Summary
Mindhunter Season 2, Episode 9 – The Finale provides Holden and Bill their sternest test yet, as the prime suspect is smart and resourceful.
This recap of Mindhunter Season 2, Episode 9 – The Finale, contains significant spoilers. You can read the recap of the previous episode by clicking these words.
Here we are — after eight chapters of Mindhunter Season 2, we finally have a prime suspect: Wayne Bertram Williams.
Episode 9, the finale, scopes in on the suspect, but he is resourceful, smart and adaptable to most of the situations thrown at him. Despite having rope and gloves in his car, Holden and Bill cannot keep hold of him; no deceased body, no warrant for an arrest. Wayne keeps his story consistent; that he was out at 3 am to meet a prospective singer — “business is business”.
Holden’s profiling continues to be questioned in Episode 9. Due to the racial politics at play, Jim and Tanya question what he would do if it were a white male, and he keeps arrogantly pushing it back on them. Holden is arrogant, but he embraces his methods.
Holden and Jim decide to visit Wayne at his home and ask the same questions about the night before. They find out that he searches for music talent aged between 11-21 years old. His flyers are a significant giveaway. Holden presses him about children; continuously asks if he likes young kids — Holden knows he has him.
A body is found in the river, half a mile down the stream, placing Bill in another awkward position with his family. It’s clear Nancy is at her wit’s end with her husband, and she’s eager to pack up and leave with Brian. Bill, on the other hand, is adamant he needs to return to Atlanta to finish the case.
Despite a lot of resistance from Slaton, an exceptional warrant is made on Wayne for 24-hour surveillance. Unfortunately, once again, Wayne outsmarts Holden and Bill, and buys them a takeaway, letting them know he knows that they are following him.
Once again, Bill and Holden interview Wayne. They press him to tell his story again; recount timelines, music careers, change of car, carpet fibers and dog hairs. Holden starts listing all the victims, but Wayne manages to keep it to a reasonable level of calm to end the interview.
Episode 9 sees Wayne take his strategy to the next level — it has been leaked in the paper that he is a prime suspect, so Wayne changes the narrative and partakes in an interview on TV. It’s clear he is enjoying the press, and it forces the FBI to place a deadline on Holden and Bill.
The next day, Wayne is randomly arrested — Bill and Holden learn that the fibers found on the bodies came back with a perfect match with Wayne’s carpet in the house. They are charging him with the murder of two of the adults recently found in the river.
With Holden’s work done, he decides to meet the women who set up a meeting with him at the start of season two; they are still not happy, claiming that the FBI and the police have found their black man to pinpoint the murders on, but the other 27 cases involving children will never be resolved. Ted Gunn reveals to Holden the same notion, claiming the DA will choose which cases they will link to Wayne. On TV, the Commissioner suspends the remaining 27 cases now that a prime suspect has been arrested.
Mindhunter Season 2, Episode 9 finishes on sombre terms; after a lengthy investigation, the characters did not get the satisfaction they expected from solving such a case — Bill returns to an empty home; his wife and his son Brian have packed up and left, leaving just his clothes behind. A black screen comes up; as of 2019, none of the remaining 27 other prosecution cases has been confirmed.
Before the credits roll, season 2 closes with BTK wearing his mask and female clothes. He looks at newspaper clippings of his victims and starts choking himself.
This was an excellent, almost depressing finale, but I think we expected nothing else.
You can read the season two review by clicking these words.
