Cold Comfort
Directed by Anna Foerstar
Written by Dan Dworkin & Jay Beattie
An UnSub embalms his victim, apparently to make it harder to determine time of death. An autopsy reveals that he embalms them while they're still alive, but probably waited until they were dead to rape them. The BAU profile him as a wealthy man who's awkward around women and lives in a big enough house to have an embalming studio in it, that he changes the women's appearances to resemble someone he lost, and that he will likely only kill his most recent victim if she gives in and pretends to be this dead woman.Written by Dan Dworkin & Jay Beattie
Jareau: "And so, all the night-tide, I lay down by the side, of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, in the sepulcher there by the sea, in her tomb by the sounding sea." Edgar Allan Poe.
Tropes
- Captain Obvious: As Hotch says: "An inability to relate socially is common in homicidal necrophiles".
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: When the psychic says that the location of the latest victim is somewhere that he can see water and rocks, and she's later found in a warehouse, Rossi is particularly smug that it was nowhere near a lake or the coast. Hotchner then pulls down the window coverings to reveal an ad mural painted on the opposite building with heavy water and rocks imagery.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Reid points out that the case resembles that of Ed Gein.
- Take That!: When Rossi tries to tear into the psychic for being an obvious conman, the man replies that there's a lot of people that don't believe in what Rossi does either. (Accurate to the real-world view of profiling, which many consider the law enforcement equivalent of astrology.)
- Visible Victimology: The embalmer kills blonde women due to their resemblance to someone he recently lost.
- What the Hell, Hero?: JJ calls Rossi out on letting his need to debunk the psychic turn into emotional abuse of the mother of the victim.
- Western Zodiac: Garcia and Kevin read their horoscopes, and find out that Emily is a Libra by consulting Reid's mental birthdate register.
- Rossi: "For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible." Stuart Chase.
