 7/20
Character development/ character arcs: 12/20
Forensics/Context: 15/20
Script writing: 11/20
Background characters: 10/20
Overall: 44/100