"The Apostle Murders": A Thriller Quiz

Answer: the doubting apostle Thomas

Thomas Waverly is a hitchhiker from Boston headed to California to join a new age group and find a place to belong. Preach picks him up in the RV and listens to the boys background of being the son of a lawyer and doctor. When he mentions his last name is Waverly, Preach calls him a doubting Thomas because "Waver" is from the word doubt.

The boy suspects the preacher of being a rapist or kidnapper but has no idea the preacher is planning to murder him for what he views as the cause of Christ.

Answer: He had an Indian lance stabbed through him and was covered in calamine lotion.

Thomas was killed with an Indian lance, stabbed through his chest. He was also covered in pink fluid, the crime lab identified as calamine lotion. The calamine lotion confuses the detectives because it is usually used as a reliever for poison ivy, not murder.

The rest of the killings involve beheading and crucifixions. Morris has seen his share of shootings, stabbings, and other various forms of murder, but this is his first case dealing with multiple crucifixions.

Answer: a young FBI rookie

While Morris and Keller are discussing the crime scenes and photos, a young rookie named Benjamin is intrigued by the case. Morris is enraged because Benjamin is a new agent recently graduated from the academy and has no experience. He first views the new hire as a cocky smart aleck kid that is trying to overtake his job. Keller tells Morris to be quiet, because if the kid knew the link, they had tried everything else.

She stops Benjamin from leaving due to Morris' crude remarks, and Benjamin pulls out a New Testament to share his theory.

He compares the list of victims to the list of disciples in Matthew.

Answer: his father, a seminary professor in Tulsa

Benjamin's father is the Doctor of Divinity at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He confirms with him that Thomas was killed in the same fashion as the apostle Thomas, and links the other killings with the same way the apostles were each martyred.

Peter and Andrew were both from a fishing town on the east coast, just like the Biblical brothers were from Galilee. They were both crucified, Andrew on an X shaped cross and Peter upside down. James was beheaded with a soldier who converted and volunteered to die with him, like the posing of James and a military officer who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thomas was killed in Calamine, stabbed to death with an Indian lance, giving the reason why their Thomas was covered in calamine lotion.

When he impresses Morris and Keller, Benjamin regrets that he was never able to impress his father when he was in seminary, like he impressed the agents at the FBI.

Answer: He wants to revive the old Christian reverence and faith in the new generation.

Preach believes God has spoken to him to commit the murders, although he does not understand why he was chosen. He feels an urgent need and calling for his mission when he returns to his son's church to spend time with his grandchildren. He is disgusted when his son tells him that this is a new age, after Preach is astonished at the Christian rock concert and people calling the pastor by his first name. Preach reminisces back to the old ways of modesty in dress, the hymns, and the respect people gave him in the days when he was a pastor. Observing his son's church gives him an urgency to continue on with his mission of the killings, to teach the new generation what sacrifice really means.

Answer: He was a writer and had been boiled alive.

Morris found John in a burn hospital, after he had been boiled alive. When their detective team tries to reason why this victim was left alive, Morris and Benjamin explain that this was a purposeful act. John was never meant to die because John the Apostle was boiled alive and survived. He was banished to an island of criminals. Benjamin also ties the case to John's occupation. John was a journalist and the apostle John was known for being a writer.

When questioned by the FBI, John is traumatized because all he remembers of his attacker was it was a nice old man that he met at the local coffee shop. Later when he recalls the details of his torture, he said the man was genuinely repentant each time he burned John's feet in oil. He told John he would be blessed and walk on streets of gold for his martyrdom.

Answer: A state trooper finds his car and lists him as a missing person.

Preach lures his victim to his mobile home by asking him to come consult on his out of state taxes. During Matthew Barnes's conversation with Preach about his wife and children, Preach slips drugs in his tea. Matthew wakes up to being pinned down to the ground and frantically prays. Preach takes Ethiopian spikes and nails them into Matthew while he is alive. When Matthew passes out, he finishes the job by cutting his head off.

A state trooper later finds Matthew's car and issues a missing person report through the victim's wife. Benjamin verifies later, when they find the body, that Matthew was killed in the same manner as the apostle.

Answer: He is praying for a man with his clawed hand raised in the air.

Phillip was found brutally beaten and nailed to a tree, after singing a concert with a gospel quartet. Benjamin finds the video footage eerie, after realizing this was the man's very last performance before he died. When the other agents search for the killer during clips of the platform, Benjamin suggests looking in the audience because the killer is not the type that would draw attention to himself.

They find the man in similar clothes, height, build, and age to the description their victim John gave. Preach is praying for a young man with one hand on the man's head and his disabled arm raised, showing his claw.

Answer: He left on an airplane for a family emergency.

Benjamin finds a parking permit logo for a seminary by analyzing security footage from the rest stop where Matthew was killed. He alerts the Tulsa police, who arrest the seminary doctor and pastor to whom it belongs for the murders, without verifying it. The seminary doctor explains that it was an old parking permit that he left on the motor home when it was sold to Samuel Preston.

The FBI traced Samuel Preston's whereabouts through his family to a revival in Oregon. However when they show up at the motor home to make the arrest, the pastor tells them that Preach is gone. He had just taken him to the airport a few hours earlier because Preach had a family emergency.

Answer: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

While the FBI are interrogating the Preston family, they realise that Robbie is missing. Benjamin puts the pieces together that Preach is going to throw Robbie off the church steeple and beat his brains out with a club, in the same fashion named after his grandfather.

When the FBI arrive, Preach begs them not to interfere with God's work and proceeds with his preparation as if they were not there. He tells Robbie that he will be with Jesus soon, and before he can proceed the FBI shoot him.

After the body falls, Benjamin runs to Preach. He leans down to the dying man's chest to hear his last words, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabach thani?" Benjamin tells Morris the dying preacher said, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"