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“ | We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow. | „ |
~ Lynch quoting Ted Bundy while reciting the ending bookend quote for the episode "Final Tree". |
Everett Lynch, also known as "The Chameleon", is a recurring villain in the final two seasons of the CBS TV series Criminal Minds, appearing as the titular main antagonist of the Season 14 episode "Chameleon" and the main antagonist of Season 15. He is a con artist and serial killer who swindles and murders wealthy women before cutting off their faces.
He was portrayed by Michael Mosley, who also portrayed Jerry Tyson in Castle.
Early life[]
Everett is the son of Roberta Lynch, a con artist and "black widow" serial killer who made her son help her seduce, marry, and murder wealthy men. As a result of his mother's influence, Everett grew up to be a psychopathic narcissist, unable to form emotional connections and having no true personality of his own. He numbed his profound sense of emptiness by conning people out of their money, just as Roberta had taught him.
As an adult, Everett had a daughter named Grace, and lived with her and Roberta in Aberdeen, Mississippi. One day, Everett left Roberta to watch Grace while he went to work, but Roberta paid little attention to the child, resulting in Grace nearly drowning in the bathtub. Outraged, Everett cut off all contact with his mother.
Nevertheless, he continued to employ the skills she taught him to defraud rich, middle-aged women; he would set up fake dating profiles and alter his appearance for each new victim. When Grace entered her teens, Everett incorporated her into his scams, just as Roberta had done with him, by telling his victims about how his mother had nearly let her drown. Eventually, however, stealing from his victims was not enough, so he began killing them and removing their faces post-mortem to keep as trophies. By the time he first appeared in the series, he had murdered at least six women.
Appearances[]
"Chameleon"[]
After murdering his latest victim, Monica Feinstein, Everett alters his appearance by dyeing his hair and putting in different color contacts, and begins work on seducing another wealthy woman, Mary Cullen, who believes that he is a widower raising a daughter on his own. He goes to Cullen's house one night to wine and done her - while carrying a briefcase with Feinstein's severed face in it.
One night, Cullen makes dinner for Everett and Grace, and surprises both of them by proposing to Everett, who accepts before knocking her unconscious. Grace, who is actually fond of Cullen, begs Everett not to hurt her, but Everett ignores her and binds Cullen to a chair, preparing to sit her house on fire with her in it.
Meanwhile, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) begins investigating the murders after Everett kills Feinstein. They profile the killer as a narcissistic, misogynistic white male in his late 30s to early 40s with a criminal history as a con artist. They deduce that he hates the women he cons and murders because they, unlike him, have a sense of self, and so removes their faces after killing them in order to destroy all aspects of their personality. They also deduce that he preys on middle-aged women because he had a dysfunctional relationship with his mother, who was probably herself a criminal who taught him how to con people. Finally, they reason that he finds his victims on dating sites, alters his appearance for each new victim, communicates with them on disposable cell phones, and probably uses elements of the same sob story with every new victim in order to gain their sympathy.
Using this profile, BAU Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia scours the Internet for dating sites catering to well-off middle-aged singles, specifically looking for male dating profiles that emphasize a tragic backstory in order to gain sympathy. She finds multiple profiles created by Lynch, each one disguised but bearing similarities to each other, and each one using elements of a tragic story involving a daughter who nearly drowned thanks to his mother's negligence. Garcia eventually discovers Lynch's true identity, and the BAU realizes that he is the killer. The BAU questions Roberta, who is now imprisoned, and who taunts them that they will never find Everett because "I taught him everything I know". Nevertheless, Garcia is able to find Everett's address.
While preparing to kill Cullen, Everett is interrupted by a phone call from Roberta's lawyer, who delivers a message from her that the BAU is on to him. He sets a trap for them by tying Cullen up in a barn on his property where he keeps his trophies, while also restraining Grace in a chair in the house. When the BAU arrives, Everett opens fire on Agents David Rossi, Tara Lewis, and Matt Simmons, while Grace stabs Agent Luke Alvez in the arm. Everett uses the distraction to flee into the woods behind his house, with Rossi in pursuit. He blindsides Rossi and knocks his weapon out of his hand before choking him into unconsciousness. Everett declines to kill Rossi, however, choosing to inflict a superficial knife wound on his forehead as a reminder that he could have taken off his face if he had wanted to. He then sticks the knife into the ground beside Rossi, and escapes into the wilderness.
"Under the Skin"[]
Six months later, Everett contacts Sebastian Hurst, one of Roberta's former husbands and a fellow psychopath with a sexual fetish for removing and wearing men's skins. He teaches Hurst how to be a careful, efficient serial killer in return for connecting him with private attorney Arthur Terrell, whom he retains to get Grace out of prison. Hurst murders and skins several young, gay men he picks up on Internet dating sites.
Rossi at first believes that Everett committed the murders and that he has started killing and skinning men because they represent his own self-hatred and lack of identity, but he and the rest of the BAU eventually discover that Hurst, a medical examiner who is assisting them on the case, is the killer.
Meanwhile, Everett infiltrate's Grace's prison cell by posing as her new lawyer; he then kills the U.S. marshals guarding her, allowing the two of them flee the prison. BAU Agent Jennifer Jareau intercepts them, but Grace manages to shoot her and severely her, which gives her and Everett the chance to escape.
"Awakenings"[]
Once on the freeway, Everett and Grace get out of their vehicle and carjack another motorist, thwarting Garcia's attempts to track them. Everett tells Grace that they have to split up, making vague promises to find her again in a few months. Grace refuses, however, and tells him she can be useful to him; she proves her worth by talking her way into a middle-aged couple's house and killing them both, and then handing Everett a switchblade so he can remove the wife's face. She also allows him to cut off her ex-girlfriend Charlotte Burke's fingertip so she can use it to access the money in her safety deposit box.
By this point, Everett becomes more unhinged when recalling being abused by his birth father, Delvin Weaver. Hoping he might remember his roots and figure out his own identity, he strangles and smothers Grace dead and cuts off her face, taking it with him.
"Family Tree"[]
Everett eventually marries Alexandria Duggan, a woman from his past who doesn't recognize him, and hides out at her mansion. He confident in her how he worries about his past and she consoles him, oblivious about what Everett really means. He voices over with a quote from Ted Bundy before the episode ends.
"Face Off"[]
Everett kills Alexandria and melts her remains in the basement furnace. A former target of his, Marilyn Irwin, calls him and asks for refuge from her abusive boyfriend, which Everett accepts. Marilyn brings her dsughter Olivia, and he gets into her good graces better by acting as a replacement father figure. All that time, he hired private investigator and disgraced cop Orlando Gaines to track down Weaver so Everett could get answers. Roberta, by this point, violently slaughtered Weaver as revenge.
Everett is set off by this, especially when Rossi tells him, so he tells Rossi to meet him off the side of a highway if the agents want to see the Irwins again, in spite of already having killed Marilyn as well. Everett, while shooting bottles, tries to encourage Rossi to pity him and let him walk, threatening he tampered with Olivia's insulin she has for her diabetes and will refuse her the care she needs. Everett does get away, but they find Alexandria's mansion by researching Everett's history. Roberta got their first, taking Everett at gunpoint and ordering him to admit to Olivia he killed her mother. The agents and other responders surround the mansion, where Roberta is convinces to safely release Olivia. When it's revealed Roberta is prepared to kill Everett and herself, the agents try to pull the raid back, but an explosion fron shooting the gas line kills six officers, as well as causes severe hemmorhaging for Agent Spencer Reid. In spite of the original belief Roberta set off the blast, Everett knocked Roberta out and stole her gun to blow up the house. He left an already murdered Gaines at the scene to pose as Everett and framed Roberta.
"And in the End..."[]
The agents realized Everett was alive when Gaines' DNA came back. Their loved ones all got security details, but Everett shot the agent watching Rossi's wife Krystal and posed as him to get inside her house. He then kidnapped her and called Rossi to lead him to the BAU's private jet. Everett wanted to take Krystal on, but Rossi gave himself up as a hostage. In spite of Everett cuffing Rossi, he picked the cuffs and recovered a hidden gun on the plane. He and Everett shot each other, and when Rossi successfully got out, all the agents opened fire. When the gas line was hit and leaked, JJ grabbed a flare gun and shot the leak, setting the line ablaze and causing the plane to explode, killing Lynch instantly.
Trivia[]
- Lynch is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- Terry Pader Rasmussen, a.k.a. "The Chameleon Killer", an American serial killer notorious for his identity changes, confirmed guilty of six murders in multiple states, including of his own child in the infamous Bear Brook murders.
- Albert Johnson Walker, a.k.a. "The Rolex Killer", a killr of a business associate in the interest of hiding his history of cons, which included employing his daughter to pose as his "wife".
- Henri Désiré Landru, a.k.a. “The Bluebeard of Gambais”, a French serial killer and bigamist with a similar history of marrying and murdering women, with reports of his wife and son’s complicity in the crimes.
- Raymond Fernandez, one of “The Lonely Hearts Killers” in America along with his wife Martha Beck, responsible for conning women nationwide starting with marriages before robbing them and leaving with the spoils, escalating to murder that included bludgeoning and strangulation.
- William Chandler Shurbsall, a socialite and the murderer of his mother, also guilty of several sex crimes across the U.S. and Canada under multiple aliases.
- Helmuth Schmidt, a.k.a. "The American Bluebeard", a serial killer of women he married and robbed in romace scams, utilizing a basememt furnace to burn their remains.
- Béla Kiss, a Hungarian serial killer with an M.O. of strangulation and romance scams, escaping multiple times and never being caught once his crimes were found out from murdered women being found all over his rental property.
- Kenneth Kimes, the son and accomplice of con artist and murderer Sante Kimes, who developed an unhealthy imprint on her that turned him into a criminal as well.
- H. H. Holmes, a.k.a. "The Beast of Chicago", one of America's first serial killers, with a long history of murdering employees, romantic partners, accomplices, and even rntire families for selling their skeletons to medical facilities for profit. Holmes conspired with an inmate and corrupt lawyer to fake his death for an insurance scam.
- John Haigh, a.k.a. "The Acid Bath Murderer", a British serial killer for the purposes of no kiving victims in squatting and fraud schemes, after previous records of fraud and property crimes.
- John Martin Scripps, a.k.a. "The Tourist from Hell", a British serial killer of global citizens touring in various countries, with a criminal record of property crimes and previous abuses and stalking of his ex-wife. Scripps killed and dismembered people to eliminate witnesses after acquainting with and during robbing them, and is suspected of numerous more murders in multiple other countries. Scrips was ultimately hanged for murder in Singapore.
- Danny Rolling, a.k.a. "The Gainesville Ripper", an American serial killer/rapist of women, and previously a family of three, who was phyaically abused by his father and told he was an unwanted child.
- Paul John Knowles, a.k.a. "The Casanova Killer", a serial killer/rapist guilty of a nationwide killing spree after a jailbreak, giving a full confession to his lawyer, then being shot by police.
- Newton Joyce, the main antagonist of the Kay Scarpetta novel “Point of Origin”, a serial killer responsible for cutting off victims’ faces as trophies and burning them in house fires to destroy the evidence.
- Tom Ripley, the main antagonist of the namesake novel and film series, a serial killer and identity thief with global criminal records, escapes, and obsessions with other people's identities out of a crisis with his own.
- Hannibal Lecter, the main antagonist of the namesake franchise, a serial killer and cannibal of numerous people and the archnemesis of federal agents who tracked his crimes and were taunted by him after he escaped. He would cut out and eat various body parts of victims, nearly kill the agents, and was haunted by trauma involving his family.
- Francis Dolarhyde, a.k.a. "The Tooth Fairy", the main antagonist of Red Dragon, a serial killer and necrophile sought by the FBI, who set his house on fire and killed a man to fake his death for a final showdown with the agent on his case and the agent's family.
- Lynch is the second unsub to recite bookend quotes in an episode, the first being Ian Doyle, who recited the closing quote in the Season Six episode "Coda".
- Lynch is the second of only two villains in the show's history to have been inside the BAU's jet, the first being Antonia Slade ("Devil's Backbone" and "The Storm").
External links[]
- Everett Lynch on the Criminal Minds Wiki