First I want to say I am sorry it has taken this long to get this done but sometimes real life just gets in the way of my writing. As much as I would love to say I can handle all that I do, sometimes I need a little break. Despite the delay, I hope you enjoy this recap!
We start this episode with a woman in what appears to be her bedroom frantically looking for something and a little boy outside her door crying for her to open the door to him. The sound of this little boy’s voice is haunting – very urgent, yet old for his age. He has been through this before. You can tell. The woman, who we now know is his mother, locates what she is looking for: a pair of scissors. She holds them for a while, but hears her son and throws them. She’s obviously in distress and this little boy has done this before; he knows what she is doing on the other side of this door and he’s imagining the worst. She phones someone and then we cut to her dropping “Bobby” off on someone’s front lawn and driving off.
Someone is watching.
“What are you doing here,” Bobby asks as a van pulls up to where he is standing.
Now we are in a restaurant with Rossi and his ex-wife, Caroline. They chat about his eating habits, San Francisco, his love life, and how they should see each other more often. The music turns soft … is Rossi going to get back together with her? His phone rings. He has to leave, and she knows that some things never change. They make plans to have dinner and off he goes.
Hotch announces that they have a child abduction which happened 48 hours ago. Garcia adds that this is coming to them so late because the mom didn’t know he was gone; she assumed that he was with his grandmother. Reid tells us that in stranger abductions, the first 24 hours are critical and this kid has been missing twice that long.
Next, a man opens a bolted door with a sandwich in his hand and we see Bobby hop off of a bed. “When can I see my Mom?” Bobby asks. The man gets angry and drops the sandwich onto the table and says, “We’ll talk about your Mom later!” and heads off to work.
We’re on the plane now and Rossi is talking on the phone. Morgan and Prentiss tease him.
Garcia tells us that the mom has a history of erratic behaviour, depression and two suicide attempts in the last five years. Reid asks if she was being treated for her depression. Garcia says that this woman does more pill popping than Elvis and JJ reminds them that depression is one of the few things that can overwhelm maternal instinct. Reid wonders if maybe this is a runaway and not abduction since Bobby lives in a chronically unhappy household.
JJ and Hotch arrive at the police station and it’s decided that it would be best for JJ to speak to the mother. She tells her about her own boy, Henry, and then launches into what happened the morning that Mrs. Smith dropped Bobby off at his grandmother’s.
Reid gives us a lesson on the vicious circle of depression as he and Morgan tour Mrs. Smith’s home.
Back to JJ. Mrs. Smith says she went to pick him up when she felt better and was told he was not there. JJ understands Mrs. Smith’s bad days … Mrs. Smith shows JJ her wrists which have cut marks on them and explains that Bobby has seen her do that, and she needed to get him out of the house quickly. There was no time to leave messages at her mother’s when she didn’t answer the call.
Morgan and Reid find a picture in Bobby’s room and only four pairs of shoes in Mrs. Smith’s room. Mom denies herself any luxury yet her son has been to an expensive theme park and has a picture to remember the experience.
Now back to Bobby and what we now know is his abductor. The abductor hands him a box of 120 crayons, but Bobby asks to go home. Abductor says, “Buddy your mom is unhappy a lot. Do you want me to help you Mom?” Bobby nods his head.
Mom is not a suspect. Her concern for her son is genuine. She didn’t ask am I in trouble, am I under arrest, where’s my lawyer? Grandma’s alibi checks out too. We think it’s a stranger abduction, but the area Bobby was in has too much foot traffic for someone to not notice a struggle. Rossi thinks he new his abductor.
We cut between two scenes: Bobby drawing, and his mother leaving a drug store. She is approached by the abductor, and he tells her that he knows where her son is and can take her to him. Instead, he ties her up, strangles her, and then stabs her.
She is found the next morning. Reid tells us that she was “slaughtered by someone completely out of control, yet on her wrists there are precise wounds on top of where she already cut herself, only deeper”. Morgan thinks this was never about the kid; it was always about the mother. Make her suffer for a few days, then kill her. It means he knew her personal history.
Morgan calls Garcia and tells her to drop everything. She responds with her signature innuendo: “With pleasure. Let me tell you something – this is a Lamborghini you are talking to. You have to drive me, you can’t just leave me in the garage or I will wilt.” Morgan asks her to figure out who might have been in Mrs. Smith’s house in the past little while and to check the computers in the house. The police officer announces to Hotch that they’ve another child abduction, a four-year old boy taken from a park about an hour ago! Hotch sends in Morgan and Reid.
In this case, the mom was sitting on the bench and the child was playing. She looked away for two seconds and he was gone. Morgan asks was she by herself, and Reid asks why she drove her son an hour away from where they live to go to the park. She is jiggy and scratching … something isn’t right here. She explains that was shopping, and changes the subject, asking why the police are looking in the park if her son is gone. Reid asks Mrs. Tanner exactly what drug she is addicted to because he can see very obvious symptoms of withdrawal. She asks Reid if he is crazy and Morgan tells her he saw two deals go down on the other side of the park. They know that she was distracted because she was buying. She needs to tell them the truth.
Now we go to the abductor. He is speaking to Timmy, the second abducted child, about new PJs and sharing a room with Bobby. Timmy covers his ears and cries that he wants his mommy! This really angers the abductor. Bobby comforts Timmy as the abductor leaves.
Morgan tells Hotch (glorious Hotch!) that the mom was addicted to Oxy. So, there is one mom addicted and one mom suicidal. They load the body of Mrs. Smith into the coroner’s van as Hotch tells Morgan to put Mrs. Tanner into protective custody.
The abductor tells Bobby that Timmy’s mommy is weak like his, and Bobby asks when he can go home. The abductor tells Bobby he will be safe and happy when Bobby notices the knife covered in blood. Bobby asks where his mom is, and the abductor says he took her to a place where she’ll be happier. Bobby begins to cry, and the abductor asks if he thinks wolves are bad, then explains that wolves only kill the weak which thins out the pack so that the pack can be stronger. Oh now we know what he is doing, but who the hell is he? He tells Bobby that Timmy also wants him to make it better for his mommy and off he goes.
Hotch is now giving the profile: a white male, mid to late 20s, physically fit enough to subdue Marlene Smith and carry out a vicious attack. Rossi adds that they believe he sees himself as a rescuer, taking children away from unfit parents; he may have abandonment issues from his own childhood. Morgan tells us that the impulsive nature of committing the murder out in the open show he is inexperienced, then Reid adds that the violence against Marlene Smith went from precision to frenzy, which shows psychopathic traits – quick to rage and quick to recover.
Now the abductor is sneaking up to a house, as Prentiss tells us that he has insider knowledge into the families. The abductor shrinks into hiding when he sees that Mrs. Tanner is being guarded by a police officer. Reid says that emergency personnel were called to the Smith house after her suicide attempts and to the Tanner house after an overdose. Both kids went withthe abductor without a struggle, so they knew him. The violence is directed at the parents but they don’t know what the end game is.
The abductor returns home, and now he is VERY angry. Hotch tells us that they have deprived the abductor of his target which will increase his volatility; he may become violent toward the children. We see Timmy shouting that he wants his mommy. The abductor grabs him, and Bobby shouts, “Don’t hurt him!”
Following a scene where Timmy walks into a bar, we see the BAU speaking to his father. There’s no sign of any abuse on Timmy. JJ asks Timmy if he saw another boy. He says yes, and the boy’s name is Bobby. JJ proceeds to ask Timmy about the car ride and the place he was held, and Rossi asks why Timmy wasn’t afraid. Timmy tells Rossi that the man said he would come when he spoke to him on the phone, and that the man is a superhero. Timmy shows them the button on the phone where he speaks to abductor. Rossi pushes it and hears, “911 operator, please state your emergency.”
Switch to the abductor at work, and he gets a call from a girl saying her mother’s drunken boyfriend is trying to attack her and her mother won’t do anything about it. He leaves, and we see him next at the home of Shannon, the girl on the phone.
Prentiss gives Garcia that profile and Rossi tells her to trace 911 calls. Prentiss and Rossi talk about his breakfast with Caroline, his first wife, and Rossi thinks they could get their spark back.
Police are carting Shannon’s mother’s boyfriend off while the abductor is watching. Garcia tells the team that out of eleven 911 operators who were on duty when the calls came in, only one was off duty when the abductions and murder happened – George Kellen. We see a picture of the abductor. He was at work today but left early, and his last call was a domestic dispute. They rush to the address.
George knocks on the door of Shannon’s home and enters the house. OMG! Rossi and Prentiss are at George’s, but there are no kids there. Hotch and Morgan are at Shannon’s house, the door is open and the lights are on, but the unsub has beaten them there.
Now Shannon’s mom is tied up, and Bobby un-gags her. George is speaking to Shannon and says he is helping her, that the problem is not her mom’s boyfriend, it’s her mom. Garcia learns more about George, and tells Hotch that the unsub entered the foster system when he was 11, and his father abandoned the family when he was a baby. She doesn’t know what happened to the mom. Hotch asks for the address of the foster home. He also tells Reid and JJ that George needs the approval of the children before he can kill the parent.
Bobby tells Shannon’s mom that George wants Shannon to tell him to kill her mom. If she doesn’t, then he will kill her because that means she is bad, too. As this is happening, Garcia discovers that George’s mother jumped off a bridge. Cut back to George, who confesses to Shannon that one day, he followed his mother on “one of her walks” and he watched her jump off a bridge. His mom wanted to die but she could not make herself do it up to that point. He says she was right to kill herself, though. He had never seen her as peaceful as when she was falling off that bridge. When her pain ended, his life changed. Now, it’s Shannon’s moment.
Hotch heads to the foster family’s farm. George’s foster father died the month before – this must be the trigger. Reid shares that it is abnormal for women to kill themselves in a violent way, such as to jump off a bridge. Move to George, who wants Shannon to shoot her mother. Shannon tells him she loves her mom, and her mother says that’s crap, that if she loved her, she wouldn’t have called 911. Shannon’s mother antagonizes her. Remember, if Shannon doesn’t agree with George, he will kill Shannon, too. Hotch pulls up at the farm. He and Morgan enter the room, and Hotch tells George that he thinks that George pushed his mother off the bridge. Hotch shoots George, JJ removes Bobby, and Shannon and her mom hug.
Rossi reads the closing quote: “All things true wicked start from an innocence.” – Ernest Hemingway.
Following the serious events of this episode, there is a funny interaction among JJ, Garcia, Prentiss and Spencer about women and shoes to lighten the mood before it gets dark again.
In the final scene, Rossi is having dinner with Caroline. They chat and she is drinking wine, for fortification she tells him. Rossi muses that who would have thought they would find themselves on a date again after all these years. Caroline asks him if he remembers pledging to her during their divorce that they would always be there for each other, no matter what. He asks her what it going on, and she tells him that she has ALS – and that she wants him to help her die. Rossi cries. They hold hands. We watch the fire burn as it fades out.
Photo Courtesy of CTV
