Episode 3 is the third episode of the first season and the 3rd overall episode of Mindhunter.
Short Summary[]
Dr. Wendy Carr joins Holden and Tench in their first success when their insights lead to an arrest.
Full Summary[]
Park City, Kansas
The ADT serviceman looks down the street. Then he turns around and goes back to his van and drives away.
Boston, Massachusetts
Holden and Bill are in Boston to meet with Wendy Carr, a psychology professor at Boston University. Holden goes to get some coffee and a woman comes in and grabs a couple tissues. He tells her that it's cold season. Holden goes back out to where Bill is and finds out that the woman is Wendy. She's read his notes and leads them to her office.
She's glad to have heard from them, because she's writing a book about white-collar criminals and was in a rut. She explains how they're similar to Kemper and that the captains of industry and the killers are all psychopaths, just with different leanings. Holden's impressed that she got that from his notes. She says it would have been better if he'd recorded and transcribed the interviews verbatim. She knows their program is new, but it's a clear successor to prior work on psychopaths. She sees the value of interviewing these imprisoned criminals. She says it'll take a lot of time and energy to expand the program. She suggests a specific questionnaire that they should ask everyone. She also says they could turn it into a book. Bill says they can't publicize what they're doing at all and explains their situation. Holden says they can make it more formal and then they could write a book. Bill says he just wanted to get another set of eyes and see if she thought it was valuable from an academic standpoint. She asks if their department head has seen their Kemper notes and if someone else can do their Road School duties. Holden says yes, but Bill disagrees. Holden asks if she really thinks people outside law enforcement would be interested in it. She replies, "I mean, imagine, like truly imagine what it takes to bludgeon someone to death. The lust for control, the feeling of arousal, the decision to rape the severed head of your victim, to humiliate her corpse. How could you possibly get that from an ordinary police report?"
It took her nearly ten years to publish her book because narcissists don't go to the doctor. They're convinced nothing is wrong with them, so they're nearly impossible to study. Holden's found a way to study them in a near perfect laboratory; that's why it's so exciting. Bill thinks the FBI bureaucracy will make it impossible, but Holden says they have weekends and evenings. Wendy says it'll be a full-time job if they want it to be a legitimate study; it'll take at least 4-5 years to compile and analyze everything. Bill excuses them to go interview Miller, but not before Wendy says it's important work and if their boss won't allow it, they should find somewhere to get the resources they need. Bill just wants to continue as they are and says they won't give up on it. He's glad for her encouragement.
Holden and Bill are waiting to see Miller. Holden shares an anecdote about birds outside prisons, but then admits he doesn't know if it's true. A girl told him once. He says Debbie's the first women he's really dated since high school. Someone finally calls them inside. They surrender their badges and guns, only for Dr. Cale to tell them Miller is refusing to talk to them. He suggests coming back tomorrow. Holden says they're leaving tonight and can't come back tomorrow. Cale asks if they'll be back in Boston in the future. Bill says that's the last time they're giving anyone advance notice and they leave.
Holden is up in the middle of the night ironing his shirts. Debbie comes in and he starts talking to her about the project and meeting with Wendy. She tells him not to wake her up when he comes back to bed.
Holden and Bill talk about interview subjects and mark them on the map. Bill then gets a call from Roy Carver saying there's been another attack, this time resulting in a fatality, and he asks for them to come back. Holden says it's vindication. He also likes the idea of getting to talk to Kemper again. Holden asks if there was a dog and Bill says yes, there was.
Bill and Holden talk to Shepard about the case in California and say they believe there will be more, that he's a "sequence killer," which is what Holden has taken to calling killers who kill one after another. Shepard gives them the all-clear to go to California.
Sacramento, California
Roy tells them about the new case. They had one suspect, but he had an alibi. Bill notices that both the woman and the dog in this case seem stronger, so the killer must be someone not easily scared off. Roy wonders why the killer groped the women, but didn't rape them. Holden says it's because he didn't want to, he just wanted to humiliate them. Holden suggests that he may be 35-40 and the women are his mom's age. He's not a teenager after all. They think he may still live at home and be a drug user. He may be in an unhappy marriage because guys in unhappy marriages lash out. They think he must be white because black and Latino men would be too respectful of elderly women. Roy shows them the mug shot of a recent arrest, a man who had been drinking. A man who liked talking to cops. Holden wants to talk to him.
They arrive at the home of Dwight Taylor. He immediately calls in the house to his mother. He remembers Roy. His mother comes to the door and asks what Dwight has done now. They ask if they can come in and she allows them to come in. Inside the house, Holden sees signs that she has a dog and someone's sleeping on the couch as she talks about her frustration with her son. They want to ask Dwight a few questions. First, Holden asks if the pillow and blanket on the couch are his. Dwight's mom says yes, though she doesn't know why Dwight hasn't moved on himself by now. Bill suggests that they go outside with Dwight to talk and she says to take him.
Outside, Bill offers Dwight a cigarette and asks if has friends. He avoids the question, so Bill asks about a dog. Dwight still doesn't answer, so Holden asks about a girlfriend. He says he doesn't have one. They try to flatter him. He says he once had a girlfriend, but she got pregnant. His mom decided they were too young to get married, so she told the girl's parents and she got an abortion. They were twenty. He doesn't know if he loved her. Holden asks him about the scratches on his arm. He says he doesn't know. He gets drunk and bumps into things. He then says he got them from a piece of wood. He says he doesn't have a dog, she's the one with the dog. Bill asks if he means his mom. Bill asks him again how he got the scratches. He says he got them from wood. They asks if it's just him and his mom in the house. He says them and Jesse, some guy who's been there a few weeks. The room is near the couch, so Bill asks if it's weird, him hearing his mom. Dwight denies it, but admits it's weird that Jesse just moved in and they barely know each other. They ask if he gets a say in her life, like she got a say in his life with his girlfriend. They ask if they ever stand up for himself; he says he does. They understand that he can't stand up to his mom. Holden asks if he's ever lost control. He says not with his mom, he could never hurt his mom. Dwight starts to cry.
A news anchor reports that Dwight has been arrested for beating Rosemary and killing Laura. Roy takes a victory lap at the police station. He talks about knowing he wanted to be a detective when he was a kid after reading the Sherlock Holmes novel "A Study in Scarlet". He says Holden is the modern Sherlock Holmes and Bill is Dr. Watson. Holden thanks all of them and starts to talk about venturing into darkness, but Bill stops him and thanks them for the beer. Bill and Holden go to leave the party, but find one of the tires removed as a prank.
Bill is on the phone with his wife. He says they doesn't think they'll be back in time for something. He tells his wife to give his son a kiss and says he loves her. He doesn't know that Holden is awake and can hear him.
Holden turns on the new tape recorder they have and they start to talk to Kemper again. Bill asks if violence in the movies drove him to kill. He says no. His point is that in reality, it doesn't work the way you expect. When you stab someone, they don't just fall dead. They lose blood pressure and leaks to death slowly. He didn't enjoy that. Holden adjusts the recorder so he can hear Kemper better. Kemper walks away from the table and talks more about his motivations. He was always scared to fail in relationships. That's why he began to pick people up. He'd go a little further each time. Each time, he got a little closer. He wanted just to rape them, but with his lack of experience, he couldn't. He tells Holden he's trying to write his own book and asks if Holden can help him get a typewriter. Holden agrees to try to pull some strings. Bill asks about the feeling, how it builds. Kemper explains how best to cut someone's throat so they bleed and suffocate to death at the same time. He got pleasure from the killer. They ask how he felt after his first kills. There's one he liked best, Mary, but one wasn't as good. He says nothing in particular that was wrong with her, just that he was struck with her personality and looks. He sometimes visited the murder site afterward to be near her. He says because of his time in lockup because of his grandparents' murder, he's out of touch with women his own age. When he got out, it was like he was on a strange planet. When he confessed, they stopped at a diner for some food. Someone ladies walked by the car and he vomited in front of everyone. Holden asks if he every talked to anyone about his inclinations, like his mother. He says things would have been different if he'd been able to get a word in edgewise with his mother. She knew all his buttons because she put them there. He was her toy all his life, right up until he killed her. Bill asks him why he did what he did with his mother's head. He talks about the night he killed her. He went to her and she said she supposed he wanted to wait up all night and talk. He knew he was going to kill her. Bill asks if he really put part of her in the garbage disposal. He says her vocal cords, because he couldn't shut her up. She wanted to destroy him with words, so he destroyed her permanently and now everyone knows it's because of how she treated him. A guard brings in their pizza.
They eat pizza and Kemper talks about his kills. He remembers carrying a head in a bag into his apartment building and passing a couple. He realized at the time he'd never been on a date in his life. When he went and told his mother, she said, "Thank God." That's when he started burying the heads in the backyard, underneath her bedroom window.
Bill and Holden leave the prison. Bill brings food out from a diner. Holden says he still smells like Kemper. Or CMF. Holden asks Bill if he likes his mom. He says he liked his mom, but she's not around anymore. Holden asks if he likes his wife and he says he does. He says he's known her all his life and he's not sure what he'd do without her. He asks Holden about Debbie and Holden says she's great and smart and likes him. They have it made.
On the flight home, they talk about how good it feels to go home knowing they got the bad guy. Holden knows that Kemper makes Bill sick to his stomach. Bill says there's nothing behind Kemper's eyes; it's like standing near a black hole and he thinks Holden's his friend. It makes Holden a pretty great FBI agent. Bill says he's been thinking about their conversation with Wendy. They're good at what they're doing, even if it turns his stomach. They can't take a backseat to everything new. Wendy thinks it can change people's lives, so he wants to invite her down for the day so she can help them strategize. They need to make a plan so they can talk to Shepard. It's a long shot, because Shepard hates Holden and is beginning to hate Bill, too. Bill doesn't want to half-ass it.
Holden tells Debbie about Dwight and compares him to Kemper, saying he would have continued until he made his way to the source. Debbie says it's always the mother. He says it was the mother, but in a different way, more love. She asks if his mom was hot. The guys at her high school thought her mom was hot and it disgusted her, but then she went through chemo and they never made jokes about her anymore and it made her sad. Holden didn't know her mother had cancer and she says that's why she always has him grab her boobs when they have sex. He's checking for lumps. Holden says he can't let the guys rub off on him. He kisses Debbie and thanks her for coming, saying he needed to see her. He bends down, saying now he's all clean. She asks if going down on her while she files her nails is his idea of kinky. He says he's very kinky. She holds the file to his chin and says she could impale him with it and she could be part of his case study. He says she'd be a compelling interviewee and bends back down.
Holden asks Ken about the list of deviant terminology, particularly the description of the acts. He doesn't have an issue with them and doesn't know that they're deviant. He says Bill agrees and wants Ken to look at the list. Marge goes through the list with Holden, confirms which words they're removing from the list, and then she goes to type up the new list.
Holden asks Bill about his history with Wendy. He says he consulted with her on a few cases and they've known each other for a few years. He says he's just curious when Bill asks why he wants to know. Bill then says no and says Holden knows what he means. He enjoys being married. Holden says Wendy just has something. Bill says he sounds like he has a crush on a teacher. Holden says it's nice to have someone like her embracing the project, which Bill understands. Just then, Wendy's taxi pulls up and they welcome her. Holden asks about her classes and she explains that she's teaching about the intersection between sociopathy and fame. Bill says Nixon was a sociopath and Wendy says that's similar. Holden asks how you get to be president when you're a sociopath, but Wendy wonders how you get to be president if you aren't one. That's why their work is so vital; it goes far beyond the FBI.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford
- Holt McCallany as Bill Tench
- Hannah Gross as Debbie Mitford
- Anna Torv as Wendy Carr
- Cotter Smith as Unit Chief Shepard
Also Starring[]
- Cameron Britton as Edmund Kemper
- Peter Murnik as Detective Carver
- Carla Brandberg as Marge
- Cynthia Mace as Dwight's Mom
- Tobias Segal as Dwight
- Sean Grennan as Ken
- Andrew Sensenig as Dr. Henry Cale
Other Cast[]
- Sonny Valicenti as ADT Serviceman
- Juliette Regnier as College Janitor
- Patrick Jordan as Prison Employee (voice only)
- Matt Walton as Anchorman
Cases[]
Music[]
Song | Performer | Scene |
---|---|---|
"Morgenblatter - Walzer Op.279" | Weiner Johann Strauss Orchester, Willi Boskovsky |
|
"Feeling in the Dark" | Dwight Twilley Band |
|
"So Into You" | Atlanta Rhythm Section |
|
"From a Motel Phone" | Jason Hill |
|
"Right" | David Bowie |
|
Notes and Trivia[]
Gallery[]
Episode Stills[]
Quotes[]
"I study captains of industry: IBM, MGM, Ford, Exxon, you name it. And sure, these men all have wives, kids, dogs, goldfish, but not because they stopped being psychopaths, but because they just had different leanings." —Wendy Carr
See Also[]
A complete overview of this episode's crew can be found here. |
Season 1 | |||
#01 | "Episode 1" | #06 | "Episode 6" |
#02 | "Episode 2" | #07 | "Episode 7" |
#03 | "Episode 3" | #08 | "Episode 8" |
#04 | "Episode 4" | #09 | "Episode 9" |
#05 | "Episode 5" | #10 | "Episode 10" |