- As the BAU investigates targeted killings in Tampa, they also deal with their own feelings about the loss of Prentiss.
- Hotch is assigned as the team's grief assessor in Prentiss' death. A common theme among some on the team is who is acting as his grief assessor. Meanwhile, the team travels to Tampa, Florida, where a woman that morning entered a gun shop and shot four dead. When they arrive at the gun shop, the team realize that she brought her own ammunition into the shop and used one of the shop's own guns as the weapon. That shooting and two subsequent events show the BAU that she has some issue with authority. As they track her movement through Tampa, they also realize that she is not on the run but has a specific target that she needs to get to on this specific day. They have to figure out who that target is and the significance of the date in her life.—Huggo
- Derek and Hotch meet in the former's office to discuss the death of Emily. Derek doesn't like it -- baby boy doesn't want to talk about his feelings. Hotch suggests that Derek is angry. "Yes, sometimes I want to quit my job and chase down the sonofabitch who killed Emily," Derek barks. "You're damn right I'm angry!" Hotch nods. It's understandable.
Meanwhile, a young woman awakens from a horrible dream (memory?) in which she is being wheeled down a hospital corridor before a doctor injects her with a sedative. She walks to the closet and pulls out a cache of bullets. The woman then heads to the local gun store and requests a .38 revolver. Alas, she doesn't have a license or permit. Rather than wait three days, the woman waits until the clerk is distracted before taking the gun and loading it with bullets from her pocket. She then OPENS FIRE, killing four.
CUT to BAU headquarters, where the team examines the mass murder in Tampa. "Witnesses say she was really calm," Garcia says. Suggests Hotch: "She's probably not finished." Probably not. The team soon arrives at the gun shop. Rossi immediately notices that a .38 is missing from the case. "She brought bullets from home and came in unarmed," Hotch says. But why kill all the men in the shop? "They were in the way," Hotch suggests. CUT to the woman, who calls a man named Don but gets a voice message. She demands that the man meet her at the mall. Later, the woman waits at the mall and notices a small boy has tripped and hurt his knee. She tries to comfort the boy, but is interrupted by a security guard, who takes the boy to his mother. "He needs me!" the woman protests. "He needs me!" She then pulls the .38 and SHOOTS the guard.
Back at the office, Reid theorizes that the unsub was in an abusive relationship and took the bullets from her husband/boyfriend, who might have had locked up her weapon. But that theory is pretty thin. Rossi and Hotch arrive at the scene and wonder why the unsub didn't kill more people. Again, Hotch theorizes that only the guard got in her way. Who is she hoping to confront? CUT to the woman sitting in her car at a police roadblock. She imagines (remembers?) that she has been in an accident. When she doesn't pull forward, an officer approaches her window. She remembers her young son in the backseat ... bleeding. "Why won't you help him!?" she asks the cop, who is understandably confused as the woman is alone in the car. The cop tells the woman to step out of her vehicle. Instead, she SHOOTS him and speeds off, nearly running down another officer.
Later, at a traffic light, she daydreams of happier days with her husband, Don, and her little boy. Honking horns bring her back to reality. CUT to police headquarters, where the team studies the map. The woman's movements are erratic, but clearly indicate that she is not seeking escape. "She may have suffered a loss and is blaming someone for it," Derek suggests. The team then delivers its profile to the assembled cops: the woman likely lost a child -- and not from natural causes. She blames someone and is seeking that person out -- today. "This rampage is her final attempt to be heard," Rossi says.
Hotch then has an idea: why not let the woman know that the FBI is willing to listen? He goes before the press and speaks sympathetically toward the unsub, telling her that his team knows she has a "special message" to share. "We are listening," Hotch says. "We want to know how we can help." Meanwhile, Don returns home to hear a message from his former wife on his answering machine. As he listens, the woman appears at the door. "You're supposed to stay 100 yards away from me," Don says. The woman complains that "no one remembers" and that she only wants to talk. Don agrees to hear her out.
The woman walks inside and notices that Don has no reminders of the boy in the house. "You're just like everybody else," she says. "You'd rather forget him than admit you couldn't save him." Back at police headquarters, Garcia looks through accident reports from the previous years and finds a high-speed chase that ended with a liquor-store thief crashing into a car driven by mother Shelley Chamberlain, killing the woman's son. "It was 365 days ago to the dot," says Garcia, who also notes that it was the boy's birthday. "Your son enters and leaves your life on the same date," Rossi observes. "That's one hell of a stresser." Garcia notes that the boy's death did not receive as much press as a cop who was killed prior to the accident. Clearly, the mother has had a psychotic break.
CUT to Don's home, where Shelley asks if the father will go to their deceased son's favorite spot to celebrate his birthday. Sometime later, the team BURSTS through the door of Shelley's house to find all the mirrors broken. They also find the bullets. Rossi theorizes that her ex-husband Don took the gun when he moved out after the divorce. The boy's room, meanwhile, has been perfectly preserved. "She can't let it go," Rossi says. CUT to Reid and Derek, who enter Don's house to find it empty. Reid finds a box containing items from the dead boy's life. It appears as if the family spent his last three birthdays at a local burger joint. This could be a lead ...
Indeed, Don and Shelley are at the burger joint. Shelley orders a "birthday surprise," but the server says its policy only to serve it to children. Don suggests that Shelley order something else and she becomes very, very angry. She pulls a gun, accusing Don of not caring that the boy is gone. Don tells his ex wife that there is "not a day that goes by" that he doesn't grieve for his son. "At some point, we have to move on!" Don says. Shelley then notices a nearby table has received the birthday surprise. She gets up and approaches the celebrating family, who cowers from the crazed woman with the firearm. "We're going to stay and we're going to celebrate," a smiling Shelley tells the terrified family.
Hotch enters the burger joint, intent on talking to Shelley. "I'm with the FBI," he says. "I know its Damien's birthday and I just want to say how sorry I am for what happened." Hotch then pulls out a photo of the boy. "I want you to have it back," says Hotch, who takes a few steps closer. "All the hurt you inflict on people won't bring him back . . . you have to stop blaming yourself." Shelley begins to weep -- and recalls the accident. Apparently, she was turning around to yell at Damien for kicking the back of her seat when the car was struck. She remembers telling him that the sirens mean that "Daddy's coming." and that Daddy was going to save them. "But you didn't come." she sobs. Don apologizes. "Losing him was not your fault," says Hotch, stepping closer still. Hotch hands Shelley the picture -- and Don takes the gun. She studies the photo of her family . . . and cries.
CUT to Hotch's office, where we return to the opening scene. Derek blames himself for not arriving 60 seconds earlier to save Emily. "She was my friend," Derek says. "I lost my friend right in front of me. And I'm supposed to go on like nothing happened?" The grieving continues.
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