S4E11 - “Normal”

We open in Orange County, CA, and we’re hearing a traffic report. Traffic’s looking pretty good. We meet Norman and Vanessa Hill, and they’re getting ready for a party. Norman is wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a cornflower blue button up shirt, looking very spiffy, but controlled. But he tops this with a choice piece- a black tie with different colored mini cooper convertible cars on it. It’s… not my cup of tea. Apparently it’s not Norman’s wife Vanessa’s either. Because she says: “Can’t be ate for my own party, Norman, I gotta go. You’re gonna have to meet me there. You’re not gonna wear that tie, are you? Not one of my favorites.”

Cut to Norman, now wearing a boring stripped tie. He walks into ??? It looks like a small kitchen with a fridge and everything. But it’s absolutely decked out in car memorabilia. Like, there are small model cars and then pictures of cars he’s tapped to the fridge, and then he’s like dusting off the model cars with a small brush. And we see him get into a car and head off to the party. He’s then honked at by another driver who cuts him off and almost crashes into him. He says: “Jeez lady!” He then catches the other driver at a light and rolls down his window to talk to her. And she’s a Karen-esque Blonde. We see them exchange words, and she kind of rolls her eyes at him and drives off. And he looks… shooketh. And in the car he’s got this wrapped up gift, that we assume is for his wife, and he kind of looks down dramatically at it.

Cut to the Karen-esque driver who cut Norm off. She’s talking on the phone using a headpiece and she goes: “The principal’s office called. Yeah- plagiarism. (haha).” She’s so engrossed in her conversation that she doesn’t notice Norm driving side by side, and he’s taken the gift out of the box, and the gift is a shotgun?? So he was going to kill his wife?? And we hear Karen say: “Yeah well I was in the middle of closing on the Ocean Park 5 bedroom. I’m telling you, if I lose that commission, it’s coming out of his college fund.” And then Norm MCFREAKIN SHOOTS HER and her car crashed into an embankment and flips over and it’s all slo-mo and dramatic, and I watched this at 0.5x so you can only imagine how much more slo-mo and dramatic it was.

Cut back to Norm- “Well Respected Man” by the Kinks starts playing. And Norm is so chuffed. He shows up at his wife Vanessa’s party, which turns out to be a party at her work. It’s a fancy office party. And we see Norm mingling with he coworkers, drinking champagne, having a grand time. And Vanessa is like, so surprised. She’s like, wow, he’s so cool. Like, my husband is so cool. 

Cut to that night, Norm and Vanessa are in bed, and she says: “What’s gotten in to you tonight?” and snuggles up on him.  Cut to later that night, Norm gets out of bed and we see him walk down the hall and we see him pause in front of the door. There’s a sign on the door that says “Sasha”. And we’re like, oh, that must be his daughter. Then he walks a bit further and stops in front of another door. And the name on this door is “Britney”. And we’re like, oh he feels emasculated because he has two daughters and a wife. And then he KEEPS WALKING AND STOPS IN FRONT OF JENNY’S DOOR AND I’M LIKE , OH, OKAY. SO HE’S UNDER THE THUMB OF A POWERFUL WOMAN WHO TERRIFIES HIM.

Cut to Norm sawing something in his Man Cave. And it’s a shotgun.

Now we’re on the BAU jet. We learn about the first victim, Karen, whose real name is Judy Hannity. She survived the attack, but was paralyzed from the way down. We learn that there have been two other victims, and those women were both DOA.  They’re linked together by the unsub’s weapon, which is a sawed off shotgun. All three victims are blonde ladies who were driving luxury cars. The media has already dubbed him the “Road Warrior”. We learn from Morgan: “This type of unsub is the hardest to catch. Totally impersonal victims, a third of the crime scene flees with him in his vehicle, the victim’s car’s a wreck, and the last of the road it’s contaminated by all the other cars that drive over.” Apparently the unsub also has been using different cars for each shooting, which also makes him hard to pinpoint.

Cut to Orange County, CA headquarters. We meet Sherriff Thea Salinas, who is in charge of the task force. She is HOT. She has helicopters flying around on standby.  She’s got the car wrecks. She’s got bullet casings. She tells Hotch the media is having a field day with the whole blonde female luxury car owner shooter thing. She’s been giving free reign over whatever she needs to catch the killer. She says she can ask for a submarine and get it. The BAU focuses on the first attack, that of Judy Hannity, because it was spontaneous. They deduce that the unsub was driving his car during that kill, because it was unplanned. Which means he was driving a blue sedan. And then Prentis is like, hold up, if the kill was spontaneous, why was he driving around with a shotgun??

Anyways, they got to re-interview Judy Hannity. We meet her son Rick, the plagiarizer. Rick blames himself and tells Prentis that the shooting was his fault. And she’s like no, you did plagiarize, but the shooting is definitely Norm’s fault.  Hotch talks to Judy, and she’s like, after I cut him off, he tried to speak to me. And Hotch says: “What did he say?” And Judy says: “He couldn’t say anything. I wouldn’t give him a chance.” And we flashback to Norm confronting Judy and that conversation we didn’t hear before. We see Judy saying to Norm: “What? Now you want to talk about your feelings like you’re some chick? You drive like an old lady.” And that was it. That was the stressor! And Judy goes: “If he hadn’t seemed so normal, I wouldn’t have said anything. I usually don’t even use my horn… because on the road… you never know.”

Prentis goes: “So what happened?” And Hotch says: “She made it personal.”

Cut to Reid building a Jeopardy Surface with Hot Agent Salinas. He says: “When the victimology is this specific, we know the victims represent a specific person to him… likely a current or former wife or girlfriend.” Agent Salinas is like, why not kill the actual person? And Reid says: “She’s just a scapegoat for his own personal failings. He knows if kills her, he loses that scapegoat.” And Agent Salinas says: “So he just goes around blowing away any women?” And Reid is like: “No, just women who remind him of his wife.” Reid also says that these types of killers usually strike close to the focus of the resentment, meaning Norm, ahem, I mean the unsub, lives nearby the crime scenes.

Reid also realizes that the unsub is using work zones where traffic patterns are limited to one lane merges. Meaning that the unsub is specifically going to sites where there are alternate road merges and waiting to be cut off by a woman who looks like his wife. Meaning he’s going to the sites over and over again waiting, for aggressive blonde female drivers. And Prentis is like SHUT ALL THE ALTERNATE MERGES DOWN IMMEDIATELY! Hotch compares the unsub killing to the unsub getting high. He says: “Impersonal killers are like drug addicts. The first time gives them the ultimate high, and after that no high is as good. Unfortunately the addict doesn’t know that. He will chase that high to the gates of insanity and death, by now, killing is all our unsub thinks about.” DUN DUN DUN!

Hotch, Rossi and Sherriff Salinas go to one of the alternate merge sites and speak to one of the workers about a suspicious driver who drove through the merge multiple times. We got some light sexism from the worker who tells them: “I mean, I even talked to Tony about this guy dressing like a hardass, but he drove like a chick. No offense. This jackass was wearing a leather jacket and he’s got sunglasses on they’re mirrored, you know like the cops. But it was dark out.” Hotch turns to Rossi dramatically and says: “He’s starting to role play, he’s breaking with reality!” The worker also mentions that the unsub was alone in the car, but when a driver cut him off, he made a motion like he was trying to keep a passenger from being hit? And Hotch all despondent and Rossi is like, what is it? And Hotch is like: “I’m afraid that our unsub’s married with children.”

PROFILE

• The hype masculine disguises, victim preference, and the emasculating trigger of the first attack all tell us that this is an unsub suffering a MASCULINE IDENTITY CRISIS.

• Something happened in the unsub’s life, something so traumatic that it turned a normal man into a serial killer.

• The world he sees around him has changed, and so has his role in it.

• His perception of his home life is the key to his pathology.

  • At home this unsub feels less than a man, a failure as a father and as a husband.

  • He feels his children don’t need or respect him and that he’s unwanted and obsolete in their lives.

  • As a husband he feels emasculated and humiliated by is wife.

  • And these believes and perceptions, real or imagined have destroyed this individual’s self image.

• This unsub is delusional. He’s now dressing in this Road Warrior personal which gives him feelings of power and purpose that he craves. It is now the single most important thing in his life, and he will die before giving it up.

• His new fantasy cannot coexist with the everyday reality of his home life. Which means sooner or later, he is going to kill his entire family.

Okay so the BAU has a three-pronged approach:

• They’re gonna find every owner of a small-model blue SUV in the estimated kill zone

• They’re gonna sit up a single alternate merge zone in that kill zone

• Then they’re gonna release the profile to the public.

Cut to Norm eating lunch at work. He has a lil sandwich cut cross wide, which always makes me want a sandwich. He’s also got a lil bag of chips, an apple, and a carton of milk??? About to see his coworkers not respect his lunch time! A sexy blonde approaches him with paperwork: “Hey, Norman. Can you put this on my account?” He just stares at her. Then a man approaches him and asks for quarterly summaries of some bullshit. We don’t learn his name in the show, but IMDB says that the character’s name is Burke Manning??? Norman hallucinates that Burke says: “You’re an old, bald, loser and everybody laughs at you.” But in fact, Burke says: “Look Norman, the sixth floor doesn’t care what’s going on in your life or how long you’ve been with the firm. They’re all about the numbers. And the numbers tell them that younger workers cost less and produce more. I like you Norman, I know how hard things have been for you the past few months. Don’t give those bastards on the sixth floor an excuse, you know what I mean?” And Norman is about to mcfreakin shoot him, but then decides to just give him the report he asked for, which he had done already.

While Agent Todd is informing the public via press release, Norm’s office is tuned in. Norm sees the press release, and so does Blondey Mcblondehead. Norm hallucinates that she hears this press release and says: “All points bulletin: Be on the lookout for a worthless loser named Norman, who resents anyone with a life, and kills just to prove he’s not an emasculated loser.” 

Norm is in the car, have a mental break down. He starts fighting with an invisible person in the seat next to him. The car next to him, two guys, pull over to make sure he’s okay. And Norm hallucinates that they are laughing at him, so he mcfreaking kills them, firing over and over again with his shotgun. We learn that their names were Joe Karem and Timothy Calvert. Norm went off script! He’s devolving. The BAU realizes that these killings were triggered by Norm seeing the press conference? And based off his description of him being formally attired, they believe that he came from work. Working Boy.

Agent Todd is SO UPSET that her press conference caused more deaths. Hotch is like, if you can’t take the heat, get out of the frying pan. How about another press conference? And Agent Todd is like…

Cut to- the next press conference. Agent Todd tells the press that the individual is a white 45-55 male of average build. He works in this area and wears a suit and tie to work. He left work abruptly after seeing the last press conference. Agent Todd also appeals to Norm: “Do not hurt any more people. Please turn yourself in.” Norm watches this shit too! 

He goes to see his wife Vanessa and he confesses to her!! Vanessa then tells their children that Norm has confessed (haha). And one of the girls, I think Brittany, and she calls him a dork. 

And… got ‘em. The BAU shows up at Norm’s work. Burke Manning (the man, the myth, the legend) tells the BAU that he thought of Norm after he watched the press conference. We learn that Norm’s youngest daughter Jenny was hit by a car six months previous. Norm had a flat tire and had stopped to change it, and Jenny got out of the car and was hit by a passing driver. Burke Manning blames himself for Jenny’s death, but really it was Rich’s fault for plagiarizing. We also learn that Norm had access to company cars, which were likely used in the killings. Burke Manning also tells the BAU that Vanessa, Norm’s wife, also works at The Firm! Apparently she just got a big promotion, and took a few weeks off of work to celebrate.

Cut back to Norm, he tells his family to all get in the car, and they do. Norm is driving like a maniac telling his family that they have to “get out of here”. The Police start pursuing them, not because he’s the unsub and they’ve tracked him, but because he’s driving recklessly. But then Sheriff Salinas gets a call about Norm, and the BAU enter the chase. Morgan, Reid and Prentis are in hot pursuit! Rossi, Hotch, Agent Todd, and Salinas head over to Norman’s house to gather Norman’s family. At this point the BAU still don’t know that Norm has his family in the car. Norm pulls his shotgun out of nowhere and starts firing at the police. Vanessa is like “Norman! Where did you get that?” And he’s like: “I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen!”

Norm tells his wife that she’s just “moved on” and completely forgotten about Jenny. All while the police are pursuing him and he’s brandishing a gun and Sasha and Britney are in the back seat. Then Vanessa, Sasha and Britney just start berating him for letting Jenny die? They’re like, it’s your fault, you let her die! Vanessa even says: “I wasn’t there! Sasha wasn’t there! You let my baby girl die!” And Norm is like I’M SORRY!!! And Vanessa is like: “You let my baby girl die. And you think I forgot?” And then she yeets forward and grabs the steering wheel out of his hands, and crashes the car into an embankment.

And for a minute, they really had me going. Like, I was legit like, man, Norm’s family is so mean? But NOPE! Surprise bitch. Back at Norm’s house, the BAU team has discovered the bodies of Vanessa, Sasha and Britney. Norm has killed them all. Flashback and we see Norm shooting them with a shotgun. He kills his wife first, then Sasha, the Brittney. And… shotgun blasts are so loud?? How did Sasha and Brittney not hear the first shot? Okay, well maybe Sasha is a deep sleeper. But Brittney really didn’t heat two shot gun blasts right next to her room??

Morgan apprehends Norm. Agent Todd is… so distressed. She asks Rossi: “Did I do that? Is this my fault.” He says: “No way. They were gone before we even got the case. We knew he would hurt his family. We just didn’t know that he already had.” And Agent Todd says: “I’m not sure I can do this job.”

And we know she’s gonna leave, because back at BAU Headquarters in Quantico VA, JJ has come to visit and brought her Bebe Henry. And the entire team MINUS AGENT TODD goes to visit her. Like, Agent Todd is just, gone? And Hotch is like: “We miss you.”

Rating Criteria:

• Criminal/Serial Killer: 20/20

• Character development/ character arcs: 20/20

• Forensics/Context: 20/20

• Script writing: 20/20

• Background characters: 20/20

Overall: 100/100