S4E25 - “To Hell…”
WE KNOW WE FUCKED UP ABOUT DETROIT. WE ARE SORRY.
We open on a car and spooky music in Detroit, MI. It’s “Chip Away” by Jane’s Addiction. We see a man with a gun inside the car. He parks the car and walks past sex workers, homeless people, and the footage is pretty grainy and is basically shaky cam footage. He’s clearly looking for something or somebody. And my man is- snapping photos? Making notes? Perhaps a scrap book??
Cut to a man at a check cashing place. The owner hands him an envelope of cash and says “this stays quiet”. This man walks over to a car parked outside of the business, where he is immediately held at gun point. We then pull back to see the driver pull onto the thruway. We then see a sign that says “Canadian Border- 3 Miles”.
Cut back to the first man we saw- the Jane’s Addiction man. He is ALSO at the Canadian Border. He meets with a border patrol agent, and the interaction looks like it goes pretty well, the agent lets him through. But the driver pulls up slightly and then just stops. The Canadian Border patrol agents approach the car and the driver goes absolutely ham driving through a literal border patrol booth and crashing the car. Of course all the Border Patrol guys draw their guns and tell him to get out of the car and arrest him. And as they’re taking him into custody he says: “You’re gonna wanna call the FBI- I’ve killed 10 people over the past month” And he tells them to open the car. When they open the car they find the pictures of victims with specific locations, dates and times indicated on them.
Cut to BAU Headquarters in Quantico, VA. JJ introduces the team to the case. The man who claimed to be a serial killer is named William Hightower. JJ tells the team that Hightower claims to have killed 10 people from Detroit MI and then dumped their bodies in Canada. The BAU is unable to follow up and find out if any of the victims are actually victims because all of the people Hightower claimed to kill are transient. We also learn that Hightower is a veteran- he was a sergeant and did 2 tours in Iraq, he lost his left leg in a roadside ambush, he was discharged with a purple heart. Prentis is questioning Hightower’s motives, and Rossi even discusses PTSD, and Morgan (as per usual) considers that Hightower may be lying.
Cut to the BAU Private Jet. Reid tells us that all of Hightower’s victims were supposedly abducted from the same area- the Cass Corridor. Reid says that it: “has an extremely high concentration of drug trafficking, prostitution, and homeless people” and Rossi says: “All high risk behavior” FUCK OFF! Prentis also makes a joke about Detroit being beautiful in the Spring? Idk? We also learn that Rossi trained the lead detective on the case Jeff Bedwell.
Cut to Detroit headquarters, we meet Bedwell. Bedwell has set up a victim board and Reid notices that the unsub clusters his victims alternating by men and women. Hightower hasn’t asked to call anybody and has refused a lawyer. Hotch is going to interrogate Hightower, but wants to make Hightower sweat.
Meanwhile Prentis and Morgan check out Cass Corridor. They note that the denizens of this area seem to be sticking to groups, which they note is unusual. Morgan and Prentis speak to a lot of the locals, but no one really wants to talk. Morgan finally meets a local named ___ who identifies one of the supposed victims in Hightower’s photos. He tells Morgan that the young man’s name was Charles, that he was a junkie, and has been missing for two days. Prentis talks to a sex worker and asks “what makes you think these people aren’t just leaving” and the sex worker says “it ain’t that easy to leave this life”. ___ also identifies Hightower. We later learn that ___ tells Morgan that Hightower seemed to be checking up on people? Keeping track of their names and pictures in his notebook??
Cut back to Hotch meeting with Hightower. Hotch asks Hightower if he’s going to tell the BAU the location of the dumpsite, or asks if he’s just wasting everyone’s time. He then plays the veteran card and Hightower says “Don’t lecture me about notifying families. I’ve been on those doorsteps.” Hotch tells Hightower “Your behavior was more of a protector, someone in the army performing a bed check. You’ve gone through a lot of trouble to confess to a crime that you didn't commit. If my team is here, there are cases we’re not working on. You’re wasting our time.” Hotch also tells Hightower that he watched the tape of him at the border, and Hightower waited until all the patrolmen were out of the booth before crashing into it. Hightower isn’t the unsub.
Hightower then tells Hotch that her has already reported the disappearances to the police three times. Hightower insists that Hotch verbally agree to investigate the case. Hotch says: “people don’t do what you did out of honor, they do it out of love. Who were you looking for every night?” Hightower then tells Hotch that when he got home from Iraq, his little sister Lee was out on the streets. His mother had asked him to find and bring Lee home, which he did, only for her to leave two weeks later. Hightower then reveals that Lee left him a voicemail right before she died says she was scared and that something bad was happening. He gives the BAU his flip phone, and we hear the recording. It is very scary.
Hightower had army friends triangulate the call, and it was from right over the Canadian border in Port Huron. Garcia is able to pull license plate IDs for border crossing, but she has hundreds of them and can’t narrow it down.
Cut to a red truck pulling up to a farm. The windows are grimy so this must be the unsub. We hear pig sounds, which is usually delightful, but between the threatening music and grime, not delightful. We watch the unsub walk over to a metal table, wearing big ole rubber boots. The man we saw getting money from the check cashing place is clamped is tied up. The unsub, who is HUGE by the way, grabs him, smashes his head in, and then we cut away.
Cut to- the next day? The unsub gets off a couch and heads into the kitchen for a smoked pig head snack. He then sprays the pigs with water, sets some more pigs to roast, and then goes over to the dead body of the check cashing man and runs some medical experiments? With syringes and shit?
Cut back to Detroit MI headquarters, Rossi and Hotch beg Bedwell to release Hightower into FBI custody. Bedwell is reluctant to do so, but eventually relents, because Hightower is more experienced with the Cass Corridor and its residents. They believe he will be able to easily identify changes in the area before they may pick up on it. Meanwhile JJ is trying to connect with potential victims’ families, but is having issues connecting the people Hightower reported as victims to actual missing people. Garcia checks Detroit crime reports over the past few months, and she notices that on five of the abduction nights that Hightower noted, Detroit PD reports a burglary at a medical facility. The unsub is not taking drugs, but taking anesthesia drugs, IV tubing, 0 negative blood, odd things like that. Reid and Rossi point out that the unsub must have some sort of medical training.
PROFILE
A Sexual sadist
For him, torture becomes a substitute for the sex act
The fact that he’s stealing medical equipment like sterilizing agents and anesthesia tells us he may be performing experiments or surgeries on his victims
We believe this unsub gets gratification from his ability to keep his victims alive to be able to endure more torture
The choice of items stolen is extremely specific, which makes us believe that he has a medical background
Check disciplinary files at hospitals, med schools and community health organizations. People would have noticed his behavior
This is someone who would volunteer to perform painful procedures and he would spend extra time probing a broken hand or distended abdomen
And after a long day, when everyone else is emotionally drained from multiple traumas and mangled bodies, he’d be the one pushing his coworkers to go out for a drink and talk about their day
Their best chance of catching this guy is to catch him in the act
This unsub is extremely smart and obviously organized, he’s managed to abduct very different victims, with very different abilities, all with no witnesses.
Meanwhile the BAU has called Hightower’s mother in?? Hightower is SO upset. He tells Hotch and Bedwell that everyone he’s done is to spare his mother and that he doesn’t want her living off false hope. “Bad news stops us for a while, but then you move on. Hope is paralyzing.”
Cut to the unsub cutting the check cashing man’s body into pieces? He then dumps those pieces in- you guessed it- the pig pen!! I bet Abigail is living for this episode right now.
We meet Lady Detective Benning, who Hightower reported his sister’s abduction to, but who didn’t believe she was taken against her will. When the BAU goes back out to the streets, Benning and Hightower have an uncomfortable moment, but Benning does apologize.
Quick cut to the unsub- eating some cold smoked pig snack. He looks at polaroid photos of what must be his victims, so I guess everyone be taking photos in this episode?
Back at the Cass Corridor, the BAU is only focusing on female potential victims as the last victim taken was a man. They zoom in on a sex worker named Kelly, who is in Hightower’s book, but MIA. Back at BAU headquarters, Hightower’s mother tells the BAU that Lee actually got on welfare, was approved, and went missing the day after she cashed her first benefit check. This leads Reid to realize that all the male victims went missing around the time that they cashed welfare checks. The unsub then is taking sex workers later in the month after the check have already been cashed.
The BAU speak to local Walter Paterson who tells the BAU that people can go to a motel and cash a check for cash, 30 cents on the dollar, if they don’t take the room. This cash can then be used for drug money. Cut to Kelly, remember her, the MIA sex worker, who just cashed her check. As she’s leaving the motel she’s honked at by someone in a car, and she gets in. But it’s not a red truck, it’s a dark colored American sedan. Stay tuned for that reveal later!
The BAU shows up to the motel, but they’re too late.
Kelly is gone. The motel manager tells the BAU that a dealer sits across the street in his dark colored sedan and then deals to people who just cashed their welfare checks. Is this motel manager then fined for this? Is this legal? Moving on… the BAU send out an alert for border patrol regarding the make and model of the car. However, the unsub does not appear to cross the border anywhere! Hightower then suggests that the unsub uses the underground railroad as a boat launch and crosses the border in the water?
Garcia finds a spot and Hotch and Prentis show up at the boat launch. Here they find the abandoned dark sedan. The license plate is missing, but Garcia runs the vin number and we learn that the vehicle belongs to Mason Turner. He graduated second in his class from the Michigan Medical Institute and then went on to work for a community health organization. His address is listed as a pig farm.
Cut to the pig farm, where the unsub drags Kelly over to the house. We look through the window and see that the unsub is not alone, someone is inside the house, in a bed. The person in the bed seems to approve of Kelly, so the unsub drags her off. The BAU shows up at Mason Turner’s Farm- it’s definitely the place. They go inside the farm house where they find Mason Turner- except he’s not the big unsub. He’s the man in the bed- hooked up to machines. He’s got a headset on.
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 10/20
Character development/ character arcs: 10/20
Forensics/Context: 20/20
Script writing: 5/20
Background characters: 15/20
Overall: 60/100