S6E19 - “With Friends Like These…”
We open on a blue eye and some dramatic music. We can see that the pupil of this eye is dilated. We pull out, and we meet Ben. He is pushing a cart in a supermarket with his friend Matt. We also meet Yolanda (who was picking up the chips but actually was looking for guacamole) and Tony (who was actually looking for the chips). The group goes to the checkout, and Ben notices another customer at a different register. He turns to her and says: “I have a hypothetical for you. How long til after you pour your cereal do you wait to put it in your mouth?” She says: “I don’t eat cereal.” Ben’s friends kind of roast him for this faux paux, and Tony even says: “With an ass like that, she eats something.”
So… during this awkward interaction between Ben and the other customer, Ben’s three friends seem like… super invested in the interaction. They stop what they’re doing and just stand there and stare. After the other customer brushes Ben off, his three friends say, “Let’s do it Ben” and “She’s perfect for us”, and Ben tells them that he has to sleep. And they’re like, “Well, do this first, and then you can sleep.” And at this point, I think it’s pretty clear that Matt, Yolanda, and Tony are Ben’s imaginary friends. Or should I say… imaginary foes.
Now we cut to- one of my favorite scenes in all of Criminal Minds. We followed the customer that Ben spoke to, Ms. I Don’t Eat Cereal’s home. Actually, her name is Karen Heywood. She’s home, working on her computer, eating Oreos. She’s still dressed in her work uniform, which looks like a nurse outfit. She hears a clattering sound, looks around, and then is like, “eh, it’s probably nothing.” Then she gets up and goes to the fridge. She’s looking for a late-night snack. She searches the fridge for something… anything to quench that appetite. Now, we all love Oreos. It’s kind of the perfect cookie. The crunch of the chocolate cookie. The creamy center. The perfect amount of give and take. But for Karen, the simple pleasure of Oreos is not enough. Karen needs something better. She rifles through the fridge… past the tinfoil leftovers, past the fruit, past the other dessert options. And selects… the best snack. The only snack, as far as I am concerned- a stalk of raw celery. My girl actually had a big ole tub of celery. And unfortunately for her, Ben barges in mid-celery chew, and she flings the tub of celery into the air as she is attacked by Ben. He then stabs and kills her.
At BAU headquarters in Quantico, VA. We see the picture of Emily Prentis hanging on the wall, in the spot where they will one day put the photograph of Deputy Director Douglas Bailey. Morgan finds Garcia in the hallway and tells her that “Prentis wouldn’t want us to sulk.” He also reminds her that they have to congratulate Seaver on graduating from the academy, and Garcia reveals that she has baked sparkly cupcakes. They were supposed to say “Congratulations Graduate,” but they say “Congratulations Gradua” because Kevin ate the “t and e”. Meanwhile, Hotch and Rossi discuss bringing an experienced profiler on the team in addition to Seaver.
They meet in the round table room, and Garcia introduces the case in Portland, Oregon. We learn about Jay Johnson, a DJ, and Karen Heywood, a nurse, who have both been attacked, bludgeoned, and stabbed multiple times. Weapons of opportunity were used on Karen, 8 different ones, and Garcia also mentions that it appears there was a right and a left-handed killer involved. So the BAU thinks it’s a PACK. Apparently the left-handed wounds were deeper than the right, and Morgan suggests a woman might be part of the pack, and Feminist Icon Ashley Seaver checks him and says, “Or a weak man.” Items of financial value were stolen from DJ Jay and Karen, but random items were also stolen from Karen’s residence.
We cut to Ben- his imaginary friends are having kind of a goth party. He is trying to sleep. But his “friends” are taking drugs, listening to loud music, you know…. doing naughty stuff. Tony’s got a lighter that he flicks open and closed from time to time. You know, how those bad kids at your school used to hang around the playground, playing yo-yos, flipping lighters. Ben is like, “Please, I want to sleep,” and Matt is like, “Not until you get cleaned up”. Ben then realizes that he’s covered in Karen’s blood.
On the BAU Jet- the BAU team discusses the overkill used on both victims. Usually, overkill can mean a personal connection between the unsub and the victim, but Hotch points out that it also can mean extreme anger, and the victim can be a surrogate for the unsub. Rossi also calls the unsub pack “night owls” and says that they are “stalking and killing other night owls.” They are disorganized. We also learn that one of the weapons of opportunity in Karen’s murder was a CERMAIC CAT! We learn some more about geographic profiles. Unsubs prefer to stay in an area that they know well, so the closer the crime scenes, the more likely the unsub lives or works nearby.
Back with Ben. His friends want to go to a Homestore to fix the sink. Tony says, “Laziness is next to slothfulness”. Tony is playing with his lighter like there is no tomorrow. Ben is like, “Please, I want to sleep,” and then imaginary Matt gets imaginary physical with Ben and shoves him against a wall and is like, “we are going to this home store like it or not!” Also for you non-Americans, a home store “sells foodstuffs or goods of a similar domestic nature intended for the day to day consumption or use by persons in the locality of the shop.”
At Karen’s crime scene, Hotch and Rossi meet with Detective Colbern and talk about how pack mentality can influence the physicality of the crime. Rossi also points out that although some things of value were stolen from Karen’s home, a flat-screen tv, desktop computer, and bicycle were left behind. Hotch then suggests that the BAU is instead looking for a single unsub. Because the unsub didn’t take heavy items, and also, all of the shoe prints are the same. I mean, like, that’s a really big clue right there. Meanwhile, Reid and Seaver investigate the DJ Jay crime scene, which is an alleyway. Seaver and Reid determine that the unsubs are all around the same age and that they are probably involved in the “party scene” around the club. Meanwhile, Morgan is at the supermarket, talking to a manager, who tells Morgan that there was a “weird guy mumbling to himself and swatting the air like someone was bugging him.” We see that Karen actually asked the manager to ring her up on a register away from the other customer. We actually see the re-enactment of what actually happened, which I thought was pretty cool.
Hotch does a three-way call with Rossi, Garcia, and Morgan. They put everything together, speculating that the unsub is probably on drugs (PCP), which explains both the overkill and the disorganization. Garcia reveals that she has checked the local pawn shops to see if any of the stolen items were sold there, and she can’t find anything. Rossi suggests that the unsub is selling stolen items for drugs. Kind of like a stolen framed picture of a lily and drug barter system.
We get another cut to Ben and his “friends”. They’re in a car, watching a man unloading things from his van. Ben’s “friends” are encouraging him to “take the friggin hammer and bang him in the head.” Him being- the guy unloading the van. Ben is like, “No thank you,” and Tony is like, “You have to, Ben, the whole reason we went to the Home Store is to get the hammer!” So Ben does it.
The next day, we find the latest victim, who was bludgeoned in his home and stabbed 40 times. Luckily, this victim lived in an apartment building with thin walls, so the BAU go to ask the neighbors if they heard something. We meet Mrs. Donnolly, who has “been in this building for 27 years.” She looks like she should be telling us about the weather forecast for the next few days. The BAU knocks on her door, and she answers, looking fresh as hell with her slate gray knit turtleneck. She is holding a mug of coffee and will not put it down. Even if the FBI comes to her door to tell her that her neighbor has been murdered. She tells the BAU, “The worst incident we ever had was when Benjamin Headley up in 402 found out his wife was sleeping with the cleaner guy and shot him in the groin.” The ones who hear this firsthand are Morgan and Seaver, and you can see it in Seaver’s eyes- she’s like wtf did I get myself into?
Morgan has to regroup and redirect the convo with Mrs. Donnolly, and he’s like, “Benjamin Headley aside, when did you hear the screaming?” And she tells them that she heard the screaming around 3:30. Morgan then tells her that she probably heard the unsub because the victim, Joe, did around 2:45. And she then asks them what “unsub” means, and they tell her. Seaver then asks what the person who was screaming said. And she tells them: “I was just a kid. I was a kid then. I don’t wanna kill anymore.” Seaver is like, “Was anyone responding to him?” And Donnolly goes, “I just assumed he was talking on the phone.”
Listen. Guys. GUYS. If you overhear your upstairs neighbor shouting: “I was just a kid.I was a kid then. I don’t wanna kill anymore.” At 3:30 in the morning, please call the police. I know we don’t always need to call the police. But if you hear your neighbor yelling, “I was just a kid. I was a kid then. I don’t wanna kill anymore,” please call the police. Morgan talks to Seaver about hallucinations, and CBS must love this actress, but Donnolly is still here. She overhears this piece of info about the unsub and asks if the unsub was hearing voices. Morgan then thanks her for all her help, and she says: “If you have any more questions for me, you know where to find me. Bye.” And goes inside.
Morgan and Seaver regroup, Sans Donnolly. They discuss PCP hallucinations compared to hallucinations one might experience from mental illness. Seaver goes: “We know he’s in his 20s and was acting paranoid in the supermarket.” To which I say #relatable. So now the BAU believes the unsub might be a paranoid schizophrenic.
Cut to Ben- mixing bleach with water and trying to baptize himself in his bathroom. We get a lil flashback; love a lil flashback. But at this point, Ben recognizes that he is having a mental health crisis and makes the informed decision to ask for help. He calls his mother. In the shots we get of her, we see that she is surrounded by hanging crucifixes, so she may be religious, which makes sense because Ben was trying to self-baptize. Ben asks for help, and his mother goes, “What can Mommy do to help? And are you stuttering again?” And from this sentence alone, we, the audience, know that Mama is only gonna make things so much worse.
Ben tells his mother that his imaginary friends are back. She asks Ben if he’s taking the medication and then tells him she can’t handle his calls anymore. She says, “Are you praying, Ben?” Meanwhile, Ben is having a mental breakdown in his bathroom. His mother tells him to go to church and tells him that the church helped him last time “with this problem.” Meanwhile, Ben’s imaginary friends are goading him on. Ben begs his mother for help, and she tells him to “find a yellow pages.” And she hangs up. But he takes her advice! We see Ben with yellow pages. He looks at himself in the mirror and hallucinates that he is laughing. He then punches the mirror, which is always a nice effect if you want to show that someone is berserk.
PROFILE
The BAU believes the unsubs is a white male paranoid schizophrenic who suffers from hallucinations
Since schizophrenic breaks usually occur in your early 20s, they believe he is around this age and that he lives nearby.
They think this unsub is hyper-vigilant, and in this condition, he’s unable to travel very far from his home.
He kills at night and is extremely violent.
During the day, he’s most likely a loner.
Someone in this state probably can’t keep a job
We believe something happened to our unsub in his childhood
Childhood voices are telling him to kill, or he’s misinterpreting them as doing so.
Our unsub has probably been coping until now, but a recent stressor brought him back to that childhood incident and is causing him to act out.
Our unsub spends his days wandering, trying to fight the desire to kill, yet he feels trapped by his hallucinations.
No matter what he does or tries to do, the hallucination’s power is greater than his own.
Because of his limited social circle as a child, it is our belief that the incident involved close friends or family
Once the BAU figures out what happened to the unsub when he was a kid and the stressor that recently triggered him, we’ll be that much closer to narrowing down the killer’s identity.
While this profile is being given, we get lots of Tony's lighter action. I wonder if they specifically cast the role of Tony to an actor who was particularly gifted at opening and closing a lighter in a threatening manner or if this just happened to be an unexpected perk.
Anyways, Reid is a little fucked up about this whole schizophrenic thing because, as we know, Reid’s mother struggles with that illness.
We then cut to Ben and co at night. Ben goes to a church, looking for help. He meets with a Priest. Ben asks for someone to talk to, and the Priest is like, “let me just finish lighting these candles.” Ben then tells the priest that he has been seeing things and that also his imaginary friends have been blaming him for the fire. When asked to further clarify. Ben says, “An eye for an eye, I need you to get rid of them.” The Priest asks for more information, and Ben gives him some lore. Ben tells the priest that when he was 10, the church helped him because he was experiencing delusions. We see a flashback, and we recognize some of the parishioners at the church. It’s Matt, Yolanda, and Tony. A priest comes forward and encourages the congregation to gather around and pray for Ben. They believed he is possessed by demons when we really know he has mental health issues. Ben tells us about a traumatic experience where he was surrounded by church parishioners who touched him and called his name. They dropped water onto his head and performed an exorcism on him.
The priest to who Ben is explaining this all to in nowadays times is like, “Dude, you need to see a doctor.” Ben begs him to perform an exorcism, and the priest is like, “What you have is a medical problem. Churches don’t perform exorcisms anymore.” Ben begs and pleads with him.
Back at Portland headquarters- Morgan finds Reid in the bathroom. Reid is clearly upset, and he tells Morgan: “That profile makes it seem like schizophrenia leads to serial killing.” Morgan says: “That’s not what we said at all, Reid.” Reid says: “Just because someone suffers from an inability to organize their thoughts or they can’t bathe or dress themselves, it doesn’t mean they’d stab someone in the chest 30 times postmortem.” Reid believes the BAU is missing an important variable because the unsubs’ delusions are super specific. Reid and Morgan have a conversation about how Reid is clearly unwell. Reid blames his headaches and says that “I only read 5 books last week.” They talk about missing Prentis, and Morgan tells Reid that if Reid is really struggling, he wouldn’t have realized that the team is missing an important piece of the puzzle.
Cut to Ben- getting on public transportation. Ben’s friends are telling him that if he’d never used that lighter that nothing would have happened. Blah blah blah. Ben’s friends are trying to get him to attack an old lady on the bus. Ben gets off the bus and follows her. His friends promise him that if he attacks this old lady, they will leave him alone.
Garcia looks into police records for the unsub when he was younger. Reid points out that the unsub buying water and salt from the supermarket could be a sign that he is trying to perform an exorcism on himself. The team then decides to look for churches in the unsubs’s comfort zone. The BAU quickly finds the priest Ben spoke to only hours ago. He fills them in on the details. He says, “Throughout history, people have confused possession with mental illness.” I love this priest, honestly. Morgan and Reid asks the priest if the unsub did anything else specific or odd, and the priest mentions that the unsub had a stutter. However, the supermarket manager and Ms. Donnolly the neighbor, did not mention hearing stuttering. But, Garcia should be able to narrow down her list of youth offenders using the stuttering and fire.
Cut to- the old lady from the bus. She’s getting ready for bed- putting on lotion and just absolutely blasting classical music. But we later see her bed, and it is a twin bed with one pillow. She’s in her bathrobe, and she is stabbed and attacked by Ben. Sometimes later the BAU arrives at the crime scene. They note how there is a body imprint beside Psych Doctor, meaning that Ben slept beside her. He stabbed her 71 times, and Reid points out that the simple act of stabbing someone 71 times would be physically exhausting. Reid then realizes that the unsub is an insomniac and that the act of stabbing people makes him tired, and sleeping is the only release he has from his delusions.
Back with Ben- he is refreshed from his sleepy sleep, but his imaginary friends are still there, and he’s pissed. So then he stabs his friend Matt. Then he goes after Tony with a chair. I mean, if I was this guy’s neighbor, I would be complaining to the police nonstop. Then Ben attacks Yolanda. He hallucinates that he has killed them, but then they come back to life and continue to harass him. We’re back with Garcia, and she has found the unsub- Ben Foster. He moved to Portland 3 months ago after he was in an apartment fire. When he was 10, he was questioned in an investigation about a fire that killed three people. The three people in the fire (Tony, Yolanda, and Matt) helped perform the exorcism on him.
The BAU turns up at Ben’s apartment, but Ben’s imaginary friends warn him that he needs to get up and run. He tries to fight them, but then his own reflection in the mirror tells him that it is time to go. Moments later, the BAU burst into his apartment. They find Ben escaping out the back. Morgan and Seaver pursue him. Meanwhile, Ben continues to hallucinate that his friends are helping him. Morgan, Rossi, and local PD joins the chase. For a while, it seems like Ben may be getting away He breaks into a house (well, by break-in, I mean the door was open, and he just goes in). The house he breaks into has two small children in it. They hear Ben enter and come running downstairs, thinking it’s their mother. I guess that’ll teach you to leave the doors open. Ben has them clothes all the blinds and holds them at gun point. Unfortunately, this is super sus, because this house is the only house with the blinds closed. So the BAU is like… yeah, he’s in that house. Yolanda then tells Ben to “take the little kid out first,” and then Matt suggests, “take the girl out; she’s useless.”
Then the BAU barges in, guns drawn. Ben is still holding the knife, and Reid tries to reason with Ben. He tells them to drop the knife. He tells Ben that Ben is not responsible for the death of Matt, Yolanda and Tony. Hotch and Morgan also offer helpful advice. But Ben’s friends are contradicting everything the BAU says. Reid begs Ben to put down the knife, but then he charges the BAU, so they shoot him. They call for an ambulance.
On the BAU jet- Morgan talks to Seaver. She tells Morgan that according to Ben’s file, he was seeing evil imaginary friends ever since he was a child. She says, “I always viewed serial killers as monsters. But Ben’s remorse seemed real. And that’s why I can’t sleep. I can’t get him out of my mind. Does it ever go away?” Morgan tells her, “Luckily it does.”
We later see Ben being brought into in-patient treatment. They reveal that they gave him electroshock therapy. The doctor asks him how he feels, and he just kind of smiles and does not respond. But then we see that his imaginary friends are right in there with him! They tell him that they’re never going away and that they’ve been with him since the church fire. But then we flashback to Ben as a child, and he sees three shadowy figures in his peripheries.
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 13/20
Character development/ character arcs: 13/20
Forensics/Context: 12/20
Script writing: 14/20
Background characters: 20/20
Overall: 72/100