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Criminal Minds Season 5 Episodes
Season 5 Episode Guide
23 Episodes 2009 - 2010
Episode 1
Faceless, Nameless
Wed, Sep 23, 200942 mins
The BAU, working on less than four hours sleep after finishing the case of the abducted homeless people taken across to Canada, are called into their next case. A trauma surgeon by the name of Dr. Barton received a note from someone signing it "LC." stating that his fifteen year old son Jeffrey will be killed. If LC. is not allowed to carry out this mission, he will instead kill one other person every day until Jeffrey is dead. Two surrogates for Jeffrey, both Hispanic men, are already dead. Dr. Barton has no idea who LC. is or why he or his son would be targeted. Rossi, J.J. and Morgan keep watch over Jeffrey, who sneaked out of the house to go to school, while Reid and Prentiss go over Dr. Barton's medical files with him. Prentiss, figuring they need an extra pair of eyes to go over the several hundred files, decides to try and find Hotch, who has not been answering his cell phone. Arriving at Hotch's apartment, Prentiss finds that he is not there, but that there are signs of foul play. When Prentiss finds him, he is not in good condition. But she does discover the meaning of LC. and understands who the unsub's real target is. Ultimately, the entire team is notified that Hotch is in the hospital with multiple non-life threatening stab wounds. Although the person who dropped him off at the hospital was unseen, the team knows that it was George Foyet aka the Reaper. Hotch is worried that the stabbings inflicted by the Reaper were just a warning for a more cruel and perhaps deadly attack to come.
Episode 2
Haunted
Wed, Sep 30, 200960 mins
The BAU flies to Louisville, KY on the case of a spree killer who starts in his local pharmacy. Hotch's projection of a need for attention to detail creates tension and confusion among the team. Among internal obstacles, the BAU discovers their unsub's violent and traumatic childhood.
Episode 3
Reckoner
Wed, Oct 7, 200942 mins
The BAU are called to Commack, Long Island where Ben Vanderwaal, the third and latest victim of a serial killer, has just been found dead. Each victim was bound, then shot through the head and heart. The two male victims were also mutilated postmortem, but each with a different body part missing, whereas the sole female victim thus far was extremely emaciated prior to death. Rossi requests to stay behind at the office rather than go to Commack since this is his small home town, a part of his past that he does not want to revisit. His request is denied by Hotch since Reid is still not cleared to travel from his injury sustained in the "LC." case. Once they arrive in Commack, the BAU find Heather Vanderwaal, Ben's wife, who was beaten at the scene of her husband's murder but not killed herself. Information from her, and other information from Garcia and Reid, form a connection between the three victims. Each was involved in some aspect of child abuse, Vanderwaal's not yet a matter of public record. Further information from Heather and the nature of the gunshot wounds indicate that the murders were contracted hits. With help from an old local friend of Rossi's, the BAU get the code name of the probable hit man. The case takes a turn when the BAU believe they've discovered who contracted the hits. The case turns from one of trying to find the contractor to discovering who is left on the contract hit list and when they are scheduled to be killed. They discover that the last two names on the list are on there each for a different reason. At the end of the case, Rossi reveals to Hotch why he didn't want to go to Commack for this case. Meanwhile, Hotch misses his family more than ever as Jack celebrates his fourth birthday without his father.
Episode 4
Hopeless
Wed, Oct 14, 200960 mins
In a gentrified neighborhood in southeast Washington D.C. vandalism has increased recently. Two upper middle class couples - one white, one black - are found beaten to death in a home invasion. Nothing was taken from the home. The BAU's initial assessment is that there are at least three male unsubs, and that the beatings are related to the vandalism. A second set of victims are later found dead - a young white working class couple who were killed in a parking lot outside a blue collar restaurant. The BAU know that the unsubs, who have a pack mentality, are motivated purely by nihilism and the need to exert power. In monitoring on-line chatter, Garcia finds another more broad threat of vandalism. Although the BAU do not believe this act of vandalism was initiated by the unsubs, they know the unsubs will react in their typical violent fashion. Their reaction does yield useful information for the BAU to narrow in on the unsubs. During the process of this case, Garcia has some words of professional and personal advice for Morgan.
Episode 5
Cradle to Grave
Wed, Oct 21, 200942 mins
Kristie Taylor is the third and latest victim of a sexual sadistic serial killer in New Mexico. All the victims have been troubled teen-aged blond females, who have been missing for years and that suddenly turn up dead. They have been asphyxiated with ligature marks consistent with being chained. The other connection that the three have is that they all looked healthier just prior to death than when they went missing, and have all shown signs of just having given birth, killed minutes after delivery. The BAU's initial analysis is that whatever his purpose for the babies is the key to finding the unsub. They suspect that the babies are being sold or being placed in the adoption system, as blond haired, blue eyed babies are those in highest demand. But their profile of the unsub changes when they find one of the babies. They also determine what specifically the unsub is looking for in the babies he keeps. On this case, Hotch is especially hard on Morgan, seemingly having to do with a private meeting between Hotch and Section Chief Strauss.
Episode 6
The Eyes Have It
Wed, Nov 4, 200942 mins
The BAU heads to Oklahoma City, OK. to take down a serial killer when he begins taking eyeballs from the victims he has killed for his taxidermy projects. It becomes apparent that the unsub is really disturbed and he targets his victims at night. Meanwhile, Morgan is still adjusting to his role as temporary unit chief, after Hotch steps down so that he can focus on stopping George Foyet aka the Reaper from harming his family. Penelope decides to arrange a very special surprise for Morgan.
Episode 7
The Performer
Wed, Nov 11, 200942 mins
Tara Ferris is the third and latest female victim killed in two weeks in the Los Angeles, California area where the victims are beaten by blunt force trauma to head, not sexually assaulted, but drained of their blood. By the puncture wounds on the neck and the saliva found near the puncture wounds, the killer is mimicking a vampire. The BAU discover that a connection between all the victims is their worship of a goth/vampire singer named Paul Davies, whose stage name is Dante. A message scrawled on Tara's arm also points to a connection to Dante. Although a suspect since a victim's car is found at his home, Dante asserts that his public persona is solely an act and that he has disdain for people who worship his music. After interviewing him, the BAU learn that he doesn't quite fit the profile of the killer. The BAU also discover that part of their profile of the unsub is incorrect when they receive lab results of the saliva.
Episode 8
Outfoxed
Wed, Nov 18, 200942 mins
In Hampton, Virginia, the Downey family is murdered and buried in their backyard while the family patriarch, army Captain Joseph Downey, is deployed in Iraq. A similar mass murder of a military family while the father was on military deployment occurred a year earlier. Prints lifted at the murder scenes indicate that it is the same unsub. The unsub appears to be copying the murders committed by Karl Arnold aka The Fox. The BAU worked on the case of The Fox four years earlier. The unsub has tried to contact The Fox in prison. Hotch and Prentiss interview The Fox to try and understand his motivation so as to understand the unsub. Based on some information received from The Fox and by the way the bodies are laid out in their grave, the BAU have a clearer profile of the unsub, who is not a copycat of The Fox and who is not the person who tried to contact The Fox. The Fox has some parting words for Hotch about who tried to contact him.
Episode 9
100
Wed, Nov 25, 200942 mins
Strauss is interviewing each member of the BAU individually in the aftermath of what she refers to as a "bloodbath". In the interviews, she is leading the questions toward the fact that this incident, which hopefully will never happen again, was instigated, caused and/or directed by Hotch. There is an inference that whatever has happened involved George Foyet aka the Boston Reaper, and perhaps Haley and Jack, who were in protective custody because of the implied threat on their lives by Foyet. This most recent round of worries for the BAU concerning Foyet are because they found out that Foyet was in contact with Karl Arnold aka The Fox, and not the murderer of the military families. In flashbacks, the recent cat and mouse game between Foyet and the BAU leading to the bloodbath is played out and the role that Haley and Jack play in Foyet's game is revealed.
Episode 10
The Slave of Duty
Wed, Dec 9, 200942 mins
Following the murder of Haley by George Foyet and Foyet's subsequent death at Hotch's hands, Hotch needs to take some time to regroup and review both his professional and personal life, especially in how to deal with raising Jack on his own. Strauss provides him with an option. In the meantime, the team, without Hotch, is called to a case in Nashville, Tennessee. Two young brunette women, both high powered executives, have so far been killed in their own homes, the floor around them covered in rose petals. Evidence indicates that the women were being stalked, and that the unsub is hyper-vigilant in his control of the murders, with both being almost identical down to what the women ate prior to death. It seems as if the unsub is romancing the women against their will. It isn't until they discover an anomaly to the routine of one of the victims and look at the unsub profile is a slightly different manner that the team begins to piece together who the unsub is and who he might target next.
Episode 11
Retaliation
Wed, Dec 16, 200942 mins
Hotch is back at the helm of the BAU after turning down Strauss' offer of a full retirement package. He and Morgan have a heart to heart about Morgan's tenure as head of the unit. Meanwhile, while transporting a fugitive into custody in Lockport New York with a local police officer named Bunting, Prentiss is injured when the fugitive is assisted in a getaway by an unknown partner. That fugitive is Dale Shrader, who had just been paroled from prison, where he was serving time for a series of bank robberies in which the moneys stolen were never recovered. Since his release two days earlier, Shrader killed a junkie named Stacy Ryan who was the sister of someone Shrader served time with five years prior, and kidnapped his daughter Jenny as an act of revenge toward his ex-wife Connie. These two acts are seemingly a dichotomy in personality. During the getaway, Shrader killed Bunting. Prentiss did see the partner, but the BAU do not know who that partner is. They have to delve into Shrader's life as a bank robber and his eleven years in prison to uncover the meaning of Ryan's murder and of Jenny's kidnapping, and hopefully the identity of the partner and the two fugitives' whereabouts.
Episode 12
The Uncanny Valley
Wed, Jan 13, 201042 mins
In Atlantic City, New Jersey, two women have thus far been identified as having died at the hands of the same killer. Both victims were drug-induced paralyzed and still conscious during their two-month abduction, but otherwise well taken care of. Both were also petite but physically fit, and in life were fashion conscious, although the clothes in which they were found did not match what they would have worn in real life, these new clothes which were more doll-like. And both dead bodies were found in a place that represents a fun childhood, one on a playground swing, another on an amusement park carousel. Because the two women have no other similar characteristics beyond their small stature, the BAU believe the unsub to be a woman who is "collecting" the victims as surrogates for a doll collection that the unsub has lost. When the BAU learn more about the doll line that the unsub is mimicking and after one of the pieces of clothing is analyzed, they stumble across a lead to the unsub and the reasons for her actions. But time is running out for the BAU as a recently abducted woman, who fits the profile, is a diabetic who will soon die regardless if she does not get her insulin shot. However, another aspect of her being a diabetic may also save her.
Episode 13
Risky Business
Wed, Jan 20, 201042 mins
In Uinta County Wyoming, two sets of two teens apiece commit suicide by hanging in their respective homes on consecutive Fridays. The kids showed no prior signs of suicidal tendencies. Although the BAU do not deal with suicides, JJ talks Hotch into the team taking the case as she can feel that there is something more going on than just suicides. Being a Wednesday, the BAU have two days to figure out what's going on before the next potential suicides. Initial investigations show that all the kids were model students. Upon inspection of their computers however, they were all participating in an on-line "choking" game, the choking phenomenon said to be akin to a drug-less high. The BAU try to warn both parents and teenagers in the area about the site and not to participate in the game, but know that they still need to track down the unsub who set up the site. Their investigation takes them to a family dealing with a death among their own.
Episode 14
Parasite
Wed, Feb 3, 201042 mins
Agent Russell Goldman with the FBI's White Collar Division in San Diego brings a case to the BAU. A con man who he has been following for five years is suspected to have killed Carla Marshall in Miami, Florida. Carla had been in contact with Goldman about the con man, hence the supposed connection to him as her murderer. If the con man is indeed the unsub, Carla is the first known person he would have killed of those involved in his cons. His past cons generally involved using his charm and good looks to gain the trust of women. As the BAU review Goldman's files on the unsub, they find a change in his general lifestyle pattern from his early cons to the most recent. In reviewing the victim's background as well as the unsub's home life, the BAU believe they have a way to track him down. They have to work fast as they also believe that his mental state is devolving where he is becoming increasingly violent and murderous the closer anyone gets to discovering his fraudulent behavior, and the more he himself trips up trying to maintain his several aliases.
Episode 15
Public Enemy
Wed, Feb 10, 201042 mins
The BAU are called to Providence, Rhode Island where a serial killer is on the loose. He has killed three people thus far, each in an increasingly public location. Each victim was slashed across the throat with a knife, which is left at the scene without fingerprints. As the BAU go through the three murders thus far, they determine that the unsub is more like an arsonist than a killer in the way he approaches his crimes. The victims themselves seem to be secondary to the location for the unsub, and he is only killing when it is convenient as opposed to choosing a predetermined victim. The BAU feel that they are missing one step in catching the unsub, and as such make a special request of Meg Collins, the wife of the third victim who was a Iraq War veteran. Meg's willingness to assist is all based on thoughts of her daughter, Sophie, who witnessed her father's murder.
Episode 16
Mosley Lane
Wed, Mar 3, 201042 mins
The BAU's latest case brings a face, familiar to J.J., into their office - Sarah Hillridge, whose son Charlie was abducted eight years ago when he was eight. Sarah, who believes Charlie is still alive, comes to see J.J. every time the BAU works on a child abduction case, the latest abducted child being eight-year-old Aimee Lynch. J.J. cannot deny that Aimee's abduction bears a striking similarity to Charlie's: the abductions took place in northeast Virginia, the parents were distracted from their own child upon hearing another mother yelling for her own missing child, and the children were abducted in an extremely public location. Upon further investigation, Garcia discovers twelve children in total, all abducted within Virginia in the last ten years, all around the same age, none of the bodies ever found. The BAU comes up with a profile of unsubs who could easily keep a lot of children without seeming unusual, and what agencies would have contact with such families.
Episode 17
Solitary Man
Wed, Mar 10, 201042 mins
The Highway Serial Killer Database exists so that information can be collated for serial murders that would not otherwise be connected due to different police jurisdictions. In reviewing the database, the BAU determine that a serial killer has killed five women thus far, the bodies found hundreds of miles apart. Reid, however, determines that there is a geographical focus on Edgewood, New Mexico. Each woman was strangled, the bodies laid in a fetal position found in a public location such as a ditch, and there is no sexual assault. The BAU determines that the unsub is a trucker. The case takes a turn when a woman named Nancy Campbell is abducted in front of her teen-aged daughter, Courtenay, at a highway rest stop in Edgewood. Nancy does not fit the victimology, but her abduction clarifies to the BAU what the unsub is looking for in the abducted women and ultimately the reason for the abductions and eventual murders.
Episode 18
The Fight
Wed, Apr 7, 201042 mins
The BAU's latest case takes the team to San Francisco, California. For each of the last three years at the same time of the year, three homeless men have been found murdered in three consecutive days, after which the murders stop. Each is killed execution style but show signs of blunt force trauma prior to death. The first of the murdered homeless men this year has been found, meaning that the BAU expect two more over the next two days unless they can find the unsub. Although he has direct orders not to get involved by Strauss, Special Supervisory Agent Sam Cooper, a former BAU member who now heads his own hand picked team, asks Hotch for a favor: he wants his team in on the case as he has a theory. He has noticed that immediately after the three murders, a father and his teen-aged daughter have also been found murdered, which he feels is connected. He suspects there is currently a missing father and daughter which no one is looking for in connection to being ultimately murdered. Cooper knows that if he goes against Strauss' orders and that he is wrong, his career as an FBI agent is over. Hotch agrees, with his team focusing on the homeless men, and Cooper's team focusing on the father/daughter angle. They identify the probable missing family connected this year as Ben and Jane McBride. As the teams find some physical evidence on the dead homeless men, they believe they understand the nature of the killings of the homeless men. They also believe the key to finding the unsub before the McBrides are found dead is Jane as the reason they were the targets.
Episode 19
Rite of Passage
Wed, Apr 14, 201042 mins
In the Mexican border town of Terlingua, Texas, three decapitated heads are found outside the sheriff's office. One of those heads was a recent death, while the other two were killed some time ago, although the decapitations themselves conducted recently. The BAU's initial thoughts are that it has to do with the border drug trade, or that because the more decomposed heads displayed now, the drug trade issue is a red herring for illegal immigration from Mexico. Indeed the three deaths are of John or Jane Doe's, fueling the BAU's speculation that they are illegal immigrants from Mexico. Believing the murders drug related, the deputy sheriffs in Terlingua arrest Omar Morales, head of one of the local drug cartels. Recently arrived Sheriff Ruiz on the other hand is certain Morales is not guilty of these murders, and that the deaths have to do with her knowledge of known illegal immigrants missing, the heads a sign for her to stop what has only been her limited investigation thus far. Based on physical evidence of the heads and an interview with Morales, the BAU come up with a profile. But it isn't until J.J. divulges some information she overheard that the BAU connect the profile to the unsub.
Episode 20
...A Thousand Words
Wed, May 5, 201042 mins
In Tallahassee, Florida, a man calls 911 to report his impending suicide. At the location where he is found dead, the authorities find a wall plastered with photos and associated news clippings of women that have been killed throughout the country over the past ten years. He has left a journal recounting the murders of these women. Images of those women, complete with first name and year of death, are tattooed on his body. The only person with a photo that does not have an associated tattoo is Rebecca Daniels, who has been missing for three weeks. The BAU believes she may still be alive because of the tattoo issue. The team look for clues in the nature of the tattoos and in the journal to understand how Rebecca may still be alive when her probable prime captor has just killed himself.
Episode 21
Exit Wounds
Wed, May 12, 201042 mins
The BAU heads to the small fishing town of Franklin, Alaska - population 1,500 - where there have been three murders in the span of a week. These three murders are the first ever in the town. On the surface, there is no similarity in either victimology or modus operandi, although each successive murder is becoming more confident in its approach. The case is made all the more difficult because everyone in town knows everyone's business, meaning that everyone is connected in some manner, and if there is even the suspicion of someone being the killer, vigilante-ism could come into play. The key suspect is Joshua Beardsley, who was born and raised in Franklin, moved away to go the school, and returned to town two weeks ago to help his recently widowed mother operate the town's only hotel/tavern. When another person is murdered, the BAU not only believes they have a better profile and an understanding of why the victims were targeted, but that Joshua is the key to tracking the unsub. This case has a profound effect on Garcia, who sees more than she wants.
Episode 22
The Internet Is Forever
Wed, May 19, 201042 mins
Three young women have gone missing from Boise, Idaho, in the last six months, each abducted from their home without signs of forced entry. Through Garcia, the BAU learns of the unsub tracking these women through social networking sites, and that the unsub, using those sites, tells the victims' friends that "they are on vacation." The BAU assumes the unsub has already murdered his victims and discovers how the unsub manages to get into the houses through evidence found in their homes. They also quickly learn that the unsub uses the Internet for more than just tracking his victims. When Reid figures out the similar physical characteristics of the victims, the team is able to put together a profile. As the BAU gets closer to identifying the unsub and his next potential victim, he becomes more brazen by taunting the BAU, whom he knows is watching him. It becomes a war between computer expert Garcia and the computer expert unsub.
Episode 23
Our Darkest Hour
Wed, May 26, 201042 mins
In two separate incidents, an unsub has raped and/or killed in Los Angeles, California. The first victims, two females, were raped, tortured, then killed in the downtown area. Three days later in the suburbs, a woman, in her home, was raped repeatedly in front of her husband, the latter whom was ultimately killed. The wife was purposefully kept alive. These incidents have taken place in the area of the city where rolling blackouts have occurred that evening, the blackouts to combat excessive power use due to the heatwave. Garcia determines that the unsub has been at work for at least twenty-six years - raping and murdering during blackouts - the individual incidents never having been connected since he has never killed in the same city consecutively until now. In speaking to the detectives in charge, the BAU makes a connection to one of the first killings as the reason the unsub has returned to Los Angeles. From there, the BAU thinks they know who the next target will be. They have to rush to reach the target before the unsub does.
