The UnSubs of “Criminal Minds”
For 15 seasons, a group of FBI agents, whose job it is to walk through the minds of serial killers, has captivated us, not only for what it means to catch them, but how hunting them affects the hunters and their world. We have seen seven and more people from disparate backgrounds and educations go from being a team to being a family.
We’ve also seen some memorable UnSubs (Unknown Subjects) in the last 15 years. Their stories and what compels them to kill are, by turns, terrifying, heart-breaking, and downright disturbing. They have affected us as much as they have affected the members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU).
Be warned: spoilers, and don’t read after dark, if you can help it…
UnSub #1: Tobias Hankel
It started with a wealthy couple murdered after the SuperBowl (2007), their deaths recorded and immediately going viral. The team at first believe that there is more than one killer, one submissive to the others, because of the disparity of the crime and crime scenes. They’re only partly right; they just don’t anticipate the killers to be living inside one person’s head.
Hankel (well played by James van der Beek) is a tormented soul, to the point that Tobias (the primary) has taken drugs in the past to dull the pain inflicted on him by his Bible-thumping father, Charles (Don Swayze). The abuse he takes not only creates “Raphael”, an avenging angel, but also has the elder Hankel in Tobias’ head after the man’s death. Van der Beek’s face is amazingly elastic, going from Tobias’ weepy begging to Charles’ stern-jawed bullying, even as the body holds a gun on Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), eventually taking the youngest profiler hostage.
In the course of his captivity, Reid is subjected to Tobias’ drug of choice to dull the pain Charles and Raphael inflict on him. In drug-induced flashbacks, we see more of Reid’s history with his schizophrenic mother Diana (a pre-“Glee” Jane Lynch) and the circumstances of his father William (Taylor Nichols) leaving. Eventually, we also see Reid’s heart-wrenching decision to have his mother properly committed.
Despite the pain and drugs, Reid still has that big brain. He intentionally misquotes a Bible verse when he knows his team is watching via webcam, giving a clue about where he and Tobias could be. In the end, the team arrives in time to prevent “Charles” from killing Reid. While “paying his respects” to the dead UnSub, Reid also takes the vials of the drug that he was dosed with.
In later episodes, we see him struggle with what appears to be post-traumatic stress, a newfound empathy for the victims of the team’s latest case, and addiction to the drug. We see him the following season (2008) attending a Narcotics Anonymous meeting for FBI agents, after seeing an UnSub killed in front of him. Being called away from the meeting to profile Owen Savage (Cody Kasch), a teenage serial killer, makes Reid also remember when he was a 10-year-old genius bullied by his Las Vegas high-school classmates. He identifies too closely to the UnSub, who himself has been bullied because of his learning disability and dysfunctional relationship with his father, a town deputy; so closely, Reid puts himself in front of the police and his fellow FBI agents to protect Owen.
Knowing Hankel and his disparate personalities also helps Reid identify another UnSub with multiple-personality disorder, also caused by abuse by a parent. Team leader Aaron “Hotch” Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) later describes Reid’s intelligence as a shield that’s under repair. Undergoing such stresses at Hankel’s hands also helps Reid to grow as a person and as a profiler.