Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior s01e05 Episode Script

Here Is the Fire

Good morning.
Everybody, please make your way to the cafeteria.
I have an announcement.
All right, see you later.
All right.
Excuse me, sir, we've got a situation in Fredericksburg.
Has anyone taken credit? This is all the intel we have right now.
Excuse me.
Get me Sam Cooper.
I've already got a team standing by.
Then call them off.
But they're assembled and waiting.
I'm sorry.
Is there a problem? We'll be coordinating with the local police as well as A.
T.
F.
And your point? They're not exactly our most traditional team.
And if I wanted someone to host a seminar right now, that would be an issue, but I need to find out if we're dealing with an isolated incident here.
I don't give a damn if people find Cooper's team unconventional.
They're built for speed.
Right now I need an answer.
I need a team I can trust, and I need them now.
- Get me Sam Cooper.
- Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Tell me what you know.
Right now not too much.
Looks like a single bomb placed in a hallway.
Casualties? EMTs are on the scene.
We'll have numbers soon.
In the meantime, I want your team on-site.
We need to know if we're dealing with an isolated incident here.
And I'll assume you want me to call Beth back from her seminar.
Uh-huh.
I'm gonna need somebody who can break everything down for my team the second that we land.
All right, uh, she'll be on-site when you get there.
Great.
Nice to meet you.
Beth Griffith, domestic terrorism and threat assessment.
I have a team arriving within the hour.
I want to make sure they can hit the ground running when they do.
We're setting up the command unit now.
Okay, also, I need a secure phone line and electronic access to all police and school records.
- Hey, you take vitamins? - Excuse me? It's legal.
It's herbal stuff.
But you will be grateful for the boost.
All right.
Is the school being swept for secondary devices? We got an evacuation going on now-- Fire Department, EMTs, all the personnel we can manage.
Fantastic.
But it doesn't help me with the secondary devices.
You see it all the time in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I.
E.
D.
goes off, bomber waits for the soldiers to rush in and help, and then, bang, another bomb goes off.
- I want the squad in there now.
- You got it.
What do we got? Well, you're looking at about 100 injured.
It's too early to tell how many are dead.
The local hospital's at full capacity.
I have EMTs setting up triage.
What we can't handle, we're shuttling to Fairfax and Stafford.
Has anybody taken credit? No, no lead-up chatter, no electronic claims of responsibility.
What's happening? Look around.
Take it in.
I'm sorry? This is what he wanted.
This is the point.
If we can determine why, we can figure out who he is.
School secretary said they found this in the mailbox this morning-- no envelope.
He's declaring himself.
And it's in present tense.
He's telling us that he's not done yet.
There's gonna be other bombs.
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior 1x05 Here Is the Fire Penelope Garcia, at your service.
Penelope, Sam Cooper.
Oh.
Wow.
And just like that, my day became infinitely more interesting.
Hello.
What may I serve? We got a school bombing in Fredericksburg.
And you know these bombers-- most of the time they like to do practice runs before the main event.
And you want me to see if I can find bombs set off in and around Fredericksburg in the last six months.
You read my mind.
And it's a dark and mysterious place.
Anything else? Yeah, I need you cross-check that with mail bombs, threatening letters, any, uh, explosives missing from military bases in the area, anything at all that can help me narrow down this profile.
See the radial pattern? This is where our bomb went off.
So the unsub brought the device in with him? Maybe.
Or he stashed it in one of these lockers.
He could have brought it in last night or this morning.
Just before morning assembly.
Entire school's out in the hall.
Definitely your best chance to rack up as many casualties as possible.
It's parents calling to see if their kids are okay.
That sound, once it's in your head, it just stays there for months.
We still haven't found his signature.
They all sign one way or another.
It's their mark-- loop the wires a certain way, set the switches at a certain angle.
It's here.
George Metesky, the mad bomber, he wrote "F.
P.
" on all his bombs-- "fair play.
" Kaczynski made his devices out of wood.
If you ask me, we're looking at a pipe bomb, most likely detonated by a remote or a timer.
Nails, tacks, shards of glass, jacks-- unsub packed some serious shrapnel in this sucker.
He's trying to kill as many people as he can.
Any students seem troubled recently, made any threats? No, nothing like this.
How about employees or staff fired recently? A number of people mentioned you seemed a bit nervous this morning.
What are you saying? Just asking if there's any reason you were uneasy.
That's all.
Last week I was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma.
I was planning on telling the kids at assembly this morning.
I'm sorry.
It felt like I was breaking the news to my family.
I understand.
I'm gonna get someone to come look at that cut.
Do you really think one of my kids did this? Well, there are three likely scenarios.
The first is a disgruntled employee.
The second is someone with an ideological agenda, and-- and the third is one of my students, and that's what you think.
40% of amateur bombs in this country are made by kids under the age of 17.
Considering where this bomb went off, I would say the chances are double.
I think I've got something.
Most of it was burned beyond recognition, but I did manage to reconstruct enough of it to see this.
"Here's the fire.
" That's a bit literal, don't you think? Garcia, you've got everybody here.
And you've all got me.
Talk, people.
I need you to look up arson cases in Fredericksburg.
Start with, uh, nuisance fires in the last year and build to something as big as this.
Okay, you got 43 to choose from.
Can you cross those against the students here at the school? Voila.
May I present one David Henry, logged three months at a juvenile facility for setting two brush fires and one count of animal cruelty.
- And he's enrolled here now? - Yeah, junior year.
My guess is you're not gonna find him on the honor roll.
Thanks, Garcia.
If he profiles like an arsonist, he'll still be on the scene to experience his work.
David Henry-- what can you tell me? Well, he's a troubled kid.
He's got a lot of problems at home.
You think he did this? It's possible.
I need his student photo and his locker location.
Excuse me.
David, can I talk to you for a minute? David, I just want to talk to you.
- He's got a gun! - Clear the area! Drop the gun! I didn't do anything.
Great.
Drop the gun, and let's talk.
I don't want to go back to lockup.
You don't want to die here, son.
Drop the gun.
Drop the gun.
Get on your knees.
Sam, the principal's cancer diagnosis checked out.
- Should we keep vetting him? - No.
We're an hour after the blast, and all we got is a messed-up kid, an ounce of pot, two guns, a bag of pills, and an alibi that places him in morning detention before and during the blast.
He could have planted it beforehand.
A counselor walked with him from the parking lot.
This kid was nowhere near the blast site.
Right profile, wrong kid.
All right, you guys, we can figure this out.
Is there any word from Garcia on the, uh, test-bomb location? Nothing yet.
We know that he's trying to communicate with us.
So what the hell is he trying to say to us? "Here I am.
Here is the fire.
" If it is a student, let's consider a lack of maturity.
It could be simple bragging.
- Say that again.
- Adolescent bragging.
No, Mick--the message.
"Here I am.
Here is the fire.
" Hic est incendia.
Latin.
Hic est incendia.
"Here is the fire.
" And if we combine that with the earlier "here I am" "And Abraham said to Isaac, "'here I am, my son,' "and he said, 'here is the fire, and here is the wood'" "but where is the sheep for the offering?" Care to translate for the Welshman whose religion may have, you know, lapsed a bit? It's old testament.
Abraham and Isaac.
In the story, God asked Abraham to show his devotion by killing his own son.
Oh, please don't tell me we're looking for a father who sent his child here to die.
All right, we need to check the local churches, see if any are selling religious extremism.
We give a profile here at the school, maybe at a church.
See if anybody recognizes this description of the unsub.
What does that profile say? Well, the Bible verse is about devotion.
The idea that he would sacrifice his own kid means that he might be a family annihilator.
This guy chose to use bombs, and I know personal cause bombers.
Oh, so you're saying that this profile needs to include not only a family annihilator, but a personal cause bomber.
Yes.
You saw it with Rudolph.
You see it with McVeigh.
They use this quasi-biblical language that kind of manipulates the text, but really they're just nuts.
Let's find the churches.
Let's get the profile out.
Cooper.
All right, let us talk of things that go boom.
Two months ago, police found fragments of a crude pipe bomb and some high-velocity gunpowder in the woods off U.
S.
Ford Road.
Send the coordinates to everybody's PDAs.
Roger that--one hole in the ground coming right up.
I just talked to Garcia.
She's sending coordinates for the possible test-bomb sites to your PDAs.
I need somebody on this.
All right, well, Mick and I'll go.
If it's our unsub, the location could be symbolic.
Hey, there are four primary churches in the area.
Three are distributed fairly evenly among families here, but one stands out demographically, I think.
Let me guess.
You write one hell of a memo? Yes, I do, actually.
Thank you.
There's an Evangelical Church on Franklin and Monument, and if our unsub is on a religious mission, chances are he's a parishioner there.
Okay.
We'll send Prophet.
Franklin and Monument-- I'm on it.
Hey, Prophet, I need you to include a profile for personal cause bombers.
Beth's right.
We need to have everything to get the full picture on this.
You got it.
Reverend Sands? Hey, I'm Jonathan Simms.
I'm with the FBI.
I don't know if you heard, but there was a bombing over at the high school.
Yes, horrible.
I don't understand.
How can I help? I'd like to give you a profile, see if it's somebody you might recognize.
The man that we are looking for is what we call a family annihilator.
He's most likely white.
He'll be middle-aged.
On the outside He'll appear like a devoted husband, like an ideal father.
Most likely he will have suffered a devastating loss.
Now, this loss, it--it could be financial.
It--it might be a divorce or a death of a loved one.
But the point is, in his mind, the only rational thing to do is to wipe out his family and start clean.
The key to this tragedy, though, is that it defines him.
Now, he's also something we call a personal cause bomber.
They're trying to push an ideology.
Most likely, the delusion of why they need to kill their families will be linked to this ideology.
But remember at the heart of both these profiles is a devastating loss.
We find that we find our unsub.
Shawn? Come on, it's time to go.
What does the magic notebook tell you? Your personal cause bombers motivated by extreme emotions.
Uh-huh.
This is a message to the parents.
He wants them to be in the same emotional place that he's in.
Thank you for listening to my theory earlier.
Is that what you call a theory? Rant, theory-- semantics, you know? I listen to you because I like your work on domestic extremist groups.
It's very good.
I also know that you've been booted off a few teams for speaking your mind in the end, loudly.
Yes, loudly and correctly.
In every single case, I ended up being right.
I'm sure.
Come on, there's something I want to check out.
Looks like he made three test runs.
What do you got? High-velocity gunpowder, nails duct-taped to the outside for maximum shrapnel impact.
And jacks, like at the high school.
This is our boy.
Hey, Penelope, it's Gina.
Can you, uh, map out where we are right now? Oh, my lady, you should know by now that I can do anything.
There's no bodies here, just memorials.
Any information about a funeral held here? Uh, nada, though there does appear to be some sort of babbling brook nearby that has been the site of many a baptism.
Thanks, Penelope.
Yeah, you still at the church? Reverend, any chance you know that place? - It's Canner Creek.
- Oh Of course.
You think the unsub could have been baptized there? Absolutely.
I've baptized hundreds of people there.
He also might have recently put up three crosses near the stream.
Does that mean anything to you? Think real hard.
Remember the profile.
He recently suffered some sort of shock or tragedy.
What? There was a man William Meeks.
He wasn't a parishioner here, but he asked me to baptize his three sons, to give them a new beginning.
- When was this? - Three months ago.
And he had just experienced a horrible loss.
His wife was giving birth to their fourth son, and there was a placental abruption, and she and the child both died.
You think those three crosses are for the sons he knew he was gonna kill? Yeah.
And the baptism was to make sure they go to heaven.
Hey.
Thank you, Reverend.
Listen to this.
William Meeks-- I need to locate his sons.
I'm gonna set up roadblocks, get his picture on the wire, and get a SWAT team over to his house.
- Great.
- Kyle Meeks was present today.
His brother Shawn Meeks never showed up for school.
All right, I'm gonna have to get a picture.
Chances are, he's not in school today, his father's got something else planned for him.
- What about the third boy? - Third boy, Paul Meeks-- uh, eighth grader, middle school.
Might be carrying a bomb and not even know it.
Okay, look, I want you to call the principal.
I want you to tell him that we're trying to find Paul Meeks.
Be nice and calm.
We're just trying to track him down.
Ted, George Spruell.
Yeah, we're still trying to make sense of it.
Listen, we're trying to track down Paul Meeks.
- Oh, no.
- What? They're on a field trip at the wildlife park.
William Meeks! FBI! - Clear! - Clear! - Penelope, you there? - Certainly.
What you need? All right, we tried calling everyone-- the driver, the teachers, the students.
No one is picking up.
That's because the wildlife park is 20 miles from the nearest cell tower.
No one's getting reception.
Any other great news? The hospital just confirmed that Meeks' son Kyle was killed at the school.
It looks pretty certain he was the bomber.
Penelope.
Hello? Damn it.
Let's just hope that means we're getting close.
Why are we stopping? Dad? Are you okay? What do you mean, Shawn? You're having me ditch school.
Let's pray together.
Pray with me.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I see them.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Come on.
- FBI! - Pull over! - Pull over! - Hey, pull over the car now! Hold on.
The driver can't see us.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
FBI! You need to pull over now! Pull over now! Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after justice.
- I'll take the front.
- Man, I'm glad that was you.
Hop to the back.
I'll hand them down to you.
You got it.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.
Nice and calm.
Leave your backpacks on the bus.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Run over there.
Over there, go, go, go! Let's go, let's go.
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness Hey, hey, hey, there's a kid.
There's a kid.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Come on, honey.
Leave your bag.
Okay, come on.
Go, go.
Move.
Amen.
It's Mozart.
It's a father lamenting the death of his son.
Natus cadit.
He knew we'd end up here, so where the hell is he taking his son? Go inside, dinner's ready.
Yeah, whatever, mom.
He's laying out his ideology for us.
If we can understand what his purpose is, then we can figure out where he's going.
What's wrong? I need to tell you something.
What is it? Something's happened.
I just saw it on the TV.
I-I called.
I tried to get information.
Information about what? What--what's going on? Your brothers might be hurt.
We got it, guys.
Thanks.
How come I'm over here and the rest of my class is over there? I just need to ask you a few questions.
Is that okay? Did you pack your own book bag this morning? I don't understand.
I just need to know if you packed your book bag by yourself.
My dad usually sets our things out for us.
Please, what's going on? The bomb that went off on that bus-- it was in your backpack.
And we think your dad might have put it there.
That's crazy.
I know.
Look, I know this is a lot to take in.
The only reason I'm telling you this is because we need your help to try and figure out where he might be going.
- You're wrong.
- I wish I was.
Aunt Rose? Tell him it's not true.
I'm trying to understand it all too.
We need your help, Paul.
I don't know anything.
Our job, what we do, we study the way people act, because there are clues in everything we do, even when we don't realize it.
Well, my dad couldn't have done this.
Yeah, but he was sad, wasn't he? And sometimes when people are sad, they--they do things they wouldn't normally do.
Was he acting more affectionate lately uh, maybe giving you all gifts? Is there a book that he's reading you want to tell us about? Paul, what is it? A few nights ago he gave us these key chains.
It's the symbol for infinity.
What'd he say? When he gave it to you, what did he say? Hey, I need you to think real hard, buddy.
He said that the circles went on forever and ever, like the way he loved us.
And that the beauty of infinity is everything ends where it begins.
Okay.
Thanks.
You did good, okay? You stay with your Aunt Rose.
Hey.
- You found something? - Possibly.
Have you ever heard of the Last Generation movement? Yeah, I read about them.
They want to end procreation to save the world.
Last Gens think that the earth is deteriorating-- overpopulation, terrorism, global warming.
They think it's inhumane to begin a new generation.
"To bring into existence someone who will suffer is to do harm to that person.
" Hey, you want to know about fringe wackos, I'm your girl.
So that's why Meeks thinks that by killing his kids, he's saving them from suffering.
Well, there's a logic to it.
It's delusional, but there's a logic.
Based on your profile, think about it.
His wife died trying to bring another son into the world.
He's in shock.
His picture's all over the news.
Where's he gonna go? Let's just go backwards.
Let's go to the beginning.
Work this profile for me, Beth.
Work the profile.
Yes.
Okay, we know his--his ideology as a personal cause bomber.
Yes.
You said yourself at the heart of every family annihilator profile is a devastating loss.
So what is that telling you? This is his personal manifesto.
This--why choose the symbol of infinity if you want a generation never to exist? It's symbolic, the infinity sign.
Everything ends where it begins.
So he's going back to the hospital where his wife died.
I need you to radio the other agents.
Tell them that Meeks is going to Fredericksburg Memorial.
Copy that.
Base, this is Sykes.
- What's up? - Police have him cornered.
He says he's got a bomb.
William Meeks.
Don't come any closer.
William we just want to know where Shawn is.
That's all.
That's all we want.
I know you think that you're saving your sons, but you're mistaken, William.
You don't want to die, William.
You want your message out.
That's why there were three crosses in the woods, not four.
Just say the word.
Where is Shawn? Here I am, father.
Does Shawn know that he's carrying a bomb? Here is the fire.
Here is the wood.
Take the shot, now.
Oh! - You shot me.
- Yes, I did.
Where is he? I need a doctor.
Yeah, well, right now all the doctors are busy treating the kids you blew up.
I'll get you a doctor, but you can end this right now.
Just tell us where your son is.
It was unfair of me to ever bring them into this world.
He is your son, William.
And it's done.
And in other news, an explosion today has rocked a local high school in Fredericksburg.
It happened at around 8:00 a.
m.
this morning.
The number of casualties is unknown at this time.
Excuse me.
Excuse me? My name is Shawn Meeks.
I'm looking for my brothers-- Kyle and Paul Meeks.
My dad said they had been admitted here.
I need you to stay right here, okay? Don't you go nowhere.
Kyle Meeks may have unwittingly carried a bomb to school, planted by his father, William Meeks.
A third son, Shawn Meeks, is unaccounted for at this time.
Police are asking anyone with any information to contact them immediately.
The nurse just spotted the boy in the E.
R.
I have blueprints, and I can start an evacuation whenever you call it.
All right, we'll make this a soft evac, nice and orderly.
You got it.
Let's go.
What do you know about this bomb? Assuming it's like the others, it's set to blow on a timer.
Yeah, but we don't even know how much time we have.
Neither does the boy.
Let's go.
The FBI said they're taking point.
All right, let's get these people out of here.
I suppose there's no talking you out of this.
This kid's bound to be scared to death.
There's no need for me to go and announce myself as the one who's hunting his daddy.
Besides, bomb goes off, this vest isn't gonna do much good anyway, is it? True.
You'll be ready for me? Absolutely.
- Hey, suit me up.
- You know I can't do that.
I'm not asking.
Suit me up now.
Check and see how they're doing on the fourth floor.
- Hey, where's Meeks? - Nurse said he was just here.
He must have ran off when he heard we were looking for him.
That kid's carrying a bomb.
We have to find him fast if we have any chance of disarming it.
I got the local P.
D.
combing the whole building.
We got to get everybody else off the rest of these floors.
All right, this is the I.
C.
U.
, we have every parent, kid, and teacher from the last two blasts in here.
We evacuated the side parking lot.
Doctors are setting up triage centers.
Cooper's inside, looking for the kid.
The first bomb had a blast radius of 75 feet.
Meeks dropped that kid at the door.
He would have set the timer to blow before anyone had much of a chance to recognize it.
We're running out of time now.
Shawn.
Hey, let him go.
Let him go.
Is the bomb in that bag? He said my brothers were in here.
- He said-- - Listen to me.
- He said that they were hurt.
- Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Listen to me.
Is the bomb in that bag? He sent me in here to die.
Can I see it? Is it okay if I look inside of there? Can I? He sent me here to die.
This is not about you, Shawn.
It's not about you at all.
Is it in there? Where's the bomb? You see all these people out here? You see all these people? You want that blood on your hands, Shawn? It's over.
Don't you get that? Both of my brothers are dead.
Your brother Paul, he's not dead.
I can prove it to you.
I'm gonna prove this to you, and then I'm gonna need your help.
It's your brother.
Paul? Kyle's dead.
They're taking dad away.
I know.
I know.
I'm so scared.
Why did she have to die? You mean your mother? That's why all this is happening - Because she died.
- It's not your mother's fault.
It's not your fault.
It's not.
But I'm gonna need your help, and you can help me stop this, okay? I don't know where it is.
I don't know.
Mick.
I'm here.
He didn't put the bomb in the kid's bag.
He's planning something much bigger.
You think he planted it ahead of time? The maternity ward.
Find the room where Meeks' wife died, and you're gonna find that bomb.
Coop, the maternity ward's above an oxygen main.
If that room blows, it's all over.
Okay, guys, let's double-time it.
Let's go! Coop, I found it.
We got 30 seconds.
Okay.
It's in your hands.
All right, everybody out.
What's going on? Your father-- he told you the story of Abraham and Isaac, right? You remember how that story ends? At the last second, an--an angel steps in and stops Abraham from killing his son.
Exactly.
God never intended for the boy to die.
You actually think Angels exist? I do.
Doesn't really matter, 'cause this story ends the same.
The boy is saved.
I got it.
I got the bomb.
The police are gonna need to speak to Shawn for a little while, but you and your aunt can go with him.
Thanks.
I know it seems real tough on you guys.
You've been through a lot, but you got a second chance now.
And trust me when I tell you you can do anything you want with it.
Here looks like you could use this.
Thanks.
It was a rough morning.
Yeah, disarming bombs will do that to you.
Yeah, who'd have thought, eh? You ever have trouble sleeping, Coop? Isn't that part of the job description? I don't mean because of this job.
Being at that hospital earlier, it was like the way it played out, the way he planned to get all those people in one place, it was like it was like Fallujah was.
It was just like Fallujah It's like we were right back there.
Everything we saw, everything we did it just all came flooding back, you know, in that moment.
Just the harder I try to forget the more clearly I remember it.
That's what scares me.
That kid, kid in the hospital, he asked me if I believed in Angels.
Can you believe that? What'd you say? I told him I do.
But I'm starting to have doubts.
I guess we all got our ghosts, eh? Oh, yeah.
What do you do with yours, Coop with your ghosts? I like to fly them in formation.

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