Original subtitles

Previously, on "Criminal Minds"...

The bureau thinks that my ability to lead this team

has been compromised.

I'm resigning as Unit Chief at the end of the week.

- What?! - I'm not leaving the team.

I'm just no longer in charge.

- You are. - Me?

Ms. Barnes, I'm sorry for your brother's death.

I know that sounds like something people say,

but I truly am sorry.

Thank you for helping me through this.

Of course.

I think you need to cut contact with Tamara Barnes.

- Penelope, she lost her brother. - She just wants answers.

I'm not involved.

Let's go.

We have to hurry.

We are.

It's 10 minutes before curfew.

I'll get you there.

What just happened with Ben?

It was just a peck.

Only because you weren't alone, but next time...

So, are you going to text him tonight?

Maybe.

Well, you should.

I don't know. I have homework to do still.

So what?

I guess he is pretty cute.

Um, yeah.

Megan!

No! No! Please!

Stop! Stop! Aah!

I don't know, it sounds like a promotion to me.

Well, yeah, it...

it's complicated.

What isn't?

Hmm.

Yeah.

It's just everything's happened so fast,

I mean, we haven't even had a chance

to tell the rest of our team yet.

You know, I wanted to thank you again for...

coming to the hearing.

I didn't know if it was fair to ask you.

Tamara, I'm glad I could be there for you.

I think that the only time that I have felt sane at all,

in the past few weeks, is when I've talked to you.

Really? I...

I feel like I'm the one who's been doing all the talking here.

You've helped me reconnect to my job.

To myself, really.

It's good to see you again.

It's really nice to see you, too.

So, listen,

I know that your new job is a lot of responsibility

And you're gonna have to commit, a hundred percent, and you should.

But, maybe when things calm down,

I'll buy you a drink? Fair?

Yeah. It's more than fair.

Also, I wanted to give you something.

It was William's.

I can't take this.

I want you to have it. Please.

For being there for me.

When you lose a brother, the way that I did,

it's nice to have someone like you at my side.

So, did anyone explain why Hotch is stepping down?

All Morgan said this morning is that it's happening.

And it's business as usual.

So, we're just supposed to move forward, without any discussion?

After Foyet, I think we'd have to be ready for anything.

Did you pick a case?

Agent Jareau and I reviewed the requests this morning,

and I've decided on Oklahoma city.

Why this one?

Locals have more evidentiary information in other priorities.

This one, they have nothing.

They need us the most.

Good.

If that's all, I'd like to gather the team.

- I'll be checking in. - I expect to be briefed.

Yes, ma'am.

If you need privacy, please use my office.

That's OK. We're done here.

And when we get back, I'll clear everything out

and it'll be all yours.

Hotch, I don't want your office.

I agree with Agent Hotchner. The team leader needs a proper office.

All due respect, Ms. Strauss,

but both of you have trusted me

to step in as acting Unit Chief.

I'm asking that you respect my decision.

I've decided that I don't want Hotch's office.

That's where he belongs.

If necessary, we can discuss this again, at a later date,

but right now, we really need to get started on this case.

Guys.

Grab Rossi.

This is Megan Chertow and her friend Bina Sukarto,

both 17, found 2 nights ago, in a parking garage,

Carotids severed.

This is John O'Heron, 61.

He was found dead, in a wooded area, 4 days ago,

Blunt force trauma to the head.

Different MO.

And completely different victimology.

How are the cases linked?

Their eyes have been removed.

Oh, he's an enucleator.

There's a name for this?

It's a rare subset of criminal behavior,

but there have been case studies of assaultive enucleators.

The overwhelming majority of them suffer from diagnosed mental disorders.

And they're usually males,

lack social skills,

their kills are disorganized and sloppy.

The typical enucleator gouges the eyes out,

but he doesn't normally take them with him.

This guy did?

We need to figure out why.

There are noticeable shifts

from the first to second murder.

He goes from killing in seclusion,

to a public place.

And he escalated from one victim to 2.

What concerns me most is there's less than 48 hours

between the murders. That's why I chose this case.

And from what we know about enucleators,

they're almost always multiple repeat offenders.

Exactly. Which means he's going to need to kill again soon.

All right. Let's meet on the plane in 30.

Aah!

Aah!

"And if thy right eye offend thee,

pluck it out and cast it from thee."

Matthew 5:29.

The color of all the victims' eyes are different,

so that probably doesn't factor in to victimology.

It's more likely what he sees in the eyes.

Case studies show that most enucleators

suffer from delusions.

They hear voices and see things in people's eyes.

Usually something evil.

They're driven to enucleate to destroy the devil.

It points to someone who may have been institutionalized

and recently released.

I'll have Garcia start looking.

All right, so talk to me.

What makes these attacks so different?

With victim one, there were multiple blunt force strikes to the head...

A more personal kill.

And he disposed of the body,

maybe as a forensic countermeasure.

The next murders seemed less personal,

more opportunistic.

I think we need to look at why the first victim

was bludgeoned and dumped.

Perhaps the unsub knew him.

Prentiss, I want you to go to the disposal site,

see if you can figure out why he was dumped there.

Rossi, you and I are gonna go to last night's crime scene.

Actually, uh, the girls' families

asked to speak to our team leader.

All right. Um...

OK, in that case, Rossi, you can handle the crime scene solo.

JJ, you're with me,

and, Hotch, Reid,

I want you to get into John O'Heron's life,

See if anything at all points to a personal motive.

Hey. Phil Brantley. Appreciate y'all coming.

Agent Hotchner. This is Dr. Reid.

You'll meet the rest of the team later.

Excellent. Excellent.

OK, here's where the first body was found,

just outside of town.

And last night's murders were here.

And that's about 22 miles apart.

- That's unusual. - What?

Serial killers usually have a smaller kill zone.

It's our technical analyst.

Hey, Garcia, you're on speakerphone.

So, I looked up recently released mental health patients

who have a history of eye gouging,

eye assault, and other gross things

you can do to eyes and sockets.

And there's no bingo for Okie City residents.

Any other recent attacks involving assaults on eyes?

There's one 9 months ago. He's not your guy, 'cause he's in jail.

We'll call you later.

10-4, breaker, breaker.

Bye.

You think he's fresh out of an asylum?

Either that or he's been held somewhere and he's now free.

We've seen eye assaults before,

you know, bar brawls, rapes, domestic abuse cases.

But nothing like this.

What the hell's he doing with the eyes?

He could be collecting them as a trophy of some sort.

They wouldn't keep long as trophies.

Eyes are 80% vitreous humor,

which is essentially water.

After a few hours, they begin to get cloudy and wilt.

Any other theories?

There have been cases where after enucleation,

mental patients have consumed the eyeballs.

Are you serious?

Thank you for coming here.

It's no problem.

We can't leave our house.

We have to mourn for 3 days.

Buddhist rituals?

Yes.

Did your sister call you

while she was out last night?

No. I knew something was wrong.

She always comes home by curfew.

Does this man look familiar to you?

No.

Why do you ask?

We believe he and your sister

were killed by the same person.

It helps us to rule out any connection between the victims,

and it tells us that your sister was most likely

attacked at random.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

I asked to speak to you

because we need you to do something for us.

Mmm.

It's OK.

Take your time.

Grandma said she saw Bina's ghost last night.

Her eyes were just big black holes.

Bina was looking for her eyes.

She says Bina's cursed.

She can't rest.

She's stuck for eternity

looking for her eyes.

We want to cremate her.

But we need all of her.

Can you find her eyes for us?

We will try.

But realistically, we may not be able to.

Then she will be cursed forever.

She may never rest in peace.

O'Heron's friends say he has a history of drunken behavior,

but they don't know anybody with a grudge against him.

He was last seen leaving a bar.

Bartender on duty said he left without incident.

Where did he go after that?

I checked out the disposal site

where John O'Heron's body was dumped.

It's a remote farm road.

The unsub didn't just stumble on it. He knows it.

We need a list of people who work or live near the area.

I got a bad feeling about this guy.

Why is that?

He chose that parking garage.

He was patient.

He hid and waited for the right victims

and the right time and place.

He blitzed them.

It was all strategic.

That sounds way too organized for a typical enucleator.

Add to that his lack of a cooling-off period between kills,

it's not gonna be easy to get ahead of him.

I just got off the phone with the ME.

She says there's something we should see.

The eyeball is held in the socket

by 6 different muscles, fatty tissue,

and the optic nerves.

These are pictures of John O'Heron's eye sockets.

See the optic nerves protruding?

Trauma. They were ripped out.

Maybe with fingers.

Now compare this to my body on the table.

Smooth inside, no bruising, no sign of trauma.

Optic nerves retracted into the muscle

and they have a clean edge.

So, you're saying these were cut out.

With a sharp-edged tool.

He managed to avoid cutting the sockets

or the eyelids.

This was precise work.

The kind of work only a doctor could do?

All I'm saying is that with both of these girls,

it was a clean excision.

OK, so he was crude with the first victim,

surgical with the others.

The amount of effort he's going through

to remove the eyes now, he wouldn't destroy them.

He's keeping them.

Ohh!

It's secluded, but he chose a public spot again.

He's not afraid to get caught.

This is far from the other crime scenes.

What brought him here?

Well, he only killed one person this time.

It could have been more.

Hey, we found a car parked nearby.

ID'd her from a DMV photo.

Tracy Copper, 32. Husband said she was an avid jogger.

Single knife wound to the neck, eyes are missing.

Cut out as carefully as the last ones.

Hey, Garcia. So, we have the list of local doctors,

but we need to back it up one step.

Where shall I splice, my pretties?

Give me a list of all doctors

who've had infractions like malpractice suits.

Got it. Bouncing your way.

Narrow it down to eye specialists.

Whoo, that's still a lot of names.

We'll chip away when we know more.

Hey, wait. Before you hang up,

how's my Morgan doing?

Fine.

I know the man is fine.

How's he holding up as head honcho?

Well, he's stressed, but he's on top of it.

Speaking of which,

there is something you could do for him.

Name it.

He must have hidden in these trees, lying in wait again.

So, he picked his location and then waited for a victim of opportunity.

He blitzes her because he lacks the social skills to charm.

That feels like the same pattern

ss the girls in the parking lot.

But he was quiet in the parking lot.

If he hid in these trees, there's too much dry brush.

He would have made noise.

No, it's too sloppy for him.

She was a serious jogger. If she'd heard him,

she might have been able to outrun him.

Unless he surprised her some other way.

Guys.

What is that?

Tripwire?

We need to look at her ankles.

He used the tripwire to get her off her feet.

She's stunned and she doesn't have time to run away.

He laid a trap for her.

All this, plus the way he bleeds her at the neck.

It's the behavior of a game hunter.

Hunting's a big part of this city's culture.

Yeah, hunting animals is.

What triggered him to start hunting humans?

This guy is taking people's eyes,

so he's definitely disturbed.

What bugs me is that people like this

usually unravel, get sloppy.

And this guy's only getting better.

They're back.

Morgan, I'm fielding calls left and right here.

- What's happening? - Case made national news.

They're starting to call him the Eye Snatcher.

All right, um,

you're gonna hold a small, controlled press conference.

Answer their questions, but try to squash that name.

I want the people to be aware, but I do not want to make

a bogeyman out of this guy. You understand?

Yeah. Yeah.

Is there something else?

You're not answering Strauss' calls.

She's just trying to keep tabs. She can wait.

Morgan, I think you should take the time to field the call.

Hotch, we have to set up a tip line.

We have to go over JJ's talking points.

We haven't gotten the profile out yet.

All of that takes priority over dealing with Strauss.

I understand all that.

Let us help you set up strategy while you talk to her.

We'll regroup with you before we proceed.

We have enough battles. Believe me, you don't want to fight her, too.

Let me get this profile out,

and then I'll go talk to Strauss.

He's doing a good job.

He is.

Have you thought about how this is going to end?

What do you mean?

Morgan as our Unit Chief is a temporary thing.

It is.

He's a natural leader. He'll excel.

What happens when he's asked to step down?

We believe that our unsub

may have known his first victim,

Yet the rest were random.

Most enucleators have a mental disorder

and are frenzied and sloppy when they attack.

This one has more control.

We are not calling him by any nickname.

He is simply a murderer that the FBI is trying to apprehend.

He lays in wait to kill his victims,

knows how to cut them so they bleed out.

This indicates he might have a hunting background.

We're urging citizens to be hypervigilant at night.

He is killing in different areas of the city.

In public places.

His large kill zone could be related

to some type of travel pattern in his life,

Which indicates a comfort with these neighborhoods.

Why, all of a sudden, is he killing people every day?

The escalation might be caused

by a self-imposed time line.

He has to murder so many people,

take this many eyes, to accomplish a task.

So, he's crazy, but he's got a mission?

Actually, yes.

He's acting on a delusion

that's fueling this murder spree.

For example,

a man named Herbert Mullin.

He had a fear of a catastrophic earthquake hitting California.

Now, he believed that by killing people

and offering their blood as a sacrifice to the Earth,

he could prevent an earthquake.

He was a paranoid schizophrenic,

and his delusion led him to kill 13 people.

Uh, what should we look for when we're on the streets?

We believe he's a white male, 27 to 35.

We believe he is driving a van or a pickup truck

with a removable cab.

Something utilitarian that can get bloody and wash out easily.

He may also have applied for hunting licenses.

He has some sort of medical or surgical training

but fell short of making a career out of it.

He may have been in a halfway house

or have been granted leave from a treatment facility.

Maybe his family moved him away and now he's back.

If you know anyone who fits these types of scenarios,

please call our tip line.

Our unsub kills at night,

employs hunting tactics, and is patient.

He will wait until he can be alone with his victims.

Chief Strauss.

You're answering my calls now?

Listen, I apologize for this morning,

but I'm sure you can understand how busy we were.

So, what's the strategy tonight?

I have the team visiting precincts all over town

helping locals set up patrol.

And media outlets are warning citizens to be hypervigilant.

What about suspects?

Nothing viable yet.

So, ultimately, you're no closer to catching him tonight.

Trust me, I am well aware that he is probably out there hunting as we speak.

Now, if I wake up in the morning and there are more victims,

that is all on me.

Look, I'm not criticizing you.

In fact, there are a lot of people who have faith in you

and want to see you succeed. Do you understand that?

Yes, ma'am.

I'm just checking in to make sure your team is intact

and that you have everything you need to do your job.

This team is solid,

and we will get the job done.

We'll touch base tomorrow.

I'm dreading going to work.

You always say that.

Hey, I'll start looking for a new job.

We'll grab a paper in the morning

and start circling whatever looks good to you.

Did you hear something?

That's weird.

I see someone.

Hello!

Hello?

Wes? What the hell's he doing?

I'm freaking out.

There's no reception.

Let's go.

No, Sandy. Not that way.

Wes, can you see?

Quiet, baby. He can hear us.

He's behind us.

Get in front of me.

I can't see anything.

Get to the car. Down the hill.

Go. Go, go.

Go, Sandy. Go.

Uhh! Ohh...

Uhh!

Wes.

Wes?

Wes.

No, please don't.

Thought I'd beat everyone here.

No.

You were here all night?

You know you can't do that again, right?

Rossi, when you walked in here,

I really thought you were gonna tell me that there was another victim.

We're having no luck at all trying to find this guy on paper.

That's why we step away,

get some sleep, come back fresh.

We're looking for a doctor who is also a hunter

and a former mental patient who happens to be cutting people's eyes out.

Trust the profile.

When we get him, it'll all make sense.

Good morning.

No, it isn't.

Don't tell me.

A male and a female.

He's back to killing 2?

There's something different about this crime scene, though.

He cut the wires in the electrical boxes,

Killed all the lights.

So they couldn't see.

He wanted to force them off the trail

so he could hunt them in the dark.

If they couldn't see, he couldn't.

He probably used some kind of night vision aid,

like a scope, something a hunter would use.

Her carotid was severed,

and her eyes are missing, just like the others.

He didn't take the boy's eyes.

Well, why not? What's so different?

There's a laceration on his left eye.

The right eye, he didn't even touch.

He's got defensive wounds on his arms.

He probably tried to fight back to protect the girl.

During the fight, the unsub could have cut his eye.

We said he might be collecting them.

What if he needs a set? An injury like that ruins the collection.

They're trophies. Oh, my God.

What?

I know this sounds crazy, but just hear me out.

A taxidermist?

Morgan might be onto something.

The unsub's collecting sets of eyes that need to be flawless.

Because he's preserving them as a trophy of some kind.

We said he was a hunter. What do hunters collect for trophies?

What if we're wrong about him being a doctor?

It makes sense.

A taxidermist has all the skills and supplies

needed to preserve eyes and other body parts.

Do they know how to surgically remove eyes like this?

Yeah, they have anatomy knowledge.

They have to cut through muscle, tissue, and nerves

in order to remove hide. It's the exact same thing for eyeballs.

Garcia, you're on speaker.

Comrades, I cross-referenced

this John O'Heron with Okie City animal stuffers.

Turns out he wrote a $250 check as some sort of deposit

for Lloyd's Wild Game Shop, 6 weeks ago.

Now, this place is scant miles from the farm road

where our first victim was dumped.

Does Lloyd have a record?

Uh... Lloyd Bulford

has one recent record from the city, and it is...

a death certificate.

He died 4 weeks ago.

Of what?

Emphysema.

Any employees with criminal records?

He's got no employment records at all.

He has a 28-year-old son, named Earl, who lives with him,

who has a petty crime record

and 3 counts of animal cruelty.

Garcia, get everything on the son.

Okey-dokey.

Morgan, we may have someone.

I'm calling from Oklahoma City Bank and Trust.

This is our fifth attempt to reach Mr. Earl Bulford.

We just want to remind you that you need to collect all your belongings

and vacate the premises by Sunday.

The eyes aren't right.

Where's your dad?

He's gotta fix those eyes.

The eyes are good.

You can't do eyes.

Here! I'm taking it somewhere else.

You can't do eyes.

Is there any record of mental illness?

No, but mom had a degenerative eye disease

called retinitis pigmentosa,

which would eventually lead her to go blind,

and considering his crimes, that's super weird, right?

So, anyway, she died in a car accident when he was 8,

and then he gets expelled from school

for getting in a fight with a kid

and trying to gouge the kid's eyes out.

I have no record of him returning to school,

he has no employment records,

he's never filed for taxes, he doesn't have a credit card in his name.

Besides his driver's license, there's no record on him at all.

That's probably why he didn't show up on any of our lists.

Sounds like he's totally dependent on his dad,

and when dad dies, there's no one left to check up on him.

OK, dad drove a 1990 dark-brown Chevy cargo van.

Hot news... creditors took the house this week,

and a lien was put on the business.

Lost his dad, his house, about to lose the family business.

Care to choose a stressor?

I'll take the back with Brantley.

There's no van here.

Copy.

I don't see anything.

Hotch, I see blood. We're going in.

Clear.

That's gotta be John O'Heron's blood.

So, he comes here to see his animal,

they argue, and then this happens.

Clear.

He's been sleeping here.

Well, if he's not here now, then he's out hunting again.

This one doesn't have eyes.

Neither does this one.

This one does.

This is what's he's doing with the eyes.

Look at these. He's been hunting

since he was a kid.

Never went to school.

Probably spent his entire childhood in here.

Somebody this socially isolated no doubt has mental issues.

Looks like he only knew 2 things...

hunting and taxidermy.

Which was fine as long as daddy was supervising him.

Now his gatekeeper's gone and he's loose.

Right over there, please.

Yes, ma'am.

This is much later than you guys said it was gonna be.

Let me see it.

Wow.

My daddy's gonna love it.

What?

I need something from you.

I think this is all of his customer information.

Morgan, Prentiss.

Wait a minute. This address, Junction Road,

it's close to where the teenage girls got killed.

I think he's attacking all over town

close to where his customers live.

Another customer on Dry Creek Road,

close to where that jogger got killed in the park.

And what about where the couple was murdered last night?

Close to this address here.

OK, so he's delivering these animals to his clients' homes

and then sticking around the neighborhood to find victims.

And there are 2 more addresses here.

All right, we should split up and go.

I'll get units to these locations.

All right, thank you so much.

The woman at the Bleaker address hasn't seen him today.

No response at the other residence.

What the hell?

May I help you?

I'm Agent Hotchner, with the FBI.

- This is Lieutenant Brantley. May we come in? - Yeah.

Did you get a delivery today,

from a taxidermy shop, from this man?

Yes, I did.

I need an APB in my area. How long ago was this?

About an hour ago.

He said he needed something from me.

The balance I owed. I paid him, and he left.

He creeped the hell out of me.

- These are glass. - What is this about?

Agent Hotchner. They found the van. It's close.

Excuse us.

He must be close by.

You take the street to the North.

Uhh! Uhh!

Aah! Uhh!

Aah!

Aah!

Help!

I need backup near Motor and Descanso.

Aah! Aah!

FBI, Earl! Get off of her!

We got him. We got him!

Call an ambulance!

We need medical assistance.

8800 block of Descanso, South side of the street.

Secure him.

Can you hear me?

Help is on the way. Hold still.

Hold still.

You can talk to the FBI when we come back.

What happened here?

Took him down by himself.

Hotch.

Brantley says you took him down solo.

He wasn't far behind me.

You know you should have waited for backup.

Would you have?

What?

Nothing.

We got him. We're coming home.

You guys rock.

Right back at you.

So, how are you doing on that Special Ops mission?

Mission accomplished.

I had no doubt. Bye.

Keeper.

There he is.

The team's at the hotel packing.

You think we can leave in about an hour?

Yeah. Yeah, we can try.

Hey, that's my stuff. Hey!

Where did you get that stuff?

Hey. Hey! Keep your voice down.

That guy was mean.

He deserved it.

You know, you've got...

real pretty eyes.

Get him out of here... now.

Sorry.

JJ, did they find any more human eyes at the shop?

Yeah, a few. They're still looking.

They're hoping to match the eyes

to the rest of the victims.

Uh, listen, I may need more than an hour.

Ms. Sukarto.

Agent Morgan.

Did you find them?

We did.

They're at the Coroner's Office, right now.

They need to be processed for evidence first,

but they can be sent to the funeral home, of your choice, tomorrow.

You have no idea what this means to us.

I really hope your sister can rest in peace now.

Good night.

"Dwell in peace in the home of your own being,

and the messenger of death will not be able to touch you."

Guru Nanak.

You are here late.

Reports.

Hotch always stayed later than the rest of us,

and now I understand why.

He doesn't have to write them anymore. Why is he still here?

I don't know.

But I do know I need to get some rest.

I got another case starting tomorrow.

Um, I... before you go, can you help me get something out of storage?

Yes, baby girl. Anything for you.

Thank you.

Hey, what's that? I haven't seen it before.

Penelope, there's a lot of my stuff that you haven't seen before.

Wow, you are a tease.

Voila.

What are we doing in Hall's office?

Um, it's kind of not Hall's office, anymore.

It's your office.

What?

JJ made some calls.

Agent Hall's retiring in a month,

but he's finishing his caseload at home,

so, while you all were away,

mama set to work clearing out the rest of his boxes

and setting up an uber office fit for our acting Unit Chief.

Garcia, this is for real?

It's kind of blah for my taste,

but I figured you needed to keep up with agency standards.

I did make you your own...

secret fun zone.

Woman, you have lost your mind.

Mm-hmm.

But you are the best.

I completely agree.

Come here, you.

I will leave you alone to mark your territory.

Hey.

Thank you.

Very much.

You are ever so welcome.

Hey. It's me.

Yeah, I'm back.

Listen, uh...

does that offer for a drink still stand?