Already binged Netflix's serial killer-centered new series MINDHUNTER? Then there's a real chance you've been looking for signs of psychopathy in the everyday people you encounter. For MINDHUNTER's FBI agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), who spends his days interviewing killers like Edmund Kemper for the BSU, he definitely looks a little closer at the people around him. One person that actor McCallany thinks Bill might be keeping an extra close eye on? His own son.
In the new David Fincher-helmed series, Bill's adoptive son Brian (Zachary Scott Ross) has the ability to speak, but does not — at least, not to Bill. It's possibly because, well, Bill doesn't try very hard to be a good dad: He's absent, emotionally as well as physically, which is something that his wife Nancy (Stacey Roca) berates him for.
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In an interview for Vulture, McCallany is asked whether it's possible that Bill thinks his own son Brian could grow up to be a killer. Apparently, it's not only something that Bill has considered, but the writers of MINDHUNTER as well.
"Well, that’s a really interesting idea," McCallany told Vulture. "Something that was kicked around in the writers room. I don’t know if we’ll be dealing with that particular storyline going forward. They might consider it a little too on the nose in a certain way. But the kid is troubled, and I have great difficulty communicating with him. And you have to remember, in 1978, fatherhood was different for many of these men."
So, yeah — it's possible that Brian Tench could grow up to be a killer, but it's also possible that Bill just needs to learn how to be a better father to his kid.
One killer than McCallany thinks Bill and his partner Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) won't end up catching, at least, during the run of the Netflix series? The alleged BTK Killer, who pops up in the show's cold open in multiple episodes and again in the series finale. Speaking to Refinery29, the actor stated:
"[The BTK Killer] wasn't caught until 2005. He was literally at large for 30 years! We try to remain true to the details of the crimes...Let's hope to God that we get to do this for five seasons. [But] we may never catch the guy. Our journey begins in 1978, are we really going to go up to 2005? I don't think so. We'll span a number of years, but not all of those years. These guys don't solve all of their cases. You don't get to solve them all in real life, and you don't get to solve them all in MINDHUNTER."