The Creepiest Unsub In Criminal Minds Season 4
These days, police and crime procedurals are a dime a dozen, with many shows struggling to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace. However, every now and again, someone will find a way to take the genre's core tenets and present them in a fresh, intriguing way. Case in point, "Criminal Minds" from creator Jeff Davis, which arrived on the small screen scene in late September of 2005 and became so popular that it ran until February of 2020 — later scoring itself a 10 episode revival as well as a true-crime docuseries, "The Real Criminal Minds," on Paramount +.
"Criminal Minds" centers on a group of FBI investigators, specifically within the Behavior Analysis Unit, who collaborate on identifying and apprehending individuals responsible for any number of crimes. These unsubs (unknown subjects) are murderers, con artists, and everything in-between, but more often than not, they're no match for the BAU team. Still, that isn't to say that the road to bringing these folks to justice is an easy one, especially when it comes to more disturbing cases. Every season of the show has these, though some are far more difficult to comprehend than others.
Specifically from the crop of unsubs featured on "Criminal Minds" Season 4, here's the single creepiest of the bunch.
Danny Murphy is terrifyingly cold
Season 4's "A Shade of Gray" introduced "Criminal Minds" viewers to a kid named Danny Murphy (Kendall Ryan Sanders): a nine-year-old boy who has an affinity for building model planes and often flies into fits of rage. One evening, however, his unchecked anger issues resulted in the death of his younger brother, Kyle (Robbie Tucker), who had accidentally broken one of Danny's planes. Worried about losing Danny so soon after he killed Kyle, his parents tried to trick investigators into thinking he had nothing to do with it, but they ultimately failed.
"Criminal Minds" Season 4 showcased numerous worrisome unsubs, but Danny Murphy takes the cake. Not only is there something inherently unsettling about a child killer, but his cold indifference toward murdering Kyle adds a layer of creepiness that's impossible to ignore. Not to mention, the fact that he suffocated his younger brother to death with broken plane parts only proves beyond a doubt that he didn't kill Kyle by accident. Imagine what he could've gone on to do as a grown adult had he not gotten caught.
Murphy left such an impression on the "Criminal Minds" fandom that a handful of Redditors even brought him up in a thread about the scariest unsubs. "I think the IDEA of that one kid that kills his brother with one of his toys is scary," wrote IsMyNameGage, with Ajade77 adding, "That one BREAKS my heart bc it is scary what that kid may grow into and he seemed to live a pretty good life, unlike most other unsubs that grew up horribly."
Danny Murphy may not be the most memorable or physically imposing unsub in "Criminal Minds" history, although his actions and demeanor in "A Shade of Gray" made him arguably the scariest of Season 4.