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“ | This is proof! This is proof that I can protect our new baby! This is proof. Proof that I'm never, never going to let anything or anyone ever hurt him! | „ |
~ Johnson pleading for his wife to come back to him. |
Tanner Johnson is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Gatekeeper". He is a serial killer who murders people he views as "bad influences" on his community in a delusional attempt to persuade his ex-wife to forgive him for their son's death and come back to him.
He is portrayed by Jack Plotnik.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Johnson worked as a freelance photographer and a part-time doorman. He and his wife, Hannah, had a 10-year-old son named Jeremy. One day, Johnson was watching over Jeremy and a friend who had come over as they playfully wrestled each other and stepped away for a moment to answer a phone call. When he came back, he discovered that Jeremy had lost consciousness after his friend put him a chokehold, and he tried in vain to revive him. Jeremy was hospitalized, but doctors told Johnson and Hannah that their son was braindead, and so they took him off of life support to end his suffering. Hannah blamed Johnson for Jeremy's death, accusing him of being "too weak" to protect his family, and divorced him, leaving him alone and devastated by grief and guilt.
In his isolation, Johnson gradually lost contact with reality and became deeply paranoid; he grew obsessed with the idea that his community was full of "bad influences" like the boy who killed his son, and began spying on his neighbors, convinced that he was the "guardian" of his community.
Johnson's breaking point occurred, and He became obsessed with proving to Hannah (who was pregnant with their second child), that he was strong and capable enough to protect her and the baby, which he deluded himself was his, and so began killing people in the community he saw as "bad influences", beginning with Michael Dunsmore, who smoked marijuana, and Ryan Maxford, a homeless man who panhandled for money in the neighborhood. His modus operandi was to stalk his victims, blitz-attack them from behind, and strangle them to death. He then took Polaroid photos of his victims' corpses, stole their wallets, and cut off pieces of their hair to keep in a scrapbook as trophies.
"Gatekeeper"[]
Johnson kills womanizer Scott Delfino and juvenile delinquent Colin Kirkland within days of each other, taking their pictures and wallets and cutting off locks of their hair. He then goes to work, where he encounters Ashley Foulani, Delfino's last conquest before Johnson killed him. Foulani, whom Delfino had manipulated into believing he loved her, inadvertently finds Johnson's scrap book and realizes that he killed Delfino; she then threatens to call the police. During the ensuing struggle, Johnson accidentally knocks Foulani over a railing, sending her falling to her death three stories below. He panics and garrotes the body post-mortem so the police will not think she was killed by the same person as Delfino and Kirkland, but he also covers her body with a blanket out of remorse.
Meanwhile, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) investigates the murders of Delfino and Kirkland, profiling the killer as a male voyeur in his 30s or 40s who preys on people he views as immoral, and who keeps trophies of his victims to create and preserve a fantasy version of himself as righteous and powerful. They also deduce that the killer lives in same the area where he dumps his victims' bodies, and that he has a job that allows him to observe people unnoticed. Finally, they theorize that Foulani's murder, which seems impulsive and sloppy in contrast to the others and displays signs of remorse, means that the killer is devolving as an important event in his life, such as the birth of a child, fast approaches. Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia cross-references expectant fathers with men who work in solitary jobs such as service workers, groundskeepers, and security guards, and eventually finds Johnson.
Johnson breaks into Hannah's house, where she is going into labor, and kills her brother. He shows a terrified Hannah his murder scrapbook, saying that it is "proof" that he is strong enough to protect her and the baby, which he refers to as "ours"; he even offers to deliver the child himself. Between contractions, Hannah curses Johnson, saying that he is still weak, and is now a murderer who she would not let near her child. Just then, the BAU bursts into the house to arrest him. Panicked, Johnson takes Hannah hostage by holding a pair of scissors to her throat, but BAU Agent Spencer Reid persuades him to let her go by lying that he can tell the baby's umbilical cord is wrapped around its neck. As Johnson is taken into federal custody, Reid and fellow BAU Agent Derek Morgan deliver the baby, a perfectly healthy boy whom Hannah named "Reid" in gratitude to Agent Reid for saving her life and that of her child. Johnson, meanwhile, is imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Johnson is inspired by multiple real-life and fictional serial killers:
- Cleophus Prince, Jr., a.k.a. “The Clairemont Killer”, a serial killer/rapist of women near where his girlfriend lives and whom he stalked when they all went to the same gym.
- Edward, the main antagonist of the slasher film Too Scared to Scream; another doorman and serial killer of the tenants in his building to impress his co-worker and former intimate partner.
- Johnson's son's death is inspired by the Lionel Tate case.
External links[]
- Tanner Johnson on the Criminal Minds Wiki