(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
VANDAL 1: Yeah.
(GUN FIRES)
SECURITY GUARD: Nobody move!
VANDAL 1: Let's go. Let's go. Come on.
KELVIN: Hey! I can't get down!
SECURITY GUARD: Get back here! Hey, you, get back here!
Oh, damn it.
Come on out of there, punk!
(RATTLING)
I'm warning you.
(CAT MEOWS)
(SECURITY GUARD GRUNTING)
(NECK SNAPPING)
JJ: This is Houston's Fifth Ward.
It accounts for a large percent of the city's growing homicide rate
due to gang violence and a bustling narcotics trade.
Although in the last 48 hours,
there have been three distinctive murders in the Ward.
Distinctive?
Three men, three different socioeconomic groups,
all killed on the street with their necks snapped.
There appears to be no other injury
and there's no apparent connection between the victims or motive.
(JJ CLEARS THROAT)
The Ward's detectives are inundated with homicides.
Gang violence is a big problem.
Shootings, armed robberies, is an everyday occurrence,
but this type of street attack is new to them.
Could it be gang-related? Maybe some new type of initiation rite?
The gangs in the Ward use guns.
In fact, no known gangs exhibit this type of MO.
What about dope?
These guys come up with pretty freaky ways of killing the competition
to get their message out.
Yeah, but there just doesn't seem to be any connection
between the victims and the drug world.
Homeless man, a construction worker.
Security guard.
Just three dead men and no witnesses.
HOTCH: We're looking for a homicidal serial criminal
in a neighbourhood populated by criminals.
The challenge will be separating him from the rest.
Yet we have no evidence, no apparent interaction
between the UnSub and the victims pre or post-mortem,
and an indistinguishable MO. Should be simple.
(BOYS CHATTERING)
GIDEON: "Our life is made by the death of others." Leonardo da Vinci.
We got a construction worker, outsider in the community.
We got a security guard, that's an authority figure.
And then we've got a homeless man
that's a powerless victim that no one would notice missing.
So who is he targeting?
Let's see if any of the victims frequented the same stores or sites.
He used blitz attacks,
which means he most likely lacks the interpersonal skills
needed to coerce his victims into coming close.
And he also used the element of surprise
which means he may have stalked his victims prior to killing them.
Well, if that's the case, I wanna go to the last crime scene
and see where he may have been hiding.
I want to see the neighbourhood for myself. I'll go with you.
Good, the rest of us will go to the precinct and set up shop.
I'll map out the area and see if I can find any places
the victims would have visited in the neighbourhood.
Good, maybe we can find a connection between them. I'll help you with that.
I can handle it.
I wasn't suggesting that you couldn't.
Isn't that what "I'll help you with it," means?
HOTCH: Reid.
Prentiss will help you with the geographical profiling and victimology.
Fine.
Remember this is a high-crime area.
Be vigilant. Nobody goes anywhere alone.
FULLER: FBI, right?
-Agents Morgan, Gideon. -GIDEON: Hi, how are you?
FULLER: Nice to meet y'all. We really do appreciate your help.
Oh, we're glad to assist.
The vic, the security guard,
was patrolling construction sites in the neighbourhood.
Some equipment was vandalised.
Do you think the murder's related?
The damage was kind of unspecific. More like something kids would do.
The guard had a pistol, which is now missing.
MORGAN: And this whole area? It's empty?
Except for the liquor store around that corner
and the locksmith on this end.
-What about this building right here? -FULLER: Oh, empty for years.
Where's he going?
Find out when he comes back.
OFFICER: Detective Fuller.
FULLER: Well, let's see what this here's about.
Her son was at the community centre last night.
I've lived in this neighbourhood all my life. So has my son.
I didn't raise him to be a vandal.
Yes, ma'am, I'm sure you didn't.
JOLENE: Kelvin.
Well, I was... We was up here last night.
We messed up some of the equipment over there.
JOLENE: I found some spray paint on his clothes
and I knew he was up to trouble with his no-good friends.
He will not be vandalising his own neighbourhood again, will you, son?
No, ma'am.
JOLENE: I was going to drive him to the police station,
but I saw you already here.
How much damage was done?
Actually, we're here because there was a murder last night.
-Murder? -What murder?
-A security guard. -Oh, my God.
No. No. He chased us, but I lost him. I swear, I didn't touch him.
Don't say another word, Kelvin.
Kelvin, I only have one question for you and then you can go.
Did the security guard fire his weapon at you?
No. He... He, like, shot it into the air to scare us
and that's why we ran.
Thanks. You can go.
-We can go? -Yes, ma'am.
You just sent away the last person to see our victim alive.
A boy that frightened of his mother and that slight doesn't have the skill,
courage or size to kill the way this UnSub does.
MORGAN: Hey, guys.
Over here. Somebody was living here.
We've got a dirty blanket, hamburger wrappers, and soda cans.
GIDEON: Those kids weren't the only ones here last night.
(JACKHAMMER POUNDING)
What's that?
One of the detective's wives made us cookies.
Wow, homemade cookies?
Yeah, I guess that's what they mean by Southern hospitality.
-What are you saying? -Southern hospitality!
(POUNDING CONTINUES)
How can anybody concentrate?
(SIGHING) How can anybody hear anything with all this work going on?
Well, you're going to have to get used to it.
Construction crews are working around the clock.
We saw it on the way in.
JJ: The city's trying to return to its splendour
and that means that Houston's poorest are being kicked out of their homes.
UnSub might be homeless.
He appears to have been living in a building.
Next to where the security guard was attacked.
REID: These are the locations of the last three murders.
All near abandoned buildings.
He knows the neighbourhood. Maybe he was recently displaced.
It could be a motive.
A construction worker, a security guard at a construction site. Payback?
MORGAN: What about the homeless man?
Well, we get a lot of beefs down there among the homeless.
That one could have just been a fight about space or food.
Let's get a list of residents
who have been kicked out of their homes by the gentrification.
-You and Reid check the shelters. -Yeah, we're on it.
Unless... Are you okay with that, Reid?
I'm fine with that.
We should check to see if there are any mental hospitals in the area.
Maybe it was someone who was recently released into the streets.
-Got it. -Morgan,
can you cover the police records for the last week?
If it's someone who's been recently made homeless,
he might have stolen food, comfort items, blankets, toiletries.
We might be able to track a pattern of theft.
-Done. -Thanks.
(PHONE RINGING)
Are you lonely in the Lone Star State? And are you wearing chaps?
Only in your dreams, Garcia.
Oh, not necessarily. I have Photoshop.
Hey, hey, behave.
Focus your little twisted mind for me, okay?
I need police records from the Fifth Ward.
Small thefts and burglaries. Can you do that?
Aren't you at that very station, right now?
Yeah, but it's a small precinct and these guys are stretched. Trust me.
Got it.
Oh, and Garcia, see if you can find before and after pictures
of demolitions in the area.
Maybe we can nail down a building
where the UnSub may have worked or lived in.
-How far back? -Week.
(SPEAKING FRENCH)
And Garcia?
I better not ever find any Photoshopped pictures of me.
Oh, trust me, my vision, you will never find them.
MAN: No!
Look out!
(JACKHAMMER POUNDING)
(NECK SNAPPING)
The victim's name is Travis Overby. That's his buddy over there.
He was working a jackhammer on a new trunk line.
He said one second Travis was going down the sewer,
the next second he was down at the bottom dead.
From one second to the next.
-Someone has to go down. -Oh, see, this ain't cool.
(SIGHING)
MORGAN: I'm putting in for hazard pay.
GIDEON: Good luck with that.
(COUGHING)
It's pretty clean for a sewer.
Trash is pretty much cleared away. Yeah, I got a dirty blanket
and something else rolled up in the corner.
It's obvious he made himself a place to sleep,
but he cleared it all away.
It looks a lot like the last place he was in.
New temporary home.
Hey, guys, it looks like the jackhammer
must have knocked some of the ceiling loose.
It fell down all around him. I'd be pretty scared, too.
It's about survival.
He carved out a place of his own. Saw a threat. He attacked.
MORGAN: That's got to be why the victims were so random.
He didn't have a relationship with them.
They just happened to be intruding on his home.
We need to see the other crime scenes.
Sure. Let's go.
-GIDEON: You all right? -Yeah. You owe me.
They're over there.
(ALL CHATTERING)
Y'all are looking for someone in charge?
I'm Angie, one of the administrators.
Hi, I'm Agent Prentiss. This is Agent Reid. We're with the FBI.
-Really? -Really.
PRENTISS: Looks like you have your hands full.
(SIGHING) With the demolitions of the projects and the abandoned buildings,
there's no place else for people to sleep.
Well, thank God there are people like you who take the time...
Do you keep a list of everyone who comes through here?
ANGIE: We have a sign-in sheet,
but we don't force anyone to sign if they don't want to.
Some who do, don't even use their real names.
Elvis eats here a lot.
We would appreciate any lists you have.
-Why? -REID: Have you noticed anyone
who acts unusually aggressive towards the other residents?
-What's this about? -Series of murders in the area.
The perpetrator may be a homeless man.
He may be someone who stays here.
He may even be in this room as we speak.
-ANGIE: Oh, my God. -Reid.
REID: Have you noticed anyone who acts paranoid
or displays explosive, unprovoked bursts of violence,
more than just pushing and shoving?
I mean, someone who really tries to harm others?
There are territorial fights, over food and places to sleep.
The nurse treats people for minor injuries all the time
but no one's seriously hurt.
If anyone does come to mind, give us a call. Thank you.
-A murderer? -(STAMMERING) I'm sorry.
This investigation is still...
No one's actually been hurt in a shelter.
We're just... We're acting with an abundance of caution.
So, please, let the police know if anything unusual occurs.
Thanks.
There's a high presence of mental disorders with the homeless.
-Yeah. What the hell was that in there? -What?
"He may even be in this room as we speak"?
We have nothing to support that.
We're investigating a serial homicide.
Should I have pretended there's no danger?
We just left that woman potentially afraid of every man
who walks into this shelter.
Again until we find this UnSub, how is that a bad thing?
What is the matter with you?
What... What do you mean what's the matter with me?
I've... I've never seen you act like this.
Oh, really. Oh, in the months that you've known me,
you've never seen me act this way?
Hey, no offence, Emily,
but you don't really know what you're talking about, do you?
HOTCH: Good. Thanks.
Just got back from the local homeless shelter.
The administrator hasn't noticed anyone new
displaying aggressive behaviour.
He's not in a homeless shelter. I just talked to Gideon and Morgan.
They think that he's killing to protect some makeshift shelter of his own.
So are we ready for a profile yet?
We're missing something.
How did this homeless man learn to kill so efficiently?
-You know what we need? -We need to get lucky.
We need him to make a mistake.
Hey!
Come on, man. Get out of there.
I see you right there.
(SPEAKING SPANISH)
There's a shelter a couple of blocks from here.
GIRL: Papa!
Please help my daddy!
I need help. I was attacked.
Can I get some help here, please?
Please... Please call my house to come get my daughter. Please.
(PRENTISS SPEAKING SPANISH)
Is my papa going to be okay?
Yes.
Maria, could you answer a few questions for us?
It would really help us find the bad guy.
Did he say anything to your papa?
No.
What were you and your papa doing before the bad guy came?
Papa took out the garbage. And then he jumped out.
And he hit my papa.
I was screaming at him.
Don't hurt my papa!
I thought he was going to hit me, too,
but then he stopped.
And he looked at me funny.
What do you mean by funny?
He looked sad.
He did say something. Not to my papa. To me.
What was it?
He said...
Are you okay? Why are you crying?
And then we ran.
(MAN SPEAKING SPANISH)
(ENGINE STARTING)
Maria, what you did was very brave.
Can you help us with one more thing?
Can you tell us what the man looked like?
He was white and tall and dirty.
And he had a ring like yours.
Like that?
I remember his ring.
Thank you.
(MARIA SPEAKING SPANISH)
(WOMAN SPEAKING SPANISH)
(PRENTISS SPEAKING SPANISH)
He asked if she was okay and why was she crying.
He wasn't aware of what he was doing to them.
Garcia's on line one. Go ahead, Penelope.
GARCIA ON PHONE: Hola, cowgirls and boys.
Hey.
I've got the comparison satellite images
of the before and after pictures and I found something.
Check it! Do you see it yet?
-Yeah. -PRENTISS: Yeah. An SOS.
GARCIA: Yeah, it's made of debris
and other bits of gobbledygook.
This is building where the security guard got killed.
-HOTCH: He's asking for help. -Guys, listen outside.
(BEEPING)
(CLANGING)
Chaos. The SOS.
He's a war veteran.
He thinks he's in a war zone.
HOTCH: He left a distress signal on the roof of one of the buildings.
The quick strikes are consistent with trained military tactics.
He must have served in a place that looked or sounded like this ward.
Well, we were right about him being homeless in a sense.
Wherever he is in his mental state, he's certainly not at home.
HOTCH ON PHONE: He may not even be aware he's killing.
Now, how's that?
When soldiers suffered from anxiety,
depression, and flashbacks in World War I,
it was called shell shock.
REID ON PHONE: In World War II, battle fatigue.
Now we refer to it as PTSD.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. War-related.
A side effect of which is slipping into dissociative states.
The mind divorces itself from reality so it can cope with the trauma.
He's reliving a memory. He's trapped in his head, in some war zone.
Hiding and defending himself from the enemy.
Okay, so how do we find a man who's trapped inside his head?
He's got a wedding ring. Someone's missing him.
Good. I'm on the way in with Detective Fuller.
Morgan has one last crime scene to check.
JJ, check missing persons reports. See if anyone matches the description.
It would have been filed recently. The last two or three days.
-Okay. -Thanks.
(GIRL GIGGLING)
That's funny.
You are so...
BOY: Oh, okay.
GIRL: No, no, no. I...
(WHISPERING) Hey! You shouldn't be out here. It isn't safe!
It isn't safe.
Dana Woodridge and Max Weston. Her husband and his best friend.
Roy Woodridge has been missing since Tuesday.
DANA: He was on his way home from work.
He called before he left the office
and said we needed to talk when he got home.
He sounded upset.
That was the last I heard from him.
What was he upset about?
He didn't say.
Dana called me that night when Roy didn't show up.
So, the next morning we filed a missing persons report.
Mrs Woodridge, where does your husband work?
He's a consultant at a security firm downtown.
Did your husband ever serve in combat?
-Excuse me? -HOTCH: Is he a war veteran?
Yeah, we both are. We were in Special Ops.
75th Ranger Regiment. Bravo Company, Third Battalion.
But Roy, he retired shortly after things went bad in Mogadishu.
That was back in 1993.
Let me ask you this, does he display any sort of behavioural ticks?
Certain everyday things that make him jumpy or startled?
Why?
-Does he? -Is this going to help find him?
Mrs Woodridge, please.
We need to know everything we can about your husband.
We all had a hard time over there.
You... You bring some things home with you.
Like what?
He has a hard time with loud noises.
He can't be in crowds.
He has nightmares and wakes up in cold sweats.
The smells are the worst. He...
If he smells something burning, like a barbeque or gas or fire,
he gets sick.
It really only got bad about a year ago.
What happened to him in Somalia?
Nothing.
Combat happened.
What does that mean?
I'm going to get a drink of water.
(MAX CLEARING THROAT)
You knew your friend was suffering from symptoms of PTSD.
He was a changed man, wasn't he?
He was anxious, paranoid, distant.
He was far away in his head.
I tried to get him to a Vet centre to talk to somebody
but he said he was all right.
What happened in Somalia? What's he reliving?
(SIGHING)
You can't tell Dana. Roy never wanted her to know.
DANA: Thank you.
Could somebody please tell me what's going on?
There've been some people hurt recently,
and we think that there may be someone lost on the streets.
Someone who thinks that he's still at war.
Roy would never hurt innocent people.
Well, why would he even be in this neighbourhood?
(PHONE RINGING)
Hey, Garcia. We have Mrs Woodridge here with us.
Oh. Well, I found an '02 white Ford F150 pickup truck.
Oh, my God. That's his truck.
It was impounded. It had a flat tyre and was picked up on Lyons Street
about a quarter of a mile from Highway 59.
He takes the Eastex Freeway to work every day.
Mrs Woodridge, I'm very sorry, but this is definitely your husband.
What happened?
Roy and I, we were escorting a UN aid caravan to a refugee camp.
Our convoy was ambushed.
MAX: The front received heavy fire.
We were in the rear, so we managed to escape.
We hid for two days in and out of abandoned buildings.
The Black Hawks circling, looking for us.
One night I was sleeping. Roy kept watch.
(GUNFIRE)
I woke up, there was an AK-47 pointed right at me.
(GUNFIRE CONTINUES)
(EXPLOSIONS)
-A child? -Yeah.
They were all babies back in Mogadishu.
But this one, he couldn't have been more than 11 or 12.
Then what happened?
We finally found a radio, fixed it and called for an extraction.
Did you put out an SOS?
Yeah, we... We used rocks to put an SOS in the dirt
so the Black Hawks could locate us.
How did you know that?
Look, if this is Roy, you're not going to find him.
He's trained and skilled at survival. He knows how to hide.
We think he has a gun.
Yeah. Well, he doesn't miss.
(GUNFIRE)
We need to put a SWAT team together.
Plan a grid search to go building to building.
He's reliving the war, isn't he?
A specific incident in which he killed a child.
Guys, the SWAT team's gonna have guns, right?
What happens if he tries to fight them?
(GUN COCKING)
Can I get you something, Mrs Woodridge?
Those men are going after Roy?
Do they need so many guns? He's just one man.
It's... It's protocol, ma'am.
How badly were they hurt? You all said that people were hurt.
Some people were murdered.
Murdered?
(GASPS)
-Mrs Woodridge. -He never really came home.
I lost him 14 years ago.
It's been like living with a ghost.
Help him. Please help him.
We'll do everything we can. Okay?
Reid, what are you working on?
Three days ago police shut down the freeway at 5:00 p.m. for 10 minutes.
Cars were stalled and Roy must have tried to exit onto a surface street.
Sadly, he ended up in an unfamiliar area with a flat tyre.
He was changing that tyre when an eight-storey building on Market
imploded five blocks away.
(EXPLOSION)
He heard the explosion and the ground rattled
like a mortar bomb had landed nearby.
This explosion is what triggered his dissociation.
Since then, he's been stuck in that state.
Running when he needed to, sleeping when he could,
camouflaging himself into his surroundings
and hiding from his perceived enemies.
(GUNFIRE)
(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)
He's reliving the worst moment of his life. He's got to be terrified.
Yeah.
(MOBILE PHONE RINGING)
-Yeah, what do you have? -Why isn't Derek answering his phone?
Yeah, he's probably stuck underground somewhere.
-Underground? -REID: I'll explain later.
Okay, so I finally got through all those recent police reports
he asked me to check,
which by the way was no hopscotch through the park
because that precinct you're at is kind of tragically behind in their paperwork.
-Yeah, they're undermanned. -Oh, jeez, really?
I can't imagine what that feels like. Oh, no, wait. Yes, I can, because...
Garcia, do you have anything for me?
Well, he told me to look for anything unusual, and it's all usual.
Minor break-ins, apartment burglaries, televisions, stereos, car thefts,
and smash and grabs.
Common stuff in the world of burglaring.
Nothing a guy lost in the streets might use for survival?
No. Nothing reported. Like... Like I said, it's all petty.
There's some vandalism at construction sites.
Communications radio missing from one of them.
Wait, did you just say radio?
Yeah. A construction foreman reported
that one of their trucks had been broken into
and a handheld radio was stolen.
Yesterday. 12 hours ago.
Is that what you're looking for? Reid?
This is Roy Woodridge, 6'1", 195 pounds, 44 years old.
Brown hair. Former Army Ranger.
It's imperative you don't try to apprehend him alone.
He won't understand what's happening.
May try to defend himself.
He's armed and he's an excellent marksman.
Guys! He may have stolen a radio. A walkie-talkie.
We were right. He had a nest of sorts right near every murder scene.
There was a burglary of a two-way radio from a construction site recently.
That could be Roy. We only used UHF back then.
He's looking for help.
And he'll keep trying to contact Operations Command.
Detective, can we get a dozen UHF radios set up in this room
and each of them tuned to each of the different preset channel frequencies?
-Right away. -Wait a minute.
When he calls, we need to be very careful with the communication.
Because we set up specific responses to contact OpCom
so we could avoid hostile interception and to establish no danger signals.
And we had specific names to identify our squad to the operator.
Do you remember the language you set up?
Yeah, I couldn't forget it. Roy and I wrote it.
The call out was, "This is John Doe looking for Mark Rypien."
Rypien was our hero at the time.
Number 11, the quarterback for the Redskins in 1993.
Now we know where he is in his head.
If he calls in, we'll be on the other end when he does.
What if he doesn't call? What if he just kills someone else?
-Well, we'll deal with that if it happens. -Kind of easy for you to say.
Now, this guy may be messed up,
but that doesn't change the fact that he has killed four innocent people.
Now, why don't we just do the grid search?
If you set up a grid search and he confronts one of your men,
you'll be planning a funeral.
I can guarantee you we're right about his profile.
This man wants to get rescued.
All I'm asking is that you just give us a chance to bring him in.
(STATIC BUZZING)
FULLER: It's channel 11.
You ready, Garcia?
I've got Nat Recon's satellites all over the Ward.
JJ: Stand by.
(JACKHAMMER POUNDING)
This is John Doe looking for Mark Rypien.
Can you help us?
You know how to do this better than we do.
Roger that. This is number 11. All clear.
Maxie! Boy, am I happy to hear from you.
I am taking heavy fire.
Request immediate extraction.
What are your coordinates?
Unknown. I lost my land navigational aids.
ROY: I went high, but I don't recognise anything.
I don't have a fix on my grid coordinates.
Any other way for him to signal his location?
Did you put up any flags?
Yeah. You bet your ass I did. I'm holding cover here.
MAX: Roger that. Hold your position.
He triangulated. We need to look for three large, coloured flags.
Maybe on rooftops. They'll be identical in size and shape. But he's there.
JJ ON PHONE: Did you get that, Garcia?
I got it.
Number 11, do you still read me?
-Garcia. -I'm working as fast as I can!
Still read you loud and clear. Stay put.
(JACKHAMMER POUNDING)
I found one. I found one. I got them. I see housing projects and a courtyard.
We need street names, Garcia.
Farmer and Capron! Farmer and Capron!
I know where that is. There's some abandoned buildings right there.
I'll have construction sites to halt work and secure the streets.
Wait, he's going to expect men in fatigues and a chopper as cover.
I can take care of the choppers.
We're in black SUVs. Tell him we're security executives.
You're coming with us. We need to do this fast.
Tell him to stay there. We're coming to him.
Roy, we're coming to you, buddy.
OFFICER: Let's go.
(POLICE SIREN WAILING)
OFFICER: Let's go. Let's go. The guy's armed. Move it out.
(SIGHING)
Thank you, God.
GIDEON: Sergeant Woodridge?
Got him!
Where's Max?
Roy, it's all right. It's time to come in.
He's got a weapon.
(JACKHAMMER POUNDING)
GIDEON: No! No! Stop the noise! Stop the noise!
(EXPLOSIONS)
(GUNFIRE)
It's all right. It's all right.
No! It's not safe!
-There's a boy on the premises. -It's a boy, Sergeant! It's just a boy.
(RAPID HEARTBEAT)
Roy.
-It wasn't safe. -I know.
Is the boy all right?
Yes. Yes, Sergeant. The boy's all right.
That's good.
Folks, thank you so much for coming here.
No one ever makes this place a priority.
We're grateful to you.
-I wish it had ended differently. -Yeah, me too.
Hey, has anyone seen Gideon?
Agent Gideon left some time ago. He said he'd meet y'all at the airport.
-Did he say where he went to? -FULLER: No.
I think I know where he is.
Hey.
(HOTCH SIGHING)
It's quiet.
Construction's taking the rest of the day off to honour the victims.
You know the first recorded war was 2700 BC?
Probably earlier wars, but writing hadn't been invented yet.
Almost 5,000 years of killing each other.
The one thing human beings have been consistently good at.
We did everything we could for him, you know.
Yeah.
Sometimes knowing that just isn't good enough.
I know.
HOTCH: "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day,
"that my child may have peace." Thomas Paine.