10x11 - The Forever People

[bunniefuu]

[Grunting]

Man's voice: You need to talk.

I know exactly how to get what I want.

[Grunting]

No, stop! Stop!

Stop. Stop.

What was that, huh?

You lost your form, completely let your guard down.

What? What was that?

You know, if you're fighting somebody who knows what they're doing and you pulled that garbage, they'd k*ll you.

So why didn't you?

Yeah. I think we're done here.

[Text message beep]

[Beep]

Man: If I were you...

Aah! Stop! Ohh...

I would save my strength.

[Slam]

Where are we flying to this time, mama?

Boulder City, Nevada, my vision, home of the Hoover Dam, because police there found the body of a woman, wrapped and weighed down in the water.

He apparently likes to freeze.

Rossi: I.D. yet?

No, unfortunately.

How long was she in the water?

Unclear. Her popsicleness made it hard to determine an M.O.

Morgan: Are we sure this is the unsub and not just exposure?

Her blood was frozen in her veins.

Temperatures in the area don't get cold enough for that.

Hoover Dam is not that far from Vegas.

Could this be a hitman?

No marks on her, though.

Hitmen usually leave evidence of an efficient k*ll.

No, he did leave a mark.

Where?

Breastbone, above the heart.

It's not frostbite. That's an electrical burn.

Why introduce electroshock to the M.O.?

Believe it or not, hypothermia is a rather pleasant way to die.

The cold just kind of puts you to sleep.

He wants to prolong what he's doing, so he jolts her back awake.

How did you catch all that?

I've seen it before.

Put this on.

Are you aware of what you signed?

Yes.

Are you prepared to advance to level 2?

Yes.

This is your baptism.

There's no turning back.

Good luck.

♪ Criminal Minds 10x11 ♪
The Forever People
Original Air Date on January 14, 2015

♪ ♪

JJ: "Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold when he is only sad."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Still no I.D. of the victim?

Garcia's running her markers through ViCAP.

This unsub went through a lot of trouble wrapping and weighing the body down.

Usually it's postmortem gas production that brings a body to the surface, but if you freeze it, it'll rise to the top like ice cubes in a drink.

So he's smart enough to consider the possibility, but not experienced enough to effectively execute the disposal.

It's probably his first k*ll.

If he went through this much trouble to hide the body, he knows it can be tied back to him.

Kate: Should be easy to find him once we learn who she is.

That'll be our first objective when we land.

We should also build a suspect pool based on boat ownership.

How many boats are there on Lake Mead?

1,908.

Come on. You just know that?

Yeah. There are 1,908 boats on Lake Mead.

Where did you get that number?

Based on the population density of the area, I...estimated.

You guessed.

I mean, is this guy really a genius, or does he just say things with authority and we all believe him?

Oh, wow. Thank you.

10 years.

It took 10 years for someone to finally have my back.

All right, Einstein, she just called you out. Bring it.

Look it up.

Rossi: I am...

And the kid's right.

[Sighs]

I accept your apology.

Load up.

Never.

We're dragging the lake for additional victims.

Problem is, it's a huge body of water.

Rossi: Start from the disposal site and radiate out from there.

That's how Green River operated.

Did you take a dental imprint?

Yeah, we're running it against our records, and we sent it to your technical analyst.

Kate: What?

Damn it.

We might be in the wrong police station.

[Beep]

All this talk about the cold is making me cold. Is that weird?

Nothing weird about you, baby girl.

Listen, you get anything off ViCAP?

Negatory. And no one reported this poor girl missing, either.

All right, run her stats against Arizona DMV.

Ooh, a new state.

Give me a second to run her dental records.

Why search one state over?

The Arizona-Nevada line runs right through Lake Mead.

Pretty good forensic countermeasure.

He knows that our search stops at the state line.

Got her. Sarah Rhodes of Kingman, Arizona.

And--oh, goodness, a mother to 10-year-old Bobby.

Credit cards and cell phone canceled 3 years ago.

Arizona.

We're in the wrong state.

I do have one breadcrumb.

She made regular visits to several ATMs in your Boulder City neck of the woods.

I have the security camera footage to prove it.

Last withdrawal was two weeks ago, always the same amount, $260 a month.

What the hell was she doing here?

Cloth fibers under her fingernails match her own torn clothing.

Paradoxical undressing.

When your core temperature reaches 85 degrees, your constricted blood vessels suddenly dilate, producing the sensation of extreme heat.

You tear your clothing off even though you're freezing to death.

What if what the unsub is doing is like the cold water experiments at Dachau?

The Nazis wanted to see how long concentration camp victims could survive in the cold and then apply those findings to their own soldiers.

How is this the same?

It's a test. He wants to see how long you can take it.

All right, there's the electrical burns.

The ice has melted enough to show us the matching mark.

Left anterior axillary line.

Is this--

Yeah.

Clear.

It looks like multiple resuscitations.

Scar tissue says this was done over weeks, but there's no signs of restraints or binds.

She went into that freezer voluntarily.

[Cell phone rings]

Why would she want this?

Hotch needs us.

Ok. I'm right behind you.

I'm just gonna wait for the final M.E. report.

[Gasping]

Man: If I were you...

Aah!

I would save my strength.

[Door opens]

Thank you.

I'm sorry, is this right, this blood glucose level? That's accurate?

Mm-hmm.

I know what this is about.

[Resuscitation paddles jolt]

[Groans]

[Coughs]

Did I make it?

Yes.

You're one of us now.

[Coughing]

Come.

Come.

Walk up.

Thank you for agreeing to talk to us about Sarah.

Sure. We were good friends through our kids for a while.

Right now there's an Amber alert out on Bobby, and we're attempting to find the father.

Let me ask you this-- do you think there's any--

He's not in the picture.

Never has been.

She never even told me his name.

So why'd she leave this condo and move to Nevada without selling it?

I wish I knew.

One day she told me she was gonna join a mom group just to get some support. Then, bam, she was gone.

I could barely get her on the phone.

When I did, she acted like it was a privilege to talk to her.

Did she talk about the new life path she'd found and that she couldn't really explain it to you because you weren't worthy?

How did you know?

The autopsy revealed something very specific.

Whoever had Sarah flooded her system with sugar and electrolytes, but they starved her of proteins.

When you don't have protein in your diet, you can't think straight.

It's a common tool used in psychological conditioning.

Psychological...

Brainwashing.

She didn't join a mom group, did she?

No.

She joined a cult.

Based on the physical evidence and the psychological profile of Sarah Rhodes, we believe that a cult operating in the area is responsible for k*lling her.

There aren't any cults around here.

Most people think that, but conservative estimates put cult membership at two million people in the United States.

Most of them, like this one, are underground to avoid scrutiny.

The nature of cults is that they are organized around a charismatic psychopath.

This many will be superficially intelligent and charming.

Reid: Like Jim Jones at Jonestown and Tony Alamo and Alamo Ministries or Charles Dederich in Synanon, this man will have convinced his followers to sublimate their needs for his own...

To the point of self-harm or even su1c1de.

Morgan: He preys upon disenfranchised men and women who need help in their daily lives.

Sarah Rhodes needed help being a single mom.

As of now, we believe her son Bobby is still inside the group.

The way cults work is they break you down both physically and mentally, usually through isolation and deprivation.

Kate: We believe that this cult has found a way to speed that up through a near-death experience.

Reid: They lock their members in a giant freezer to induce hypothermia, then they resuscitate them.

Detective: Why hypothermia?

Reid: The last stage of cold-induced shock is euphoria, an almost dreamy elation before you fall asleep.

When members regain consciousness, they feel like they've been born again.

The reality is, they almost d*ed.

Focus your search on hospital records for patients who suffered from frostbite.

We believe that Sarah Rhodes isn't the first victim that this group has harmed.

Thank you.

Fear.

That's what kills us.

Not our addictions.

Not the toxins in our food.

Those only paralyze us.

Fear is what consumes us.

It's why we go into the dark, cold place.

We face our fear.

I can see your fear now.

I know who's worthy to move on to the next level and who isn't, and you are not worthy, Adam Lewis.

Unh!

I don't want to do this anymore.

I'm tired.

I'm hungry. I just-- I want to go home.

Ok, please, please, just let me go home!

I want to go home. [Sobbing]

Hey.

Oh. Ok.

Hi, what's up?

Uh, Garcia found a frostbite victim, admitted to the hospital 3 years ago, by the name of Tom Fallon.

Completely off the grid, just like Sarah, but his mother Mary still lives in town.

Great. Let's go.

Kate and Morgan already went when we couldn't find you.

Which is why I've been waiting here for 24 minutes and 18 seconds, so that maybe we can finally talk about what's wrong.

Nothing's wrong.

I'm fine.

You're not fine.

You're obviously displaying symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, which absolutely makes sense.

We're coming up on a year since your abduction and t*rture, and anniversary dates have a power all their own.

Not to mention the fact that seasonal weather changes bring back smells that you probably now can only associate with the initial event.

All that I'm saying is that what you're going through is entirely textbook.

In here.

Stop it. Stop it. Stop doing that.

Stop...being you.

I can't help it.

Yes, you can.

You can.

You think you know what's going on, but you don't.

Well, then explain it to me, JJ, because all I know is my friend is hurting, and when I see her in pain, I want to make it stop.

All right. All right.

Give me a word.

A word?

A term.

A label.

Something that explains what I have, because it is bigger than PTSD, and right now that word is Tivon.

Tivon Askari.

The man who tortured you.

No. No, he was more than that.

He was my partner in Afghanistan.

I didn't--I didn't know he was a--

Double agent. I know. I read the file.

You were attempting to extract Intel from a woman named Nadia.

He set a trap and k*lled Nadia and her daughter.

Listen, JJ, you cannot blame yourself for that.

The Humvee, was that in the file?

Yeah. You almost caught him.

He set an IED to take out your convoy.

I know you were wounded--

I was pregnant.

You see, if I had never gotten involved, Nadia and her daughter would still be alive, and Henry would have a little...

I can't let this go.

I can't.

What is the word for that, Spence?

I don't know.

This stays between us. Ok?

Ok.

Where are we on finding the boat?

Um...

The presumption is that the, um...

Cult would have owned the boat.

So I'm just gonna look at it from that angle.

Is there something I should know?

No. About--no.

I'll let you know if I find anything.

[Knock on door]

Yes?

Mrs. Fallon, we're with the FBI.

We'd like to ask you a few questions about your son.

The lawyer said I can't talk to you.

Kate: What lawyer?

Law firm of Kane and associates.

They represent those weirdoes.

Don't know their names or anything. Tom wouldn't tell me.

And this is your son's signature?

The releases saying he knew he was engaging in risky behavior, and if I defamed their character, they'd take my house.

Ma'am, where's your son right now?

Mother?

Who was at the door?

You need to understand.

After the hospital, those people didn't want him anymore.

I've had to keep him here because...

He's not right.

Tom?

Yes?

Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?

Do you feel it?

Do you feel it all?

Feel what?

You don't feel it.

Your consciousness is too small to comprehend it.

I feel the emptiness of messages bombarding me, telling me to consume.

I feel like there's something lacking in my life, and I feel like you might have the answer.

I do.

Yes, I do.

Can you tell us where we can find your friends, so that we can find the answer, too?

No.

But it's ok.

They will come back to me when it's time.

It won't be long now.

Surely you must feel it, the walls of civilization crumbling around you.

The forever people will survive.

How will they survive?

We'll freeze ourselves.

Have you been there, in the cold?

If you haven't, I can help you.

I can help you the way they helped me.

Tommy, please don't.

They helped me feel it all.

Hey, just... Please, let me out. Ohh...Let me out. I'll be...I'll be good. I'll do whatever... Whatever you want.

Wait...No.

Please, I can be good.

[Screaming, moaning]

Ok, so Garcia couldn't find anything online about the forever people or cults that freeze in general, but she found this guy, Adam Lewis.

His parents reported him missing a month ago.

If cryogenics is their hook, they should try a lot harder to hide it.

Technically, it's cryonics and not cryogenics.

Cryogenics is a scientifically proven process involving the successful freezing and thawing of materials without damage.

Cryonics involves taking an already dead body and putting it in liquid nitrogen, and there's no scientific merit whatsoever.

Hiya. I thought you guys were getting cold feet.

Oh, pun unintended.

Hotch: Garcia, tell us if anyone ordered the following supplies.

Besides liquid nitrogen, they need large stainless steel dewars for body storage.

That is a big n-o on all fronts.

What about financial overlap?

We know that Sarah Rhodes made monthly withdrawals.

Did Adam Lewis do something similar?

Uh...Yes.

Actually, he did.

The exact same amount of money--

260 bucks, to be exact.

And he wrote checks.

Hello, paper trail.

The money went to the Global Warming Awareness fund.

That's kind of the opposite end of the spectrum, isn't it?

It makes sense. Cults frequently set up nonprofits to hide their earnings from members.

And you can't apply for nonprofit status without an address.

I'm way ahead of you, boss.

Garcia.

Here it is. I've just sent.

As many of you know, the elite have been in consultation, and we are pleased to announce we have made our decision.

Some of you will advance to level 3.

And some of you won't.

Keep in mind this does not mean the door to rebirth and renewal is closed to you.

What it means is--

FBI.

Protocol number 7.

[Police radio chatter]

Do not make eye contact.

Colton Grant, head of the Global Warming Awareness Front?

I am.

We'd like to talk to you.

Personally.

Of course you would.

Have a seat.

What happened to your hand?

What happened to your hand?

Hmm?

Your turn.

Hmm.

Now, why would you wear a cast if you didn't have to?

That's, uh...

That's nothing. I...

I've seen the other half of this. You're Bobby's father.

You're coming with me. Come on.

Wait.

Wait, they will k*ll him if you expose me, you understand?

These people will k*ll my son.

You're not here because you're a believer, are you?

Gentlemen, my client is here on his own volition.

If you denigrate his beliefs in any way, we're leaving.

You own a boat, Mr. Grant?

The fund owns one.

They run water temperature tests to measure the greenhouse effects.

But you didn't bring me in here to talk about a boat, now, did you?

Sarah Rhodes and Adam Lewis.

Mm-hmm. What about them?

Seen them recently?

They both requested to leave the Forever People.

We don't believe in keeping anyone bound that doesn't want to be bound, so, we wish them well.

Then why did we just pull their frozen bodies out of Lake Mead?

We're done here. Colton, don't say another word.

Hotch: This is your last chance to tell the truth.

Where is Sarah's son?

I believe, to avoid self-incrimination, I have the right to remain silent.

Colton Grant, you are under arrest for the murders of Sarah Rhodes and Adam Lewis.

You do indeed have the right to remain silent.

And you also have the right...

Give a message to my flock.

Anything you say can and will This is a test.

Be used against you we will get through this together, in a court of law. And not to lose faith.

I wasn't--I wasn't ready to be a dad.

I hadn't heard from Sarah in 5 years, and that's the way we both wanted it.

Then, like a month ago, she called me from a pay phone.

She told me about this place and that they wouldn't let her go.

And, uh...

I told her that I would join and, uh, that we'd get Bobby out together.

As a family.

And then, uh...

She...

She just stopped calling.

How did you get this?

He, uh, he drew this for me, the last time we were together as a family.

He, uh...

He tore it in half because he wanted-- wanted me and his mom to both have something of him.

Once I thought that Sarah was dead, I sneaked this in because this is-- this is all I have to make him believe me.

Why infiltrate? Why not go to court?

You'd get custody automatically.

What, do you think these people respond to lawsuits?

Huh? No, no.

The only hope that I have is to get close enough to him to steal him away from wherever they're keeping him.

Which is where?

I don't know.

They bring the kids by now and then, but they keep them behind closed doors.

Well, we'll find him.

How?

Just leave it to me. Keep your head down and let us do our job. Ok?

You swear?

You swear that you won't let me down and that you will get us both out of here?

I swear.

We need a stakeout on that house.

He said they bring the kids by intermittently.

I'll send plainclothes up now.

So now what? We sit back and wait until they bring the kids around?

Well, they know we've arrested their leader. That's a risky plan.

Especially since we know Grant isn't the unsub.

How can he not be our guy?

He's the one that shows you the face of god at 30 below.

He was genuinely surprised when we showed him the crime scene photos.

I saw that, too.

He didn't sanction the murders, which means somebody else did them.

A second-tier member pulling a power play, maybe?

It'd be easier to sh**t them and bury them in the desert.

No, this unsub is replicating the cult's M.O.

Even when he knows law enforcement is watching.

Except he's not interested in resuscitating them.

He wants to watch them freeze to death. That's his compulsion.

He'd be a psychrophile, then, somebody with a sexual fetish for the cold.

So let me get this straight.

We're saying that there's a serial k*ller inside the cult?

Talk about a needle in a needlestack.

You know, you can see why the Forever People would be the perfect fit for him, then.

The group would satiate his needs for a while, like a pedophile who resorts to p*rn to keep his urges in check, and then when he can't control himself anymore, he kills the members that Colton wouldn't miss, the ones who were trying to get out.

Ok, so let's go with the pedophile analogy.

You show them pictures, they get excited_ what happened when you showed pictured of two frozen bodies to members of that house?

Nobody reacted. They just stared blankly.

The unsub isn't anyone we talked to.

Except the kids weren't inside the house.

And where there's kids there has to be adult supervision, right?

The unsub's watching the children.

And before he was led away, Colton told me to give a message to all of you.

Do not lose faith.

Now is the time to meditate on our future.

Direct your positivity and strength towards your leader.

He will be with us soon.

Peace.

We'll be now quiet.

[Door opens]

Hey.

You want to help me?

Yeah? Where's Bobby?

Why do you want to know, Carl?

Shh...

Spence.

Booster seats. The kids are here.

[Pounding on door]

FBI!

What are you doing here?

This is a private residence.

Get her out of here.

You can't go in there without a warrant.

Wrong.

There's a trailer out back.

Come on, guys.

We need to get them into protective custody.

I'll watch over them myself. We need to regroup with the team.

Bobby. Where's Bobby?

Here.

Did anyone come looking for you while you were here?

One of the new members, maybe?

I saw somebody.

Who'd you see, sweetie?

A man, asking about Bobby.

Then brother Jon made him go to sleep.

Where's brother Jon now?

Probably back at our house.

Where the 5 of us live, I mean.

Do you know the address, Bobby?

All right, we got it, JJ.

1818 Smith Street, residence owned by Jon Kanak.

Tell me.

According to the police report, he and his parents were hiking in the wilderness and got lost.

When temperatures fell below freezing, they had to do some godawful stuff to say alive.

[Gasping]

You have 5 seconds to give me what I want.

[Shuddering]

Ohh! Aah!

Aah!

[g*nsh*t]

Hotch: JJ.

JJ, did you hear that?

Uh, yeah.

Wait for backup.

No. He already has Carl Mason.

JJ, please wait for us.

I'm already here.

Hurry.

JJ, I'm on my way.

That's acetylene gas coming out of there, you know what that means?

Ok. Let's-- let's talk about this, Jon.

It means, you pull that trigger and we all die.

Ok? I spark this and we all die.

Ok.

Ok.

How cold is it in here?

[Laughs]

It's 18 below.

How long do you think he has?

Enough. Because at this temperature, the flashpoint of your gas won't ignite.

JJ?!

Sound off!

Down here! Do not sh**t!

You ok?

Yeah. We need a medic. Get a medic.

Who's got a Kn*fe?

JJ: There he is.

[Door opens]

Bobby, I brought someone.

Hey.

Do you remember me?

No.

Well, that's ok.

Do you remember this?

Dad?

Where have you been?

I've been looking for you.

Don't leave, ok?

I don't know where mom is.

Shh, shh...

Don't go.

Shh, shh, shh. Look at me.

I will never leave. Ok?

I promise.

Come here.

[Mouthing silently]

Feeling any better?

Sorry?

I thought maybe reuniting a family would...

Oh...

No.

I'm glad I did my job, but this doesn't go away because of some surrogate.

You know who does think that way?

Serial K*llers?

Yeah.

Hey, uh, I couldn't find that word you asked for, but I also didn't want it to be Tivon Askari anymore, so I called Emily.

I didn't tell her anything.

I just asked her to pull any extra background Intel she could.

Apparently people are much more willing to talk about a t*rror1st once he's dead.

Anyway, I put it in your old office in case you wanted some privacy. You don't have to look at it if you don't want.

Good night.

Spence.

Man's voice: Tivon Askari grew up an orphan on the streets of Tikrit.

He survived as a homeless child from ages 7 to 9.

He was r*ped for the first time at the age of 10.

By the age of 13, he had k*lled 3 people.

v*olence became a sexual act.

Men, women, children.

It didn't matter.

By the time I joined the Iraqi National Guard as an interrogator, I had everything I needed.

Life became a simple equation.

How long until you break?

You broke me.

Oh, no.

I bent you.

I wanted to do so much worse.

You took my baby.

Yes.

I did.

And it pleased me greatly.

Why am I not past you?

For a year I've been fine.

Have you?

What do you want from me?

I have nothing left.

You've taken everything.

Oh, Jennifer, there is so much more I'm going to take.

First, I'm going to take your sleep.

Then, your smile.

I won't let you feel safe anywhere.

So I'll take your job.

And finally, I will transform you so that your husband and your son won't recognize you anymore.

You can't.

I won't let you.

You already are.

Think about the risk you took at that freezer.

You had no idea that the gas would ignite or not.

It was dumb luck that you got out of there alive.

Either you will try that again...

And I will watch you k*ll yourself, or you will quit...

And I will watch you wither and fade.

Either way, I win.

No.

Yes.

[Hits desk] No!

No.