Ted Bryar

Dr Theodore "Ted" Bryar appears in Derailed.

History
Ted has presumably suffered from paranoid schizophrenia his whole life. As a result of the voices in his head, he spent his childhood and adolescent years studying. He later became one of the world's top physicists, studying in particular the M-theory and writing hundreds of essays about it. He also worked for the government for several years in the 1980s. His mental illness was treated by Linda Deaton, a psychiatrist. In Derailed, she was bringing him to Dallas, Texas for a conference. During the train ride on the way there, a passenger commited suicide, forcing the train to stop. Ted then apparently had some kind of breakdown and, spurred by his imaginary friend "Leo", took a gun from a train security guard, shot him, handcuffed Elle, who happened to be on the train, to her seat, took her gun as well and took the passengers hostage.

The local authorities made contact with Ted using a phone. He refused to speak to anyone but an operative of "the Higher Authority", a part of his schizhophrenic delusions. Gideon called him and pretended to be a such. Ted then gave him an hour to send in a technician to remove "it", which the BAU later realized was an imaginary microchip which Ted believed caused the voices in his head. Reid suggested he'd do a sleight of hand, hiding a regular chip in his hand, making a small cut in Ted's arm and pretending to remove the chip. When Reid did so, however, Ted ordered him to "turn it on". Improvising, Reid and Elle claimed that the chip was powered by tiny electric impulses fired between neurons and had to be implanted to work. Since Ted's voices, logically, didn't go away, he held Reid on the train. Reid recognised Ted's behavior, having a schizophrenic mother, and managed to distract him long enough for Elle to drop kick him, after which another passenger who had a concealed gun shot him in the stomach. He was then taken away by paramedics, repeating "I'm sorry", and presumably survived.

Known Victims

 * An unnamed train security guard
 * Dr Linda Deaton (shot her in the stomach when his delusions kicked in, she survived)

Appearance

 * Season 1
 * Derailed