S1E19 - “Machismo”
We open on Dia De Los Muertos in Allende Del Sol Mexico. Or as Reid later explains: “A three day latin holiday where souls of the dead are said to return to Earth to enjoy the pleasures that they one knew of”. We meet the Trejo family. Adult son Miguel is estranged from his mother Lupe and his uncle Diego. We also meet Miguel’s sister Rosa. Miguel and the family have a confrontation at the local cemetery, which then leads back to Lupe and Diego’s house. Miguel storms off, saying he’ll take his things and move out later. Later in the day, Lupe is home alone, and lets in a stranger who she talks candidly with. She is then murdered.
We cut to Hotch’s house. It’s Hotch’s birthday. We meet Hayley’s sister Jessica Brooks. Who tells Hotch that he is holding Jack like a cantaloupe. Hotch was on vacation, but he gets a call about the attack on Lupe Trejo and goes to work.
We cut to BAU headquarters in Quantico Virginia. JJ briefs the team of Lupe’s murder- we discover that she was stabbed in the face, chest, and genitals. The papers in Allende Del Sol have connected Lupe’s murder to the murders of 11 other elderly women in the past two years. Trejo’s son Miguel is currently in custody, charged with her murder. The BAU has to go determine whether he’s guilty or not.
Hotch decides fuck his wife and her sister- he’s going to Mexico! Also Elle is fluent in Spanish? JJ asks why there are so few serial killers in Mexico and Hotch says- “They probably have as many as we do, but they document almost none of them”
In Allende Del Sol we meet Captain Navarro. We learn that Captain Navarro met Gideon when he did a seminar in Mexico called “Sexual homicide in Latin America”. Also Captain Navarro says he just read a chapter on the subject in Max Ryan’s book? Navarro says that he has always been skeptical of the BAU’s profiling and how it will translate to Latin Culture.
Navarro takes the team to the crime scene. There was no forced entry at Lupe Trejo’s crime scene. The team quickly deduces that Lupe let whoever the unsub was in voluntarily and even had a drink with her. Captain Navarro explains that the Mexican authorities don’t really have any sort of DNA lab and can’t test for prints. He also says that he doesn’t believe the unsub drank with Lupe because the drink was tamarind water- a drink for women. Hotch says that it is unlikely that a woman committed these crimes. Lupe was found on her bed stabbed in the genitals, which indicates this murder was a sexual homicide. In cases of sexual homicide, unsubs target the victims of their sexual desire. The BAU says that the ubsub is a heterosexual.
The BAU meets Maria Sanchez, the District Attorney of Allende Del Sol. She is 100% convinced that there is no serial killer in Mexico. She blows right past the BAU.
Gideon and Hotch go to interview Miguel in jail. We learn that Miguel is gay, which is why he was banished from his parent’s house. Which means that he’s not the killer? Also Captain Navarro knew the whole time, but didn’t trust the BAU. But I guess now he does that everyone knows that Miguel is a homosexual? The BAU talks to Rosa to get more information about the Trejo family fight before Lupe’s murder. Rosa points the finger at Miguel’s “friend” Roberto. She states that Roberto saw the Trejos fighting.
Morgan and Gideon talk to Roberto who is not guilty. Roberto also tells the BAU that he saw a female social worker going to Lupe’s house after the Trejo famiy’s big blow out fight. Captain Navarro explains that the city employs social workers and nurses to help out elderly woman learn about benefits they may be eligible for.
Garcia ran the DNA evidence at Lupe’s crime scene and determines that it was one female drinker and one male drinker at Lupe’s house drinking the tamarind water. Reid makes the LEAP that the serial killer is a man masquerading as a woman.
THE PROFILE
- Heterosexual male
- 35-50
- Wears women’s clothing as a rouse to get into victims homes
- Will have a history of sex crimes (peeping Tom incidents leading to rape)
- Now “rapes” with a knife
- Kills women who represent authority figures in his life (like a mother or grandmother)
- Organized killer who plans the murders and gains victim’s trust
- Does not stop until caught
The next victim is Isabelle Santiago. Again we see no forced entry and she is stabbed the same was Lupe was. Previously the unsub was stealing jewelry from the crime scene, but with Isabelle’s murder, a necklace was taken from the victim’s actual body.
We see the unsub at home. Putting on lipstick, punching a mirror, and apparently the unsub lives with someone!
The BAU decides to have Captain Navarro hold a press conference to ask survivors to come forward, because we know that the unsub was previously a rapist. They’re looking for women who reported rapes two years ago, right before the killings stopped. The BAU is also looking for the stressor that caused the unsub to switch from rapes to murders. The press conference works- women come forward and identify the unsub as their attacker.
Captain Navarro and Elle talk to survivor Milagros Millanueva. She is the stressor apparently, because the unsub attempted to rape her and she fought him off. She fought off this unsub in August, and the first murder was in September.
We further learn that the unsub is a Power Reassurance Rapist…
Profile - POWER REASSURANCE RAPIST
- Kissed while raping / asked how he did afterwards
- Can’t develop normal relationships with women
- Passive and non athletic
- Fantasize that women he attacks are girlfriends or romantic partners
- Most likely to be dissuaded if someone puts up a struggle
- Most likely lives or works near the victim
We learn that many of the women who were raped worked at the same clothing factory. The BAU looks through the personnel records trying to find the unsub. We learn that the unsub is Pablo Vargas. Pablo is the floor manager of sector 16- women’s plus sized. The BAU break into Pablo’s home and find print outs of the employee ID cards of the survivors. They also find Pablo’s deceased and skeletonized mother, and she’s wearing Isabelle Santiago’s necklace. A la Psycho. We also learn that the unsub is killing the mothers of all the survivors. They realize that Millagros’ mother is the next murder victim.
The BAU shows up at Millagros’ mother’s house. But the survivors have attacked Pablo. Also District Attorney Maria Sanchez is not prosecuting the women.
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 2/20
Character development/ character arcs: 2/20
Forensics/Context: 2/20
Script writing: 0/20
Background characters: 2/20
Overall: 8/100