S3E15 - “A Higher Power”
When open in Pittsburg PA. It’s storming outside. A woman enters her house, talking on the phone. She’s making casual conversation, but mentions that “it would’ve been Amy’s birthday tomorrow”. She picks up a picture of a young girl, and we can only assume that the little girl is Amy, and by the past tense that she is using, that Amy is no longer with us. She mentions that her husband Paul has been a rock. Just as she says that she loses power in her house. She hurries upstairs looking for husband Paul, only to find his body in the bathtub. From the look of everything, it seems as if Paul has committed suicide. The door of the bathroom is locked and water is leaking outside. Paul’s body is in the tub holding a toaster.
Cut to BAU Headquarters in Quantico VA. The BAU is called in to investigate the case by Ronnie Baleman from the Pittsburg PD. Apparently this toaster bathtub suicide is not an isolated incident. JJ briefs the team and we learn that 3 months ago a fire in a Pittsburg rec center killed 14 children. Over the past three months there have been 5 suicides. Of these 5 suicides, they’ve all be parents who lost children in the rec center fire. We learn that the most recent suicide is that of Paul Baleman, brother of Ronnie Baleman who asked them to work the case. Morgan is SKEPTICAL. As always. He’s always skeptical. Which is weird, given his back story? Rossi points out that suicides don’t spike after a tragedy. Reid says: “Quite the opposite actually. Following WW1 and 2, right after Kennedy was shot, and following 911 suicides plummeted. Within a society, external threats typically create group integration.”
However, Hotch needs a personal day! He tells Rossi he needs to talk to Jack and explain the divorce to him. I think this is great- I often need personal days to talk to my son Jack about my upcoming divorce. So anyway, Rossi is in charge.
On the plane Morgan is bitching about the fact that they are taking this case. Morgan is like “Hotch never would’ve taken this case” and Rossi is like “tough shit”. Everyone else thinks something is suspicious. So far there have been 25 deaths related to the fire. And Morgan is like… not suspicious as at all! The team discusses how if there IS an unsub, he or she is likely an Angel of Death.
At the Pittsburg PD the team meets with Detective Baleman. Reid starts going over the files to build “psychological profiles to determine whether the victims killed themselves”. Prentis asks to see Paul Baleman (latest victim’s house). And Brother Detective Ronnie is like – I’ll take you. And they’re like no. We need to profile without bias. Okay, so, what about when Garcia was shot and y’all were like we are working this case one way or another! What’s good for the goose is good for the gander! Prentis, Rossi and Morgan visit Paul Baleman’s house and speak to his wife. She insists that her husband was not depressed and that he would not have killed himself.
Morgan and Prentis look over the bathroom crime scene while Rossi talks to Paul’s wife about the rec center fire. Morgan and Prentis notice that the bathroom outlet is non- GFI, so it’s not water proof or properly grounded. Super common in older houses, which the Baleman house is. However downstairs the outlets had all been remolded and grounded. Morgan is like “I put them in all of my properties” and Prentis is like “how many properties” and Morgan is like “4” and Prentis is like … Paul Baleman was a contractor, so he would’ve know that the bathroom outlet was unstable and not grounded.
JJ, Reid and Brother Baleman are putting together their psychological autopsies. This won’t determine whether the victims were murdered, but whether their mental state would’ve caused them to commit suicide. Reid says: “Since it’s inception in 1958, it’s proven to carry a 92% accuracy rate in cases that went to trial”. Detective Brother wants to tell the media ASAP about the potential that there is a serial killer preying on the families of the children who died in the fire. Reid and JJ council against it, because they think the determination is premature.
We cut to a woman in a house talking to her toddler son Jakey. Music is playing it’s “Road to Shambala” The lyrics are: “ah ooh ooh ooooooh yeah yeah yeah yeah”. Her name is Beth Smoler, and we must but assume that she also had a child who died in the rec center fire. We see Beth let someone into her house, it’s a white man. We only see from his shoulders down, and she tells him that she has his bag in the other room. They walk off screen. We then watch Jakey, the best-behaved toddler in the world, sit in his high chair for multiple hours, as is evidenced by the darkening roo. MULTIPLE HOURS. I mean, I have meet many toddlers, and they start screaming after two minutes tops. So this is so unbelievable. Finally it’s pitch black and Jakey starts screaming, the camera backs up and we see that Beth has been hung and murdered by the unsub.
Morgan is STILL skeptical!! He and Prentis discuss how they believe that Paul Baleman’s death was a suicide because “everything past orderly, everything present disorderly” something about glass cabinets?? But Prentis is like “Beth wouldn’t have killed herself with Jakey screaming in the other room.” They agree that Beth’s house looks like she has moved on.
The team now believes that the unsub has been drugging the victims using something that doesn’t show up in tox screens, but allows the unsub to control the victims and get them to kill themselves??? Reid looks at letters from Deidre Nollard, one of the five suicide. He looks at an insurance form, a letter she wrote to her neighbor, a birthday card, and her suicide note. Reid says the suicide note is definitely Deider’s handwriting, but that the upward slanting writing and t bars do not indicate someone who is depressed. I remind you again that ____ is a scam.
JJ finally informs the media. Hotch shows up, guess that was a pretty quick personal day. And it’s time for the profile
PROFILE – ANGEL OF MERCY
Including extended families over 100 individuals were impacted by the fire
A single event in this unsub’s life led him to end the life of someone he believes had to die.
From that moment on he created his own sense or reality. He rationalizes what he did, that first kill, over and over again. By targeting people that he believes can’t be saved by anyone but himself.
He decides who lives and who dies and this gives him an all consuming power
He won’t stop any time soon
He’s convinced he’s on a mission of mercy, once caught won’t admit that he’s done anything wrong
White male mid to late 30s
Polite, forthcoming, doesn’t stand out
His victims are all letting him in to their homes
In every case there’s no evidence of a struggle, no attempts to escape
He’s all about control – chooses how they die, when they’re die
Hyper vigilant– always on the look out and risk-adverse
The BAU talk to parents whose children died in the fire. They’re all going through it.
Garcia ran toxicological panels on the victims. They all came back negative, so Garcia believes the unsub has been drugging the victims with a paralyzing agent that metabolizing quickly. I guess she called up the coroner and was like “what are your thoughts oh medical professional” and he thought that the unsub could be drugging the victims with a needle, and he found marks on the latest victim, Beth’s hairline. Garcia is also like “you can buy these drugs online, you don’t have to be a medical professional.” Garcia also points out that she believes the unsub drugs the client with a muscle relaxant that also paralyzes them. So they can’t move, but are wide awake when the unsub kills them.
Cut to the unsub with his latest victim named Curtis Fackler. They’re in Curtis’ house. We see Curtis has been drugged and immobilized, he’s sitting in a chair. The unsub then shoots Curtis and makes it look like a suicide. The BAU team races to the scene and confirms a puncture mark on the back of Curtis’ head. Curtis has written a suicide note. Morgan is finally like “Alright Rossi, I’m in.”
Reid analyzes all of the suicide letters and determines that based off of the tone of the letters, that they weren’t meant to be suicide letters. Reid makes the leap that they’re letters written in support groups like AA and NA. For those of you who don’t know, these groups are for people suffering with addiction or tragedy. You go to them weekly and talk about your troubles. They are anonymous If you participate in ones like AA and NA you most likely will start working on the 12 steps of recovery, which are supposed to help you recover. And one of these steps is to make amends. I have some first hand experience with this sort of thing. And not to be a downer, but there is not empirical evidence that these groups really work. They work for some people, but their success rate is about 50%. If you or someone you know is struggling with an addiction please see our show notes for more help.
After the BAU speaks to different members of the different groups, they begin to recognize a story told by a man calling himself Peter. Again the groups are anonymous, so this guy’s identity cannot be confirmed. Apparently he’s been making rounds in the groups talking about his brother James’ suicide. Peter’s story goes like this. They didn’t have a lot of money so Peter and James shared a room. Their father was a professor at Brassard, and he would come up to their room at night and molest Peter’s brother James. Peter would lay in bed and pretend he couldn’t hear. Then one night James slashed his wrists and Peter “knew that he had to let him go”.
Garcia is able to confirm this story using Brassard College’s newspaper. The unsub’s full name is Peter Redding. Apparently James Redding’s suicide was the youngest in all of PA’s history. The BAU and Detective Baleman go to Peter’s apartment / house / whatever. They find a murder board with a grid of potential victims categorized by support groups. Peter is very helpful where he has been crossing off victims once he kills them. The BAU determines that the next victim, based off Peter’s murder board, will be Laurie Ann Morris. The Morris family is one that the BAU talked to to warn about the unsub. The BAU calls Laurie Ann’s husband and determine that she’s leaving her support group and they rush over.
Cut and we see Laurie Ann walking with unsub Peter in the parking lot. The BAU shows up at the support group, which has just ended, and spread out to search for Laurie Ann. We cut back to Laurie Ann, getting into her car. She starts to drive away when she notices Peter having trouble with his car. She pulls over to ask if he has AAA. And he’s like no, it expired. No worries though, I’m okay. Laurie Ann is like, I’ll drive you. So Unsub Peter gets in the car. He sits in the back, and does not put on his seatbelt.
He then immediately tells Laurie Ann that he can help her. She’s like “You think you can help me?” The BAU sees Laurie Ann and Peter in the car and rush over. Laurie Ann starts freaking out she says “YOU THINK YOU CAN HELP ME?” And then she yeets her car into the side of a building. Peter the Unsub wasn’t wearing a seat belt so he’s all fucked up. But Laurie Ann is okay! The BAU arrest Peter who is like “whyyyy I didn’t dooooo anythinggggg”
At the end, the BAU tell Detective Brother Baleman that they believe Paul Baleman did actually kill himself. This is further supported by the fact that Peter didn’t have Paul’s name in his apartment. Detective Brother Ronnie is like “You’re wrong. But like I said, thanks for coming.”
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 7/20
Character development/ character arcs: 11/20
Forensics/Context: 5/20
Script writing: 5/20
Background characters: 10/20
Overall: 38/100