As some of you know CM.org is working with another new website www.thebau.net
BAU

I have been working on a project which will be posted there but I thought I'd post it here too in case anyone is interested.

If you've missed any episodes and want to know the stories, here are some recaps for you.

**spoilers**
Just a warning.....these are very detailed descriptions of the episodes.

Extreme Aggressor (Pilot)
Original airdate: 9/22/05

“The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” - Joseph Conrad

“All is riddle and the key to a riddle is another riddle.” - Emerson

“When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks into you.” - Nietzsche

Seattle, WA. - A woman at work is e-mailing about purchasing a Datsun Z28. She agrees to meet the seller for a test drive but her excitement turns to fear when the driver misses her street and she realizes the car lock is broken and she is unable to get out of the car.

Washington DC - Aaron Hotchner and his wife Haley are discussing baby names for their expected child. The phone rings and “Hotch” who works for the FBI is called to work. In the next scene we meet Derek Morgan who also works for the FBI and receives a telephone call from the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit) calling him to work. At the Behavioral Analysis Training Center at FBI Headquarters in Quantico, VA Jason Gideon is teaching a class of recruits on profiling. He is giving his profile of the “Footpath Killer” when the class is interrupted by Dr. Spencer Reid with details of the missing girl. Hotch & Morgan have come to FBI headquarters to meet with Gideon and inform him that an order has come from the director that he has been requested to go back into field work after being out on medical leave due to an incident in Boston where some of Gideon’s men had been killed by a bomber. Once in Seattle the team immediately begins to put together a profile of their “unsub.” (unidentified subject) They believe their suspect has already been interviewed because they think he would have come forward to see what the police know about the case.

The scene switches to a lady knocking on the front door of a house explaining she is house sitting nearby and the door she shut is now open. She asks if there is anyone who might be able to go check the house with her. This turns out to be a sting operation and the woman is Elle Greenaway who works for the FBI and is looking to get an open spot in the BAU. The man she has lured out of the house is the suspect Richard Slessman. A search of the Slessman house turns up only a computer with a limited number of password attempts before the hard drive is wiped out. Gideon interviews Richard and comes to the conclusion that he is working with another man and their profile has been wrong; they are looking for two killers not just one. Believing that their second unsub may be a previous cellmate of Richard’s at Cascadia prison, Gideon and Elle go to the prison where they find the man they were looking for was killed in a car accident a few months earlier but they meet a correctional officer by the name of Timothy Vogel who fits their profile and they now focus their attention on him. Meanwhile Reid and Morgan still at the Slessman house, crack the password on the computer and discover a live video feed showing them the girl who has been taken hostage. They can not pinpoint her location but believe she is on a boat. Using this information and by making Richard believe Vogel is trying to pin the crimes on him, Hotch gets Richard to tell them where she is being held and relays that information to Gideon and Elle who head to that location. Once there, after a brief standoff, they disarm Vogel and rescue the girl. Hotch and Morgan come to the conclusion that Gideon is fit to be a field agent once again.

The episode ends with Gideon stopping at a small rural gas station for fuel. While paying for his purchase he notices pieces of his profile which indicate he may have just stumbled upon the “Footpath Killer.” Silently he leaves the store but sees in a reflection the clerk following behind him with a shotgun and he hears the gun cock.

Compulsion
Original airdate: 9/28/05

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” - Einstein

“Don’t bother to be better than just your contemporaries or predecessors, try to be better than yourself.“ - Faulkner

The episode begins where “Extreme aggressor” left off. Gideon, who had stopped at a small convenience store, sees pieces of a profile which indicate the clerk is an unsub they are looking for known as the Footpath Killer. The clerk speaks with a stutter which is what Gideon had predicted. Now with a shotgun he forces Gideon back into the building and begins to question him. Gideon, armed only with his knowledge of this man, begins to use his negotiating skills and tells him that he knows a lot about him, and can tell him something no one else has been able to; why he stutters.

The scene shifts to FBI headquarters and Gideon who has apparently escaped the Footpath Killer is being interviewed by FBI recruits about the incident. Morgan tells Reid who is playing chess with Gideon, but always loses to him, that he needs to learn to think “outside the box.” Elle is trying to figure out what causes a stutter but Gideon who wants her to figure it out for herself won’t tell her. Jennifer “J.J.” Jareau enters for the first time and introduces herself as unit liaison. Hotch calls the BAU team to the conference room where they’re given a new case; arson at a college in Arizona.

Once on the college campus the team begins to put together their profile. Some chemicals are missing which tells them the next attack may occur soon. Too late a new fire is set in a professor’s office and he is killed. Back at FBI headquarters J.J. and Penelope Garcia set up a telephone hotline hoping the suspect himself will contact them. They receive a tip which says he is doing this for “Karen.” Elle and Morgan immediately begin to interview all students with the name Karen. Reid, still trying to “think outside of the box” comes up with his own theory; the unsub has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and does everything in threes. Gideon comes to the conclusion the unsub did not say he was setting fires for “Karen” but for “Charon” which is Hebrew for “God’s burning anger.” This new information points them to a female chemistry student. Digging into her past they discover she survived a fire and her mother believed it was a miracle and she had been tested by fire. Believing now that she is their unsub Elle and Morgan head to her apartment while the rest of the team tries to find her on campus. Meanwhile the unsub has trapped three other students in an elevator and is planning to test them with fire. Gideon and Hotch find her just in time to capture her and save the students.

On the plane ride home Elle tells Gideon that she has figured out the Footpath Killer case. No one knows what causes a stutter and Gideon told him that just to buy time. Gideon agrees that while he doesn’t know what causes a stutter he does know how to provoke one, and that gave him the advantage he needed to overpower the unsub.

Won’t get fooled again
Original airdate: 10/05/05

“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we can not resemble.” - Samuel Johnson

Palm Beach, FL. A man carrying a package leaves his house and approaches his car. Another man who has been waiting in his car for him nearby approaches and confronts him about not returning his phone calls and threatens that he won’t be so understanding next time if he is ignored again. As he turns and walks away the package explodes.

At FBI headquarters the team gets the case after three package bombs have now gone off. Morgan volunteers to stay behind to work on bomb reconstruction. Hotch questions if he is worried about working with Gideon on a bomber case because of the Boston incident which had caused his mental breakdown. As the team begins to analyze the bombings they learn the connection between victims was a condominium construction deal that went bad; all the victims had been investors. Morgan with Garcia’s help, recognizes the “signature” of the bomber; Adrian Bale, the Boston bomber who had killed Gideon’s men. But since Bale has been in Federal prison they must be dealing with a copycat. Gideon and Reid head to the prison to interview Bale and try to make a deal with him to give them information about who the bomber is. Bale refuses to cooperate but Reid and Garcia start tracking his computer activity and find he is posting on a message board for bomb enthusiasts and start looking for their unsub among the other members. Meanwhile Elle has discovered that one of the victims was having trouble getting some coins insured in a different investment deal because the insurance company thought they had been forged. Following this lead she goes to see a coin dealer the victim had an appointment with. Reid comes up with a name from the list of people on Bale’s computer site and relays that information to Hotch who realizes it is the same man Elle has gone to see. The suspect gets away but in his garage they find not only was he altering coins he was also making bombs based on Bale’s designs. The unsub worried about being caught and charged with forgery had started making bombs and killing people from the investment deal to throw the police off the track. Now realizing he’s close to being caught he takes an innocent man off the street, puts a bomb with a timer on him, and sends him into the police department office with instructions he is not to leave the building and demands a helicopter and passport. Only after he is able to get away will he give instructions on how to diffuse the bomb. They find where the unsub is hiding and Hotch and other agents go to get him but following advice from Bale he blows himself up rather than be caught and put in prison. With no one else who can disarm the bomb on the man in the police station Gideon makes a deal with Bale who can give them the instructions they need. Bale demands in exchange he wants to be put in a minimum security facility and Gideon must publicly admit that he was outsmarted by him and apologize to the families of the agents who were killed in Boston. Gideon agrees but warns if Bale doesn’t correctly tell them how to disarm the bomb he gets nothing. As time is running out the bomb squad needs to know which of two wires to cut. Bale tells them to cut the red wire but Gideon realizes the opportunity to set off one more bomb would be too much for him to resist and correctly tells them to cut the other wire.

Plain Sight
original airdate: 10/12/05

“Don’t forget that I can not see myself. That my role is limited to being the one who looks in the mirror.” - French poet Jacques Rigaut

“Birds sing after a storm. Why shouldn’t people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them.” - Rose Kennedy

San Diego, CA. A woman is doing a workout video in her bedroom when an intruder enters her home. After damaging valuables in the house he attacks the woman, glues her eyes open, rapes and kills her.

In Quantico, VA the BAU team is celebrating Reid’s 24th birthday but the party is cut short when a call comes in about the “Tommy Killer” case. Besides destroying symbols of wealth the unsub has also left part of a poem written on a mirror which Reid recognizes as a ballad from the 1600’s between death and a lady. Once in San Diego the team begins to profile the killer. He chooses high-risk victims at a high-risk time of day but seems to remain unnoticed. The local police offer Gideon and Morgan the opportunity to view the home of the last victim since it hasn’t been touched since the murder. Meanwhile another attack has occurred but this crime turns out to be unrelated. However the team decides to use this to their advantage by running a news broadcast stating the rapist has been arrested. They know the real killer desires attention and when he hears this he will be outraged and possibly contact the police. The unsub does call in as hoped but Garcia is unable to trace the call. The team now splits up into pairs and goes undercover in the neighborhood where the attacks have occurred. Gideon while idly watching birds on a telephone wire gets an idea of the unsub’s identity. He reasons that her eyes were glued open so she could see him after he left, not to look at him while she was being attacked. Going back to the latest victim’s house and lying on the bed in the same position as she was left, his view looks out the window at a telephone transformer. Realizing they are looking for a telephone service technician Morgan and Reid head for the local telephone company office to get the location of their suspect while Gideon and Hotch set out on foot looking for his work truck or anything suspicious. In a nearby home the unsub has entered another residence and is preparing his attack on a new woman. Gideon noticing an open door and tool belt makes his way inside and up the stairs. As he enters the bedroom with his gun drawn he finds the unsub standing over the woman who is bound and gagged, pointing a gun at her. Knowing that attention is his real desire Gideon tells the unsub if he hurts the woman he will make sure no one ever knows who he is but if he puts down the gun he promises to make sure everyone knows he is the Tommy Killer. The unsub surrenders and is arrested.

On the return flight home Gideon gives Reid a present he wasn‘t able to give him earlier at the party. Reid opens a small box to find a pair of Washington Redskins tickets. Gideon, who suspects that Reid secretly has a crush on J.J. hints that he knows she a big football fan. Shyly Reid approaches the back of the plane where J.J. is sitting and begins a conversation as the scene fades out.

Broken Mirror
Original airdate 10/19/05

“When a good man is hurt, all who would be called good must suffer with him.” - Euripides

“When love is in excess it brings a man no honor nor worthiness.” - Euripides

As a young couple leaves a party they come across a truck parked in the middle of the road and narrowly miss hitting him. The boyfriend approaches the truck and peers inside while the girl pleads for him to get back into the car so they can be on their way. Once back inside the vehicle the car keys seem to have vanished. As they are searching for the keys a man steps up to the car and shoots the boyfriend.

At FBI headquarters the BAU team is given the case. The girlfriend of the murdered boy is Trish Davenport, a U.S. attorney’s daughter, and now she is missing. A note from the kidnapper with very precise instructions has been delivered to her father giving the team less than nine hours before the ransom drop. At the Davenport home, the house is secured, searched for bugs and a phone tap installed. Trish’s twin sister Cheryl arrives and along with her father try to give the team as much information as they can.
Suspense builds as time for the kidnapper to call approaches. When the phone finally rings the voice on the other end demands not to talk to Mr. Davenport, but to Cheryl. Gideon who doesn’t want to involve her tells Elle to talk to the kidnapper saying she is Cheryl. The kidnapper realizes he is not speaking to the right person and demands to speak with her or he will kill Trish. Quickly Elle coaches Cheryl on what to say and she answers the phone. The kidnapper demands $500,000 and Cheryl is to deliver the money alone. As the ransom drop is being carried out Hotch and Morgan are nearby observing. Morgan realizes at the last minute that this isn’t a ransom drop but another kidnapping. Just in time they warn Cheryl and the kidnapper speeds away. Morgan whose specialty is obsessional crimes thinks that the kidnapper sincerely believes that the twins are in love with him and Trish’s involvement with another man has pushed him over the edge. And because of this knowledge of their personal lives it must be someone the girls know. Back at the Davenport house the kidnapper calls again but this time Gideon is determined to be in control. He provokes the unsub into giving information that indicates he knows about the team members and leads them to believe that the man they are looking for is an FBI agent. They move Cheryl to a safe house with Morgan and Elle guarding her and try to figure out how the kidnapper is getting his information. They discover that although they had swept the house for bugs when they arrived other agents had brought in their own equipment later and had been monitoring everything that was going on in the house. At the safe house an FBI agent enters Cheryl’s room while outside Morgan is unconscious after being shocked with a taser gun. Elle enters with her gun and forces the kidnapper to surrender. Trish is found and the Davenport family is reunited.

L.D.S.K.
Original airdate: 11/2/05

“The irrationality of a thing is not an argument against it’s existence. Rather a condition of it.” - Nietzsche

“Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable.” - Shakespeare

Des Plaines, IL. In a community park people are enjoying different activities; flying a kite, playing catch, bicycling. The scene switches to the firearms training facility in Quantico, VA. where Reid is worried about passing his qualifications test the next day. Hotch is coaching Reid but tells him profilers aren’t required to carry a gun. Back in Illinois a father and son are playing football. The son looks back to see his father lying on the ground. He rolls him over to see he has been shot in the stomach.

The next day as Gideon enters the office Elle tells him that Reid has failed his test and hinting at Morgan suggests they not say anything to embarrass him. Morgan agrees but when Reid enters the room Morgan teasingly tells him if he ever needs anything to call and hands him a whistle. J.J. enters and begins to give details on the L.D.S.K. (Long Distance Serial Killer) case. There is nothing to connect any of the victims and although all of them will live none of them saw anything. But one of the victims has a bullet lodged in his spine and they are hoping a doctor can remove this and the forensics will help them identify their unsub.

Once in Des Plaines Hotch, Morgan and Reid head to the site of the shootings and notice a handicapped parking space in an odd location. They believe the shooter painted this space himself and by concealing himself in the trunk of a car was able to set himself up in the best location to shoot his victims. Meanwhile Gideon, Elle and J.J. head to the hospital where doctors are debating if the bullet can safely be removed from the victim without causing more damage. One doctor confidently states he can perform the surgery and later brings the bullet to Gideon saying the patient will make a full recovery as he knew he would. The scene moves to a couple having lunch on a sidewalk café. With a strange look on her face the lady says she suddenly feels ills. She stands to reveal a gunshot wound to her stomach and more shots are fired. With each bit of information the team gathers, the profile narrows and they begin to focus their search on local law enforcement and they stage a re-enactment of the park shooting. Meanwhile the local news runs a story reporting the sniper is a police officer. Quickly J.J. and Gideon find the reporter and learn he has the phone number of the tipster. Garcia tracks the phone number and gives Hotch a name and location; it belongs to the man who is playing the unsub in their re-enactment. Worried he might shoot someone else a SWAT team arrests the officer but as they are taking him away a shot from the real unsub is fired and kills him. From their “geographic profile” they learn that the shootings all have one thing in common; the victims are taken to the same hospital. The team now believes their unsub could be a hospital staff member with a narcissistic personality who injures people only to save them for attention and acclaim. Hotch and Reid ask a nurse if she knows anyone who fits their profile and she is able to name someone who fits the description. As Reid heads back to tell Gideon what they have found, the unsub who is armed, comes into the hallway taking Hotch, Reid and some others hostage.

As the police prepare to send in a SWAT team to end the conflict Gideon pleads with the police chief to give Hotch & Reid some time to negotiate before anyone is killed. Hotch, trying to figure a way out of the standoff tries to empathize with the unsub. He tells the sniper that he doesn’t want to help him but he does understand him and he wants revenge too because he was set up when he was sent in to get him with Reid who doesn’t even carry a gun because he couldn’t pass his test. He also asks the gunman that since he figures his chances of getting out alive are slim, if he can “kick the snot out of the kid” (referring to Reid) who has made his life miserable for the three years he’s had to work with him. The unsub agrees and Hotch pushes Reid to the floor and begins to kick him. What the unsub is unaware of is Reid knows that Hotch carries a concealed gun strapped to his leg. While Hotch is kicking him Reid manages to remove the gun and shoots the unsub in the head killing him instantly.

Outside after the standoff has ended Hotch apologizes to Reid but explains he had to keep up the charade to make sure he got the plan. Reid explains with a smile that he was a 12 year old prodigy in a public high school and tells Hotch he kicks “like a nine year old girl.” On the plane ride home Reid, still trying to cope with the incident tells Gideon that he thinks he should be feeling something but he doesn’t. Gideon tells him that not knowing what he feels isn’t the same as not feeling anything. He also tells him that he needs to remember three things: He did what he had to do, a lot of people are alive because of what he did, and that he is proud of him.

The Fox
Original airdate: 11/9/05

“With Foxes we must learn to play the fox.” - Dr. Thomas Fuller

The scene opens following a dark path at night. A well lit house comes into view and a child can be heard screaming. As the scene switches inside the child runs past his sister and to his mother still begging for help. The father, who has been playfully chasing the boy, enters the room and sits down on the couch next to his wife. The woman scolds her husband for not helping to get the children settled down before bedtime and reminds him that they need their sleep because they are leaving early in the morning on vacation. The dad asks the kids to call the dog in for the night and they go to the back door. Outside in the shadows an unseen man is watching the house and the dog is nowhere to be found. The children report back to their father that they can’t find the dog and he sends them on to bed. The dog suddenly appears and comes in through the dog door as the father locks the door and turns out the lights. When the radio alarm goes off in the morning the woman wakes up in bed, her husband unable to be seen under the covers next to her. As she stands and turns she is startled to see her husband bound and gagged in a chair next to the bed. With his eyes he indicates to his wife the person who is under the sheets in the bed. The unknown assailant suddenly sits up in the bed tearing away the sheets and a look of terror comes across the woman’s face.

At BAU headquarters Gideon leads the team meeting. It has been determined that the Crawfords and another family the Millers, who were killed in the same way, were victims of the same unsub. Strangely the husband’s wedding rings have disappeared and in both cases the families were planning a vacation and the bodies were discovered five days after they were supposed to have left. The team believes the unsub gained control over the family by isolating each member and threatening if they cried or screamed he would kill the others. They also believe the fathers were the last to die and were forced to watch their families being murdered. Garcia checking into financial records finds the families had both visited family therapists and her search also reveals that Mrs. Crawford had two cell phone accounts, one of them billed to a separate address. The resident of this home identifies himself as Mrs. Crawford’s brother. He is manic-depressive and his brother-in-law had told him he was not allowed to visit his sister and her children at their home. But he had gone there and seen through the window the family sitting down to dinner just before the murders. He tells them he hadn’t seen the father but a “friend” seated at the head of the table. The team believes the unsub is holding each family hostage, unnoticed since they are supposed to be out of town, and forces them to live the last days before he kills them as a family with himself as “daddy.” The wedding rings he keeps as his trophies. Morgan describes how the unsub must be meticulous and write down every last detail as he watches the family and studies their behavior. He can not stand to have anything out of place or have anything interfere with his plan but because his fantasy can’t last, he must eventually end it by killing. And now the unsub has found a new family. Following the common link that both families had visited a family therapist Hotch and Gideon go to the clinic where they are given the name of the case worker who handled their cases. He is not at work but a look at his office verifies that he is the unsub they are looking for. Going through his files they find a record of a family that matches the other cases. With a SWAT team they go to the house and rescue the family before anyone is hurt and the unsub is arrested but because they can’t forensically tie him to the other crimes Gideon realizes they will need a confession. They post pictures of the victims and crime scenes where the unsub can easily see them but Gideon has secretly asked J.J. to mix up two of the pictures putting one of the victims in with the wrong family. The unsub notices the mistake and annoyed by the error comments that they must “make it right” giving away that he has knowledge of the crimes.

The final scene has Hotch searching the unsub’s office for a secret hiding place where he might be hiding more evidence of other crimes. He finds in a bookshelf a hidden compartment which contains videotapes and a small metal box. Back at the BAU conference room he reveals what the box held: eight wedding rings.

Natural Born Killer
Original airdate: 11/16/05

“There is no hunting like the hunting of a man. And those who have hunted armed men long enough, and liked it, never really care for anything else.” - Hemingway

“The healthy man does not torture others. Generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.” - Carl Young

Baltimore, MD. A man named Jimmy and his friend are leaving a bar when a cop approaches Jimmy and asks if he has been staying out of trouble. Jimmy assures him that he is but the officer comments when he steps out of line again, he will catch him. Jimmy’s friend is concerned that they are being seen talking with the police because the people he works for are watching and will not like it. Jimmy drives his friend home and drops him off in front of his house saying goodnight. The scene switches to an angry neighbor marching up to the friend’s house to complain about loud music so late at night. She knocks but there is no answer. She reaches for the doorknob only to find it is covered in blood. Suddenly Jimmy runs out the door knocking down the neighbor and speeds away.

The next morning the BAU team arrives on the scene wondering why they have been called to what seems to be a standard double homicide case. Morgan explains the local police have called them in because of the extreme brutality of the crime. There is evidence of torture but they also discover there were actually three victims. The third must have been completely drained of blood, dismembered and no body parts are anywhere to be found. In the next scene Jimmy is talking on the phone to an unknown person saying he is in trouble and mentions that he ran into a detective he knew the night before. Meanwhile another person who is going through trash in dumpsters opens a plastic garbage bag to find the head of the third victim who turns out to be Jimmy’s friend. Garcia finds records of unsolved murders going back fifteen years where all the victims had ties to organized crime. The connection between them is they were all tortured and killed in the same way leading the team to believe they are looking for a particularly sadistic hit man. Special agent Cramer who is in charge of organized crime in Baltimore comes to the BAU and thanks Hotch and Gideon for their help but informs them that he and his men will be taking over. Gideon politely concedes giving the impression he is dropping the case but once back in the conference room immediately gets the team back to working on the profile. Reid, Elle and Garcia focusing on the associates of the third victim come across James “Jimmy” Baker. His rap sheet stands out to them because the behavior of his listed crimes is irrational indicating that it is not real but was made up. Hotch and Morgan go to Jimmy’s address to find an artificial dwelling that seems to match his artificial past. They also find a weapon hidden in the apartment that Morgan recognizes as being law enforcement issued so they now think Jimmy is an undercover cop. Agent Cramer comes back to the BAU to confront Hotch saying he told them he was in charge. He confirms Jimmy is an undercover agent and because of their interference with the case now Jimmy is missing. The team still doesn’t know who the unsub is but they believe the man who has hired him to do the killing is the man Jimmy’s friend was working for. Trying to set a trap and get him to contact the killer Hotch and Morgan meet with him and warn him that he is working with a paranoid psychotic killer who might not like him talking to the FBI. They then put him under surveillance and as hoped he calls the unsub who is holding Jimmy captive and subjecting him to extreme torture. They arrest the unsub but he refuses to tell them where Jimmy is being held. Eventually they learn that he was abused as a child and that his father had died in a suspicious hunting accident thirty years earlier which had started his killing spree. On a hunch that he is still living in his father’s house they raid the home and find Jimmy alive in the basement.

Back at the BAU Hotch explains to the unsub that growing up in an extremely abusive and violent household that it’s not surprising that he turned out the way he did. Some people grow up to be killers. And some people grow up to catch killers.

Derailed
Original airdate: 11/23/05

“A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses. It is an idea that possesses the mind.” - Robert Oxton Bolton

“Albert Einstein asked the question that sometimes drives me hazy. Am I or the others crazy?”

Elle is on a train heading for El Paso to interview a child murderer. Also on the train is Ted Bryar and his friend Leo. Ted is a paranoid schizophrenic and he is traveling to Dallas with his doctor Linda Deaton who is to give a lecture on the progress Ted has made to relieve severe psychosis. The other passengers are: A young college student Josh Patel who has a drinking problem, has wrecked his car and has just been expelled. A young lady, Elaine Curtis who is traveling to Dallas to have an abortion and Harry Anderson a man whose wife has left him and he is following her and carrying a gun in his briefcase.

As Elle is studying her case file Leo notices the FBI folder and tells Ted that they are being watched. He does not believe they are really going to a conference in Dallas and he is trying to convince Ted that something is suspicious. The train suddenly jerks and stops. A railroad security officer comes onto the train and tells everyone not to be alarmed. As he notices Elle’s FBI file he asks if she is on duty. Quietly so he doesn’t alarm the other passengers he explains that there was a suicide attempt and someone had jumped in front of the train. Ted who is now very alarmed to see the police and FBI quietly whispering and with Leo’s encouragement, grabs the officer’s gun as he passes by and shoots him. He takes Elle’s gun and handcuffs her to her seat and now with two guns in his possession is holding everyone on the train hostage.

As the team makes their way to the train J.J. is giving everyone last minute details. Local police have a mobile command center set up and the train surrounded but they are waiting to take any action until all negotiations are exhausted. They are able to view what is going on inside the train through security cameras. Ted has finally allowed a two-way phone to be brought on the train but he is demanding to talk with the “higher authority.” Aboard the train Dr. Deaton explains to the others that Ted has never had a break from reality like this before and they need to make him feel less threatened. Ted who is increasingly becoming convinced that everyone on the train is with the FBI tells Gideon over the phone that he has one hour to remove it or he will kill everyone. Elle explains to the doctor that the agents outside need to know what “it” is so while talking to him she holds his arm out where the monitors can see it to reveal scars. The team watching the video screens see this and deduce Ted is convinced he has a microchip in his body and that is what he wants removed. The team discusses how they can convince Ted they can remove this chip to ease his delusion but since he thinks it’s in his arm and not his neck or back, he will be able to see what they are doing and they are worried they might not be able to fool him. Reid comes up with the solution that they can fake it and by doing a “magic trick” he may be able to fool Ted. But it would mean risking sending him in and possibly becoming another hostage. Gideon agrees to the plan but instructs Reid that after removing the microchip he must immediately leave the train. Reid boards the train as a technician sent from the higher authority, successfully pulls off the illusion and Ted believes that he has actually removed a microchip from his arm but he refuses to let Reid leave taking him hostage too. The college student trying his own tactic against the advice of the others tells Ted he is with him and he believes the government is watching them all. Dr. Deaton is trying to silence him while Leo tells Ted that they are coming for him. Ted panics and shoots the gun hitting Dr. Deaton. Reid observing Ted realizes that he is hearing voices and Leo exists only in his mind. Playing into Ted‘s fantasy he tells him he understands about the voices. He knows that Leo is telling him what to do but he shouldn’t listen to him. Outside Gideon and Hotch prepare SWAT teams to begin shooting to end the standoff at their command when they hear a gunshot from the train. Gideon fearing Reid has been shot begins to run toward the train. Once on board he finds Harry Anderson has taken his gun from the briefcase and shot Ted. The crisis is over and both Ted and Dr. Deaton are alive and being taken by ambulance to the hospital. Elle is protesting she doesn’t need any medical attention but Gideon insists she be checked out too. Elle thanks Reid and tells him he probably saved her life. With a smile Reid assures her he knows for a fact that he saved her life and he was pretty sure it was caught on tape too!

The Popular Kids
Original airdate: 11/30/05

“Unfortunately a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.” - Sir Peter Ustinov

“Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.” - Playwright Eugene Ionesco

Massanutten Mountain, VA. Two teenagers are jogging through the forest. The girl stops for breath and her boyfriend teases her for being out of shape. She tells him she doesn’t want to slow him down and for him to go on ahead and she will meet up with him at a designated area. He agrees and continues on his run. The girl sits on a rock to rest but becomes alarmed when she hears twigs snapping in the distance. Thinking her boyfriend is trying to scare her she calls out to him. When he doesn’t answer she begins running along the path when she comes across his body; he is lying on the ground and it appears he has been hit in the head with a rock. Crying she tries to determine if he is still alive when she hears someone behind her. She turns around and screams. The local police have been called in to investigate when the boy's body is discovered by a hiker. As they are searching the area they find hidden in the bushes a nearly decomposed corpse whose head has been split open. They are going to call in the crime scene investigators when the sheriff notices something else and decides they may need more help.

At BAU headquarters Reid is fixing himself a cup of coffee and adding a lot of sugar to help himself wake up. Morgan asks what would keep him up so late at night and Reid explains that he can’t sleep because he is having nightmares. Morgan asks if he has talked to Gideon or Hotch but Reid doesn’t want them to know because he doesn’t want them to think he can’t do his job.

When the BAU team arrives on the scene they find the skeleton and the message “Satan lives L.O.D.” written on a tree above the body. The girl’s mother arrives saying her daughter was out running with the murdered boy and now she is missing. Reid meanwhile goes back to town to research what the initials L.O.D. stand for. While at the police station the police chief’s son Cory comes in looking for his father, meets Reid and tells him he is interested in profiling. The team decides to organize a search using local volunteers knowing that the killer himself may be among them trying to figure out how much the police know. Gideon catches a glimpse of one girl in particular who keeps glancing in the direction of the tree where the skeleton was found. The group is unable to find the missing girl but gather for a meeting so the team can give them a profile. They tell them they are looking for someone who is a leader with a teenage following and the group is probably into heavy metal music, sex, drugs and alcohol. The sheriff insists there are no locals who fit that description but Cory says he knows someone like that and his group has a name: The Lords Of Destruction. The team leaves to go to the suspect’s house but Gideon sees the same girl he had been watching at the search standing outside. He declines going on the raid and stays behind to talk to her. She explains that all the kids knew about the body. They figured he had been hiking when he fell and hit his head and they had been watching his body decompose for about a year. Now her friend is missing and she thinks maybe God is punishing them. But she also tells him that the candle wax and L.O.D. carving were not there before. Back at the police station the cult leader admits to having the parties but insists he doesn’t know anything about the disappearance of the girl.

Reid and Morgan who had stayed behind at the cult leader’s house talk more about the bad dreams Reid has been having. Morgan tells him he had a similar situation and when he finally asked Gideon about it he helped him through it. Cory drives up in his car and asks if the girl was found. When they tell him no he asks if they checked all the buildings on the property. He shows them an old building behind the house hidden in the woods with L.O.D. painted near the door. Morgan goes inside and finds the girl’s dead body. With no cell phone service available he tells Reid to go tell the others he found the girl while he talks to Cory. By reviewing the profile in his mind Morgan realizes that Cory fits the description. When Reid returns Cory grabs Reid and holds a gun to his head. Reid elbows Cory knocking him off balance and Morgan seeing his opportunity tackles Cory and disarms him.

On the plane heading back home Gideon approaches Reid who is not asleep as all the others are and tells him that every one of them has had bad dreams. And asks with all the horrible things they see who wouldn’t? Then he pulls a picture out of his wallet and hands it to him. It is a girl who the BAU had saved when she was kidnapped years before. He explains she writes a letter every year to update them on her life; a life that would not have happened if they had not succeeded in helping her. Gideon tells Reid the nightmares don’t go away but when he thinks about people like her it helps him sleep and gives him a reason to continue to do the job they do.

Blood Hungry
Original airdate: 12/14/05

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” - Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harringtonville TN. The scene opens approaching a house with a piano playing and a young boy singing. The music lesson over, the teacher calls to her son upstairs and asks him to walk her student home. She continues to play the piano when an unknown man enters the house behind her and bludgeons her to death.

At BAU headquarters J.J. informs the team that this small town hasn’t had a homicide in 64 years and now they’ve had two murders in 48 hours. Gideon enters the room on crutches saying skydiving was on his list of things to do before he dies and he had a little trouble with the landing. Unable to work in the field for a few days he decides to stay behind while the rest of the team heads to Tennessee.

Once in Harringtonville Elle and Reid go to the piano teacher’s home where they discover a discrepancy in the profile. They think they may be dealing with two unsubs because one seems to be a psychotic killer and other a thief who probably knew the victim. Elle thinks the boy may have seen one of the suspects so she goes to interview Wally Brisbane. Back at the FBI office Gideon, who has taken over Garcia’s computer room, is focusing on rings of blood found in the crime scene photos. He comes to the conclusion that the killer is a cannibal who is removing organs from the bodies and putting them in cylindrical containers. The local police come up with the name of a possible suspect; a local drug dealer who lived about equal distance to both murder scenes. They arrest him and he confesses to stealing a few things but he said the teacher was already dead when he entered the house. With the thief eliminated the team tells the police the unsub they are looking for is a local who lives close to where the murders occurred. He is suffering from a psychosis which compels him to drink human blood. The profile narrows the suspect list to three individuals. The team goes to the first victim’s funeral and talks to the neighbors to see if any of them can help. While there they speak to a Mrs. Mays who tells them about seeing one of their suspects, Oley Maynor, a local manic depressive who was institutionalized but recently returned back home three days earlier. The scene switches to Wally who is at his grandmother’s house. The unsub enters the residence, kills the grandmother and now Wally is missing. Since the boy was at two crime scenes the team now wonders if Wally was the target the whole time. Gideon communicating by phone recalls reading an article saying that all the organs the unsub has taken from his victims have symbolic significance to the human soul. He thinks the killings and the boy are parts of a religious delusion. The team along with the local police post someone to watch every church in town. Elle and Morgan see a vehicle matching the description of a car reported leaving Wally’s grandmothers. They arrest Eddie Mays who is carrying a bloody container. He is still in a psychotic state and unable to tell them where the boy is so they bring in his mother who gives them permission to give him medication which may help him remember. At the Mays home Elle and Morgan smell bleach and discover an empty refrigerator which has recently been cleaned but underneath is a circle of blood. Questioning Mrs. Mays about her son, Hotch realizes she is lying but he doesn’t know about what. Morgan checks the GPS system in her car to see where she has been and realizes she has stopped in the same place on a nearby highway six times. Hotch drives Mrs. Mays to the site where she leads them to Wally who is safe, locked in a shed. She explains to Hotch that Eddie had told her he was bringing her an angel and she didn’t call the police because she was trying to protect her son. Hotch explains that they know now that she knew he had committed the murders and was trying to cover for him. She had sent him away when he was institutionalized to avoid the shame and was really trying to protect herself and the family name rather than help her son.

Back at the BAU, Garcia who is annoyed with Gideon, is unloading boxes of things he has left in her office. Hotch finds Gideon in his office going over his list and asks how many he has accomplished. Gideon says he needs to make a new list but Hotch knowingly says not until he does them all and leaves the office. Gideon after a moment of thought picks up the phone and calls his son.

What Fresh Hell?
original airdate: 1/11/06

“Evil is always unspectacular and always human. It shares our bed and eats at our table.” - W.H. Auden

“Measure not the work until the day is out and the labor done.” - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Wilmington, DE A girl is arguing with her mother at soccer practice. She has a broken arm and can’t play in the next day’s game so she wants to visit her dad for the weekend. Her mother who is the coach tells her that she is still a member of the team and she should be at the game to support them. When Billie continues to argue her mother tells her she doesn’t like her attitude and suggests she run it off. The girl jogs away but stops behind some trees to call her father on her cell phone. When he doesn’t answer she leaves a message. A man approaches her asking if she has seen his missing dog “Candy.” The girl whose own dog recently died sympathizes and agrees to help look for the dog. On the other side of the park in the playground a boy sees Billie in an SUV pounding on the window as it speeds away.

At FBI headquarters Garcia enters Gideon’s office to thank him for flowers she has received. She notices a lot of pictures all around his office and asks if these people are his family and he responds that they are. The team gathers in the conference room where they are given the Billie Copeland case. It has been 20 hours since she disappeared from the park. The authorities were not notified sooner because her mother had assumed that she was with her ex-husband, Billie’s father. When they arrive in Wilmington Mrs. Copeland explains that her ex-husband could not have been involved in her disappearance and that Billie and her father are best friends. The divorce has been hard on her daughter but she talks to him every day and they spend a lot of time together. Mr. Copeland who is a cancer survivor takes a lot of time to spend with his daughter realizing what is most important in life. The team realizes they must work quickly since statistics show her chances of survival if abducted by a stranger are very slim after missing for 24 hours. Mr. Copeland arrives nearly frantic demanding to know what the police are doing to find his daughter. Gideon questions him wanting to know why a devoted father had turned his phone off and has been unreachable for nearly 24 hours. He responds that he was in New York City with an Oncologist; his cancer has returned and is terminal. The team gathers the local police and media to tell them they need to change tactics. They have followed the normal guidelines up to this point but those are intended for an immediate response to child abduction. Because Billie has been missing for so long they think she may be in more danger if the unsub feels the police are closing in on him and they are certain the man they are looking for lives in a nearby neighborhood. J.J. advises the Copelands to go on TV and make a public appeal asking for witnesses to come forward with information about the SUV hoping the unsub will hear it and think he is wanted as a witness and not a suspect. A tip comes in from a neighbor about a man who owns a vehicle matching the description of the one seen leaving the abduction site and he had a dog that died a few months earlier named Candy. The team goes to the suspect’s house but the police chief tells them they do not have probable cause to enter and wants to get a warrant from a judge. Gideon knowing the girl may not have that much time disregards police orders and has the team break into the house. They arrest the man they find inside but he claims to know nothing about a missing child and they are unable to find the girl. But Gideon notices bits of insulation on the floor and they look in the attic where they find the girl alive.

On the plane ride home Gideon asks Hotch if he sent Garcia flowers and signed them from him. Hotch says he did because people need to know they are important and Gideon sometimes forgets to tell people that. Gideon responds saying he already sent her a gift and wonders what she will think of him. Elle sits next to Gideon and tells him that the Copelands have decided to stay together but wonders since Mr. Copeland is dying and now that Billie is used to him not being there if it wouldn’t be better if they stayed separated. Gideon replies that he knows for certain it wouldn’t be better. Back in his office he adds a new picture to his “family” and smiles. It is a picture of Billie.

Poison
Original airdate: 1/18/06

“What is food to one is to others bitter poison.” - Lucretious

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” - Confucious

Beachwood NJ. A father and his son are driving home late at night. There is no traffic and the weather is bad. Suddenly the father swerves when he sees a deer in the road and then stops when he realizes he has a flat tire. Telling his son to stay in the car the father gets a few tools out of the trunk and begins to change the tire. He picks up the tire iron and walks a few feet into the trees when he hears grunting noises and twigs snapping in the forest. An unidentifiable figure appears and the father swings at the attacker with his weapon. The next morning a highway patrolman comes across the car with the passenger door and trunk open. Inside the man who has blood on his hands is screaming. The officer calls for backup and then quickly calls for an ambulance when he sees the boy who has been bludgeoned lying a few feet from the car among the trees.

At BAU headquarters the team is given the case. Seven people have been poisoned with LSD resulting in one death and two severe injuries. It has become a federal case because the amounts found in the victims were ten to twenty times the normal dose. None of the victims are able to remember what happened to them that day and because they are all completely unrelated no one knows where or how this happened. With his son in the hospital, Gideon interviews the father and discovers that he is bitter from a recent divorce but while the LSD tapped into his rage while causing him to hallucinate, the drugs didn’t cause the violence. Reid confirms from toxicology screens that there were no traces of any drugs which would intentionally cause the victims to become violent but they do find another drug which causes amnesia explaining why no one could remember the events of their day. The police lead the team to a local restaurant thinking it might be the source of the poisoning. A busboy Danny Wallace who hasn’t shown up for work becomes a suspect and Elle unable to find him at school or home goes to his girlfriend’s house to look for him. The girlfriend tells Elle all she remembers from the night before is waking up and realizing she has been beaten and Danny is holding her down. When Danny is arrested and brought in for questioning he explains they had been out on a date when she started hallucinating and he had been trying to help by holding her down. The team now believes the unsub they are looking for is seeking revenge but this round of poisoning was not his intended attack; this was just a test run. Still trying to figure out how and where everyone was poisoned the team learns that the restaurant may not have been the common link between all the victims but a bank across the street is. Security tapes show all the victims had been in the bank that day and there is a candy jar on the counter indicating the possible source. Meanwhile another victim shows up at the hospital but this one is dying from a different poison and while Lynn Dempsey is not the unsub they believe she is an accomplice that put the contaminated candies in the jar at the bank. Reid however discovers one of the victims is diabetic and unlikely to have taken any of the candy causing them to search for yet another source that could have poisoned everyone. It is finally determined that the candy is not the only thing the accomplice left at the bank. She also left deposit envelopes and it is the glue that is licked to seal the envelopes that contains the poison the unsub is going to use to carry out his plan of revenge. The drug is not what the unsub was testing but it was the delivery system. Thinking the unsub probably worked with Ms. Dempsey they find that she worked for a pharmaceutical company which had recently downsized and a lot of employees had taken a cut in pay and benefits. An employee named Ed Hill is their unsub but he kills himself without giving any more information and all of the management that was responsible for his demotion is away on a working retreat where they can’t be reached. Convinced the people in management are the real target the team heads to where they are supposed to be camping while at their camp one of the managers is giving them instructions that they are to fill out a survey and make sure they seal the envelopes. Police and FBI finally locate the camping site to find all of the group members sick but alive and quickly have medics give them an anti-toxin and assure them they will be alright.

On the way home J.J. asks Hotch why out of all the FBI departments he chose to work in the BAU. He answers that he used to be a lawyer but as a prosecutor he felt by the time he got a case it was too late. He wanted a job where he could stop the criminals before they got to someone’s desk.

Riding the Lightning
Original airdate: 1/25/06

“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” Genesis 9:6

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.” - Albert Pine

The scene opens with Gideon sitting in an audience while a cello is being played. Deeply affected by the beauty of the music he closes his eyes and enjoys the moment.

The scene moves to the team traveling in vehicles on their way to the Florida State Penitentiary. Convicted killers Jacob and Sarah Jean Dawes are scheduled to be executed in Florida’s electric chair in 36 hours. The BAU team knows of 13 young girls the couple have killed but suspect there may be more. The couple have agreed to be interviewed before their deaths. Elle and Morgan go to Sarah Jean’s mother’s house to get some background information and she gives them a letter Sarah Jean has sent her claiming innocence. The only murder she has ever confessed to being a part of is their son Riley but his body was never found. The team believes she had nothing to do with the murders of the girls but unless they can prove this they can not get a stay of execution and Sarah Jean will die. Gideon is particularly interested in three paintings Sarah Jean has in her cell. He is convinced each of these pictures is symbolic. The first painting is of twelve roses in a vase, one for each of the girls Jacob had killed. Only twelve girls were known about at the time of their conviction and Gideon believes additional proof that Sarah Jean was not involved in the killings since she did not know the correct number of murdered girls. The second painting is of a young boy running free through a field but Riley was only two when he disappeared and the boy Sarah Jean has portrayed is much older. And the third of a river which Gideon thinks is of the Bible story of Moses who was hidden and rescued. While questioning Sarah Jean about Riley she asks Gideon if he has any pictures of his children. Gideon tells her he has a picture of his son in his office and Sarah Jean comments that he doesn’t carry him with him, but chooses to leave him where he knows he is safe. She tells him she protects her son as Gideon protects his. When Gideon asks if she killed her son to protect him from Jacob she only replies that he is safe and in a better place. Meanwhile Hotch is interviewing Jacob but he is getting no answers. J.J. thinks she may be able to help because Jacob was attracted to young blonde girls and she has blonde hair. She enters the room with Hotch and Jacob strikes a bargain. They are to play one hand of poker. If Hotch wins he will tell him the location of another body, if Jacob wins he gets to smell J.J.’s hair. J.J. agrees to the bet but when Hotch wins Jacob says there are no more bodies. Hotch lies to Jacob and tells him that Sarah Jean has been given a stay of execution. This infuriates Jacob and he says he will tell them where Riley is buried. A search of the location does reveal another body but it is not Riley; it is another girl. Gideon thinks he may be able to find something in Sarah Jean’s cell which will help them so the warden accompanies Sarah Jean outside so she can see the moon as she had requested. Gideon finds taped to the back of her painting a newspaper clipping of a boy holding a cello. Jacob is executed first and the team hopes that since he is no longer a threat to Riley, Sarah Jean will finally tell them the truth. Thinking they have found Riley who was adopted by a family that Sarah Jean worked for Morgan and Elle go to their house to confirm his identity and have the governor standing by to issue a stay of execution. Sarah Jean pleads with Gideon to call the search off. She explains her life ended the day she met Jacob and now the only thing that matters to her is to save Riley‘s life. She doesn’t want him to know who his parents are and what they did so he will be free. She doesn’t want Riley to be Jacob’s last victim. Elle and Morgan arrive at the house, find the boy and ask Gideon what to do next. Gideon gives into Sarah Jean’s wishes and tells them it was a mistake. Sarah Jean thanks Gideon and asks if he will do her the honor of being the last face she sees. As she is strapped into the electric chair and the curtain is drawn back to reveal the witnesses that have gathered to see her execution, Sarah Jean looks at Gideon until a cloth is unrolled covering her face.

We go back again to the opening scene. Gideon is in the audience listening to the sound of a cello being played. He alone knows the true identity of the boy playing the instrument and tear runs down his face.

Unfinished Business
original airdate: 3/1/06

“It is those we live with and love and should know that elude us.” - Norman MacLean

“In the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” - Abraham Lincoln

Washington DC. Former BAU agent Max Ryan is speaking about an unsolved case he has written a book about. The “Keystone Killer” had left a word search puzzle at each of his crime scenes to taunt the police. He had killed seven women in two years and then suddenly the killing stopped. It has been eighteen years since the last known murder but agent Ryan is convinced he is still alive and still a threat. Gideon who has attended the lecture to see his old mentor is speaking with Max after the speech and hints that he is obsessed with the “one that got away.” Ryan and Gideon are still talking when a security guard hands Ryan a letter. He opens it to find a note and a word search puzzle and realizes the Keystone Killer had just attended his lecture.

It’s late in the evening but the BAU team has been called to the office to meet with Gideon and agent Ryan. Reid finds clues in the puzzle about new victims and there has been another murder but the system of killing is completely different than the method the killer had used eighteen years earlier which is why police were unable to connect the murders to the Keystone Killer. Max tells Gideon he is going with the team to the new crime scene and working with them on the case as a consultant. But the rest of the team isn’t so thrilled with Max coming along because his attitude makes him difficult to work with. Gideon explains to Max that while BAU agents used to work alone things have changed and now he has the opportunity to work with some of the best minds in the world and they can help him if he will let them. Reid finds a name in the latest puzzle but Ryan insists he is not the unsub they are looking for. Ignoring Max’s opinion the team goes to investigate the suspect anyway. He fits their profile and they find a woman being held captive in his house but as the suspect is being arrested and taken away they find a note on their vehicle addressed to Max from the Keystone Killer. The team regroups and comes to the conclusion that while their unsub wouldn’t have intentionally changed his M.O. perhaps something has happened that forced him to change the way he operates. They have Garcia search records and she finds a man by the name of Walter Kern. Kern had been in a car accident eighteen years earlier resulting in a broken back and the accident happened in front of the house of the last victim. Figuring that Kern had been stopped by the accident on his way to kill the victim he felt he had unfinished business to take care of and had picked up where he left off. A SWAT team goes to Kern’s house while at a different location Walter is entering the home of his next victim. Mrs. Kern tells Ryan and Gideon that Walter is not home. At first she is hesitant to answer their questions and asks them to leave but when they give startling details about his behavior she leads them to a darkroom in the cellar. They find articles about the Keystone Killer and a scrapbook which contains pictures of all the victims. Turning to the last page they find a picture of Kern’s next victim and after determining her identity go to her house. They rescue the woman from suffocating and Gideon lets Max handcuff and arrest Mr. Kern.

On the plane ride home Elle discusses Ryan with Hotch. She tells him it scares her to think that she could end up like him and she will “wake up to find her life has passed her by while she was chasing monsters.”
Hotch tells her it’s about setting priorities because the job will eat her up if she lets it. When she asks what to do he replies “find a way not to let it.”

The Tribe
Original airdate: 3/8/06

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.” - Nietzsche

“You can take many paths to get to the same place.” - Apache saying

Terra Mesa NM. A girl and a few of her friends prepare for a night of partying in a house under construction. Ingrid notices a van parked in front of the house in the shadows. She steps outside to investigate and is grabbed by an unidentified person and carried away. Ingrid’s boyfriend realizing she is gone walks through the house calling her while more strangers approach the house and attack.

At Quantico Hotch’s brother makes an unannounced visit. Hotch congratulates him on being accepted into Georgetown but Sean informs him he has changed his mind about becoming a lawyer and has received a job offer to go to New York to train to be a chef. Hotch is disappointed to hear this and reminds him it has always been his dream to be a lawyer like their father was tells him he needs to think it through. Sean tells Hotch he’s made up his mind and angrily leaves his office. In the conference room the team is given the Terra Mesa case where five teenagers have been brutally killed. When they arrive in New Mexico Hotch, Gideon and Reid head to the crime scene to meet with local police. They quickly deduce that there were six people in the house but they had only found five bodies and Reid recognizes the various methods of torture as all being types of Native American war rituals. Thinking the killings may be related to a recent land construction dispute the police take the team to see John Blackwolf, an Indian activist, who is the head of law enforcement on a nearby Apache reservation. Blackwolf tells Hotch that he should know better; his people don’t do massacres. He agrees to accompany them back to the crime scene to give them his assessment and tells them that whoever committed the crimes used the most violent killing methods of various Indian tribes but no one tribe ever did them all. He believes whoever murdered the teenagers was trying to make it appear like the Apache had done it. The team gives law enforcement their profile which states they are looking for a cult-like group of individuals who are holding the sixth girl hostage. They aren’t sure if their motivation is political or religious but they are not Indians because the killings show they are imitating Native American practices but they are completely lacking in their understanding of the culture. The police chief thinks the unsub is possibly a man named Minton who has organized a racial group which opposes the local Indians because they think they are standing in the way of progress. Meanwhile Garcia identifies the missing girl as Ingrid Griesen. When the team interviews her father he cooperates but they think he is hiding something. After a plea on television for information about her disappearance a tip comes in from the kidnappers saying Mr. Griesen had paid them to take Ingrid. The kidnappers turn themselves in and return Ingrid. They confess to having taken her saying that Mr. Griesen thought his daughter was in a cult and he wanted to rescue her but they deny having any part in the murders of her friends. At first Ingrid refuses to speak but when the Minton family is killed in their home she is confronted by Blackwolf and starts to tell of her leader “grandfather” and the ways she has been taught. The team now believes their unsub is Jackson Cally. He had attended college with Ingrid, studied religion and Native American culture and is teaching his followers they must build a new tribe to reclaim sacred land for the Apache. Believing Cally is trying to start a race war they think his plan is to have his followers attack the children at the reservation school. Hotch and Blackwolf get to the reservation first and have the children hidden when the school is attacked. They successfully disarm Cally’s men and save all the children.

Once back home Hotch enters a restaurant where is brother is working. He apologizes and tells him he understands that he needs to follow his own dreams and not the dreams anyone else may have had for him.

A Real Rain
Original airdate: 3/22/06

“Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures so that society must take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness.” - W.H. Auden

“It is better to be violent if there is violence in our hearts than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence.” - Gandhi

“I object to violence because when it appears to do good the good is only temporary. The evil it does is permanent.” - Gandhi

Manhattan NY. In an apartment in New York an unidentified man is nervously tapping his fingers and covering his ears because he is hearing voices. He then tries to cover his windows to block out the noise. He goes into the street and hails a taxi. The cab driver tries to make conversation but gets no answer from his passenger. He drops him off in a very remote location and asks if he’s sure this is where he wants to go. The man whose face is hidden by an hood pulls out a gun and shoots the driver.

At FBI headquarters the team gathers in the conference room to go over the case. Three unrelated people have been murdered. They have all been shot, blindfolded and then stabbed in the head through the ear and the blade of the knife broken off. Once in the city they visit the crime scenes and present their profile to the local police. But other than the unsub’s “signature” which is his unique way of killing the victims they have very little information to go on. Meanwhile in a small church a woman finishes saying her prayers and prepares to leave. The hooded man still tapping his fingers approaches her. She asks if she can help him but when she gets no response she leaves the chapel. The unsub goes to the confessional and shoots the priest. After interviewing the parishioner the team realizes the murders are not random since he didn’t harm the woman when he had the opportunity and digging into each of the victims past they discover each of them was charged with a crime but acquitted. A review of the profile now leads the team to believe the unsub is a vigilante who possibly works in or with the justice system. Morgan goes to the courthouse and tries to get transcripts of the victim’s cases but learns there is no paperwork available for the cab driver’s trial yet being told the court reporter is behind in his work. Knowing now that anyone who would have had any information about the case had to be in the courtroom Gideon, Hotch and Reid head toward the courthouse when Reid remembers the witness telling about the unsub tapping his fingers in a typing motion. Garcia checks the court records and finds each trial had the same court reporter Marvin Doyle. Doyle can not be found but a search of his apartment finds boxes of notes on different court cases and a box of flint knives. Fearing Doyle has found his next target and is on his way to kill again the team starts going through the boxes looking for cases that ended in acquittal. They come across a case where the defendant is similar to Doyle’s other victims. Gideon calls the house trying to reach the defendant. His wife answers the phone just as he enters the apartment and Gideon hears a shot being fired. Hotch and Gideon go to the apartment and try to negotiate with Doyle who is still holding his intended victim hostage while outside the police chief has ordered a gunman to shoot Doyle if he gets a clear shot. Doyle is just surrendering his gun when he is shot and killed.

The episode ends with a news reporter interviewing people on the street giving their opinion of the killer. Some think he got what he deserved and others think he was a hero for taking justice into his own hands.

Somebody’s Watching
Original airdate: 3/29/06

“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.” - Diane Arbus

“An American has no sense of privacy. He does not know what it means. There is no such thing in the country. “ - Bernard Shaw

Los Angeles CA. Gideon and Reid have traveled to California to give a training seminar about profiling. While in L.A. they attend a party at a local art gallery whose owner is Parker Dunley who is an old schoolmate of Reid’s and Parker introduces Reid to a popular young actress by the name of Lila Archer. The next day Gideon and Reid give their lecture and are heading for the airport when the police department gets a report of a double homicide. The officer asks if they can go with him to the crime scene before they head for home and they agree. The murdered couple turns out to be an actress and her boyfriend. The lead detective tells Gideon and Reid they have had two other similar murders recently; another young actress and a film producer. Thinking they may possibly have a serial killer the rest of the team flies out to California to meet up with Gideon and Reid. Meanwhile an agent and his client come to the police station saying the girl has received threats and Reid is surprised to find out it is Lila. After interviewing Lila the team thinks they are not looking for a serial killer but an obsessed fan that is stalking Lila and has killed the other actresses who were potential rivals. Lila defiantly announces she has no intention of being intimidated by the stalker and will not change her life or work schedule. Reid and Morgan stay with Lila while the rest of the team goes to talk to her manager but they find him dead in his office. There is an envelope with pictures of Lila on his desk and thinking the photographer may know something Morgan and the head detective go to his studio where they find pictures of Lila and the other actresses who were killed and Lila’s schedule. As they are leaving the building the unsub rides by on a motorcycle and shoots the detective in the shoulder. Alarmed that going to the police has aggravated the stalker putting Lila in danger, Gideon orders Reid not to tell Lila about her manager so she will cooperate but to take her to her house and pack a few things so they can move her to a safe house. Once there Reid tries to go over security with Lila but she is unconcerned and decides to go swimming. On the edge of the property hiding in the bushes is the photographer taking pictures of Lila and Reid. Reid pleads with her to get out of the pool but when he tries to help her out she pulls him in. Lila pulls Reid close to her and they kiss for a few minutes until Reid resists and tells her she is in real danger and her manager has been killed. Upset that Reid didn’t tell her this right away she goes into the house just as the team arrives and apprehends the photographer. He admits to having followed the girls to take pictures to sell to magazines but insists he has nothing to do with any of the murders. Elle pulls the film from his camera and Morgan has him arrested for trespassing. Inside the house Reid notices a piece of artwork on the wall. He thinks he sees images of Lila in the collage and when they take it apart and put it together in order it shows pictures of Lila’s career along with pictures of Parker Dunley. The team goes to the art gallery to see Parker and he tells them a friend of Lila’s, her personal assistant Maggie, had given the picture to him to give to Lila anonymously but he had lied and told her it was from him. Gideon calls Reid and informs him their unsub’s name is Maggie and tells him they are on their way there to get them. While still waiting for help to arrive Lila gets a call on her cell phone from Maggie and Reid tells her to continue to talk to her while he has Garcia trace the call to find her location. Garcia gives Reid an address and Reid realizes she is calling from inside the house. With his gun drawn Reid and Lila begin to search the house when Maggie suddenly comes up behind Lila and holds a gun to her head. Trying to get her focus on him and away from Lila Reid tells Maggie that Lila doesn’t love her anymore because she loves him now. With Maggie upset and confused Reid sees an opportunity to disarm her and knocks the gun out of her hand. She begs him to shoot her and put her out of her misery but Reid tells her he’s going to get her some help instead.

Back at the BAU Reid looks at a magazine which has a picture of him and Lila on the cover with a caption asking who the mystery man is with Lila. Morgan teases Reid as he leaves the office for the night and Reid asks for his advice about calling Lila. Morgan tells him he was her hero but relationships are hard enough without living in different cities and their work takes most of their time. But he also tells Reid some things he can’t control even with his big brain and he doesn’t need to make a decision that night. Reid tosses the magazine in the trash can but after a moment of thought picks it up again and puts it in a drawer in his desk.

Machismo
Original airdate: 4/12/06

“Other things may change us but we start and end with family.” - Anthony Brandt

“The house does not rest upon the ground but upon a woman.” - Mexican proverb

Allende del Sol, Mexico. During a local festival a man named Miguel who has been drinking walks past his family and enters the house. Miguel’s uncle follows him to the house and tells him to leave. Miguel says it is his mother’s house and he wants to hear from her he is welcome there. The mother is obviously upset but remains silent and Miguel comments he will not disgrace his mother again and leaves telling his sister Rosa that their mother doesn’t love him anymore. Later that evening still crying over the incident with her son, the mother welcomes a guest into her home and begins to visit when the unidentified person suddenly attacks.

Back in the United States Hayley Hotchner and her sister who is visiting give a small surprise birthday party for Hotch in their home. Hayley tells her sister how glad she is that she came for a few days and remarks that it has been easier to get Hotch to stay away from the office with her there. But the party is soon interrupted by a phone call from Gideon about the case in Mexico. Hotch tells his wife he just needs to attend a briefing and will only be gone a few hours. At FBI headquarters the team gathers to go over the case. There have been eleven murders in the last two years but the Mexican authorities are denying they have a serial killer. They have arrested Miguel and they want the BAU to go to Mexico to confirm this is not the work of a serial killer. Hotch guiltily realizes he’s going to have to disappoint Haley and tell her he will be out of town working for the next few days. On the plane to Mexico J.J. asks why there are fewer serial killers in Mexico than in the U.S. and Gideon responds he doesn’t believe there are fewer serial killers in other countries as they claim because evil isn’t a cultural phenomenon, it’s a human one. Once in Mexico the team goes to the crime scene and then to interview Miguel and his sister Rosa but find conflicting evidence showing Miguel did not kill his mother. At the mother’s house they conclude that she was probably killed by a heterosexual man but talking to Miguel they discover that he is homosexual and this was what had caused the family argument. The head detective warns the BAU team that because of their culture they are going to have a hard time finding the answers they are looking for. No one will want to admit publicly that Miguel is gay because it could mean he would be killed for being homosexual and meanwhile they are looking for a serial killer but the politicians will deny that serial killers exist in their country. When witnesses report seeing a lady who they assume is a social worker in the area the team begins to think the unsub dresses as a woman to gain access to the victim’s homes before attacking them. Assuming he was a rapist before he escalated to murder they hold a press conference asking for women to come forward with information. Most of the local women are afraid to speak to the police but one tells them two years earlier she was attacked by a man wearing a dress and when she called him a coward and laughed at him he ran away. Explaining that the local women don’t talk to the police but they talk among themselves she is able to convince other women who were attacked by the same man to come forward and tell their stories and it is discovered that four of the women work in the same factory. The team goes to the factory and gives their profile to the owner. She recognizes the traits they are describing in a man that works there and gives them the name of the unsub. When they raid his home they find a list of his rape victims and the corpse of his mother wearing jewelry that had been taken from the women he had killed. A comparison of the names of the rape victims against the murder victims reveals that the unsub is killing the mothers of the girls he had raped. Because they know which girl was the last rape victim the team knows the unsub’s next target is her mother and they go to her house but find the unsub has already been stopped; he has been attacked by the group of women he had raped. The local police thank the women and decide they will not be charged with any crime since they were only defending their homes.

Charm & Harm
Original airdate: 4/19/06

“There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.” - Voltaire

“We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.” - Francois de la Rochefoucauld

A man sits at a table and begins to eat a fancy steak dinner. He speaks to his guest across the table that what is missing is some scotch. Then he says he had hoped his dinner guest’s appetite had returned because she is going to need her strength. The view turns to see his dinner partner. A woman sits across the table from him bound and gagged.

In the conference room in Quantico J.J. informs the team the BAU has been requested to help catch a serial killer in Florida. Four women have been drowned and DNA has confirmed they were all murdered by the same man Mark Gregory. However, Gregory was able to get away before the police could arrest him and now another woman has been reported missing. With nothing to lose and a lot of money at his disposal they fear he is on the run and they are not sure where he is headed next. Gideon and Reid go to his home where they discover he has a closet full of clothes and uniforms along with different drivers licenses and a book on how to change his appearance. Realizing the man has been practicing for years on how to reinvent himself while traveling around the southwest part of the country, the team tells the local police they need to find him while he is still in the “guided” phase of his killing spree which means he is still relatively in control and will plan his attacks making him somewhat predictable. But they warn if he escalates to the “random” phase he will find victims more quickly and will leave the area he is most familiar with and could go anywhere in the country making him almost impossible to find. Thinking his killing must have something to do with his view of women Gideon and Reid interview Gregory’s father asking about his childhood. Mr. Gregory tells them that Mark’s mother died when he was ten and although he got into some trouble as a teenager he disregarded it due to immaturity. Hotch receives a call saying the missing girl’s body has been found across the state line so Morgan and Elle leave for Georgia but meanwhile Gregory is in an airport parking garage dressed as a pilot, watching a woman as she loads her bags into the trunk of her car. When his car is found abandoned at the airport Garcia uses face recognition software and finds video footage of Gregory leaving with a woman. When her body is discovered in South Carolina Morgan and Elle again follow his trail to investigate the latest crime scene to find evidence that Gregory is rapidly devolving and moving into the random phase. In Tennessee Gregory in yet another disguise kidnaps a woman at a grocery store and attempts to drown her in a motel pool. The motel maintenance man sees the couple in the pool and Gregory tells him that the woman is his wife and she fell in the pool but can’t swim. The maintenance man begins CPR and tells Gregory to call 911 and he disappears before the woman can recover and give the real story. In the meantime Garcia finds more information on Gregory and informs the team that he was also in the car accident that had killed his mother. Further research leads the team to discover that Gregory’s mother was unfaithful to his father and Mark had been aware of it. He caused the car they were riding in to crash into a lake but the impact did not kill her, her cause of death was determined to be drowning. Gideon believes Mr. Gregory had suspected all this but instead of trying to get his son help he had covered for him. Now believing Gregory has kidnapped another woman and is heading for the same spot in which he killed his mother Gideon gives Morgan and Elle the location since they are close. The woman Gregory has kidnapped purposely crashes her car trying to find a way to escape. As she runs away Gregory overtakes her and drags her into a nearby pond. Morgan and Elle hear the woman screaming and run to rescue her. Fighting for her life the woman grabs a piece of pipe that is under the water and tries to hit Gregory with it but he takes it from her and just as he is about to hit her Morgan shoots, killing Gregory instantly. The final scene is of Mr. Gregory who is left to wonder if there is anything he could have done to stop his son from killing.

Secrets and Lies
Original airdate: 5/3/06

“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” - Albert Einstein

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” - George Orwell

Baltimore MD. A woman and her two young children get out of a taxi near a shipyard late at night. The woman who speaks with an accent tells the children she needs to meet a friend who is going to help them. Headlights are seen coming towards them and a man pulls up and tells the woman to get in the car and she needs to trust him one more time. The next scene is the same man who is alone now entering his apartment. Just inside the door he is attacked by an unidentified person. The man is beaten but tells his assailant he will never find the woman. The attacker snaps his neck. More unidentified men enter the man’s apartment to find his dead body still strapped to a chair in the middle of the room. They cut the restraints from his arms and legs, put a gun in his mouth and leave a “suicide” note.

At BAU headquarters Gideon reads the newspaper and then makes a phone call saying he has seen an article reporting the death of their mutual friend John Summers and he will wait for him. Sometime later in the night Gideon who has been resting at his desk opens his eyes and makes his way down the hall to the conference room to find a man there waiting for him. John Summers was a CIA agent and Gideon who had done a psychiatric evaluation of him for the CIA had declared him fit for duty. Gideon does not believe the agent committed suicide as the papers have reported. The man who has come to meet with Gideon is Bruno Hawks. He is also a CIA agent and he tells Gideon only his team knew who John Summers really was. He wants Gideon and his BAU team to use their expertise to find a mole in the CIA. The case Summers had been working on was for Hassan Nadir officially a diplomat for the Saudi government but also a fundraiser for terrorist organizations. Nadir had repeatedly assaulted his wife Aaliyah Nadir and Summers had used this to get her to work for the CIA against him by promising her and her family refuge in America. The deaths of Aaliyah and her children had been staged but Hassan had received information from the mole that they are alive and coming to the United States under diplomatic cover he is searching for his wife and children and will have them killed if he finds them. The team goes to the CIA building where the unit that had been working on the case is in lockdown. Gina Sanchez, Kruger Spence, Olivia Hopkins and Bruno Hawks are the senior officers for the CIA team. Garcia finds a video of the evaluation Gideon had done with Summers and during that interview he suggests that the mole has to be one of these four people. The team breaks up into groups to focus on each of these individuals. After being questioned Olivia Hopkins goes to a secluded area to use a computer. She is looking up information when the screen suddenly goes blank and coming up silently behind her the unsub reaches out and breaks her neck. Garcia learns that a virus which came from Kruger Spence’s computer was what caused the computer to go down just before Olivia Hopkins was killed and now files from his computer have been erased. Mr. Spence denies being the mole and claims the mole is trying to frame him. Listening to the whole evaluation interview again Summers talks about dealing with his job using the analogy of a boat staying afloat but knowing that his cover in Saudi was for a shipping company the team realizes that Summers may have been speaking literally and this is where he may have hidden Aaliyah. Garcia starts to pull up information on the only shipping port near Summers apartment when she reports to Gideon and Hotch that the system has just been hacked into and all the information they know the mole has just learned too. Gideon writes Hotch a note and announces that Gina Sanchez is not the mole. He sends her and Morgan to the shipping yard telling them to wait for further instructions. They isolate Kruger Spence by taking him to the conference room and hold him as their suspect while on the main floor using heat sensors and satellite imaging they are able to scan the cargo boxes on the dock and can see the images of four people inside one them indicating that someone has already found Aaliyah and her two children. When they arrive at the shipping yard Morgan and Ms. Sanchez find the cargo container where Hassan Nadir is holding a gun to his wife’s head. Gideon tells Morgan they have jurisdiction and he is in charge. Nadir releases his wife and puts down the gun but claims diplomatic immunity. Morgan informs him that Summers was a smart man and the cargo hasn’t passed customs yet so technically they are not on U.S. property. Sanchez agrees and points her gun at Morgan telling him to put down his gun. From the CIA office Gideon asks Morgan what is happening while Bruno Hawks asks Gideon if he’s still sure Gina Sanchez isn’t the mole. Gina tells Gideon she doesn’t take orders from him and asks Bruno what he wants her to do. Bruno orders the visual feed to be cut so there will be no evidence and tells Gina to kill the Nadir family. The screens go blank and four gunshots are heard. Bruno turns to Gideon and thanks him for helping to identify Kruger Spence as the mole. Elle approaches with the note Gideon had written and hands it to Bruno. The note names Bruno as the mole. Bruno laughs it off saying with Hassan dead there is no evidence but Bruno is unaware that Gina Sanchez was a willing partner in setting a trap for Bruno and she had the video feed cut before she fired four shots into the air and the entire Nadir family is still alive. Bruno is arrested but arrogantly tells Gideon that he will not be put away in prison with all the information he knows and all the money he has from Hassan.

Gideon is once again in his office reading the newspaper. As he puts down the paper an article can be seen saying CIA agent Bruno Hawks has died in a tragic car accident.

The Fisher King, Part One
Original airdate: 5/10/06

“No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.” - Albert Hubbard

Inside a large brick home a man opens a bedroom door where a young girl is asleep. He touches her hair and then pulls out a knife.

At the BAU each of the profilers has two weeks off and they all have plans. Gideon announces he will be at his cabin for two weeks and no one is to call him. Hotch is planning to spend his days off at home with his wife and son. Reid is going home and Elle and Morgan are traveling to Jamaica to vacation at a resort where Morgan is friends with the manager. J.J. and Garcia who don’t have the same amount of vacation time remain at Quantico where Garcia is playing a computer game with a man she has met on the internet where they are in Camelot and her hero is Sir Kneighf.

Back at the brick home the mysterious stranger has pictures of each team member spread out on his desk. He calls on an intercom to the girl who has been moved to a dungeon-like room in the basement telling her he must leave for awhile but tells her this will all be over soon.

Hotch has been enjoying spending time with his family and doing chores around the house. He is asleep when he receives a phone call from the unsub saying the youngest holds the key and he must help him save her. In Jamaica the manager is notified that there has been a murder. There is blood in the hallway leading to one of the rooms. The police break into the room and find a message on the wall written blood saying “save her.” It is Elle’s room and she is arrested and brought to the local police station for questioning. Gideon has enjoyed an evening of dining and dancing with a lady friend when a delivery man comes to his door. The package he gives to Gideon has a note which says “save her” and a baseball card. Inside the box is the head of an unknown man. Reid has traveled to his hometown of Las Vegas to visit his mother who is schizophrenic and lives in a sanitarium. He speaks to a nurse who tells him his mother is very proud of him and tells all the other patients and visitors about him and the FBI cases he writes to her about in daily letters. He declines to talk to his mother in person however saying he will let her rest and come back to see her later. The next day an envelope is waiting for him. Inside is a skeleton key and a note saying she will die unless he saves her and to call Gideon. Garcia is once again playing her computer game when a message comes on the screen indicating a hacker has gotten into the BAU system. J.J. finds a package that has been delivered to her office which contains a butterfly in a shadow box. Hotch arranges to have Elle released and they fly back to Virginia where they meet up with everyone except Reid who hasn’t returned yet from Las Vegas. While the team tries to sort through all the clues they have received Garcia tells them the unsub has gotten their addresses and personal information from the company computers and confesses the unsub must have gained access through her personal computer while she was playing the online game. She has tracked the hacker and come up with a name, Frank Giles. They go to his apartment and find his dead body in the middle of the room, a sword through his chest and a message on the wall saying “here thy quest doth truly begin.” There is also an engraving etched on the blade saying “to learn of what should next be done leave the blade ‘til the hour be none.” Reid who has finally made it back to town comes to the crime scene and says the none hour is a medieval reference and it is the modern equivalent of 3:00pm. Figuring where the light would be coming through the window at 3:00 and following the shadow the sword makes on the wall, Morgan finds a hollow space behind the wallpaper and removes a music box. The melody is Schubert’s “Trout quintet” (five people fishing) and inside is part of a poem which reads “never would it be night but always clear day to any man’s sight.” Also hidden under the lining are a DVD and a lock of hair. The DVD is a message from the unsub explaining their quest which is simply to save the girl. The final clue will be delivered to them soon and there is only one rule: only the seven members of the team may participate in the quest. Meanwhile DNA from the lock of hair has confirmed the missing girl is Rebecca Bryant and she was reported missing two years earlier. Hayley Hotchner comes to the BAU saying she was unable to reach Hotch on his cell phone. She tells Hotch a man came to their house and gave her the package to give to him saying they would need it right away and a girl’s life depended on it. The final clue is a large piece of paper with sets of numbers. Reid knows they will be looking for a specific book which will break the code and give them the message but they have to use the other clues they have been given to determine which book they are looking for. Gideon ignoring the unsub’s warning tells Hotch he wants Hayley to sit with a sketch artist to get a description of the man who came to their house so J.J. can hold a press conference. The unsub is outraged when he discovers the team has gone to the media and tells Rebecca he must leave her again. Hotch tells Elle who hasn’t slept in days she needs to get some sleep and tells agent Anderson to take her home. He drops her off and Elle enters her apartment and goes right to the couch. But the unsub is waiting for her in her apartment and with a gun pointed at her reminds her there was only one rule. A shot is fired.

I'm watching the episode Riding the Lightning right now it's a commercial break. You can't imagine how much I'm seriously shaking right now. I'm not going to watch the ending I'm crying right now I have never been so affected by a CM episode EVER.

I haven't felt like this since I saw the CSI episode Homebodies.

its a emotional episode...!!!!

yes, yes it is :(

Riding the Lightning is my favorite all-time episode (so far!) That's the closest any episode has gotten to making me tear up. I think the ending is one of my favorite Gideon moments.

Are you seriously not going to watch the ending???? You have to! It is very emotional but it's so touching!

yes it is emotional..i cried durning this episode

I decided to wath the ending, I watched the part where they go find her son and then I didn't watch untill the chello playing part was on.

Such a good episode!!! Very emotional, especially since she was innocent. Her whole speech about her life ending the day she met Jacob and she didn't want her son to be his last victim.....wow! Talk about sacrifice!

And the quote from this episode is one of my favorites: "What we do for ourselves dies with us but what we do for others and the world remains and is immortal."

I still think if any CM episode should have won an emmy it's this one. :)

yea i agree with you i love this show

I love it when they play beautiful song at the ending of an episode when something happens. I just saw 'A Real Rain' and at the ending they played Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley and I LOVE that song ♥

Like at one episode of Scrubs they played that song when a lady died and it was so emotional! I think it's one of the best songs out there :)! ♥

Etc. They also played it on House! Wow it's really popular! They even played the song on the OC when Mischa Barton died ;) I guess because it's a sad song!

rgh, 'RTL' the lightning is my all time fave eppy, it made me cry so hard! The whole Gideon scenes were awsome, and just the general atomosphere you get, gah! It is a gorgeous eppy, and should defiently have got a nom!



Also, Hotch gets a very sexy serious attidude thing! ;) (Honestly, I'm awful! *slaps wrist*)