Somebody's Watching
Directed by Paul Shapiro
Written by Edward Napier & Andrew Wilder
Written by Edward Napier & Andrew Wilder
Gideon: Diane Arbus once said, "A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know."
UnSub Maggie Lowe (Katheryn Winnick) stalks actress Lila Archer (Amber Heard) who is attracted to Reid, so when he is assigned as her security detail, things get interesting.
This episode provides examples of:
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Lila unwittingly finds herself in one between her stalker Maggie and her Love Interest Spencer Reid.
- The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House: Maggie calls Lila on her cell phone from inside Lila's house, where the latter is hiding from her stalker.
- Casting Gag: Amber Heard plays an unknown actress who had a minor role in a movie, like at the time Heard had had in Friday Night Lights.
- Comically Missing the Point: While Morgan, Reid, and Gideon discuss the wording of the stalker's letter using grammar terms, an LAPD detective asks them to speak English, to which Reid replies that they are.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: As it turns out, the UnSub turns out to be Lila's production assistant who occasionally talks to Lila during her recording sessions.
- Experimented in College: Averted. Lila had to crash with Maggie when the heat in her apartment went out. However, this solitude between the roommates caused Maggie to become obsessed with Lila.
- Gay Romantic Phase: According to Maggie, the heat went out in Lila's apartment one weekend and she had to stay in with Maggie to keep warm. Maggie calls this the best weekend of her life but Lila didn't feel the same way and simply tells her that was a long time ago in college.
- Hostage Situation: In the climax, Maggie gets desperate enough to invade Lila's house and hold her at gunpoint to make her profess her "love" to Maggie.
- Incompatible Orientation: Maggie is a lesbian and in love with her best friend Lila, who is straight.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Subverted. The BAU eliminates nearly the whole list of suspects because the stalker knew that Lila's favorite flower was red anemones, and she never mentioned it in interviews.
- Info Dump: In the beginning, Lila tries to have a conversation with Reid, but he just does this trope in response.
- Just Following Orders: Downplayed. Gideon gives Reid this excuse for not telling Lila earlier that her manager had been murdered.
- Kavorka Man: Lila takes an instant romantic interest in Spencer despite his quirkiness.
- Ms. Fanservice: Lila Archer is fairly attractive, and the episode has her in a bikini twice. The first time it's on the set of her TV series, "Emotional Cages", which is a drama about beach volleyball (the premise being picked obviously as an excuse for Archer to walk around in a bikini, just so Reid knows how attractive is the girl that's interested in him). The second time is when Reid is assigned to defend her at her house, where she decides to make a move on Reid, taking off her robe to go for a swim in a black bikini and pulling Reid into the pool and making out with him, and even gets a Sexy Surfacing Shot when she eventually exits the pool.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Maggie attempts to shoot Reid upon learning that Lila is in love with him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Germaphobic Reid takes a magazine out of the garbage and puts it in his desk drawer.
- Pool Scene: Reid is supposed to keep watch on Lila at her house, but she's dismissive of the danger and more concerned with seducing him so she takes off her bathrobe and goes on a night swim in a black bikini all while flirting with him, even managing to pull him into the pool and start a brief Two-Person Pool Party. There's also a fairly gratuitous Sexy Surfacing Shot when she gets out.
- Oblivious to Love: Reid. Poor Lila is pulling out everything and Reid insists she's suffering from "transference." After she's orchestrated a Two-Person Pool Party and in the middle of making out with him.
- Psycho Lesbian: Monster of the Week Maggie Lowe. She stalked Lila Archer for years after falling in love with her in college. She killed people who were either in Lila's way or competing for her attention.
- Red Herring: A paparazzi who stalks Lila becomes the first major suspect, but he turns out to be just a particularly annoying paparazzi.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Lila's situation is similar to Jodie Foster's situation with John Hinckley.
- Sexy Surfacing Shot: Lila Archer does this when she gets out of the pool after a make-out session with Reid in the water.
- Samus Is a Girl: Maggie wears a motorcycle mask and sex-concealing jacket in her early appearances as the UnSub, and the fact she's actually a woman is played as a major twist.
- Stalker with a Crush: Maggie has been obsessively attracted to Lila since Lila had to crash at her apartment once. Lila doesn't feel the same and is not even aware of Maggie's feelings. Maggie goes so far as to become a Serial Killer who targets the people whom she feels have "wronged" Lila, such as rival actresses.
- Two-Person Pool Party: Lila manages to pull Reid into the pool while he's still fully clothed, and they eventually start making out.
- Woman Scorned: Maggie doesn't react well to learning that Lila and Reid love each other.
- Yandere: Maggie. She murders anyone who she sees as a potential rival for Lila, and then she almost kills Lila when she learns that Lila likes Reid and doesn't reciprocate her feelings.
- You Owe Me: Maggie feels that she helped Lila to get to where she is now, via "eliminating" her competition, so she's now Entitled to Have You.
- Gideon: Bernard Shaw once said, "An American has no sense of privacy. He does not know what it means. There is no such thing in the country."
