Good morning, sir. Do you mind pulling forward?
You're blocking my spot.
Park somewhere else.
Excuse me?
[engine stops]
I said, do you mind pulling forward?
You are blocking my spot.
Black bitch.
-What did you just call me? -[engine revs]
[tires screeching]
[dark music playing]
-Motherfuck. -[elevator dings]
[dark music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[panting softly]
[Schiff] Reeve.
I've seen a lot of hit pieces in my day, but this?
"Move over, Southside Slayer, you have company.
According to sources at Parker Center,
a new serial killer is preying on the city's Black community
and the LAPD is doing all it can to ignore it."
Reeve, you were on the task force.
Do you think we turned a blind eye?
-I know I didn't. -I know you didn't, yeah.
You just beat the shit out of a key informant and almost blinded him.
You're lucky that nobody had a video camera.
He was an abusive pimp
running girls on some of the worst street corners of South Central.
Or does that not matter because she was just another N.H.I.?
Have you ever heard me use that fucking term?
You don't have to, sir.
Guys out there are using it on your watch.
"No Humans Involved"?
Never hear that when the victims live in Brentwood.
I'm surprised that didn't wind up in your little article.
-I didn't write that article, Lieutenant. -You weren't the source?
I know damn well it wasn't McKinney.
You went behind my back.
What you did was insubordination of a direct order
not to talk to the press right now.
[sighs]
-Are you taking me off the case? -And do you that favor?
Fuck no. I'm pulling McKinney.
This case is now your responsibility.
You told this city that there was a new serial killer on the loose.
Now that's your hill to die on.
[suspenseful music plays]
-[door opens] -[bells jingle]
[Kyong-Ah] You're in early.
[chuckles] Yeah, I like to take my time
without you watching over me like a hawk.
[laughs] I'm only here to grab order forms.
[grunts softly]
Do you need help?
You're watching me like a hawk.
-I'm going, I'm going. -Okay.
[Athena grunts]
-[door opens] -[bells jingle]
[door closes]
[eerie music plays]
♪ ♪
-[door opens] -[bells jingle]
We're not open!
♪ ♪
[softly] Stupid doll.
Just a heads-up, Lieutenant wants to see you in his office at 2:00.
Is this about what happened this morning?
McKinney and I don't see eye to eye. I need a new partner.
Lieutenant asked me for a name, I gave him yours.
Hell yeah. What... are you kidding me?
Yeah, uh, yes. I-I would be honored.
Calm down.
Sorry, I-I just got excited. Um...
Honestly, I've been looking up to you ever since coming to RHD.
What if I told you that I was the source for that Weekly article?
Would you have a problem with that?
For talking to the press about a serial case?
That's how they nabbed the Night Stalker, right?
If Gil Carrillo hadn't reached out to the public through the media,
who knows how many murders might've happened.
I was a beat cop when that went down.
Carrillo and I were from the same hood.
He's the reason I wanted to work Homicide.
Yeah, but following Night Stalker in the media is one thing.
Working a serial homicide case is another.
Are you sure you're up for it?
[dramatic music plays]
He's killed before. You don't start out this proficient at it.
[Diaz] Yeah. The lack of physical evidence.
-There's no prints, no hair. -[Dawn] No mistakes.
-I think he knew his victims. -Why?
W-Well, the brutality.
The lengths he went to humiliate them, it...
feels personal.
Vengeful.
His victims could be surrogates of people who've hurt him in life.
Like Bundy?
Killed all those women just because they looked like
the one woman who broke his heart?
Let's work on getting those foster home records from DCFS.
I still think our killer might have gone through Mott's house as a kid.
See if anyone on that registry has any record,
if any of them knew Curtis Maynard.
Copy that.
Why did he stuff them into small spaces like that?
He wasn't trying to hide them.
[Diaz] Well, he left a trail of cleaning products
practically leading us to Mott's body.
And with the furniture down the hall to Maynard's room, it's...
it's like he's pointing us there.
He wanted us to see them.
Yeah, wants us to see what, though?
Him.
What if he feels hidden?
[laughs softly] Like the Zodiac? Son of Sam?
I wouldn't be surprised
if he tries to reach out to us in some way, just like them.
He wants our attention.
[tense music plays]
[exhales]
-[doorbell rings] -[gasps]
[laughs softly] Hi.
-[chuckles] Can I come in? -[stammers]
-[both laugh] -Yeah. Yes.
[chuckles]
-[both laugh] -[Edmund] So, um...
guess what I did today.
Mm. What?
-I quit my job. -[♪ Fine Young Cannibals: "She Drives Me Crazy"]
I got to set my sights higher.
-Edmund, I-- -No, really, it's okay.
It's like that saying, um, "Necessity is the mother of invention."
Now I'll have to land a role.
"Fortune favors the bold."
[laughs] Yeah.
It's bold all right.
[chuckles] But I mean, hey,
I-I got to commend you, for chasing your dreams.
Hmm. What about you?
What's your dreams?
[sighs] Mm...
I did some acting in high school.
But, I don't know, it's hard when you have a kid.
And it's not like I ever dreamt of being a receptionist,
-but it pays the bills. [chuckles] -I understand.
The world needs receptionists, too.
-[chuckles] -[sighs]
Okay, well, don't get me wrong, I do, I do like my job.
-[chuckles] -Yeah.
And I love my coworkers.
We're kind of like family, you know?
-[laughs softly] -Hmm.
And a group of us, we usually go out for drinks after work on Fridays.
Who, like, you and your, uh, girlfriends?
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
It-It's me, Courtney, Stella...
[chuckles] and Donovan.
[giggles] Yeah, Donovan is such a riot.
The camera guy?
Yeah.
The casting assistant.
-Hmm. -[both chuckle]
Would you excuse me for a moment?
I need to use the restroom.
♪ She drives me crazy ♪
♪ Like no one else ♪
♪ She drives me crazy ♪
♪ And I can't help myself ♪
♪ I won't make it ♪
♪ On my own ♪
[gasps]
[panting]
Edmund, what are you doing?
Edmund.
Edmund, that's not funny.
-Edmund, stop. -I can't.
[inhales slowly]
I can't...
get this image of you out of my head.
Edmund, please.
-Stop. -You...
In pieces.
Please, Edmund, I have a son. Remember?
Remember Kenny?
Edmund, he needs me.
Please don't do this.
Please.
[crying]
[Edmund exhales]
Wow!
Wow! That-that...
that was some great improv.
I mean, I-I...
I really felt your fear. [stammers]
How was I? Was I good?
-[whispers] Yeah. -[laughs]
Yes! Yes!
It's getting late, I got to go.
[cackles softly]
[suspenseful music plays]
[typewriter clacking]
[phone ringing]
RHD, this is Reeve.
[caller over phone] Are you one of the detectives on the murders
that were reported in the Weekly?
I am. And you are?
I need you to meet me tomorrow.
I have information.
And your name is?
[dark music plays]
34 North Western Avenue. 8:00 a.m.
There's been two more murders.
-O-Okay, so, how do you know that-- -[line clicks]
Hello?
-Hello? -[dial tone]
[horn honks in distance]
Hello?
[suspenseful music plays]
Anybody here?
Detective Reeve, LAPD.
-[lighter clicks] -Hello?
You the guy who called me?
Victor.
Why are we meeting in the dark, Victor?
This your parents' shop?
They live upstairs.
You said you had information on the murders--
My sisters lived here, too.
Sue-Yeon and So-Young.
Now they're dead.
My sisters were murdered.
-Last month. -The two bodies you mentioned last night?
-How'd they die, Victor? -No.
First you tell me you won't hassle my parents.
Twenty years they've been in the United States.
-They're good people. -Okay, I-I need you to calm down--
-They've been through enough! -Hey.
Calm down.
I'm not here to hassle anyone.
The cops.
They interrogated my father.
Humiliated him.
He didn't do it.
The police let him go and now they're...
Victor.
-And now they're not doing anything. -Victor, listen to me.
I work in Homicide.
I understand your grief.
-And no one cares. -[thud]
[footsteps overhead]
And the killer is still out there.
[eerie music plays]
Victor.
[speaks in Korean]
-Huh? -[speaks in Korean]
[shouting in Korean]
Ma'am, ma'am, I'm just here to help, okay?
[speaks in Korean]
Out.
-Out! -Sir, I didn't mean to upset your wife.
-I'm just here to help. -No more police.
It's over. Done.
-Leave us alone! -[Victor speaking in Korean]
I believe her. She can help us.
-Anything been touched since-- -No.
It's exactly as they left it.
[atmospheric music plays]
[Dawn] Did they always cover the mirrors?
They started doing it a couple days before they died.
[McKinney] Fuck is this?
You got sheets on the mirrors?
No, no, don't, don't!
They pushed their beds together?
Yes.
Days before they died.
They were too afraid to sleep apart.
[Dawn] Did you know him?
The man Ms. Bernice was scared of?
She didn't want to fall asleep.
She didn't want us to fall asleep, either.
And they made home videos?
[Victor] All the time.
Sue-Yeon wanted to be in the movies someday.
[Dawn] Do you know where they are?
There's an old vent up there. Air conditioning.
How tall were the girls?
Almost your height.
♪ Everything I can do ♪
♪ Baby, will come back to you...
♪ ♪
-Sue-Yeon! -[both laugh]
♪ Everything I can do, baby, will come back to you...
[Victor] They were always best friends.
They loved to dance.
♪ Lovin' you ♪
♪ Was all that I want ♪♪
Then they started acting really strange.
[eerie music plays]
They said they were being followed home one afternoon, but...
but they couldn't even describe him.
Honestly, I just thought that they were being teenage girls.
I just thought... that they were being paranoid, you know?
[So-Young over video] Sue-Yeon?
Sue-Yeon. Sue-Yeon.
[So-Young] I'm so scared, Sue-Yeon.
[Sue-Yeon] Do you see him?
[So-Young] He's staring right at me.
It's him. It's him.
By the street lamp.
Do you see him?
-[Sue-Yeon] I see him. -He's right there.
He's looking right at us.
The man with the red hair.
I see him!
-Did they ever mention him to you? -[Victor] No.
He's there. He's right there!
-I see him. -He's right there.
He's looking right at me.
I found them the next morning.
-[screaming] -[bones crunching]
I'm so scared, Sue-Yeon.
♪ ♪
[Tom Snyder] Believe it or not,
there are a lot of people on the outside
that think about the possibility of you coming out of here
and they're genuinely scared.
Oh, boy, I might just, just make dust...
everything, terrible.
-One little guy terrible, ooh! -Ooh.
Boy, how insecure are we as human beings?
Put all our fear on one little guy.
Afraid to let him out. He might break all the toys.
[chuckles]
[Charles Manson] How to communicate to a whole group of people?
[Edmund] "You stand up and you take the worst fear symbol and you say, 'There,
now I've got your fear.
Now I've got your fear.'
And your fear is your power and your power is your control.
I'm the king of this whole planet.
I'm gonna rule this whole world."
[Manson] The world of madness is a lot bigger than the world of sane.
Sanity's a little box that you walk around in.
Sanity's a little world.
Insanity is the universe.
[inhales deeply]
[breathing shakily]
[mutters]
You are the tidiest brother I ever met. [laughs]
-I'm sorry. -Something's making you nervous.
Do you ever...
feel like something...
bad is gonna happen?
Like, if you act a certain way or...
do certain things...
the people you love could, could die?
Like, with a pencil?
[laughs]
It's, it's hard to explain, never mind.
Wait, no. I want to understand what you mean.
You think that doing certain things will...
change the outcome of...
totally unrelated things?
It-it sounds stupid, but it's just a feeling.
It's the feeling that I have to.
Well, what if you didn't?
And then when nothing shitty happens,
you can prove to yourself that you don't have to.
[Diaz] Wait a minute, so this happened a month ago, and it wasn't in our database?
The boys at the Divisional Homicide Bureau threw their records unit under the bus.
Said that their reports never made it
to CCAD because they were sitting in their clerk's record box.
For 30 days?
No divisional detective wants to give up a case to Parker Center.
Hey, put feelers out there for any recent parolees with red hair.
-Check psychiatric hospitals, too. -Yeah.
Two Black adults.
One male, one female.
And two Korean teens, I mean--
What the hell is the connection? How is he picking his victims?
-Did he know them? -I doubt it.
This guy's left no eyewitnesses.
A red-haired man in these neighborhoods?
Who could cross racial boundaries like this and not be noticed?
A mailman? Garbage collector?
Or a policeman.
No forced entry at any of our crime scenes.
A cop is one person you would
open your door to, no matter what time of the night.
[So-Young] The man with the red hair.
The man with the red hair.
Burning the midnight oil?
[laughs] Sorry.
You really ought to get out more, Reeve.
[exhales]
You work too hard.
[grunts]
What are we watching?
We are not watching anything.
What are you doing here, McKinney?
Oh.
Last call was 20 minutes ago.
And I wasn't quite ready to call it a night.
So...
Thought I'd swing by here, see what was shaking.
Anything wrong with your desk?
Can we push the reset button on our relationship?
We don't have a relationship.
Yeah, well... [clears throat]
Maybe, uh...
Maybe that can change.
I got work to do, McKinney, all right?
[groans]
Work, work, work.
That's all you care about. I get it.
You got something to prove.
You want to show them what you're made of, right?
Show them you're not just another...
affirmative action hire. [laughing]
I'm sorry.
[coughs, clears throat]
-Sorry. -For?
[sighs]
For all of it.
Messing with you the way I have.
And I don't think I was the most supportive partner.
You don't have to be such a cunt about it.
How's your boy?
What's he do by himself all night while you're working around the clock?
Go home, McKinney.
-Sleep it off. -What?
Are you scared?
Should I be?
You're crazy.
[laughs]
I kind of like that.
[breathing shakily]
[indistinct P.A. announcement]
Your tests are normal.
Could've been anxiety.
Any stress at home?
This was different.
Could be hypertension.
That's not uncommon.
Any family history of that?
My dad died of a heart attack.
How about we put you on a round of beta-blockers just to be safe?
And see a cardiologist ASAP.
Okay?
-There you go. -Hey, Dad.
Sound good out there, man.
Still got to watch that drummer to your left though.
Boy's Rhythmless Nation.
Yeah, well, his dad's the band director, so...
[both laugh]
Oh, man.
How long you in town for?
We play tonight in San Diego.
I got sound check in, like, three hours.
So-so you drove all the way from San Diego just to come see me for ten minutes?
Of course.
Who else is going to tell you you're dragging on the one?
Yeah, right.
Hey, man, how your mama?
She's all right.
Miss you, kiddo.
Know that.
[siren chirps]
Where are you coming from?
School.
Let's have the bag.
Did I do something wrong?
Are you giving me a hard time?
[laughs]
Now where'd you get that?
Am I under arrest?
Are you scared?
Your dad know you smoke pot?
You and I might have more in common than you think.
My old man wasn't around much, either.
But in his own way,
taught me a few things.
With the business end of a belt buckle.
Say hi to your mom for me.
[door opens]
[door closes]
[exhales]
[contemplative music plays]
[upbeat music plays]
♪ ♪
[door creaks open]
[casting agent] Edmund Gaines?
I'll have to ask you to leave.
Did you hear me?
Leave?
But I just got here.
I'm sorry.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
No--
[Donovan] Hey! Whoa, whoa, whoa!
[Stella] Uh, no, Edmund.
-You are not reading for this. -[Edmund] What's wrong?
-Why can't I read? -Just go home.
This is not your day.
[stammers] No, no, no.
This-this is my day.
Th-This is my role. Wha--? Wh--?
You said I'd be good.
[stammers]
-You said I'd be good. -Hey, you heard Stella.
-It's time to go! -[grunts]
[Courtney] I'm calling the police.
[Edmund] You-you...
You said I'd be good.
[panting]
You said I'd be good!
[hyperventilating]
[screams]
[dramatic music playing]
[panting echoing]
[gasps]
You're kidding me, right?
You're home early.
We're gonna talk about this when your head clears up.
[exhales]
[sighs]
You hungry?
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
The weed a recent thing?
You smoke a lot?
Not really.
When I'm stressed, I guess.
Listen.
I know there's a lot going on in your life.
Me and your dad splitting up.
Change is hard.
Yeah.
Sometimes...
I do stuff
-to calm down. -Like smoke weed?
[sighs]
Hey, hey, hey, I get it.
Life can be overwhelming.
For me, too.
[sighs]
Think that's why I like work so much.
Someone commits a crime.
Got to figure it out.
There's only one answer.
I know I work a lot.
But I want you to know...
you can come to me if something is bothering you.
You can talk to me about anything.
Well...
something happened today.
[car horn blaring]
-Did you get a badge number? -[Kelvin] No, I told you!
-Would you stop, Mom? -Did you get his name?
-No! No! -Did you get his name, Kel?
I was fucking scared.
This big Ronald McDonald motherfucker was just threatening me.
"Ronald McDonald"? What do you mean?
He was just driving me around, saying weird shit.
I didn't know where we was going at first,
but, I mean, what was I supposed to do?
-Fucking kill him! -Mom, would you slow down?!
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit. [strains]
What's going on with you?
Why do you have these?
-Oh, God, not now. -Yes, now.
[exhales]
It's nothing, Ma, okay?
I-I-I was feeling a little off.
The doctor prescribed them as a precaution, because of Dad.
I'm fine. My tests results are normal.
-Honey-- -Not now, Ma, please.
Please?
[sighs]
[narrator on radio] How can any of us expect to find love
until we can love ourselves?
When you don't have a strong ego structure,
normally solidified in childhood,
it's like building a house on an unstable foundation.
There's a desperate quality to the construction of that house.
A person who has a weak grasp of reality,
is attracted to dangerous, destructive paths.
When the inevitable storms of life come,
in an instant, the house can crumble.
Collapse.
[tense music plays]
This big Ronald McDonald motherfucker was just threatening me.
-[knuckles cracking] -[gasping]
McKinney, stop! He's had enough!
-[grunts] -Stop!
♪ ♪