S4E21 - “A Shade of Grey”
We’re coming in hot with this one. We open in Cherry Hill, NJ, and we’re reading an amber alert on a roadside sign. We learn that seven-year old Kyle Murphy is currently missing. Kyle is the third boy to go missing in the Cherry Hill area, the previous two boys having been found strangled to death in the local forest. Their names were Jimmy Seeger and Andy Loeser. Kyle Murphy was taken last night, so the BAU are fresh on the case.
We cut to a press conference at the Murphy House. We met Kyle Murphy’s family. Mother Sarah, father Dan, and his older brother Danny. Detective Bill Lancaster is the family’s police liaison, and he has to step in when Kyle’s family is so distressed they are unable to continue the conference. Just as Detective Lancaster finishes, Morgan, Prentis and Rossi show up at the scene. We also learn that Detective Lancaster is a family friend of the Murphy’s, which the BAU quickly notes is a conflict of interest, but they don’t really push the point. We all know that the BAU doesn’t really care about conflicts of interest.
Inside the Murphy house, Prentis sits down with Kyle’s family. She tells them that abductions from the home are rare, because abductions are typically about timing or opportunity. Like a child walking home alone, or being separated at a shopping center. Prentis then proceeds to give the Murphy’s a profile? I think this may be the fastest a profile has ever been presented in an episode?
PROFILE
Due to the home abduction, this is a sophisticated high-risk crime, whoever did this has good social skills.
He is highly functioning and has a steady job.
He wouldn’t look out of place, and you wouldn’t be alarmed if your children were taking to him. So he may be wearing a uniform like a deliveryman or mail carrier.
Whoever took Kyle has likely been in this house before, he knew the family routine, knew exactly where Kyle slept, and got Kyle outside without anyone hearing a sound.
Mrs. Murphy has taken some medication to calm down, and at a certain point she has to excuse herself to go lay down. Prentis asks Kyle’s older brother Danny if any strangers tried to talk to him or Kyle. Danny says no, then tearfully asks if he can go play. Mr. Murphy tells Emily that Danny does not really understand what is going on, and Prentis reassures him.
Cut to the Cherry Hill police station. Reid, Hotch and JJ are there trying to narrow down suspect pools. JJ tells us that there are 439 registered sex offenders within a 30 mile radius of when the boys were taken. Hotch tells JJ to eliminate any sex offenders who target girls, and Reid points out that they should also eliminate anyone who preferentially chooses children under 7 or over 11. The boys also look nothing alike, their unsub’s taste is more broad.
JJ calls Garcia, having narrowed the list down to 10 names. She asks Garcia to run these 10 names through her system and to look for any suspicious behavior. Checking their bank accounts, cell phone activity, or credit card purchases around the time of all three abductions. One name on the list, has no activity coinciding on the days of the first two abductions. JJ says: “He was too busy with them to make any calls or spend any money.”
Cut back to the Murphy house. Detective Lancaster walks Rossi through the abduction. In Kyle’s room, Rossi notices how Kyle’s sheets were pulled off the bed and toys were broken, showing there was a struggle. This is consistent with the first two abductions. Rossi asks Detective Lancaster to have the police techs check the scene for blood or other DNA. There’s a smashed window in the basement, and Morgan believes the window was smashed from the outside. The unsub then took Kyle and left through the side door.
The entire BAU team, plus Lancaster return to the precinct, where the BAU has now further narrowed down the list of 10 to five names, but they’re zeroing in on Hugh Rollins. He’s 43, lived in Camden County his whole life. In and out of foster care since he was a toddler. 2 years ago he got a steady job installing TVs, and the first two families purchased TVs. Rollins also had no cell or bank activity on the days the first two boys were abducted. However, the BAU has not been able to link him to Kyle yet. However, they don’t want to wait, so they head over to Rollin’s house.
Rollins is definitely the guy. They find souvenirs (stuffed animals from the boys’ rooms) and pedophiliac material on Rollin’s computer. Rollins has been hiding out in an RV, and he tries to make a run for it. Detective Lancaster shoots at him, but thankfully misses. Morgan then apprehends him while Rollins is trying to make a get away. He’s taken into custody. Morgan tells Detective Lancaster that he’s too close to the case, and Lancaster tells Morgan that Kyle is not here, and he’s not going to stop looking for Kyle until he’s found.
Back at the precinct, the family of one of the other missing boys, Jimmy Seeger, comes in to identify some of the stuffed animals. And they identify a GI Joe doll. Kyle’s father can’t identify anything, but he tells JJ that something might be Kyle’s, he’s just not sure.
Rossi interrogates Rollins, who admits to killing the first two boys, but wants a deal before he tells the BAU about Kyle. While Rollins delivered TVs to the first two boy’s house, he never took one to the Murphy residence. Hotch delivers a deal to Rollins, who tells Hotch that he threw Kyle in the river. And Hotch is like, no you did not, you need to revisit the body. Detective Lancaster, upset with the lack of progress, freaks out, and says he’s going to the woods to search for Kyle. Even though it’s 100 thousand acres. Hotch is like, he’s too close to the case. YA THINK?
Back at the Murphy house, Rossi and Reid look for more evidence to use against Rollins. They don’t find anything new in Kyle’s room, but in Danny’s room they find something interesting. Danny has a bunk bed, and it’s clear that Danny utilizes the top bunk of the bed. But the BAU find that the bottom bunk has been slept in, and find that someone has wet the bed. They also find one of Kyle’s toys in the bed, and they realize that Kyle must have slept in Danny’s room last night. And if Kyle slept in Danny’s room, why was Kyle’s room destroyed?
Cut to, the woods. Detective Lancaster finds Kyle’s body. He is, distraught. Morgan and Prentis note how Kyle’s body was gently placed on the ground, while Rollins “discarded the two previous boys like trash”. Although Rollins definitely killed the first two boys, the BAU does not believe he killed or abducted Kyle Murphy. Now they’re thinking that someone else killed and abducted him, and made it look like a similar crime scene to the first two victims’ crime scenes. So now the BAU thinks that a member of Kyle’s family killed Kyle, and that Detective Lancaster is involved in the cover up.
Rollins finally admits to Rossi that Kyle was “too young, not my type”. Rossi then confronts Detective Lancaster, who denies doing anything wrong. He says: “Rossi, you got a killer in custody, you got this guy, let’s end this now.” Morgan steps in and asks Detective Lancaster to talk in his office. Detective Lancaster begs Morgan and Rossi to look the other way. Rossi says: “Rollins didn’t kill Kyle, but you know who did.” And Lancaster says: “Please, they are my friends.” Rossi says: “You left their son’s body in the woods. Now what kind of friend does that.”
Meanwhile, Prentis confronts the Murphys. Prentis asks Dan Murphy who killed their son, and Dan denies knowing who killed his son. Then Sarah Murphy comes over to comfort him, and holds his hand. And Prentis says: “You’ve been holding hands since I first saw you. When couples lose a child, the grief is overwhelming. They often blame each other and drift apart. You two are different. It’s- it’s like you’re protecting each other. So, I’m going to ask you again. What happened last night? Did you or Sarah, did you get upset with Kyle? Was there an accident?”
Prentis then plays the clip of the press conference where Sarah Murphy says: “I’m Kyle’s mom” over and over again until Sarah asks her to stop.
Cut to the police station, where Morgan and Hotch are still confronting Detective Lancaster. We learn that Detective Lancaster’s two children were killed in a car crash by a drunk driver three years ago. His wife divorced him right afterwards. Lancaster then admits to killing Kyle himself. And Morgan is like, put it in writing.
Prentis brings the Murphys into the station. Hotch comes out and tells them that Lancaster has just confessed. Hotch brings Mr and Mrs Murphy into an interrogation room, and leaves Prentis to distract Danny. Danny asks for a snack, and she gives him sprite and potato chips. He then asks Prentis if he can watch cartoons. As Prentis is flipping through channels trying to find a cartoon, the TV plays the press conference that the Murphy’s gave when Kyle was missing. And Prentis notices that Danny looks… SO BORED during the press conference. And then Danny starts smashing the potato chip bag to try to get it open and Prentis is like, oh no.
Prentis then asks Danny if he and Kyle played together. And Danny says: “Only when I had to. He was always breaking my stuff. Not gonna miss that.” NOT GONNA MISS THAT. Danny also tells Prentis that he hated when Kyle would sleep in his bunk bed. And then Danny tells Prentis that Kyle actually broke his model plane this morning, and Prentis is like- today??
And yeah guys… Danny killed Kyle.
We see a flashback of Dan Murphy finding Kyle’s body in the basement. And Danny is just like, playing with his plane. And it’s only when he realizes he’s in trouble that Danny starts to “cry”. The Murphys call in Detective Lancaster who steps in to stage the scene. Lancaster breaks the window, breaks the toys, brings Kyle’s body to the woods where he later pretends to discover it. We cut back to Detective Lancaster in the interrogation room and he says: “They’re good people. They don’t deserve to lose both kids. Kyle would be the third victim, and we would catch a bad guy. A real bad guy. And they might still have the chance to be a family again.”
Outside of the interrogation room, JJ brings Reid and Hotch Kyle’s autopsy. He had two post-mortem blows to his head- these were from Lancaster. We also learn that Danny stuffed plane parts down his brother’s throat. The music starts to swell Prentis says: “You told Danny to watch his temper, what else did you worry about? Danny said you had a puppy, but he died. Your son is ill, and he needs help. The truth is, the only thing Danny isn’t capable of is remorse. He feels nothing. The son you were trying to protect is a sociopath.” After the Murphys hear this, they look over and see Danny just sitting there, eating chips.
Detective Lancaster resigns. There’s a dramatic monologue, but whatever.
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 15/20
Character development/ character arcs: 10/20
Forensics/Context: 10/20
Script writing: 20/20
Background characters: 7/20
Overall: 62/100