Criminal Minds

On a dark suburban street in South Boston, Massachusetts, SSA Aaron Hotchner of the BAU pulls up in front of a small house and walks to the door. A nurse welcomes him inside, commenting that "he's been waiting," and that Hotchner is the only person he's been asking for. Hotchner seems confused by that statement as he only worked with the man on one case 10 years ago. The nurse advises Hotchner the man will probably not make it through the night.

Inside the small bedroom, Retired Det. Tom Shaunessy of the Boston Police Department struggles to stand, the clear tubing carrying oxygen from the heavy canister to his nose, his hand shaking on the handle of his cane. His eyes widen as the door opens and he sees Hotchner and he quickly thanks the agent for coming, his sincerity confusing Hotchner even more. Around the room are clippings of an eventful and colored career in law enforcement, including newspaper articles about one case in particular - one case where the Boston PD worked with a group of FBI profilers: the Reaper case.

And that's the case Shaunessy wants to discuss. He reminds Hotchner that he took the case away from the FBI and shut it down without an arrest. Hotchner remembers -remembers the bloody bodies of victims, slashed throats, horrific stab wounds. "The killings stopped and I sent you away," he whispers. He's going to tell Hotchner why. From a well-handled envelope, Shaunessy pulls out a letter and hands it to the agent. "A deal with the devil," Shaunessy pants through straining lungs. Hotchner unfolds the letter and reads a few typed lines: "If you stop hunting me, I will stop hunting them. For as long as we both shall live. Til death do us part. If you agree to my terms, take out a personal ad in the Michigan Post." At the bottom of the letter a red scrawl depicts a rayed eye within a pyramid.

Hotchner raises his eyes to Shaunessy's, his gaze narrowed. This is a contract that both parties honored, Shaunessy admits. Furiously the retired detective tries to explain. They were not even close to catching the killer 10 years ago, and if the agreement didn't work he could easily have started the investigation again, but it did. The killings stopped and he waited six weeks before he sent the FBI away. When Hotchner quietly suggests the killer could have just gone somewhere else, Shaunessy becomes upset, frantic, telling the agent he kept careful watch and there were no crimes like these found anywhere. His eyes are bright, insisting that if he hadn't done this so many more people would have been killed. "Would all those live be worth it?" he chokes out. "We don't get to make those decisions," Hotchner quietly reminds him.

"You'll have to pay for my sin," Shaunessy deflates, realizing that Hotchner is right. He is about to die and then the contract with the Reaper will expire. He believes the Reaper has been watching him, waiting for the chance to kill again. "I did it to save lives," he sobs, and asks Hotchner to tell the families that he's sorry, that he had no choice. Watching the man's contorted face, Hotchner whispers, "I'll tell them you're sorry."

In Quantico, Virginia, Hotchner sits in his office at the BAU still in his street clothes and hangs up the phone. Analyst Penelope Garcia waits at the door until he is finished and then rushes in with a copy of the classified ads from the Michigan Post on March 7, 1998. She's highlighted an ad that reads: "I will stop hunting you if you stop hunting them. Til death do us part. - T.S." Hotchner shakes his head. Garcia is curious, and Hotchner mumbles just two words: "The Reaper." The analyst's face goes pale as she immediately recognizes the moniker, commenting she didn't know the BAU worked on the famous case of the Boston Reaper. Hotchner tells her it was his first case as lead profiler. Garcia frowns and asks for clarification: they do not have a profile of the Boston Reaper in their system. Hotchner lowered his gaze and tells his colleague to go home.

The next morning Tom Shaunessy sits on his bed and his hands shake as he tries to pour some whiskey into a tumbler, his eyes darting to the window, to his clippings, and back to the glass in his hand. Using both hands to bring the glass to his mouth he gulps down the liquor. He gasps, a flash of pain, a moment of shock, and he falls to the floor.

Hotchner's own office is not without reminders of his past cases and awards. He stands stiffly at his desk, phone to his ear, as the nurse tells him of Shaunessy's passing.

Night falls in Massachusetts, and Nine Hale and her boyfriend, Evan Harvey, driving along Rte 128, hear the distinctive sound of a flat tire. It's worse than he thinks - they have two flat tires, not just one. He gets out and begins working on the lug nuts of the rear tire as Nina calls AAA on her cell phone. Another car pulls up behind them, headlights almost blinding Evan where he crouches on the road. A man steps out of the vehicle, yelling through the window that, if it were them stranded on the side of the road, she'd want someone to stop and help. He offers the use of his spare if it will fit the car, suggesting the stranded motorist simply send him a check for it if it works. When Evan tells him they've called AAA, he begins to walk off, breath steaming in the cold night air, hands gloved against the chill, but the boyfriend calls him back and takes him up on his offer. The helpful man walks slowly back to his car, his empty car, no wife or girlfriend to speak to in the front seat- and takes a lug wrench from the back, pulling up his hood and lowering a strange mask over his face.

It is the change in his voice that alerts Evan that something is wrong and he looks up in time to see the heavy piece of metal flash in the darkness just before it connects with his head. Nina calls to him, phone still at her ear, and then turns to find the masked man standing at her window, gun to her head. She screams. The figure demands her watch and she hands it over, crying. He places the barrel of the gun against her forehead and she sobs, but he shushes her with one finger against her lips. Lowering the gun he tells her he isn't going to shoot her and she thanks him. "You're welcome," he replies as he raises a blade and slashes her across the throat. Evan is struggling to his knees, blood staining the left side of his face as the killer returns to him. Pointing the gun, the killer asks, "Are you scared? You should be," he advises before he pulls the trigger. Evan falls dead and the Reaper unfolds a pair of glasses and bends over his victim.

"Fate is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity." Roman author Publilius Syrus

JJ hurries into Hotchner's office with a file- he's asked her to keep track of any unusual Boston homicides and she's found one. He opens the folder to see the same strange drawing of an eye within a pyramid that was found painted on the side of a car at a murder site on Rte 128. He grabs up his files and his go-bag and tells JJ they are going to Boston. She follows him from the office, asking if they should wait for an invitation from the local police, but he merely states, "We will be." The rest of the team watches from the bullpen.

Aboard the jet, Hotchner moves nervously in the aisle, advising his team the Reaper needs to dominate and manipulate. Prentiss wonders why someone with these needs would offer a deal which would effectively shut him down. Hotchner suggests that, although the killing gave him power, the payoff would diminish over time so he decided to offer the deal. This gave him a power even greater than killing- he manipulated the police into surrendering. And now the only person who knew he won, knew he made the deal, had died. Rossi states narcissistic killers need other people to recognize their power. Picking up a book, Reid notes the author of "Night of the Reaper" theorizes the man stopped killing for 10 years because he had been jailed for a different offense, or had perhaps died. The killer may be trying to show everyone he had done neither. For the past ten years he'd been planning what to do when he could kill again.

Morgan recap the Reaper case: from 1995-1998 he shot, stabbed, or bludgeoned 21 victims - all ages, men and women, all types, with no particular victimology or MO. Hotchner admits they could not build a profile from the evidence, and Shaunessy sent them home before they could get more. He highlights the similarities between BTK, Zodiac, and the Reaper: they were all intelligent, disciplined killers who named themselves in the press. Reid disagrees. Since the Reaper and the Zodiac killer were never arrested, they don't really know their real stories. BTK was only arrested after 25 years of killings because he "came out of retirement" to counter claims made in a book that he had died or been caught - just like the Reaper seems to be doing. Hotchner advises JJ to go with a copycat story, to try to keep Shaunessy's letter away from the press. He tells Rossi, Prentiss and Morgan to go to the field office and begin going through all the Reaper files. He will take JJ and Reid to the crime scene.

Sgt. Michael O'Mara of the Boston PD meets the team at the crime scene, insistent that they are dealing with a copycat. Hotchner advises otherwise and shows the detective Shaunessy's letter. The detective immediately invites the BAU to consult on the case and tells him men to give them whatever they need. Reid checks out the file the police have already put together, detailing Nina's cut throat and 46 stab wounds and Evan's death from a bullet wound. Hotchner remembers the Reaper usually used a revolver- a .45 magnum, and the younger his female victim, the more time he'd spend with her using his knife. Reid notices a watch had been removed from the woman's wrist, and Hotchner is caught by the glasses that had been perched on Evan's face. As bystanders watch, he calls for the victim's wallet. He tells Reid the Reaper often took items from previous victims and placed them on his next victim to confirm it was really he who was responsible for the murders. Evan Harvey's drivers' license confirms he did not need corrective lenses. Hotchner remembers the Reaper took glasses from his ninth victim, and they were not found on the tenth. The ninth victim was the only one of the Reaper's victims to survive.

Back at the Boston conference room the agents discuss George Foyet, the ninth victim. His hospital photos show dozens of stab wounds on his body. His date for the evening was killed. The Reaper attacks victims in their cars on deserted roads. Foyet said the killer approached them pretending to be a lost tourist. After working with a sketch artist he came up with a drawing of a young man wearing a hood. Reid explains the eye drawing represents the "eye of providence," which can be found on the Great Seal of the US. Beneath the drawing are the Latin words, "Annuit Coeptis," which means that providence, or fate, has favored our undertakings. The Reaper sees himself as a personification of fate. The only reason Foyet survived was because the Reaper called 911 after each killing to advise police where they could pick up the bodies. Foyet was barely alive when found. The Reaper made no further calls after this victim was found alive. Hotchner believes the Reaper had left Foyet's glasses on his current victim for a reason - the man could be in danger.

JJ receives a call about a reporter waiting outside. His name is Roy Colson, and he says he knows Hotchner. The two meet on the street outside, Roy wondering why the BAU would be involved with a copycat killer. Colson doesn't buy Hotchner's story that they are only helping out - he is the one who wrote the book about the Boston Reaper, and wants the truth. "What's more important to you, Roy, getting the story or getting the killer," Hotchner asks. Roy is insulted. He spent time with the victims' families, got to know them. Hotchner relents and tells him the minute he has something he can say he'll call Colson. "If it's him it won't be long," Colson warns.

That night Arthur and Diane Lanessa, an older couple, are driving home when a motorcycle cop flashes his lights behind them. Arthur reluctantly pulls over and hands the uniformed man his information. The cop walks back to his bike, pulls of his helmet and walks back to the car. Arthur doesn't notice the change in the "policeman's" voice since he's donned his mask, but yells in anger and pain when the Reaper plunges a knife into his chest and tells him he is now going to kill the man's wife. Diane screams and frantically rolls up her window, hurling herself into the back seat. The Reaper shoots her.

Rossi and Hotchner investigate the scene. The blood from the couple's bodies has been used to paint the rayed eye on the hood of the car. Rossi notices the couple is much older than the Reaper's previous victims, and one has been shot and one stabbed. Hotchner notices the man's license and registration lying alongside the body and realizes the killer used a cop ruse to convince his victims to stop. Diane is wearing two watches- one is Nina Hale's- and the Reaper has taken the man's wedding ring. Sgt. O'Mara tells the agents the two were returning home from the Elks where they played bingo twice a week. Flashing his light to the passenger seat, Hotchner notices the killer went through Diane's purse. He flips the visor down and a family photo floats down to the seat. The word "Fate?" has been written on the photo in blood. Rossi notes the question mark is new, but Hotchner believes it is a clear message for the FBI that they had 10 years to save these victims from him. "You get all that from one question mark, that's impressive," Rossi taunts. Hotchner looks away but admits he knows this killer well. In fact, when the FBI was sent away the first time he did not stop developing the profile. Over the years he worked on it alone and never shared it with anyone. He was afraid to share it, afraid that, if he was wrong, he'd head the investigation in the wrong direction. Now, with all the additional evidence, he thinks he got it right after all.

To his team and the local police, Hotchner describes this type of killer as an "omnivore," one who doesn't target a specific victim type. The Reaper does tend to focus on his younger female victims; he is a predator who will choose anyone. His kills aren't just about his victims; they are about him and his need for recognition. They symbols, the items he takes and puts on subsequent victims, they are for the police. He does this because he craves power and the Shaunessy letter is a clear indication of this. "Tom Shaunessy was the Reaper's 22nd victim," Rossi explains. Like BTK, he is disciplined and inflexible, unable to keep relationships.

The focus on the younger female victims is important, especially as now seen by the killer's treatment of an older woman- he killed her with a single shot. On the younger women he uses a knife for bodily penetration, and spends much more time and effort. Rossi believes he is a hebephile - someone attracted to post-pubescent children. The team advises police to look at men in authority such as high school teachers, counselors, or coaches, or anyone charged with sex crimes against teen-aged girls in the last ten years.

Garcia calls to let the team know she can't find George Foyet - he has dropped off the grid. Nine months after he was released from the hospital he sold everything, quit his job, turned off his cell phone and credit cards. She advises the team that it is extremely difficult to erase yourself so completely. It's like killing yourself. "He would have to completely isolate himself. He's totally alone," Morgan says. As Prentiss wonders how it would be possible, Hotchner notices a copy of Roy Colson's book, "Night of the Reaper" on the desk. He pulls the reporter's card from his pocket and dials.

Sitting outside an apartment, Rossi asks Hotchner now Colson found Foyet's location, and Hotchner tells him the two kept in touch after Colson interviewed him for his book. Watching the street, they notice Foyet struggling along carrying bags of groceries and they hurry out of the car to approach him. Foyet, graying, worn, is not happy to meet the two agents. He looks around fearfully and insists they get off the street. He limpingly leads the agents to his apartment and goes to the kitchen, taking a pill from a prescription bottle in his pocket. Hotchner hands Foyet an evidence bag containing his glasses. Foyet just stares, finally taking the bag. He falls into a nearby chair, coughing. He pulls himself together and tells the agents he was going to propose to his date that night, but got cold feet. The man who approached the car had a sight-seeing booklet and asked for directions. He was looking at it when the man stabbed him. Rossi tells him he doesn't have to go through it all again, but Foyet seems to be unable to stop himself. He remembers watching as the man killed his date, stabbing her 67 times.

Foyet is not surprised that the Reaper might have a special interest in him, that's why he hid himself away. He keeps residences under different names and moves among them randomly. Since the Reaper targets people in cars he takes the bus. Rossi asks for all of Foyet's names and addresses, and offers to take him into protective custody but he refuses. He writes down his information and then clutches Rossi's notebook to his chest- he wants the agent's promise that he'll be careful with his secrets. Rossi insists he will. "He's just a man, nothing more," Hotchner reminds him. "Then why can't you catch him?" Foyet demands.

Roy Colson is waiting outside the police department with a letter that had been dropped off at his office. It is the exact same letter that the Reaper sent to Tom Shaunessy all those years ago - an offer to stop killing if the BAU stops hunting him. Hotchner tells Colson that he is special to the killer; he wants Colson to know why he stopped. The Reaper probably read Colson's book thousands of times, believing the two have a connection and that Colson cares about him. If Colson writes a story revealing this the people of Boston will never trust the police again and the killer will win. Colson is hesitant: this story would make his career. Hotchner tells him that, if he waits, he will give Colson complete access to all of the files of the BAU- something that no reporter has ever been given before. Colson agrees, but wonders what if the BAU can't catch him?

Alone in his hotel room that night, Hotchner gets a phone call. A heavy sigh greets him, and then the voice of the Reaper. "If you stop hunting me I'll stop hunting them." Hotchner refuses, telling the Reaper that he thought he was smarter than this. He tells him he doesn't make deals, and that he is the one who does hunt killers like him. "You'll regret this," the Reaper breathes. "I'll see you soon," Hotchner promises. A dark figure drops a cell phone in the trash and get on a city bus. He stands next to the driver and points a gun at him, asking all of the passengers for their jewelry and wallets. He tells the driver to pull over and, with a gun in each hand, kills everyone on the bus.

Hotchner stands silently, looking down at the bodies as the rain dances on the bus windows, windows covered by words and numbers: "No Deal 1488 201 1439." Rossi walks up and down the bus, counting the seven bodies, the gunshot wounds, the knife wounds. The driver is wearing Arthur Lanessa's wedding ring. Rossi follows an upset Hotchner from the vehicle and around the corner. Hotchner tells Rossi about the phone call, about the offer of the deal. "I hung up on him and so he does this," he says. Rossi is skeptical. "So you think this is your fault?" Hotchner is close to tears, angry, exasperated, but Rossi has no compassion. He pulls out his gun and offers it to Hotchner, telling him if he really thinks he's responsible for killing these people he should just go ahead and shoot himself. Hotchner's guilt is eating at him, telling him he had ten years to do something about this killer. Rossi puts the blame where it belongs, on the killer. "Hey, I was retired! Should I blame myself for every victim that got killed while I was on a book tour? Look, if you want to end up like Shaunessy, like Gideon, blaming yourself for everything you go ahead, but that voice in your head is not your conscience, it's your ego. This isn't about us, Aaron, it's about the bad guys, that's why we profile them. It's their fault. We're just guys doing a job. And when we stop doing it someone else will. Trust me. I know."

Hotchner watches and listens and a small smile forms on his face. He shakes his head and tells Rossi to put his gun away - it's a bit over the top dramatic. Rossi agrees, admitting he always had a flair for the dramatic.

Colson is at the crime scene and Hotchner tells him to go ahead and run the story. He agrees, but he'll leave the Shaunessy deal out of it until the killer is caught. He tells Hotchner that Foyet called and wants to talk with him. "The Reaper's killing him too, only slower."

Back at the conference room, Rossi and Hotchner consult Reid about the numbers on the bus windows. It was the number seven bus, a bus that's route takes it past Foyet's apartment. Reid notices the 1439 on the bus corresponds with Foyet's apartment number. Rossi digs out his notebook. The other addresses also match the other numbers on the bus. The Reaper has found Foyet. The team splits up to cover each address. Morgan and Sgt. O'Mara rush into a small house, guns drawn. Morgan searches through the dark living room until a dark figure suddenly rushes out and slams the agent through a picture window. He stands over the unconscious agent, turning his face using the barrel of his revolver. Crouching next to him, he takes out his credentials and examines them. "Wake up, Derek, it's time to die," he says, cocking the hammer back.

A sheet-draped figure is wheeled towards the street on a gurney as Rossi and Hotchner walk slowly towards the house. Rossi grits his teeth and pulls back the sheet, forcing himself to take in the blood that stains the Reaper's victim. Hotchner closes his eyes and turns away. Rossi moves off to call JJ, to get her ready to make a statement. The EMTs advise Hotchner that he went quickly and pull the sheet back up to cover Sgt. O'Mara's dead face. Prentiss is inside the house where EMTs are pulling shards of glass from Morgan's shoulder. He holds up a bullet, telling his colleagues the killer left it for him after he stole his credentials. "Power and manipulation," Hotchner reminds him. Turning to Prentiss, Morgan has made a discovery: he's only alive because he was unconscious- the Reaper likes to interact with his victims, but he couldn't with Morgan so he let him live.

Reid is waiting for Hotchner in the kitchen. Blood coats the floor in layers. Since O'Mara was killed outside, this is from another victim. No body, just drag marks. Reid believes there is half a normal body's blood volume on the floor. The victim wouldn't have been able to survive. Foyet did not get away.

The agents regroup around the conference table. Hotchner wonders why the Reaper would be so fixated on Foyet - where was the power in going after him again? JJ wonders what the team knows about Foyet's girlfriend, Amanda Burke. She was 19, from Michigan, a freshman at the university where Foyet was a teacher's aide. It was a Michigan paper where the Reaper had Shaunessy post a personal ad. She had only been in the class four weeks, and yet Foyet told the team that he was going to propose. He was a 28-year-old teacher's assistant in freshman classes with plenty of access to young girls.

Hotchner calls Garcia and asks her to look up all of Foyet's aliases within the Boston Department of Education. Garcia finds that they were all working teaching computer science in high school until one of them was fired for alleged inappropriate conduct with a female student. Hotchner leaps to his feet, asking Garcia to locate Roy Colson's cell phone - he had been going to meet with Foyet. She finds him and the team rushes off.

Foyet lets Colson into his home, asking him to set up his laptop in the kitchen.

In the SUV, Hotchner and the team discuss the case, realizing that Foyet had killed Amanda, driven to the telephone and had called 911, and then had driven back and inflicted the stab wounds on himself, knowing the EMTs would arrive in time to save him. Of course they would never consider him as a suspect with the severity of his wounds. It put him at the core of the investigation.

Foyet tells Colson he's a bit angry at him. He slams a knife into the wooden table and Colson jumps up in alarm. Foyet demands to know why Colson didn't run with the story about the deal he made with Shaunessy. He takes the mask from a drawer and hurls it at the reporter and then pulls the gun from behind his back. Colson cowers in fear. "This can't be, this can't be," Colson mutters. Foyet demands that Colson sit down at the computer and "get it right." He wants him to retract his statements in his book that the Reaper was either dead or in jail. Colson sits at his computer and Foyet stands, weaving around the table, pointing his gun at the reporter, as the BAU agents quietly move into the house. Hotchner and Rossi move into view, pointing their weapons at Foyet who threatens to kill Colson. "You kill him, I kill you," Hotchner states. Hotchner knows Foyet is too narcissistic to die without seeing his name in print, without getting his proper recognition. The other agents move behind the killer, their guns trained on him as well until the Reaper is surrounded. Foyet reminds Hotchner it was because of him that a bus load of people died. "That was your choice," Hotchner disagrees, "You are the serial killer." Foyet turns around and greets Derek by name before putting down his gun. Morgan grabs him and demands his badge back, but Foyet merely murmurs that he's going to be more famous than they all realize.

"Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call destiny." John Hobbes

Morgan still fingers the bullet Foyet left with him aboard the BAU jet. Hotchner sits across from him and tells him they never found Derek's badge. They did find that the blood on the floor was Foyet's - four quarts worth - almost the entire blood volume of an adult. He'd clearly been saving up his blood for a long time, planning his death. Hotchner tells Morgan he's going to have to find a way to let it go.

Foyet is escorted to his prison cell. The BAU team leaves the elevator in Quantico. Foyet fingers the metal edge of his cot. The BAU team members head towards their desks. Foyet uses the metal edge of his cot to slice into his wrist and sinks down to suck down the blood. JJ walks into Hotchner's office where he and Rossi sit drinking coffee. "Foyet escaped," she announces. The guards found him in his cell vomiting blood and convulsing and took him to the prison hospital. Prentiss and Reid have faxed copies of diagrams from Foyet's houses: they are schematics of the electrical and water systems of various Boston jails and court houses. He had 10 years to plan his escape from whatever institution they put him in. "They're going to find him, right?" Garcia asks. "No, they're not," Hotchner replies.

[recap written by Finnegan77]