S3E4 - “Children of The Dark”
Welcome to suburbia. We see an all American nuclear family having an evening at home and talking about BONE SPURS? Dad is helping the son with math, which brought me some war flashbacks of my childhood. The mother is on the phone with presumably a friend, and right as she says: “I have my whole life ahead of me, right?” the phone cuts out. Suddenly there is a knock on the door, and wife calls for husband to open it. He checks the peep-hole then opens the door.
A man holding a dead cat is there. He says that the cat ran out in front of his car and he hit it - he asks if it belongs to them, to which dad is like, no. the man asks if it belongs to one of the neighbors and he’s like “its possible”. The man asks if he can use their phone to call the number on the cats tag, but the wife explains how their phone is dead. The husband offers to let him use his cellphone, but the cellphone also doesn’t have any signal. The man then asks if they have a bag - cause you know, the cat could be diseased. It is at this point the husband is like “you wanna step in?”, since I guess it is cold outside? The man had just done a dramatic shudder.
This is when the couple I guess makes a mistake, and they both leave this man alone while going into the kitchen to get a trash bag. The wife is very defensive - rightly so - being all “I don’t see why we have to give him a bag”. They return to the front door where they left the man, and suddenly his friend is with him. This is when the tone shifts and things start to feel threatening. They try excusing the two strangers - saying they have dinner, don’t want to have any trouble. That’s when the wife is like “we’ll call the police” and the man replies with “how are you going to do that? The phone is dead”. The wife tries to open the door? Push them away? And then things get violent.
We cut to Quantico VA and see that this family - the Halbert family were all murdered in their home that night. JJ is briefing the team and talks about how this is the third home invasion in the last month in Denver. In these cases, they murder everyone including pets. Always families, always nice neighborhoods. They steal nice things that can fit in pockets. We learn that home invasions are hard to profile because there can be multiple motives - for example, you can get cash and jewels without, you know, murdering an entire family. Reid then also shares that there has been an uptick in home invasions in Colorado - 18% specifically. We also learn that the first two invasions were 20 days apart, but this last one was just 9 days. Faster cycles - they’re liking it and getting better.
On the BAU Jet Reid talks about how home invasions usually involve the elderly and single women, so the fact that this Unsub is targeting entire families in of itself in usual - and it suggests multiple unsubs. I don’t know HOW that makes sense, but it’s Reid so lets run with it. Additionally, they discuss that this cannot be gang-related, nor is it a class war - Helter Skelter - because there is no graffiti, no messages, no ritual to the killings. The only distinction we have is that in all the murders so far, the parents are brutally murdered - golf clubs, kitchen knives, etc. But the children die in their bedrooms “peacefully” - by injection. Pentobarbital. This is a barbiturate, sometimes used as an anticonvulsant for epilepsy, anti-anxiety, and execution.
The BAU arrives at the home of the family. Here they see that there was no forced entry. We also see that the lightbulb on the front porch had been unscrewed so that anyone walking by wouldn’t see them. But the peep-hole would still allow for the homeowners to see them and let them in - so they obviously didn’t come off as threatening.
Cut to outside the home and Reid is speaking to a neighbor. She says that she had come by the home around 9pm the night of the murder to return a casserole or pie dish or something. She had rang the bell but no one answered despite all the lights being on. She was going to call them on her cellphone, but she wasn’t able to get a signal - which was strange, especially because according to her, you can always get a signal there, because there is a tower on the next block. She said she left the dish and went home, but noticed the next morning that it was till outside. And that’s when she looked inside the windows and called the police - on her cell because it was working again.
Cut to the police station, and they talk about how it is easy to get a small cellphone jammer (IS IT?) and the Unsubs likely used one so that no one in the house could call out for help. This is when Morgan gets a phone call from Garcia - he says “hey girl you’re on speaker, behave” and she says “or what, you’ll spank me” and this made me want to die. Everyone is visibly uncomfortable, but Garcia quickly recovers and shares the information she has gathered. She found four similar robberies - phone lines cut, small valuables taken, the home owners were tied up, but there wasn’t any homicide in these cases. The BAU suspects that something must have triggered these unsubs to escalate to murder, but it is unknown what that trigger was. Additionally, there is nothing that connects these victims - they all had different careers, political views, different school systems. It seems extraordinarily random.
Cut to a Chinese restaurant. We see the two unsubs use their phone jammer there, so we know for sure that’s what they did. One of them asks “do you see anything you like?” and next we shift focus onto a family, and one of the daughters - Carrie - is upset at her parents. Cut and the two unsubs continue talking. One of them asks the other if he ever feels like going home and visiting the family. He says no. the other says he’s bored and they gotta pick someone. The quieter of the two has a prolonged moment of looking at Carrie as she walks back to her table, and he caresses a fortune cookie in his hands that says “reunion”. In a moment of overdone drama, he whispers “reunion”, and then the scene ends.
Cut and it is nighttime. We see the other more dominant unsub approach a house at night. He pulls out the cellphone jammer and turns it on, and we also see him unscrew the porch light. He then rings the doorbell, and we see him do the exact same thing to Carrie from the restaurant. The same murder events that happened to the H family happen again, this time with a fire poker instead of a golf club. But OH NO! OH YES! Carrie escaped! We see her running through the street and gets picked up but a guy in a truck.
PROFILE -
Two men in their late twenties.
They would be intelligent and organized.
They are also career criminals - one or both of them has done hard time, but nether of them present as a convict; they are clean shaven and well dressed. They also behave neighborly, because this helps them talks their ways into the homes, and they also may be using a ruse.
This ruse could be door to door sales, a person in distress, or car trouble.
They share a very tight bond and a mutual compulsion to kill, but based on the signatures they have very different personalities.
One brutalizes the parents, he is the dominant, and sadistic one. He is remorseless and extremely volatile.
The other prefers a needle. His injections are consistent with an “angel of death”. He is more withdrawn, sensitive, and he has a warped sense of mercy.
In the middle of this profile briefing, JJ comes in and interrupts Hotch - there has been another one! Carrie - the girl we saw earlier is lucky to be alive. The injection went into the soft tissue of her arm ad missed the vein. But this is odd - this guy has never missed before! JJ and Prentiss go to visit Carrie, while Hotch and Morgan investigate the crime scene.
Carrie tells a similar story - she went to get a bag for the cat corpse, and when she got back there were two men at the door. Carrie describes the other man - she says he was heavier, quiet and Hispanic, and he would never make eye contact with her, despite her feeling him staring at her. Despite Carrie being upset, she recounts the events that happened, and we see a black and white flashback of the quieter Unsub chasing after her and calling her “Lucy”. We see the unsub kind of help her escape? And he also says “you have to be quiet, you’re gonna make my brother mad”.
Cut back to the crime scene at Carrie’s house, and Morgan notices that one of the unsubs has broken pattern. They only ever take things of monetary value, but it looks like Carrie’s portrait was taken off the wall. Back at the station, they decide to research places where the unsubs would have access to cats, since that is the ruse they are using. It would also make sense that if they have access to cats, they would have access to the drugs they are injecting the children with. They also discuss how despite the unsubs calling each other “brothers”, they are different races - but Carrie also said that the Hispanic one of them did not understand Spanish, so it is possible that maybe he was raised in a white household, and perhaps they are half brothers or something. They speculate that since one of the two expressed an interest in Carrie, perhaps releasing the news of her survival may draw him out.
Cut and we see the quiet Hispanic unsub euthanizing a cat. He keeps being like “you’re one of the lucky ones”. And we find out his name is Ervin! His brother shows up and is like YO SHE SURVIVED YOU FUCKED UP. he’s freaking out cause this means they may get caught. But Ervin is like “maybe this is a sign, Gary” - the white one is named Gary - “Maybe we should stop. ”Ervin tries to make the point that he is making good money now, but Gary is not having it. Ervin then says “the kids - “ but Gary interrupts him saying “the kids are better off”.
Prentiss and JJ go to visit Carrie in the hospital again. She is having nightmares about the attack - fair. While visiting, Prentiss notice that she has received a ton of flowers, but there is one flower arrangement that is identical to the one that was in the living room during the attack. Since the arrangement did not come with a note, Hotch tells Prentiss to have Garcia see if she can track down who sent them. Reid then shows the rest of the team a little presentation. At one of the homes they previously burglarized it appears that one of the kids had many bruises - but not from the unsubs. One of the unsubs must have recognized the signs of abuse and they flew into a rage to then brutally murder the parents, and then put down the children too so they wouldn’t have to suffer the indignities of the foster care system. They speculate that this would be an “anger displacement” moment where they are getting revenge for their own childhoods and parents by murdering these parents. They then begin to speculate that both of these unsubs likely grew up in foster homes themselves.
This meeting is then interrupted when Prentiss comes in with the news that Garcia tracked the flowers and they were sent by a man named “Robert Serrano”. They swarm the serrano home, but are disappointed to find that the inhabitants are mcfreakin dead. Turns out they stole this mans credit card, bought $31 worth of gas. They also realize that they couldn’t lie their ways into this home and the security chain was broken - the media is putting pressure on them and they know they are running out of time. Garcia was able to find 9 convicts who match the description of having spent time in foster care, were caught for petty crime/robberies and have access to small animals. They bring Carrie in to see if she can ID the unsub from the photos of the 9 they show her. During this time, Prentiss and Carrie bond a little. Prentiss and Hotch go to the vet that Ervin works at. But he isn’t home and his apartment was also empty. His supervisor calls Ervin and tells him to go in.
Next they visit the old foster home. She seems nice at first, but then we realize that she LITERALLY PADLOCKS the FRIDGE. WTF. it is from her they learn about Gary, and both of them had behavior issues when younger. Apparently, Ervin got separated from his younger sister when he came into this woman’s care. Hotch gets a call and Ervin is on his way back to work. They apprehend him - well Morgan, per his contract - apprehends him. They bring him into questioning but he’s not giving them anything, so they decide to have him talk to Carrie. Carrie goes in and Ervin immediately opens up and admits to sending the flowers. He also apologizes to her, which is wild. We learn that Carrie reminded him of Lucy, and that he was abused by his former foster mom - she would hold their heads under water in the bath? And it would go dark. And CARRIE COMFORTS HIM. apparently Gary had it worse, and didn’t get a chance to fight back, because Ervin didn’t want to go back.
The BAU realizes that this means Gary is likely on his way to hurt his foster mom. They tell foster mom to go inside and they will pick the kids up from school. But uh oh, Gary has already beat them. He picks up the kids from school. He gets them to go with him, but instead of bringing them back to the house, he instead brings them to a donut shop. The little girl brings out a note to Reid who is in the car watching the shop, and it says “If you come in I will kill you”. Hotch is on the phone with the clerk in the shop, who hands the phone to Gary. they have sharp shooters all around. Hotch tries to negotiate with him. It goes surprisingly well, and he lets the boy go. They then go and apprehend Gary.
Morgan is on the phone with social services regarding the children and how the foster mom is a nightmare, but SS won’t do anything until they do a full investigation, which means they have to bring the kids back to her home. Hotch runs into Gary in the police station “i teach crisis negotiation. I co-wrote the textbook, and in 12 years I’ve never talked anybody off a ledge so fast.”
“Oh, bit of a milestone then.”
“Why’d you walk out that door, Gary?”
“Sugar crash”
Morgan and Prentiss drop the kids back off at the foster home, but before they go in Morgan gives the kid his card saying he can call him if anything happens. The two kiddos go inside and Prentiss and Morgan are obviously so mad. Back in the donut shop JJ and Reid are inside getting food?? And doing paperwork. The clerk is being interviewed and Reid overhears him say “and that’s when I saw the piece” to which Reid is like ‘UM EXCUSE ME DID YOU SAY PIECE?” And Reid realizes that no one cleared or recovered a gun.
Morgan and Prentiss are in the car getting ready to leave when Morgan gets a call from Hotch. We see him answer and as he says “backpacks? Why would we search the backpacks” gun shots go off. They run inside the house as Coldplay starts playing, and we see that the kid, Tyler shot the photographs on the walls - missing his foster mom? Morgan gets him to drop the gun by promising that he doesn’t have to live there anymore. Tyler puts it down and immediately starts crying. Back at the station, Prentiss offers to adopt Carrie, since she has nowhere to go. But unfortunately, the family that JJ had reached out to did actually get back to her, and they’re taking her. Prentiss pretends to not be as upset by this as she is.
On the plane, Hotch is on the phone asking to hear his sons voice, and JJ tells Prentiss she thinks its a good idea for her to have some kids. And there is no closing quote!
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 17/20
Character development/ character arcs: 15/20
Forensics/Context: 10/20
Script writing: 15/20
Background characters: 20/20
Overall: 77/100