Criminal Minds 10/1/08

Is it just me or does Criminal Minds have the best/worst suspense moments. We know the person is going to get killed, but yikes, it scares me.

Opening scene is a woman getting bludgeoned with a hammer.

Hotch is in trying to get approved to return to duty. Says the ringing in his ears doesn't bother him as much as the pain. He pulls the "you will sign off on my return to duty?" Jedi mind trick, and she says she will as long as he promises to stay out of noisy situations. Mmmm hmmm.

The team is off to Ohio because the woman who got bludgeoned had also been raped. The DNA came back to a man known as the Angel Maker, who had been executed a year to the day before.

Hotch has problems on the plane with his ears, and ignores Morgan's question as to whether he'd been cleared for duty.

In Ohio the murder scene is identical to the Angel Maker's previous crimes, including details not released to the public. One of the signatures of the killer is random screw driver holes punched in the stomach post mortem. All of them different in pattern and number.

To the prison where the execution took place. They interview a guard who "knows nothing" but later ends up dead. In his apartment they find all of the memorabilia that is being sold to commemorate the Angel Maker. Also found in his apartment, a bottle of Viagra, and the team deduces that the unsub is a woman. They also deduce that if the guard could smuggle out all of his creations, it would be no problem to smuggle out some sperm to give to the copycat killer.

There are rumors floating around the small town, that the Angel Maker made good on his promise to return from the dead. The sheriff in an attempt to quell the panic, has the body exhumed. Guess what. No body.

So, we know there is killer sperm floating around out there, none appears to have been sold on Ebay, or anything creepy like that. Besides planting misleading DNA evidence to exonerate a serial killer, what else can we use sperm for? Oh, yeah, babies. Garcia checks the local birth records and discover that one of the jurors who convicted the Angel Maker had given birth to a baby, it had died shortly after birth. They check the latest victims schedules and determine that both had met with said juror the day they were killed.

They found letters that had been exchanged between the Angel Maker and several local women. One revealed they were in love, and admitted that she had once received a letter that was not intended for her. Her love letters were all eloquent, and the one addressed to "My Dove" were lame. They pull the letters to the Dove and realized they are encrypted messages. Reid says he'd need the ability to clone himself and a years supply of Adderall to solve the puzzle without the key. But he did it anyway.

Morgan and Prentiss were outside, admiring the night sky when Prentiss noticed one of the constellations looked a lot like the post mortem screw driver holes on the latest victim. She looked it up and found that all of the 6 women that the Angel Maker and 2 of the women from the copycat killer had the constellations stabbed into them. They also learned that this group of constellations, contained 9 groups. Meaning they were looking for the copycat's next victim.

The team goes over to the juror's house, she's gone. She has a wonderfully decorated nursery, with all of the constellations on the ceiling. In the corner, a trunk, containing the body of dear old dad. What nursery decor is complete without a body? They discover that the killer had an appointment with her accountant that day. They race over to the accountants house, only to find that the copycat killer's car is out front. Luckily, they find that all of the windows are still closed, one of the signatures of the killer is that they opened all of the windows after the killing to release the soul to the heavens.

Just as the copycat is about to bludgeon the CPA, the team starts up the lights and sirens in the front yard (good for Hotch's ears), and Prentiss starts reading carefully crafted note cards that Reid had prepared to throw off the killer. Morgan sneaks in the back, gets the intended victim out of the house. The killer makes her way to the front yard, looks skyward and says "I'm coming baby" and pulls a gun. Causing her to get shot, also good for Hotch. They discover she had stabbed the final constellation in her own stomach, to finish the job her beloved had started.

Hotch opts to drive back to Quantico.