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| “ | You never appreciated me, none of you. I gave you my life, and you rejected me. | „ |
| ~ John Curtis lashing out at the BAU. |
John Curtis, also known as the Replicator, is the main antagonist of Season 8 in the TV series Criminal Minds. He is a disgruntled FBI agent who copies the modus operandi and signatures of serial killers investigated by the Bureau's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), whom he blames for ruining his career. He is Alex Blake's archenemy.
He was portrayed by Mark Hamill, who also played the Joker, Solomon Grundy, Tony Zucco, Jordan Pryce, and Ferris Boyle in the DC Animated Universe, Chucky in the 2019 remake of Child's Play, Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Adrian Ripburger in Full Throttle, Trickster in The Flash (as well as the character's Arrowverse incarnation), Kavaxas in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Skeleton King in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go!, the Hobgoblin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Maximus in the Fantastic Four animated series, Colonel Muska in Castle in the Sky, Stickybeard in Codename: Kids Next Door, Flint in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Niju in Balto II: Wolf Quest, Dictatious Maximus Galadrigal in Trollhunters, Vuli in Elena of Avalor, Chaunakah Zombie in Futurama: Bender's Big Score, ShiverJack in Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Darth Bane in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Undergrowth in Danny Phantom, Alighiero Alighieri in Dante's Inferno, Black Phantom and Von Nebula in Lego Hero Factory Breakout, Cock Knocker in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Babyface Boretti in Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare, Agent Goodman in Recess: School's Out, Dr. Stankfoot in Zevo-3, Malefor in The Legend of Spyro, SkekTek in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Popsicles in the 2016 reiteration of The Powerpuff Girls, Alvin the Treacherous in the How to Train Your Dragon series and British Taxi, Scarecrow and Halloween Wizard in Regular Show.
Personality[]
John Curtis was a highly intelligent and meticulous individual with a deep-seated resentment towards the FBI, particularly the Behavioral Analysis Unit. His brilliance is matched only by his patience and attention to detail, as evidenced by his elaborate schemes and ability to mimic other serial killers' methods with precision. Curtis was driven by a burning desire for revenge, stemming from his belief that he was unfairly passed over for promotion and his career was derailed due to the actions of Strauss using him as a scapegoat. This perceived injustice has twisted his once-promising career as an FBI agent into a dark obsession with proving his superiority and exacting vengeance.
He is marked by an intense need for control and recognition. He is calculating, manipulative, and takes great pleasure in outsmarting those he considers his intellectual inferiors. Curtis's arrogance is palpable, believing himself to be always one step ahead of the BAU team. Despite his criminal actions, he maintains a facade of professionalism and composure, which makes him all the more unnerving. His ability to blend in and adapt to various situations while meticulously planning his next move demonstrates a level of sociopathic behavior, as he shows no remorse for his victims and views them merely as pawns in his grand scheme of revenge against the BAU.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Curtis' parents were killed in a car accident when he was 18. As a child, his I.Q. was tested at 172, but his intellectual brilliance hid a darker side; he was a malignant narcissist who responded to any slight, real or imagined, by taking brutal revenge.
As an adult, he worked as a Special Supervisory Agent with the FBI, specializing in crimes involving biochemistry, and was shortlisted to lead the agency's New York office. In 2001, he worked on the anthrax terrorist attacks that directly proceeded 9/11 alongside Agents Erin Strauss and Alex Blake. When the wrong suspect was arrested, Strauss shifted the blame onto Curtis and Blake, who were both demoted. Curtis was transferred to an office in Kansas City, widely seen as a career graveyard in the FBI. Curtis blamed Strauss for his professional decline, and spent years planning an intricate, bloody revenge.
Several years later, he regained his former title of Supervisory Special Agent and was transferred to Washington D.C., where he was put in charge of the Department of Justice's Intelligence Oversight Section. There, he began to put in motion his plan to destroy Strauss, who was now Bureau Chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU).
First murders[]
Curtis begins stalking Strauss and the BAU's agents, including Blake, and studies the signatures and modus operandi of the serial killers they investigated, planning to destroy the unit's reputation by committing copycat murders they cannot solve. To that end, he commits murders imitating those of John Myers, John Nelson, and Adam Rain. He also influences Donnie Bidwell, who is embittered against the FBI for arresting him for murders he did not commit, to kill people and put the BAU's pictures near the bodies in order to discredit them.
After BAU Agent Spencer Reid's girlfriend Maeve Donovan is kidnapped, Curtis calls him anonymously and says "Zugzwang", a chess term signaling inevitable defeat - and the same word Maeve's kidnapper and eventual murderer Diane Turner used to taunt him through a voice modulator. He also leaves him a note signed "Adam Worth", the criminal upon whom Arthur Conan Doyle based James Moriarty. He later sends flowers to Agent Jennifer Jareau with a note reading, "Zugzwang". By now, the BAU has nicknamed the mysterious killer "The Replicator".
While investigating Bidwell, the BAU assumes that he is the Replicator because he has committed murders using the M.O. of another murderer, Bryan Hughes. However, when Bidwell uses his phone call to contact an unknown person who appears to intimidate him, and then commits suicide, they realize that someone else masterminded the killings. That someone else is revealed to be Curtis, who then commits a murder using the M.O. of David Roy Turner and Toby Whitewood. The BAU arrives at the scene moments too late, Curtis having fled, leaving behind the hammer he used to kill his victim, a radio playing Tony Bennett's "Just in Time", and dozens of photos of the agents, with "Zugzwang" written in red on all of them. Finally, Curtis breaks into Strauss' house and poisons her after hacking into technical analyst Penelope Garcia's computer.
"The Replicator"[]
After poisoning her, Curtis forces Strauss, a recovering alcoholic, to drink liquor so her children will think she fell off the wagon. Strauss wanders into the street, delirious from the poison, but Curtis catches up with her and subdues her on a park bench, mocking her for breaking her sobriety. He intercepts a phone call to Strauss from BAU Supervisory Agent Aaron Hotchner, and mentions the murder of Hotchner's wife, Haley, three years earlier at the hands of serial killer George Foyet. He once again vanishes just before the BAU arrives, leaving Strauss to die in Hotchner's arms.
Curtis then surreptitiously drugs Supervisory Agent David Rossi, who had been in a relationship with Strauss, inducing a psychotic episode in which he pulls a gun on fellow agent Derek Morgan, accusing him of being behind Strauss' murder. After Rossi is hospitalized, the rest of the BAU team deduces that the Replicator is an FBI agent, in that he has apparent access to classified information. Hotchner and Morgan look over Strauss' autopsy and notice a marking on her wrist in the shape of the number eight, a reference to a fake report Strauss had written about serial killer Phillip Connor in an attempt to draw out the Replicator. Hotchner gets a list of FBI agents authorized to view classified information, including Curtis, whom Blake recognizes as having been demoted following the anthrax case. The team then realizes that Curtis is the Replicator, having orchestrated the murders as a way of taking revenge against Strauss and the FBI.
Curtis has by now holed up in a ranch owned by his family, so the BAU pursues him there in a helicopter. Curtis hacks into the helicopter's operating system, however, and crashes it. He then launches a smoke bomb that knocks them all unconscious before kidnapping Blake. He chains her to a chair outfitted with a pressure sensor set to explode, planning to kill her and the rest of the BAU when they come to rescue her. Before leaving the room, he brags about his crimes, and says that he will now be remembered.
Sure enough, when the BAU arrives and frees Blake, it starts a timer linked to explosives. Garcia manages to remotely delay the timer, however, which provokes Curtis to come back to the room. He finds that the BAU team has escaped except for Rossi, who had been released from the hospital and accompanied his team, freeing them from the trap. Wanting to take Rossi with him, Curtis sits in the pressure-censor chair and abruptly stands up, restarting the timer and locking the door. At the last second, however, Rossi blocks the door with Strauss' Alcoholics Anonymous chip, allowing him to get out while locking Curtis in. Before leaving Curtis to die, Rossi says, "Zugzwang". Curtis' trap then explodes, killing him.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Curtis is inspired by multiple real-life and fictional serial killers:
- Serhiy Tkach, a.k.a. "The Pavlohrad Maniac", a Russian serial killer/rapist responsible for raping and suffocating women and girls after disgrace in the Russian police force from sabotaging a case, eventually transferring to departments in Ukraine; the killings spanned Ukraine and annexed Crimea, framing numerous other men, including one who hanged himself in prison.
- Peter Foley, the main hidden antagonist of the film Copycat, a serial killer murdering in imitation of famous serial killers discussed at the last lecture of an agoraphobic criminal psychologist, Foley's primary target.
- Leander Rolfe, the main antagonist of the film Tightrope, a disgraced cop reported by the main character for raping girls, then once released, killing prostitutes and taunting the detective to get revenge.
- Clyde Shelton, a retired CIA agent who kills the murderers of his family, then wages citywide terrorism the punish the system that reduced the sentence of his family's primary killer. He died in a bombing meant for the prison he was in, which was isolated only to his cell once everyone in the blast radius escaped.
External links[]
- John Curtis on the Criminal Minds Wiki
