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Philip Henson is the overarching antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "The Crossing". Henson is the severely abusive husband of Audrey Henson, who shot him in his sleep to be rid of him.
No actors portrayed him in the episode.
Biography[]
Phillip Hensen and Audrey Sawyer married in 1987 in Boston. Henson was a domineering, unrealistically demanding husband to Audrey, degrading, manipulating, and terrorizing her every day of their marriage, ordering her around over the most constricting routines and insulting her and making her feel hopeless over the most trivial problems and mistakes. Henson terrorized Audrey into such trauma-induced imprinting she struggled to muster up effort from her desire to leave him. It became worse when their two children, Sarah and Nathan, abused Audrey just like Philip and looked to him as the better, more effortful parent when their spoiled natures turned into codependence on him, despite Audrey's strenuous work as the family's housewife. With how much Audrey was painted as a terrible housekeeper and an uninvolved mother in her children's lives, she only had birth and marriage certificates in her legal records. Philip topped off threatening Audrey with keeping a shotgun in the house, as well as refused her love and affection by making them both sleep in separate beds. One day, when she saw Philip sleeping as she was doing the laundry, she saw an opportunity to be rid of him, taking his shotgun and killing him with it. However, her paranoia over the family's hatred of her was so bad, she cleaned up the scene from believing they'd hate if the police entered the houses as "guests" to find the carnage a "mess" the family wouldn't want. Audrey sat next to Philip's corpse until Sarah found them and called the police. The prosecutor on the case, Eve Alexander, consulted the Behavioral Analysis Unit, in spite of how confident she said she felt in her side of the case. The agents came to the obvious conclusion from how Audrey echoed back the gaslighting thrown at her, how she described what went through her mind during the murder: she was a battered woman bordering a traumatic bond in the realm of Stockholm Syndrome. The prosecutor conceded her case was weak and prepared for a significantly reduced sentence in a plea deal for Audrey, criminally negligent homicide and sentencing her to time served so she may be paroled.
Trivia[]
- Henson is inspired by multiple real-life murdered abusers:
- Dr. Frank Polk, a psychotherapist stabbed to death by Susan Polk, a former patient Polk had repeatedly raped when she was sent to him for therapy as a child, until she became his wife and the father of their children. Their kids were divided on whether to support or blame Susan for the murder.
- Matthew Winkler, a priest shot by his wife Mary Winkler, who defended herself as an abused wife who was psychologically terrorized by Matthew during their marriage.
- Mike Stewart, the murdered husband of Peggy Stewart, who shot her husband dead as he slept in 1998 to stop years of domestic violence in their marriage.
- Scott Shanahan, the murdered husband of Dixie Shanahan Duty, who shot her husband with a shotgun while he slept in his bed in 2004 to stop years of domestic violence.