Criminal Minds

A group of six freshmen (three guys and three girls) from Terra Mesa College in New Mexico is having a party at a house off campus. There is booze and every room has candles in them. They were all set for a romantic evening. One of the girls is wandering around the house, and she asks where she can find the bathroom. She is directed upstairs, where she looks out a window and then goes out a sliding glass door onto a patio. Outside, she is grabbed by two men and she taken away in a van. At the same time, several more people come down a hill on the other side of the patio and attack the rest of the kids.

Sean, Hotch's brother, comes to visit him at Quantico. Garcia is the first to notice him as she goes to put away cleaning supplies. As she walks by, her "cute guy radar" goes crazy. She hands off her things to someone else to follow him, but is intercepted by Elle.

Sean is looking around trying to determine where Hotch's office might be. He probably realizes he's being watched, and turns around and walks over to them. As he starts to ask them where he can find Hotch, Morgan comes over and shows him to Hotch's office. Elle and Garcia just look at each other. Elle says, "Brother? As in Hotch's brother?" Garcia responds to this (in what seems to be a hopeful voice), "Maybe Hotch is adopted?"

Hotch tells Sean to enter when he knocks, and ends his phone conversation abruptly upon seeing it's his brother. He congratulates Sean on his acceptance to Georgetown. They have an argument because Sean has decided not to go to law school. He has been given an opportunity to work under a renowned chef in New York, and has decided to follow that path. It is clear by the way Sean talks about it that he loves to cook.

In the conference room, the team discusses the Terra Mesa murders. Reid mentions that the number of dead students meant that there had to be more than two people involved in the attack. Gideon says that it looks like a tribe (a pack of three or more). Hotch tells them that a pack will keep killing until it either it ran out of prey or it was stopped. When Elle asks what Gideon replies, "By a stronger pack." In this case, this would mean, at the very least, the BAU team.

Hotch, Gideon, and Reid go to the crime scene where Sheriff Rhodes tells them that he was expecting more of them. Hotch explains that Morgan, Elle, and JJ are at the station learning more about the victims. Inside they find out all the kids had been skinned alive, and the fifth one had been impaled. Reid believes the murders resemble Native American ritual. Hotch asks if there were any Native American groups around. Sheriff Rhodes tells them that the entire mesa, including the house sat on Apache land (on an Apache burial ground no less). The Indians did not have the money or interest to develop on the land. So the state (or town) had taken it in a land grab to develop it. Apparently, the state (or town) was trying to take over the remaining private land to develop. But the Indians were fighting it in court.

Garcia discovers a possible candidate, a Native American reservation leader named John Blackwolf. His father had been killed by federal agents at Wounded Knee, and he had been a number of times for different activist events. But he had never been involved in anything violent. Hotch suggests Sheriff Rhodes alert the reservation law enforcement about Blackwolf. Rhodes tells them the one glitch in that idea, "Blackwolf is the reservation law enforcement."

They go to ask him about the murders. At the reservation, they are met by the leader, Jane Bear. Before taking them to see Blackwolf, she reminds Sheriff Rhodes of all the times he had helped the Sheriff with lost hikers and drunken campers. Blackwolf is in the middle of teaching a class when they enter. He ignores them as he continue his lecture. As he asks the class questions, Reid answers them under his breath. He finally gives the "guests" his attention with one last question. He says, "Samuel. Could you tell the FBI men who the Ga'he are?" Reid quickly launches into an explanation of the Ga'he being spirits that usually dwell in caves. Hotch interrupts him with, "Reid, is your name Samuel?" Reid sheepishly apologizes. Gideon then asks if the Ga'he were good or evil spirits. Blackwolf responds, "Both. Just like men." It seems as though Reid felt as though he had to prove he knew what they were discussing in class. You kind of have to wonder if that was what his teachers expect him to do in school, and if this became an ingrained reflex for him.

Jane takes over the class so Blackwolf can talk the BAU and the Sheriff. Gideon introduces himself, Reid, and Hotch. Blackwolf looks at each of them in turn and says, "You look like a college professor (to Gideon). You look like his student (to Reid). Now you, you look like FBI (to Hotch)." This shows Blackwolf also profile. When Hotch tells him that they are with the Behavioral Analysis Unit, Blackwolf says that profilers should know better. He clarifies that Indian don't do massacres, the government does.

They go back to the house where the murders occurred for Blackwolf to see firsthand. He says at the very last there had been eight people involved with the attack at the house. Two people had grabbed one girl and gone one way; meanwhile, about six more came down the hill from another direction running single file to hide their numbers. He says the killings resemble the work of Navajo, Comanche, Apache, and Sioux tribes. But no one tribe did all the things that happened to the kids.

They find out about a militant group called the ADU (American Defense Unit) led by a local businessman named Roy Minton. Hotch and Morgan question him about the group, which has 200 members and about 450 guns. Minton said they were just exercising their second amendment right to bear arms. Morgan responded they were ready for war, that 450 guns was overkill. They decide that he's not involved, but just using ideology to hide greed because he wants to develop the land being fought over in court. Gideon decides to put him under surveillance because he was now aware that there might be someone who was working outside the group. Meanwhile, Garcia finds the identification of the missing girl. Her name is Ingrid Greisen.

Hotch, JJ, and Elle interview Ingrid's father, Peter Greisen, who agrees to a press conference to make a plea to the abductors. He tells them he had raised Ingrid by himself since her mother died when she was 14 years old. The kidnappers see him on television and call to turn the girl over to the authorities as long as they didn't tell Mr. Greisen. They tell Hotch it was because Mr. Greisen had asked them to kidnap her in the first place. The team get Ingrid (who is catatonic) back, and interrogate the kidnappers, Eugene Leland and Kyle Van Owen. They each give the same story, saying Peter Greisen had paid them to kidnap Ingrid because he felt she was in trouble. Because they tell the same, unusual story, the team realize they are telling the truth. Hotch goes back to Peter Greisen knowing that Ingrid is the key to the investigation at this point. He tells Greisen that there are five murdered kids and his having Ingrid kidnapped coincidentally saved her life. That makes Greisen look suspicious to them, and he and Ingrid have to help them understand what happened.

Morgan and Reid go to the hospital to question Ingrid. As they come up to her room, Morgan gets a call from Garcia. After assuring Morgan that he'll be all right with her, Reid goes to talk to Ingrid by himself. He enters the room and introduces himself, holding up his ID. She just looks at him and gives him her name and social security number. Reid leaves the room to tell Morgan, who then calls Hotch to let him know the latest development. Upon hearing about Ingrid's response, Hotch says she responded like a prisoner of war (POW) and goes to ask her father how long she had been in a cult. Mr. Greisen says he didn't know when she joined, but a few months after starting college; she started acting strange and saying odd things. He said she talked about Grandfather and Ga'he.

This information allowed the team to give a more accurate profile to find out who the unsub is. Reid leads this profile stating they are looking for someone who has studied Native American culture extensively. JJ suggests looking at the class rosters from the courses that Ingrid took because it could be someone who was in one of her classes. Garcia finds a likely suspect named Jackson Cally. He had been in prison and was in a Native American culture class with Ingrid, and Blackwolf said he had been a guest lecturer in that seminar for the last four years.

They find out the police officer assigned to keep Minton's house under surveillance was murdered in his car, and the entire Minton family including three young daughters) as well. Sheriff Rhodes meets Hotch and Blackwolf at the Minton residence with Ingrid. They want her to see and understand what Cally was really doing. Blackwolf leads her into the children's room and asks her what she sees. She tells him three little trespassers got what they deserved. He tells Ingrid that she is not Apache, and she responds by telling him that he was not Apache, he had lost the way. Blackwolf picks up one of the girl's hat, and says it was the blood of a little girl just like her. He gives her an Apache history lesson in a nutshell: The name of Apache came from the word Apachu, which means enemy, the Apache people refer to themselves as the Dimeia, and they do not believe in a Messiah as she been told. He told her she been told only half-truths about a culture she did not truly understand.

The team realizes this Cally character was trying to start a war between the ADU and the Apaches. He had had the Terra Mesa students attacked to make the ADU go after the Apaches, but that didn't work. Neither did attacking Minton and his family. So he had to find another way.

Ingrid had made a comment about the Deadlands, which Blackwolf told the BAU was 100 square mile area. The profilers explain an isolated area like the Deadlands is somewhere that a cult leader can take people and brainwash them, which is exactly what happened to Ingrid. They find out Cally had been kicked out of a motel room he had been staying in after the occupants checked out. This was because he did not have money and just stayed where he could secretly. They find out there is an abandoned motel in the Deadlands. Hotch, Elle, Morgan, Blackwolf, and Sheriff Rhodes go to apprehend him. Gideon says he will stay with Reid and look up whatever they can about Cally.

After finding him at the motel, Cally only responds when Hotch calls him Grandfather. He talks to Reid and Gideon, finding out Cally had been in prison where he discovered religion. Then upon release, he went to three universities and studied Native American culture. Hotch decides to give Cally what he wanted: an audience. They all go back to the room Cally is in tolisten to what he had to say, and they find out he had other members on their way to attack the reservation. Blackwolf tries to attack Cally, but Morgan pulls him away and drags him outside, where he tells Sheriff Rhodes Cally was welcome on his reservation anytime. In other words, so he can beat the living crap out of Cally.

Hotch and Blackwolf go to the reservation and manage to beat the other cult members. They get the students into hiding and prepare to take down the attackers. When Hotch pulls out his gun, Blackwolf tells him to put away and use his baton. He says, "There are many paths to the same place. Trust me." To which, Hotch responds, "You now, you sound like a fortune cookie." The separate, knowing that is what the attackers will do when they find the students are gone. They are able to take down four of the six attackers. Blackwolf explains to the rest of the team when they arrive that "Captain America here (Hotch) shot number 5." Hotch tells them the last one was cut up pretty bad, and he didn't think he would survive. Blackwolf says, "At least I didn't shoot him." Morgan remarks, "I think I would rather be shot." Hotch then turns to Blackwolf and says, "You know there is an old Apache saying: There are many paths to the same place." He quoted what Blackwolf himself had said to him before the fight.

The episode ends with Hotch going to visit his brother at the diner where he works. He gives Sean the card of a friend (or acquaintance) of his in the New York field office. He tells Sean if he ever needs anything to call this person, and he would take care of him. Sean responds with, "What? You saying I can't take care of myself?" Hotch replies, "No. This is my way of saying that I'm a jackass." Sean tells him it must be hereditary. They both knew it is important to follow their instincts. Hotch admits he forgot that, while their father knew it and Sean reminded him. It almost seemed as though there had been a barrier between them that had come down. At the beginning of the episode, Sean apparently thought being a lawyer had caused their father to have a heart attack before he was 50. Whether it was fatal, Sean probably had begun to feel reservations about becoming a lawyer and then discovered his love of cooking possibly from a job. But the two brothers were on good terms and, as Sean had put it, Hotch had given him a pretty messed up going away present.