Criminal Mind Games: Difference between revisions

The detectives are on the heels of [[Idiosyncrazy|a very unbalanced criminal]] who has left them a trail of clues to follow -- usuallyfollow—usually a test of their intellect, or their investigatory skills, as though the criminal wants to see if the detectives are worthy of catching him. Not only do the detectives oblige the nutter and follow his breadcrumb trail, they tend to give up all conventional routes of investigation. Usually they are the minutest step behind their quarry right until the end. Sometimes the criminal wishes to distract or trap the detectives, sometimes they want them to uncover some other truth along the way, but usually they're just being a real smartass. Sometimes the clues are hidden in the [[Serial Killer]]'s [[Calling Card]] or in its gruesome [[Finger in the Mail|souvenirs]].

* Subverted in ''[[Death Note]]:'' the master detective L expects Kira to be leaving messages -- butmessages—but Kira is just as smart as he is, so only leaves red herrings to throw L off the scent, or meaningless clues to waste his time.

* In all incarnations of ''[[Batman]]'', this is The Riddler's modus operandi; other Batman villains, notably The Joker, have also done it.

** Lampshaded during a [[Villain Team-Up]] that takes place in one of the old 1960s Batman movies, where the Riddler's colleagues eventually grow tired of him compromising their plans by leaving clues that they know Bats will inevitably solve. They try to stop him from doing so, but he fervently declares that he just can't resist and proceeds to leave more clues that eventually lead to their defeat.

* Jigsaw does this in ''[[Saw]] 2'', having abducted a Detective Matthews' son and left him, and numerous other victims-including Amanda, a survivor of his games- in a house filled with death traps, and is recording the whole thing, which becomes useful when the detective and a SWAT team show up to arrest him. Jigsaw says the son will be returned alive and safe if Matthews just has a conversation with him, but the house is also filling with nerve gas that will kill everyone inside in two hours. {{spoiler|The son is locked in a safe in Jigsaw's room, the video is not live and everyone in it is already dead apart from Amanda, and when Matthews shows up thinking he'll save his son Amanda reveals that she was Jigsaw's apprentice, and the whole thing was a revenge scheme of hers because Matthew's once framed her for a crime, ruining her life, and it ends with Amanda leaving him to die locked in the room from the first film}}.

** This seems to be particularly common for movie and video game versions of Holmes, and less so in the Canon. In particular, he's been sent on scavenger hunts through famous sites in London by thieves ''twice,'' at least -- inleast—in the [[Infocom]] text adventure ''The Riddle of the Crown Jewels,'' and in the more recent ''Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis''. Ironically, Moriarty is the villain and riddler of the former, not the latter.

* [[Agatha Christie|Hercule Poirot]] came up against a [[Criminal Mind Games]] villain {{spoiler|or so it seemed}} in ''The ABC Murders'', where the killer sent him mocking letters before each of the murders.

* Played with in ''[[Red Dragon]]'', where the police intercept a fan letter the [[Serial Killer]] sent to his idol, Hannibal Lecter. Lecter begins corresponding with him in the sensationalist newspaper ''The Tattler'' with a cryptic message, and as the FBI aren't able to decipher it in time they decided to let go ahead as it's their only means of contacting him, and when they finally deciphered it they could take Lecter's place. Unfortunately, it wasn't the Dragon they were playing mind games with - Lecter's message {{spoiler|told the Dragon the hero and his family's home address, and said he should kill them all.}}

* ''[[Another Note]]'': The entire book is about trying to solve a very, very, difficult one of these. The killer, [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign|Beyond Birthday]], left several clues leading from one murder to the next. None of the investigating officers could even start to decipher B's clues. Only Naomi Misora -- underMisora—under L's guidance -- andguidance—and an "unprivate" detective named Ryuzaki could help. The clues lead Naomi Misora ''in person'' to find each and every one of these clues to make sure the effort didn't go to waste. {{spoiler|Ryuzaki ends up doing most of the work. He turns out to be the killer who placed the clues there in the first place.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Homicide: Life Onon the Street]]'' in the episode "Sniper". A serial killer draws a hangman game in chalk at the scene of each crime, with another letter filled in each time. The detectives hope that if they can guess the word, they can solve the crime. {{spoiler|It turns out that the word is "eromitlab," a nonsense word -- Baltimore backwards. The killer is simply crazy. There's nothing more to it than that.}}

* ''[[Numb3rs]]'': Usually the clues require advanced mathematics to unravel, since the show's Aesop is that Maths is useful and mathematicians are like superheroes -- withsuperheroes—with maths. "The Janus List" [[Gambit Roulette|took this to ridiculous extremes]]. Supposedly, the whole point of the exercise was to give the FBI a list of double agents, but the character who had the list made it all but impossible for the FBI to find it. {{spoiler|To be fair, this also hid the list from double (triple?) -agent Colby Granger-- but yeah, routes much more direct were available.}}

* In the season 3 finale of ''[[Psych]]'' Shawn faces the Yin-Yang Killer, who only rarely resurfaces to screw with star cops -- bycops—by kidnapping a victim and leaving stopwatches and clues, with the victim dying when the star cop fails to solve the clues in time. When the Yin-Yang killer targets Shawn, Shawn gets caught up in the killer's clues, and {{spoiler|then he realizes that is what the killer wants and pretends to give up.}} Eventually the killer is revealed to be {{spoiler|a very crazy looking Ally Sheedy.}}

* ''[[MacGyver]]'' had an escaped criminal foe who went as far as to call him with math equations that would yield a clue when solved.

* Variant: the ''[[Ghostwriter (TV series)|Ghostwriter]]'' episode "A Crime of Two Cities." A cross-Atlantic trio of kidnappers is led by a nutty mastermind who insists that they commit their crimes (and communicate with each other) through trick sentences and anagrams, all of which mock their intended victim. Unlike the usual trope, the leader isn't testing the heroes. She's doing it because she's arrogant, and wants to show off how the heroes are incapable of figuring out her clever clues.

* ''[[Sherlock]]'' does this in the first season finale, "The Great Game." In a somewhat unique instance, the perpetrator is using unsolved cases as the bait for Sherlock, forcing him to dig up the truth so that his victims won't be killed.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]''

{{quote| '''Bart:''' To find it, you'll have to decipher a series of clues, each more fiendish than...<br />

'''Lisa:''' Found it!<br />

** Barbrady then celebrates his new found literacy by beginning to read books...starting with ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', which he regarded as such utter garbage that he decided he would never read again, making the bookmobile drivers whole plan null and void.

{{quote| If it is the sweets you seek, into the cloakroom you must sneak, and find where I keep my books, and hang my coat and bag on hooks. Behind the metal doors is stowed the sweets what make your head explode.}}

{{quote| '''Master Pho''': I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for that meddling kid.<br />

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