What's' Mindhunter & # 39; is trying to do with these BTK killer vignettes?

(Some upcoming spoilers for season 2 of Netflix's "Mindhunter")

One of the most intriguing excerpts of the first season of "Mindhunter" was a series of vignettes about BTK's murderer, Dennis Rader (Sonny Valicenti), somehow narrating his life alongside the development of the world. FBI behavioral science unit of the main characters were investigating him. In season 2, it changed a bit, while Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) goes to Kansas in the second episode to investigate these murders.

The highlight of the visit was Bill's early morning conversation with the only survivor of a BTK attack, Kevin Bright – whose sister was killed in the same attack. And then, Bill goes home to Virginia without making any real progress beyond collecting information about the profiles of BSU serial killers. They talk about BTK from time to time for the rest of the season, but Bill never resumes this investigation.

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The vignettes continue however. During season 2 of "Mindhunter", we are shown that Rader had tried to walk in the right path, because his wife had surprised him as self-erotic asphyxia while he was wearing very interesting clothes. At the end of the season, we see his attempts to reform turn into another ordinary guy who fails, and he finds his strange sexual perversions.

All this thread is interesting because we know that BTK will not be caught until more than two decades after the events we are witnessing. Rader was finally arrested in 2005. So unless they make a big pass at one point, that's not the case. an event that we will see on "Mindhunter". We are still in 1981 at the end of season 2, after all.

So, what is the purpose of this thread? McCallany explained it a bit in an interview with Esquire.

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"One of the things that, in my opinion, separates our series from other series is that we show the reality of police work," notes McCallany, "and the reality is that they do not always understand the guy! They did not catch the Zodiac, they did not catch Rader until 2005, and only because he made a really stupid mistake, sending a traceable floppy, directly to the police department in a sort of quest for notoriety. in the manner of Son of Sam. "

Rader had ended his assassination career in 1991, but resumed his correspondence with the press and police in 2004, thus acknowledging the murder of a non-linked murder conclusively at BTK. It's one of those correspondences, on an old 3.5-inch floppy disk, that eventually got him back when the police found him.

It seems unlikely that the story told by "Mindhunter" extends until 2005, the recurring focus on Rader then becomes more of a thematic issue than intriguing for the series. Here we have a killer who lives his life and significantly challenges the profile of Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and co. have built for serial murderers. BSU is not perfect and they have very big problems.

For example, Holden repeatedly asserts in Season 2 that serial killers are unable to lead a normal life, but Rader directly contradicts this idea: he has a job and a family and holds a leadership position in his church . In Ed Kemper's only scene in season 2, he points out something very important to Holden: all of BSU's knowledge comes from serial killers who have been caught.

This is an important lesson for Holden, who is always convinced that he is right about everything. But Holden does not really learn this lesson: during his investigation of the Atlanta murders for the rest of the season, Bill and he constantly discuss the merits of developing and eliminating leads rather than content with the profile that Holden established early.

In the end, "Mindhunter" throws a lot of uncertainty about Holden's conclusions about this case. And the BTK thumbnails bring this point back. Holden and BSU are not infallible, and there are so many things they still do not know about serial killers. That's why, in my opinion, thumbnails of BTK persist.