Will This Famous Serial Killer Be In Mindhunter Season 2?

The lucky television viewers who have already binged through Mindhunter season 1 have a lot of questions to ask themselves. But, when they’re finished questioning the meaning of Dr. Wendy Carr’s cat or a possible connection between Ada Jeffries and the BTK Killer (Sonny Valicenti) there’s only one thing left to think about: Mindhunter season 2. Netflix has reportedly renewed the David Fincher-produced psycho drama for a second batch of episodes, so it’s not too early to start pondering what’s ahead for the FBI’s budding behavioral science unit. While we can all expect to see Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), Wendy (Anna Torv), and, unfortunately, Gregg Smith (Joe Tuttle), who’s the Worst, again, there’s also apparently an unexpected addition to the season 2 cast. That person is serial killer Monte Rissell (Sam Strike), who made his sole appearance in “Episode 4.” It’s time to figure out if Monte will really be in next season’s Mindhunter, or if this apparent news is a glitch.

The suggestion Monte will pop up in the premiere of Mindhunter’s sophomore year comes to us from IMDb, surprisingly enough. Since the thriller has already been confirmed for another season, with Fincher already musing over the series' future, the bare bones listing for the new set of installments is already up on the database, with just one episode confirmed for the time being. When you click on the listing, titled “Episode 2.1” for now, the names of stars like Groff, McCallany, and Torv are not listed. No, Monte Rissell’s portrayer Sam Strike stands alone on the credits. It’s not surprising the main three members of Mindhunter’s cast aren’t listed, because contracts need to be drawn up and signed before things can be made IMDb-official. Since the streaming service has seemingly yet to wrap those negotiations, it makes sense stay mum on such a headline-making topic in a public arena like a listing of Internet credits.

Yet, someone had to purposefully add the EastEnders actor Strike to “Episode 2.1.” In the same way Groff & Co. purposefully aren’t credited for any season 2 episodes yet, someone purposefully added the British actor. These kinds of things don’t happen by digital magic.

Either way, it’s easy to see where Monte story could take our Mindhunter heroes. As we observe throughout the newbie series, Ford gets uncomfortably close to many of his new serial killer subjects. There’s the infamous “ripe cunts” debacle with Richard Speck (Jack Erdie), the breakdown-causing fiasco in California with the agent's so-called “friend,” mass serial killer Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton), and the multiple unsettling encounters with Jerry Brudos (Happy Anderson), to whom Ford divulged very personal trauma. Plus, with Brudos, there was that whole thing with the shoes. In stark contrast to all of these alarming encounters, the situation with Monte never spiraled out of control in the same way.

Instead, the disturbingly young serial killer gave Ford and Bill helpful, while extremely dark, unbiased information. Monte helped confirm men like him usually have overbearing, rejecting mothers and absentee fathers. He also went into horrifying detail into his mindset before, after, and during his serial rapes and murders. This is all the information Ford and Bill will need more of going into season 2, without any of the emotional baggage of Jerry and the high heel masturbation or Ed Kemper and the hug of near-death. The most personal Monte gets with our favorite FBI agents is demanding a case of Big Red soda. For someone as emotionally involved with serial killers as Ford is, that kind of ask is nothing. So, if the agents were to return to the field next season, someone like Monte Rissell is actually the perfect candidate for an interview.

Interestingly, Monte could also be a big help in the exact case the Mindhunter team is planning to explore is season 2. “Next year we’re looking at the Atlanta child murders,” director-producer Fincher teased to Billboard recently, conveniently leaving out when in 2018 his Netflix drama will return. When that string of Atlanta serial killings engulfed the Georgia city, approximately 29 African-American children, teens, and young adults were murdered. Most of the victims were male.

Although Monte solely preyed on young white women, he does have a big similarity when it comes to the Atlanta child murders — his age. The most infamous detail about Monte is how young he was when he committed his many violent crimes, which began when he was a young teen. In the same vein, the man convicted for two of the many Atlanta slayings, and long suspected to have committed the rest, Wayne Bertram Williams, was equally young when he killed at least two people; the murders occurred during his early 20s. Monte is actually a year younger than Williams and is about 18 years old when we meet him in Mindhunter. If anyone can give Holden and Bill a peek into the mind of a suspect like Williams, it’s Monte.

So, Sam Strike’s appearance on the Mindhunter 2.0’s credits might be an accident. But, it might be our first big clue about season 2, too.