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“ | I want her to pay for what she's done. | „ |
~ Greg threatening to kill Kate. |
Greg Phinney is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "The Stranger". He is a serial killer who preys on women who remind him of his stepmother, Kate.
He was portrayed by Chad Todhunter.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Greg was born in Chula Vista, California. He exhibited sociopathic behavior from a young age, made worse when his mother died in a car crash when he was eleven. A year after his mother's death, his father began dating his former babysitter, Kate Jones, whom Greg was obsessed with. When his father married Kate, Greg began acting out violently by torturing animals and threatening Kate with a knife. He was put in juvenile detention several times before his father finally had him institutionalized when he was seventeen.
He was released in 2011, shortly after his father died, and was set up with a work-release job as a data entry clerk. Triggered by his father's death, he began killing young women who reminded him of Kate, using his job to access his victims' driver's licenses. Once he selected a victim, he would ambush them in their home and stab them multiple times with a knife. For his first victim, he showed hesitation, but as he evolved as a killer, he began to enjoy it, even smearing blood on the walls.
"The Stranger"[]
After claiming two victims, Greg attacks and kills Amber Lasko. With a third victim, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit are put on the case. Meanwhile, he begins stalking Laurie Burgin, posing as an online flirtation in order to follow her to a babysitting job through her Internet records. Greg then breaks into the house she is babysitting at and kills her in front of the child she is watching, whom he feeds and comforts. He sends several tweets on Burgin's Twitter profile after killing her in order to mock her after she is dead.
Wanting to inflict more suffering, Greg attacks another babysitter, Lily Droubey, while she is talking to the parents of the child she is sitting for. He kills Droubey and the husband in front of the child's mother, and rapes Droubey post-mortem with a knife. He then poses the bodies to make it seems as if they are looking at each other.
By now, Greg has worked up enough courage to confront the real target of his rage, Kate. He breaks into her house, ties her up, and tortures her by inflicting superficial wounds on her wrists. The agents of the BAU, having figured out that Greg is the killer and whom he will attack next, show up at Kate's door, and persuade Greg to let them in.
Once inside the house, agent Ashley Seaver empathizes with Greg to get him to lower his guard while Supervisory Agent David Rossi leads local police through the back yard. She even speaks harshly to Kate to convince him that she is on his side. Greg tells Kate he had always loved her, and demands to know why she did not love him back, and Kate replies that she and his father knew he was sick beyond help and simply wanted him out of their lives. At that moment, Rossi enters the house through an open window, and Greg turns around with his weapon pointed at him, leaving Rossi no choice but to shoot him dead.
Victims[]
- Natalie Wallace
- Monica Shanley
- Amber Lasko
- Laurie Burgin
- Jake Ellison
- Lily Droubay
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Greg is primarily inspired by Danny Rolling, a.k.a. “The Gainesville Ripper”, a violent serial killer of college students in Florida, as well as an entire family.
External Links[]
- Greg Phinney on the Criminal Minds Wiki