We open at the BAU and Gideon is like bro why don’t any of you go home, to which Elle is like “you’re here!” and he’s like “yeah, don’t model yourselves after me.” JJ is like “if it makes you feel any better, Hotch and Morgan left,” to which Goobs is like “Hotch is married, and Morgan is...Morgan.” I do have a small comment here - don’t get me wrong, I love Morgan, but i’m a little curious if his womanizing behavior ever gets addressed beyond ah ahhh hahaha MORGAN kind of thing?

Right after this, JJ shows some papers explaining that a police department in Dayton, Ohio has requested help on a case. A serial rapist. 3 months ago he raped 5 students at a small bible college. An attack a week and then nothing. Until a couple of days ago when he changed his whole victim pattern and raped two women in their 30s in their own home. The two women lived on opposite sides of the city, but they know it was him because he left voicemails for them. They were raped 5 days apart. He was waiting for them when he got home. They don’t know him at all - don’t recognize his voice.

Cut and we see the interior of a car, a white woman is getting dropped off by a taxi at her house. Its raining outside. When she gets inside there is a voicemail waiting for her “I think we’re ready to meet.” and then a voice from the dark says “You came home early tonight.” and it is him waiting for her. Next we’re on the jet and Helen Keller is being quoted.

JJ comes in with new information on the latest victim. Alicia Jordan was the woman we saw get home. She was also in her 30s, had no connection to the unsub, and he left the voicemail about an hour before she got home. Gideon is like “the messages aren’t taunts, they’re overtures.” Morgan suggests that they are dealing with a “power reassurance rapist”, but we don’t get any explanation of what that is. Hotch also suggests that he is also stalking them since he seems to know so much personal information about them.

At the Dayton Police department we meet Detective Calahan. She has SO much energy. She talks about how serial rapists usually have a set fantasy, so if they are able to figure out what changed in regards to the fantasy, they should be able to get him. She then tells Gideon that since they will be talking to a lot of victims, another woman would be nice. Of course she says another “female” would be good, but I prefer WOMEN. Gideon is like “can you promise me you’ll be sensitive?” and she goes “as long as you promise to stay pissed off at what happened to them”.

Cut to a hospital? An office? And Hotch and Elle are interviewing Alicia. They do their best to keep it short - trying to be sensitive about the whole thing.

They then go to the college to interview one of the students who was also raped. Morgan is asking the student to try to narrow down who he could have been - again, no one comes to mind for her. No strangers, no guy who was quiet, weird, new, etc. she says that the Unsub told her to get protection after he attacked, and suggested she get a dog. Which is WEIRD AS HELL. they find out from interviewing both of the women that the Unsub somehow knew a lot of personal information about them, but have no idea how he could even know any of it.

There’s a nice scene about just because he didn’t kill you doesn’t mean he didn’t ruin your life. The doctor was like “your injuries are minor” which is fucked up to say. Cut back to interviewing Alicia and they play her the audio of another voicemail. She says he sounded less confident in person than over the phone. Goobs talks about how over the phone he can rehearse, but in person he cannot. Goobs goes on to say that he thinks that these attacks are dates - in his delusion.

Elle gets spooked walking to her car alone, and Goobs catches on, but she tries to brush it off. That night we see the unsub taking photos of another woman getting home.

The BAU are all up trying to work on the case. Calahan visits Gideon to talk about the case and she talks about how there are probably more victims at the college that have gone unreported because of catholic shame. “He has hurt so many lives here.

Goobs goes next door to visit Elle because he wants to talk to her. He asks if she’s okay, but she doesn’t wanna talk. He is the only one who realizes that she’s still carrying around trauma from being attacked in her own home. She’s like- don’t profile me, and he’s like this isn’t profiling, this is psych 101. They share some drinks and Elle talks about how when she was attacked he reached into her wounds to write in her blood on the wall, and how she wasn’t really conscious but she could feel it, and it haunts her. Its gross. Goobs tries to comfort her, and i think it works? But she’s still drinking a lot.

The next morning they finally present the profile to the department.

The Profile: POWER REASSURANCE RAPIST

Differs from a power assertive - tries to humiliate and traumatize the victim
Also differs from a retaliatory rapist & sexual sadist - random and brutal
Only kind of rapist who targets specific victim
- He fantasizes that he is in a relationship with them
- A normal guy - the cable guy or locksmith
- The details feed the fantasy
He most likely lives alone
20-40 years old
A profession he finds emasculating

JJ comes back after having looked into unreported rapes at the college, she doesn’t find another reported attack or anything, but there was another girl who committed suicide and her suicide corresponds almost exactly to the time when the campus attacks stopped.

The BAU goes to the parents of the girl who died. The parents are STUFFY AND AWFUL. the y ask if Shelly was raped, had a history of depression. The parents are like NO. SHE WAS GRACEFUL AND PERFECT. AND THERE WAS NOT A NOTE SO DON’T ASK. Shelly’s mom gets rude and asks them to leave. She’s like ID LIKE TO GO LIE DOWN. But the father instead hands them her suicide note after the mom leaves. Turns out Shelly was raped, and the reason she committed suicide was because “i’m picking the sin of suicide over the sin of abortion.”

They realize that the Unsub probably found the suicide to be a stressor and thats what made him change his victim profile. They go back to Alicia and ask if she had the unsub say anything to her about children or family or suicide, but she says no. but then she’s like “i’m trying to get pregnant.” and explains that she had an appointment at the clinic to talk about insemination 5 days before the attack. She hadn’t told anyone about this plan though - so HOW DOES HE KNOW. the other victim also had had an appointment with a fertility clinic, so its the same thing!

This also makes sense if he wants to have a child though, because before he was targeting young (fertile) religious girls who would likely be against abortion, but stopped that plan when one of them committed suicide. It looks likes he WANTS to have a child, which is why he’s now targeting women who are actively seeking out having a child. We realize he’s also still watching his past victims, since he was aware of Shelly’s pregnancy.

So they go to a fertility clinic and speak to the guy there who has like the most absolute worst customer service attitude ever. He even tells them he had a vasectomy 25 years ago. He only hires women so hits impossible that any of his employees could be the unsub. But then they realize that the forms that the women fill out get sent to a First Hand Media company and sells the information? It sounds kind of illegal even though he says its not. Garcia works her magic and realizes that First Hand Media also processes all the freshman orientation forms from the college, so there is a connection there as well!

They go to FHM, and they also have the worst customer service ever. And again, even though its not illegal it feels illegal because the boss there says that he gives every employee complete access to ALL OF THE FORMS. They get all the paperwork from him eventually - Elle is aggressive with it too. 250 men work at the company and all of them match the profile of the unsub. They realizes the victims all bought books on pregnancy and fertility so she is committed to having a kid. And they also checked yes in regards to receiving calls & information - therefore they “consented”.

Cut to the dark bedroom of a woman and the police are knocking on the door. A woman is tied to the bed and a man wis holding a gun to her head, he has pantyhose over his head. Next we see her being wheeled out of the house - alive. He has already raped her, although there is no forced entry. Elle is being aggressive again, laying into Calahan saying she’s doing a shoddy job because she still got attacked.

They realize that he has a smaller pool of women to pick form 30s, seeking fertility treatment etc. So Elle pretends to be the perfect victim for him so they can trap him. But like. This is a bad idea. Elle is not ready for this. Also how did they find a house for her? So she goes inside and her PTSD starts getting triggered. She’s supposed to leave the house but she doesn’t. When Morgan calls her to be like girl let’s get rolling, she ignores the call.

The unsub rolls up in his car - Morgan has Garcia run the plates and they confirm that it belongs to a William Lee who works at First Media. Elle finally starts to leave the house, but she brings her gun and instead of innocuously walking away, she confronts the Unsub unceremoniously and gets him to leave the car at gun point. The rest of the BAU has to intervene, but they do bring him in for questioning.

They bring him in for questioning, but they aren’t able to keep him. His lawyer (i think its a lawyer?) shows up and he takes Lee away - Elle absolutely flips shit. Gideon and Hotch tell Elle off and she needs to cool down, but Elle is like bro no, Hotch you got me shot. Which feels a little unfair.

Instead of leaving to cool off though, Elle tracks Lee and confronts him in a parking lot. So she mcfreaking SHOOTS HIM DEAD. She calls the BAU and says that he drew his weapon so she fired. Like you know. A LIAR. but Calahan is like “self defense! She’ll be fine!” Gideon does not trust this at all. And that is the end of the episode. No book end quote.

Rating Criteria (out of 20)

Criminal/Serial Killer: 20/20
Character development/ character arcs: 20/20
Forensics/Context: 20/20
Script writing: 19/20
Background characters: 20/20

Overall: 99/100

S2E5 - “Aftermath”

S2E6 - “The Boogeyman”

S2E4 - “Psychodrama”