S6E23 - “The Big Sea”

We open in Jacksonville, Florida. We’re on the barge baby. There’s a barge that moves up and down the coast, repairing beaches from weather damage. It pulls up sand from offshore and spits it out on the beach to make the beach usable. It’s late at night, and some of the barge workers are doing water pump maintenance. One of the workers notices that one of the pumps is not pumping as well as it should, he thinks something is stuck in it. One of his coworkers sneaks up behind him and scares him with a “Boo!” which spooks him. Then, the pump starts working and pelts him with so much water that it knocks him over. The G-force of the water alone makes it impossible for him to get up It’s so dramatic, the coworker who punked him is bellowing, “KILL THE PUMP! KILL THE PUMP!” And eventually, they do kill the pump, and the workers notice that there was something dislodged in the pump- a human skull.

Cut to- the next morning. The BAU is at the crime scene, where 9 bodies (really, body parts, not full bodies) have been discovered. We learn that this is the first time the beach repair crew has operated the barge in Jacksonville. Rossi says: “Thousands of miles of open water and blind luck uncovers an unsub’s graveyard.” Garcia calls in and tells Hotch that she’s been doing a missing person’s sweep of Jacksonville. There are 6 unresolved cases, 3 of which are kids, so likely the unsub is hunting for his victims elsewhere and dumping them at sea. Garcia is going to expand the search area to neighboring states.

We meet Detective Forman, who asks that the BAU call him JT. He has set the BAU right on the beach under tents, and apologizes for this setup not being “a cushy arrangement.” Sir, there are 9 dead bodies. Inside one of the tents, Reid tells us that based on the parasites on the bodies, the unsub killed as recently as a month ago. Hotch is like- you’re not a medical examiner, how did you do this? Reid states he reverse-engineered mother nature. “Each year, sand and sediment cover up the remains on the ocean floor.” Meaning the deeper the beach repair barge dug, the older the bodies. Reid also points out that it looks like the unsub has killed a victim a year, which means that he is in control of his urges and able to repress them the 11 months out of the year he’s not killing. Pelvic bone and skull structure reveal no identical victimology- the unsub is killing men and women, as well as across racial lines. Just as we learn this, “Call me JT” informs the BAU that three additional bodies have been located.

The news reporters are going to have a field day with this. 9 bodies is A LOT of bodies. The BAU also discusses the fact that the unsub will need to change his MO and find a new dumping ground, which is bad news because he’ll have the whole Atlantic Ocean to choose from. We cut away and see a man on a boat cleaning fish, and we hear in the background a man pounding on the walls elsewhere in the boat and screaming for help. So this must be the unsub. Unsubs be fishing.

Back on the beach- we get a Rossi voiceover of our opening quote: “Sea has never been friendly to man, at most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.” From Joseph Conrad. Reid talks to JT and explains that the site where the barge crew pulled sand from was known for record catches of yellowmouth fish, but the unsub never dumped bodies during fishing season, which means that he is a local. Morgan believes the unsub is a fisherman because many of the bone fragments and body pieces uncovered at the scene show indications that they were disarticulated, something a hunter or fisherman might do. There are also marks that indicate the victims were tortured, so we’re dealing with a sadist.

Morgan calls Garcia and has her look into boat owners in Jacksonville, and there are 31k, so that’s not helpful. As Morgan speaks to her, he notices one of the victims is described as a black female in her 20s who died in 2004. She’s actually victim #5. Morgan kind of lingers on the description of this victim, and Garcia, noticing that he’s not his normal self, asks if he’s okay. He tells her that he is and gets off the phone. Only to be confronted by Seaver, who overheard the interaction, and she asks, “Why wouldn’t you be okay?” Morgan tells her that cases where they only have bone fragments are difficult because it’s hard to identify victims and hard to find the unsub. Essentially the BAU has to wait for the unsub to make a mistake. Also, now there are 12 bodies. The body count continues!

Let’s have a Reid Medical Examiner check-in. Oh, he’s still acting like a medical examiner. I feel like this is a case for BONES. Temperance Brennan would be so good at this case. Also, they did Zack so dirty in that show. Anyways, Reid notices an evolution in the victims, noting that earlier victims may have been sex workers or drug addicts, showing ground teeth and STDs. Whereas the newer victims did not have any of these indications. So the unsub has evolved. Hotch asks Reid to focus on the first victim, as oftentimes, the first victim is the most telling. Unfortunately, these bone fragments have been in the water so long that it may be hard for anything to be reconstructed that might be useful. Hotch is like, “I can give you three hours to work on a reconstruction,” and Reid goes: “I can do it in two,” and then Hotch is like: “Make it one.”

Hotch then goes to Rossi, who is concerned about the media attention. Already news crews are gathering, waiting for information from the FBI. Rossi worries that everyone who has ever filled will be contacting the BAU, looking for information on the victims. Hotch wants to use this to the BAU’s advantage, knowing the unsub will be watching the news reports. Hotch does a press conference, asking for families and friends of people who went missing on the east coast of the United States from the year 2000 onward to come forward. The BAU is going to attempt to match DNA to the remains, and they’re asking for people to provide items with DNA samples or dental records to possibly ID the remains. As Hotch is giving this press conference, we see a woman watching in her home. She then calls Morgan, who is at the press conference, and he steps away to take the call.

We learn that this woman is Morgan’s Aunt Yvonne and that Morgan’s cousin Cindy went missing in Charleston 7 years ago. So we now realize that when Morgan was looking at the description of Victim #5, he may have been thinking that the body belonged to Cindy. Aunt Yvonne asks Morgan if he thinks Cindy might be one of the victims, and Morgan says that he does not. We cut away, and we see Rossi telling Seaver that several years ago, Cindy fled a stalker. She made it to South Carolina, but she was never seen or heard from again. Cindy’s stalker killed himself two weeks later, so they never knew if he was responsible for Cindy’s disappearance.

Now we’re back with the unsub on his boat. We see the man we heard earlier chained to a chair. The unsub drugs the victim, and we cut away.

Now, at Jacksonville headquarters, members of the BAU are meeting with members of the public with missing family members who have gone missing in the timeframe that Hotch mentioned during his press interview. We learn about a woman named Dr. Samantha Cormack, whose best friend Louise has come forward to inquire about the newly discovered remains. Dr. Samantha had no family, so Louise was like her family. Louise meets with Morgan and tells him that Samantha disappeared after receiving a Parkinson’s diagnosis. Apparently, Samantha sent her friend Louise a postcard saying that she was leaving school because there was nothing there for her anymore. Louise tells Morgan that the postcard is in Samantha’s handwriting but that the contents of the letter don’t seem like something Samantha would have written. It was only one postcard, and Louise says Samantha would have written a twelve-page letter (same). But the letter is addressed to “Weeze”, and Samantha was the only one who called Louise that.

Back with Reid, Medical Examiner, working on the first victim. This first victim was older than the other bodies, in his late 50s. But his bones are severely deteriorated, deteriorated in such a way that it wasn’t from environmental factors like laying on the ocean floor. Reid also notes a defensive wound that he calls a “bone smash”. Unsure whether that is a technical term. Also, Reid thinks this victim suffered from alcoholism based on his bone density. So Hotch suggests that the unsub may have had a personal relationship with victim one, like a family member.

Rossi then talks to Morgan and asks if it’s “time to rethink Cindy”? Morgan, always the skeptic, tells Rossi that he thinks the connection is weak. Rossi is like- based on the timeline of events, it could potentially be Cindy. Morgan is worried about his Aunt, telling Rossi that she’s spent years fixating on Cindy’s disappearance. As any parent would. As Morgan puts it: “She doesn’t go out, she doesn’t sleep, she forgets to take her medication. It’s killing her, Rossi.” He also says: “Everything I’ve learned as a profile has taught me that it’s not about what I want to be true, it’s about what I can prove.” This is interrupted by Seaver- who tells them that they have positively ID’ed Dr. Samantha Cormack as Victim #10. She was abducted in Charleston, a 250-mile trip, which causes the BAU to think that the unsub is using a boat to torture and kidnap people.

The BAU calls Garcia, telling her they have information to narrow down the 31k boat owners she found before. Morgan says: “Can you give us boats with cabins large enough to hide torture chambers?” Garcia is like, “Yeah, torture chambers, because that will totally be listed in the manufacturer’s amenities.” Reid suggests cabin specs starting at 10 feet by 10 feet and capping at 30. Garcia says she will work on it, but it will take time. The team then focuses on what they do know about the only confirmed victim, Dr. Samantha. She sent a postcard to her BFF. They are going to ask the other family members of the missing people if any of them received postcards. However, Seaver points out that the unsub forcing his victims to write goodbye letters is a gamble because letters written under duress can have tells, and his victims could sneak in coded messages without him knowing.

Reid has Samantha’s letter, and he points out that he does not believe it was written under duress. Samantha had Parkinsons, but the letter shows no indication of shaky handwriting. He names a powder drug called “Trilamide,” which in minute doses can treat Parkinsons, but can also treat sea sickness. Guess what Trilamide also can do? In a high dose, it can make someone completely compliant. So the BAU theorizes that this is what the unsub is using to drug his victims. And, of course, we saw the unsub drugging a victim a few minutes ago.

Back with the unsub- he has clearly drugged his current captor with Trilamide because he’s feeling confident enough to untie the man we saw earlier. But we now see that the man is not the only one held captive, his teenage son is also being held captive. We learn that the father is Gary Rhymer, and the teenager is his son James. James begs his father to “fight it,” meaning fight against the effects of the drug. The unsub whispers something to Gary and asks if Gary understands, and Gary says he does. Gary puts a piece of duct tape under his son’s face. They’re both crying, it’s so dramatic. He then sits back down, showing the unsub that Gary is fully under the unsub’s control. The unsub then presents Gary with an assortment of weapons and asks Gary to choose one. Gary chooses a knife, and the unsub goes- “Good. That’s the knife you’ll kill yourself with.”

Back at FL PD, we learn about four more postcards, confirming four more identifications for the bodies. So 5/12 have been identified. Reid tells us that, geographically, each victim was from a different state. Two of the victims went missing in Charleston, and three from Miami. In this way, he is not drawing too much attention in either city. Morgan suggests the BAU focus on the postcards, as there is no clear victimology, but the postcards are clearly part of the unsub’s MO. Morgan calls the postcards “the Rosetta stone we might night.” The BAU has no confirmation that Trilamide was used on victims, but they’re just going with it. Reid suggests that the unsub dictates the letters to his victims and thinks that the words used might reveal something about the unsub himself. Hotch goes- start a linguistic profile.

Rossi and Seaver head to the docks. They meet with a fisherman who tells them that the local fishermen would notice if some non-local guy showed up at the docs with fish that don’t swim in their local waters. Rossi and Seaver have a lounge and chat on the docks and discuss how fishermen are all anti-social loner losers, and their unsub’s ability to abduct people likely means he has good social skills. They think he might have a charter boat and offer boat tours or something else touristy. Seaver and Rossi run with this. They imagine the unsub getting a bunch of passengers on board, narrowing down his victim search to the ones traveling alone, asking “innocent” questions about who would miss them at home, then tearing up credit card receipts.

Now at FL PD, the BAU talk to the families of the victims identified, trying to find a common thread. Rossi interviews… Morgan about Cindy. We learn that Cindy didn’t drink or do drugs and had a steady job. Rossi asks about the stalker, and Morgan gets a little defensive. He tells Rossi that Cindy went on one date with the stalker, and the stalker just stalked her. We also learn that Morgan was the one who suggested Cindy go into hiding. Telling her to “pick a city and don’t tell anyone.” Rossi asks Morgan why Charleston. Morgan recalls a time when his family was celebrating the Fourth of July by a lake. Cindy was afraid of the water and refused to go in. So Morgan thinks it’s unlikely she ever would have agreed to go on a boat.

Back with the unsub- he’s bossing Gary around. We learn Gary and James’ mother are divorced and separated. Gary had to give up custody because he couldn’t afford to have James full-time. The unsub makes Gary tell James that he abandoned him and stopped loving James. James is still duct-taped up. The unsub asks James if he wants to say something to his father and removes the tape. James is like: “Dad, please stop stabbing yourself.” We then see that during this whole convo, Gary has been stabbing himself with a knife.

PROFILE

• Unsub is a 30-40-year-old fisherman currently charting his boat to tourists, trying to find a victim of medium risk.

• For example- your car breaks down in a bad neighborhood. Once you’re outside your normal routine, there’s a greater chance of victimization.

• Each of his victims was trying to start over- they were out of a relationship or starting a new job, but to this unsub, they were abandoning their responsibilities.

• The BAU can tell this in the messages that he forces his victims to write (“It’s too much,” “There’s nothing for me here,” “It’s better if I leave.”)

  • The BAU believes this anger stems from his first victim- his father. Most likely a local fisherman, definitely an alcoholic. Based on this unsub’s level of sadism, violently abusive.

  • He’s also the first person to abandon the unsub. Walked out on his family and maybe even wrote a postcard like this.

  • So the unsub picked a site of significance to them both, a spot known to local fishermen that the unsub turned into a prison.

• The unsub can’t go back to that spot, but he won’t leave Jacksonville either. That prison was his responsibility, and without it, he’ll cling to what he knows. He’ll change his MO, and that’ll make him erratic.

• He’ll escalate his sadism, and he’ll kill uncontrollably until he finds another spot in the ocean to replace this one.

After the profile is given, Morgan notices that Aunt Yvonne has shown up at FL PD. She has Cindy’s hair brush.

Now we’re on the boat with the kidnappees. James asks his father Greg (you might know him as the man who was previously stabbing himself) which Greg left him. Greg is like, I didn’t want to, but I had to. James then asks his father how they’re going to escape, and Greg is like idk.

Back at FL PD, Aunt Yvonne is CONVINCED that Cindy is one of the victims. Morgan tells his aunt that he doesn’t want to drag her into the mess, but Aunt Yvonne is insistent. Morgan does tell her about Victim #5. He then asks his aunt if Cindy was afraid of water, and Aunt Yvonne tells him that Cindy loved to swim, but Cindy was seasick on boats.

Morgan then goes to Hotch and suggests that perhaps the unsub didn’t lure his victims in with charter boats. Hotch is like, “yeah, okay, but we don’t even know that Cindy is Victim #5.” And Morgan is like, “I know, but I rushed her DNA.” Hotch is like, “We shouldn’t make assumptions, that makes an ass out of you and me.” And Morgan is like, “I’m not saying that we throw away the profile, but can we expand our thinking.” Hotch and Morgan call Garcia and ask her to look into alternate ways that the unsub could be kidnapping people. None of the known victims have any connections to the cities they were abducted, but Morgan points out that all the victims must have traveled to the cities in question somehow. Garcia can’t find any transportation records. Hotch is like: “How is that possible, these people were starting their likes over, the whole point is to travel.” But there are no receipts, bus tickets, or transactions at all showing transportation. This means that the unsub is grabbing his victims en route to wherever they were traveling to.

Back on the boat, the unsub is butchering a fish in front of Gary and James. Gary gets sick, and the unsub gives him bleach and tells him to clean it up. Gary uses the bleach to splash the unsub and distract him, and tries to get away. He and the unsub tussle, and this gives James enough time to grab the keys and free himself. James runs outside, but Gary and the unsub have gone overboard and fallen into the water. And Gary does not emerge, leaving James alone with the unsub.

Back at PD headquarters- the team is trying to think of modes of transportation that do not issue tickets in advance. They land on passenger trains because conductors write tickets on board. Reid says: “The train as a concept might appeal to people looking to start over, the appeal of escape, of romance. If he’s a conductor, he’s in a target-rich environment.” JT interrupts this convo to announce that a body has been pulled out of the water- it’s Gary Rhymer.

Cut to the ME- Reid wishes this was him. Reid and Morgan examine Gary’s body. They quickly deduce that the unsub forced Gary to stab himself using the Trilamide. Reid’s like, “yeah, that makes sense for a sadist with abandonment issues.” Reid wonders how Gary got free, and Morgan suggests that Gary overcame the drug because he was trying to protect someone. They think that Gary was protecting a child. Moments later, Morgan calls Garcia to see if they can figure out who Gary was trying to protect. She finds a change of address report for Gary Rhymer and his son James. Now they know that the unsub has James. We learn that James’ mother lost custody of him after failing drug test number three.

We’re with the unsub and James. James is now tied up, but the unsub unlocks his handcuffs. The unsub gives James a knife and wants him to gut and clean a fish. James is skeeved out, and the unsub is like, “Gut it. GUT IT!” But James refuses.  

Back with the BAU, they’re still trying to figure out how transportation figures into the unsub’s mode of abduction. Hotch gets the idea to ask Aunt Yvonne if she thinks Cindy might’ve traveled by train. Unfortunately, Aunt Yvonne cannot confirm the train, but she does tell Morgan that one time Cindy visited her uncle in Myrtle Beach by train. Morgan is like- that’s a 36-hour trip. There’s no way. Morgan tells his Aunt that sometimes people want something so bad they sort of make it true in their own heads. Aunt Yvonne then admits that Cindy did go to visit her uncle in Myrtle Beach, but she traveled by plane as an unaccompanied minor. However, the unaccompanied minor phrase gives Morgan an idea. Garcia checks for unaccompanied minor paperwork for James and finds that he did take a train called Surf Rider which makes stops in Jacksonville, Miami, and Charleston.

Garcia then cross-references her list of boat owners with Surf Rider employees. She gets a hit on Chuck Wells, a local fisherman, and his son Blake who is a conductor on the Surf Rider line. Blake is our unsub. Blake’s got a new face. We learn that Blake’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and died several months later. Chuck, Blake’s father, walked out on the family after her diagnosis.

Back with Blake, who’s got a new James (lol), Blake has docked the boat. He is like, absolutely INTENT on teaching James how to gut fish. Which, like, is not an easy process. He takes James ashore and makes him carry around a big dead fish. Blake tells James that he was James’ age when he started pulling 14-hour days at the dock, “That son of a bitch said I had to earn my keep. Then he’d beat me, take my paycheck, and he’d drink it away!” James accidentally drops the fish, and Blake slaps James’ face.

Cut to FL PD. The BAU is working with JT to try to narrow down the location where the unsub is keeping James. They decide to split up, and one group is gonna head to the docks with SWAT.

At the docks, Blake tells James how he was late for work one day, and his dad broke his arm. But his father made Blake continue to gut fish, and he kept gutting fish until he passed out. I guess this is supposed to be inspirational, but James is still, like… not into gutting fish. But thank goodness, Morgan shows up with the SWAT team. Blake pulls a knife on James and holds him hostage. Morgan tells Blake, “You don’t hurt kids, you’re not that guy.” Morgan does the whole “studying men like you is my responsibility” thing, trying to ingratiate Blake. He also promises not to abandon Blake. When Blake is like, “What makes you think I’m gonna cooperate?” Morgan points out SWAT and is like: “My men are gonna take you out. Do you really think you’ll get to see your mom again? Or will it just be cold, dark, and empty. Like the water where you put your dad.” Oh shiiiiit.

So Blake allows himself to be taken into custody. James is safe, I guess he’s going to go live with his aunt now. Back at headquarters, Morgan meets with Blake. He wants Blake to identify the other bodies. He shows a bunch of pictures of victims and asks him to explain how he abducted each victim. Blake says Carol Reed was easy to abduct because she was a meth addict. Then we learn about Alton McKee, Blake “Caught him off guard.” Morgan asks Blake if he’s overcompensating which his recapping details of kidnapping people because the FBI found his little hidey hole. Blake is like, “I might have another hole out there somewhere- it’s a big sea.” Morgan’s like naw, you don’t, though. You have daddy issues. Then Morgan shows Blake a picture of Cindy. Blake says, “I didn’t dump her there, did I. She means something to you, doesn’t she?” Blake then asks Morgan if he wants to know who Cindy cried out for right before she sliced her own throat. He tells Morgan that she cried out for Morgan. Morgan is like, “Deal’s off, you obviously didn’t kill her.” Blake insists that he did kill Cindy. Morgan is like, “I was very clear about the rules.” There was one rule!!

Outside the interrogation room, Rossi asks Morgan how he knew that Blake didn’t kill Cindy. And Morgan’s like- Blake knows his victims’ names, but he did not know Cindy’s name. Morgan then has to go tell his Aunt that Victim #5 was not Cindy. Aunt Yvonne says: “I’m never gonna know, am I?” Morgan then lies to his Aunt and tells her that the unsub picked out Cindy’s picture. We know this isn’t true, but clearly, Morgan wants to give his Aunt so much-needed closure. His Aunt breaks down into hysterics, and Morgan comforts her.

Rating Criteria:

• Criminal/Serial Killer: 10/20

• Character development/ character arcs: 17/20

• Forensics/Context: 12/20

• Script writing: 5/20

• Background characters: 15/20

Overall: 59/100