Criminal Minds (TV Series)

The Tall Man (2018)

Daniel Henney: Matt Simmons

Photos 

Quotes 

• Matt Simmons : Let's go back to the victims for a second. Did they sneak out or did their parents know?

  Penelope Garcia : They told their parents that they were going to a party, and they actually did.

  Matt Simmons : Okay, so then off the bat, we have two theories about the unsub. One is that he knew they were planning this.

  David Rossi : Which puts him in the girls' inner circle.

  Matt Simmons : Exactly. Or two, he waited in the woods opportunistically. But that strategy only works if he plays the odds right. So, how far-reaching is this-this ghost story?

  Penelope Garcia : Maybe I can answer that. The story JJ grew up with, it's gone viral, and the Photoshop work is on fleek.

  Emily Prentiss : Tall Man is a story. What happened to these girls is real. The first 24 hours are crucial in an abduction case, and we are now down to 18. Let's move.

• Matt Simmons : Ally has schizophrenia?

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Early onset. And we confirmed it with her parents. It's rare in teens, but it can happen. The telltale symptom was her face blindness. Schizophrenics have extreme visual processing problems, most obviously in meeting new people or experience new environments.

  Luke Alvez : Her parents were trying to keep her off medication. That's why the cops and Garcia didn't flag it.

  Emily Prentiss : Besides the parents, who else knew?

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Just Bethany and Chelsea. Why?

  Emily Prentiss : Lot of holes in her story.

  Luke Alvez : Well, we noticed that, too. I mean, she wasn't bound, but the other two were. She could have escaped, instead she magically woke up in the forest.

  Matt Simmons : Covered in her friends' blood. And most schizophrenics are not violent, but they can be pushed to violence if they're threatened. Maybe she did this, but in her mind, it was the Tall Man.

  Emily Prentiss : And that brings us back to Bethany and Chelsea's texts about Ally, and if their agenda was upsetting enough to induce a break. JJ's with Chelsea's dad now. Maybe she can find out what they needed to talk about.

• Luke Alvez : [searching the school's trophy case]  This can't be it. There's nowhere for her to hide in here.

  Jennifer Jareau : [noticing a "Staff only" door]  Guys, over here.

  [spotting something as they enter] 

  Jennifer Jareau : What's under here?

  Matt Simmons : That's, uh, an electrical breaker room. The police, they cleared it already.

  Jennifer Jareau : Well, we need to clear it again.

• Penelope Garcia : The police recovered all three girls' phones in the woods. And you know how teens and myself spend way too much time on our screens? Well, the breakdown on the lab report from the girls' cell phones suggests a surefire way to get us all to stop. Please look at that report on your tablets.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : Fentanyl, as in the opioid derivative?

  Penelope Garcia : Yeah, trace elements were found on all three screens. Now, the medical patch it comes in knocks you out instantaneously.

  Emily Prentiss : Wait, hold up. Full stop. Let's retrace the girls' timeline. They went to a party, then somehow the unsub manages to get his hands on all three of the girls' phones to lace them?

  Matt Simmons : He could have been at the party.

  Emily Prentiss : But then he'd have to time that out with when they went into the woods. No one's that good. Factor this in now: you're a teenage girl. You keep your cell phone on you at all times. Who would you maybe hand it over to?

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Your best friend.

• Emily Prentiss : I'm starting to think Bethany or Chelsea might be pulling the strings here.

  David Rossi : Whoa, slow down. All three girls' phones were drugged, and Ally had the other girls' blood on her.

  Luke Alvez : I'm with Rossi. I mean, if one of the girls was staging this, she would have had to have knocked herself out and let herself get cut. That's one hell of a gaslight.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : But not an impossible one, especially with a partner.

  Matt Simmons : Well, if that's true, I think we're missing the bigger picture here. Chelsea and Bethany are best friends. Why would one recruit a partner to terrorize the other?

  Jennifer Jareau : Okay, it has something to do with this. "Where is it?". That's what Ally heard. So they're looking for something they lost, something they think the other girl can find.

  Emily Prentiss : I think we need to take another look at their high school, see what we can find.

  Jennifer Jareau : I know a guy over there that could help us.

• Matt Simmons : This is mislabeled. Unsub's older, predatory.

  Emily Prentiss : Yeah. Let's add it all up. The unsub gives the girls he grooms a necklace. But Chelsea stole Bethany's to figure out who he is.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : And it's the smoking gun of their affair, dangerous enough to ruin his life if discovered. So he and Bethany come up with a plan to get it back.

  David Rossi : This guy's been at it for a while. So who's in Bethany's life who also overlaps with JJ's sister?

  Matt Simmons : Well, there's one obvious suspect. It's Tom Davis. He's Chelsea's dad, and he was Roslyn's old boyfriend.

  Emily Prentiss : Matt, Luke, bring him in. He has an alibi, and I wanna stress test it.

• Tom Davis : You think I did this? My daughter is fighting for her life in the hospital.

  Matt Simmons : The guy we're looking for has been doing this for a while.

  Luke Alvez : All the way back to Roslyn.

  Tom Davis : Jareau? We dated in the '90s. I was 18.