Criminal Minds (TV Series)

The Tall Man (2018)

Paget Brewster: Emily Prentiss

Quotes 

• Jennifer Jareau : The boyfriend, we thought he was a teenager, a peer, well, he's older. Much older.

  Emily Prentiss : How do you know?

  Jennifer Jareau : [showing Emily her necklace]  Chelsea saw this around my neck. The look in her eyes was recognition.

  Emily Prentiss : The jewelry the unsub gave Bethany.

  Jennifer Jareau : Same one. He gave this to Roslyn, who gave it to me. God only knows how many other girls there's been since then. I have been wearing this around my neck, his trophy, this whole time.

  Emily Prentiss : JJ, we will arrest him.

  Jennifer Jareau : I know. But when we do, I'm gonna need you to keep me away from him, because if I get a chance, I swear to God I will kill him.

• Jennifer Jareau : Ever since we took this case, all of these... memories are coming back, and they are not good memories. You know?

  Emily Prentiss : About Roslyn?

  Jennifer Jareau : Yeah. Like that morning she took my father's razor. I found her. And I-I just stood there... frozen... for probably ten minutes.

  [fighting back tears] 

  Jennifer Jareau : It's like my brain couldn't, um, comprehend what I was seeing. You know, sometimes I think... I think that's why I took this job, so I'd always know what to do, so I would never freeze again. So, can you... can you give me something to do, Emily? Because I am starting to freeze up again.

• Matt Simmons : Let's go back to the victims for a second. Did they sneak out or did their parents know?

  Penelope Garcia : They told their parents that they were going to a party, and they actually did.

  Matt Simmons : Okay, so then off the bat, we have two theories about the unsub. One is that he knew they were planning this.

  David Rossi : Which puts him in the girls' inner circle.

  Matt Simmons : Exactly. Or two, he waited in the woods opportunistically. But that strategy only works if he plays the odds right. So, how far-reaching is this-this ghost story?

  Penelope Garcia : Maybe I can answer that. The story JJ grew up with, it's gone viral, and the Photoshop work is on fleek.

  Emily Prentiss : Tall Man is a story. What happened to these girls is real. The first 24 hours are crucial in an abduction case, and we are now down to 18. Let's move.

• Penelope Garcia : I'd like to direct your attention to two oddities. Oddity number one is Ally Macready's medical exam.

  Emily Prentiss : Give us the headline.

  Penelope Garcia : Despite outward appearances, Ally had a sum total of zero wounds on her. So whose blood is on her clothes, you ask? DNA report is not back yet, but typing and matching points to the other girls.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : She could have escaped before the unsub got to her. Holding three girls takes a lot of control.

  Emily Prentiss : What's oddity number two?

  Penelope Garcia : That would be a text exchange between Bethany and Chelsea. Bethany says to Chelsea "What if we do it in the woods tonight?", to which Chelsea responds "We'd have to do it fast. Ally can't see us coming."

  Dr. Spencer Reid : Vaguely threatening. Although Ally didn't say anything like that in her interview.

  David Rossi : Two of the girls had some agenda besides the Tall Man. We need to see if it played a part in their disappearance.

  Jennifer Jareau : Chelsea's dad, Tom, he dated my sister in high school, so I can talk to him.

  Emily Prentiss : Good. Do that. We will divide and conquer when we land. We will investigate this as if Bethany and Chelsea are still alive, and we will not sleep until we find them.

• Matt Simmons : Ally has schizophrenia?

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Early onset. And we confirmed it with her parents. It's rare in teens, but it can happen. The telltale symptom was her face blindness. Schizophrenics have extreme visual processing problems, most obviously in meeting new people or experience new environments.

  Luke Alvez : Her parents were trying to keep her off medication. That's why the cops and Garcia didn't flag it.

  Emily Prentiss : Besides the parents, who else knew?

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Just Bethany and Chelsea. Why?

  Emily Prentiss : Lot of holes in her story.

  Luke Alvez : Well, we noticed that, too. I mean, she wasn't bound, but the other two were. She could have escaped, instead she magically woke up in the forest.

  Matt Simmons : Covered in her friends' blood. And most schizophrenics are not violent, but they can be pushed to violence if they're threatened. Maybe she did this, but in her mind, it was the Tall Man.

  Emily Prentiss : And that brings us back to Bethany and Chelsea's texts about Ally, and if their agenda was upsetting enough to induce a break. JJ's with Chelsea's dad now. Maybe she can find out what they needed to talk about.

• Ethan Howard : What in the world is this? Seriously.

  Jennifer Jareau : Ethan, I am so sorry.

  Ethan Howard : This is ridiculous. They seem to think I've hurt those girls or something.

  Jennifer Jareau : I know. It's just we have a warrant for your house. And they've already pulled your computer.

  David Rossi : [watching outside]  Is that...?

  Emily Prentiss : No, she's bluffing.

  David Rossi : That's a hell of a bluff. Guys like him keep souvenirs, usually on computers.

  Ethan Howard : Did you see what was on it?

  Jennifer Jareau : I did.

• Emily Prentiss : JJ? Wheels up!

  Jennifer Jareau : Wheels up

• Penelope Garcia : The police recovered all three girls' phones in the woods. And you know how teens and myself spend way too much time on our screens? Well, the breakdown on the lab report from the girls' cell phones suggests a surefire way to get us all to stop. Please look at that report on your tablets.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : Fentanyl, as in the opioid derivative?

  Penelope Garcia : Yeah, trace elements were found on all three screens. Now, the medical patch it comes in knocks you out instantaneously.

  Emily Prentiss : Wait, hold up. Full stop. Let's retrace the girls' timeline. They went to a party, then somehow the unsub manages to get his hands on all three of the girls' phones to lace them?

  Matt Simmons : He could have been at the party.

  Emily Prentiss : But then he'd have to time that out with when they went into the woods. No one's that good. Factor this in now: you're a teenage girl. You keep your cell phone on you at all times. Who would you maybe hand it over to?

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Your best friend.

• Emily Prentiss : I'm starting to think Bethany or Chelsea might be pulling the strings here.

  David Rossi : Whoa, slow down. All three girls' phones were drugged, and Ally had the other girls' blood on her.

  Luke Alvez : I'm with Rossi. I mean, if one of the girls was staging this, she would have had to have knocked herself out and let herself get cut. That's one hell of a gaslight.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : But not an impossible one, especially with a partner.

  Matt Simmons : Well, if that's true, I think we're missing the bigger picture here. Chelsea and Bethany are best friends. Why would one recruit a partner to terrorize the other?

  Jennifer Jareau : Okay, it has something to do with this. "Where is it?". That's what Ally heard. So they're looking for something they lost, something they think the other girl can find.

  Emily Prentiss : I think we need to take another look at their high school, see what we can find.

  Jennifer Jareau : I know a guy over there that could help us.

• Emily Prentiss : Okay, so let's roll with this for a second. Bethany has a secret boyfriend. He doesn't want to be exposed, neither does she. But then Chelsea gets her hands on something neither one wants her to have.

  Jennifer Jareau : Right.

  Emily Prentiss : So, the jewelry has to be the key to all of it. What motivates them to this extreme?

• Dr. Tara Lewis : Ally, open your eyes and focus on the metronome. Now help us find your friends. Describe the room.

  Ally Macready : There's the door that he came through. It's like I'm in a tunnel or something. There's windows along the walls, but they're covered in this weird cloth.

  Jennifer Jareau : Ally, what's on the ceiling?

  Ally Macready : Stars. But they're pink.

  Jennifer Jareau : I know where they are.

  [cut to the precinct] 

  Jennifer Jareau : [taking a map off the murder board]  It's a train car. It's abandoned. We used to have parties there back when I was in high school. Somebody put pink stars up on the ceiling. Okay, so it's-it's right here if it hasn't moved.

  Emily Prentiss : Okay, you'll lead SWAT. Tell them to watch their front sight. There are teenagers in there.

• Matt Simmons : This is mislabeled. Unsub's older, predatory.

  Emily Prentiss : Yeah. Let's add it all up. The unsub gives the girls he grooms a necklace. But Chelsea stole Bethany's to figure out who he is.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : And it's the smoking gun of their affair, dangerous enough to ruin his life if discovered. So he and Bethany come up with a plan to get it back.

  David Rossi : This guy's been at it for a while. So who's in Bethany's life who also overlaps with JJ's sister?

  Matt Simmons : Well, there's one obvious suspect. It's Tom Davis. He's Chelsea's dad, and he was Roslyn's old boyfriend.

  Emily Prentiss : Matt, Luke, bring him in. He has an alibi, and I wanna stress test it.

• Emily Prentiss : [with JJ, watching Matt and Luke question Tom]  You okay with this?

  Tom Davis : I was at home by myself. You can check my cell phone. It's got GPS on it.

  Luke Alvez : All that means is that your phone stayed home, not that you did.

  Jennifer Jareau : How he responds to my sister's necklace will tell us everything.

  [Prentiss gives her a nod of approval] 

  Tom Davis : [she enters the room]  JJ, thank god. Can you please explain...

  Jennifer Jareau : We pulled this off of Bethany.

  Tom Davis : What is it?

  Jennifer Jareau : [studying his face, then leaving]  It's not him.

  Emily Prentiss : We're holding him anyway.

  Jennifer Jareau : Fine. But it's not him.

• Dr. Spencer Reid : I searched his car, his house, and the school. No sign of Bethany.

  Emily Prentiss : Dave, I think he'll respond to your authority. I want you to take the first crack at him.

  Jennifer Jareau : [handing over her gun]  Actually, I'd like to.

  [Prentiss glances at Rossi, who gives her a nod of approval] 

  Emily Prentiss : Okay.