Criminal Minds (TV Series)

Miasma (2018)

Daniel Henney: Matt Simmons

Quotes 

• Jennifer Jareau : Okay, two more of the initial ten victims have been identified. Twenty-eight year old dentist Tyler Roberts and teen runaway Heather Pineda. According to missing person reports and the timeline the M.E. sent over, they're most likely victims number four and five.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : This guy's victimology is all over the place. I mean, he's bouncing back and forth between the vulnerable and working professionals.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : These may all be victims of opportunity, but there's a measure of compassion to these kills. It doesn't feel random.

  Matt Simmons : Yeah, he doesn't want them to suffer. It's almost like he's putting them to sleep.

  Luke Alvez : Or putting them out of their misery.

• Dr. Tara Lewis : All right, the victim's name is Carl Kevork, and he escaped the crash with only minor injuries. The EMTs who transported him to the hospital said he had been heavily drugged, most likely ketamine, like the others.

  Matt Simmons : Carl's a big guy. The unsub must have gotten the dosage wrong.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Well, Carl doesn't remember much. I mean, he recalls running down an alley, seeing a van, getting inside.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : We profiled he'd be unemployed. It looks like our unsub's been living out of this van for a while.

• Penelope Garcia : I tracked the van via VIN number; say that three times fast. The vehicle was stolen from Houston, Texas eight years ago. After that, I got nada.

  Matt Simmons : Well, there's no telling if or how many times it's changed hands since.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Can you get the police report and track down the original owner?

  Penelope Garcia : Can do.

  Matt Simmons : Hey, Garcia, anything from Prentiss?

  Penelope Garcia : My crazy covert sources say that she was done with Barnes a few hours ago, but Emily's light is still on in her office, and I can't tell if that's a good thing or it's bad.

  Matt Simmons : Well, she's probably just catching up on paperwork.

  Penelope Garcia : Right. Totally. That's what I was telling myself, too. Yeah, okay. I'll hit you back when I have more.

• Dr. Spencer Reid : Medico della peste. Jeremy Paulson and Carl Kevork both described themselves as feeling ill before they were abducted.

  Matt Simmons : You think that's why he targeted them?

  Dr. Spencer Reid : And it's his job to take care of them before they contaminate others. He's ridding the streets of the infected.

• Jennifer Jareau : Okay, so let's think about this. He has no means of transportation, and he has nowhere to take his victims, so our unsub is starting over again. So, what does he do now? Does he steal another van?

  Luke Alvez : No. Too risky.

  Matt Simmons : This is a guy going through the stages of grief. So maybe anger's next.

  Jennifer Jareau : Well, he could start to lash out, focus his rage.

  Luke Alvez : Especially if he finds himself near a hospital or a pharmacy. Anywhere there's sick people.

  Jennifer Jareau : Okay, uh, let's put a warning out to hospitals and clinics to be on the lookout for any suspicious persons loitering in the area, see if they can post extra security at all entrances and exits.

• Jennifer Jareau : I just keep sitting here, hoping for a revelation.

  Matt Simmons : Oh, this guy's elusive. We found his home, secondary location, means of transport, but not his name. He feels invisible.

  Jennifer Jareau : But it couldn't have always been the case, you know? At some point, this guy, he had friends and family.

  [a thought strikes her] 

  Jennifer Jareau : He lost someone important to him.

  Matt Simmons : So what are you thinking?

  Jennifer Jareau : This timeline. We need to go back to where it all started for our unsub, with his first victim, Hunter Dillon.

• Jennifer Jareau : We thought our unsub was on a mission to cleanse the streets, but it's way more complicated than that. This whole ritual of his is an act of mercy in his mind. It didn't just come out of thin air.

  Matt Simmons : I think he's been thinking about it, preparing for it in some way.

  Jennifer Jareau : Exactly. But we haven't found anything connecting our unsub to the first body, Hunter Dillon. What if Hunter wasn't his first victim?

  Luke Alvez : That would mean there's another victim out there we haven't identified.

  Jennifer Jareau : Okay, so our unsub started by putting people out of their misery, saving them from their sickness. What if the woman he lost, who was sick, didn't just die, but she was his first kill?

  Dr. Spencer Reid : Then everything he's done since would be about reliving that moment, justifying that action.

  Luke Alvez : These murders would be about easing his own guilt.

• Matt Simmons : There's plenty of evidence of this woman in the van. Just no DNA and no prints.

  Jennifer Jareau : Okay, what about her belongings?

  Dr. Spencer Reid : We have clothes and blankets.

  Luke Alvez : A small jewelry box.

  Matt Simmons : Uh, some toiletries.

  Jennifer Jareau : And this bouquet. Why would someone keep dead, rotting flowers?

  Dr. Spencer Reid : It could be of personal significance, an emotional attachment that overrides his compulsion for cleanliness.

  Jennifer Jareau : Okay, did the CSUs find any prints or DNA on the plastic wrapping?

  Luke Alvez : No, but the wrapping did have a label that led to a flower shop. The CSUs followed up but came up empty-handed.

  Matt Simmons : That's because they're not Penelope.

  [dialing his phone] 

  Matt Simmons : Garcia, we need your help.

  Penelope Garcia : Bring it.

• Jennifer Jareau : Tremé Cemetery's an active site. It's famous. It's the oldest cemetery in the city.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : Home to Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen of New Orleans, known for her powers of clairvoyance, healing, and intimidation. Legend has it that she once helped free a man accused of murder by praying for 72 hours straight with three hot peppers in her mouth.

  Luke Alvez : Voodoo queen. I mean, is that what this is? Some kind of ritualistic killing?

  Matt Simmons : I see these Xs here. They're used to denote the grave of a powerful voodoo practitioner.

  Jennifer Jareau : Markings like this aren't uncommon in these parts. These look like they've been here for a while.

  David Rossi : Could be the reason our unsub chose this particular crypt to do his bidding.

  Emily Prentiss : New Orleans PD wants us there ASAP. There is one more thing. I won't be coming along. JJ will be acting as Unit Chief in my absence. I have a meeting with Assistant Director Barnes tomorrow morning. It's short notice, but as far as I understand, it's just a standard administrative review, so I'm sure everything will be fine.

  Jennifer Jareau : Okay. Um, wheels up in thirty.

• Luke Alvez : First Barnes pulls you in for a late-night meeting, then Prentiss. I mean, it feels like something's going on.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Yeah, and why all the urgency? I mean, couldn't it have waited 'till we all got back?

  David Rossi : Something must have triggered an internal review.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : It's me. It's been almost a year since my arrest in Mexico.

  Jennifer Jareau : It's just an annual review. Standard operating procedure.

  Luke Alvez : Matt, you worked with Barnes on your last assignment. How much trouble are we in?

  Matt Simmons : I mean, I hate to say it, but this is the exact same thing that she did with the IRT before disbanding the unit. She started with the head of the team, then she worked her way down. She tried to pit us against each other.

  David Rossi : Barnes' reputation precedes her. She's climbed the ranks well.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Well, clearly she's good at her job.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : We're better.

  Jennifer Jareau : And we haven't done anything wrong. We can't worry about this right now because we have a case. People need our help.

• Chief Thomas Wheeler : Five of the ten victims have been identified. These three, Jason Chambers, Lindsay Montoya, and Gary Keulchy, were homeless. And these two, Sonequa Fox and Daniel Rikers, were working professionals.

  Jennifer Jareau : And Mr. Rikers and Ms. Fox were both reported missing a week and a half ago.

  Chief Thomas Wheeler : That's correct. They both left their homes in mid-city and never returned.

  Matt Simmons : And the three homeless victims were last seen in a shelter near the French Quarter?

  Chief Thomas Wheeler : Yes. We periodically check the night roll calls when we find a body. They were most likely panhandling in the area.

  David Rossi : Our unsub crossed racial and gender lines.

  Luke Alvez : And he's mobile.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : You know, realistically, it's likely each victim was abducted, killed, and disposed of individually.

  Jennifer Jareau : We need to see what the M.E. can tell us about the timeline of the murders.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : And we'd expect an unsub like this to start with high-risk victims like the homeless and then move on to low-risk victims like Sonequa and Daniel, but until we ID the remaining victims, it's really hard to draw any conclusions.

  Luke Alvez : So he'd need somewhere to hold them and do his bloodletting business before bringing them back to the crypt.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : I've already started a geo-profile, but the more we can learn about the victims' last moments, the more accurate it'll be.

• Matt Simmons : Unsub was confident he wouldn't be caught. This would take a lot of effort.

  Jennifer Jareau : What do you got?

  Luke Alvez : Scorching patterns on the concrete indicate the unsub used some kind of accelerant.

  Matt Simmons : No signs of blood or trauma. It's likely he was killed elsewhere and then disposed here.

  Jennifer Jareau : All right. Well, our victim here is Jeremy Paulson. According to his wife, he left work early last night, told co-workers he wasn't feeling well. His car was found parked at the neighborhood basketball court. His water bottle and basketball were found nearby.

  Matt Simmons : So did he meet someone or was he just playing hooky?

  Luke Alvez : We should get local PD to canvass the area for witnesses, both here and at the park.

• Matt Simmons : What do you have, Rossi?

  David Rossi : A strange contradiction. The cause of death was a lethal dose of ketamine. Now, these kills may look extreme, but the C.O.D. itself was practically painless.

  Luke Alvez : Well, it's doubtful the unsub would even need to interact or create a ruse with his victims. I mean, he could just sneak up and inject them.