It is night. We are in South San Francisco, CA. we see a couple sleeping together in their bed, and then we see what looks like someone pissing all over their belongings, but the little blurb on Netflix said something about arson so I know this is probably gasoline. And yep. Now the family photos are going up in flames as ominous music starts playing. Everything is going up in flames.

The son comes rushing into the parents room and wakes them up - insisting they all get up and go - i wonder how we woke up? But it looks as if most of the exists are blocked. He also mentioned the phone was dead so they cannot call for help. We see them crawling along the floor to get out - bro this is do depressing. They are couching as they attempt to make it to the door but its locked. As the three of them pass out, we see someone in a gas mask walk past them and remove locks from the door - he planned for this. He kind of chuckles and then walks out the house and into a car - the flames from the fire are coming out of the windows - the family is definitely gone.

We’re at the BAU. JJ is briefing the team saying that there was two fires, and two families in two weeks. We learn that the family we saw in the opening was the Cutlers, and Mrs Cutler actually survived the fire but is in critical condition. This is the third fire to occur. Emily points out that these are definitely not accidents - intentional. Reid talks about how most serial arsonists are men, white, and very few are ever caught. Only 16%. Prentis also chimes in to add that most serial arsonists are not usually trying to hurt anyone - but in this case, violence was definitely part of the MO. this is about violence and power. You know. Sexual release. So they know that this must have been triggered by something - maybe a sexual object or release was taken away from him, which is why this is now both power and sex. He is a one of a kind. There is also nothing - that we know of yet - connecting the families that were victimized.

Cut to the hospital and we see that Charlotte Cutler has burns on 60% of her body, but she does not know that her son and husband have past yet - she has been in and out of consciousness. She also likely won’t live very long. The nurse tells Prentis and Hotch they can basically lie to her and not tell her about the death of her family.

Cut to the Cutler’s families home and there are loads of flowers left on the yard - these are presumably left by neighbors, which is really sweet. Gideon and Morgan are there and meet Ricardo Vega - WHO IS HOT - he’s read the profile and shared it with his team. He is a fireman. It is revealed that NO ONE responded, not fire, police or EMT responded - except for Ricardo Vega, who included a ton of evals, performance reviews, etc of himself in the paperwork he provides to Gideon and Morgan. Gideon is saying how it is unnecessary for him to share all that, but Vega is explaining it isn’t because the best suspect they have is a fireman who would have responded and seen both fires, which is him.

Back in the hospital, Hotch and Prentis go in to speak to Charlotte Cutler. She immediately goes “where’s Paul?” hotch explains that he believes the fire may have been set intentionally, but Charlotte is all “i’m very tired” and clearly extraordinarily disoriented. Hotch and Prentis ask her if there was anything out of the ordinary that happened that night - and she says she couldn’t brush her teeth - the water wouldn’t turn on, and Dennis - her husband went and turned the water back on. She also reveals that Paul was the one who woke them up, and how Dennis unlocked the door but it wouldn’t open. And she says “And then I saw the fireman, and I knew it was going to be okay?” Hotch lies to her and tells her that her family is okay and outside in the waiting room. I was not expecting this at all. And she says she doesn’t want them to see her like this, and wants them to wait before they see her. She’s “not ready”. Hotch says he will wait with her until she is ready. This is so fucking sad. She passes.

Cut back to the house, and Morgan and Gideon go to investigate the water source. He must have snuck in when Dennis went to fix the water, and then pour the gasoline all over after they have gone to sleep. He intentionally leaves them only one way to get out - the front door. They deduce that someone was jammed in the door from the inside, and she didn’t see a fireman, she saw the unsub - in full fire gear. The only reason he would stay inside is because he wants to see them burn.

Cut to the Fire Department, and JJ and Reid are meeting with the a chief detective. Reid is being awkward like always, but he reveals that he believes that the unsub was targeting the husbands of each family, specifically. Everything about their families and lifestyles were very different, except for the fact that the father/husband in both was 6ft tall, had brown hair, had nice homes and nice families, and good jobs. He sees these men as successful versions of himself - he is a resentful, white man in his 30s.

Now we see the BAU meeting up again, Ricardo Vega is there. Hotch announces that Charlotte Cutler has died. We also get information on a vehicle - a 1999 gold Ford Taurus. Most of them are fleet vehicles, or rentals. So it is either a rental car that was kept for only 3 weeks, or a company car. He also would have had to have had time to stalk his victims.

The Profile - ARSONIST

Highly intelligent, underachieving
35-40
White male
Severe narcissistic character disorder
Nothing in his life works for long
- If married, divorced,
- If he has a job it won’t last
He wants admiration, but has no respect for others - feelings or safety
He feels entitled - “like a petulant adolescent”
He both resents and absolutely expects others to take care of him.
He likely lives with a female relative, because “a male family member wouldn’t tolerate his behavior”. He likely exploits the female relative he lives with
His arson kit is expensive - fire suit, oxygen mask.
He may be employed, but his personality will not let him work closely with others in an office
Given this information and the information about his vehicle, he likely works as a traveling salesmen of sorts, and works in a company big enough to make it impossible for them to realize he’s a sociopath.
He’s like a drug addict - but fire is his drug.

Cut and Garcia calls them with information. She has found a website that connects both Mr Cutler and Mr Jarvis’s businesses - both companies are guilty of “LUST” - “Leaking Underground Storage Tanks”. Fun details. The website is called EDF - Earth Defense Front an this is the blurb they have on the front page: L.U.S.T = Leaking Underground Storage Tanks the Following companies knowingly and maliciously polluted the planet by utilizing cheap, substandard underground storage tanks that have leaked toxic waste into the surrounding soil and eater table. These corporations should be the target of protest and boycott at every opportunity.

Some of the BAU call this group a terrorist organization, but it is technically an environmental activist organization. It is a recently formed website. This website is dedicated to protecting life, so they would more likely wait until no one is home before “lighting the place up”, despite having started some fires.

Cut and we see a father and his teenage son walking in a yard - the son is all ready to play some soccer. The son runs off, and as the father calls to his daughter to hurry up his cellphone rings. He says over the phone that he is leaving right now. They get into the car, but the garage wont open.

Ricardo Vega is all “So you’re telling me the FBI doesn’t have files on organizations like this? Lists and members?” but Morgan is all, “they aren't a priority” and Reid talks about how they are more of a movement than a group. Gideon explains how they have a central ideology, but the groups are different, they don’t pay dues, and they don’t keep membership lists. AND?? SO?? Prentis basically is like, okay, but what if one chapter has gone rouge.

Back to the family and while in the car still trying to open the garage door, someone appears and starts dumping gasoline all over the car. It looks like the same unsub as from the beginning. They try to escape. Hotch asks Garcia to try to get the numbers of the members in the group. The car is on fire. And it looks like they burn alive. The garage explodes so they are definitely goners. The Unsub drives away after waiting and watching the garage explode.

We find out that the father who was in the car also worked for a company on the LUST list. Garcia pulls information on the group leader - his name is Evan Abby, he is 41 years old, and 5’11’’. Hotch says he plans on interviewing Abby to see how he responds and reacts to everything. Hotch provides more information on him and we find out that he was an environmental engineer, he is a divorced father, has a 14 yo son named Liam, and does consults on real estate projects. He has also worked with every company on the EDF list.

Prentis brings him over, and Gideon and Hotch start interviewing him. The orchestrate it so that the body bags with the deceased family go right by him as they interview him - so as to gauge his reaction to their death. He gets defense real fast. He storms off denying to have had any involvement in the fires. Gideon says that a serial arsonist wouldn’t be able to peel his eyes away from any of the evidence they show, and Mr Abby could hardly look, but Hotch believes that he is definitely hiding something. Prentis suggests that maybe the unsub joined the EDF under a misconception that is is actually an arsonists club. They know they cannot share the profile with Abby yet, because they want to find out what he;’s hiding, but they still need to learn more about him.

Gideon goes to interview his ex wife. They met 20 years ago at Berkely, and he was totally different. But loans, pregnancy, etc. it sounds like he got biter and jaded with his job, and turned to drinking, and it “got bad”. Apparently he does not have a relationship with his son, and she had to threaten court to get him to pay child support. But that worked because now, for the last 9 months, every Sunday night he “tosses $2000 cash” through the mail slot. So thats fucking sus.

Cut to Hotch and Prentiss in a car. Hotch is on the phone with his wife, and Prentis talks about how guilty Abby looks. He has packed all his stuff into boxes, etc. It looks like ehe is getting ready to be - on the lamb. Later that night they stake out his place and see that there are a lot of people inside his house. As Prentis puts it it is either “a lame” going away party or an EDF meeting - there is no booze or music or anything. Hotch is dead set on learning what he is hiding, but they don’t have a warrant so they just take pictures of everyone leaving. Its all men in - like in their 30a-40s. Jk there are like 2 women. Mostly everyone seems to be white. Abby comes out and approaches the car. He’s very upset - saying he’s being harassed. He talks about how he disbanded the EDF to clear his name. He says he set up the EDF for his son. Hotch points out that Abby must have set up the meeting to SHOW the FBI that he did the right thing. So either he is guilty and he’s angry because the FBI is onto him, or he;’s angry because his attempts to do the right thing have gotten people killed. Either way the arsonist was definitely at the meeting.

Cut and we see the unsub - not in fire gear - walking down the sidewalk, talking to himself, because you know, thats what evil people do. He’s voicing threats under his breath. He gets into his car and is sobbing? According to my Netflix subtitles. He has a meltdown and screams in his car. “I’ll show you a deranged coward!” he drives away and DOES THE LIPS THING. He stops at a stop light and just throws a gasoline grenade and LIGHTS A RANDOM DUDE ON FIRE FOR NO REASON. And then runs away. Stop drop and roll my dude. The FBI knows it was definitely him, and he is devolving. This was him throwing a tantrum - because the EDF was disbanded.

Hotch and Prentis, in a car are still trailing Abby and Hotch is like ‘he’s leaving but not in the way we thought” because Abby is visiting his oncologist, so he is sick and getting his affairs in order...Abby is watching his kids baseball game and Hotch approaches him. Hotch asks him how long he has, which would be 6 months with a miracle. He has leukemia. We learn that Hotch’s father died of lung cancer while in high school. Abby talks about chemicals and how he knows of a building that is built on flammable and cancerous chemicals (sorry this is gonna be convoluted) that was sold to be an elementary school, but he feels he cannot report it because he’ll be ruined and leave nothing for his son. Hotch explains that he can still do the right thing because the arsonist was at the meeting last night and maybe Abby can identify him. Hotch explains that he was angry at the meeting, but maybe was the only one not expressing anger during the meeting. Hotch shows him the photographs Prentis took, and he stops on a photo of the unsub - Vincent Stiles. He leaves and they continue to trail Abby but also go after Stiles. The SWAT team shows up at Stiles’s home and rushes in. but no one is there. What is there is a bunch of photographs of the consults. He’s a pharmaceutical sales rep and lived at this home since 6 weeks ago when he was divorced - according to his neighbor. While this is going on, Morgan gets a phone call and Abby somehow shook the tail they had on him.

Cut and we see Abby pulling up near a river? A pond? A lake? And he is meeting up with Stiles. Abby apologizes saying - how he didn’t mean the things that was said about him. And how he “knows” he is an “artist, a genius. I appreciate your true value” WHAT IS GOING ON. he says he came there to respect his talent and take full advantage of it. WHAT IS GOING ON. Cut and Hotch is visibly upset in the office. He says Garcia checked Abby’s phone and he called Stiles right after Hotch left. Hotch is saying how he is just the husband who is never around when he is home, because during the day he is saving lives. He says “when I’m home, I’m in this silent panic because I know I have to be as good as i can, as fast as i can, because any minute the phone is gonna ring and that time is up and that panic is exactly what i saw in abby”. They realize that Abby is going to burn Stiles to make things right. But he would call it in first. They already got a tip for a fire near the harbor. In a warehouse. They ask Garcia what the zoning code for the place is. Prentis also says that they have circled the place twice and there is no fire, so its a false alarm? Garcia shows that it just got rezoned from CR to ES - the same exact place that Abby had talked about earlier.

Cut and we see Abby and Stiles inside the building. Abby is pouring kerosene all over. Stiles is all in his suit. He’s like “something is missing though isn’t it...the innocent family?” HE CALLS HIM TF OUT. Stiles pulls out a gun to shoot Abby. The BAU and fire dept are ZOOMIN over to them. Vega is talking about how this fire cannot get put out with fire, so the only way to put it out is to kind of let it burn out but herd it so it cannot spread. Gideon is like “i know i understand” and calls Hotch but is like “don’t put me on speaker just listen” uh oh. Abby is like “you can go ahead and shoot me, and then you set this place off like a bomb”. Stiles drops his weapon and Abby pulls out a lighter. Stiles is SWEATING, and being all “my suit”. And Stiles is like “what are you doing?” and abby says “the right thing!”

“Why you didn’t know those people?”

“Neither did you!”

They argue about the fire and how the fire dept cannot fight this kind of fire. Then stiles is like “seriously, how do you plan on getting out of here?’ and abby goes “I don’t”. He turns on the lighter and fire immediately explodes everywhere. The building explodes. And hotch is distraught, saying how he’s an innocent man. “He wanted to his death to mean something”. The media is covering it, saying it was two arsonists. Hotch is defeated as hell, and Vega finds a letter in Abby’s car. Cut and we see Hotch visiting Liam, Abby’s son. He gives Liam the letter in his father’s car. He also gives Liam his card and says “please feel free to call me anytime”. Fuck. this was so sad.

Rating criteria

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

Overall: 78/100

S2E19 - “Ashes and Dust”

S2E20 - “Honor Among Thieves”

S2E18 - “Jones”