We ended with a cliffhanger! The BAU is in NYC to help NYPD (officers Brustin and Cooper are the leads on the case) and local FBI (SSA Kate Joyner- who Hotch has “liaised with” at Scotland Yard). Hooded figures are gunning people down without rhyme or reason. Everyone has a buddy in this episode Prentis makes friends with NYPD Officer Cooper who flirts with her. Morgan bonds with NYPD Officer Brustin who worries that the BAU isn’t taking the case seriously. The BAU uses the NYC surveillance system to narrow down unsubs, Garcia works with transit officer Lisa. Hotch and SSA Joyner have some sort of weird sexual energy. Bill shows up and tells JJ to quit her job to be a stay at home mother, but then decides fuck gender norms he’s gonna quit his job and be a stay at home dad.

The team initially likens it to Son of Sam, but quickly realizes that the group is likely a terrorist organization testing police response times for some sort of big event. Prentis and NYPD Cooper have a bonding moment and then Cooper is shot by a suicide shooter. The team splits up to start getting emergency protocols into place. They know the terrorists will likely take out a first group civilians at a heavily populated location (the BAU thinks a subway stop or port authority bus terminal) and then the terrorists would take out first responders who come to help them. Everyone splits up to get things in motion at NYPD disaster command posts, they all get into FBI Black SUVS. And we don’t know whose SUV explodes, but we know someone’s SUV explode.

Well. It was Hotch and Kate Joyner’s SUV. Hotch stumbles out of the wreckage, but we can’t see Kate. There’s a television store across the street from the bombing, and the terrorist unsubs must’ve hacked into it, because all the TV screens are showing Hotch’s face. A civilian named Sam comes up and tries to help Hotch. Hotch tells him to call 911 and he tells Hotch he already has. Hotch tells him to call again and tell them that a federal agent has been attacked. Hotch finds Kate , she keeps asking for her purse. She can’t feel her legs, Hotch turns her over and she’s bleeding profusely. He tries to stop the bleeding and he apologizes to her and says he knows it hurts, and she says “No, it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt at all.” Kate tells Hotch that no one is coming, because the joint BAU/NYPD task force has instructed them that first responders will be attacked after the initial wave. So Hotch, Kate and civilian Sam are on their own.

At NYPD headquarters- Rossi and Reid reach out to Garcia and transit officer Lisa, because they hear the news that a black SUV has exploded and they’re concerned it might be another member of the BAU. Garcia, horrified, asks Lisa to get the explosion from every angle they possibly can. We know that only Hotch and Kate have been attacked, but Garcia doesn’t know this. Garcia tries to get the rest of the team on the line, but cell service is blotchy due to the bomb I guess?

However Lisa comes through with the footage and she and Garcia watch in horror as Hotch and Kate walk towards their SUV and then the SUV is detonated. Garcia deduces that the explosion came from under the SUV, she and Lisa go back a couple hours and find the terrorist/bomber. They use different camera angles to see that the unsub doesn’t actually leave the scene, he hides, waits for the bomb to go off, and then walks over to Hotch. The unsub/terrorist is Sam! Son of Sam! Get it?

Meanwhile Kate is fucked up. She asks Hotch why he calls movies “movies” instead of “cinema”. He doesn’t know Sam is the unsub, so he enlists Sam’s help in moving Kate, but they can’t get a good grip on her and she passes out. Hotch yells towards the emergency responders who have set up barricades several blocks back from the explosion, but no one comes to help. And then…. Morgan rolls up! He’s like “Who’s in charge?” He’s directed to Captain Warren, so he introduces himself and is like, Hotch is out there, let me go help. Captain Warren refuses to let him go. “We’ve been told by you, first responders are the targets. So until the blast site is clear, no one goes in.” Morgan tries to reason with Captain Warren, pegs him as a Marine Core guy (Morgan I guess was in the army?? Did we know this?? I can’t remember) and he’s able to convince Captain Warren to let him through.

As Morgan rushes over to Hotch, Garcia calls Morgan and is like GIRL THE UNSUB IS RIGHT THERE! Morgan chases after Sam (possibly he could’ve just pretended he didn’t know and been stealthier about this but it’s Morgan so there’s gotta be a chase scene I guess). Sam runs down into the Chambers Street Subway Station (which is the station I use when I’m tryna get to China Town). Morgan chases after him.

Meanwhile a hero EMT is like FUCK IT and disobeys Captain Warren and goes to help Hotch. Meanwhile Garcia updates the rest of the team who has all reconvened at NYPD headquarters. Cut back to the Chambers Street Subway. To their credit it does look like they legitimately shot in that station. Also like 17ish minutes in we see a flash of a poster hanging up in the subway, and I have that same exact poster, it shows all the NYC subway routes, it’s hanging in my bedroom right now. Anyways, Morgan chases Sam down into the abandoned subway station. There’s a stopped train on the ACE line that just has its doors open? Which is unrealistic but super creepy. And we’re all like, oh boy there’s gonna be a subway train chase scene like in Keanu Reeve’s 1994 hit Speed. Morgan gets on the stopped train with his gun drawn, looking for the unsub.

He walks all the way through the train but can’t find the unsub, so of course he gets off the train in the pitch black subway tunnel carefully walking over electric train lines. So fucking suspenseful. And now we’re like, are we gonna get a train track chase scene like in Keanu Reeve’s 1994 hit Speed? But no. The unsub is just chilling one the tracks. Morgan is like: “Listen to me you sonofabitch, you get your ass off those tracks!” But we all know what’s coming, the unsub steps on the electric track and he’s barefoot and I can only imagine the amount of trash and rat excrement he has stepped in, and he kills himself.

Back with Hotch, Kate and the hero EMT. The Hero EMT gets Kate on a stretcher and into an ambulance. Hotch gets into the ambulance too. They’re stopped at a Saint Bartley’s Hospital by Secret Service Agent who demands credentials, the hospital is on bypass and is redirecting all emergencies. Hotch doesn’t have his credentials, and Kate is flat lining, so the Secret Service agent lets them through. As she’s wheeled to a surgery room and finally “safe” Hotch collapses from exhaustion.

Back at NYPD Headquarters the BAU and NYPD Brustin discuss how, as devastating as Hotch and Kate’s car bombing IED attack was, it’s not really the “big attack” the BAU was anticipating. They think that there’s likely going to be another attack on somewhere more “important” – more populated, more significant to the government, etc. Brustin gets prickly because enough people have already been killed or injured in the line of duty on this case. Rossi points at a poster of the twin towers and is like “That was memorable. This isn’t. Everything, everything they’ve done so far has appeared to be something it isn’t.” Diversions.

Morgan shows up at Saint Bartley’s Hospital. He has “acute acoustic trauma” in his ear and shrapnel in his ear. But Hotch is already up and ready to go. Morgan is like “Bro calm down”. Prentis and Reid show up at the hospital. Hotch is like “Why am I still alive?” And the BAU does not have a good answer. Garcia has run Sam and the suicide shooter unsub from Season 3, episode 20 through every database, but nothing has turned up.

There’s a lot of talking and discussion and the BAU realize that the ambulance is the bomb. The Hero EMT is not actually a HERO EMT, he’s one of the terrorists. The reason Saint Bartle’s is under lockdown is because there’s some sort of VIP patient there, so the unsubs want to blow this hospital up specifically, this is there long game. The BAU show up and tell the Secret Service Agent that their client is the intended target. But the Secret Service tell them that this client is undergoing surgery right now, so they can’t move him.

Morgan runs off (because he has bomb squad experience) to find the ambulance and try to disarm the bomb himself. Morgan walks up to the ambulance and there’s a big as bomb inside of it. The unsub is trying to use his cellphone to remotely detonate the bomb, and Garcia is jamming the cell signals, but can only do it for three minutes. So Morgan gets into the ambulance and is gonna drive the bomb out of harm’s way, just like in the 1994 iconic film Speed starring Keanu Reeves. You guys. This episode is basically just Speed! IT’S SPEED!

The rest of the team tries to find the unsub to take him out before he remotely detonates the bomb. But they’re taking too long. Morgan dries the ambulance at top speed. Garcia is on the phone with him begging him to jump out of the ambulance. Morgan is like “Garcia I need you to listen to me. You know what you are Garcia?” And then the ambulance explodes.

The BAU finally corner the unsub, but he kills himself. And we’re all like, get back to Morgan! And we do get back to Morgan. He’s okay. He’s like “Garcia, I’ll tell you what you are to me. You’re my god given solace. Woman promise me one thing, no matter what happens, that you’ll never stop talking to me.”

We end the episode on a down note- Kate has passed away. Prentis stops by to see Cooper. He’s fine. But he’s got a catheder attached to his “skiddibup”. Prentis brought Cooper tickets for him and his family- Mets Tickets. And he’s like “How did you know I wasn’t a Yankees fan” and Prentis is like “I’m not like most girls.” We learn that Hotch is gonna be fine, but he can’t fly because his ears are fucked up. Morgan and he are gonna road trip back. Hotch tells Morgan that the Quantico has requested that Morgan transfers to NYC and takes over the NYC Office.

Rating Criteria

Criminal/Serial Killer: 20/20

Character development/ character arcs: 20/20
Forensics/Context: 10/20
Script writing: 17/20
Background characters: 17/20

Overall: 84/100

S4E1 - “Mayhem”

S4E2 - “The Angel Maker” (Copy)

S3E20 - “Lo-Fi”