All language subtitles for The.Rookie.S08E15.1080p.WEB.h264-ETHEL_track3_[eng]

[indistinct radio chatter]

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

- 7-Adam-15, we're code 6
at the 911 call location.

Any further contact from
the distressed individual?

- Negative.

Do you want me to start
additional units?

- Uh, no. Give us a minute
to scope it out first.

You ready?
- Do I have a choice?

- That's the spirit.

[owl hooting]

LAPD.

We've received a distress call
from this location.

We are making entry.

♪ ♪

- Ooh.

♪ ♪

Oh.
Do you feel that?

- Feel what?

- Ah, something evil's
in here.

- Well, sure smells like it.

- [muffled]
I can't die.

[muffled indistinct speech]
Won't let me die.

- Police.
Show yourself.

[door thuds]

- I can't die.
It's inside of me.

It won't let me die.
- Don't touch that, all right?

Just--call this in.
Call it in.

- I need an RA to my location
for a stabbing victim.

- So I usually sit
right next to camera

to keep the eyeline tight.

- Then I'll just sit
on the other side.

- No, because then
you'll split his look.

- I don't think it matters.
- Oh, hey. Hi.

Thanks--thanks again
for sitting down with me.

- Us.
- What? Oh, right, us.

Uh, why are you filming?

- Oh, I just wanted to document
the new partnership.

Abigail was very excited.

- It's not a partnership.
- It's totally a partnership.

The judge was very clear.
- The judge?

- My name is Abigail Tierney.

I'm currently trapped
inside a secret lab

at Westview Psychiatric.

All attempts at escape
have proven fruitless.

- I may have inadvertently used
some of Abigail's footage

in my last documentary without
gaining the proper permissions.

- Translation, he stole
my intellectual property,

I sued, and the judge
gave him a choice--

pay me 200 thou in damages
or give me equal partnership

in his next project.

- He never said equal,
but you know what?

Never mind.

Let's focus on the story
that we're here to tell.

Have a seat.

Perhaps the most shocking
case of murder

and mayhem we've ever seen.

Would you say
that's a fair assessment?

- Um--

- No, no, stay--stay back.
Stay back. Stay back.

You don't understand.
- OK, relax.

OK, we're trying to help you.
Who stabbed you?

- I stabbed myself.

It's inside of me.
I've tried everything else.

I can't kill it.

I can't die.
See?

- No, don't pull that--
don't pull it out!

Oh, God.

Oh, he died instantly.

I mean, the wound was fatal.

You can't stab yourself
in the heart and survive.

But the way the knife
was lodged,

he wasn't bleeding.

Once he pulled it out--

- It was blood fountain city.
- Not exactly, but--

- As shocking as that was,
it was far from

the most shocking thing
you found.

- Oh, we should get him
to say that

to set up the opening credits.

- That's not--we--
we don't put words

in people's mouths.
It's a documentary.

- Yeah, it was, uh,
straight-up crazy.

[dynamic theme music]

- You don't think--
- There's a body in there.

- [grunts]
- [strains]

- May have finally found it.

[screaming]

- Please don't kill us.

We will join your cult.

- Oh.
- Oh, God.

- You arrived on scene
as the sergeant's supervisor?

- Yes.

I got there before
the ambulance,

not that there was any aid
they could have rendered.

- Is there a reason
you didn't want us

to interview you with Tim?

- What?

[chuckles]
No. We're just--

just shaking it up.

- Let's-- let's--
let's stay focused.

Were you the first
to recognize the victim?

- Uh, sort of.

I thought I knew his face,
but it wasn't until

we ran his prints
that we got a name.

- Rich Rowley was retired LAPD.

He had been with
the department for 30 years

and was a little bit
of a legend,

mostly because he made a series
of training videos

from the mid-'90s
till his retirement in 2015,

which by modern standards,
are a little cringe.

- Hey, everybody.
Rich Rowley here

with another installment of...

♪ ♪

Now, today, we're gonna
be talking about

proper cuffing technique.

- Excuse me, officer?

I hurt my shoulder at the gym.

Would you mind
cuffing me in front?

- Pretty lady like you,

what's the worst
that could happen?

[handcuffs click]

- Thank you.
- You're welcome.

- [grunts]
- [straining]

- Rich was a trip.

The life of the party,
at least early in his career.

Then as the years went on,

he became a little, uh, crazy.

- Crazy how?

- He was deep into
conspiracy theories.

He had a real thing
for cults and cabals.

- To be fair, Los Angeles does
have a pretty dark history.

But Rich took it
to the next level,

and his training videos
got more

and more intense because of it.

We finally got around
to updating the videos

this last year, but that
caused quite a controversy

with some of
the older officers.

They said we were
being insensitive.

- Why would updating training
videos be insensitive?

- Even three years on,
a lot of his friends

were still mourning his death
and saw the videos as a way

to keep his memory alive.
- I'm sorry.

I thought Rich died
six months ago.

- Yeah.
- He did.

I'm talking about
the first time.

- Divers are searching for

any signs of retired

Los Angeles police officer
Richard Rowley

after a sailing trip
gone wrong.

Coast Guard responded
to a distress call

this morning
from Rowley's wife,

who says the 55-year-old
fell overboard

after the sailboat
he was captaining

was struck by a rogue wave.

- Any time someone disappears
from a boating trip,

it automatically sets off
alarm bells.

- Why is that?

- It's just an ideal place
to cover up a crime.

Throw a body overboard,
weigh it down,

the likelihood of us
recovering it before

it becomes fish food is low.

- And circumstances
were suspicious.

By all accounts,
Rich was a skilled sailor,

it was a calm day, and the
only witness to his demise

was Darla Phillips,
his on again, off again

girlfriend, who he married
five days prior.

- So you suspected foul play?

- [screaming]

- Not necessarily,
but we couldn't rule it out.

- Why wasn't Rich
wearing a life vest?

- He never did.
He was a strong swimmer.

He must have hit
his head when he fell.

- Why didn't you
jump in after him?

- I'm scared of dark water.
- Dark water?

- Water you can't see
the bottom of.

Just blackness

with God knows what
lurking below.

- You stand to inherit
Rich's entire police pension.

That's quite a bit of money.

- How dare you?

I just watched the love of
my life die in front of me.

- We don't know that
for sure yet.

They haven't found his body.

Unless you know more
that you're not telling us.

- Go to hell!

This interview is over.

- Did it ever occur to you
that Rich might still be alive?

- As we said, we couldn't
rule anything out,

but there was no evidence
that he'd faked his death.

- Until he turned up
dead again.

Needless to say, we had
a few more questions for Darla.

- Helping someone fake
their death isn't a crime.

I checked.
- You're right,

but profiting
off of that death,

collecting Rich's pension
and his life insurance,

that's fraud.

- Not to mention the resources
that were wasted

trying to recover his body.

You could be facing
some serious charges.

So tell us.

Why did Rich want to
fake his death?

- After Rich retired,
he kind of fell apart.

His drinking got worse,
and his paranoia.

He was always a little intense,

but it started to get scary.

He covered all his windows
with newspapers,

started writing down the
license plates of passing cars.

- What was he so afraid of?

- He said there was
this group, like,

a secret society of dangerous
and powerful people.

He'd been on to them for years.

He said that they found out
about him,

that he was in danger
because of it.

It was too much for me,
so I broke up with him.

And then a year later,
he showed up on my doorstep

and asked me to help him
fake his death

in return for his pension.

I needed the money.

So we got married,
and we did the deed,

and I never saw him again.

- So you have no idea why there
was a coffin in his garage?

- We'll probably hold
this piece of the puzzle

until the end of the first act,
you know,

hit the audience
with a twist when

it's dramatically expedient.
- Yeah.

- Seems manipulative.

- All good storytelling is, so.

- Just tell us about
finding the coffin.

- So once I arrived,
and we secured the crime scene,

we cleared
the rest of the house,

and then we moved on
to the garage.

- Oh.

Oh, you don't think there's--

- That there's a body in there?
I absolutely do.

- OK, are we gonna open it?
'Cause I don't wanna open it.

- What do you think?

- I mean,
it's clearly been dug up.

Given the state of the coffin,
it's clearly been

underground for a few years.

If there is a body in there,
it's likely long dead.

- Unless--
- Unless what?

- Unless he put a fresh victim
in an old coffin.

[suspenseful music]

OK, got it.

- Got it?
- Yep.

- Oh.
Oh, God.

[dramatic music]

- The body belonged to
a 54-year-old truck driver

named Marcus Ford,

who was the victim of
an unsolved homicide

back in 2020.

- How was he killed?

- Uh, he was stabbed
in the heart.

- Just like Rich.

Wait, Rich murdered
Marcus Ford.

Did I just solve the case?
- No.

We were able to alibi Rich out.

He was hospitalized with double
pneumonia the day Marcus died.

Medical records say
he was so weak that,

uh, he could barely
get out of bed.

- Or that's what
he wanted you to think.

- Moving on.

Digging up a body's
no easy task.

Why would Rich go
to all that trouble?

- Initially,
we thought it was simply

the demented act of
a clearly disturbed mind,

and in some ways, it was.

But then we found the tattoo.

- At first, it was
a little bit difficult

to make out exactly
what it was.

A half a decade of decomp
does a number on the skin.

- But when we look back
at the case file,

there was a photo of it taken
during the original autopsy.

- That's actually kind of sick.

I wonder if there's a way
to track down the artist.

I've been meaning
to start the sleeve

on my other arm, like a--

- To my collaborator's point,

lots of people have tattoos.

What was it about this one
that jumped out at you?

- Well, something about it
was familiar to both of us,

but we couldn't place it.

So we started asking around,
and the answer couldn't come

from a more unlikely place.

- I watched the Rich Rowley
training videos

more than any person alive,

so I recognized
the symbol immediately.

- Sometimes,
citizens panic when

they can't get in touch with
their friends or loved ones.

That is why we always
advise the public

to wait 24 hours before
reporting someone missing.

While most missing
person reports stem

from a lapse
in communication,

every once in a while,
you'll encounter

a true, workable case.

- Officer, help.
My sister is missing.

- When's the last time
you saw her?

- Last night at the bar.

Her boyfriend said
she never made it home.

- You always wanna take a
report like this one seriously.

- So Rich hid the same symbol
in his training videos

that was tattooed on
the body of a murder victim.

What did you think that meant?

- Uh, I don't know.

- I can't believe
I'm saying this,

but Smitty was right.

In lesson 187,
the tattoo symbol

was hidden in the background,

although the instructions

to wait 24 hours before
reporting a missing person

are wildly outdated.

Anyways, it got me thinking.

What if Rich put messages
in other videos?

- What kind of messages?

- I'm not totally sure yet.

I binged every single
Rich training video

I could get my hands on.

- Yeah, it's been
a fun few nights.

- And I did find a few
other possible leads,

but there's a problem.

The department's
archive is incomplete,

and without all of the videos,

I can't be sure
that I'm not missing

a vital piece of information.

- So what happened
to the missing videos?

- So when the training topics
and the videos

become outdated because
of new laws or protocols,

the department has
to make new ones,

and obsolete videos
are supposed to be digitized

and archived
for historical record.

But Rich's were just gone.

- Gone as in destroyed?

- Like a cover-up?
- No one's saying that.

Most likely,
it was a human error.

You know, someone got lazy,
didn't archive them.

- I tried reaching out
to the production company

that made the videos to see
if they had any copies left.

Bad news is they went out
of business a few years back

and auctioned off
all their equipment.

- What's the good news?

- Well, I managed to track down
the auction logs,

and I actually know
the person who purchased

the studio's old hard drives.

- Careful, I'm very ticklish,
like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

- Same.

I hear it's a sign
of intelligence.

- Is that a fact?
- Yep.

- Then I am smart
as the dickens.

- So you purchased hard drives

from Speak Now Studios?

- Yeah. Dropout was still
in its infancy.

I was building the company
from the ground up.

We had to be smart about
how we were spending our money.

We bought a huge amount
of equipment secondhand--

hard drives, cameras, wigs.

- Wait, you bought
second-hand wigs?

- Give them a little shake
before we put them on.

- That's awesome.

Do you still have
that wig connect?

'Cause I'd love a referral.
My guy is--

- Back on track.

The hard drives you bought
contain police training videos.

Did you happen to watch
any of them?

- Of course.
Rich Rowley, right?

We were obsessed
with those videos.

We probably watched them,
like, a dozen times.

I'm Rich Rowley, and this is
"Survive the Streets."

- Oh, that's great.

- Vic can do
the best impression.

- Do you think you'd be able
to make copies for us?

- I totally would,

but I can't because

we wiped all of those
hard drives

to use as servers months ago.

Sorry I couldn't be
of more help.

You'll still feature
this interview, right?

- Yeah.
- Yeah, probably not.

- Wait, you said you
and the Dropout crew

watched the video, like,
dozens of times, right?

- Yes, sometimes on an edible,
mostly sober.

- I have an idea.

- OK, so then he'd be like,
don't forget to check

the closet or you'll die.
So I don't know.

- I think it's
a little bit more like,

like, if you forget
to check the closet,

Freddy, Jason, and Chucky
will rip off your scrote!

- OK, I think
there's less foot stuff.

I feel like he's like--

and then your crazy
methy ex-girlfriend

who's been hiding in
the hallway closet

will chainsaw your face
when you get home

because you forgot
to clear the room!

- Clear the room!
- Clear the room!

- Check the room.

- I think he was so close
to pulling out his gun--

- What are you guys doing?
- That's a great question.

- They're reenacting
the police training videos

since you guys wiped them
off your hard drive.

- Oh, the Rich Rowley ones.

Those are so funny.
- Right.

- I actually stole
one of the hard drives

so I could watch it
when I'm in the tub.

- You talking about
your tub again?

- Say what?
- A little self-care.

You know,
trying to relax a little more.

It's not working.
- Can we have it?

- If you want to borrow it,
I could, you know.

- No, I think this is
actually working great.

- I mean, you could. OK.
- Keep this up.

- Riffing.
- Clearing the room.

- Help us.

- OK, I finally
finished watching

all of the Rich
training videos,

and there is a lot.

Um, take lesson 277--

- [screaming]

My azaleas!

- A cold case where victim
Azalea Robinson was found

stabbed near a ski resort.

- You're kidding.
- No.

And in lesson 290,
Rich is holding a folder

with a Post-It note
on the back with a brown star

drawn on it.
- I'm lost.

- Right, so I looked up
the cold cases

to see if there were
any victims with names

like Star or Stella,

and there was one hit,

Stella Brown,

also found stabbed
in the chest.

- In all,
Lucy found clues pointing

to seven different cold cases.

- But why was Rich hiding
the names of murder victims

in police training videos?

- Based on what
we could piece together,

he believed he had stumbled
upon a conspiracy--

a series of connected murders
committed by person

or persons unknown.

- If that were the case,
why not just report

his suspicion?
He was a cop for 30 years.

- Well, Rich had
a bit of a reputation

within the department for,
shall we say, magical thinking.

So unfortunately, his theory
was dismissed out of hand.

- But why did he think
the murders were connected?

- Well, for starters,
they were all stabbed

in the chest,
but more importantly,

each victim was found
with a penny

either in or on their person.

- What do you mean "in"?

- One had a penny
in her stomach.

Another had one
shoved up his nose.

Stella Brown lucked out.

Hers was just
clasped in her hand.

- And when we re-examined
Marcus Ford's corpse,

the ME found one inserted into
the heel of his left foot.

- Why?

- Did we mention that
they were all minted in 1930?

- OK.
Well, I just got goosebumps.

- Rich's autopsy also revealed
that he had swallowed

close to 50 pennies
before he died.

- Gross.

So at this point,
was your theory--

I actually have no idea what
their theory would have been.

- Yeah, well, I would tell you,
but we were way off the mark,

which we were about to discover

when we got access
to his cloud account.

- OK.

I may have finally found it.
[laughs]

I am so close to getting
some real answers.

[eerie music]

See that?

[straining]

♪ ♪

Oh, whoa.

Ha!

[indistinct shouting]

Oh, my God.
No! No.

[people shouting indistinctly]

- For a guy
pretending to be dead,

breaking into a secure
military facility

doesn't seem like
the best idea.

- Well, he wasn't just breaking
into any military facility.

It was Area 67.

- What does that mean?

- That's where the government
keeps the aliens.

♪ ♪

- So Rich broke into
a secret government base

on the hunt for
a massive conspiracy,

then stabbed himself
in the chest?

I mean, at that point,
it's obvious what happened.

- Is it?
- Come on.

Remember what Rich said
right before he died?

- I can't die.

It's inside of me.

It won't let me die.

- Yeah, I'm not following.

- Rich was exposed
to an alien parasite.

It was inside him.

- Were you familiar
with Area 67?

- I'd heard of it.
Yeah.

There's this AM radio station
I used to listen to

back in Foxburg.

Kept me awake when
I was working late.

The host was obsessed
with UFOs.

- "Val's Velvet Bunker"?
- That's the one.

He was a little bit out there,
but always entertaining.

- Area 51 is theater.

Do you believe?

Do you really believe
the most secretive

military installation
in the world would let itself

become a tourist attraction?

No, no, no, no.

Area 51 is the distraction.

Area 67 is the real deal.

You know why California
has all those earthquakes?

It's not the San Andreas
Fault, my friends.

It's the sonic resonance
from Area 67's

underground testing chambers.

- Did you believe
in his theories?

- No, no.

Like I said,
just entertainment.

- Let's hear from a caller.

- Hi, name's John.

Longtime listener,
fourth-time caller.

- Hey, John from Foxburg.
Welcome back.

What have you got
for us tonight?

- I swear to God
I just saw a UFO.

John is such a common name.

- I'm open to the possibility
of extraterrestrial life.

- You are?
- Yeah.

I mean, it's a big universe.

Anything could be out there.
- I don't know.

People who claim to have seen
aliens tend to be a little off.

- You were friends
with a corpse, right?

- Well, yeah,
we were more than friends,

but fair enough.
OK.

- Legally, is it necrophilia

if she only did
over the clothes stuff?

- That's a great question.
- Oh, I definitely believe.

In fact,

I've been abducted by aliens.

- Really?
- Multiple times.

Apparently,
I'm a fascinating subject.

- I remember the last time
Smitty was "abducted."

Turns out he partied
too hard in Vegas

and woke up in Wisconsin.

- Missing time,

one of the hallmarks
of alien abductions.

- And binge drinking.
- Point is,

the government
had little gray men

in their secret labs
for decades.

- What are they
doing with them?

- They're implanting the aliens
in unsuspecting hosts

and taking over their bodies.

You just never know
who might be one of them.

- Some people in the station
believed Rich stabbed himself

to kill an alien parasite,

but I wouldn't say

that was a dominant theory.

It wasn't long before
we figured out

Rich believed something darker,

and it was connected
to the seven murders.

- Then why did Rich break
into the army base?

- Yes, I remember the incident.

Rich Rowley
cut through a fence.

He trespassed on
government property.

He was promptly apprehended
and sent on his way.

- Do you have any idea
what Rich was looking for?

- Uh, as it turns out,
he was looking for me.

But not because of
any alleged aliens.

- So why did he come?

- Uh, this part is a--

is a little bit embarrassing.
Um...

before I found my calling
in the military,

I thought that
I wanted to be an actor,

and I was in a few DTV movies.

- What's DTV?

- You're so young.

- Uh, direct to video.

They made all these
super cheap movies

back in the '80s and '90s.

You make them as cheaply
as possible

and then hope that someone
was drawn in enough

by the cover art to rent them.

- A guy can't have a side gig?
- Totally.

How did you get into acting?

- Some director scouted me
when I pulled him over.

He said I had a bitchin' bod.

Well, he wasn't wrong.

But I gave it up 'cause
the people of this city

needed a savior.
- Mm.

- Yeah, you are the model
of public service.

- Right.

- Anyway, Rich became
interested in this terrible

B movie that I was in.
I played a monk.

It was called
"300 Days of Hell."

[metal clangs]

- [gasps]

- Terrible B movie,
that's what he called it?

"300 Days of Hell" is the
scariest film of the 1990s.

- Really?

"The Ring", "Scream,"
"Blair Witch Project"?

- Which one of us executive
produced a horror movie?

Trust me, "THDOH"

is true nightmare fuel.

- It's not that scary.

She made me watch it at the
beginning of our relationship.

- When he was still
trying to impress me.

You wanna watch it
again tonight?

- I would.
Totally.

I do have plans, though.

- Yeah I'm not watching
that crap,

even if it is for a case.

I see enough horror on the job.

That being said,
"300 Days of Hell"

was our first real window
into the rabbit hole

that Rich had gone down.

- A rabbit hole filled
with demons--

or rather, a demon.

- So Rich believed a demon
had killed all those people?

- No, the killers
were definitely human.

- Killers, plural?
- Yeah.

There was different trace DNA
on all the bodies,

all from different subjects,
and none of them

were in the system.
- Meaning?

- The murders were committed
by a group of people

with shared beliefs.

- A murder cult?

- The cult believed a demon
named Malaphus

had been possessing people
all across the city,

jumping from host to host, and
it was up to them to stop it.

[eerie music]

- The legend of Malaphus
is centuries old.

The first mention we see of him
is 1433's

"Lesser Grimoire of Solomon"

by Slovenian inquisitor
Terentius Bruma,

a reference text of demons
and their attributes.

- Gnarly.
- Right?

He's also known as
the Deceiver, the Infestor,

and Demon of 300 days.
Why?

Once summoned to Earth,
Malaphus won't rest

until he finds a human host.

After possession begins,
he incubates

300 days.

- What happens after 300 days?

- He reaches full strength,

and his power
becomes uncontainable.

- Uh-oh.

- Um, if Malaphus
was summoned to Earth,

how would one stop him?

- Bruma suggests killing the
host might slow Malaphus down,

forcing him to regenerate
before he can find a new host,

a process
that also can be slowed

by the use of copper.

- It was the pennies.
- The pennies.

- It all came back
to the pennies.

- Before 1984,
U.S. pennies were 95% copper.

- So the copper in the pennies
was meant to bind the demon,

but what about the 1930 part?

- Uh, are you familiar
with numerology?

Some ancient peoples--
and Taylor Swift--

believed there was
a mystical connection

between letters and numbers.

Using the Chaldean method,
the name Malaphus

becomes a digit, 1930.

- So you're saying--
- We had a theory.

Whoever killed those people
believed the victims

were possessed by Malaphus.

They had to reach
Malaphus's host before

he reached his true form.

A 1930 penny was
the perfect tool.

- Yeah, Rich's talk of,
"it's inside me,

it won't let me die,"
he thought he was infested

by this demon, too,

and that's why
he killed himself.

- Wait.

I thought Rich didn't
believe in Malaphus.

Isn't that why he was
trying to stop the cult?

- Well, yes, but, I mean,
years of obsession and paranoia

can do a number
on a person's psyche.

I mean, it seems as though,
in the end,

Rich could no longer
distinguish

fantasy from reality.

- And you got this theory
from Rich's files?

- Well, I mean,
we actually got it from Lopez.

- And they say watching
old horror movies

isn't a good use of time.

- I never said that.

[eerie music]

♪ ♪

- Are we safe, brother?

Is Malaphus banished?

- His sigil is drawn.

The rite is spoken.

We have sealed his last
human vessel with copper.

[eerie choral music]

♪ ♪

- Heaven forgive us.

- Indeed.

For hell will not.

[bell tolling]

- Midnight,

the 300th day.

Our task was done
none too soon.

- [coughing]

♪ ♪

[retching]

♪ ♪

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- [screaming]

♪ ♪

[liquid pouring]
- Yeah, that was me.

Do you guys want a glass?
- No, I'm good.

- Oh, you got
anything stronger?

Fine.
I'll just take a glass.

OK, I'll, just--
I'll have nothing, actually.

No fun for me.

- Yeah, that was
my first big movie role.

Well, my only one, really.

Rich was so excited
when I told him I booked it.

He helped me run lines.

- Did Rich buy in
to the Malaphus mythology?

- No.

Weirdly, given all
the conspiracies that Rich

believed in,
he was a total atheist.

But I wouldn't have
blamed him after everything

that happened on that shoot.

- Like what?

- Before production wrapped,

the DP was paralyzed
driving to set.

A stunt person had
his leg amputated.

There were divorces,
bankruptcies.

Careers ended.

One of the actors even died
in his hotel room.

People say the production
was cursed.

- What about you?
What do you believe?

- I believe the real curse
was the director.

He was a reckless maniac that
didn't know how to run a set.

- Cut.
Cut!

Arthur! Arthur!

Your strangulation,
it has to be real.

I wanna feel the life
draining from him.

You, you--you cannot move
from your position,

Not even an inch.

Guys, this ritual is
extremely specific.

OK?
Let's go again.

- OK, I thought I was
choking you pretty well.

I'm sorry.

OK, I'm gonna choke you
a little harder.

Ready?

- Douglas was real touchy
about the religious stuff.

I guess he had grown up
in some sort of commune,

and this was all based on
stories he was told growing up.

- OK, but what I heard
is that they accidentally

summoned Malaphus for real.

The director found
some ancient tome

and inserted the incantation
and rituals verbatim.

- Ooh, I love that.

- And that's
what got me thinking

about the penny killings.

We found the first victim
just a little under 300 days

after the summoning ritual
was filmed.

We knew Rich was aware
of the Malaphus legends.

It was only natural
to link them.

- So Rich thought the penny
victims were killed by people

trying to stop Malaphus.

Was he able to identify
any of these killers?

- We know he tried.

- Hi.
- Hey. How are you?

Jared.
- Hello. Wow.

Um, it's a--it's a pleasure
to meet you, gentlemen.

- Pleasure to meet you too.

- Why don't you tell us
about yourselves?

- Yeah, we, uh, co-starred
on a TV show together

for 15 seasons

called "Supernatural."

- Yeah, we played Sam
and Dean Winchester,

brothers that, you know,
tracked and fought

supernatural beings.

- Like "K-Pop Demon Hunters."
- No.

No, not like that.

- I mean, kind of like that.

- No.
- Yeah.

- OK, can you tell us
about your encounter

with Rich Rowley?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rich Rowley.

He came to a fan event we did
last year at MonsterCon.

- Yeah, you know,
most people show up,

and they just want
an autograph or a photo.

But Rich was a bit of
a different beast altogether.

- Yeah, yeah,
he was--he was super

fixated on this one
particular episode

where we fought a demon.
- Malaphus.

- Yeah, uh, that one.

Anyway he seemed to think
we, like, knew more

about it than we were saying.

- More about what?

- Demon hunting.

He kept, like, asking these
super pointed questions,

like--like he was,
I don't know,

testing us or something.

- Did you have an answer?
- No.

No, I mean, we didn't--

we didn't come up
with these stories.

You know, we just did
what the writers wrote.

It's called acting.

There's no actual
demon hunters in real life.

- Exactly.

- Uh, that's not exactly true.

There is at least one.

And it actually connected
to the movie.

We heard the director
brought a priest named

Father Simon McCabe
to bless the set

every day before filming.

- Well, it was either that
or the whole crew

was going to walk.

- Does that name
mean anything to you?

- About 15 years ago.

Lopez and I had just finished
our rookie years.

We responded to a call
at a house.

Priest doing an exorcism
with a 16-year-old girl.

Had been going on
for three days.

- Father, no.
- [speaking Latin]

- Police!
- [speaking Latin]

- Help her!

Please!

- [screaming]

- [speaking Latin]

- Get away from her!

- Father, forgive me.

[ominous music]

- Did you feel like
you'd seen the devil?

- The only thing in that room
that belonged in hell

was Father Simon.
- He kept saying he had to.

The whole way to the station,
"I'm sorry, I had to.

I'm sorry, I had to."

- Because he believed
she was possessed?

- She had a brain tumor.

That's what they found
after the autopsy.

She needed a doctor,
not an exorcism.

And he wasn't a man of God.
He was a killer.

- The courts agreed.

So Father Simon was convicted
of first-degree murder.

- When we processed him,
we found a penny in his pocket.

Nothing else, just a penny.

It didn't mean anything
at the time,

but after Rich connected
those seven murders,

it seemed likely
he was involved.

- Involved like,
he killed them?

- No, Simon was already
in prison when five

of the murders took place,
and his DNA didn't match

any that was found
on the corpses.

But he could have been part
of whatever group

Rich was so afraid of.

- Which means he knew more
than he had told us.

So we had to go back.

- Officers, I remember you.

You--you were the ones
who tried to stop the ritual.

- Just wish we would
have gotten here sooner.

Becca Scott
might still be alive.

- Oh, she was long gone
before you arrived.

The demon saw to that.
- Malaphus?

- Shh.

Do not say its name
in my presence.

- What, are you afraid we
might accidentally summon it?

- You may scorn me
and my beliefs,

but I have fought this evil.

I know enough
to fear its power.

- What's more evil
than murdering a child?

- I took no pleasure
in the act.

I'm grateful I had the courage
to do what was necessary.

- Courage?

- Tell us about the penny
that was in your pocket.

In the movie
"300 Days of Hell",

Malaphus is sealed inside
his host with copper

before he can be killed--

- Uh, banished, not killed.

- What's the difference?

- The demon is a parasite.

It needs a host.

Once you kill the body
that inhabits it,

it'll find a new one.

Becca Scott was just a single
battle in a larger war.

- If you're in here,
who's doing the fighting now?

- The Knights of Avila.

- Los Angeles
has a long history

of spiritualism,
esoteric religions

that go back over 100 years.

So think Aleister Crowley,
Jack Parsons,

L. Ron Hubbard.
- He freaking loves this stuff.

- I do.

Anyway, a lot of these groups
started out

as fraternal orders,
similar to the Freemasons,

where people would gather
and--and--share--

- Men.
- Well, yeah.

Yes, and--
and some women.

And they would share new ideas,
explore philosophies.

- They also liked partying,
doing drugs,

and performing
weird sex rituals.

- [laughs] Sign me up.

For the intellectual exchanging
of ideas, obviously.

- So the Knights of Avila
is one of these groups?

- It was.

Like a lot of the similar
organizations at the time,

it fell apart
when the founder died.

It hasn't been active in--

60 years?

- Then what was
Father Simon talking about?

- Based on Tim and Lopez's
conversation with Father Simon,

we began to believe
that the group,

or at least the name,

had been revived
sometime in the late '90s

to the early 2000s
and re-branded

as some kind of
demon hunting cult.

- So Rich was actually right.

There was a murderous cabal
after him.

- It seemed that way,

and we were getting close

to discovering
who their ringleader was.

- [screaming]
- I found him.

- Found who?
- Doug Roberts.

- I wanna feel
the life draining from him!

- Oh, you mean the director
of the sad little demon porn?

Where?

- I was going through
some old industry trades

from around the time "THDOH"
was slated to come out.

One of the articles
mentioned that Roberts

was a client
of Stewart Winecliff

at the Golden Talent Agency.

- The guy hasn't made
a movie in 26 years.

I doubt they still rep him.

- Not actively, no.

But I called their offices,
and I bribed--

or like, I talked one of
the assistants into giving me

the address where
his residual checks are sent.

It's downtown.
Let's go.

- Uh, hold on.

You just wanna go
doorstep the guy?

- If that means
go knock on a door

while also filming, then yes.

- Yeah, I'm not in the business
of gotcha journalism.

- What about the business
of making that paper?

The guap?

Money, guy.

Come on, the doc business
is over-saturated these days.

We need footage
that P-O-Ps,

and what pops more
than blindsiding

a potential cult leader?

Come on.

What's the worst
that could happen?

[suspenseful music]

This is it.
- OK.

- Um, here.
Here's your camera.

- Um, I don't operate.

- Oh, well.

♪ ♪

[camera beeps]
Now, you do.

Let's go.

- What floor is it on?
- Eight.

But there's an elevator.
Don't worry.

[panting]

- Are you sure it's that way?
- Yep.

Nope.

- You know, at the risk of
being called a scaredy cat,

you do understand
that this is inherently

neither a wise
nor safe activity?

- You're asking a woman
if she understands

that it's inherently dangerous
to go anywhere or do anything?

- When you put it that way,
I sound like an ass.

- Yeah.

[indistinct muffled speech]

Maybe we should come back?

- [knocking]
Hey. Hello.

Douglas Roberts,
we're here to question you

about murders and demons.

That should get his attention.

Oh.

I am just an intern.

- So clearly we're not
deceased, which means--

- We saved you
from certain death.

- I'm not sure
how certain it was, right?

- Oh, it felt
pretty certain to me.

- Please don't kill us.

We will join your cult.
Is there a membership fee

or a secret handshake?

I love a secret handshake.
- Ignore her.

She's not right in the head.

In fact, she has
short-term memory issues.

So if you let her go now,
she won't remember any of this.

- Just shut up.
No one's going anywhere.

- I mean, technically,
we're all going somewhere.

[sirens blaring]

- All right, let them go.
Put your hands up.

Up against the Jeep, now.
Let's go.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Oh, hey.

Thanks for trying to save me,
even though

I'm the one
who put us in danger.

- No problem.

- I was about to do
the same thing, but you just

beat me to it.

I can be noble, too.
- No doubt.

- Uh,
I get very claustrophobic.

Can I just point out how
claustrophobic I get, please?

- So when did you
and Douglas meet?

- In the movie.

He was, you know,
so commanding and driven

and everything I wasn't.

- When did he start talking
about killing the demon?

- It was, uh, at least
a year after that.

He would call me late at night

and talk about the demon
and how scared

he was for the world,

and eventually
it started to make sense.

- And he told you that
someone was possessed?

- Correct.
Her name was Cynthia.

Um,

she cried when I tied her up,
and she kept saying

that she was not a demon.

She begged me
to believe her, and--

At that point,
he was very deep in my head.

And then tonight,
you know, all the lies

he was spewing at the end,

it was like somebody
turned on a light switch.

I could just see him
for who he was.

So pathetic.

- We'll need you to write up
a detailed confession.

- I would like to make a deal.

- Uh, we have already located
your co-conspirators.

You don't really have
anything to offer.

- You don't want to know what
an alien spaceship looks like?

[eerie music]

- I am all that stands between
the world

and damnation.

- So all of the people
that you had targeted,

they had to die
for the greater good?

- Yes, and my heart breaks
for each of them.

But I will not let innocents
fall to perdition.

- OK, have you had
your fill of BS?

- God, yes.

- OK, me, too.

So, uh, first victim,
Cynthia Green.

You dated for two years
before she cheated on you.

Marcus Ford, he worked as
a teamster on your movie,

then later sued you
for nonpayment.

Pamela Jones wrote a scathing
review of your movie.

- Really? I--

I had no idea.

- All seven victims were people
who wronged you in some way.

You don't even believe
in the demon.

You just used it as a tool
to get people with weak minds

to do your dirty work for you.

- Exactly.

I was the director.

I think you'll find
I never laid a finger

on any of the victims.

- And I think you will find
that Manson died in prison.

♪ ♪

- All right.

Uh, anything else?

- No, I think
we got everything.

- OK.

That was a crazy one, huh?
- Tell me about it.

And look, thanks so much
for all of your time,

and for saving our lives.

- Anything for
my favorite documentarian.

Actually, the only
documentarian I know.

- Not true.

I'm a documentarian too.
- Of course.

Yes--oh, speaking of,
how did this whole

working together thing go?

Is this the start of
a beautiful friendship?

- I don't know.

I mean, we have
very different styles

and instincts and, well,
basically everything,

but I'd be open
to another collaboration.

- Oh, um, it's just I--

I kind of signed an exclusive
three-film deal with Hulu?

- What?

- Yeah, I--I sent them
a sizzle reel of this project,

just the me parts,
and they freaked.

Said I'm gonna be
"the new face of true crime."

Their words.
- Wow.

I mean, you'd probably be able
to bring him along,

though, right?

- Oh, totally.
Totally.

[phone buzzes]

I gotta go, but thanks again.
Hello.

No, I said Toronto
and then Cannes.

[quirky orchestral music]

- She'll probably call you.

- No.

♪ ♪

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- Damn it.