| “ | Abandon all hope, ye who enter here... | ” |
— Nathan quotes Dante's Divine Comedy
| ||
Nathan Chow is the delusional accomplice of serial killer Justin Leu, who appears in the Criminal Minds Season Ten episode "Burn".
Background[]
Little is known about Nathan's early life, other than he was a high school student taught by Justin Leu, who he bonded with and later cited as being the only reason he ever graduated. When he graduated from the school, Justin gave him a first-edition copy of Inferno, the first part of Divine Comedy (a 14th-century epic poem), which detailed the journey of its protagonist Dante through Hell while guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the book, Nathan took detailed notes about its passages. When he became a student at a Seattle college, Nathan proved extremely unpopular. As a result, he began planning a series of Inferno-based killings with Justin, who by that point was spiraling into a psychotic breakdown due to his past. Intending to end the crimes in a double suicide, Nathan acquired SEMTEX from an unknown source and used it to construct a homemade bomb in his dormitory, which he planned to use to kill himself, Justin, and presumably an unknown number of others. Like Justin, he was also slowly suffering from a psychotic break. A week prior to Justin's first murder, he posted a blog about killing people at his school using the nine circles of Hell.
Burn[]
In "Burn", he is first seen returning to his dormitory room, drawing scornful looks from the students he passes. After closing the door, Nathan immediately retrieves a box from underneath his bed, opens it up, and unlocks a secret compartment containing the SEMTEX and several other supplies. He inserts a battery in a cellphone, which he apparently designed as the detonator, before looking at the explosives in admiration and smiling in satisfaction. Hotch and Morgan later arrive at the college after the BAU, investigating Justin's murders, found his blog. Nathan stumbles upon them just as they find his stash of SEMTEX, and he tries to flee, only to be tackled by Morgan, who arrests him as he begins chuckling maniacally. Taken to an interrogation room, he is questioned by Morgan and JJ, to whom he confesses to being the unsub, all the while intermittently, silently whispering, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." However, his lie is exposed when he claims he strangled his first victim, a woman, when in actuality, the victim (who was a male) was bound and asphyxiated with gas. When JJ tells him this, Nathan begins chanting, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." JJ then identifies him as Virgil, to which Nathan proclaims he is Dante. Nathan isn't seen again in the episode, but it can be assumed that he was institutionalized, considering his current mental condition and his unhealthy obsession with Inferno.
Profile[]
No profile of Nathan was made by the BAU, as they were primarily focused on Justin. They did surmise he was meant to be the unsub's companion and accomplice, and they realized Justin was the unsub from his gift to Nathan of the first-edition copy of Inferno heavily implying their bond.
Real-Life Comparisons[]
Chow appears to have been inspired by Seung-Hui Cho - Both are Asian-American attempted mass murderers (though Cho was successful) with similar surnames, had a record of harassing students at their colleges, targeted their own college campuses, and wanted to emulate other violence they were exposed to (Chow wanted to copy Dante's Inferno, Cho was inspired by Columbine High mass murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold).
Known Victims[]
- 2014:
- Early October: His intended suicide bombing (represented the the seventh circle, "Violence"):
- Justin Leu
- Numerous unnamed bystanders (presumably)
- October 8: Two unnamed male students (assaulted while trying to escape)
- Early October: His intended suicide bombing (represented the the seventh circle, "Violence"):
Notes[]
- Nathan constructing a bomb out of SEMTEX in his college dormitory and intending to use it in his suicide, as well as his threats against his schoolmates, could be a reference to Randy Slade ("Painless"), who committed a suicide bombing at his school using a bomb made out of SEMTEX.
- A photo of Nathan seen on Kevin Lynch's computer shows that his Social Security number is 980-00-1701.