08x12 - Zugzwang

[bunniefuu]

Hotch: Previously on "Criminal Minds"...

Look, a while back I had some medical issues, headaches, and there was a geneticist that I reached out to.

I guess I just-- I think it's funny how we've been doing this for 6 months and we've never met.

Do you think he knows about us?

As far as I can tell, he doesn't.

Well, I guess I'll talk to you next Sunday.

Bye. Love you.

Well, if you've got somebody new in your life to talk to, I'd just like to know who she is.

'Cause she's gotta be one hell of a woman to keep up with you.

I think the stalker's gone.

The emails have stopped.

What about the phone calls?

No, I haven't gotten any.

No more heavy breathing on the machine. No more hangups.

Is this about phone booth girl?

She wants to meet.

Wait, you guys have never met?

Aren't you curious what she looks like?

No, it doesn't matter what she looks like. I mean, she's already the most beautiful girl in the world to me.

Hello?

Maeve, it's me. Listen, don't come to the restaurant.

What are you talking about?

I'm outside.

Go home.

Look, I think your stalker's here.

[Organ plays "Here Comes the Bride"]

Have you the ring?

Place the ring on her finger.

On whose finger?

Oh.

I now pronounce you smart and smarter.

Let's get to it, you two.

Get to what?

Kiss her, dummy.

[Beeping]

[Telephone rings]

Hello.

Operator: Hello.

I have a collect call from...

Computerized voice: Adam Worth.

Operator; Do you accept the charges?

Yes.

Please deposit $2.00 for the first two minutes.

Thank you.

[Beep]

Hello. I'm still here.

Computerized voice: Zug...zwang.

I'm sorry, can you please repeat that?

Zug...

Zwang.

[Line disconnects, dial tone]

I got here as quickly as I could.

What's wrong?

I need to tell you something.

Our correspondence started 10 months ago.

She wrote me a compliment on my "Journal of Behavioral Psych" article, and for 3 months, this is how we communicated because she was scared.

Scared of whom?

She didn't know, only that he was dangerous.

Horribly threatening phone calls, letters, emails, no matter where she moved.

It's why I never called her from the same phone booth twice.

You don't know what Maeve looks like?

No.

Or where she works?

No. I know she's a geneticist.

Do you even know her last name?

Then I have to ask you, how do you know she's missing?

Because we always addressed our letters to pseudonyms.

And you're Dr. Joseph Bell?

The real-life inspiration for Sherlock Holmes.

And that codename is how I know she's in trouble.

The voice on the phone identified himself as Adam Worth.

That was the American criminal that Arthur Conan Doyle based the character of Moriarty on.

And what did he say to you?

Zugzwang.

It's a chess term.

It describes the point in a game when a player realizes he'll inevitably be checkmated.

He has to decide whether to resign or to play through to the bitter end.

If you're right about this, then you're part of his victimology, too.

I know.

He thinks he'll get away with this, and he might.

I have a wealth of knowledge I should be applying to this case.

Behavioral patterns of violent stalkers.

Tactical recovery strategies.

Victim survival odds.

But right now I can't focus on anything more than 4 seconds at a time.

Which makes me the dumbest person in the room.

So...

Please help me.

Help me find her.

We don't know if we have a case.

So we'll be working on personal time.

Does anybody want to leave?

Good.

Let's get to work.

♪ Criminal Minds 8x12 ♪

Zugzwang
Original air date on January 16, 2013

♪

Reid: "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."

Lao Tsu.

Based on Maeve's description of the unsub in her letters, he seems like a classically possessive stalker.

One who craves validation and recognition.

"What won't you see me?"

"Do you think you're better than me?"

This comes up again and again.

So does his suicidal ideation.

"When I find you, I'm going to k*ll you, then myself."

m*rder-su1c1de is the ultimate "I love you" to these guys.

When did the unsub start targeting Maeve?

Maeve said it started out of the blue.

My guess is it was some sort of incidental interaction, something she probably wasn't even aware of.

That's gonna make the unsub hard to find.

And Maeve, too, until we know more about her.

I found her.

There are not many geneticists with that name, but...

Dr. Maeve Donovan took a sabbatical from Mendel University 10 months ago.

That fits the timeline.

Oh, she's a smart cookie.

She burned her credit history, but her parents rented a loft in the warehouse district 5 days ago.

Did the parents sell their house recently?

Garcia: No.

They might be helping her hide.

Morgan, you and JJ go to the loft.

Blake and Dave, go to the lab.

How clear is your head?

Not very clear.

I want to talk to her parents, but I want you to observe the interview.

Reid.

I have a picture of her. Do you want to see what she looks like?

No.

So what are we, 10 miles outside of the city?

Her parents wanted to put some distance between her and her stalker, but they may have just made her an easier target.

FBI.

Anybody home?

It's clear.

This is definitely a crime scene.

Must have been a hell of a fight.

Smash...

Then hit.

There's no sign of forced entry.

Maeve was on high alert.

Exactly.

Then how did this unsub get her to let her guard down?

Here you go.

That's the personnel files of everyone in the lab.

Not much there.

Only 5 docs work here besides her.

And they're all men.

Did any of them take a particular interest in her work?

We all did.

Her last project on cyclic adenosine monophosphate-- revolutionary stuff.

Quite frankly, she made connections before I could even see them.

We know the feeling.

When was the last time that you spoke to Maeve?

6 days ago.

5, after we got her situated in the loft.

Why didn't she leave the D. C. area?

I have health issues.

Cancer.

And she wanted to stay close.

We were working on an oncology project together, and it was easier to share data if she was nearby.

You're a geneticist, too?

Retired.

I got out when I heard there was a new Dr. Donovan in town.

I know this is difficult for both of you, but is there anyone that you suspect?

Bobby.

The police ruled him out early on, but we never liked him.

Who is Bobby?

Her fiance.

Hotch: And there were issues?

Bobby was her first serious relationship.

It was only till after they got engaged that she realized that...

He was a controlling bastard.

Sorry.

But it's true.

Well, we need to talk to him.

Fiance?

Reid, slow down.

She had a fiance, Hotch.

Let us handle it.

Robert Putnam.

FBI.

Who?

We're looking for Robert Putnam.

Do you know where he is?

He's in the back.

We need to talk to him.

And who are you?

I'm Diane, his girlfriend.

Hey, sweetheart, who is it?

Robert Putnam, we'd like to--

I know you.

Out.

Out.

Wait, I need to talk to him, Hotch.

Why did he just recognize you?

A couple of weeks ago, Maeve and I were gonna meet.

He was at the restaurant.

I caught him looking at me and something felt off about him.

And you're telling me this now?

I didn't know who he was and then a friend of his sat down, so I just assumed that I overreacted.

Reid, if he's the unsub, you're a material witness.

You can't be in there.

You know that. Stay here.

[Door closes]

Look, what's going on?

Where's Maeve?

We were hoping you knew.

Why would I know?

The same way that you knew that she'd be at that restaurant two weeks ago.

Rossi: Care to explain?

When she went into hiding, she broke off the engagement.

I needed to see her, to make sure she was all right.

So I hired a private detective and he found her through her parents.

When she made the reservation, I showed up, too.

Why did you bring a friend?

Because there was a psychopath after her, that's why.

For someone madly in love, you sure moved on in a hurry.

Maeve told me to.

And apparently she took her own advice.

Did that make you mad?

Mad enough to hurt her?

Mad enough to stalk the man that she was meeting?

There's something over there on that table I'm gonna go get.

Don't sh**t me.

He sent these to us, the last month of our engagement.

The fact is, I was being stalked, too.

Excuse me, Doctor.

Agent Hotchner said he was done with me upstairs.

Can you tell me what's going on?

We'll be in touch, ma'am.

Thank you.

All right, kid, talk to me.

I can tell you're adding something up in your head.

What is it?

2, 412.

[Sighs]

It's the number of hours we spent communicating, counting phone calls and letters.

That's about 100 days.

100.5. What if that's all I get?

Well, it's not.

You can't say that.

Yes, I can.

Because when we find her alive and you finally get to lay your eyes on her, what's the first thing you're gonna say to her?

A couple of months ago we were getting off the phone and she said, "Bye. Love you."

Just like that.

"Bye. Love you."

I know it was just a slip, but-- but she said it, Reid.

She said it.

You didn't say it back to her, did you?

I was waiting for when we finally met.

Ok, I'm sharing something I haven't told anyone.

Every time we have a stalking case, I think Rosanna Arquette.

The whole Arquette family to choose from and you go with Rosanna.

If course I go with Rosanna, because Rosanna Arquette was the inspiration for two seminal songs of my childhood.

"Rosanna, " by Toto...

Obviously.

And "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel.

Which gives one pause to think of the myriad of ways a man can be obsessed by a woman, and what is she doing in bed to inspire that kind of obsession, and can she teach us?

Because I want to know.

Whoa.

He went to town on that one.

JJ, is that...

I don't get it.

I mean, I see the message, "I'm obliterating you, " but we already knew that.

No, see, it's not about the message.

It's about the medium, what he used to draw on her face.

Spence...

It's black eyeliner.

The stalker's a woman.

That's why she masked her voice on the phone.

That's why Maeve let her in to her loft.

She thought what we thought, that her stalker was a man.

But the question is, how could this unsub have known about Maeve and you?

Hotch, did you ever identify me to Bobby Putnam's girlfriend?

What?

Did you say my name to her?

Did you call me Dr. Reid or Agent Reid?

I never mentioned you at all. Why?

Excuse me, Doctor.

I think I know who the unsub is.

Hey, honey.

Hey.

You're still thinking about him, aren't you?

Yes.

Are you sure that he was the one at the restaurant?

Yes.

He's an FBI agent.

Interesting.

I'm sorry.

I know I said I'd let this go.

It's okay. A part of me wants answers just as much as you do.

Is that new?

Do you like it?

I--I've never seen you dressed like that before.

No, you haven't, in fact.

I've been waiting months for you to notice me.

Notice that I'm better, sexier, smarter than her.

It's not until I debase myself, then you notice.

What are you talking about?

Do you like this, Bobby?

Because you have seen it before.

Is that...

Diane, where did you get Maeve's clothes?

From her closet.

Right after I bashed her head in.

She finally saw me, just like you see me now.

Take a look, Bobby.

Take a good look.

What have we got?

Well, she knew we were close, so she came back for the fiance.

Looks like they had a normal conversation, then she got violent. Same thing that happened to Maeve.

[Cell phone rings]

Hey, dollface, what do you got?

An identity that's pure vapor.

Diane Huntington is a fake name.

So is her address.

And all the phone conversations she had with Bobby were from a burner phone.

All right, keep digging and keep us posted.

We need to rethink the profile, reset everything that we know about Maeve through the prism of one woman stalking another.

[Groaning]

You know...

I couldn't understand it, Bobby.

I really couldn't.

You could have had me.

Instead you wanted that.

Maeve?

I'm so sorry.

Why are you doing this?

Why?

Let's just say she took something from me that I can't get back.

So I decided if I can't have my life, I'm gonna take hers.

[Cocks g*n]

What is she talking about?

I don't know.

I don't--I don't know who she is.

After hunting her for 10 months, after stealing her man, I had to stop and say, what I so freakin' special about her?

I couldn't see it.

Until I saw him.

Him who?

The night you followed her, I followed you.

And I saw him.

I want what they have.

I want him.

That's why you're doing this?

Because of that stupid FBI agent?

That stupid FBI agent is he reason why you're still alive.

You're gonna get her to tell me about him.

I don't want to hear what she has to say.

I know.

But that wasn't a request.

Ok, we know numbers on female stalkers are minimal.

Only 10% of all cases are female.

All right, what tops the list of motivators?

Prior sexual intimacy.

Erotomania?

No. Go the other direction.

Think female scorned.

We slept together.

You broke up with me.

Now I'll do anything to get back with you.

Reid, could that have fit Maeve?

Could she have possibly been in a relationship with this woman?

No. No.

Spence, this morning you didn't know that she was engaged.

Yeah, but the answer is no.

And what's the second-most common motivation?

Celebrity stalking.

That fits better.

Well, how? She's not famous.

Maeve's a star in her field, though.

That's a stretch. Celebrity stalkers are usually nonviolent.

You want to tell that to John Lennon, Rossi?

What was it that Mark David Chapman said after he shot him?

"It was like all of my nobody-ness and all of his somebody-ness collided."

Well, Maeve is somebody and this b*tch is a nobody.

I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from.

Um, I can't be very helpful right now.

I should leave.

Reid. Reid, yes, you can.

You have 100.5 days of communication with the girl and your brain lets you recall every word verbatim.

She probably revealed details about the unsub to you and neither of you even noticed.

There's too much of it and I can't sort through it with any clarity.

Then pick one of us and we'll go through it with you.

Blake.

Okay.

Let's get out of here.

You want to talk here?

Yep.

You play?

Yeah, I know my way around a board, but...

That's not the point.

I want you to focus here and not on my questions.

So, let's try this out.

When you think of Maeve, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Thomas Merton.

What about him?

In her letters, she would always sign off with a quote from one of her favorite philosophers.

Camus, Voltaire, Plato.

When we had the near miss at the restaurant a couple of weeks ago, she left me a book with a quote by Thomas Merton written inside.

It said, "Love is our true destiny.

"We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone.

We find it in another."

Then... Thomas Merton was her way of saying good-bye.

Yeah.

So, let's talk about this. Hmm?

Because this I didn't expect.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Let me catch you up.

I found these letters in Maeve's loft, and I guess she didn't get around to sending this one, and...it's really good.

"I bought the blindfold today.

I can't wait to use it."

[Exhales]

Blindfold.

You know, I thought I knew your fiancee.

But I guess she's kinkier than we thought.

It's not what you think.

"It's not what you think" is girl code for "it's exactly what you think."

No, it's not what you think.

Did you sleep with him?

I never even saw him.

Why risk your life to meet him?

I've been alone for so long, I just wanted to be with somebody.

You could have been with Bobby.

It was different with him.

Different how?

He was just...

He was just what, Maeve?

When we would talk, I would...

It was effortless.

That is so interesting.

Really.

So if you two had this deep connection where you're talking in your own code, why do you think the unsub would attack the fiance first?

I don't know, access, maybe.

No, something links the two of you in the unsub's mind.

She wants to destroy anyone Maeve had a romantic relationship with?

It could be jealousy or revenge.

Maybe Maeve got in the way of one of her old relationships?

It's just not her.

You see, when men cheat, it's below the belt.

But when women cheat, it's above the neck.

No. We were broken up.

I never cheated on you.

But you didn't love me.

Not like that.

Now you know how I felt, to be ignored, cast aside.

It's not fun, is it?

Just let us go, D-- what else do you want?!

Did you guys ever compare lists?

The different people you dated?

November 4, 3:46 p.m.

I asked her if she dated a lot growing up.

No way.

Do you know how many Friday nights I had where it was just me and a microscope?

I thought that was just me.

[Chuckles] Oh, come on.

Girls must have adored you in high school.

I was 12.

It was kind of confusing.

Once I got a note from this girl I had a crush on.

She thought I was cute but would only meet me if I wore a blindfold.

I did. And she took my shirt off.

That's when I heard the laughter.

Most of the senior class was in there.

Oh, it sounds awful.

Maeve thought so, too.

When we finally meet, I'm going to make blindfolds fun again.

You had him eating out of the palm of your hand every Sunday and he never even saw your face.

I have to admit that takes skill.

That takes finesse.

How'd you do it?

Hello!

Doctor, are you in there?

Seriously?

Okay, fine.

Just tell her.

There was a moment when you had him and you knew you had him.

What was it?

Euclidean geometry.

There's this thing called the Penrose triangle.

He told me a story about how he tried to build one when he was 8.

This better get sexy quick.

I'm getting bored.

You can't build it.

It's an impossible physical structure.

It only exists in conceptual geometry.

But I said, every Penrose triangle has its thorns.

And he laughed.

It was a stupid pun, but he laughed.

That's it.

What about co-workers?

Maeve was the only female doctor at Mendel University.

What was it like for her?

She once spoke about the awkwardness of being the only woman in the department.

When men are jealous of your success in the lab, they want it for themselves.

But women want it so you can't have it.

Sometimes this institution turns us against each other.

What if the unsub worked there but wasn't a doctor?

What if she was a grad student maybe working on her Ph. D. there?

Yeah, but how could Maeve miss her?

Each of the doctors has their own project.

Each project has its own team of research assistants.

They don't mingle, but they'd be the first applicants for an open position.

And if Maeve rejected her thesis, the unsub would take it personally.

And that rejection has become an obsession to possess.

I want to see what he sees.

He sees you as his equal.

That's it, isn't it?

I just--I have to let him see that I'm on your level.

Great. You figured it out.

Now, please, will you let us go?

No.

No.

I have to show her that I can take everything that she has.

Then she's going to remember me.

You, however, are superfluous.

[Grunts] I'm sorry, Bobby.

You've always been the runner-up in this pageant.

Wait. Wait, wait, wait.

Please. Please...

Don't hurt him.

Please! Don't hurt him.

Please don't hurt him.

Don't hurt him.

Ohh!

[g*nsh*t]

Her name is Diane Turner.

She worked as a research assistant at Mendel University while Maeve was there.

Did she apply for a Ph. D. There?

Yeah. She was one of a bunch of internal applicants that got rejected.

Looks like she left not long after Maeve.

Correct. She now works at a local junior college.

Dave, you, Reid, and JJ take the residence.

Blake and Morgan, take the campus.

What was her doctoral thesis about?

It says here, "Spontaneous cellular death in su1c1de patients."

There's her suicidal ideation again.

Except cells don't behave that way.

Why is she so obsessed with it?

You still don't remember who I am, do you?

No.

I've tried and tried to remember and I can't.

But whatever it is I did to you, I'm sorry.

Forgive me. Tell me what it is you want me to say to you and I will say it.

I just want this to be over.

I can do that.

You just have to do something for me first.

Get up there.

Why?

Do it.

Why don't you just k*ll me?

I want to see if you'll jump.

It's my theory that when you make a decision to give up that the cells in your body start to die.

Can you feel it?

Your whole body beginning to decay.

It makes it easier to want to k*ll yourself.

Go. Go ahead, prove my theory.

I remember you.

Clear!

Clear.

Is this a shrine to her dead parents?

Reid: Her parents committed su1c1de.

That explains her obsession.

Guys. She's watching us.

JJ: Garcia.

What you got, mama grizzly?

There's a web cam in here.

Can you hack the feed?

I read your thesis, didn't I?

You turned me down because you couldn't handle the competition.

No. I turned you down because your testing was flawed.

It was not flawed!

Your sample was biased.

You included your parents.

The science was sound.

You didn't even read the whole thing, did you?

No, I did. I did.

I did read it. And do you know what I thought after I was finished?

I thought, whoever wrote this had suffered a tragedy.

And I felt sorry for your loss.

But you don't get a Ph. D.

Just because something bad happened to you.

No.

You just couldn't see.

You can't see that I'm a genius!

Genius? Do you know what genius is?

I know that I am one.

Maybe.

Maybe you do have that gift.

Maybe your theory could have had merit.

But we don't know.

Because genius isn't just one good idea or one successful experiment, Diane.

Genius is work.

Thousands of hours of work.

Ohh...

She's spoofing the IP address and she's encrypted the feed.

In other words, like layman's terms, this is gonna take a while.

What are you doing?

Making a deal.

That's why you didn't make it.

You didn't do the work.

But you could.

Yeah, you could do the work.

I'll help you.

Get on the ledge.

Now!

No. If you're gonna k*ll me, you k*ll me.

But I am not jumping. Because I want to live long enough to see Spencer arrest you.

[Cocks g*n]

[Beeping]

Spencer has a different idea.

[Ring]

Hello.

It's me.

Are you okay?

She k*lled Bobby.

Are you okay?

Yeah.

I've got a concussion and some bruising, but I'm okay.

Can I talk to her?

No. She's listening.

Good.

But I want to meet her.

I need to see her face to face.

She has a message she wants me to give you.

What is it?

The message is, she left you a present.

And if you want to find it, it's easy as pie.

What does that mean?

I don't understand what that means.

Neither do I.

Spencer, it's a trap.

If you come here, she's gonna k*ll you!

[Line disconnects]

I need a map of D. C.

This is Diane Turner's apartment.

This is the nearest cell tower her phone call to me pinged off of, which means this is the circle that Maeve was telling me about.

What circle?

It was a clue in Diane's message.

Finding her would be as easy as pie.

Only she wasn't referring to the food, she was referring to...

Pi.

Why would Diane give you a clue?

Maeve made a similar pun once.

Now Diane wants me to see her the same way, but brilliant, the smartest girl in the room.

All right, assuming that Diane has a secondary location, where in the circle would she hold Maeve?

She'd need a building that would allow for privacy and control, a closed garage for prisoner transfer...

If she's copying Maeve's life, it might be someplace close to Maeve's apartment.

There's nothing in Diane's name.

Well, what about Maeve's name, or even Bobby's?

Nope.

Maybe she forged his signature.

What about Diane's parents?

Yes. Yes. Diane rented a loft right next to Maeve's in her parents' name.

Reid.

I can't let you be a part of this takedown.

We don't have a choice. If I don't go in there, Maeve is dead.

And if you do, you're dead.

Hotch, we've known from the beginning she's on a m*rder-su1c1de mission, but we never stopped to ask why she's on that mission.

We know now that it's because she wants recognition, the type of recognition she thinks Maeve gets, and I can give her that.

How?

I'm gonna tell her that I love her.

[Sirens]

Hang on. I got a box on the steps.

That's the gift.

What is that, a blindfold?

Diane, over intercom: Take your g*n and vest off.

Now come in alone.

Reid.

[Door buzzes open]

Put it on.

Can I take the blindfold off?

No.

Hello.

Hi.

I was hoping you'd figure out my riddle.

I mean, I knew you would.

The fun was just how fast you'd do it.

Oh, there's some brains, too.

It took me a long time.

To be honest, I was distracted by your thesis.

You read my thesis?

I did. You know, I think your writing puts you on the same plane as Jonas Salk.

I've already sent it to the NIH.

Flattery is not gonna get you out of this.

I know what's waiting for me outside.

I've arranged for your freedom.

The federal government doesn't make deals with people like me.

Not true. n*zi scientists were recruited for the Manhattan Project.

Mafia bosses are regularly put into Witness Protection.

If what you have is valuable enough, the federal government will work with you.

And what you have is very valuable.

And what do I have, Doctor?

You have a brain that doesn't play by normal societal rules.

And I know that all your life the people you care about the most keep leaving.

There's a part of you that thinks it's because of that brain.

Well, I'm here because I'm not going to leave you.

I'm here because...

I just hope that I get the chance.

Chance at what?

To be with you.

Me for her.

That was the deal, right?

You're choosing me over her?

Diane, how could it be anyone else?

Prove it.

All right. How?

Say it again.

This time say it to her face.

I don't love you.

Sorry.

I understand.

I don't need her anymore.

k*ll her and she won't have to live with the fact that you're smarter.

Let her live with her irrelevancy.

I just want her to see one more thing.

Liar.

Liar!

[g*nsh*t]

Let's go!

sh*ts fired!

Stay back! Stay back!

Stay back!

Stay back, stay back!

Diane, Diane, there's still a way out of this.

You never wanted me.

Never!

You lied!

I didn't.

Diane, I offered you a deal and you can still take it.

Me for her.

Let me take her place.

You would do that?

Yes.

You would k*ll yourself for her?

Yes.

Thomas Merton.

Who's Thomas Merton?

He knows.

He knows.

Who's Thomas Merton?

Who is he?

He's the one thing you can never take from us.

No.

[g*nsh*t]

Wait!

♪ I'll always burn with your love for me ♪
♪ my friend
♪ constant love, my friend
♪ constant...
♪ I'll always burn with your love for me ♪
♪ my friend
♪ constant fire, my friend
♪ constant
♪ I'll always burn with your love for me... ♪