Riding the Lightning Episode Recap

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Synopsis

After interviewing a married couple sitting on death row for serial murder, Gideon suspects the woman is actually innocent. But since she's set to be executed in two days, it's a race against time to prove it.

Full Recap

Gideon and the team investigate the case of a husband and wife serial killer team.
The wife and husband team are Jacob and Sarah Jean Dawes. Both are scheduled to be executed within 35 hrs. Jean has confessed to the murder of her son Reilly. Gideon and the team are brought in because several other victims mostly girls and women have not been identified. Thus, Gideon and the team hope to solve the cases either with or without the killers help. Elle, Morgan, and Dr. Reid investigate the home of for clues.
They find a storage shed that Jacob used to torture his victims. They then to talk with Sarah, Jean’s mom, hoping to get an overview of how family life was. Mrs. Mason sheds light on Jacob and Sarah Jean saying that he was a control freak and an abusive husband.
Gideon talks to the Warden of the prison, Charles Diehl, who offers little clues. Now meeting Sarah Jean for the first time, Gideon sees she is a very intelligent woman with stuff like hand paintings in her cell.
Hotchner takes the task of interviewing the crazed Mr. Jacob who stalls and plays games during the interrogation. Jacob by his own admission is a diagnosed sexual psychopath.
A breakthrough is made in the case when Elle finds a letter from Jean to her mother that reads “a statement of innocent”. It seems that Sarah Jean did not murder her son. The team must now find evidence to clear Sarah Jean of all wrongdoing before she is executed. Jean does not help matters by continually admitting she is just as guilty as her husband is because she knew he was committing murders. The team doesn’t buy her story and thinks she is admitting for guilt of what has happened to the other victims
Dr. Reid starts giving a deeper profile of the case, since Jacob is a diagnosed psychopath; it would be a fair conclusion that Sarah Jean, regardless of whether she knew about the killings or not, was the unwilling participant. However, the appeals attorney wants actual evidence clearing Sarah Jean. Hotchner goes back to interview Jacob who still wants to play cards. Seeing as Jacob likes young girls, Hotchner brings in J.J to lure Jacob to play a game. If Hotchner wins, Jacob tells him everything. Meanwhile, Gideon puts more attention to Jean getting her to open up about Reilly and admit she’s innocent.
Hotchner wins but Jacob ends up given him the location of a 14th victim.
During the last hours, Jean continues to stall. Gideon comes up with the plan to have Jean out of her cell with the Warden so he can search for any info on Reilly. Buried inside one of Jean’s painting, Gideon finds a picture of Reilly.
Gideon has Garcia, Morgan and Hotchner track down any adoption agencies to see who would match Riley’s profile. Garcia hits pay dirt when she finds a current picture of Riley. Morgan and Elle head to the location of Riley’s adoptive parents.
Hotchner comes in to witness Jacob’s execution and throws it in his face that he didn’t kill Reilly. Jacob is executed knowing he didn’t kill his son because Jean hid him all this time. However, Jean still refuses to cooperate. When Morgan and Elle reach the adoptive parents house, Jean tells Gideon not to tell Reilly that his mom is alive. She tells him he’s better of not knowing who his real parents are. In her own words, she is protecting Reilly up to the very end, including the unnecessary execution of her life.
Gideon tells Morgan and Elle not to tell Reilly about his mom. In the last moments of the episode, Gideon visits Reilly, who is an expert musician, in a concert. Gideon cries in the end knowing that his kept this incident from the child.