Criminal Minds

In Beachwood, New Jersey, a young boy and his father are driving down a dark country road after a night at the movies. The father, Mr. Fisher, swerves the car suddenly, thinking that he's seen a deer in the road. One of the rear tires has gone flat, and he pulls the car to the side of the road, telling his son to stay in the car while he fixes it. Kneeling down next to the tire, Mr. Fisher thinks he hears someone in the woods behind him. He picks up the tire iron shouting, "Who's there?" Strange dark figures rush from the woods towards him and he swings the tire iron, hitting them again and again. The next morning, a state police car stops at the seemingly abandoned vehicle. The policeman knocks on the driver's side window and Mr. Fisher erupts from the driver's seat, banging bloody hands on the window and shouting, "Go away! Go away!" The policeman calls for back-up as he notices that the passenger door is open. Lying on the ground is the man's son, unconscious, with blood all over his face.

Two days later, the BAU examines a video of the police interrogation of Mr. Fisher. When he is confronted with a photo of his unconscious son, Mr. Fisher is extremely agitated, and claims that he doesn't remember what happened the night before. Hotchner explains that he had ingested a large quantity of LSD the evening before and didn't come down for 18 hours. The hospital in the area reported six other cases of LSD overdoses – doses 10 to 20 times the normal dose. One person has died from the drugs, and one person is in a coma. The security footage from the hospital shows people out of control in the emergency room. Gideon comments, "These people didn't get spiked. These people were poisoned."

On the jet to New Jersey, the team discusses the different victims. A 78-year-old woman was killed when she ran out into the street in front of a car. Nine-year-old Brittany Cannon fell out of a tree house and fractured her skull – she is in a coma. JJ advises informing the press of anything now would be irresponsible. She has warned local law enforcement to be discreet for now. Since none of the victims remembers the day it happened, police have not been able to find out how they were poisoned.

Since they have no other options, the team relies on precedence: What they know about poisoners. The four basic profiles of multiple-victim poisoners are: the true believer - terrorist/religious cult, the extortionist, the prankster, and the avenger, someone with a personal vendetta. Except for the prankster, each of these types will test their methods on a small group before attacking a larger group. The team decides to split up and look into the victims this poisoner has chosen.

At the hospital, Det. Hanover introduces himself to Hotchner and Gideon. He takes them to interview Mr. Fisher in the psych ward. Gideon asks Mr. Fisher about his recent divorce. Mr. Fisher is still very emotionally unstable, and describes his anger at his wife's affair, but flatly denies taking his anger out on his son. He begins banging his head against the wall, crying, "Oh Eric, why did this happen to you?"

Based on Mr. Fisher's words and demeanor, Gideon's analysis is he didn't hurt his son consciously. The drugs tapped into his rage over his divorce, but they didn't cause it. Reid shares the tox-screen analysis of the drugs involved: there was nothing in the drugs to particularly invoke rage, but there were traces of Rohypnol in all the victims, a central nervous system depressant. One of the side effects of Rohypnol is amnesia, which is why none of the victims can remember the events of that day. The victims were so different that there doesn't seem to be a certain type of victim the unsub was looking for. As some high school kids are using LSD and Rohypnol, the team concludes it may have been a prank after all.

The police determine that a local café may be the place everyone was dosed because many of the victims were seen there. JJ asks the café staff to keep the investigation quiet, as Gideon interviews the owner. She suggests he talk to Danny, a high-school-aged busboy who had called in sick. Elle checks both the high school and his house and cannot find him, so she heads over to his girlfriends' house. Samantha is disheveled and has bruises on her neck. She confides to Elle that her boyfriend took her some place on his motorcycle last night, and then she remembers waking up naked and sore with Danny holding her down. The phone rings and it is Danny – he knows someone is with her in the house and he threatens her. Elle calls for back-up and goes outside. She is able to stop him from getting away on his motorcycle and arrests him.

Det. Hanover and Elle interrogate Danny. Danny explains that it was Samantha who was drugged – he was trying to help her, holding her down, because she was seeing things. The café might have been a coincidence. The unsub may have given the victims Rohypnol to forget how and where they were dosed. "The unsub is covering his tracks." This rules out the prankster, and, since there hasn't been any kind of ransom demand, the extortionist is also ruled out. The true believer is ruled out because there is no evidence of a political or cult group in the area. That leaves only the avenger.

The BAU gives local law enforcement the profile of an avenger. The unsub lives in the town and acted alone, but he may have manipulated someone into working with him. If he has, he will dispose of this accomplice when he is finished using him or her. He is a cautious, deliberate male between 35 and 50. He chose LSD because it alters perception and he believes he has been inaccurately perceived by the community around him. "He is so self-centered that he believes his victims will know the reason for the attack and who did it." And these victims aren't his primary targets – this was a test run. He does not have a criminal record, but may have filed criminal charges against his adversaries. His next attack will be against a much larger group of people, and many people could die.

JJ advises the team there has been a leak to the press. A news bulletin had gone out reporting that a local restaurant had been closed and the CDC is testing food in the restaurant for poisons. Since the reporter does not name the restaurant, the team knows this will cause widespread panic in the town. It doesn't take long for all the phones to light up with calls.

At the hospital, JJ and Reid discuss the panic with a nurse, looking for anyone who might be a real victim of the poisoner. The nurse mentions a patient who can barely breathe – Lynn Dempsey. When the woman was brought in she could not remember any part of her day, and her tests came back positive for Rohypnol, but negative for LSD. She presented with nausea, labored breathing, difficulty swallowing, and was having trouble moving her legs. Reid mentions biological agents, Sarin and ricin, have the same types of symptoms and the doctor orders more tests.

Elle and Morgan determine the café was probably not the place the victims got dosed, but they do remember one victim who said he had gone to the bank across the street that day. They decide to look at the bank security tapes for other victims – and they find every one of them. Morgan calls in the CDC to test the candies from the counter at the 1st New Jersey Federal Bank.

At the hospital, Lynn Dempsey tries to tell JJ and Reid something, "It's in the en…" but is unable to finish before she goes into respiratory arrest. Hotchner advises Morgan to look for Lynn Dempsey on the tape, and they find her - she was the one replacing the candy in the candy bowl.

The doctor tells the team that Lynn Dempsey was exposed to a poison, but not LSD. It is botulism and she will die without the antitoxin. Reid concludes, "The test run is over."

At a local business, Hichcock Pharmaceuticals, a repairman walks in just as many of the employees are heading off to a retreat.

Lynn Dempsey does not fit the profile of a revenge poisoner. Although the CDC has found both LSD and Rohypnol in the candies at the bank, the team determines she was an accomplice used by the unsub and then discarded. This tells them that the unsub is very sophisticated. Reid submits that "botulism is the deadliest substance known to man. Without an antitoxin, a lethal dose will kill you in 36 hours." New Jersey has many pharmaceutical labs, and any chemist or sophisticated lab assistant will have access to the toxins. Lynn Dempsey worked for Hichcock Pharmaceuticals, and the unsub probably works there too. The team turns to Garcia to find out if any employees had been recently fired or laid off from that firm – looking for the unsub's stressor. She finds 30 names of people who were terminated, and Morgan asks her to keep looking for names with connections to the 1st New Jersey Federal Bank.

Now the team is considering the unsub as a "workplace mass murderer" who is planning his revenge. These killers never give themselves up, and he has no compassion or empathy for anyone. He will sacrifice anyone, including himself, to take out his primary targets. Elle heads off to Hichcock to speak with Lynn Dempsey's co-workers. They describe Lynn as a self-conscious loner.

Garcia comes up with a connection: Lynn Dempsey had applied for a loan at the New Jersey bank at the same time as a chemist applied for a patent on a new drug. Both loan and patent were rejected as Hichcock had already applied for the patent and their claim was financed by the 1st New Jersey Federal Bank. Garcia tracks the chemist's cell phone number, and the FBI and local police surround his lab and take him into custody.

"He let us take him, he didn't kill himself. It doesn't fit the profile of a workplace killer." Hotchner, Gideon, and Reid discuss why Edward Hill, the unsub, is acting contrary to the profile. They expected him to admit to his plans because most want to brag about how brilliant they are, but they also want to make sure they prevent him from carrying out his plans. Reid reviews the evidence as Hotchner and Gideon interrogate Hill.

Hill tells them the company took everything he had. Hotchner tells the unsub because he is a lawyer and has connections with the Justice Department, he can guarantee Hill receive the credit and compensation he deserves. He seems to be weakening, to be taking Hotchner's offer, and finally tells them he has poisoned the punch bowl at the departmental party taking place that afternoon. Morgan and Elle raid the party, and bring antitoxin to the employees. The punch tests positive for botulism toxin.

Gideon is convinced this is not over – why did Hill give up his plans so easily? Reid enters and tells them there is a problem – one of the original victims was a diabetic so would not have taken candy from the bowl at the bank. Looking over the security footage again, he sees that Lynn Dempsey not only replaced candy in the bowl, she also replaced a stack of deposit envelopes. As she was dying, she was trying to say "the envelopes." Hill wasn't testing the drugs; he was testing the delivery system for the drugs. These two drugs are the only two which could be toxic in as small a dose as would fit on the glue-strip of an envelope. "Why would he test the envelopes to poison the punch?" Reid asks. Gideon replies, "Because he's not finished." Looking through the one-way glass at Hill, they see that he is choking – he'd already given himself a fatal dose of botulism before they had arrested him.

Morgan calls Hotchner to tell him none of the management staff at Hichcock attended the party; they were all away at a corporate retreat in the woods – a retreat that Lynn Dempsey had organized. In the woods, the management team is in the process of voting for team leaders. Each person is handed an envelope in which to put his ballot. "And make sure you seal your envelopes so there is no cheating!" The BAU team, the CDC, and police rush to the forest, looking desperately for the employees because they must receive the antitoxin within four hours of ingesting the poison. They barely get to them in time.

On the jet, Hotchner and JJ are the only two awake. JJ is already working on the team's next case. She asks Hotchner, "Of all the departments, why did you choose the BAU?" Although he had prosecuted dozens of murder cases, Hotchner wanted to stop the killers before they got to his desk. He admits he's still trying to figure it out.