We open at a bar in Baltimore Maryland where Jim and Freddy are leaving a bar. Opening shot is supposed to be in Baltimore, but shows a popular sports bar in NY.They’re stopped by a cop, who seems surprised to seem Jim and asks him where’s he been. Jimmy tells Freddy that this cop arrested him a few years back… Jim drops Freddy off at his Aunt Helen’s house. Cut to presumably a few hours later, a neighbor is banging on Aunt Helen’s door. All the lights are on and loud big band music is blaring. The neighbor tries to turn the doorknob, and finds that it’s covered in blood. Jim comes barreling out of the house and the knocks the neighbor over.

Cut to the next morning, the BAU is at the crime scene. The victims are William and Helen Dimarco. The neighbor provided the description of a “20-40 year old white male fleeing the scene hopped up on those damn drugs”. To which Gideon says: “Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable.”

Helen Dimarco was found tied to a chair and cut ear to ear. William was found tied up in the shower, with one long laceration up the abdomen. William was also tortured in various ways, which Reid says is unusual because normally torturers have a specific method of torture. Gideon makes the startling discovery that there were three victims, not two. Gideon notes that the amount of blood found in the bathtub is indicative of someone loosing their entire blood volume 10.6 pints, and the crime scene is already covered in the Dimarco’s blood. This victim must have been dismembered, but the body is MIA. The unsub does not want this victim identified. Gideon asks Morgan to have Garcia goes through open murder files in Maryland and the surrounding states looking for comparable torture for at least ten years. He believes that this killer is a professional.

The third victim’s body parts were found in seven different trashcans two blocks from the crime scene. Back at BAU headquarters in Quantico, Virginia. We learn that the victim was Freddy. He is also identified as the nephew of the Dimarcos. All body parts were found, no trophies.

PROFILE - TORTURER

· Typically torture falls into two categories; sadistic and functional.

o Functional torture is used to extract information or punish. It’s measured, impersonal and completely disinterested.

o Sadistic torture is used to extract some sort of emotional need for the torturer. Sadists are normally sexually deviant, but there is no evidence of sexual contact in this specific case.

Agents from Organized Crime in Baltimore, led by Special Agent Josh Cramer, attempt to take the case from the BAU.

Morgan and Hotch investigate the scrap metal processing plant where Freddy worked. It’s owned by a man named Michael Russo who has ties to organized crime. Meanwhile Garcia, Reid and Elle look deeper into Freddy’s life. Garcia says: “Credit card receipts show that Freddy loved crab cakes, preferred light beer, and used to spend his Thursday nights with a woman in Fells Point (a sex worker?).”

Reid notices that an acquaintance of Condor’s- James Baker, has a fishy background. James Baker was arrested for, in order “attempted murder, armed robbery, petty theft, burglary, narcotic sales, and rape”. Reid says that in terms of psychological profiling, Baker’s rap sheet does not make sense. Why would someone begin with attempted murder as a minor and then devolve to pettier crimes? We learn that James Baker is actually Jim Baker from the bar earlier. They storm his apartment, only to find that it’s basically empty. Morgan says “an artificial dwelling to match an artificial past”. Morgan busts open the wall in the kitchen and finds a glock 19, standard law enforcement issue. Morgan realizes that Jimmy Baker is an undercover cop. Cut to James Baker pacing in an alleyway saying “Come on Josh” leading up to believe he means Special Agent Josh Cramer.

Cut to Cramer yelling and Hotch and Gideon. We learn that Cramer’s task force has been after Michael Russo for three years, Jimmy has been in deep cover for two of them. James Baker has been MIA for twelve hours, he missed his pick up. Cramer agrees to work with the BAU.

Garcia found over 100 unsolved murders in and around Maryland from the last fifteen years, most with ties to organized crime, but all with different MO’s. The only connection: torture and dismemberment. Hotch and Morgan confront Russo, who takes one look at the crime scene at the Dimarcos and goes “Ay…” Russo says that he will worry about the unsub. The BAU listens in as Russo calls the unsub. They get a name- “Vinny”.

PROFILE - OUR TORTURER

· Male

· Intelligent

· Probably abused by one or more of his parents

· Antisocial personality disorder and paranoid personality disorder

· Organized and methodical

· He has the confidence of a man who’s been killing for a long time

· No hesitation wounds- no conscience

The unsub is Vincent Perrota. Hotch and Giden stake out the scrap metal plant. Hotch is attacked by Perrota, and the BAU captures Perrota.

Cramer asks Hotch why the BAU is going out of there way to make Perrota uncomfortable before interrogating him, because the standard practice is to befriend the unsub. Hotch explains that Perrota’s antisocial personality disorder means that he will never trust anyone and that befriending him is a waste of time. The technique is to make him uncomfortable. Gideon questions Perrota. Cramer almost blows the whole thing by telling Perrota that Jim was a FED.

Garcia and Reid watch tapes found in Perrota’s van which show Perrota’s victims being tortured by rats??? Garcia is going to attempt to isolate the background noise of the tapes. The other team members try to find a way into Perrota’s psyche. Dimarco is the first woman Perrota ever killed? Maybe BAU should have focused on that! Hotch questions Perrota. Perrota has mommy issues.

Elle and Morgan use Perrota’s food preferences to find his home base. Garcia and Reid isolate the background noise on Perrota’s tapes- it’s airplanes flying by. Gideon realizes that Perrota still lives at his parent’s house. The BAU task force finds Jim Baker and Gideon kicks a million rats? Same footage of him kicking. We learn that Hotch grew up in the same type of environment as Perrota. NO JET!

Rating Criteria

Criminal/Serial Killer: 5/20
Character development/ character arcs: 10/20
Forensics/Context: 5/20
Script writing: 5/20
Background characters: 5/20
Overall: 30/100

S1E8 - “Natural Born Killer”

S1E9 - “Derailed”

S1E7 - “The Fox”