We get a voiceover of Garcia doing her makeup in a dark room. She is wearing dark clothes, wearing a wig, and giving a dramatic monologue. She is an actress in a play!

Cut and we see a blonde woman all dolled up. She is crying, but there is someone with a light who is saying she looks perfect and beautiful. She says she cannot feel her hands, and we see she is tied to the chair she is sitting in. it looks like they are in an old and beautiful house. The man shows the woman an old black and white movie – this is giving freshman year of college where a film major shows you a shitty movie he made on iMovie. It looks like the man is making the woman recite the dialogue of the movie. And then another older woman walks out – she is also all dolled up in a similar old-fashioned costume. She is promising she can get the lines right and is begging, but he knocks her out using chloroform. Then he suffocates her in a car.

Now in the roundtable room, Garcia briefs the time on what happened. Kelly Landis went missing three days ago, and two days ago, the Georgetown monitor received “this” and while Garcia retrieves what they received, posters for her play fall out of her purse, and Hotch is like “is that you?” but Garcia blows past him like the Queen that she is. She was found in Georgetown in an ally, however, it is what they did to the body that is concerning. HER LIPS WERE REMOVED. The photo he sent, the posing, and the mutilation is very concerning and specific.

We get a Marilyn Monroe quote with the opening. We meet Detective Craw, who is the lead detective on this case. Apparently, he was planning on retiring in 2 days, and then this case happened. What a drag! After 33 years, and this is the first time he has had his name in print, and he is upset that it’s regarding the bizarre murder of Kelly. The team talks about how the photo going to the press was for the attention, to be the center of attention. Additionally, we learn that the photos weren’t just sent in, they were dropped off in person, however, no one saw who actually dropped it off.

The team talks about how they do not want this to get a lot of attention; the media naming the killer is going to be bad news, so no one else talks to the press. Additionally, the woman he killed likely represents someone to the unsub. Also- why did the unsub send the photos specifically to the Georgetown Monitor? Perhaps the unsub lives in the area and reads the Monitor.

Cut, and now we see the man and woman sitting and watching people. They are talking to a little girl and telling her how you can learn a lot about how people walk. They point out different people to the little girl. The MUSIC IS SO MUCH. He asks the little girl how she walks. The unsub watches the little girl walk, and another woman falls into pace with her walking behind her. He says “stunning” and she’s like “you think so?” and he’s like “No I think you’re an ugly little girl who has nothing to give to the world” and he WALKS AWAY!

At the morgue, Rossi and Reid learn that she was both dehydrated and starved, and she had clearly been restrained. Additionally, she was strangled, but not manually, and the mutilation of her lips happened after she died. Reid notices there is something in her throat. A piece of paper that has been stuffed down Kelly’s throat. It looks like it is old, in old courier, and it is typed. And chloroform was found in her air. Reid is like, this feels like a throwback to another century.

Morgan and Prentis arrive at the alleyway she had been dumped. They talk about how DC is definitely her comfort zone. Prentis also thinks the whole thing was very orchestrated. They also notice that someone is in the crime scene, hiding. Morgan and Prentis talk to the man they found; he is homeless and he says he lives on the ally, but he says there was no other homeless man here the night before – the one who allegedly found the body. Someone has written on the wall behind the homeless man’s camp. And those words are the same ones that were shoved down Kelly’s throat. Morgan and Prentis realize that the homeless man who “found” the body was actually the unsub and being homeless was a disguise.

Now we see the unsub – Rhett at a dinner table, and the white woman is dramatically begging him to read to her. Honestly, I am obsessed with all the candles and music. The aesthetic is top-notch. She is wearing one of those 5 times widowed robes.

Now we see the unsubs reading an article about the investigation. And now the Unsub is being told he is “weak just like his father”. Oh my god. She keeps telling him how his father is and was better than him. They are fighting, and the woman who was walking is there – and we find out that the other woman is his mother.

Garcia is realizing t that the paper they found in Kelly’s mouth is a script. And the script is from an older movie. Garia thinks this movie must be from the 50s – because of the makeup. Hotch tells her how she is being helpful, and he apologizes if he embarrassed her because of mentioning her play.

Now the team is with the rest of the police department, and hotch is talking about Penny Hanley. She is 19 and from Arlington, and she never made it to work or back home. She had been dropped off at union station, and her purse was found on a side street. They are guessing that the Monitor will get another photo today because of the three day pattern.

Now the profile

White male in his mid to late 40s, 6 feet tall, slim build.
A local, and a loner who is unemployed.
Older model vehicle, but well maintained because he is moving the victims around.
They think the page is a script, so kelly must have failed expectations
The removal of the lips is a sexual act
This is a borderline personality
Because of the theatricality of these crimes, they believe he works/worked around or in the arts.
3 days might represent a 3 act play, and she was killed 3 days after, so Penny might just have one day left.

Now we see Rhett preening Penny, plucking her brows, and doing her makeup. She is tried to the chair just like Kelly was. He shows Penny a mirror, and in the corners of the mirror, she sees photos of Kelly. Penny says she doesn’t wanna be famous, but Rhett is like “um yes everyone wants to be famous”

Back with the BAU, Prentis, Hotch, and Reid are in union station, trying to figure out how she was abducted. They meet with the security guard and look at the footage, and now they can see the interaction Rhett had with the little girl and when he clocked Penny. It turns out he had been sitting there for THREE HOURS, however, three hours exceeds all the parking meters, so maybe he doesn’t have a car? Hotch is like, yeah Garcia needs to look at this. Hotch believes that perhaps he has some kind of parking or residential permit. And Rossi is like – actually he probably lives in this area.

Now we see Rhett with Penny, and he is saying it is time to put the scene on its feet. However, the shoes he has don’t fit her. She suggests they do the scene barefoot instead, and it looks like she might have a plan. She asks what the scene means to him, and he says: “love”. They start doing the scene, and she is doing a pretty good job. Right as they start to lean in to kiss, she headbutts him, but the door is locked, so she can’t get out of the room, and he just chloroforms her. Next, she wakes up, and he cut her toes off so that they fit in the shoes.

So the BAU has blocked off the area of the neighborhood where it looks like he could possibly live. However, the zone that is in part of that neighborhood is, is disabled, which doesn’t really add up to this unsub. They know the unsub lives within a few blocks radius, but unfortunately, there are so many apartments and people living in that area, that going door to door would be impossible. Detective Craw comes in, and he shows another photo that was dropped off with the Monitor. The BAU has prevented it from being released thus far in the news, but Hotch wants to release it in a strategic way to draw the unsub out. He asks Garcia to host a press conference.

Back with Penny, we see her crawling on the floor trying to escape. Not having toes definitely makes that challenging. She gets the door open to one of the rooms, and she looks horrified, but we can’t see why. He is there and is like “Every great movie star has a walk, you’ll never have that”.

Back at the police station, Garcia is in a blonde wig and stage makeup, to look similar to the makeup the unsub uses on his victims. Garcia has never done a press conference before and is freaking out, and Hotch is all “why are you worried, you’re in a play”. This would be fine, but he says this in front of the rest of the team. Garcia gets pissed at him because (remember) he promised not to tell anyone. Regardless- Garcia is going on! Hotch tells her at one point during the conference Morgan is going to come to her and hand her a slip of paper, and he asks her to make a meal of reading what is written on it.

Rhett and Penny are watching the footage of the press conference. Everything is going well and Garcia looks great, but halfway through the conference, Penny’s father shows up and starts speaking to the cameras. He’s a single father and gives an impassioned plea for his daughter. Meanwhile, the BAU is freaking out, because this man has inadvertently upstaged their super secret mission. Garcia is given the green light to have her dramatic moment, and she announces to the press conference that the BAU has the unsub’s address. In reality, they don’t have the address, but Garcia tells people to limit their presence around the area where the unsub lives hoping to spook him.

And it works! Rhett takes Penny out to his car to strangle her. Meanwhile, the BAU is on foot scanning the area, looking for suspicious people or vehicles. We see Rhett with Penny, and he is getting ready to take her lips off and strangle her, but that is right as Hotch and Rossi drive by and turn down into the alley. Rhett runs off, but not after he is shot by Hotch. Penny goes to the hospital, and she asks Hotch to ride with her and it’s cute.

Now that the BAU has Rhett’s vehicle, they quickly deduce that the permit he had was a handicap permit, and that allowed him to park wherever. They discover that this permit belongs to his elderly mother, a woman named May Walden. She was a budding actress, who became pregnant on the set of a movie called Reflection of Desire. She had an affair with her costar (the baby daddy) and never acted again after having her baby. The BAU quickly deduces that the unsub is May’s son, Rhett.

The BAU surround the Walden residence, and Rhett and his mother get all dolled up for their movie premiere. As they exit, we get black-and-white shots of them attending a movie premiere, interspliced with shots showing that they are surrounded by police. May has been dead for years, and Rhett is carrying her decomposed skeleton. Kelly’s lips are on his mother’s skeletal ones so that Rhett can continue to kiss her.

Now back with Morgan and Garcia, he asks her about the play. She tells him a little about it but leaves enough for intrigue. The episode ends with the team coming and seeing Garcia’s show.

Rating Criteria:

Criminal/Serial Killer: 20/20

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

Overall: 100/100

S6E8 - “Reflection of Desire”

S6E9 - “Into The Woods”

S6E7 - “The Middle Man”