Stephanie Wilson is the latest of four extotic dancers abducted from the parking lots of the establishments in which they work. The first three women have already been found dead after being raped and beaten, their bodies dumped unceremoniously in the lush cornfields of Johnson County, Indiana. Based on the timeframe between the abductions and the killings, Hotch and the team profile that they have a very short time to find Stephanie before she too is killed as all the victims have been abducted on a Friday night and murdered on a Sunday.
Upon arrival at Johnson County, Hotch is met with a very hostile Sherriff named Jeff Slaters who makes it quite clear that he doesn't want the FBI involved, even if the state governor did request the assistance of the BAU. Hotch listens to his tirade about how 'women like that' (meaning exotic dancers and prostitutes) bring this kind of thing upon themselves and to his bluster about the case being a local matter and 'not a show'. Hotch puts him firmly in his place by saying "It's not a show. It is your case and you can watch from the outside." Good to see Hotch asserting his authority in a manner to which we have become aqccustomed. The Hotch of old, one might say.
Statistically, serial killers, for the most part, operate alone. Infrequently, they have a partner, one of whom is dominant, the other, much more submissive. When Morgan and Rossi, after viewing the dump site of the bodies, correctly assume that there has to be at least three unsubs, we enter the world of the 'pack' mentality, which is very rare in the culture of serial murder but, of course, not unknown. I found it interesting that we saw so much of the three unsubs throughout the episode. We were clearly able to see for ourselves what Hotch and the team could only surmise and that was well done. Kudos to Michael Grant Terry who did an excellent job playing the 'second in command', Chris. Also a fine performance from Jake Thomas as Scott and, as ever, terrific work by Robert Newman. Having said that, Grant Albrecht is capable of far better things than his thoroughly unconvincing performance as Mr. Wilson.
A nice light moment in the middle of all the horror when Reid was so clearly uncomfortable in the bar where the latestr victim worked and his hilarious statement that he didn't have a problem at all because 'I'm from Las Vegas', as though that explained it all!
It was extremely unprofessional of the agents to be discussing the case, the victims and the unsubs in front of the security chap/CCTV camera operator at the club. How did they know for certain that he wasn't in some way involved? They could have been spoon feeding information and theories to a killer. In reality, any agent who did this would be in serious trouble with their superiors.
As we did last week, we saw a lot more of Paget Brewster and she had a far larger role than she normally would. Is this because they will soon be greatly decreasing her screen time and so, they are giving us 'plenty of Emily' while she is still with the show? If this is the case, then it saddens me because she is a great asset and the lessening of her role, which we know is coming, is going to be difficult for fans, particularly those who are still smarting over the firing of A.J. Cook. It was, however, nice to see Garcia appearing more confident as she presented the case to the team at the beginning of the episode, (very different from her strong negative reactions last week) but we never did find out where she got the funding for the new technology. One assumes she either did or will have to square it with Hotch at some point.
Although I suspected some kind of a connection between the killers and the unpleasant Sherriff Salters, it was still a nice twist to find that his own son was one of the people he was hunting and that he was, in fact, 'The Middle Man'. The expression on Chris's face when his father shot him was superbly acted, it was like he was a helpless victim of ongoing physical abuse by his father once again and, as usual, he was powerless to stop it. I was very impressed with that scene.
Some good profiling work and excellent to see that the team can still perform as a cohesive unit and work through their profile even when they are split into pairs.
Certainly a very good episode and good to see such hard work going into the scripts and such laudable performances by several guest actors and regular cast. Fine television indeed.moreless
Episode Summary
EDIT
The BAU must catch a group of serial killers that is killing exotic dancers and leaving their bodies in the cornfields of Indiana.
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GUEST STAR
Cherilyn WilsonStephanie
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GUEST STAR
Robert NewmanSheriff Jeff Salters
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GUEST STAR
Steve TalleyMichael
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Thomas Gibson
Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner
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Joe Mantegna
Senior SSA David Rossi
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Matthew Gray Gubler
SSA Dr. Spencer Reid
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Shemar Moore
SSA Derek Morgan
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Paget Brewster
SSA Emily Prentiss
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Kirsten Vangsness
Analyst Penelope Garcia
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Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and Hotchner (Thoma...
© 2010 CBS Corporation -
Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), Prentiss (Pa...
© 2010 CBS Corporation -
Rossi (Joe Mantegna) on Criminal Minds f...
© 2010 CBS Corporation -
Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) on Criminal Min...
© 2010 CBS Corporation
Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions
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TRIVIA (2)
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Meredith Joy is played by internet personality iJustine (Justine Ezarik), who Rick Dunkle met at ComiCon this past summer. About two minutes into meeting her, he asked if he could kill her in a cornfield. Several months later, he did.
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This episode takes place in Johnson and Tippecanoe Counties, Indiana, where Rick Dunkle grew up. Meredith Joy is named after two writers assistants: Erica Meredith and Ticona Joy. Ernstrom College is named for a writers production assistant, Greg Ernstrom. Rick's traditional Franklin reference is seen on one of Garcia's screens when she locates the address of Michael Kosina.
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QUOTES (4)
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Hotchner: Garcia, do you have another angle?
Garcia: No luck, Head Hotch-o. The other one camera faces the door. -
Hotchner: (after Garcia distributes new iPads to the team) Garcia, not that I don't appreciate your efforts, but exactly where did the funding for these come from?
Garcia: I did a thing.
Hotchner: A thing?
Garcia: Best not talk about the thing.
Hotchner: We'll talk about the thing later. -
Hotchner: "The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need." Napoleon Bonaparte
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Hotchner: "Without heroes, we are all plain people and don't know how far we can go." Bernard Malamud
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NOTES (1)
ADD NOTES-
The song heard in this episode was "Heading East to Get West" by The Rockford Mules.
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ALLUSIONS (0)
ADD ALLUSIONS- ADD ALLUSIONS from this episode.
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Season 7 speculation and discussion (may contain spoilers)
3 days ago380
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General Discussion - Show News - Questions & Answers
05/23/12660
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Official discussion thread: "Profiling 101" - Spoilers
05/21/1212
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Official discussion thread: "Hit" and "Run" - Spoilers
05/21/1214
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Official discussion thread: "Divining Rod" - Spoilers
05/06/129
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'Middle Man'
10/31/10 (00:54)
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Hit
S 7 : Ep 23
Aired 5/16/12
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Profiling 101
S 7 : Ep 22
Aired 5/9/12
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Divining Rod
S 7 : Ep 21
Aired 5/2/12
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The Company
S 7 : Ep 20
Aired 4/11/12
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