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“ | You have all the answers. Why did I kill all those people? | „ |
~ Archer antagonizing Jennifer Jareau and Kate Callahan. |
Allen Archer is the secondary antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Hero Worship". He is a copycat bomber who commits acts of terrorism in emulation of serial bomber James Burke, all so he can be seen as a hero.
He is portrayed by Lex Medlin.
Early life[]
Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Archer spent his entire life in the shadow of his best friend, Grant Ford, a Navy SEAL and war hero who was married to a woman named Brenda, with whom Archer was obsessed, When Grant was killed in Afghanistan, Archer saw an opportunity to essentially replace him, and took advantage of Brenda's grief and loneliness to start a relationship with her. She did not truly love Archer, she married him so her and Grant's daughter, Hannah, would have a father figure in her life. While he finally had the life he always wanted, however, he remained a nobody, working a menial job at a store and being all but ignored by his new family. He grew depressed, and started taking antidepressants and reading self-help books.
When Archer read a news story about a bombing at a nearby elementary school, he got the idea to stage a bombing himself and foil it so he would be seen as a hero, especially by Brenda. He read bomb-making manuals that had belonged to Grant, an explosive ordnance specialist, and builds a crude improvised explosive device that he plants in the bathroom of a neighborhood coffee shop.
In "Hero Worship"[]
Archer shows up at the coffee shop on the morning of the bombing, planning to save a pregnant woman who was also buying coffee - the most sympathetic victim he could think of. The plan goes awry, however, when the bomb's explosion ruptures a gas line, causing a second, far greater explosion that kills seven people and wounds 14, including the pregnant woman. As intended, Archer is hailed as a hero and wins his family's admiration, but he is stricken with remorse over killing seven innocent people.
One night, he goes to his car to be alone, overcome with guilt as he reads a newspaper article about the coffee shop bombing. As he prepares to drive to the store, he sees wires attached to the brake pedal and realizes that there is a bomb in the car. Terrified, he orders Brenda and Hannah to stay away from him. Agents Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), who are investigating the bombing, arrive and defuse the explosive in the car. They find it suspicious that Archer knew right away that there was a bomb in the car and that his family would be in danger, so they and BAU technical analyst Penelope Garcia investigate his life and find out about his bomb-making materials. They theorize that he had staged the bombing not intending to kill anybody, but that it had gotten away from him.
The BAU brings Archer in for questioning, ostensibly to ask him about attempting to save the pregnant woman, but soon makes it clear that they view him as a suspect. Agents Jennifer Jareau and Kate Callahan confront him about his mediocre life and failing marriage, and accuse him of staging the bombing to get attention. Archer denies it at first, but after Jareau and Callahan continuously mock him, he angrily blurts out that he was clever enough to kill and get away with it.
During the investigation, the BAU realizes that the bomb in Archer's car was too sophisticated for him to have made it, and deduce that the person who bombed the elementary school had tried to kill him out of jealousy for taking the media spotlight off of him. They make a deal with Archer to pretend to accept the key to the city from the mayor in order to draw out the bomber, James Burke, resulting in a standoff between Burke, Morgan, and Reid, ending with them taking Burke into custody. Archer, meanwhile, thanks Brenda for helping him, but Brenda looks at him with contempt and replies that she did not do it for him. Archer is then imprisoned for life.
External links[]
- Allen Archer on the Criminal Minds Wiki