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“ | Do you see Mr. Scratch? | „ |
~ Peter Lewis. |
Peter Lewis, also known as Mr. Scratch, is one of two main antagonists (alongside The Reaper) of the CBS TV series Criminal Minds.
He is a recurring serial killer by proxy, hacker, and stalker, as well as one of major enemies of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), particularly Aaron Hotchner.
He was portrayed by Bodhi Elfman.
Biography[]
Lewis was born in Jacksonville, Florida on January 28, 1980. He had a genius-level IQ, and was particularly gifted in math. Lewis's parents ran a care facility for children waiting to find a foster family. During the 80's and the early 90's, at the height of the daycare sex abuse panic, a few of the foster children, manipulated by police and social workers, falsely accused Lewis' father of dressing up as the Devil and sexually abusing them. Soon after this the police imprisoned Lewis' father for child molestation; Lewis himself was manipulated into testifying against him. Lewis' father was killed in prison when Lewis was 13.
Lewis went on to attend Harvard, taking the highest classes of math. After this he was hired by the NSA. In 1992, Dr. Susannah Regan, the psychiatrist who spearheaded the investigation that sent Lewis' father to prison, was discredited, and had to go into witness protection because she was getting death threats. Lewis then began to seek revenge against Regan and the now-grown children who accused his father.
Lewis takes his revenge by dosing his victims with a fear-inducing hallucinogen that makes them believe they are being attacked by a monstrous creature called "Mr. Scratch"; the drug also makes them extremely suggestible. He then orders them to kill a loved one to inflict on them the pain of losing a family member. The victims are then imprisoned for murder, their lives destroyed, even though they have no memory of what they did.
After Lewis commits three such attacks, the BAU are brought on to the investigation. Lewis targets another former foster child and tries to force him to kill his son, but the man's parental instinct overpowers Lewis' commands, and he kills himself in order to spare his son. Lewis hacks into the witness protection database to find Regan, causing a blackout. After the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) find out he works for the NSA, Special Supervisory Agent Aaron Hotchner speaks to a NSA employee, finds out Lewis' identity and deduces that Regan will be the next victim.
When Hotchner gets to Regan's house, Lewis forces her to kill herself right in front of him, then drugs him. Lewis then tries to get in Hotchner's head, making him hallucinate that Lewis is killing his BAU colleagues. Hotchner then shoots at Lewis, causing him to run and hide in the attic. When found, Lewis surrenders, satisfied that he got in Hotchner's head.
Later Hotchner is arrested for conspiracy. Lewis testifies against Hotchner through a recording, here he states that when he drugged him that Hotchner was laughing at his team members getting killed when hallucinating and that Lewis was scared of him. After the cased is closed it is revealed that Lewis was actually conspiring with fellow serial killer Antonia Slade to engineer a mass prison escape which released 13 serial killers, including himself.
Now on the run, Lewis targets people with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). Lewis kidnaps one such person, a serial killer named Daniel Cullen. He then goes to Arizona and found a patient named Brian Phillips. He brainwashes Brian into believing he is the "Crimson King" and makes him carve "BAU" into his stomach. He then makes him commit several crimes and steals a page of DID patients around the country. Peter then invites him into a house and tells him he has to go then shows Brian the real "Crimson King". Lewis is then seen later finding his next victim.
After Arizona, Lewis begins stalking Hotchner's son Jack, provoking Hotchner to go into witness protection with his son and leave the BAU.
Later Lewis kidnaps a DID patient and BAU Agent Tara Lewis' brother, Gabriel. Lewis makes the DID patient believe that he is Gabriel while he keeps the real Gabriel in a warehouse. While investigating the BAU find a tape of Gabriel yelling "Luke". Lewis is then seen wearing a gas mask saying, "Luke can't help you now". When the BAU arrive at the booby-trapped warehouse, Gabriel is alive, but Lewis is long gone.
Lewis is then the main suspect in framing BAU Agent Spencer Reid for murder. He is spotted in Honduras. Lewis is mentioned many times during this case.
Lewis then returns by texting Agent Derek Morgan posing as BAU Technical Specialist Penelope Garcia using her cloned phone number. Morgan was suspicious of this and informs the BAU. Garcia then traces the text and the team head to the location. When they are heading there Lewis disables their SUVs with spikes and then he or a proxy ram into them with a semi-truck. After the crash, everyone except Stephen Walker lives. Lewis drugged Special Supervisory Agent Emily Prentiss before kidnapping her and trying to get her to tell him where Hotchner is. After being tortured by hallucinations she breaks free and the team arrives. Reid and Lewis exchange gunfire before Agent Luke Alvez gives chase. After another gunfight, a platform Lewis is standing on breaks, causing him to fall. Hanging from the ledge, he asks for help, but loses his grip and falls to his death.
Lewis is the mentioned many times and appears in flashbacks for the rest of the series.
Modus operandi[]
Lewis brainwashes people to kill instead of actually killing them himself. He does this by drugging them with a mixture of powerful dissociative agents. He targeted the people that caused his father's imprisonment but after this he usually targeted people with DID. When his victims are drugged, they would hallucinate a "monster" called "Mr. Scratch".
Personality[]
Lewis is cunning, ruthless, and very manipulative. The traumatic loss of his father, and his unacknowledged guilt for testifying against him, bred in him a violent, insatiable need for revenge against the people who destroyed his family. To that end, he brainwashes them into killing those they love most.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Lewis is primarily inspired by Kunio Mamiya, the main antagonist of the Japanese film Cure.
- Lewis is also similar to Frank Abagnale, a.k.a. "The Skywayman", a reformed international con artist who would later improve America's national security programs.
- Peter Lewis is the first antagonist in the series to appear in more than two seasons.
- He is the second antagonist in the series to murder a main character.
- Along with The Reaper, Peter Lewis is one of Hotchner's nemeses.
- Peter Lewis is one of the most personal enemies of the BAU.
- Lewis is the third villain in the series to be murdered by a member the BAU out of vengeance and not brought to justice or be killed in self defense, as Alvez deliberately chose to let him fall to his death for his actions. The first one was William Lee, whom Elle Greenaway killed in a fit of rage and the second one being The Reaper, who Hotchner beaten to death to protect his son.
External Links[]
- Peter Lewis on the Criminal Minds Wiki