We open in Royal, Indiana. It’s 6:45 PM. We’re at the movie theater. We watch a bunch of movie goers paying for tickets, excited to see “The Blob”. We see two teenage girls hand their tickets to the ticket guy and he’s trying to be nice and he says: “Haha don’t worry, it’s not that scary” and one of the girls says: “That’s lame” and he blanches and says: “I mean… it’s kind of scary. But mostly funny, ya know?” And she goes: “How funny?” And he goes “Well it’s… heh” And she ROLLS her eyes. We also see a woman and her young son named Jesse. Jesse wants to hold the popcorn. The popcorn is as big as he is. And she goes: “Don’t spill it Jesse” and he immediately drops the popcorn and she goes: “JESSE!”

Cut to outside of the theater, and we see someone pouring gasoline everywhere. And then we see a match lit. Cut to inside the theater, we see a couple making out and she goes “Okay stop, I’m getting razor burn!” And then Razor Burn girl is actually the first person to notice the smoke. Suddenly everyone is in chaos, obviously they didn’t see the beginning of the movie where it explained where the fire exits were and told people to walk in a calm and orderly fashion. But essentially, the unsub has strategically poured gasoline and lit fires so that all the exits are blocked. No one can get out.

Cut to BAU headquarters in Quantico VA. We learn that 19 people died in the movie theater arson attack. JJ also tells us that 2 days previous to this attack, the local recreation center was also set on fire. 12 victims, no survivors. Before that there were fires at a local convenience store and a restaurant, but these were both after hours and no one was hurt.

Cut to the BAU jet. Reid tells us that based on the population of Royal, the unsub is likely a local male between the ages of 17-30. Garcia is on the horn, and she asks if arson is a sexist industry. And Reid is like, yeah actually only 12% of arsonists are female. The BAU is thinking hero complex, so Garcia is going to run background checks on all the local firefighters. Arsonists also like to practice apparently, so Garcia is also going to look statewide for similar fires. AND Garcia is going to look into all 31 victims to see if anything suspicious is any of their pasts. Girl’s got a lot of work to do!

In Royal the BAU meets with Police Chief Brad Carlson. Hotch tells Chief Carlson that another fire is imminent. We learn that there wasn’t enough room in the local hospital, so a random local building is being used as a triage ward / morgue. And all of the victims’ families are also there, and Hotch tells the doctor on call, Doctor Rollins that everyone needs to be sent home because large gatherings are easy targets for the arsonist

Cut to the unsub, pacing. We see glasses on a table and the unsub blurred out. There are also pens.

Prentis and Morgan visit the latest crime scene and work with a local Fire Chief named Danny I think. Danny tells the BAU that the unsub turned off the main water line so that the sprinklers wouldn’t work. Also- where is the local fire inspector? Where is Daddy Zhang? Rossi meets with another fireman and a lady EMT, we later learn her name is Tina. They tell him that the entire Royal Firefighting company is made of volunteers and that the only EMTs available run on two-person crews. They’ve both turned their records over to the BAU, and nothing sticks out in the employee files. Rossi asks Volunteer Firefighter who is not Danny and Lady EMT if there are any incidents that have been left off the record.

Back at Royal Headquarters, Garcia has gone digging, and she sends the BAU a list of repeat offenders who have set fires in Royal over the years. She also found small fires in a town called Franklin 300 miles away. A trash can fire, a Christmas tree fire, and an abandoned shed. These three fires were set with gasoline and wooden matches were used, just like the most recent deadly fires. Reid tells us that only 7% of arsonists use wooden matches with a gasoline accelerant. Hotch asks Garcia if she found anything on the victims, and Garcia is like, no, it’s been less than 8 hours, there’s not really anything. Hotch is like “I need to know who had enemies, who had secrets, who was a target.” Garcia is like: “With all due respect sir, my brain muscles are comfortable with being intuitive with information, not people. Looking at people like that is not part of my job description. I’m not a profiler.” And Hotch goes: “Well you’re gonna have to be, we don’t have much time.”

Cut to the church service for the victims. Doctor Rollins asks Hotch why the BAU is allowing such a large gathering to happen. And Hotch tells him that the unsub wouldn’t attack this gathering, he would want to revel in the grief he has created. Hotch tells Doctor Rollins that the unsub will be in attendance.

But never mind. Hotch gets a call mid-service that the unsub has just set another fire this time at a bar called Pop’s Place. 5 people lost their life. But a few things are different: Apparently he through a Molotov cocktail through the window, instead of setting fire with matches. And also, on top of lighting the fires in the front and back entrances to ensure no one escaped, the unsub also put heavy duty locks and chains on the outside of the doors. Extra not wanting anyone to escape.

Quick cut to the unsub watching the fire and he says: “Boom”. And we don’t see this until mid episode, but it is a plaid alert on the unsub. The unsub is wearing plaid. He wears red plaid when we see him during the profile, and green plaid later when we see a re-enactment of him at Pop’s Place.

Cut back to the latest crime scene, the BAU is all confused. They super thought the unsub would be at the memorial. And they also don’t understand why he changed his delivery method or added the locks and chains. Also the BAU will not shut up about the chains. They talk to Danny The Firefighter Chief and he’s pretty PO’ed with them. He says: “And what good are you guys doing us? You see chains, figure he didn’t want anyone to get out. I could have told you that.” Morgan says: “All due respect captain, but you look at that chain and you say the killer wanted to make sure that nobody got out, right? We look at that chain and we see a little more. That chain is different than the first two fires. This chain tells us that this is the fire that matters. This fire is gonna help us catch this guy.”

We learn that the bar tender Nancy is still alive and has been rushed to the hospital. Tina the EMT rushes to the scene, and we learn her fiancé owned the bar, and he did in the explosion. She is devastated. Hotch, Morgan and Rossi keep talking about how obviously the unsub’s real target was in the bar, that the other fires were all practice runs. Because of the chains, remember?? Hotch is like, get Garcia on the horn. She needs to profile.

Morgan calls her and she is panicking. She says: “I am standing at the crossroads of 31 lives, and all I see is a train wreck.” She’s learned all sorts of terrible things about the victims. The town mayor died in the movie theater fire, and apparently he beat his wife for years. David Alexander sued his boss for 5 million over something totally lame, and he was sleeping with the boss’s daughter. One of the town council women had a terminally ill husband and three boyfriends under the age of 20? Garcia says: “I wanna believe that the world is just teeming with awesome people, but all of this is giving me great pause. I wanna go back to cyberspace.”

Cut to the unsub, stressed out, rocking back and forth. We see a green chair. Then we cut away.

And now it’s profile time?

All of the first 4 fires, the convenience store, the restaurant, the rec center and the movie theater are indicative or a revenge arsonist. That’s someone who is seeking retaliation for an injustice whether real or imagined.
Revenge arsonists often target group headquarters such as churches or government buildings.
This unsub has chosen local gathering places with large numbers of potential victims inside. It’s clear that he’s chosen to target this community as a whole.
This tells us that the unsub is a local, someone who lives or grew up in royal.
But he feels like an outsider. As of this community has wronged him in some type of way. These fires are just his way of striking back, trying to draw attention to himself.
These fires not only killed innocent people, they also gave the unsub a sense of power over the community.
But somehow those fires were lacking. They didn’t exact the correct measure of punishment or attract enough attention. Or they didn’t attract the attention of the right person.
With the bar fire he didn’t increase the number of victims, he reduced them. That’s why the third fire is key, he’s not striking out at the community as a whole anymore, he’s striking out at one or more individuals.
The odds of another arsonist in a town this small are almost negligible. That’s why we have to concentrate on these latest victims, these 5 will hold the key.
This type of rage tends to stem for things that people keep buried, things they just don’t talk about.

Cut to the unsub- burning newspaper articles about the fires. With paper matches.

Cut the hospital, Hotch and Rossi meet with the only survivor of the arsonist, bartender Nancy. And while she is currently alive, she’s not doing well, and she won’t make it. Hotch and Rossi ask her to take them through the events, specifically what happened before the unsub threw a Molotov cocktail. She tells the BAU that Jason, the owner of the bar came in right before the explosion. She tells them that there was a guy who seemed angry and kept changing seats. The BAU think this is because he was trying to learn the layout of the bar. And that’s all she can tell them before Nancy dies??? So now the BAU believes that the unsub may have been someone who previously lived in Royal, but moved away and recently moved back.

Cut to the unsub, writing his manifesto? It says: “All I ask for is one last dance” but he keeps tearing it up and throwing it away.

Garcia calls with some information about Tina Wheeler- the EMT who’s husband owned the bar. Apparently she JUST married Jason, 2 days ago. According to Garcia, her work records look squeaky clean, but her parents died in a fire when she was 5. After they died, her and her brother Tommy were sent to live with their grandparents in Royal. Garcia found everything on Tina, but can’t find anything on her brother Tommy. Hotch is like: “FIND HIM Garcia.”

We get a montage sequence of Garcia writing on white boards and hanging up pictures and searching in the internet and the music swells and she makes a bunch of calls trying to look into Tommy’s past. It’s v. dramatic. And the scene ends with her calling Hotch and saying: “Oh my god, sir I think I may have something.”

Cut back to Royal Headquarters. The BAU is all there, and so is Doctor Rollins and the Police Chief Carlson. Hotch tells everybody that the BAU believes Jason Elliot, owner of the bar, and EMT Tina’s husband, was the unsub’s true target. Hotch then asks about Tommy. And Carlson goes: “Nobody has seen him around here in 10 years.” And Doctor Rollins goes: “How is that possible” and Reid says: “Well he’s aged 10 years and he’d make sure to go unnoticed.” REALLY? NO SHIT!

Alright so now we’re gonna dip our toe in some… incest….

Garcia tells everyone that early medical records indicate Tommy may have been emotionally unstable. Then everyone talks about who Tina was Tommy’s “life line” and his “whole world”. Doctor Rollins goes: “They were very close” and Rossi goes: “Close enough that Tina distorted Tommy’s love map.” Reid explains that a love map is: “The way an individual gives or receives love is established by the age of 6. With the death of his parents, Tommy’s love map revolved exclusively around Tina.” Apparently there were rumors that Tommy and Tina were “too close”. Tommy got expelled from school. Garcia has up a picture of young Tommy Wheeler and again I say- plaid alert.

Also Garcia is PISSED. She says she talked to Tommy’s teachers and he was expelled because of a rumor and that Tommy was also beaten within an inch of his life because of the rumor, and Police Chief Carlson never did anything. Then Tommy’s grandparents sent Tommy off to boarding school under the name of Thomas Boren (his dead mother’s maiden name) in Colorado and broke off all contact with the two siblings. Apparently Tommy didn’t make it all the way through school and Tommy ended up in Juvie. He was released from Juvie at the age of 16, but at the age of 21 he re-emerged in Franklin Indiana where he purchased copious amounts of gasoline under the premise of being a farmer and needing it for his farm. So now he’s getting… revenge!

The BAU and Chief Carlson show up at Tina’s house, and she’s not home. Also Tina didn’t show up at her shift. So Tommy kidnapped her? Rossi searches in Tina’s room, and apparently Tina saved a box of photos of Tommy under her bed. Also there was an ad for a winter dance from when Tommy and Tina were in high school, an event that was held at the Community Center.

Cut to Tommy and Tina – at the community center. Also he’s not wearing plaid in this scene. Tommy tells Tina: “You mean everything to me. You and I we’re, we’re soul mates. They can’t keep us apart anymore.” And she goes: “My god Tommy, all those people… you killed them?” And he goes: “For you, for us… we were meant to be together.” And she’s like: “You killed Jason.” And he’s like “DON’T say his name.” He’s brings her in a big room and he’s hallucinates that there are other people there, and that they’re back at the winter dance and he tells Tina that he needs her to remember. And he’s like “You belong with me” And she’s like “NO I DON’T”

And the BAU shows up and they’re like “Let her go”. And there’s a big can of gasoline that shows up out of nowhere. And it’s right by Tommy so he conveniently knocks it over, and of course it’s open. And he lights a match. And Hotch says: “if you really love her you’ll let her go” and Rossi is like “You don’t wanna hurt her son”. And Tommy lets her go.

And we’re back at BAU headquarters in Quantico VA. Hotch finds Garcia in her room. And she’s still pissed. She says: “You guys choose this. Turning people over like rocks and looking at all their creepy crawly things underneath. And I get it. I do. It’s the only way to catch them. But I wanna see the good in people. I choose to see the good in people. And getting into someone’s mind and trying to find the god awful thing that happened to them that made them do the god awful thing to somebody else has seriously impaired my ability to giggle and it makes my brain all wonky, and I don’t like it.” And Hotch goes: “Garcia, I just wanted to thank you for your excellent work on this case. And I understand that what you did was for you very difficult, but your contributions are essential for the success of this team. I know you see the good in people, always, and I would never want you to change that.”

Rating Criteria:

Criminal/Serial Killer: 10/20

Character development/ character arcs: 12/20
Forensics/Context: 10/20
Script writing: 2/20
Background characters: 8/20

Overall: 42/100

S4E19 - “House On Fire”

S4E20 - “Conflicted”

S4E18 - “Omnivore”