Criminal Minds Episode 8: The Shifting Sands Of Delusion

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THE SHIFTING SANDS

OF

DELUSION

THE SHIFTING SANDS

OF DELUSION

Meanwhile, in another part of the town, it was Jang Gi Tae’s night of fun. His brand of murderous fun.  Viewers had thought that he was the one who had put fear into Nana Wang’s life but they had been wrong. Jang Gi Tae was driving wildly and freely along the road.

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He must have been driving for some time before he found a suitable victim to bully and to murder. His intended victim looked anxious enough and seemed like a woman of his wife’s age.

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Jang Gi Tae was dressed like a punk in his black sequined leather jacket.  The woman was horrified when he brought his car close to hers and he looked at her with a leer. 

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Was Jang Gi Tae in his own delusional world when he stared at her sideways? What signals was he sending her? Death signals.  He raised his gun and shot her. The woman was wounded but not dead. Her car must have rolled to a stop.

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Stopping his own car, he walked over with his gun strapped to his shoulder. He had already taken off his black leather jacket.

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‘Are you okay? I’m not a bad guy. I’ve been watching you. You’re hurt,’ he said rather kindly.

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Had the injured woman taken a more cautious look at him, she would have recognised him as the shooter. Fear did not seem to register on her face. 

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A weird smile curved his lips. To her horror, he suddenly lifted his gun to shoot her in the face, at close range.   He must have wanted her dead. The blood splashed all over his face. It was a most chilling scene.

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‘Guns N’ Roses’. It was significant that he was wearing a shirt with the words ‘Guns N’ Roses’. It was symbolic. ‘Guns’ symbolise war and destruction. ‘Roses’ represent love and romance.

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Did the symbolism reflect on the alienation between him and his wife? The couple were leading separate lives. There was no emotional intimacy between them. Despite his wife’s coldness, perhaps he still loved her. Did all the women he killed - roses, represent his wife? Or perhaps, the song, ‘Estranged’ by the American hard rock band, Guns N’ Roses, comes to mind?

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One's head teemed with questions about Jang Gi Tae. Was he in control of his faculties? Did he know what he was doing? He seemed insane and yet, surprisingly, he understood that he had to destroy all evidence of his crime.  With his gun, he blasted the dashcam which would have shocking footage of the murder.  It was proof that he knew what he was doing.

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But, perhaps, his sense of the world changed rapidly, moving like shifting sands.  When he saw her bloody body, he made sad moaning voices as if he felt sorry for his deeds. ‘Oh, my goodness!’

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Hunched, he walked away from the crime scene and drove home.

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When he looked at himself in the standing mirror, he seemed uncertain of what he had done.  He wiped off the blood. Turning violent, he smashed the mirror with his gun. Shards of glass fell to the floor. He looked at the shattered mirror. The distorted images shimmied in the fluorescent light. It was a reflection of his own distorted reality. Amusement crossed his face. 

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After a hard night’s work, Kim Hyun Joon was driving home alone. He was Nana Wang’s hero. It was a tough time dealing with the road bully. The excitement had taken a toll on him. Exhaustion was reflected on the profiler’s face.

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The rest of the team members, Team Leader Kang, Ha Sun Woo, Nana Wang, Lee Han and Yoo Min Young were in one car.  By that time, NCI’s resident hacker had already recovered from her shock.

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Nana Wang almost forgot to hand over some important documents to Team Leader Kang. The documents contained the information on patients between the age of 40 and 50 who had undergone clinical tests in Yangchon-dong.

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Ha Sun Woo received news that there was another shooting in Route 11. They already had an exhausting night. Were they expected to be workaholics?

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THE THIRD VICTIM

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Early the next morning, the NCI team were gathered together at the murder site. They studied the murdered woman who was crumpled on the seat. She was the third victim of the serial shooter.

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Kim Hyun Joon had proposed earlier to Team Leader Kang that they should publicize the profile of the murderer that they had been working on and to run a public investigation. Three victims. The younger profiler now had more justification to fight for change in the way they dealt with the gunman. He was frustrated and insisted that they implement his earlier suggestion. He regretted that they had been too slow, or else the third victim might have been saved.

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LEADERSHIP CRISIS Paralyzing incompetence. The Team Leader was silent. He had been resistant to change. Was Kim Hyun Joon’s suggestion a threat to his leadership? Did Team Leader Kang realise that he had been wrong? Did he doubt himself now? Had his PTDS affect his thinking faculties? The failure to solve the cases made him even more confused. Ha Sun Woo, as usual, defended Team Leader Kang’s decision. She argued that their profiling was not perfect. She, like Team Leader Kang, wanted to hold onto the illusion of perfection. Illusory perfection. She was Team Leader Kang’s parrot. She was sabotaging Kim Hyun Joon’s efforts to change their mindset.

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Was Kim Hyun Joon’s anger bubbling to the surface? He seemed impatient with their fuss over ‘perfection’. Can anything be perfect? Was ‘perfect profiling’ more important than saving people? Is a ‘perfect’ profile holding them back? His opinion was that they needed to look at other options, other alternatives.  What he did not spell out was, they had to ‘think out of the box’. They should not be so set in their ways.

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Although considered the top profiler in the team, Kang Gi Hyeon was too conservative and closed minded. The team members were following a leader who was resistant to change, and therefore, they parroted his thinking. The investigations had stalled because they were stuck in their conservative profiling world. Perhaps, Ha Sun Woo thought Kim Hyun Joon, the champion of the new idea, was a challenge to Team Leader Kang’s leadership. She told him to stop and then, walked off with Team Leader Kang.

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A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Kim Hyun Joon, proactive and passionate, had new and different ideas and approaches to problems. He was like a breath of fresh in the conservative atmosphere of the NCI. He, like a useful member of the team and an emerging leader, wanted to set a new direction and map out what the NCI team should do in the shooting cases. Having a broad range of experiences as he had worked in many different public departments, he was encouraging them to see the crimes from a different perspective. The unsub was on a rampage. More alarming still, it was already the third shooting case. They did not want another disaster to happen, to say nothing of more horrifying violence the unsub might perpetuate to complicate their investigations. Only the first victim had survived. Kim Hyun Joon and Lee Han looked at Team Leader Kang worriedly.

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Their leader, looking confused, even refused to answer questions from the press.

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REALITY VERSUS DELUSION

Jang Gi Tae’s world seemed to have changed. Was he deluded? Had reality melted into delusions? He was fast losing touch with reality. He was probably not on medication nor on drugs. But his perception of reality had changed. Was his world an altered state of consciousness or had he descended into a world of hallucinations?

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DELUSIONS AND HALLUCINATIONS. CAREER SUCCESS. He seemed to be having a good time. He had arrived for a celebratory dinner for the company that he worked in, S Pharmacy. Dressed in his smart suit, he was smiling from ear to ear. The diners were making a toast to the success of the company when he walked in. One wonders why Jang Gi Tae, an employee who had been reviled by his superior, would dare to walk in late. Well, he was probably in the good books of the company again. As the newly promoted Manager, he was brimming with confidence and burning with inner radiance.

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He even brought a bouquet of fresh flowers for his wife. So romantic and warm. His wife permitted herself a look of triumph and happiness. Her husband's expression of his love to her in front of his colleagues must have made the ladies green with envy. That roamtic gesture of his should be well-rewarded when they got home. The flowers were not artificial ones, mind you. Some men buy artificial flowers to save on costs. Why, they argue - the artificial flowers could be used as permanent house decorations! But, wait a minute. The flowers were white. Was that an appropriate romantic gesture? White not just symbolises purity but also represents death.

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There was a suggestion that since Jang Gi Tae was present, they should make another toast to the company. His wife seemed to be proud of him.

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ADMIRATION OF A COLLEAGUE. When Jang Gi Tae went to the men’s rest room, all pretence fell away. He was asked whether he was taking his medication. They probably knew about his illness. However, he was praised for his improved sales performance. The man, probably a superior, was convinced that Jang Gi Tae was back to his old self, an effective asset to the company. He was encouraged to maintain his progress, ‘Keep up your good work!’  From the conversation, it was clear that the sales division of the company was very competitive.

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MEAN COLLEAGUE GETS JUST DESERTS. But, when his amiable colleague walked off the restroom, another colleague walked out from one of the stalls. ‘Are you happy now? Are you? You must be. You were crawling at the bottom but now your performance is great and you’ve got power too.’ The abuse of the office bully was relentless. The motive of the mean and jealous colleague was entirely transparent. He was out to make a dent in Jang Gi Tae’s self-confidence. One can sense the highly competitive culture of the situation. ‘But, you’re only a pawn, right?’ he pinched Jang Gi Tae’s ears. This act provoked an outburst from the bullied victim.

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Jang Gi Tae was fed up of being badly treated by his colleague. His eyes were staring daggers at the other man. He was going to fight back.   He cupped the fellow’s mouth and tightened his hold on him.

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Quivering with heighten tension, he asked, ‘If I’m a pawn, what does that make you?’ The mean colleague must have considered the question.  Madness was written all over Jang Gi Tae’s face. He had pushed his tormenter to the floor. Then, he swiftly took out his gun and pointed it at him. He even pressed his shoe on the man’s hand.

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‘Fix the project proposal I made yesterday, and put it on my table before I kill you,’ Jang Gi Tae threatened with the gun pointed at him.  A smile of victory curled over his lips and he laughed at the man who cowered in fear. The bully deserved what he got. Jang Gi Tae's gaze darkened. Was he going to gun him down? That threatening image of him would have made office bullies abandon their determined quest to bully him.

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BITTERNESS TOWARDS HIS WIFE. She had been discontented with him, but that night, while in bed with his sleeping wife, he felt powerful and in control.  Gazing playfully at her face, he imagined slitting her throat and even shooting her.

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Jang Gi Tae’s reality had merged with his delusions. The world was closing on him. He was trapped. He had no way of differentiating reality from his delusions or hallucinations. It was not possible for him to have done so well in his sales work and risen to be a manager within a short period of time. It was impossible for him to be brimming with confidence at that point in time because he was already a total nervous wreck. In his delusions, he also dreamt of getting back at his mean and nasty colleague who had made his life hell. He wanted to make the colleague crawl and snivel like a worm. He also wanted to get back at his disapproving wife. Their acrimonious relationship could not have mended within such a short time span. He wanted to taste sweet revenge. REALITY. It was later discovered that Jang Gi Tae was not a manager but merely a salesman at the Sewon Pharmacy.

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What was real? The sad truth was the death of his second daughter had wreaked havoc with his life and caused him to be mentally deranged. Her death had fueled his nightmares for weeks.  He went to his second daughter’s bedroom. The little girl had died in a car accident. He sat on her rocking horse and pined away.

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He then went into his own den and looked at his guns.

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A HUNCH

Kim Hyun Joon showed his leadership skills. He discussed the deaths and the location of the incidents on the street maps with Nana Wang. The streets were under construction. He checked and double-checked the data and then instructed her to send the information to the Situation Room. The excited profiler joined the discussion of the criminal cases. He had a hunch that they could find the unsub.

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Kim Hyun Joon had something to share with the NCI Team Manager and those assembled.  He pointed out that there were 10 streets under construction and he made some educated guesses.

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‘There were 2 places that are temporary merging sections. Both places are within 5 km from the site of the incident.  It is the best place for the unsub to pick up a fight,’ he explained.

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‘If the first shooting incident was unintentional, he probably needed a pattern similar to the first one that would precipitate his next crime,’ Lee Han speculated.

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‘He found a temporary merging section and drove around the place over and over again,’ Team Leader Kang stated.

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Detective Lee proposed closing down all temporay merging points within the area.

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Suddenly, beaming with hope, Kim Hyun Joon suggested meeting the person in charge of the construction site. If he was on duty on the day of the incident, he might prove to be a valuable witness and provide important information on the unusual happenings on that day.

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THE LEAD

Kim Hyun Joon and Ha Sun Woo were in luck. The male profiler was sure that their efforts had come to fruition when they met the construction supervisor.  ‘There was one weird guy. At first, I thought he was lost but I kept observing him. It was rather unusual for someone who was dressed up like a punk to be driving with so much caution,’ the construction supervisor laughed in amusement.

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Ha Sun Woo seemed convinced that the weird man was the unsub. ‘It’s proof that the criminal is losing reality and he has started to role play.’

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Kim Hyun Joon was wondering about her words. He probed further. ‘Is there anything else you remember?'

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‘Whenever someone overtook his car, he instinctively stretched his arm protectively across the passenger seat.’ ‘How did he reach out?’ inquired Ha Sun Woo. The man gave a demonstration. ‘Who was sitting next to him?’ asked Kim Hyun Joon. The answer was there was none.

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In his car, Kim Hyun Joon continued the discussion with his NCI partner. The criminal drove a family car. His arm movement was done out of habit to protect his family. He probably had a wife and child.

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Though they could not predict with 100% accuracy, Ha Sun Woo relayed their speculations to Team Manager Kang. ‘He’s losing touch with reality now.’ ‘His wife and child might be in danger,’ Kim Hyun Joon warned.

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PERFECTING THE PROFILE

One certainty. If they did not change their strategy, the NCI would not be able to catch their gunman. Inspired by the new developments brought about by Kim Hyun Joon and Ha Sun Woo’s efforts, Team Manager Kang seemed more receptive and was very excited to resume the profiling of the unsub.

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‘It seemed he had worn an excessively masculine outfit and was full of action. His preferred victims who are similar. The first cause of shooting was a woman. He is experiencing a crisis in his masculinity.’

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Was Team Manager Kang being deliberately vague?  ‘A crisis in his masculinity - what does that mean?' A confused young law enforcement officer asked nobody in particular. A rookie. A greenhorn. Inspector Lee probably didn’t know either because he also looked nonplussed. The greenhorn was standing there burning with curiosity. Yet, he let it fester and, he was none the wiser for it. If he had wanted a crystal-clear answer, he should have asked. As they say, ‘Ask and you will be given.’  The genius, Lee Han, would have been able to help – he would be able to provide a detailed answer. ‘A crisis in masculinity’. Now, what’s that?

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The first victim must have caused the unsub’s serious trauma. ‘It must have been painful for the criminal to endure it mentally,’ Ha Sun Woo commented. He could be having some kind of schizophrenia. The world he saw had changed and his role had changed. ‘He’s between 40 to 50 with a plain appearance. He’s timid and his family doesn’t accept him as the breadwinner,’ Kang Gi Hyeon added.

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Kim Hyun Joon elaborated, ‘He has three cars, a black sedan, a blue sedan and a blue SUV. Based on the testimony of the first victim, he is likely to be a middle class professional. He should be familiar with the crime area.’

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The Team Leader added that it was possible that the perpetrator couldn’t face reality.

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Kim Hyun Joon gave a chilling scenario that since he was out of control, he could kill everyone around him.

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