Original subtitles

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

I'm innocent!

I didn't...

I couldn't do this!

Will someone please listen to me!

-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 killer.

-Are you a killer? -No.

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

Stop.

Sit down.

Take a deep breath.

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, me and...

Me and my wife Tabitha,

we were getting ready for bed, and she says...

I think I heard something.

Downstairs.

-Maybe outside. -Again?

It's a dog, or a cat, or squirrel or something.

It's nothing.

Go.

So I did.

I checked the front door, it was fine.

Everything was fine.

Until...

Until I smelled, like, sage.

Sage?

Like burning sage.

'Cause that's when I...

Tabitha? Call 9-1...

A shadow monster?

Yeah.

With talons for hands?

I know how it sounds.

I knew I needed to get upstairs,

because I...

I could hear her screaming.

Larry, no!

Larry, please, stop!

No! No! Larry, please! No!

Larry! No! Please, no!

Larry, no!

Stop, Larry!

I passed out,

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

I didn't do it.

I swear to God, that is exactly what happened.

No, it's not.

Yes, it is.

Mr. Merrin, what happened was

you took a kitchen knife, and you stabbed your wife to death.

No, no.

Neighbors heard the screaming, and they called 9-1-1.

And when the police arrived, they found you still on the bed

holding the knife.

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 from the shadow monster.

No, that's from your wife.

Forensics matched your skin under her fingernails

as she fought to keep you from killing her.

Think back to the words she was screaming.

Larry, please, please! Please, Larry!

Why would I do that?

Do you recognize either of these people?

No. No.

This is Daniel Karras, and this is Christine McNeil.

Each of them claims to have been attacked 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 three of you.

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 murderer. -Yes, you are.

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

"Your memory is a monster.

"It summons with will of its own.

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

John Irving.

All right, why don't we just start with the simplest explanation?

They're lying.

There are easier lies to tell to cover for murder.

Why tell the same one, especially one that 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 killing, but creating killers.

Murder by proxy, if you will.

It's gotta be drugs.

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

According to the police reports, all three tox screens came out 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 three completely dissimilar people in exactly the same way.

Well maybe they're not dissimilar, at all.

Maybe the drugs are just the tipping point

and these three share some sort of pre-existing mental condition

he knows he can tap into to induce them to kill.

We find that, we find him.

Did she feel a lot of pain?

Did I kill 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.

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!

It did sexual things to me.

He had these talons for hands, and...

I got free and then I...

And then I hid somewhere in the house,

and, uh...

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

And the cops were cuffing me.

So, I...

Maybe... You know, maybe the rape,

you know...

Maybe I snapped.

You know? You know what I mean?

Maybe I snapped,

and I lashed out at the first person that I saw.

-Mr. Karras... -Just listen,

because this is the only way that it can make sense.

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

There was no evidence of assault, sexual or otherwise.

Okay. Well, run another rape 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?

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 attacked 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...

I did some digging.

All three 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,

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 three to four years old at the time.

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

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.

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 attack that fear,

when it's really the person next to them.

They don't realize that they're actually killing someone that they love.

And once they do, their lives are ruined forever.

Even if they plead insanity, we've got three victims

who ain't never going 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.

- 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.

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 kill 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.

We sure this is the same UnSub?

Garcia set up a search parameter for closed adoptions.

Bill Kinderman was adopted May 5th, 1985.

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

That's a big change in MO.

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 kill his son,

but his paternal instinct trumped the effects of the drugs?

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

This UnSub committed four murders in four 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.

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 drugs 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 three to four 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 1980's, pre-school-age kids

made accusations against their teachers.

McMartin, Fells Acres, Kern County.

Two-hundred and seventy 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.

Thirty 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 four 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.

Okay, 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.

We do. Scopolamine and sevoflurane are both odorless and tasteless,

but he introduces the smell of sage to the drugs.

Clever.

But why her and not the others?

Well, 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 snow cone.

Grape flavor.

How old are you, Christine?

Four.

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.

He's coming.

-He's... He's coming. -Who's coming?

He's on the other side of the door.

Christine?

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

That's not right. What...

No, no. No, no, no.

-What the hell? -Unplug! Unplug everything!

He's coming! He's coming!

Christine, stop!

He's coming!

He's coming! He's coming!

- He's coming! He's coming! He's... - Christine. Christine.

Christine, where's home?

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

Who is coming? Who is coming?

Mr. Scratch.

He's already here.

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 through 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, okay?

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?

In 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 to 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,

so 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, 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 US 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.

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.

-Dave, stop. Stop talking. -And 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 through their computers.

Just like you did, I took an oath.

And then he learned what he needed to learn

to turn them into killers.

My oath is to protect the laws of this country

and not to spy on US 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.

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...

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.

So one of the boys in the house

said Peter's dad would dress up as the devil

then 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's father serve any time?

The case was pending,

and then he was killed in jail for being a pedophile.

Peter's residency is still listed as Florida.

But 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?

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 kids 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 kill her.

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

This is a suicide 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.

Sent.

Dr. Regan.

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!

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.

I want to know what you're feeling.

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.

Well, 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?

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.

You were right.

They did come calling for you.

They'll kill you.

Are you sure about that?

Spence.

Shots fired! Spence is down!

Oh, my God.

Oh, no.

Rossi, where are you hit?

Hotch! Sound off, damn it!

- Here. - Go. Go.

Where?

Here.

In the study.

Where? Where is he?

I shot him. He's down.

Morgan!

Now I know what scares you.

No!

No!

Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch.

It's okay.

You can move now.

And, here.

I have something for you.

I'm about to come through that front door.

Kill me

before I kill you.

Rossi, Reid, take the front.

JJ and I will take the back.

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

My gun.

I need my gun.

Look. Here I come.

Kill me.

Hotch!

We need a medic in here!

Take it. Take it.

He made me see things.

-He made me see things. -Okay.

He's gone.

We got him.

I win.

I don't think so.

You have no idea what I did to him.

I win.

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.

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.