He had such an ordinary name, but there was nothing ordinary about the crimes of Joe Smith. A Milwaukee contractor, Smith was dying of a terminal illness and decided to teach his son the hard lessons of the world by getting the boy to lure in women that he would then take to his basement workshop. There, he would chop out their hearts and display those hearts in lovely, homemade wooden boxes. At least he’s a serial killer of the dainty variety; very Martha Stewart in terms of his misdeeds.
The combination of the disease and his wife leaving him forced Joe’s mind to go off the rails, so to speak, so what impact did all this killing have on the son? It’s implied at the end of the episode that he lured the school nurse to be his father’s next victim, and did so without Smith’s permission or prodding. If there’s one thing worse than a serial killer with a kid, it’s a kid voluntarily taking up the family business.
