Title: We Don't Like Zombies by Lexikal
Spoilers: This story is about Uncanny Valley.
Summary: Reid talks to the team about Samantha and her doll obsession on the jet after the events of "Uncanny Valley" (5 x 12), reassures J.J. and tries to deal with his own emotions regarding the case. A one-shot.
Rating: T
Author's Note: I like learning things, so I specifically looked up why this episode was called Uncanny Valley (there had to be a reason!), and incorporated what I found into this story.
Editing Note: I deleted the story because it had some typos, fixed the typos and reuploaded. It's still the same story with some minor changes to fix typos and one or two extra lines added, and a few words changed. Edited on Monday, October 25, 2010.
Please review!
They were all unusually quiet on the flight home, all lost in thought. Compared to many other cases, this case had ended fairly well. The UnSub hadn't been evil, just really, really sick and hurt... and delusional. She'd get the help she needed now.
She hadn't meant to kill any of the women, and hadn't been sadistic. As far as cases went, it was a pretty mild one... if the term "mild" could be applied to any BAU case. And yet, the team was strangely quiet and withdrawn.
Reid both intellectually and emotionally knew why they were so withdrawn. Not only had Samantha Malcolm been made into what she was and intentionally brain damaged with electroshock "therapy" by her psychiatrist father, but he'd then taken the only possessions in the world that had meant anything to the little girl. Her dolls. Her friends. He'd raped her, and bribed her with dolls, and then taken them back as a trophies. He'd killed her soul, some might say. She would never be normal. She would never recover.
Reid sighed heavily, remembering the stand-off he'd had with Arthur Malcolm as Rossi watched. As Reid had pointed to three different toys high up on one of the psychiatrist's bookshelves, where no child could ever possibly reach them. Could remember the monster telling Reid that he didn't like what he- Reid- was implying. And then Reid, eyes burning with an anger so hard and so fierce he felt momentarily suspended from his body, had given the Shrink a vocabulary lesson. Not imply, moron. Infer. To arrive at by way of an educated guess, not just wild speculation.
The shrink had still brushed him off, until Reid had pointed to the toys so high above, in near-perfect condition. Asked to know the names of the patients Malcolm had given those toys to. And then, when Reid had told the man that those three little girls' reactions in court would be evidence of his crimes... only then had Malcolm acquiesced and given up Samantha's location.
The bastard had been willing to let more women die just to protect his dirty little secrets.
Reid could remember speaking to Samantha at the half-way house, trying to calm her. Holding up his hands in a non-threatening manner. Asking her about her father, and then listening sadly as the child trapped in the woman's body rambled about how her father was a good father. How he had never touched her. How he loved her.
And Reid had told her that he knew Malcolm had probably made her say that. Threatened her with the room with the lightning? And Samantha Malcolm's face fell, sad and damaged, the cognitive damage hideously apparent.
Reid had offered her the dolls then, her real dolls. Plastic dolls. Asked her if she wanted to see them, wanted to play with them, and Samantha had grinned like a slightly slow four year old and nodded exuberantly. Reid had pulled out the small, brightly coloured suitcase, and called for Medics then, and Rossi and the police had escorted her away, while Samantha's victims were taken to the hospital.
Reid sighed and glanced around the inside of the jet. Spotted J.J. She was sitting on the couch, gazing out the window at the passing clouds, her eyes a little too shiny. Reid got up and shuffled over to her, sat down.
"Hey," he said gently to his colleague, the only one of his team mates to call him "Spence". The only member of his team he'd ever taken on a "date"- as disastrous and awkward as that had been. However, there was a bond between them, a strong platonic bond, like that between a brother and sister. J.J. wasn't much older than him really. After Reid, she was the second youngest member on the team.
"I just...I know it ended well. But seeing those women like that... somehow it seems worse than if they'd been butchered, Spence. Dressed up like dolls like that. They hadn't even looked human anymore. Somehow, it felt worse to see them like that than if they'd been killed."
Reid nodded and shuffled a bit closer to her.
"I know that sounds crazy," J.J. said, looking up at Reid, the tears finally spilling over and trailing down her cheeks.
"No," Reid said adamantly, shaking his head. "No, it doesn't sound crazy. We have a natural revulsion towards seeing people like..."
"Seeing people like what?" Prentiss said. She'd glanced over, seen J.J.'s tears obviously, and come over to join them. Morgan had gotten up, too, and the four of them sat on the couch.
"Discussing anything interesting?" Hotch called dryly from where he was sitting, glancing over at Rossi.
"Spence is going to explain why it's not crazy for me to be more upset at seeing those women dolled up and drugged than at the idea of seeing them... butchered," J.J. said softly.
"Really?" Hotch said with a small smile, putting his coffee down too. "Mind if I listen in?" But he'd already come over and was sitting on a chair near them. The couch was full with Reid, J.J., Morgan and Prentiss.
"Dave? You want to hear this?"
"Why not," Rossi said, getting up and sitting adjacently to Hotch.
Spencer Reid was now fully aware that five pairs of eyes and ears were focused on him. He swallowed uncomfortably.
"Really, you guys don't know about the experiments of Dr. Masahiro Mori in the early 70s?" Reid asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable now. He was used to rambling off statistics and information, but very rarely did the team flock around him like this. Like... never.
"No," Morgan encouraged. "Come on. What about those women all drugged and dolled up... why is that so inherently creepy? Psychologically I mean, visually? Besides the fact that they were paralyzed and..."
"Well, Dr. Mori did some pretty interesting psychological experiments in the early 70s... and what it basically comes down to is that we don't like Zombies or Skeletons..."
"No kidding," Morgan said dryly, and Hotch turned to Rossi and grinned. Reid flushed.
"If you'll let me continue," Reid said, closing his eyes, trying to think of how to say what he wanted to say without babbling.
"In 1970, Mori published a text called Bukimi No Tani, which roughly translated means The Uncanny Valley. Dr. Mori became famous for his pioneering work on humans and how they reacted to non-human entities." Reid stopped talking and looked around. His entire team was watching him, clearly interested. Reid decided to continue.
"Dr. Mori studied Japanese robots from that era. He made graphs which, vertically, measured how people responded to certain images and, horizontally, how human the images appeared... his results were startling to say the least."
"Go on," J.J. said. Her eyes were no longer tearing up. Reid nodded.
"Mori discovered that people reacted well to other humans, as long as they looked and acted like, well...humans. He also found that people reacted well to images of characters that acted human but weren't, such as robots that had faintly human characteristics, or talking animals in cartoons, that sort of thing. But he found that when robots were made to look too human, the subtle imperfections became too apparent, and the brain registered this, and people found these robots repulsive and eerie. Mori suggested that robot designers shouldn't try to make robots look overly human in either appearance or motion."
"So...those victims freaked us out because they looked... not like humans?"
"They looked like dolls. That was Samantha's intention. They weren't simply dolled up, Morgan. Samantha went to great lengths to make them resemble her dolls, and they looked unreal, they looked distorted...ageless." Reid shut his eyes.
"Anyway, when Mori looked at his graphs of how people responded to the two groups of images- both humans and the cartoons and obviously-robotic robots, and then the eerily accurate robots, he noticed something. The charts looked like a pair of hills, which denoted the viewers' high acceptance for certain types of images, with a valley in between, which denoted their revulsion in response to the images that looked human but were flawed somehow, imperfect."
"Yeah, but why the revulsion? Sculptures can look surprisingly true to life, and most people aren't revolted. Paintings, too." Prentiss asked.
"I think it has to do with the fact that the robots were moving and talking, existing and interacting with people in time and space... yet they weren't people. Anyway, Dr. Mori referred to the dip in his charts as "The Uncanny Valley" and it's been suggested that the actual revulsion people feel when they see a doll or robot that almost- but not quite- looks human is an evolutionary protective drive. We developed that response, that sense that something that appears human but isn't, is eerie, to protect us. To keep us at a distance from diseased or injured people... ultimately, it's a matter of survival of the fittest."
"Is that why The Body Snatchers scared the hell out of me when I was a kid?" Morgan asked, grinning.
"No, that was Donald Sutherland's perm..." Prentiss cut in with a laugh.
"What's The Body Snatchers?" Reid asked. Morgan grinned wider.
J.J. was silent, absorbing. "You know, Spence, when I was a kid there was this toy store in my hometown. They had these dolls there... creepiest things. They actually gave me nightmares, those dolls. I am not sure how they worked, exactly, but they didn't take batteries, no sensors... must've been some sort of optical illusion. But wherever you were, if the doll was facing you, its eyes appeared to follow you. Those women... when we got there today... reminded me of those damn dolls. And those dolls... I still haven't figured out how their eyes moved like that..." J.J. shuddered.
"Well..." Reid said, gearing up for another explanation.
"Well," Hotch interjected, standing,, smiling. "Thanks for the information about Japanese robots from the 1970s, Reid." He went back to his seat and Rossi followed, smiling at Reid as he stood up.
"Good work today, Agent Reid," Rossi said, trailing back to his seat near Hotch.
"What?" Reid asked, looking over at Morgan and Prentiss. "They'll listen to me talk about robots, but not dolls?"
"Of course," Morgan said, grinning. "Robots are cool. Dolls are for girls..."
Spencer Reid scowled and turned back to J.J. "I bet they don't know that in the medical profession, the term doll's eyes refers to someone with a traumatic brain injury whose eyes remain fixed when the head is turned..." Reid said. "But as for a doll's eyes moving when you moved... if it wasn't battery operated or..."
"It wasn't," J.J. assured. Reid considered this.
There had to be a logical explanation...
That's it. Liked it? Hated it? Please review... I can't improve as an author without reviews and feedback! Thank you very much for reading (and doubly so if you do review, I realize your life is finite!)