Awakenings
Reid finds JJ bleeding out in the garage as Lynch and his daughter escape. She survives, but accidentally confesses to loving Reid within earshot of her husband. In the meantime, Grace convinces her father not to split up. They murder a couple in their home. Everett says he can contain himself from cutting the woman's face off, so as not to give the police any obvious leads, but Grace encourages him, wanting to be sympathetic.Grace reconnects with an old girlfriend and assaults her, then impersonates her at her bank and withdraws large sums from a safe deposit box. Matt and Luke find a dead woman whose face and hands are cut off at Charlotte's house, only to find Charlotte alive in a different room, leading them to conclude that the dead body is Grace's. Roberta denies it, though the team figures the reason she kept Grace away from him was that she knew he would project his anger onto her at some point.
Tropes
- Amicable Exes: Grace visits her ex-girlfriend, Charlotte Burke, who hopes to rekindle their relationship. Grace and Everett take advantage of her to steal her money.
- The Bus Came Back: Diana Reid, Spencer's mother, reappears after not having been seen since "Red Light".
- Call-Back: Reid and JJ finally have a serious talk about what came out in the previous season finale, and she confesses again that she loves him, and again she reiterates that it's too late to act on.
- Continuity Nod: When Prentiss notes that Grace was reluctant to take the Marshall's gun from her father, Luke points out that Grace cut him without hesitation, so she's not that reluctant to resort to violence.
- Continuity Snarl: In season four we learned that Reid's father left to keep his wife out of jail, but Diana remembers it as him leaving because of the rollercoaster brought on by her condition, and nothing is made of it.
- Death Faked for You: Played with. The Lynch family being what they are, after Roberta faked Grace's death to Everett and told Grace her father was dead, Grace tells Charlotte Roberta is dead.
- Idiot Ball: Grace has so far shown a fair bit of guile, but figures it would be nice to indulge her father's sexual fetish for cutting the faces off newly murdered middle-aged women, apparently not understanding that they represent his own mother, who raised her. Not long after, he murders Grace and cuts her face off.
- Momma's Boy: Reid feels like this, saying he doesn't know who he is if he isn't Diana's son, a role he worries about losing if Diana dies. Diana tells him to stop thinking like that.
- Shout-Out: End quote: A. A. Milne wrote: "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard."
- Title Drop: Diana's doctor explains that "awakenings" like the one Diana is having, where her Alzheimer's seems to be gone, are fairly common and never last.
- What Could Have Been: In-universe, Reid discusses with his mother what could have been between him and JJ.
