Russell Smith

"This is gonna be great."

Adam Rain is a psychotic, childlike serial killer that appeared in Season Eight of Criminal Minds.

Background
Adam was the son of Alex Rain, a well-known puppeteer who worked with two puppets named Mitch and Stephanie, among others. As a child, Adam, like any other child, believed that his father's puppets were actually alive, and this innocent belief was further supported by Adam's controlling of the puppets. One night, over fifty years prior to The Lesson, both Adam and Alex were confronted by a robber. As the robber held the two at gunpoint and demanded money, Adam begged Mitch and Stephanie to do something when his father refused to hand the robber the money. The robber then killed Alex right in front of Adam. He moved on after the incident and worked at a glue factory for the most of his adult life. A year prior to "The Lesson", he was involved in a serious car accident that left him in a coma.

The Lesson
At the beginning of the episode, Adam wakes up from his coma and immediately begins acting childlike and asking for his father. It is shortly revealed that the accident caused severe damage to the prefrontal cortex, causing him to psychologically revert to a childlike mind. The memory of his father's death burned into his mind, Adam set about trying to replicate the incident, only with Stephanie and Mitch stopping the robber. He then set about abducting candidates for Mitch and Stephanie with the help of an assistant named Mr. Conrad. In three months' course, he first abducts Bruce Phillips, dyeing his hair black and trying to set him up as Mitch. However, Bruce proves too heavy for Adam's marionette device and he kills him, stuffing him in a box and leaving him on the side of the room. Adam then abducts Justin Marks and Connie Foster. While Connie proves to be perfect as Stephanie, Justin is still too heavy and Adam disposes of him after dyeing his hair and painting his nails. Adam then puts a bow on Connie, preparing her for his play.

While out shopping with Mr. Conrad, Adam spots another potential Mitch candidate named Byron Sadler and abducts him in his house. On returning, he sees Connie trying to escape and starts stripping her of her clothes as he looks away. He then dislocates her shoulders using a handmade stretching tool and bores a hole into Byron's hands. Unfortunately, Byron dies, possibly due to blood loss from the hole-boring. Frustrated by his third failure, Adam yells at Connie and goes backstage to cry. Mr. Conrad goes to him, telling him to pull himself together and get a father and son for the performance. Adam then puts a paper-mache mask on Connie when Tucker White, a clerk who supplied Adam with the clothes he put on his victims, comes to the door, telling him the BAU arrived at his store and revealed the death of Bruce Phillips. He then asks him if he knows anything. Adam, denying any involvement, invites Tucker into his house for tea and then proceeds to knock him out and use him as Mitch; the ploy is successful as Tucker is light enough. Adam then dresses Connie up as Stephanie and has her perform a dance using his marionette device.

With the roles of Mitch and Stephanie secured, Adam then abducts a father and son, forcing them into his car at gunpoint in a parking lot. Adam then rehearses the play, which he calls The Robbery. The father and son are tied to chairs and play as Alex and Adam respectively, Tucker and Connie are dressed up and hanging from Adam's device, and Mr. Conrad is playing the role of the robber. When Tucker struggles, Adam throws him down and threatens the father, shooting him in the leg with a revolver. The following night, Adam watches as people enter the theater he is hosting the play. With the urging of Mr. Conrad, Adam begins the play with an opening announcement. As the play begins, Adam flashes back to the real incident. Just before the play ends, the BAU arrive and interrupt the performance. Adam yells at them, telling them that Mitch and Stephanie have to save his father from the robber before he could turn himself in. However, the BAU reveal that Mr. Conrad was just a puppet that Adam presumably voiced. Rossi manages to talk him down by telling him that the puppets weren't real and that he could save the victims like he wanted to save his father. Adam is then arrested in front of the audience, all of whom stand up and applaud. Adam thanks them, but it is then revealed that the audience members are all puppets and props as Hotch bitterly watches.

Modus Operandi
Adam initially targeted people whom he felt were perfect for the roles of Mitch and Stephanie. He would lure them in by using some sort of ruse, then knock them out with ketamine. Afterwards, he would take them to his residence, where he would dye the men's hair black and put a wig onto the woman's hair before hanging them with a marionette device. Because they were heavy, Bruce Phillips and Justin Marks were killed from the hanging, and Adam disposed of their bodies by stuffing them into a box and discarding it. With Connie Foster, he placed her in a Stephanie-like dress and dislocated her limbs so then she can be easily manipulated by the marionette device. He also bore holes into her hands; he did the same with the third victim, Byron Sadler, but he died from the blood loss and his body was placed in a box with tissue paper, and his fingernails were also painted. When he abducted George and Matt Small, Adam forced them to his residence at gunpoint with a revolver. He later tied them to chairs and, as The Robbery was near to being performed in front of a live audience, Adam threatened the father and son to ensure the Mitch and Stephanie actors' compliance, and presumably vice-versa.

Profile
Due to the sophisticated nature of the crimes, the unsub is believed to a male who is at least 30 years old who is torturing his victims. He is trying to perfect an illusion, at which he has failed three times. As with most fantasy-based crimes, the reality never lives up to the perfection of what the unsub envisions. The fantasy involves the torture and stretching of his victims, including men that have had their hair dyed black by the unsub, but before killing them, he fixes their hair and paints their nails. He has escalated to crucifying his latest victims, driving holes into his hands and feet. Historically, curcifixion is a sentence reserved for a serious crime. This means that someone in the unsub's past makes him feel that his victims have wronged him, so now he is performing some sort of inquisition. Whether he is attempting to get his victims to repent or adhere certain religious beliefs, he is hanging them as though they were victims of religious tribunals of the 1100s. But something in his fantasy is not working, because he keeps discarding the men while the female victim was being kept. He kills them and then ritualistically places them in a box with tissue paper, which is odd because his initial behavior dehumanizes them. This means he values those victims more when they are dead. So far, he has spared one woman, whom he still has in captivity, and she is either witnessing the unsub's horrors or has been forced to participate in them. Crucifixion is sadistic and watching it is the ultimate torture. Consequently, the killings will continue to escalate as the unsub strives to achieve this perfection.

Known Victims

 * Bruce Phillips
 * Justin Marks and Connie Foster :
 * Justin Marks
 * Connie Foster
 * Byron Sadler
 * Tucker White
 * George Small and his son Matt :
 * George Small
 * Matt Small

Appearances

 * Season Eight
 * "The Lesson"