S5E17 - “The Solitary Man”
We open on a dramatic monologue. There’s a man standing outside in the rain, watching a little girl named Jody being put to sleep. A woman named Mrs. Clemmons puts Jody to bed and turns out the lights. And the man creeps into Jody’s room while the monologue continues. At first we think- oh god it’s Pedophile O’Clock! But actually, it’s just Creepy Daddy Time. Jody wakes up and so excited to see the man, who it turns out is her father.
Now, if I was sleeping. And my father creeped into my house into the middle of the night to tell me a bedtime story, I would call La Policia. But for Jody, this event seems commonplace. She wants to hear the story about the lonely king, and her father tells her: “The lonely king searched far and wide, looking for this woman who would be his queen. And he’d almost given up hope of ever finding her.”
As Jody’s father continues his story, we cut to Clines Corner, New Mexico. We see a flashback of Jody’s father, aka the unsub, at a bar, stalking this bar tender named Tanya. Johnny Cash’s song “Solitary Man” plays in the background and it’s like… a little too on the nose.
We cut too later that night, and Tanya’s leaving work. Her car won’t start, and the unsub comes over “rescue her”. All the while we’re hearing the fucking story about the lonely king and the bar wench of whatever.
Jody obviously realizes that her father is the so-called King. She’s like “Did you rescue her daddy? Was she the one?” We cut back to the parking lot, where the unsub has fixed Tanya’s car. He disappears, and Tanya gets out of her car to make sure he is okay, and then he mcfreaking snatches her.
Back at creepy daddy time, Jody is like “What if the king never finds a queen?” And Daddy Unsubs is like “Well then we’ll just go to a better place.”
Cut to BAU Headquarters in Quantico, VA. JJ introduces the team to Tanya Hill’s case. We learn that Tanya was the fifth woman to be found dead in a ditch off the I-40 and I-25. All five women were manually strangled and none were sexually assaulted. The abduction sites are hundreds of miles from the disposal sites, and the BAU has not been invited by any police department, they just found these pictures on the HSK database. Reid realizes that the unsub’s comfort zone is in Edgewood New Mexico, so the BAU is heading out there to try to be invited.
Cut to a truck stop. We see a lady hitchhiker get dropped off. She asks the waitress if anyone is heading west. The unsub overhears this and is like “I am.”
Cut to the BAU jet. The BAU talks about how the unsub keeps his victims for up to twenty-four hours. Even more curious, is the fact that none of the victims were tortured or restrained, but all had metal shavings found under their fingernails.
The BAU arrives in Edgewood New Mexico. Rossi and Reid go to the latest crime scene, which is a ditch. Rossi says to Reid: “So how long is it gonna take you to get in that ditch?” And Reid is like: “I was shot in the knee.” But he gets in the ditch! Reid points out that he believes the unsub is staging his victims to make it look like they’re sleeping. Reid is then like, asking Rossi for help getting out of the ditch. As we actually know that Reid is injured, this kind of feels like the writers making light of the situation. But maybe I’m just a sensitive woman.
Cut to Edgewood Headquarters, Hotch and JJ meet with local Detective ___. Hotch really really wants to be invited, but Detective ____ is unsure. However JJ and Hotch break out the case files and he seems to get into it. JJ then tells us that table sugar and diesel fuel was found on all of the victims’ clothing. And Detective ___ was like: “Sugar absorbs diesel fuel. It’s a trucker trick.” And the Hotch is like- we know how he’s transporting them.
Cut to lady hitchhiker, waking up in the dark. She uses a lighter in her pocket to look around, and we realize that she is inside of the cargo space container. She also finds a shoe belonging to one of the previous victims, and see bloody hand prints all along the walls where previous victims have tried to call their ways out. The unsub starts pounding on the cargo container and she’s like “What do you want?” And he’s like “I want you to be quiet.” We realize that there is an intercom in the cargo hold, so the unsub can communicate with his captives. He tells her he wants to “talk” and she’s like “I can do that”. And then her light runs out of fluid and she’s plunged into darkness.
Then the unsub brings the hitchhiker water and tells her that he’ll give her water, but he has questions. He asks her: “Are you religious?” And she says: “Yeah.” And he says: “Do you want children.” And she says: “Someday… maybe.” He looks disappointed. And then she says: “Yeah I do, I really want kids.” And he’s like: “I don’t believe you do.”
Cut to a mother and daughter driving on the road. There names are Nancy and Courtney Campbell. I love when we take these little side excursions. Because we, the audience know, that regardless of what they’re talking about, something bad is going to happen. The mother says to the daughter: “Courtney it doesn’t mean he won’t invite you to the prom.” And she’s like: “Mom you won’t understand.” They pull off to use a rest area, you know, because women be peeing. Nancy gets out of the car, and we see that there’s a truck already parked at the rest area, and yes, it is the unsub. He watches the mom go into the rest stop and I love the character development, she puts one of those toilet covers on the toilet seat before she sits down to pee. She then hears footsteps- it’s the unsub- but she thinks it’s her daughter. And he abducts her.
Cut to a few moments later, Morgan, Prentis and Detective ___ roll up to the crime scene. Prentis interviews the daughter Courtney, who is, definitely cut up. Apparently this is the first time the unsub has abducted from a rest stop, and Detective ___ is like, why did he abduct from here? Apparently the men’s sink is full of dirt, and Morgan realizes that this rest area is likely also a dumpsite. Morgan finds another body in the woods beside the rest stop, meaning that Nancy was a victim of opportunity.
Garcia has been fucking around on the HSK, and she found four more victims, meaning a total of ten. Back at Edgewood Headquarters, the BAU decides to focus on identifying a pattern within the victims, because it will help them narrow down the unsub. We learn about Erica Joy from Lexington South Carolina. And we’re about to shit on sex workers again. Hotch goes: “What did she do for a living?” And Rossi goes: “According to her rap sheet, everyone she could.” And Detective ___ is like: “So she’s a lot lizard. It’s the name they give prostitutes who hang around truck stops.” EXCUSE ME??
Prentis and Morgan discuss why the unsub took Nancy instead of Courtney, when Courtney (the daughter) was closer in age to his other victims. Morgan thinks the unsub is vetting his victims. He goes: “The other victims were younger, less sophisticated. Wouldn’t take more than a day to figure out if they’re worthy or not.” And Prentis is like: “Of what?” And Morgan goes: “Of being his companion.” And Prentis goes: “Then he’s completely delusional.” And then Morgan starts to justify how this vetting process actually makes sense because the unsub is a trucker.
Cut to the unsub, at a diner with Jody and Mrs. Clemmons. Mrs. Clemmons gets up from the table to make a phone call, and Jody is like: “Tell me a story Daddy.” And then the unsub starts telling Jody about Nancy, about how he thinks that she is his queen, because she has a daughter, meaning that she is the mothering type. Mrs. Clemmons cuts their story short because it’s school time. The unsub says: “Don’t worry sweetheart, we’ll be a family again soon.” And Mrs. Clemmons like: “You’ve got to stop telling her that, it isn’t true. The judge isn’t gonna let her live with you.” Mrs. Clemmons then tells the unsub that Jody is being placed with an adoptive family and the unsub has run out of a time to prove that he can be a good father figure. We learn that this is the motivation for the unsub to kidnap women, because the judge told the unsub he couldn’t take custody of Jody without a house and a wife? This, of course, enrages the unsub.
We also learn that the unsub’s last name is “Hatchett” which… again… is too on the nose. It sounds like Jody’s mother is dead. The unsub says goodbye to his daughter, and it feels like a ultimatum has been set. The unsub says he’s going to make things work, and Mrs. Clemmons is like “By this afternoon?”
Cut to Nancy Campbell in the truck cargo hold. The unsub offers her water. He tells her he’s “searched for her for a long time”. He tells her that she’s not like the other girls. He tells her that he knows she’s the right one, because she knows the importance of family. He asks her: “If our daughter were crying, what would you do to get her to stop?” And she goes: “I don’t know. I’d tell her a story.” And he lights up, he gets excited. He then starts to clean her up and tells her: “I don’t want the princess to see you like that.” She then begs him to let her go, and he locks her in and walks away.
Morgan and Rossi go and talk to a local trucker boss. I guess he owns a trucking facility? He offers to give the FBI the facilities trucker manifest which has the names of all the truckers and their loads. Morgan then asks Garcia to narrow down the suspect list from the manifest. He doesn’t think the unsub works for a company because he needs flexibility, but is a contractor.
Profile
This unsub is preferential, he takes young women mid to late 20s.
He takes his time watching them, he makes sure there are no witnesses.
He kills them 12 to 24 hours after abduction, only now that timeframe is getting shorter.
Then he comes to Edgewood, where he’s “home” and feels safe.
This man doesn’t try to hide his victims
There’s no rape involved- it’s companionship that he’s after
There might be an almost “chivalrous” aspect to this (Reid fucking says this).
Truckers have a romanticized image of themselves, and in fact all lifestyles revolving around the open road do.
The hell’s angels, for instance, refer to their women as their “old ladies”, but in fact there’s no one they’d rather protect or die for. Their treatment of women wouldn’t be out of place in King Arthur’s court.
(This is Mac) You might say “ride or die”
There sense of isolation would amp up their fantasy.
He’s looking for a “wife”.
He starts out with easy targets, then he moves onto women who could actually fill the role.
Sweet, out going, warm: The bartender who takes extra care of you, the chatty hitchhiker.
But over the course of the day, they fail “the test”. This infuriates him. Then he strangles and dumps them.
Hotch then suggests that the reason the unsub took Nancy Campbell and has kept her alive so long, is because she is a mother. Which leads the BAU to correctly guess that the unsub has a child living in Edgewood. Garcia then narrows down the suspect pool to truckers who had a divorce or a custody battle directly before the first murder.
Prentis is meeting with Courtney, Nancy’s daughter. Who is heartbroken that the last thing she may possibly ever say to her mother is in insult about her being old. Reid then arrives to give the bad news that an unidentified body has been found off of the I-40. Courtney is like ready to go identify the body, but Reid and Prentis are like, hold up, let’s not do that.
Cut to the latest crime scene. It’s not Nancy.
Garcia has narrowed down the suspect pool to 28 truckers involved in custody cases, with 8 truckers with pending cases. Morgan then suggests that Garcia focus on cases where the mother died, because Morgan doesn’t think the unsub would have intervened if the mother were still living. We learn about Caroline Hatchett who died in a house fire, leaving behind husband Wade and daughter Jody. Wade was deemed unfit by the courts because his job as a trucker kept him away from Jody at weeks at a time, and there was no family to watch Jody while he was away. Garcia says that the records show that Wade “Bent over backwards to try to make it work, but Jody missed a lot of school and he was charged with neglect of a minor.”
Cut back to the crime scene. It’s a woman named Lynn Clemmons! AKA THE FOSTER PARENT OF JODY HATCHETT! Rossi is like- where is Jody??
Cut to Jody, getting off her school bus and walking back to Mrs. Clemmon’s house. Prentis greets her at the door and Jody is like wtf. Inside the house are all the members of the BAU team. Hotch tells Jody that the police are looking for her dad. Meanwhile, Wade, aka our ubsub, drives the truck in front of the house and gets out. There’s swat team outside and the whole thing is so tense.
Prentis and JJ talk to Jody, who has unknowing drawn pictures of all the victims that the unsub abducted. She happily explains to Prentis and JJ that these are all the queens who didn’t make it. Prentis points at one and asks what happened, and Jody goes: “She was dirty. The king said: How do you expect to give my daughter a bath if you can’t even take one yourself?” And Prentis is like: “Would you like to meet a queen?” And Jody is like “YEAH!”
Meanwhile, in the truck, Nancy is trying her best to be cool, but Wade is upset. Jody gets on the trucker radio and asks for the rest of the story. Jody comes in clutch and begs Wade to let the Queen go. It’s pretty sad. Wade let’s Nancy go. Jody is like: “Why aren’t you coming to Daddy? Are you going to the better place?” And Wade is like: “Yes.” And the BAU realize he’s going to kill himself. Prentis gets Jody to turn around just in time, but Morgan is unable to prevent Wade from dying.
Back on the jet. We learn that Jody’s aunt has come forward to adopt her.
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 15/20
Character development/ character arcs: 5/20
Forensics/Context: 5/20
Script writing: 7/20
Background characters: 10/20
Overall: 42/100