S5E4 - “Hopeless”
Okay so the episode opens with guys lounging on the couch, and one of them is shirtless – as men do. There’s some nice misogyny and telling one another to shut up, etc. finally they are all seated and they turn on the TV. It cuts and we see that it looks like its actually a home video they took of them murdering someone, and now they’re just having a cute little viewing party. Unsubs do be streaming. This feels like the pre-curser to Spree. We watch through them streaming as they brutally beat a man, emotionally torture the spouses, and we assume they all die.
Cut to JJ receiving the call about this case, and she informs the team of the home invasion and murder that took place. We learn that it happened in South East DC and it was all done by blunt-force trauma – no guns, no knives. We learn that there has also been a lot of vandalism in the area, so although it may not be directly related it is something to look into. Morgan also points out that there is a lot of anger in that area given that there is a lot of gentrification going on. We learn that both of these two couples that were murdered were both wealthy, and nothing was stolen from the house. Additionally, one of the couples was white while the other was black, so it wasn’t racially motivated either. The BAU is worried this might not be the first murder that has been done, because vandalism into four murders is one hell of an escalation.
Now at the crime scene the BAU meets with Detective Andrews. He tells them one of the victim was attacked while getting out of the car, so they probably used his key to get inside. Inside the apartment/hosue?/apartment? The team seems pretty disturbed by the state of the bodies.
Somehow no neighbors or patrol cars (that have been increased in the area) saw nothing! Hotch notices that the blood from the attack outside only dripped blood on the way up to the door despite it pooling by the car, which Hotch suspects means he was carried into the home – and that means there was probably more than one Unsub given the victims size/height, etc. The team correctly deduces that the wives were inside eating at the time of the Unsubs arrival, and to subdue all the victims, it was probably 3-4 in total. Pack mentality. Additionally, they know what they are doing.
Morgan still believes this is an insane kind of escalation, going from vandalism into 4 murders with nothing in between? Back at the BAU (the case is local) JJ presents the team with some data/photos of different more petty crimes – vandalism, etc. boutiques, restaurants, renovated townhome. Public property to a private residence, but no murder. Additionally, these were all “wealthy” things/places that were attached. Additionally, how do they not all stand out? Three men, with an incredible amount of rage? How do they hide that.
So now we see one of the Unsubs at work – it looks like he works in construction; we see him getting verbally berated by a “rich” dude saying “Turner, you care to tell the lady why its October 14th and she’s still not ready to move into her house?”. He is like “not particularly” and physically intimidates the lady. It gets tense but simmers down. So there it is!
Back at the BAU, the victims’ families arrive. Rossi and Prentis and JJ talk to the families, but we don’t learn anything super valuable. Now we see the Unsubs watching video edits. Classic early Youtube. It looks like he is editing the footage of their crime videos and making it look “wicked”. With music and everything. However, Turner, is not as into it and doesn’t pay attention. Instead, he is in his mind palace thinking about murdering the guy and lady from earlier in the day.
Now we see the Unsubs enter a convenience store, and they have intense alpha male energy as they walk in. they up to nothing good! They intimidate the sales clerk – who i might add is not white – and he thinks they are shop lifting. But nah, they swarm him a bit, and then put some beers on the counter. I think they just get the beer and leave without hurting him, cause next we see them roll up in a car and see a lady leaving a building??? Its like a dark abandoned parking lot and there is another guy waiting in a car for her, but they get out and start bothering him, all intimidating and stuff. Then they start breaking the car windows and snatch the girlfriend.
Cut and the next day we see that the boyfriend and girlfriend have been murdered and their bodies left in the parking lot where they were killed. So the unsubs are getting bolder – kills in public. And it is definitely not anything about class, given that this is super blue-collar; waitress and boyfriend. Detective Andrews is starting to lose his cool a bit and Hotch has to talk him down.
Back at the BAU, Garcia tells Morgan he has company – its the sister of one of the originally murdered couples. She and Morgan had a moment when he was interviewing her, but now she is back cause she wants more information. She heard about the murder of the other two and wants to hear the profile. So Morgan tells her
PROFILE
Basically, these men are disenfranchised. They feel like they have nothing to live for.
They are looking for anyone or anything to blame
There is a lot of anger out there, times are tough, but even so these men will stand out.
They’ll look to provoke confrontation; any excuse and they will take it
They don’t steal from their victims, they aren’t sexually assaulting the women
This is about violence for the sake of violence
What the BAU needs to do is figure out how these men came together
They must have some connection to South East DC
They go unnoticed; they don’t seem out of place
There are no prints from the crime scene, so they probably wear gloves
Despite a large amount of the population of South East DC being black, if these unsubs work in the area, they could be any race
Because of the physical nature of the murders, and the control they have over the victims, they are either large or extremely physically fit
They have a pack mentality
So canvass the local bars and restaurants and see if there is a group of men that fit that description
They will be obsessed with the media coverage, any chance to relieve their crimes will be something they are into – so there is also a decent chance that they’ll revisit their crime scenes
They most likely come from troubled backgrounds, broken homes, youth detention centers, they probably bonded over their anger, and now it is like they became one person; it is their whole identity
These guys think of themselves as some type of gangsters, like societies rules don’t apply to them.
They equate violence with power and respect, and that goes for self respect as well.
They only feel alive when creating fear and violence
Hotch speaks with Detective Andrews and Hotch finally apologizes to Detective Andrews for being kind of harsh on him earlier.
Garcia goes online and sees a post about there being a “riot in DuPont”. She alerts Hotch, and explains how there is going be a riot that vandalizes cars and restaurants in Dupount. However, this isn’t in the normal “comfort zone” of the unsubs. So the cops when to arrest all the people doing this, but it turned into a whole mess when the police arrived and the civilians started resisting arrest.
Hotch tells him to take the cellphones so that they can figure out who the ringleaders are. Back at the station they were able to get a couple phones, however, Detective Andrews is pissed now because he thinks the BAU was wasting his teams time, telling them to canvass bars etc, looking for adults, when there are “kids” (teenagers) participating in this riot in DuPont. He also does not believe that the Unsubs are not involved in the riot. Hotch starts getting snippy with Andrews again, because he had warned the police that things could get emotional. Andrews basically kicks out the BAU – fires them. Ms. Barnes, the sister of the victim, comes in and starts a scene. Morgan tries to calm her down, but it doesn’t really work.
When they get outside, Hotch basically tells them that they aren’t gonna be fired, and they have to stay on the case because otherwise the Unsubs are gonna react to the violence of the riot and things will get ugly even faster. Morgan and Ms. Barnes continue having a moment. She continues to ask him about the case, and I feel like this isn’t proper? Is he allowed to do this? He drove her home?? Bro are we gonna kiss right now? He tells her he thinks these guys are gonna pull a suicide by cop.
Now we see the Unsubs working on a house. One of them shows the paper covering the riots to the others; they are not happy. They walk out on their job.
The BAU knows what is gonna happen – they are gonna violently react to the news of the riot, so they head to South East DC, nd just have to wait. We see the Unsubs roll into a sleepy kind of bar, with a sweet older bartender. They order three drafts, and one of the unsubs just slams his nail gun onto the counter. The bartender is like, I’m sorry fella, you cannot have that in here, so which he is just like “What?”. He tells them its a liability issue, in case someone gets hurt. He says no problem, then gets up and locks the door to the bar.
We cut and now we see Garcia doing what I was thinking – she tells Morgan she thinks he needs to cut contact with Tamara Barnes. She tells him that he needs to stop because of ethics, but also if he was to testify on this case, the whole thing would unravel if they found out he was involved with a member of a victims family. Morgan tells her she is out of bounds, and they go back and forth on this. I’m with Garcia. This is interrupted when JJ tells them that two have been found dead at a bar.
The BAU shows up, and Andrews is like, what are you doing here? So the Bartender was nailed to the bar. However, they didn’t beat the nails in, this is slightly less violent than the other ones? They realize that these unsubs must be construction workers. Morgan brings up that maybe the family of four wasn’t their first murder – the townhome that had been vandalized – maybe there was a murder there too? Prentis calls Garcia to get the address of the vandalized townhome.
The BAU rolls up to the home, and the couple who lives there lets them in. they also mention that they believe there could be a body buried on the property. They ask about whether or not any of the people they had been working on the house acted weird, confrontational, etc. they find out that the original contractor they had been working with didn’t get back in touch with them. They also learn that the nursery was the only room that wasn’t vandalized. Morgan finds a wall in the nursery, a nd is like, please, you need to let me open it. They call in the SCSI unit, and they pull the wall apart, and yep, there is a body in the wall! Morgan talks about builders and time capsules. Time capsules!
Morgan calls Garcia and has her pull up the information of the contractors and workers who worked on the house. She finds the address of the unsubs – who yes, all live together. However, only one of them is home – we see Turner in his car. Morgan doesn’t get to tackle the Unsub, instead he gets to have a dramatic speech and ask him what is so hard about his life. The other two Unsubs are hiding out in the unfinished home they were building. Hotch leaves to let Andrews finish the job, and we see the two Unsubs preparing to walk out and make it look as if they are holding guns (so they die).
And we end with a Shakespeare quote!
The team has a drink together, and Garcia was right in knowing that Morgan was gonna run to Tamara Barnes the minute this was over.
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 20/20
Character development/ character arcs: 20/20
Forensics/Context: 10/20
Script writing: 15/20
Background characters: 20/20
Overall: 85/100