Archie Sheridan

Archie Sheridan is the head of the Beauty Killer Task Force/Major Crimes Task Force, and main protagonist of the series. His strengths in his job are listed as "empathy, recall, and an obsessive, dogged determination that required him to pursue every possible outcome until, like a peeled scab, the truth was exposed." Physically, he is described as having sad dark eyes, a strong chin, "cheeks that dimpled when he allowed himself a lopsided smile," a thick head of curly brown hair, and a crooked nose. "He wasn't pretty. But he wasn't unhandsome if you liked sort of average-looking, depressed people."

## Archie Sheridan

### Relatives

Ben (son), Sara (daughter), Father (estranged), Mother (deceased)

## Pre-Series

Archie Sheridan was born and raised in an unidentified town in Oregon. At 17, while driving, he failed to see a stop sign and caused a wreck resulting in the death of his mother (and a broken and permanently crooked nose for him). His father blamed him for the death, and upon leaving home for college, he never returned.

In high school, Archie dated a religious girl who believed in waiting till marriage. In college he began dating and moved in with his future wife, Debbie. He obtained a Master's degree in Criminology or a related field, and joined the Portland Police Force, eventually becoming a detective and joining the Beauty Killer Task Force after identifying the Beauty Killer's signature, the heart shape carved into each victim's torso. After only a couple of weeks as a homicide detective, in May 1994, Sheridan investigated what turned out to be one of the Beauty Killer's victims, and identified the signature faster than the department would have otherwise. After eight years on the Task Force, he was promoted to head of the Task Force, acting as such for two years before being captured by Gretchen Lowell. During this time Archie and Debbie married and had two children, Ben and Sara.

## Heartsick

### Backstory

After ten years searching for the Beauty Killer, a serial killer terrorizing the Pacific Northwest, Archie is kidnapped by Gretchen Lowell, a psychiatrist working with the task force who turns out to be the Beauty Killer. He is held captive in a basement in Gresham for ten days, during which she drugs him, tortures him, removes his spleen and sends it to his partner, Henry, and carves her signature heart into his chest. At the end of this time she calls 911, turns herself in, and releases him. Archie spends a month in a medically-induced coma, then further recovery time in the hospital afterward, during which his friends and family have difficulty convincing him that he has actually escaped from Gretchen.

As part of a plea deal, Archie agrees to visit Gretchen in prison in order to hear her confess to the murders of more victims than those the state could prove she killed. Debbie demands that he either stop going to see Gretchen or stop living with her, and he chooses to continue seeing Gretchen. Archie and Debbie divorce as a result.

### Main Story

Archie returns to head the Beauty Killer Task Force, now revamped as the Major Crimes Task Force, in the hunt for the "After School Strangler." He does this under the conditions that a) he have his old job back as head of the task force and b) he be shadowed by journalist Susan Ward. Archie balances his job running the task force with his Vicodin addiction and his attempt to manipulate Gretchen via opening up to Susan. After Susan opens up about her adolescent abuse by drama teacher Paul Reston, Archie interviews him and has him put under surveillance, but ultimately gives up on him as a suspect due to his strong alibis. When whatsisface is found dead of apparent suicide, however, Archie suspects that the suicide was staged and returns his suspicions to Reston. By tracking down whatsisface's boat licenses, Archie is able to locate his second boat and boards the boat, forgoing backup or flak jacket, to confront Reston himself. Despite briefly considering rushing him with the intent of forcing Reston to kill him, Archie instead opts to use a bizarre ruse in which he convinces Reston that his Vicodin are magical pills to make guilt go away, and uses them to lure Reston into the line of sight of a SWAT sniper outside.

Afterward, Archie expenses a cab ride to the prison in Salem, where he talks with Gretchen and ultimately informs her that he won't be coming back to see her anymore.

## Sweetheart

Archie has moved back in with his ex-wife and kids, though he is sleeping on a fold-out couch in his home office. He is investigating a series of bodies found in Forest Park, and enlists Susan to help the stories gain traction. He is supervising his daughter's birthday party when Henry Sobol arrives to inform him that Gretchen has been assaulted by a prison guard and says she will only divulge the guard's identity to Archie. Despite Debbie's protest, Archie leaves for Salem with Henry. In the prison infirmary, Gretchen still refuses to name her attacker, but a guard is found dead of apparent suicide while Archie is talking with her, with a heart drawn on a nearby mirror. Archie decides that he should not have stopped visiting Gretchen, and that he will resume visiting on Sundays to continue the Victim Identification Project.

After Henry informs him that he and the Mayor have agreed to stop the Victim Identification Project and transfer Gretchen to a prison in Eastern Oregon, Henry takes Archie's gun for the night and stays the night, in order to prevent Archie from harming himself. The next day Archie brings Susan to his home office to show her files he had borrowed from Quentin Parker. While there, police arrive to secure the area as Gretchen has just been found to have escaped while in transit to Eastern Oregon. Archie talks with Gretchen on the phone, while the call is traced to his children's school. He goes with police to the school and leads a team searching the school. They do not find Gretchen on site, but the children are found safe. They recover two lunchboxes containing halved organs from the driver of the transport vehicle.

Archie and his family are moved to the [name of club] for their safety, while Archie continues to work on the case of the bodies in the park. He gives a live interview to Charlene Wood, during which he collapses on camera, prompting another phone call from Gretchen. This time the call cannot be traced. Dr. Fergus then informs Archie that he is dying of liver failure caused by over-dependence on painkillers. During dinner, Archie steps away to go to the bathroom, and is told by a staff member that his "friend" is waiting for him outside. Archie exits through a back door, meets Susan outside, and talks with her and asks her for a cigarette before moving past her to the car parked nearby and getting in with Gretchen. At her direction, he drops his phone battery and bullets out the car window and takes sleeping pills. He wakes up at a cabin near where forest fires have been burning. He and Gretchen discuss having had an affair when she was working with the task force. They have sandwiches, drinks, and sex, while waiting for Archie to die as predicted by his Doctor. Archie handcuffs Gretchen to the banister and intentionally overdoses on Vicodin, ultimately passing out in her arms. Henry and Susan arrive and help to resuscitate him. Gretchen cuts his throat, non-fatally, before escaping. Archie wakes up in the hospital, where he receives, via Henry, a final call from Gretchen. He and Gretchen agree to a deal: He won't kill himself and she won't kill anyone else.

## Evil at Heart

After several months in the Psych Ward of Which Hospital Is It? Archie checks out with a day pass to examine a potential Beauty Killer crime scene at a rest stop in the Gorge(?).