A.J. Cook credited as playing...
Jennifer Jareau
- Penelope Garcia: His name is Tanner Johnson, and life has not been kind.
- Jennifer Jareau: He lost a child, didn't he?
- Penelope Garcia: Yeah, last year. Ten year old son Jeremy. According to reports, Jeremy was playing with a friend, they were, like, fake 'wrestling', when Tanner, a freelance photographer/night time doorman, got a call, left the room to take it; when he returned, his son was unconscious, the friend was trying to revive him from a chokehold gone horribly wrong.
- Aaron Hotchner: The son was strangled; that's why he uses a garrote.
- Penelope Garcia: Jeremy was on life support for a few days, but he died.
- Alex Blake: And Tanner blames himself. He stopped watching for a minute and he lost his son.
- David Rossi: He hasn't stopped watching since. The grief must have consumed him.
- Jennifer Jareau: That's a hell of a stressor, but what triggered the murders?
- Aaron Hotchner: Garcia, what happened to Tanner's wife? Did the marriage survive?
- Penelope Garcia: Uh... nope. She kicked him out two months ago. Right before the killings started.
- Jennifer Jareau: So he loses his child, then his wife and home. It's enough to make anyone unstable.
- Alex Blake: Add guilt to that, and it's all too much. He dissociated.
- David Rossi: Paternal transference. Claimed the residents of the apartment building as his family.
- Aaron Hotchner: The unsub we're looking for is a dangerous voyeur, who feeds off the thrill of knowing his victims can't see him.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: Typically, voyeurs are non-violent and content to remain bystanders. This one is different; he's on a mission that includes taking action.
- Aaron Hotchner: And in that mission, he didn't hesitate to kill a teenage boy. Anyone who stands between him and his goal is at risk.
- Alex Blake: We believe he's documenting his work. He's taking pictures and collects personal connections to his victims; their wallets and their hair.
- David Rossi: It's important to him to have proof of what he's doing.
- Derek Morgan: Voyeurs like to create fantasies in their heads of what the objects of their obsession should be like.
- David Rossi: He creates a character identity instead of a reality, and when a person steps outside of the parameters that the unsub has set for them, he strikes.
- Jennifer Jareau: This unsub appears to be triggered by males acting on what he perceives to be character flaws. Seemingly innocuous infractions to us are magnified in the unsub's psychosis.
- Aaron Hotchner: Based on the planning and sophistication of the kills, we believe that he's in his late thirties or forties.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: The geographic profile tells us this unsub is not only dumping his victims downtown, he's hunting there, too.
- Derek Morgan: So this is where we need to redouble our efforts. Go building to building, door to door. This guy's a fly on the wall; he's able to leanr secrets without anyone realizing he's there.
- Alex Blake: He'll have a job that involves very little social interaction, but that puts him in a position where he can observe others unnoticed.
- Jennifer Jareau: So we should look at service workers, groundskeepers, anyone paid to be invisible.
- Aaron Hotchner: And we need to move quickly. This unsub is approaching some sort of perceived deadline. The closer it gets, the more erratic and dangerous he'll become.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: Scotty must have been coming from the east. Otherwise, the unsub's position would have left him exposed.
- Jennifer Jareau: But...?
- Dr. Spencer Reid: That avenue offers three different directions to head in lieu of this alleyway. So how did the unsub know Scotty was gonna choose this particular one?
- Jennifer Jareau: You told the police he met a girl last night. So walking home this way wouldn't be part of his regular routine, right?
- Ben Harrison: No.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: When planning a blitz attack with varying avenues of approach, what do you do?
- Jennifer Jareau: Eliminate the variable. Strike as close as you can to the point of origin or destination.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: But Scotty was still miles away from home.
- Jennifer Jareau: The woman he met lives nearby.
- Penelope Garcia: Beantown has turned into Chokeville. Three victims, all male, wallets stolen.
- Aaron Hotchner: The unsub uses a garrote to strangle his victims. He strikes at night, and there have been no witnesses.
- David Rossi: How much did he get?
- Aaron Hotchner: What's odd. Each of the victims' socio-economically is lower to middle class. It's doubtful there would have been much cash, and there have been no charge attempts on any of the credit cards.
- Alex Blake: So the murders might not be about money at all. Taking the wallets could be a forensic countermeasure to delay victim identification.
- Penelope Garcia: That could be the sitch with the first two victims, but the latest one, Scott Delfino, he was on the phone with his roommate when he was attacked; call cut out unexpectedly, repeated callbacks went straight to voicemail.
- Aaron Hotchner: And Delfino's body was found an hour later, indications were that he'd been blitzed.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: Which speaks to the killer's prep work, but also his desperation. He chose a location to lay in wait, but wasn't capable of adapting to a target on the phone.
- Jennifer Jareau: Well, that could be arrogance getting in the way, making his organization appear mixed. To me, that screams false confidence.
- Derek Morgan: Which means the desperation is what's driving him. It's not about the kills, it's about what the murders represent.
- Jennifer Jareau: He's mission oriented. He doesn't want to kill them, he has to.
- David Rossi: Which suggests the unsub has no personal connection to his victims.
- Alex Blake: Except choking as a kill method is extremely personal. He feels each victim take their last breath.
- Derek Morgan: What if the wallets are a form of depersonalization? He's stripping his victims of their identities.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: Which means he may feel stripped of his own. If the wallets are trophies, he could be seeking recognition for his work.
- Aaron Hotchner: And he may not stop killing until he gets that recognition. Let's go.