S4E2 - “The Angel Maker” (Copy)
We open in Lower Canaan, Ohio. a young woman is getting ready for bed - she’s in the bathroom washing her face when there’s a bang in another room. We see her walk as ominous music plays, and i just wanna know how she can afford this house on her own. Her cat Bo is in the kitchen and is the culprit for the noise. In the kitchen she closes one of the windows and sees a shooting star as she does so. During this - we can see someone - a person - cross in the hall behind her, but she doesn’t notice anything. She gets ready for bed, and turns out the light. Later - around 1am we see someone step outside of her bedroom closet with a hammer and kill her.
Cut and Hotch is getting an MRI. He is still having pain and buzzing in his ear - he is experiencing Hyperacusis - a tear in his eardrum. The doctor tells him that if could be gone in like a week - but that isn’t a promise and could become permanent. She does not think he should go back in the field, especially because if he isn’t careful he could lose his hearing entirely. He begs essentially - saying he’ll take it easy. She SOMEHOW signs off on this - especially since his phone rings and he doesn’t seem to notice until she tells him.
It was JJ on the phone and now she is briefing everyone. We see bloody photographs of the woman from the beginning - you know, per CM fashion. Her name was Deliah and she had be bludgeoned to death and raped. Reid got a haircut, and he points out that it seems very ritualistic the way the body was posed post-mortem - arms across the chest. Additionally, there were small puncture wounds on her stomach/abdomen area, but these were definitely done post mortem since there is very little blood.
Prentis asks if there have been any other victims, to which JJ replies “sort of”. This is the crux of this case - apparently the victimology and the signature match a serial killer from the same town 10 years ago - he killed six women over the span of 10 months. He called himself the Angel Maker, and he has been caught and executed. So the day before the was anniversary of this. BUT somehow, in this new case - which seems to be a copy cat honoring the anniversary, there was semen found at the crime scene - semen that is a DNA match to the Angle Maker.
On the BAU jet - cue Mac - they notice a difference between the two cases - the Angel Maker murdered the women with his bare hands, but this copycat used a hammer. So the copycat must be physically weaker than the OG snuffer. Rossi is very much like UM THE CUM? How is this possible? Reid suggests maybe there is an evil twin, but the rest of the team looks at him like he’s insane.
In Ohio, they visit the crime scene. They realize that all of the windows in the home had been left open - a detail of the original killings, and a detail that hadn’t been made public to anyone - not even in the court cases. So this copycat somehow knew, maybe they studied the cases extensively, or maybe they knew the original Angle Maker. Hotch suggests the semen had been kept on ice.
At the morgue, Emily and Rossi see the corpse of Deliah. They talk to the mortician and discuss how there were always different puncture marks on the victims - different arrangements and numbers. The mortician also shares how there were traces of paper found with Delilah around the punctures - paper like notebook paper. This is unique to the copycat. Morgan goes to the prison the angel maker had been kept in. apparently he had a lot of fans - a lot of letters etc. but he didn’t have any next of kin. And they never caught him trying to smuggle anything in or out of the prison. JJ shares that they just got a letter claiming to be the angel maker. Reid studies the letter and says it seems authentic. They think its possible that it was kept prior to his death and just now sent. They think he has someone on the outside - a friend.
A woman bursts into the police office and is freaking out. She also says she and others want proof that he is dead - apparently there were rumors regarding his execution. Now we’re digging up a grave. Hotch has a hard time because the noise of the machinery bothers his ear, and he also doesn’t think this is a good idea to begin with- a bad message. They open the grave and aw fuck shit. Its empty!
They got to the executioner - and he’s like, uh ya he died. Turns out it took a long time for him to die from lethal injection, and he threatened to live on prior to his death.
Garcia researches people who collect memorabilia of killers. Apparently, the Angel Maker collected a lot of things and autographed a lot. But there were not many online buyers or sellers - however, the main distributor of the things was a guard at the prison. BUT unfortunately when Prentiss and Morgan enter his home to confront him about this, they find him shot dead on his bed. He has recently died. Shot in the head and in the groin - so this was a personal killing. Given the Viagra and the heavy cologne, they realize the unsub is a woman.
Now we get the profile:
This is a killer who lives in the area, and is a woman
Her last victim was Sid Rutledge - he was the Angel Maker’s mule - smuggling items out of the prison, included the semen that was planted at the first crime scene
She killed Rutledge because he knew she was the copycat, and because he was blackmailing her
Apparently Rutledge had been transferred from a female prison because he was basically being a sexual predator there - he was using his positon to leverage sexual favors from inmates. And he was likely doing the same thing to the unsub - asking for sexual favors in exchange for his silence
Our unsub is a white woman in her 30s
She is highly intelligent
She’s not just a fan - she’s a groupie
She’s not what you would expect - she’s attractive and well educated; successful and maybe be even married
Often they fall into types - reformers - on a mission to save or rescue these murderers
This kind of groupie is often raised in a repressive religious environment and specifically have been exposed to the ideals of sexual repression and subjugation of women
Our unsub is different - one who suffers from hybristophilia - sexual attraction to men who commit crimes
These men give her the power she does not have due to low self esteem, as well as the need for a father figure
Additionally, she is using an instrument to simulate the sexual assault
She keeps this instrument in her rape kit, along with the weapon she is using to bludgeon her victims
JJ provides everyone with a list of women who have written to the unsub while in jail.
Rossi and JJ visit a woman who was the Angel Maker’s biggest fan. She says that she was not a fan - they were in a relationship, although they did not have conjugal visits. They ask about where she was on the date of the murder, but this woman was out of town. She also says that there were no others - but this woman claims that all the other women who were fans were not the same. They try to make this woman jealous by saying there is another who is killing and reinforcing their love. This woman shares that she once received a woman that was addressed to “my dove”. She also says the contents of this letter were not the same language as she normally got - these were crude. She burnt the letter though, so they cannot see it.
Now we see a woman with a dove tattoo on the back of her neck committing another murder. Opening the windows and then using a paper stencil to stab the woman in the stomach with a screwdriver.
The next morning the BAU visits the crime scene. This woman ran a day care and had been living in the town for a while. They prepare to compare the victimology between these two women. It was the exact same set up and mutilation, but the puncture marks on her stomach are different than the other woman. Prentis realizes that the unsub used a stencil template to do the stabbing.
Reid is checking the letters/correspondence between the angel maker and the unsub. Reid and Rossi realizes that he was using a code. They realize that this is challenging because the victimology between the copy cat and the angel maker chose their victims differently. The angel maker chose them because he was sexually attracted to them, whereas this copy cat is killing them based off of violence. They realize that the two women who have been killed by the copy cat both worked out of their homes.
That night. Prentis and Morgan look at the stars and Prentis realizes that the punctures marks are constellations. He was following a group of constellations called The Heavenly Waters - and that is why he’d open the windows after the kill, so their souls can be released into the sky. There were 9 constellations in the set, and the copy cat is finishing it off - there is only 1 left in order to complete the set.
Reid realizes that they were in love, from studying the letters. There was a specific syphon that they used to communicate via letters. They don’t have the complete correspondence, but it started shortly after he was sentenced. Its a love story! In the letters, The Dove uses “us” a lot - they speculate that she may have been pregnant.
Apparently, Shara - the woman who was the number one fan - attacked someone to be closer to Angel Maker. Garcia looks up online to try to see if they can find who the baby/mother would be. Garcia finds a small list of names of who the momma could be. The name Chloe Kelcher is on the list and familiar to the police officer - Reid realizes that she was on the jury for the trial. Additionally, her baby died at the hospital. The BAU breaks into her home, but she is not home. They scour her home, trying to figure out who her next victim would be. They find a photo shopped photo of her and the angel maker. And in the home is a nursery. There are stars on the ceiling, and it is set up as if she is still expecting a baby. In the nursery is a huge trunk, and on the inside is the Angel Maker’s stolen corpse. In a planner they find that Chloe has targeted a local CPA - and she works out of her home.
They go to the CPA’s home - Faye. they suspect Chloe is there and armed. Faye is sleeping in her be, and we see Chloe approach her quietly and pull a hammer out of her bag. The BAU tries to distract her while Morgan sneaks into the home. Prentis speaks through a megaphone, and yells out to her. This wakes up Faye and Chloe duct tapes Faye. Prentis tries to antagonize Chloe - Reid id writing what she should say from the letters - telling Chloe how she wasn’t important.
Chloe ends up walking to the front of the house - but she has a gun in her hand. Morgan has made it into the home. Morgan unties Faye and, and he gets her to leave the house through a window. Chloe realizes that her victim has escaped and screams - she starts to lose it. She also starts to throw shit around the house - this isn’t your property!! The local officer is saying maybe she’ll just take herself out now, but Hotch insists that she wont - saying she “isn’t done”.
Now we see Chloe leave the house - holding her gun still. She keeps walking closer and wont drop it even though they say she’s gotta. She then says “I’m coming to you baby” points the gun at the team, and the local officer shoots her. Hotch has ear trouble. And they pull up Chloe’s shirt - seeing that she has punctured herself, making herself the Dove. completing his work.
Now the team is getting ready to leave - Hotch tells the rest of the team he wont be flying through - because of his ear!! Rossi tells him to look at the scenery - maybe stretch his ride home out a little longer.
Rating Criteria
Criminal/Serial Killer: 15/20
Character development/ character arcs: 12/20
Forensics/Context: 19/20
Script writing: 17/20
Background characters: 12/20
Overall: 75/100