We open on a construction site in Houston, Texas. Specifically Houston’s fifth ward, which we’re going to learn a lot about in this episode. A group of young hooligans are messing around. Spray painting things, smashing windows, you know- boy stuff. This is all cut short when the construction site’s security guard shows up. He fires a warning shot into the air and the youths scatter. The security guard attempts to pursue the youths on foot, but trips and falls and loses them. He’s startled by a sound, realizes it’s a cat, laughs to himself for almost shooting a cat, and then is murdered by an unknown assailant. The assailant sneaks up behind him and kills him by snapping his neck.

Cut to BAU headquarters in Quantico, VA. JJ is teaching the team about Houston’s Fifth Ward, how it accounts for the majority of Houston’s violent crimes due to “gang violence and the bustling narcotics trade”. We learn that in the last 48 hours there have been three murders with the same MO of the security guard that we saw before- a broken neck. The victims are all male; the security guard, a construction worker, and a homeless man. Three men, three different socio economic groups, and no apparent ties between them. While she’s telling us this, Reid shows up to the meeting late, and everyone kind of gives him a look. Hotch says: “We’re looking for a homicidal serial criminal in a neighborhood populated by criminals. The challenge will be separating him from the rest.”

On the BAU’s private jet (hey girl) the team discusses the victimology of the unsub. Reid says: “Hey uses blitz attacks which means that he most likely lacks the interpersonal skills he needed to coerce his victims into coming close. And he also used the element of surprise, which means he may have stalked his victims prior to killing them.” Gideon and Hotch make plans to visit the latest crime scene. Reid says that he wants to map out the area in regards to three crime scenes and see if he can find any places the victims would have visited in the neighborhood. Prentis offers to go with him and Reid is like “Naw, I’m good”. And Prentis is like “wtf” and Hotch is like “Reid, Prentis is going to help you with the geographical profile.” We end this scene with Hotch again reminding us what a high crime area this is.

We then see a montage of abandoned buildings and active construction sites. We cut to the latest crime scene (at the construction site). Gideon and Morgan meet Detective Fuller. He is HOT. Morgan immediately notices an abandoned building and asks Detective Fuller about it, and Fuller tells him that it’s been abandoned for years. Morgan goes to investigate and later finds that someone has been living in there. One of the kids who vandalized the construction site last night, named Kelvin, is brought to the construction site by his mother Jolene who is PISSED. “I found some spray paint on his clothes, and I knew he was up to trouble with his no good friends. He will not be vandalizing his own neighborhood again.” Kelvin admits to vandalizing the site, but denies killing the security guard. Gideon does not for a SECOND think Kelvin had anything to do with the murder thank goodness.

Back at the Houston Police station, one of the detective’s wives made the BAU cookies. Reid is touchy and jumpy (because we know he’s tweaking). Gideon, Hotch and Detective Fuller return from the construction site, thinking the unsub might be homeless. The thought is that the unsub was living in an abandoned building that was demolished due to the gentrification of the neighborhood via construction sites. Hotch asks Reid and Prentis to visit local homeless shelters. Prentis is like “Do you have a problem with that Reid?” and Reid is like “No!” We cut to a school getting demolished. And that’s it. We cut again.

We cut to a construction site where a worker is using a jackhammer to drill right above a sewer. We can see that the unsub is down in the sewers, and he was woken up by the construction. We see him have a vision of a boy who he yells at. The construction worker who was using the jackhammer then climbs down into the sewer, and the unsub murders him. When the BAU later comes to the scene they find a blanket and a little bundle of something that is not identified. Gideon makes Morgan climb down into the sewer and Morgan is like “I want hazard pay”. Gideon realizes that the victimology is random because the unsub is not going on a killing spree. The unsub travels around looking for a safe place, finds safe place, and then attacks anyone who intrudes on his new home.

Meanwhile, Reid and Prentis visit a homeless shelter. We meet Angie, one of the understaffed and overworked case managers at the shelter. She tells the BAU that they do have a sign in sheet, but residents are not required to sign it to use the shelter. She also advises that many who do sign in will use fake names, advising: “Elvis eats here a lot.” Reid is blunt about the nature of the investigation and is very rude to Angie, telling her that the unsub may be in the room right now! Reid asks her if any residents are especially violent or territorial. Angie, to her credit, says none of the residents fit that profile. Reid then leaves abruptly and Prentis has to apologize profusely to Angie.

Prentis then confronts Reid outside of the shelter and demands to know what’s going on. She says: “I’ve never seen you act like this.” And Reid says: “Oh really? Oh, in the months that you’ve known me, you’ve never seen me act this way? No offense Emily, you don’t really know what you’re talking about, do you?”

Reid and Prentis return from the homeless shelter and Hotch is like “Lol, he’s not homeless. He’s building his own shelter. Yolo.” Like BRO. You couldn’t have just called them and told them to skip the shelter?? Hotch says: “How did this homeless man learn to kill so efficiently?”

Cut to later that night, we see the unsub attack another man. But just as he’s about to kill him, the man’s young daughter Maria shows up and screams, distracting the unsub. The unsub then turns to Maria, and the scene cuts.

Cut to, a few minutes later I guess? The man who was just attacked (and his hero daughter Maria) show up at the police station. I guess Prentis can also speak Spanish, because she attempts to communicate with Maria in Spanish to ask her what happened and to ask her if she can describe the unsub. But then Maria responds in English. Maria says: “Papa took out the garbage, and then he jumped out and he hit my Papa. I was screaming at him, I thought he was gonna hit me too. But then he stopped and he looked at me funny. He looked… sad. He did say something. Not to my papa. To me. He said… are you okay? Why are you crying? And then he ran.” Maria also tells us that the unsub WEARS A WEDDING RING!!

Garcia has been combing through satellite photos from before and after the crimes took place. She notices at the last crime scene that the unsub wrote “SOS” in rocks and debris on the roof of the abandoned building. They realize that the unsub is a war veteran who is experiencing PTSD because he hears the sounds from the construction sites and believes he’s in a war zone. Gideon says: “We were right about him being homeless in a sense. Wherever he is, he’s not at home.”

Hotch asks JJ to check missing person’s reports filled within the last few days. We learn that the unsub is Roy Woodridge. Roy’s wife Dana and Roy’s best friend Max Weston speak to the BAU about Roy. We lean that Roy never returned home from work a few nights ago. Max tells the BAU that both he and Roy served in special ops in Mogadishu. He tells the BAU that Roy retired shortly after serving in Mogadishu. The BAU asks Dana and Max if Roy is suffering from PTSD, but they deny it. Dana says: “He has a hard time with loud noises. He can’t be in crowds. He has nightmares and wakes up in a cold sweat. Smells are the worst. If he smells something burning like barbecue or a fire, he gets sick.” Gideon questions Max further about what happened in Somalia, and Max excuses himself, but Gideon follows him.

Gideon confronts Max at the water cooler and accuses him of knowing that Roy was suffering from PTSD. Max says that he tried to get Roy to talk to someone at the Veteran’s Center, but Roy refused. Max makes Gideon promise to not tell Dana, and then tells Gideon that when he and Roy were in Mogadishu, they got separated from their troop and had to hunker down in an abandoned building. The entire time they were there, they attempted to contact the main battalion with two-way radios and SOS signals. One night when Roy was on watch, a very young Somalian boy showed up with an AK47. The boy was about to shoot Max, but Roy killed the boy.

Meanwhile Dana asks the BAU for more information. They are vague with her, tell her that Roy may have hurt people. She doesn’t think the unsub could be Roy because they don’t live in the fifth ward. We learn that on his way home from work, the section of the freeway where Roy was driving was shut down for a few minutes. Roy attempted to exit the freeway to find a faster route home, and got stuck in the fifth ward with a flat tire. While he was fixing the tire, a nearby eight story building was demolished. He heard the explosion, and the ground rattled like a bomb had been detonated. Roy suffered a PTSD attack, and has been stuck in a delusion ever since.

Everything is coming to a head. Roy is armed and dangerous, and will kill again if he’s threatened. His psychotic break and induced PTSD means that he likely does not even fully comprehend what’s going on or that he’s hurting innocent civilians. After talking to Max, Gideon advises the rest of the BAU that they have to send out a SWAT team for a grid search, because the unsub is armed and dangerous. Everyone is aware that Roy is a war veteran, and they’re hoping that the guns can just be a precautionary measure? But like, it’s a lot of guns. Roy’s wife Dana sees all the guns and panics. “Those men are going after Roy? Do they need so many guns, he’s just one man!” Remember- the BAU has still not told Dana that Roy has killed people. Dana then forces JJ to tell her the truth about what’s been going on (which they should have told her from the get go). In response Dana says: “He never really came home. I lost him 14 years ago. It’s been like living with a ghost. Help him. Please, help him.” Ugh you guys. This is so upsettingggggg.

Garcia finds that a hand-held radio was stolen from a construction site. Meaning that the unsub likely took it and is looking to communicate and possibly be picked up by his unit. The BAU gets a bunch of two way radios so that they can pick up Roy’s distress call. Max advising that the BAU needs to respond to any incoming distress signals from Roy with specific terminology. Max advises that he will help the BAU. Roy calls in asking for an extraction, Max responds, and Garcia locates Roy’s location using satellites. Detective Fuller contacts local construction sites and asks them to halt work. The BAU gets a helicopter and shows up with the SWAT team to mimic what an actual military extraction might look like.

Everything is going good, Roy has a gun, but he’s about to surrender. And then a fucking nearby construction site detonates something, and Roy gets freaked. And then a little boy riding a bicycle shows up. Roy hurries over to him, to protect him, but because he has a gun, a SWAT sniper shoots him. Because… we had to fucking have a SWAT sniper. Gideon runs over to him, but it’s too late, Roy is dying. As Roy dies, he asks Gideon if the boy is alright. Gideon tells him that the boy is fine. And then JJ has to tell Dana what happened. And that’s what fucking gets me.

Rating Criteria

Criminal/serial killer: 20/20
Forensics/context: 10/20
Character development/character arcs: 14/20
Script writing: 18/20
Background characters: 20/20

Overall: 82/100

S2E17 - “Distress”

S2E18 - “Jones”

S2E16 - “Fear and Loathing”