10x21 - Mr. Scratch

[bunniefuu]

[Thunder]

Look, there's been some kind of misunderstanding, all right?

I'm innocent!

I didn't--I-- I couldn't do this!

Will someone please listen to me!

[Door opens]

Who are you?

I'm Agent Hotchner, Mr. Merrin.

Have you been advised of your rights?

Yeah.

Do you know where you are?

Some FBI place, right?

You're at the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia.

You know why you're here?

Because you think I'm a k*ller.

Are you a k*ller?

No.

Why won't anybody believe me? I am not--

Stop.

Sit down.

Take a deep breath.

[Breathes, clear throat]

I want you to tell me exactly what happened two nights ago.

Don't leave anything out. Can you do that?

Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.

So, uh, me and... me and my wife Tabitha, we were getting ready for bed and she says...

I think I heard something, downstairs.

Again?

Maybe outside.

It's--it's a dog or a cat or squirrel or something.

It's nothing.

Go.

[Sighs]

So I did.

I checked the front door and it was fine.

Everything was fine.

Until...

Until I--I smelled like...sage.

Sage?

Like the burning sage.

'Cause that's when I...

[Door creaking]

[Growling]

[Growling]

Tabitha?!

Hold on! I'm--

Aah!

A shadow monster?

Yeah.

With talons for hands?

I know how it sounds.

I--I knew I needed to get upstairs, because...

Because I--I--

I could hear her screaming.

Tabitha: Larry, no!

Larry, please, stop!

[Screaming]

No! No! No!

No! No! Larry, please!

No! Larry, no!

Please don't! Larry, no!

[Screaming]

Stop, Larry!

Stop! Aah!

[Gasps]

I passed out, and when I woke up, the cops had arrested me.

I didn't do it.

I swear to God, it is exactly what happened.

No, it's not.

Yes, it is.

Mr. Merrin, what happened was you took a kitchen Kn*fe and you stabbed your wife to death.

No, no.

Neighbors heard the screaming and they called 911, and when the police arrived, they found you still on the bed holding the Kn*fe.

I didn't do that.

You've been scratching yourself, Mr. Merrin.

Are you aware of that?

Open your shirt and you will see why.

That's--that's from the shadow monster.

No, that's from your wife.

Forensics matched your skin under her fingernails as she fought to keep you from k*lling her.

Think back to the words she was screaming.

Larry, please, please, please! Larry!

Larry...

Why would I do that?

Do you recognize either of these people?

No, I--no.

This is Daniel Karras and this is Christine McNeil.

Each of them claims to have been att*cked in their homes by a shadowy figure.

When in reality, Daniel stabbed his mother to death and Christine her boyfriend.

And like you, they have no recollection of the murders.

What does it mean?

It means that someone found a way to induce a psychotic break in the 3 of you.

Why--why us? Why me?

Well, that's why you're here instead of a holding cell in Topeka, so my team can answer that question.

Agent Hotchner.

I'm not a m*rder*r.

Yes, you are.

And I'm going to find out who turned you into one.

♪ Criminal Minds 10x21 ♪
Mr. Scratch
Original Air Date on April 22, 2015

♪ ♪

Hotch: “Your memory is a monster.

“It summons with will of its own.

You think you have a memory, but it has you.”

John Irving.

Why don't we just start with the simplest explanation?

They're lying.

There are easier lies to tell to cover for m*rder.

Why tell the same one, especially when it doesn't make sense?

Could it be a group delusion?

Their similar age range all points in that direction,

33 to 34 years old, but the geographic diversity kind of rules that out.

Yeah. Larry Merrin's from Topeka.

Christine McNeil is from Roswell, Georgia, Daniel Karras is from Derry, Maine, all different economic levels, social circles, obviously different racial backgrounds.

So if he's an unsub, he's not k*lling but creating K*llers.

m*rder by proxy, if you will.

It's gotta be dr*gs.

Larry Merrin's story just sounds like a bad trip.

According to the police reports, all 3 tox screens came up negative.

Well, they only screen for known compounds.

This could be a cocktail we've never seen before.

Every drug affects every person differently, yet somehow this unsub is able to make his drug affect 3 completely dissimilar people exactly in the same way.

Maybe they're not dissimilar at all.

Maybe the dr*gs are just the tipping point and these 3 share some sort of pre-existing mental condition he knows he can tap into to induce them to k*ll.

We find that, we find him.

Did she feel a lot of pain?

Did I k*ll her quickly?

Mr. Karras, we want to get to the bottom of this, too.

So we'd like to take you through a cognitive interview.

What's the point?

It could help you remember details you couldn't before.

And those details could help us understand what happened.

So, please.

Close your eyes.

And put yourself back in your home a week ago.

You got home from work early, right?

Right.

How did you feel when you walked through the door?

Happy.

Hey, Ma.

Hey, Ma, you home?

She wasn't. And then I remembered she said that she was going to the movies with some friends.

I thought my beer tasted funny.

And then I realized it wasn't my beer, that it was a smell that was coming from somewhere else.

What was the smell?

Sage.

You're sure about that?

Yeah. Yeah, because once I placed it, I was out.

JJ: How long were you out?

I don't know.

All I know is that when I came to, it was dark and I couldn't move.

Help!

Somebody help me!

Help!

[Growling]

[Growling]

It did sexual things to me.

[Crying]

He had these--these-- these talons for hands, and...

Uh, I got--I got free and then I, um...

And then I hid somewhere in the house, and, uh...

Next thing I remember, I was standing over my mom's body...

[Sobbing]

And the cops were cuffing me.

I...

So...So, I-- maybe--maybe--you know, maybe the r*pe, you know, uh...

Maybe I snapped.

You know? You know what I mean?

Maybe I snapped and, uh, I lashed out at the first person that I saw.

Mr. Karras-- because this is the only way that it makes sense.

At your lawyer's insistence, the Maine police ran a r*pe kit on you.

There was no evidence of as*ault, sexual or otherwise.

Ok, well, run another r*pe kit.

No rope burns on your arms or legs.

No evidence of a break-in at all.

What you guys trying to tell me, that this didn't happen to me? 'Cause it did!

There are others.

Excuse me?

My lawyer said that there were others that this happened to.

That's right.

Well, can I talk to them?

No.

Why not?

Kate: Christine?

Christine?

Can you just blink if you understand what we're saying?

Georgia police say that she started to tell the story of being att*cked by a dark figure and then stopped and started doing this.

Can you blame her?

Sir. I'm sorry, it's urgent.

No, it's all right.

Do what you can.

Yeah, sure. I'll just, uh...

[Door closes]

I did some digging.

All 3 of our victims were adopted and all in 1985. All of them.

From where?

That's the thing. It's from different states, they were closed adoptions, it's pre-Internet.

I gotta go through the analog rabbit hole.

It'll take a while.

All right, Rossi and Reid just landed in Topeka to walk the crime scene, and I want you to reach out to the family members and find out if there's any shared history In the foster care system.

Sir, yes, sir.

Thank you.

No records or paperwork in the house regarding Larry Merrin's adoption.

Morgan struck out with the vics.

They knew they were adopted but couldn't recall anything.

Well, they were 3 to 4 years old at the time.

Firm memories don't imprint on the developing brain until about age 5.

Yet somehow the unsub was able to make the victims hallucinate an almost primal childhood fear of the dark and of the monsters that lurk within it.

Yeah, but how? This place was locked up tight.

Well, both men reported smelling sage.

They must have inhaled a drug.

They had to breathe it in.

Rossi: Anything?

The plastic tested positive for sevoflurane and scopolamine, both powerful disassociatives.

The first is used to put you into a waking dream.

Dentists often use it during oral surgery.

The second, in high doses, makes you completely suggestible.

And the unsub uses the first to make the victims hallucinate their worst fear.

Then he uses the second to make them att*ck that fear when it's really the person next to them.

They don't realize that they're actually k*lling someone that they love.

And once they do, their lives are ruined forever.

Even if they plead insanity, we've got 3 victims who ain't never goin' back to Mayberry.

Let's go back to the part about hallucinating your worst fear.

JJ, what's your earliest fear from childhood?

Being separated from my parents.

Dave?

Lon Chaney, “Phantom of the Opera.” she takes off that mask, forget about it.

Hotch: Kate?

Melissa Gordner.

That bitch.

And yet each of these victims saw exactly the same thing.

The initial police reports only called it a dark figure, but our interviews revealed shared details.

A shadow monster with talons for hands.

And that level of specificity says it's not just a childhood nightmare, it's something they actually experienced, though they were too young to understand what it was.

But they were from different states.

No, they were adopted in different states.

Maybe at some point they shared the same group home.

So the unsub has them recall that memory from childhood to make them k*ll as adults.

How do we prove it?

Can you draw me what you saw?

Dad?

Huh?

Bogeyman's in my room again.

There's no such thing.

Go to bed.

Will you check?

Come on.

Is there a bogeyman in here?

If there is, you have to leave.

How about down here?

Cast him out, Dad.

Bogeyman, I cast you out!

I think we're good.

Do you have a bogeyman, Dad?

Yeah. He's called FICA and he haunts my paycheck.

Yeah, don't worry about that.

Listen, we can't do this every night, Bud.

I can't help it.

Are you and mom ever gonna live together again?

I don't know.

I want to.

Why don't you?

Because sometimes dads make mistakes.

And I'm trying to do everything I can to fix that mistake with your mom.

Go to sleep.

[Groans]

[Growling]

We sure this is the same unsub?

Garcia set up a search parameter for closed adoptions.

Bill Kinderman was adopted May 5, 1985.

The M.E. said this victim slit his own throat.

That's a big change in M.O.

Well, what if that wasn't the unsub?

What if that was Bill?

So the only other person in the apartment was his son, who slept through the whole thing.

What if the unsub tried to get him to k*ll his son, but his paternal instinct trumped the effects of the dr*gs?

Thank God for that, but we're still at square zero.

This unsub committed 4 murders in 4 states.

How is he connecting these victims so quickly?

Well, that is what Hotch is trying to figure out right now with Kinderman's ex-wife.

No. I mean, yes, Bill knew he was adopted, but it was closed.

He didn't know anything about his past.

Neither did his parents.

Two other victims drew these.

They were both adopted, possibly from the same house.

Did he ever talk about anything like this?

No. I mean, he made up all sorts of other stories, but nothing about that.

What do you mean?

He cheated on me, repeatedly.

So I forced him into therapy, if he wanted to make the marriage work.

That's when he started to come home with all these, well, stories.

Uh, like how he was seduced by a high school teacher, but he couldn't remember which one.

Or he was molested by a catholic priest at age 12.

I said, Bill, was this before or after your bar mitzvah?

So they were all recovered memories?

Yeah.

And even though I proved to him that they weren't real, he kept insisting that they were.

Is this important?

All right, let's assume all the victims share Bill Kinderman's propensity for recovered memories.

What does that mean for the unsub?

It means his dr*gs would have more of an effect on them.

Why them more than a normal person?

Because when something's remembered for the first time on a therapist's couch, it's often a fantasy the patient is talking themselves into believing.

Popular thinking is that recovered memories are actually just a form of self-hypnosis.

That's why the patients are so convinced the delusion is real.

So if these victims are already talking themselves into believing fiction, they would be more suggestible when they're dosed.

We profiled these victims had a pre-existing condition.

I think this is it.

How would the unsub know that?

Because he was there the last time they made up a story, in 1985.

So they were only 3-4 years old.

Kids that age can't distinguish fantasy from reality.

Exactly. And their age plus the time period puts us right at the height of the satanic ritual abuse allegations.

Oh, crap.

This is a completely different set of circumstances.

Was it? Throughout the 1980s, pre-school-age kids made accusations against their teachers.

McMartin, Fells Acres, Kern County.

270 cases by 1988.

Numerous innocent teachers had their careers and lives ruined, and all the cases were ultimately debunked.

By the BAU and the Lanning Report, thank you very much.

Except that was a mass hysteria involving teachers and kids, and these victims were adopted.

Well, that's the deviation that made us miss the profile until now.

30 years ago these victims could have made similar accusations in a foster home, all saying the same thing, that they saw this.

3-year-old Larry Merrin would have said the monster dragged him down the stairs.

And 4-year-old Daniel Karras one-upped it by adding a sexual detail.

That's how kids tell stories, especially when they're reinforced by well-meaning parents, therapists, and cops.

And in doing so, they ruin the unsub's life, and now he's taking revenge.

Ok, so if this is the why, how do we find him?

We talk to Christine McNeil.

Maybe she can tell us where the foster home was.

Flag on the play there.

She's not talking to anyone.

Maybe she will.

So what's your plan?

I want to see if the unsub's signature has any effect on her.

We don't know his signature.

Oh, we do. Scopolamine and sevoflurane are both odorless and tasteless, but he introduces the smell of sage to the dr*gs.

Clever. But why her and not the others?

The act of recounting a false memory hardens it into fact.

Larry Merrin and Daniel Karras have both told us their stories.

Christine hasn't.

You're thinking you can interrupt the process.

Maybe.

And if you're wrong, you can return that stuff to Garcia.

Christine.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

I'm hungry.

Is it snack time?

Yes, of course. We can get you something to eat.

What would you like?

I want a Snoopy sno cone.

Grape flavor.

How old are you, Christine?

4.

And where do you live? Where's home?

Home is scary.

Christine, you're safe here.

Nothing's going to happen to you.

That's not true.

That's not true.

[Growling]

He's coming.

He's--he's coming.

Who's coming?

He's on the other side of the door.

He's coming! He's coming! He's coming! He's coming!

Aah!

[Indistinct]

Right? What...

No, no. No, no, no, no, no.

[Electricity zaps]

What the hell?

Unplug everything!

He's coming! He's coming!

Christine, stop!

Aah!

He's coming! He's coming!

He's coming! He's coming!

Shh, shh, shh. Christine, where's home?

I can't. I can't. He's coming. He's coming.

Who is coming? Who is coming?

Mr. Scratch.

[Gasps]

He's already here.

[Gasps]

This is cozy.

Do we have any idea what's going on yet?

Garcia's trying to get some answers.

Power's out in the whole building. Backup generator, too.

This guy's got some mojo.

He knocked us out right when we got our best lead.

We could cross-reference the name Mr. Scratch against old statements.

We'd have to go to the paper files.

We don't have time. This unsub's probably already found every kid that made an accusation from back then.

If we don't get back online soon or get a lucky break in this case, we're gonna be looking at more drugged victims and dead bodies.

Ahem. Getting online is gonna be a lot harder than you think.

Whoever engineered this, he did a complete and total network and infrastructure shutdown.

But I thought we had firewalls to protect from this kind of breach.

We totally do. And that's what scares me.

Ok? Look, look.

I managed to capture some of his hacking code on one of the hard drives before he could fry it.

I printed this out at the copy shop.

This is what I can tell you. It's the only thing, but it's good news. He wasn't hacking us. He was looking for something in the Witness Protection files, 'cause that's what he raided first.

Do we know who in Witness Protection?

Well, that's the $64,000 question, isn't it?

And that I will pay you $64,000 if you can answer it.

His encryption algorithms are beyond the beyond the beyond.

We're not gonna find him through his computer expertise.

Certainly not now.

We need to figure out why he'd take the risk to hack us.

It's like JJ said. He's looking for every kid who made an accusation.

One of them is in Witness Protection.

And he saved them for last because if he kills that target first, we'd be on him immediately.

Huh.

What? You see something?

Encryption's a highly specialized skill set, but it's fundamentally a mathematical process, which means it's a human process, but sometimes your technique can reveal where you learned it.

I think I know where he learned how to do this.

Where?

Harvard. Which oddly enough isn't known for its advanced math program, but it is known for one particular class.

When you're good at math, you're good enough to get into Harvard, you take a math class called Math 15.

When you're better than that, you take Math 25, but when you're the best, the absolute best, you take Math 55-- honors advanced calculus and linear algebra.

Graduates are immediately employed by the U.S. government because they're too dangerous to work anywhere else.

More specifically, they're employed at the NSA.

Oh, sir, that would make a lot of sense.

This is Agent Hotchner for Mr. Axelrod.

No, I won't hold. Tell him he has 20 minutes to meet me.

It sucks for you right now, huh?

Can you help us?

I can tell you that nobody who ever worked at Fort Meade is responsible for the hack.

Well, of course not.

He'd be too psychologically unstable for you to hire him.

But he was good with computers, so you watched him.

Stop. Stop talking.

You monitored him as he broke into adoption records...

I can't be having this conversation.

And decided who he wanted to hurt.

I took an oath.

And you kept tabs on him as he stalked these men and women just like you did, I took an oath.

Through their computers.

And then he learned what he needed to learn to turn them into K*llers.

My oath is to protect the laws of this country and not to spy on U.S. citizens.

I cannot help you.

Don't tell me that.

You already know who it is.

If I were to cooperate with your investigation electronically or otherwise, I could be fired.

You understand? Fired.

So I'm sorry. You'll have to find another way.

Tell Penelope I said hi.

Peter Lewis. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida.

To call him a math genius would be an understatement.

Where was he in the foster system?

He was--gahh!

This Wi-Fi hot spot is the worst.

He was not in the foster care system.

He had two very biological parents and they ran the foster home until it--

Oh, dear.

Looks like we found Mr. Scratch.

JJ: So one of the boys in the house said Peter's dad would dress up as the devil and the other kids would follow suit.

This has to be where all the victims stayed before they were adopted and their names were changed.

Did Lewis' father serve any time?

Uh, the case was pending, and then he was k*lled in jail for being a pedophile.

Peter's residency is still listed as Florida.

Then he broke into the FBI files to find out who went into Witness Protection.

Did any of the kids from the home go into WITSEC?

That would be a...

No. No, none of them.

Who the hell is he still hunting.

Garcia, who ran the investigation in Florida?

Uh, hold on.

Dr. Susannah Regan, who was responsible for many of the investigations during the day.

She was a member of the “Believe the Children” movement, which encouraged cops to believe anything the kid said about the SRA, and if the kiddos didn't have anything to say, she'd tell the cops to twist their arms until they did.

And then her book was published.

And we came out with the Lanning Report and debunked her.

Uh-huh. Her career flopped and she received numerous death threats and she went into Witness Protection.

She's such a high-profile target, Peter had to wait before he could k*ll her.

If he's bold enough to hit Quantico, he knows it's a one-way ticket.

This is a su1c1de mission if he locates her before we do.

Which would be on a very nice estate in Columbia, Maryland.

I'm closest. Send me the address.

Garcia: Sent.

Dr. Regan.

Woman: It's open. Come in.

Are you all right?

Agent Hotchner?

I got Agent Rossi's message.

Doctor, you're in danger. You need to leave the house.

I understand. I'm in the study.

I'm so glad you're here.

You need to see this.

He wants you to see this.

No!

Aah!

Uhh! Aah...

[Groans]

Aah...

[Cell phone ringing on vibrate]

[Whispering] You can't move.

Because I say you can't move.

Do you see how this works?

You do what I say.

Peter...

I didn't say you could talk.

Don't cry for her.

She was stupid.

And wrong.

She used to burn sage during the sessions.

She said that made it safe to talk about Mr. Scratch.

What do you see when you look at me?

Do you see Mr. Scratch?

You can talk now. I want to know what-- I want to know what you're feeling.

[Cell phone vibrating]

That's my team.

They know I'm here.

They're gonna come looking for me, and if you harm me--

What are you talking about?

Your phone isn't ringing.

It was ringing.

No, it wasn't.

Very interesting.

You gave yourself away just now.

I did?

You slipped up.

How do you figure?

You have no idea, do you?

[Chuckling]

You said that she...

She would... burn sage.

But how would you know that?

Unless she questioned you, too.

I know, Peter.

I know how those interviews worked, how coercive they were... with children who were innocent and helpless.

Shut up.

She questioned you about your father.

And she wouldn't stop until she got the answers she wanted.

So you gave them to her.

Shut up.

Oh, that was good.

Oh, that was so good.

That was so impressive.

The way you got into my head.

It makes me want to know how I get into yours.

[Vehicles approaching]

You were right.

They did coming calling for you.

They'll k*ll you.

Are you sure about that?

[g*nsh*t]

Spence!

Stop fire! Spence is down!

Oh, my God.

Oh, no.

[g*nsh*t]

Rossi, where are you hit?

Hotch! Sound off, damn it!

Here.

Go. Go.

Where?!

Here.

In the study.

Where?

Where is he?

I sh*t him. He's down.

Morgan!

[g*nsh*t]

Uhh!

[Gasping, choking]

Now I know what scares you.

No!

[g*nsh*t]

No!

Son of a bitch.

Son of a bitch...

It's ok.

You can move now.

Here.

I have something for you.

I'm about to come through that front door.

k*ll me before I k*ll you.

Rossi, Reid, take the front.

JJ and I will take the back.

Watch your front sight. One of ours is in there.

My g*n.

I need my g*n.

Look. Here I come.

k*ll me.

Hotch!

We need a medic in here!

Rossi, take it.

They made me see things.

They made me see things.

Ok.

He's gone.

We got him.

I win.

I don't think so.

You have no idea what I did to him.

I win.

Reid: He surrendered.

Ambulance is on its way.

He surrendered? That doesn't make sense.

We need to get you looked at.

I'm fine.

Hey, this is not a suggestion.

[Emergency vehicle radio chatter]

I'm fine. Thank you.

You have to talk about it.

Not tonight.

Yes, tonight, while it's still fresh.

I can't.

It doesn't...

Parts of it don't make sense to me.

They don't have to.

Tell me what it smelled like.

Tell me how you felt.

Start at the beginning, start at the end, I don't care. But start.

Now, what do you remember?

Aaron.

Aaron.

Hotch?

This is what happened.