In last week’s episode, the team solved the case of an Unsub who believed he was killing witches and Garcia brought everyone together for a Day of the Dead celebration. In tonight’s episode, “Gatekeeper”, Matthew Gray Gubler steps behind the camera once again in an episode that sees the agents investigate an Unsub who likes to keep mementos of his victims. Read on to find out what the minds behind Criminal Minds have in-store for us this week.
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Memories
The agents head to Boston after three men are found strangled to death. The Unsub steals his victims’ wallets and takes a lock of their hair as a way to remember them. After a teenage boy is killed, JJ speaks with the boy’s friend — who witnessed the murder — and learns that the Unsub is taking pictures of his victims. It turns out that the Unsub is a voyeur and he is working with a specific deadline, so his kills are getting more desperate.
It Must Be Bunnies
The third victim spent the night with a girl right before he was killed and the girl might be able to identify the Unsub. Alas, the only clues they have as to the girl’s identity are her name and the fact that she likes bunnies. This frustrates Garcia to no end, but she manages to repair the victim’s broken cell-phone and finds the girl in question via the nickname “Bunny”. (Yes, I managed to work two Whedonverse references into this section.)
Unfortunately, before the agents can question the girl, she has the bad luck of stumbling across the Unsub’s lair and he kills her when she tries to escape. But Bunny, real name Ashley, was not part of the Unsub’s plan and he makes mistakes when trying to cover up her murder that help the agents identify him.
Baby Spencer
After Ashley’s murder, the agents realize that the Unsub is stalking residents who live in his building and killing people they interact with. Garcia looks into the Unsub’s background and learns that he recently lost a child. In the wake of his son’s death, the Unsub adopted his neighbors as his new family and killed people he saw as bad influences on them. The agents learn that the Unsub’s wife is about to have a baby and his deadline is now up because she has past her due date.
The Unsub kidnaps his wife the day after their baby is due, in the hope that they can be a family again once the baby is born. The Unsub’s wife is not interested in that and rejects his attempt at reconciliation, but our team arrives before the Unsub can respond to said rejection. As Morgan arrests the Unsub, Reid steps in to deliver the baby. It turns out that Reid read up on delivery procedures when JJ was pregnant, in case she went into labor in the field. The delivery is difficult, but Reid does an excellent job and the Unsub’s wife names the new baby after him.
Rossi Says Goodbye
In tonight’s B-plot, Rossi is devastated to learn that his favorite bar is closing. Rossi has a long history with said bar, as it was where he met his first wife and became friends with Ringo Starr. After solving their latest case, the agents go to the bar to give it a proper send-off. Hotch arranges a special treat by forcing Rossi to sing karaoke. Rossi asks the rest of the team to join him in said singing and they are all terrible. But it’s a cute moment, so we will forgive the bad singing.
What do you think of tonight’s episode? Did you find tonight’s Unsub sympathetic? Were you impressed with Spencer’s medical skills? Did you like the last-minute karaoke session? Hit the comments section and let us know your thoughts.
Criminal Minds airs Wednesdays at 9pm on CBS.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
