Mindhunter season 1 binge recap

Executive producer and director David Fincher crafts a 10-episode origin story for the modern serial killer with Netflix’s new drama Mindhunter, starring Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany as a pair of FBI agents on the forefront of ’70s criminal psychology. We’re recapping the entire season, so follow along page by page. (Just maybe don’t eat first.)

“Episode 1”

Gather around kids and let Netflix tell you about the craze that swept the nation in the ’70s: serial killers! That’s basically the premise of Mindhunter, which, based on the series premiere, feels like a prequel for the many, many serial killer procedurals we know and digest: Criminal Minds, Hannibal, Law & Order, and more. This show is basically explaining where all of those psychological terms we hear tossed around on those shows came from. It’s an interesting idea, but the premiere is rather slow and we don’t even get to see our two lead FBI agents actually interview serial killers. Instead, the hour is more concerned with them realizing how ill-equipped they are to confront this terrifying phenomena.

We begin in Braddock, Pennsylvania, where the local police are trying to negotiate with Cody Miller, a man who has taken several hostages and is demanding to speak to his wife. Boyish Midwestern Special Agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), who actually teaches hostage negotiation tactics at Quantico, arrives on the scene and tries to diffuse the situation by applying a lighter touch. Whereas the local officer is making demands of Cody, Holden simply tries talking to him. Alas, his efforts are for naught, and Cody blows his own head off with a shotgun when it seems like his wife won’t be coming. Sure, this seems like a win (the hostages survived), but for Holden, it isn’t because his preferred outcome is one without any body bags, criminal or hostage. The episode will go on to reiterate that multiple times, but this entire interaction reveals a few things about Holden: He’s compassionate, empathetic, and really interested in what’s going on in people’s minds.

The next day, Holden heads to the Academy and learns that he’s being assigned to teach full time, which isn’t what he was interested in doing. On his way out of his class, he overhears another agent giving a lecture about the Son of Sam and the new breed of murderers popping up around the country, whose motives aren’t immediately clear, which piques his interest. So, he grabs a drink with the lecturer, and the two of them get to theorizing this new kind of criminality. Is it a response to the political turmoil of the era? “The world barely makes sense, so it follows that crime doesn’t either,” Holden suggests. In the end, who knows?

After his drinking buddy departs, Holden’s attention is stolen by a woman who approaches the bar: Debbie (Hannah Gross), an obvious Manic Pixie Dream Girl who’s studying sociology. Their wild night includes: Debbie teasing Holden about being so uptight; the two of them discussing deviancy theory, which is definitely how most people flirt while at a loud rock concert; and Debbie convincing Holden to smoke pot for the first time (jokes!).

Holden decides he wants to go back to school to learn about the new developments in criminology. His boss agrees to pay for him to audit some classes but he has to also recruit new agents while he’s on campus. It’s the ’70s, so everyone at UVA is immediately suspicious of the fed lurking around their classrooms, and his attempts at recruiting one of his professors ultimately fails. One of the classes he audits does raise one interesting point: Are criminals born or made?

And, thus Holden finally comes face to face with the show’s other co-lead, Special Agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany). As part of the B.S.* unit, Bill travels the country teaching classes to local police. It’s an opportunity for the police to learn what the FBI knows and for the FBI to get a sense of what these people are encountering on the ground. Bill picks up on Holden’s inquisitiveness about these new motive-less killers and invites Holden to join him in the trenches.

*(In hindsight, this abbreviation, which I don’t think the show actually uses, is pretty apt given the fact Shepard literally tells Holden that the bureau doesn’t take psychologists seriously as agents)

So, Holden and Bill hit the road like Sam and Dean Winchester (except there’s more talking about monsters than actually confronting them or taking them down), and their first stop is Iowa. There, they give a lecture about how motive has become elusive in 1977 and how it’s now incumbent on them to channel their Freud-in-Beyond the Pleasure Principle and look past what they assume are the obvious impulses. Naturally, Ford gets too intellectual about all of this and ends up rubbing most of the cops the wrong way, especially once he suggests that Charles Manson might not have been born a murderer but became one after a rough childhood, which included being institutionalized.

That night, Frank McGraw, one of the detectives in the meeting who objected to Holden’s presentation, apologizes for going off during the class and actually asks Holden and Bill to help him with a current case he’s working on: A woman who worked at the local church and her child were bound, brutally murdered and sexually assaulted, and he has no idea how to figure this case out. This is exactly the kind of case Holden and Bill have been talking about. Unfortunately, more questions leads to more questions, and Holden realizes that they simply aren’t equipped to tackle anything like this. He makes the mistake of saying to the frustrated Frank, which pisses both Frank and Bill off.

As they drive out of town, Bill gives Holden one piece of advice: Call his girlfriend the next time he needs to “flip your s—t.” This seems like the makings of a beautiful partnership.

Most F—ed Up Moment: When Cody Miller blows his head off in the cold open

Grade: B

— Chancellor Agard

(Click ahead for episode 2)

“Episode 2”

Two episodes in and it’s clear Mindhunter isn’t what I was expecting. The show’s trailers and teasers made it look very moody and gloomy, but it turns out that’s not the case — especially in “Episode 2,” which shows off the series’ twisted sense of humor. I laughed out a few times, often because I was feeling super uncomfortable (see: every conversation between Holden and the Co-Ed Killer) but it was still laughter, so I’ll take it.

In “Episode 2,” Holden and Bill take their dark road show to California. Holden is particularly jazzed to be out in the Golden State. No, not because he wants to work on his tan. He wants to interview a serial killer! Obviously, his first choice is Charles Manson, but there’s no way he’s getting in to see him. Luckily, he gets a lead from a local detectives—Ed Kemper, a.k.a. the aforementioned Co-Ed Killer (Cameron Britton), who murdered several college women, decapitated them, and then had sex with their corpses. Apparently, he’s a very talkative fellow.

Bill thinks visiting Kemper off the books is a bad idea, but Holden throws caution to the wind and goes forward with the interview. (Bill goes golfing instead. Who has the better time in California? You decide!) One of the low-key funniest moments of the episode is when a prison guard makes Holden sign a piece a paper that waives the U.S. government of any liability if he gets injured while there. He’s taken to a room where he comes face-to-face with Ed, a creepily polite guy who is also best friends with every guard in the prison. You want an egg sandwich? Ed will get one of the guards to deliver it to you whether you like it or not. Ed loves cop shows and says that’s how he managed to evade capture for all those years. And like everyone else on this show, Ed notes that Holden is super tense. Britton is also frightening in this role, there’s something menacing lurking just beneath this mannerly exterior.

The biggest and creepiest nugget of information to come out of Holden’s first meeting with Ed is that he views killing as vocation and that it’s hard work. In fact, he refers to his murder spree as his oeuvre. It’s also here that we learn Holden, a relative newcomer to this particular field of criminal justice, has started referring to murderers like Ed as “sequence killers.” Who wants to bet that Holden comes up with the name “serial killers” in the season finale, probably in a scene with his girlfriend Debbie?

These interviews with Ed start getting to Holden and it’s all he can think about. When he grabs breakfast with Debbie after a particular visit, he orders an “Ed Salad Sandwich,” which sounds like the most disgusting thing in the world. Thank God, I didn’t egg salad sandwiches before because I definitely wouldn’t want to after that Freudian slip. Realizing bae needs some help, Debbie gives Holden some tips to make Ed open up.

So, Holden returns to see Ed (again, against Bill’s advice) and tries a few tactics to get Ed to drop his guard, namely by having some uncomfortable sex talk, which leads to Ed describing what it’s like to have intercourse with a neck (Ew!). He actually uses Holden’s own neck as a prop. Eventually, Ed does start to open up about his mother, who worked with co-eds, and how she mistreated him. And here’s where one of the most chilling moments of the episode comes: As the camera dollies forward, Ed coldly shares some upsetting beliefs about women (that I didn’t even bother to write down), never breaking eye contact with us or Holden. Naturally, this leaves Holden quite shaken, but he thinks he’s making progress.

From there, it’s time for a flashy and fun travel montage that eventually ends with the guys back in California helping a Sacramento detective with a recent assault. An elderly woman was beaten within an inch of her life outside of her home and her dog was murdered. The cops don’t have a lead and the woman, who has finally regained consciousness but can’t remember anything except for the fact that her assailant smelled bad. That detail combined with the fact that the neighborhood has a lot of kids suggests to Holden that her attacker may be a teenager, and that his poor hygiene is way of rebelling against his parents. The detective has a teen from the neighborhood he could interview about this, but it’ll be difficult since they’ve brought him in twice already and he has connections. Holden offers to work around that.

Unfortunately, Holden and Bill end up being stuck in California for an extra weekend, and Holden uses this as an opportunity to convince Bill to come see Ed with him so that he can see for himself that he’s not being manipulated. During the meeting, Bill and Holden play some games with Ed, lying about how Bill inspired one of his favorite cop shows. Eventually, Ed does that thing where he nonchalantly and coldly describes doing disturbing things, this time how he murdered his mother.

That encounter convinces Bill that they need to tell Shepard about these little off the books interviews before Shepard finds out from someone else and they get censured. When they get back to Quantico, Shepard calls them into his office to yell at them for the work they were doing on that assault case, so they decide not to tell him about Kemper. However, Holden changes his mind, and so he and Bill tell Shepard what’s up. At first, Shepard shuts them down, but Bill has Holden’s back after meeting Kemper himself (“How do we get ahead of crazy if we don’t know how crazy thinks?”) and that convinces Shepard to let them keep working. However, there are some rules: They can’t tell anyone, they must work out of the basement, and they report only to him. Honestly, the fact that they’re being relegated to the basement of Quantico makes sense since they’re about to head down a very, very dark hole.

Grade: B+

Most F—ed Up Moment: The fact that Ed said “There, now you’ve had sex,” to his mother — who had been complaining about the fact that she hadn’t had sex in years because of him — right after he murdered her.

—Chancellor Agard
(Click ahead for episode 3)

“Episode 3”

From the basement to Boston we go in this slightly unfocused episode, as Holden and Bill seek a second opinion on their Interview With the Serial Killer project from Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), a well-regarded psychologist who’s writing a book about white-collar crime and the psychopaths who perpetrate it. Carr is keenly interested in the partners’ research, given that serial killers and psychopaths share underlying personality traits, like lack of remorse and empathy. And, in stark contrast with supervisor Shepard’s conclusions, Carr thinks Holden and Bill’s work could be revolutionary.

“Although your project is obviously in the nascent stages, it already feels like a clear successor to The Mask of Sanity, which as you know is quite a compliment,” she tells them, as Holden frantically tries to scribble that esoteric title into his notes. (FYI — The Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Clarify Some Issues About the So-Called Psychopathic Personality was published in 1941 by psychiatrist Hervey M. Cleckley and is considered a seminal text on the subject matter. He theorizes that psychopaths wear an outward “mask” to mimic “normal” behavior.)

Carr makes clear, though, that they’ll have to dedicate a lot more than those 10 hours a week to formalize the project and make it viable. And even with full-time efforts, a legitimate academic study could take four to five years to complete. Holden is chuffed by the prospect of publishing their findings, while Bill is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the work.

Back at the office, Holden and Bill begin plotting a murderer map, pinpointing the exact locations of incarcerated killers and how they line up with their scheduled road schools. It’s then that they get a call from Carver in Sacramento: There’s been another attack on an old woman and her dog — and this time it was deadly. Holden quickly realizes that the trip will afford them another chance to talk with Kemper (but more on that later as we have a murder that needs solving).

In Sacramento, they begin to narrow their profile: The perp is no kid but likely a man in his late 20s to early 40s, “physically mature, emotionally immature.” And he’s probably white. That description sparks a memory for Carver, who shows the agents an image of a man who was very eager to talk to cops. (Sound like another loquacious killer we know?) The men arrive at Dwight Taylor’s house — or should we say Dwight Taylor’s mom’s house — and find squalid living conditions, an empty dog dish, and blankets strewing the coach where Dwight sleeps.

The agents and Carver take Dwight outside, away from his domineering mother, and they begin their interrogation, sly. They learn that at 20, Dwight got his also 20-year-old girlfriend pregnant and when his mom found out and told the girl’s parents, she was forced to get an abortion. They also learn that Dwight’s mom owns a dog and recently let her very new boyfriend come to live with them. But the most telling bits of evidence are the harsh red scratches up and down Dwight’s arm. He claims they’re from wood; the detectives are pretty sure they’re from a canine.

Cut to the squad room celebrating Taylor’s arrest, with Carver toasting Holden as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes and Bill as his Watson. Holden thanks them in his typical pseudo-intellectual manner: “And for embracing that if we all work together we can venture into the darkest night and shine a light onto the darkness. I’m talking about real darkness—”

“—And thanks for the beer!” Bill (thankfully) interjects, before Holden can offend once again.

With that case closed, the agents are free to pay another visit to our friend Edmund Kemper, the real standout of this series so far (at least for me). He continues to unspool his backstory for the men, and his cool, detached delivery is as chilling yet convivial as ever. (That explanation of why he put his mother’s vocal cords down the garbage disposal — “Because I couldn’t shut her up” — was particularly troubling.) I hope we haven’t seen the last of Kemper; he’s just so entertaining. (If you’re interested in more of the Co-Ed Killer’s story, I’d suggest Last Podcast on the Left’s two-part series. Warning: Plenty of NSFW language.)

On the plane home, Bill says he’s been thinking a lot about what Carr told them and wonders if they should invite her down to Virginia for a day to strategize. Holden can hardly keep his composure.

“It’s a long shot,” Bill warns him. “[Shepard] hates you already.”

“He’s beginning to hate you too,” Holden replies.

“Right, so why half-ass it?”

At home, Holden is contemplative: “I can’t let these guys rub off on me,” he tells girlfriend Debbie. “The way they use sex—“

“—and women,” she cuts in.

Then in a slightly bizarre sequence of events, Holden tries to prove to Debbie just how “kinky” he can be. The payoff of that weird moment comes quickly, when we flash to the FBI offices and Holden’s having certain words, like dildo and fellatio, struck from the list of deviant terms. Our square is becoming more well-rounded, it appears.

The episode closes with Holden and Bill welcoming Carr to headquarters and this winning exchange in reference to President Nixon:

Holden: “How do you get to be the president of the United States if you’re a sociopath?”

Carr: “The question is, how do you get to be president of the United States if you’re not?”

Most F—ed Up Moment: It has to be the aforementioned vocal cords in the garbage disposal bit. Yuck.

Grade: B

—Amy Wilkinson

(More episodes to come…)