S6E10 - “What Happens At Home…”
It opens at night. We get a slow pan up over a wall and a spider is crawling on it. Yeah now is a good time to nope outta here. We see a woman sitting at her laptop, and she is kind of menacingly writing and drinking? Maybe im reading into it. She is typing a document, but we cant see what it is she is writing. We see photographs on her desk. She keeps looking outside the window, and it appears she sees something, as she gets up to look out the window, someone comes up behind her and strangles her.
We immediately cut to the BAU and Hotch is telling the team that three women (all blonde) have been killed inside their homes in a gated community in New Mexico. The first two women were strangled while family members were out of town, but in this most recent case – Aubrey Jacobs was her name – she was strangled while the rest of her family was asleep. Big yikes! So this is about as high risk as you can get!
Because it is a gated community, there is a small security staff – and 24/7 camera surveillance, and according to that surveillance, no one has been seen entering or leaving the community except for residents of the community. So the unsub must be a member of this community. So Hotch is saying that given that this community makeup is pretty much identical, they will have to use a different set of parameters – something Rossi is already working on, apparently.
We cut and we see a guy lying on the ground. We see a bunch of cadets in training. Rossi is watching as they train, and he spots a blonde-haired woman he seems interested in. Turns out she had recently had a concussion, and she is running the course in her free time when she’s not assigned to other duties. Rossi says he wants to show her something, and she asks if it is because of her impressive scores or her “childhood” – oo intrigue!
Rossi brings her to where the rest of the BAU is, and it seems as if Hotch has also met her before. They think she can likely help on the case, but they are not detailing her to the unit, which she is upset about. She says she would not be able to help without seeing the families, etc. we learn in this conversation that her father murdered 25 women while she was a teenager, so despite Rossi and Hotch being concerned this may trigger her.
Garcia is still helping in the same capacity JJ did, but she also informs Hotch and Rossi that she is currently running background checks on all the men in this gated community.
Turns out, Hotch and Rossi are trying to figure out how to introduce the rest of the team to Ashley, given her history. Turns out Reid has also been remediated into the team. Love a little Reid backstory. Ashley realizes Hotch and Rossi didn’t tell the team who she is, so she comes clean and tells them that her dad was Charles Boshap – the Redmund Ripper. Killed 25 women over 10 years in North Dakota, and both Hotch and Rossi caught him.
In New Mexico, the team meets security chief Harvey Brinkman. We also meet Detective Felix Ruiz. They realize it is a very not - mind your own business community. Detective Ruiz shows them the evidence boards, and wow he has the crunchiest voice I have ever heard. We also learn that he also lives in the community. Ruiz has created a cursory profile – apparently, he took an FBI Seminar on Serial Crime in Albuquerque – twice!
He tells them his cursory profile:
He’s organized
Took everything to the scene and left nothing behind
He lives with a spouse or partner
Has a steady skilled job
Physically presents himself as non-threatening but craves power and control – may have a job or activity that gives him that
Ruiz is like, unfortunately, I just described 64 of the 71 men that live in this subdivision.
Garcia is on the phone with Reid, and she asks how things are going with Ashley. And Garcia is like – omg Reid you think she is pretty! Security Chief Brinkman asks Reid who he was on the phone with, and he’s like, our technical analyst ran background checks on the men, and the detective/cop is like, we could have handled that, to which Reid explains that the BAU has more sophisticated ways, etc. Brinkman goes- how do you know yours is more detailed than ours if you didn’t look – Reid is like, my brother in christ this is not personal. And the Brinkman is like – you could’ve asked. The girls are fighting! Reid is like, next time we will. Reid walks away and joins Rossi and Ashely and is like has anyone vetted them (meaning Ruiz and Brinkman).
Hotch is watching footage of all the men in the community being interviewed – Ruiz got real into it – confronting them and all. Hotch gently calls him out on this, and it is pretty much confirmed they didn’t get much information from any of the men – and that is the why and how Ruiz realized they needed the BAU to help with this case.
Back at Aubree’s home, Prentiss is there getting into a heated conversation with Aubree’s husband. They learn that the unsub likely came through the garage – because the electronic locks only have 5 unique codes! Holy shit! Her husband is very upset about this. He said they usually made sure that all the inside doors were locked, but somehow.
Ruiz pulls Hotch aside because he wants to show him an interview with one of the guys. There is a guy named Frank who runs the neighborhood watch. But the team is in the process of setting up a community meeting because they want to watch body language in a group setting.
At Aubree’s home, Morgan sees that she had been writing a story when she was killed. Morgan sets up the computer and stuff with Garcia so she can read what she had been writing. Garcia also looks into if anyone had a background in tech – especially given the remote garage opener.
At the church for the community meeting, Morgan and Prentis inform the rest of the team about what they learned.
Meanwhile- we see a shot of a woman making tea in her kitchen. We get POV shots of someone looking in through the kitchen windows.
Hotch is talking at the meeting and asking the community if they may have seen something without realizing it. Ashley is talking to Morgan and Prentis, and she says how the kids of a murderer/serial killer would not necessarily be afraid of them. She says her father did have a temper, but it rarely came out, and when it did it was an anomaly. In fact, her father was kind of the opposite of that entirely – he was overly solicitous. And if she wanted anything – all she had to do was ask. In groups, he always held her hand, and she can never remember him putting her on his lap or holding her. He’d always have talks with her because he was afraid someone would take her. She sees a dog in the audience, and that was the one thing in her life she always wanted but never got.
We see the woman alone in her kitchen – there is a sign on the fridge saying that the other person who lives there is at the meeting. We now see the unsub dressed in black and wearing black gloves using a little remote to open the garage door. Uh oh. Then he takes out a knife once instead of the garage. Back in the kitchen, the woman is strangled while the tea boils and screams.
After the meeting, the team regroups and Prentis says that they are gonna start by cross-referencing the families that didn’t show up with those that do not have any pets. Reid informs them that 18 did not show up, and they are going to share those names with Garcia. Also, both the security chief and Ruiz did not show up to the meeting. We learn that there has been another murder.
Ashley and Prentis are back at the headquarters (a model home) and going through files. The security chief startles them when he comes in and asks about the meeting. He literally tells them to relax, and Prentis is like, we missed you there. Because it’s SUS he wasn’t there! He says he thought it was a good time to do a sweep. Ashley tells him that they’re looking for families that don’t have pets, and he’s like…the reports aren’t going to tell you that – but I can. And he invites them to go to the security office with him. Prentis leaves with him, and Ashley notices some keys left on the table.
Reid remarks how killing two nights in a row is a major escalation, and how they are going to have to restart and go through the entire list of male members of the community.
We cut to Prentis and Security Chief Brinkman in his office. Brinkman is very relaxed and lackadaisically being like “okay…pets, poets pets…” and going through files. Prentis is like “maybe I should take a look” and he tells her to relax again, and is like “What’s the hurry” and she’s like “cause we’re trying to catch a killer.” He finds the file, and as she starts to leave, he’s like “wait” and starts asking her what the background check process is like. He says he was arrested once but it was a misunderstanding. Prentis goes: “Oh, well, if it was a misunderstanding.” Brinkman goes: “Really?” And Prentis goes: “HELL NO!”
We see Ashley bring Aubree’s laptop back – which she doesn’t have permission to do. She then tells the husband that the unsub probably has a family and they would like to apologize and do anything or things to be different. And she apologizes for them – which feels out of line, but I guess is a nice notion. He invites her in, and she says no, but then he suggests it again because his daughter (Heather) will feel safer.
Reid pulls up the files of everyone who lives there. But they are missing four – Ruiz had pulled his own file and the files of the spouses of the deceased victims – Ruiz had pulled them because he did not realize they should be investigated too.
Now we see Ashley at the home of Aubree and Drew Jacobs. She goes into Heather’s room and talks to the daughter. After talking to Heather, Ashley gets up to leave. Drew Jacobs comes in and stops her from leaving. He asks her how she knows so much about the unsubs family.
We learn through Garcia that Drew has had a couple of arrests in his past for assault, uh oh! And apparently, Aubree – the writer – was fairly unhappy in the marriage because he was distant. And Ruiz was like, yeah he’d be out walking alone at night. Omg Ruiz. Ruiz even says that apparently prior to Aubree being killed he was his top suspect. Why didn’t you say something before? Drew has a background in IT!
Back with Ashley, she tells Drew about how the BAU studies the family dynamics of killers. But Drew isn’t buying it. He keeps asking Ashley how she knows that the killer’s family would be sorry. Hotch calls Ashley and she answers – despite Drew’s protestations, she is SMART and sticks to very “yes sir, no sir” kind of answers, signaling to the team she is in trouble but not alarming Drew. she is able to sneak in that she is helping keep Heather Jacobs calm, and she also positions herself physically closer to Heather.
The team is on their way, but Drew draws a knife and attacks Ashley. Heather just sits and watches like the useless kid she is. Ashley begs Drew to not Heather watch; Heather leaves, and Ashley tells him who her father was. Heather walks back in and is like daddy please! The BAU is there, they rush and surround the house. They swam in. Drew lunges at Hotch, and Hotch shoots him.
Rossi takes Heather away, and Ashley watches, it’s sort of a flashback to when Rossi took her away when she was younger and her father was arrested.
On the BAU jet the team is all morose. And Hotch lectures Ashley on how she wasn’t supposed to go off on her own. Rossi is like why you’re smarter than that. And she goes on about how she needed to apologize to a family who was hurt. Hotch is like you put everyone at risk. And she’s like, I won't do it again, and he’s like yeah girl you won't. Rossi asks her what else is on her mind. And she says the dog. She talks about how she found a dog on her way back from school when she was like 7, and when she got home she gave her dad the dog, while she got the milk, and he was in the bathroom – so basically he killed the dog and when she cried she could've sworn he was having fun/smiling.
She also says how she doesn’t hate her dad, even though she tries. Rossi talks about how he is still her dad, and how even if she doesn’t have him she feels like he is winning.
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 17/20
Character development/ character arcs: 20/20
Forensics/Context: 20/20
Script writing: 20/20
Background characters: 20/20
Overall: 97/100