The following article contains spoilers.
One of the best things about watching a good crime show is putting on your detective hat and trying to figure out who the killer is. Normally, these criminals are trying to conceal themselves, hiding in the shadows so they won’t be so easily caught. Normally, these criminals will try to blend into society, taking on roles such as being a sheriff or a highly respected member of the community, to throw people off the scent of who they really are. We call this hiding in plain sight, and it’s been a bedrock of crime shows for decades.
These killers walk among the population, blending in with the crowd, which makes the detective’s job that much harder to do, and has the audience believe that they couldn’t possibly be responsible for such heinous crimes. So, when the killer is revealed, and it’s a person no one would ever expect, it brings a sense of shock and awe to the audience, who were so convinced that the blood expert at the police department, or the former U.S. Marine, was not the killer. Oh, but they were, and these reveals are the ultimate “got you” moments. With that in mind, let’s take a good look at the best crime shows where the killer was hiding among us the entire time. These shows are absolutely famous for having their killers hide in plain sight, and contain reveals that are still talked about to this very day.
7
‘Mindhunter’ (2017–2019)
When it comes to shows that hide their killers in plain sight, no show did it better than Netflix’s Mindhunter. Based on the true crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, the series follows the book’s path in breaking down the psychology of some of the world’s most notorious serial killers in order to solve cases. By implementing this logic, viewers were able to get a terrifying look inside the mind of a serial killer and use this to find out who the killer was.
Oftentimes, the killer we were searching for was right there in front of us, and we didn’t even know it. All we had to do was think like them to crack the case. That was Mindhunter’s biggest strength: getting viewers to think like a serial killer to solve the case and find out who the killer actually was. There were times when the killer was just as we suspected it would be, and other times, it caught us completely by surprise. If you’re tuning into Mindhunter for the first time, be prepared to be stunned by some jaw-dropping reveals as to who the criminal actually is.
6
‘The Following’ (2013–2015)
In the mid-2010s, Fox was on the lookout for a hit crime drama, and they thought The Following, starring Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy, would be that hit. In the end, it didn’t prove to be a success, being canceled after just three seasons, and soon becoming forgotten. That’s a shame, as this series was quite innovative for its time, especially when it came to its central antagonist, serial killer Joe Carroll (Purefoy), who was one mean dude.
Carroll was not a killer to be messed with, especially after he broke out of prison, and Bacon’s character, FBI agent Ryan Hardy, and other agents, hot on his tail to apprehend him and take him back to the slammer. As the show moved along, though, finding him and getting him back to prison would not be so easy. Why? Well, they soon learn that Carroll had amassed an army of fanatical killers that follows him, with Emma Hill (Valorie Curry) as his second-in-command of sorts. Even worse, we, the audience, didn’t really know who was a normal person, and who was one of Carroll’s sick killers. That was the beauty of The Following, an engaging crime drama, but it also had a good bit of psychological horror mixed in and managed to fool us in each episode.
5
‘The Mentalist’ (2008–2015)
You would think that a show featuring a psychic who uses his “abilities” to read people’s minds and solve murder cases would know who the killer was before we, the audience, did. But here in The Mentalist, CBS’ hit slow-burn crime drama that ran for seven seasons, there were some killers that were clearly hiding among us, even some that we didn’t know were there until the final reveal.
Most of the cases on The Mentalist revolved around Red John, a serial killer who was responsible for the murder of Patrick Jane’s (Simon Baker) family. While we were all tuned in to see Jane use his “powers” (spoiler alert: he had no psychic powers) to try to find the man who murdered his wife and child, we didn’t know who he was until Season 6, when it was revealed that Red John was the sheriff of Napa County, Thomas McAllister (Xander Berkeley). Talk about having the perfect cover. No one could believe that Red John, a serial killer, became a sheriff, hiding his crime from all of us. Touché, Mr. McAllister, touché.
4
‘Barry’ (2018–2023)
One can look at HBO’s Barry as a spiritual successor, of sorts, to Dexter. They both kind of had the same premise, except Barry took on a more comedic tone than Dexter did, so much so that you would be more focused on the hilarity that ensued than on the killer that was hiding in plain sight. Nevertheless, Barry was just as good as Showtime’s famed series, especially with the writers deciding to hide the true identity of Barry Berkman (Bill Hader), a former U.S. Marine-turned-hitman. When he gets an assignment that takes him to L.A. to make sure a target stops living, he joins an acting class that allows him to question whether or not life as an assassin is worth it.
The hilarious part of Barry is that we watched the entire time a group of acting students sit among a hitman, talking and befriending Barry, while not knowing his true identity. The entire idea of hiding in plain sight is to act and do things that won’t let you stand out and be exposed to the person that you truly are, and Barry did this to perfection.
3
‘Killing Eve’ (2018–2022)
For four seasons, we were enthralled by the drama that was pulsating from Killing Eve, a woman-led spy show that had a multitude of killers who we didn’t know were among the population of the series. With Villanelle (Jodie Comer), the main antagonist of the series, it wasn’t until Season 2 that we began to see a new villain that Villanelle and MI6 agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) had to work together to defeat, one that was practically invisible.
She was so invisible that she was nicknamed “The Ghost,” an assassin who was an expert at hiding in plain sight. Not only that, but the introduction of “The Ghost” in Season 2 served as a way for the showrunners to divide the women of the series, one who openly stands out, and others who want to blend in. It was one of Killing Eve’s more unique aspects, and made you pay attention to every episode so that you wouldn’t miss the clues that were laid out right there for us to see.
2
‘Twin Peaks’ (1990–1991)
Although the original series of ABC’s Twin Peaks ran for just two seasons, it is still one of the most talked-about shows of all time, especially when it comes to its central premise: who killed Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee)? When we found out who killed her, it was safe to say that we were all shocked, as the mystery played out beautifully.
The killer turned out to be Laura’s own father, Leland Palmer (Ray Wise), who was one of the most respected residents of the town. No one, and we mean no one, would have ever suspected this turn of events, especially the way the writers told the story. To this day, the reveal of Laura Palmer’s killer is one of the best twists in TV history, one that was clearly hiding in plain sight among us.
1
‘Dexter’ (2006–2013)
When it comes to killers hiding in plain sight, few do it better than Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) of the iconic Showtime series Dexter. The series, which ran for eight seasons, was a masterclass in hiding its central killer from the audience. The title character was a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Police Department. Being part of law enforcement, you wouldn’t think that there was anything suspicious about Dexter, but you would be so, so wrong.
By day, Dexter was a bloodstain expert for the cops, but by night, he was a vigilante serial killer, dispensing justice to murderers who didn’t get the punishment they were due through the justice system. So, in a sense, Dexter was the classic anti-hero, but, nevertheless, he was a killer that hid in plain sight, and a good one at that.
Dexter
- Release Date
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2006 – 2013-00-00
- Network
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Showtime
- Directors
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John Dahl, Steve Shill, Keith Gordon, Marcos Siega, Michael Cuesta, Romeo Tirone, Ernest R. Dickerson, Tony Goldwyn, Nick Gomez, Rob Lieberman, Tim Hunter, Adam Davidson, Alik Sakharov, Brian Kirk, Holly Dale, Jeremy Podeswa, Michael Lehmann, Milan Cheylov, Seith Mann
