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| “ | You refuse to notice the disgusting state of the world in which you live. You close yourself off rather than facing the reality that you're all just animals pretending to be something more. | „ |
| ~ One of Steve's misanthropic rants. |
Steve (last name unknown) is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Sense Memory". He is a misanthropic, delusional serial killer who kills and mutilates women to create a "perfect scent" from their bodies.
He was portrayed by the late Brad William Henke, who also portrayed Desi Piscatella in Orange is the New Black, John Cooke in Split, Frank in The Office, Ted Sanderson in Law & Order, and Don Kubiak in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Overview[]
Steve is an angry, delusional social misfit who drives a gypsy cab so he can be alone to record his bizarre, misanthropic rants about the "disgusting" state of the world and the human race. While he disdains people - particularly women - as mere animals, he is obsessed with their smell, which activates in him a sense memory of a sun-drenched meadow in springtime. While he has no medical or scientific training, he has an advanced knowledge of chemistry, and he is determined to use his skills to create the "perfect scent" by dissecting women and distilling their "essences".
He chooses his victims by inhaling their smell when they get into his cab; if the "subject" is "right", he pushes a button on the steering wheel that releases an aerosol type of chloroform in the backseat, which renders the woman unconscious. He then takes her to his makeshift laboratory in his garage, where chains her to a board on the ceiling and submerges and drowns her in a tub of methanol. After draining her body, he cuts a small square of flesh from her foot to keep as a souvenir and dumps the body.
"Sense Memory"[]
Steve has killed three women by the time the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is called in to investigate. Steve considers his "experiments" up to this point to have been failures, as the "scents" he distilled from them did not have their desired effect on him. He kidnaps and murders another woman, but this, too, falls short of his expectations. When Anisa Gold gets in his cab, however, he believes he has finally found the right "subject" and knocks her unconscious with chloroform.
When Anisa wakes up, she realizes that Steve is going to kill her and begs for her life. Steve, referring to Anisa by her test subject number rather than her name, calmly tells her that her death will be easier if she does not struggle, but that it is up to her.
Meanwhile, the agents of the BAU create a profile of the killer, deducing that he drives a gypsy cab and is extremely antisocial, an egomaniac and control freak with a violent, explosive temper. After interviewing several women who took cabs in the area where the victims were kidnapped, they talk to one who recalls Steve screaming at her and throwing her out of his cab for no apparent reason. They track down the cab's license plate and use it to find Steve's address.
They arrive at Steve's garage just as he is about to kill Anisa, who uses the distraction to break free of her restraints and run to safety. Panicked, Steve gets into his cab and flees, with the BAU in hot pursuit. He swerves to avoid a van, but slams into the trailer of an 18-wheeler truck, killing him on impact. As he dies, he hits the play button on his recorder, which plays the audio of one of his rants.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Steve is inspired by multiple real-life and fictional criminals:
- Lam Kor-wan, a.k.a. "The Jars Murderer", a serial killer and necrophile who murdered women who entered his cab; after strangling them to death, he would dismember their remains at his home and keep their organs in Tupperware.
- The late Jerry Brudos, a.k.a. "The Shoe Fetish Slayer", a serial killer/rapist of women who he held captive and murdered in his basement, afterwards keeping their body parts as trophies.
- Edmund Kemper, a.k.a. "The Co-Ed Killer", a serial killer of women and girls he kidnapped and murdered, leaving their remains in isolated locations; some of their remains were taken home, and they were also targets of his rage since he projected his mother onto them.
- Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the protagonist villain of the 1985 Patrick Susskind novel and the subsequent film adaptation Perfume, a serial killer of women during the Middle Ages, in the hopes of siphoning their natural scents from them to turn into elixirs.
- Travis Bickle, the protagonist villain of the 1976 Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver, a spree killer and vigilante obsessed with a local prostitute, silently practicing misanthropic tirades, and commititng murders throughout New York City.
External links[]
- Steve at the Criminal Minds Wiki
