Are you interested in a good mystery and story?
Well I would like to recommend the show, “Criminal Minds” which was produced by writer and director, Jeff Davis. “Criminal Minds” is a Thriller and Mystery show that premiered on Sept. 22, 2005 and ended Feb. 19, 2020. With a total of 324 episodes and fifteen seasons, this show follows seven FBI agents who uncover the cases of murder and kidnapping victims. They essentially track down the criminal using psychology and forensics science to find out why they are the way they are, and what exactly inclined them to commit the crime they did. Here I will be discussing two episodes from the first season that really stood out to me. Spoilers ahead for anyone who has not seen the first season.
The first episode which stood out to me was Episode 7, which is called “The Fox” . Here in this episode, we are first presented by a happy family with a mom, a dad and two kids, and they are going to go on a vacation. Late at night we see the mom who wakes up late at night to her husband being tied up and her two kids killed. It turns out to be a pedophilic serial killer by the name of Karl Arnold. He was the father of a family of four, including his wife and his two kids. Having borderline OCD, he was often very controlling towards his wife and kids, which ultimately led to him being divorced 4 years before the time the episode takes place. After the divorce, Arnold gets time off from his job as a family psychologist. In that time, he became unfocused and started to take up bad habits including heavy drinking and ultimately started taking the eight families he was caring for hostage and pretending to be the fathers of the kids. After a while he would then kill that family. In this episode they tricked him into confessing by switching the places of two crime pictures causing his OCD to get the best of him.
The other episode which really interested me was episode 10, which is called “The Popular Kids”. Here in this episode, we learn of two high school kids found dead in the woods. They were said to have been killed by a cult as a form of sacrifice. However that is later disproven when the BAU find out that the killer is a teenage boy by the name of Cory Bridges who shows a strong interest in literature. The type of interest which he enjoys in particular is the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and criminal works. In this story, Cory Bridges kills a jock by the name of Adam Lloyd. After Adam’s girlfriend, Cherish Hanson discovers Adam’s body, Cory ends up murdering her as well and then framing a group who regularly partied, scaring and annoying adults and claiming themselves to be Satanists. Cory did this by writing a note by her body which said “Satan Commands The Virgin Must Be Sacrificed At The Next Full Moon” and painting a pentagram with the letters L.O.D, which stands for “Lords of Destruction.” The realization that this kid has been lending a helping hand the entire time, knew a lot about the L.O.D cult and knew exactly where to find Cherish’s body is what ultimately exposes Cory as the culprit of the murders.
I look forward to watching more episodes and getting to know the characters more. I think that if you enjoy a good mystery or like to listen to true crime podcasts much like myself, then you will most definitely enjoy watching “Criminal Minds”. Assuming you have gotten this far and have watched throughout the series, which episode stands out to you the most?
