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| “ | Look up to the sky. | „ |
| ~ Harris' repeated line while killing his victims. |
Rodney Harris is a supporting antagonist in Criminal Minds, appearing as a supporting antagonist in the Season 2 episode "Profiler, Profiled" and later as the main antagonist of the Season 8 episode "Restoration". He is introduced in the former episode as a drug dealer and childhood enemy of FBI agent and BAU profiler Derek Morgan, and in the latter, he is revealed to be a serial killer of men he believes are child molesters.
He was portrayed by Keith Tisdell.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Harris grew up poor in the South Side of Chicago, and as a child, led a street gang that victimized other kids in the neighborhood, including Derek Morgan. Like Morgan, Harris was sexually abused by Carl Buford, a youth counselor and pillar of the community. Keron Bender, another of Buford's victims, later described Harris as Buford's "favorite" who "got it the worst".
One day, Harris got into a fight with Morgan, who knocked him to the ground, causing him to hit his head and suffer brain damage. These traumas, combined with the harsh environment he grew up in, drove him to develop borderline personality disorder and become a drug dealer and stick-up artist as an adult. He also harbored a lifelong resentment of Morgan, who suffered similar hardships as a child but grew up to become a successful, respected criminal profiler with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU).
At some point, Harris married Sheila Goode, with whom he had a son, Tyler. Eventually, however, Sheila tired of his heavy drinking and repeated broken promises to stop dealing; she divorced him, and took full custody of Tyler.
"Profiler, Profiled"[]
Harris is first seen harassing Morgan, who has come back to his old neighborhood to visit his family and pay respects to an unidentified boy who was murdered years earlier. It is later revealed that Buford, a serial killer as well as a child molester, murdered the boy. Harris is later seen threatening James Barfield, Buford's latest molestation victim, and his friend Damien Walters in front of Buford's youth center. Buford chases Harris away, only to murder Walters later on, a crime for which Morgan arrests him by the end of the episode.
"Restoration"[]
Six years later, Harris has given up his life of crime, but his mental illness, substance abuse, and childhood trauma still interfere with his life. When Sheila tells Harris that Tyler was molested by his swimming coach, Michael Crowley, it brings back memories of his own abuse, and he snaps and beats Crowley to death. He then becomes obsessed with killing pedophiles.
While trolling for victims, Harris sees shopkeeper Anthony Rango giving two young boys snacks from his store, and incorrectly assumes that he is molesting them. Enraged, he beats Rango to death in an alley behind the store. He spray-paints "Look to the sky," the same thing Buford used to say while abusing him, on the wall of an adjoining storage shed. Finally, leaves behind a broken bottle of Helgenson Vineyards wine, Buford's drink of choice for plying his victims, before pulling down Rango's pants in order to humiliate him. Now in a frenzy, he murders Rodney Avill and Sean Traner in the same fashion, also believing incorrectly that they were child molesters.
The local police call in the BAU to profile the killer, and Morgan immediately realizes the significance of the graffiti and the broken bottle; he realizes that the killer is one of Buford's victims. After getting a list of Buford's victims from Buford himself, Morgan and technical analyst Penelope Garcia go through the personal lives - and, often, criminal records - of the victims. They realize that Harris is the killer after finding records of Tyler's abuse, which Morgan realizes was the trigger that set him off to kill men he believed were child molesters.
Meanwhile, Harris attacks Sheila, Tyler, and Sheila's new husband, Paul Kelly, in their home, taking them hostage at gunpoint. The BAU arrives at the scene moments later, and Morgan tries to talk Harris down by admitting that Buford molested him, too, and that their abuser was now in prison. When Harris still refuses to let them go, Morgan tells him he is traumatizing Tyler the same way Buford traumatized him. Ashamed, Harris puts down his weapon and breaks down crying in his son's arms. He is arrested and imprisoned, but is last seen with a smile on his face as he watches a TV news report of Buford's murder at the hands of his fellow inmates.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Harris is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- Patrick Drum, a spree killer of child sexual offenders in Alaska, motivated by a childhood stranger rape.
- Gary Plauché, the murderer of Jeff Doucet, the kidnapper and rapist if Gary's son Jody, who was in Doucet's karate classes.
- Heriberto Seda, a.k.a. "The New York Zodiac Killer", a serial killer of random people in New York City evoking the unidentified "Zodiac Killer", resulting in considering the original case as a lead. Seda was identified after taking his family hostage and shooting his sister.
External Links[]
- Rodney Harris on the Criminal Minds Wiki
