MINDHUNTER

Mr. Miller?

Is everyone okay in there?

Agent Ford, FBI.

Here, sir.

We want to know what's going on.

If you harm anyone, it will not end well for you!

Special Agent Holden Ford.

- Ninkovich. - Is he talking?

Not making sense. Been briefed?

On the way over. Five people still in there?

A security guard, the secretary, three guys from the line.

- Where is she? - Take it easy, Mr. Miller.

I want my wife!

Put the gun down, step away from Ms. Curtwell.

- I have asked you... - We need to see that everyone is unharmed.

You gonna shoot me?

If you do not abide by our terms, and soon...

You can't see me!

I'm warning you, our patience is wearing thin.

How can you shoot what you can't see?

Mr. Miller!

- No, thank you. -

Hey, Cody.

My name is Holden. I'd like to help you.

- Tell me what's going on. - I gotta talk to my wife.

- All right. - She's the only one.

I understand.

For the moment, is there anything else we can get you?

Get these fucking people away.

Okay.

- Okay... -

If I can get them to back off,

will you... relax with Ms. Curtwell?

Give us some time to reach your wife.

Okay.

Thank you.

Keep the snipers. Back out the perimeter.

If he starts firing, we'll have to storm the place.

They're making me nervous. Imagine what they're doing to him.

He has no criminal history. He's clearly having an episode.

We need to keep him calm and wear him down.

Get rid of those reporters.

All right, guys. Back it up!

- All right. Let's go. Back it up. - Move back.

How am I doing?

- You see me? - Oh, God.

Yes, I can see you!

- What do you see? - I can see that you're naked.

I can see that you're cold.

Is there a phone? Can we get him on the line?

- He's got it off the hook. - That was his demand, talk to his wife?

Took all day to find her. She's on her way.

- You're not bringing her. - I want her to calm him.

Her presence might have the opposite effect.

Hi, Mrs. Miller? Don't get out.

I'm Holden Ford from the FBI. Do you understand the situation?

- Cody's got some people in there? - What happened this morning?

I don't know.

I tried to get him sectioned on Sunday, but I haven't seen him since.

They told me he stole a shotgun, robbed a liquor store?

Was he delusional? Violent?

He's not violent.

He's been saying that he's invisible for a while now.

Truly invisible. He's been seeing a doctor.

Did the doctor diagnose him?

Cody wouldn't tell me.

He's taking medication, but he might've stopped.

- What kind of medication? - I'm not sure.

Here's his doctor.

You tried to get him sectioned?

He kept talking to people that weren't there, saying they could see him.

I told him I was gonna leave him if he didn't go to the hospital.

- You gave him an ultimatum? - I'm sorry.

- I feel awful. - This is not your fault.

Has he hurt anyone?

Not that we know about. I'm sending you along for now.

Have someone call his doctor.

Get his wife to tell him she won't leave him.

We need more information. Let's see if we can get him on the line.

Cody!

Everything okay in there?

I'd really like to know what's going on in there.

I promise you, we can work this out.

Where's my wife?

It's a difficult situation. Taking a while to get her here.

- She doesn't want to talk to me? - That's not it.

She is very worried about you.

- You talked to her? - On the phone.

- Maybe you could talk to her on the phone. - No!

She has to be here.

- I understand your frustration. - What do you understand?

Not being able to communicate with a trusted loved one.

What do you want to say to her?

Why would I tell you?

Maybe I can help.

I don't think so.

- Thank you. - You're welcome.

You followed procedure. You did your job. You did everything by the book.

He took hostages. He knew there'd be consequences.

- He thought he was invisible. - You're not his shrink.

You're not responsible for diagnosing him. That's not your remit.

These things happen in real time, and we are the last responders.

If an operation's gonna go south, this is not the worst outcome.

Stay focused on what we do.

If I did everything by the book, it begs the question...

This place is pretty much the benchmark for excellence in law enforcement.

In the rest of the world, hostage negotiation's on its way out.

You think the Israelis bothered to negotiate at Entebbe last year?

You didn't lose one hostage or bystander. That's how we measure success.

And your courses are a big hit in the summer.

I actually think you should be teaching more.

- You're putting me out to pasture. - No.

I'm putting you to work where it really counts.

Despite what happened.

Because of what happened, Holden.

It seasoned you.

Thank you, sir...

but I'd rather not.

Well, this is awkward.

I'd like you to sleep on it over the weekend...

because you start full-time on Monday.

This is how we find ourselves completely out of control.

The fugitive has already killed a police officer that morning in Austin.

He's taken two nine-millimeter rounds in the ass,

grabbed a ten-year-old boy as a hostage,

and he's holed up in a suburban neighborhood

crawling with women and small children.

Now we must focus on one thing:

de-escalation.

San Antonio's chief of police arrives and starts using a bullhorn,

which more than effectively intimidates our hostage-taker.

Coming at anyone with an attitude of "I'm right, you're wrong"

assumes that they're of rational mind.

We must establish communication.

Non-threatening communication.

Ascertain demands,

concede nothing, reject nothing, just listen.

Listen to what he has to say.

Try understanding him instead of trying to dominate him.

Look for common ground.

Find commonality.

And if it feels like you're buying time, well... that's because you are.

But it's the key to making any perp feel heard.

- -

Our goal is no body bags.

That is the hostage negotiator win-win.

And I'm in my office on Friday for anyone who has questions

about the psychological strategies exam.

Wanton, indiscriminate murder.

Seemingly random, serendipitous.

Each one, extremely violent.

No explanation. No apparent reason.

They weren't sexually assaulted,

there was no attempt to relieve them of valuables,

they didn't know their assailant.

Robert Violante and Stacy Moskowitz were making out in their car

when David Berkowitz walked up and shot them both point-blank.

Berkowitz killed six people over two summers,

wounding seven more. Why?

Because a dog told him to do it.

Now...

we can say that the guy's crazy, or that he's pretending that he's crazy.

But if we're looking for a motive we can understand,

we suddenly find there is none.

It's a void.

It's a black hole.

Forty years ago, your FBI was founded hunting down John Dillinger,

Baby Face Nelson, Machine Gun Kelly.

Criminals who thumbed their noses at society,

but were basically in it for personal gain.

Now, we have extreme violence between strangers.

Where do we go...

when motive becomes elusive?

Excuse me, Professor Rathman?

Holden Ford, Hostage Negotiation.

Peter. Hi.

I listened in on your class earlier. What you were saying about crime today...

I don't know, it really resonates.

- Gets attention. - Were you teaching this before Berkowitz?

A version of it. The headlines kind of fell into my lap.

What got you started?

Stark weather. Whitman. Manson, of course.

But Son of Sam kind of epitomizes now.

It's as if... we don't know anymore what moves people to kill one another.

Used to be you find a victim with 50 stab wounds,

you look for the jilted lover, the ex-business partner.

Now... it could be a random run-in with a disgruntled mailman.

It's a different era. No more "Just the facts, ma'am."

That's television. And reruns.

- Crime has changed. - Right.

Do you... want to grab a beer?

Yeah, okay.

Look at the unprecedented events

that have occurred in the past decade and a half.

A president assassinated.

Fighting an unpopular war that we didn't win.

National Guard killing four college students.

- You can hardly wrap your mind around it. - Watergate.

Our democracy is vanishing into what?

Is that what all this is about?