S1E5 - “Broken Mirror”
We open on a party where a Patricia (Trish) Davenport and her boyfriend Jordan are headed home in CT. An abandoned car blocks their path, and the couple stops and gets out to investigate. Trish asks Jordan to go multiple times, and when they finally get back in their car, he can’t find the keys. Jordan is shot and Trish is abducted. We later learn that Trish’s father, Evan Davenport, is a US Attorney for NY. A possible motive for her abduction.
Cut to BAU headquarters in Quantico Virginia. The team convenes to assist in the kidnapping. The ransom letter: “You will follow instructions carefully. You will do this to ensure the safety of your daughter. You will wait for the call. You will answer the call at 8:00 pm. You will write down the instructions and follow them to the letter.” We also learn that Trish has an identical twin Cheryl. But what about twin actors playing twin parts? This is not twin representation!
The BAU arrives in CT at the Davenport home. We don’t know what town, later in the episode they mention the New Haven FBI field office, but we don’t know exactly where the Davenports live. Due to his status, Mr. Davenport has a full security staff at his home, whose backgrounds have already been checked. And there are lots of agents from the New Haven task force in and around the house, under the command of Agent Vincent Shyler.
Elle and Morgan (in a purple shirt, love it) go to talk to Cheryl who is lying in the middle of the road, apparently trying to get a feel for what happened to her sister. Cheryl believes her sister is still alive. Twin intuition??? Anything to that??? Also Reid reads FAST!
The FBI has tapped the Davenport’s phones.
Here’s what you should do if a loved one is kidnapped and you have to talk to the kidnapper….
- Keep your voice even and calm
- Agree with everything the kidnapper says
- Repeat important information back to the kidnapper
- Say the kidnapees name
- Don’t veer off topic
- Empathize / let kidnapper know that he can fix the situation
The Unsub calls and tells Mr. Davenport that he wants to speak to Cheryl. Elle pretends to be Cheryl, but the unsub knows that she’s not Cheryl. Unsub calls “Trish” Patricia it’s obnoxious. Unsub asks Cheryl her fav color, if she likes chocolate, Goobs looks like a puppy dog. Cherly asks for confirmation that Trish is alive, Trish is put on the line and sounds out of it- possibly sedated. The unsub requests $500k. Goobs was unable to trace the phone call- why didn’t they have Garcia on this?? Garcia is not even in this episode?
The BAU reconsiders whether someone from the Davenport’s extensive security staff or household staff might be involved, because the unsub clearly knows Cheryl. Also Elle says “weakest members of society- women and children” while trying to give Cheryl a pep talk, which is ugh!
Unsub instructs for Cheryl to drop off the money alone. Morgan is suspicious- says everything is too simple and not characteristic of actual kidnappers. (the unsub didn’t specify police involvement, didn’t ask for unmarked bills or new bills, didn’t mention tracking devices). They realize that the kidnapper is not after money, but is going to attempt to kidnap Cheryl as well. Luckily Morgan and Hotch are able to put a stop to it.
When they arrive back at the Davenport estate, the unsub calls back. This time, Morgan instructs Cheryl not to interact with the unsub. The unsub bates her and tells her that “it may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but one day we will be together”.
Reid asks Mr. Davenport if Trish was involved in any serious relationships prior to the kidnapping. Mr. Davenport says “with that boy that was killed” like the cold hearted mf he is. We learn that Trish and Jordan were together for two years and were getting engaged, and her dad is calling him “that boy”. Gideon thinks that this engagement was the unsubs’ stressor. The team has a strategizing sesh and shares a delicious looking orange. They decide to (finally) take control of the situation.
PROFILE “STALKER”
- Unsub suffers from De Clerambault’s syndrome- “erotomania” the belief that someone, usually of a higher social status but not necessarily a celebrity, is in love with you.
- Narcissistic and inflated sense of self-worth
- History of bad relationships
- White male
- Pretentious. Uses sophisticated speech patterns incorrectly (does not use contractions) and wants to sound smarter than he actually is
- Whatever position of authority level or success unsub has, he had to struggle for it
Gideon lets the phone ring a bunch of times and then hangs up on the unsub four times. in a very tense scene. The Davenports are loosing their MINDS and Morgan has to hold Mr. Davenport down. The unsub tells Gideon that he’s going to kill Trish, but Gideon believes (correctly) that the unsub is grandstanding. The unsub reveals that he knows all of the BAU team members and knows intimate details about their lives (including Hotch’s sick/pregnant life). He calls Morgan “a pumped up side of beef”. The BAU determines that because the unsub profiled the BAU team, and that he must be an FBI agent??
The BAU moves Cheryl to a safe house with Elle and Morgan and a couple other agents. Elle and Reid discuss how the unsub seems to know everything that is happening at the Davenport’s house as it’s happening, even though New Haven FBI agents swept the house for bugs and brought in fresh equipment. The team realizes that the unsub is Agent Shyler, an agent currently at the safe house with Cheryl.
Morgan is knocked out. Shyler confronts Cheryl. Elle pulls a gun on Shyler, Shyler lunges at her and she knees him in the crotch and incapacitates him by placing her foot on his crotch and demanding to know where Trisha is. The team rescues Trisha!
Rating Criteria
Criminal/Serial Killer: 17/20
Character development/ character arcs: 10/20
Forensics/Context: 15/20
Script writing: 17/20
Background characters: 10/20
Overall: 69/100