In this week’s episode of Criminal Minds there is a string of murders where the victims have two puncture marks on their necks and the blood has been drained from their bodies. The team find themselves in pursuit of a killer who either is pretending to be, or who actually believes that they are, a vampire.

The investigation centers on a musician, played by the real life singer Gavin Rossdale, who uses the stage persona of a vampire.  His record sales and popularity are in a downward spiral and as the investigation unfolds it is discovered that the victims were fans of the musician. One of them was even seen with the fake vampire before she was later found dead.  Of course this makes the on stage vampire persona the prime suspect in the case.

As the investigation stumbles, due mainly to the fact that the pattern of the killer does not fit any of the known psychological behaviors of serial killers, a key piece of information is discovered.

While the team was focused on finding a male killer, forensic show that they saliva left on the victims came from a woman. This answers why they were so far off on their profiling, considering almost all known serial killers have been men and not women.

With this new evidence they are quick to track down the true killer and are able to save one of their agent’s lives in the process. She is over at the woman’s home when the musician’s agent shows up and knocks her over the head from behind. Then it is revealed that this agent was able to manipulate this woman because she is mentally unbalanced and deep into the vampire cult scene. He tells her to kill for this on-stage vampire because it would make him happy and she could then be with him for eternity.

This sick woman, not mentally able to distinguish between reality and the made up world of vampires, then commits these murders. After all is said an done we learn that these poor women were killed for publicity in order to bring attention to the musician’s new album release.

This was a pretty strange and twisted episode of Criminal Minds. It kept me intrigued all the way through  and was very well written and performed.  Still, it has to be one of the strangest episodes that I’ve ever enjoyed.