A Rite of Passage
Directed by John Gallagher
Written by Victor De Jesus
Decapitated corpses are discovered in the desert near the Mexican border, in Texas. Heads are left outside people's houses. Locals think it is the doing of Santa Muerte, or at least that's who they're blaming.Written by Victor De Jesus
Prentiss: "A lion's work hours are only when he's hungry; once he's satisfied, the predator and prey live peacefully together." Chuck Jones.
Provides examples of
- Asshole Victim: Omar Morales, while not the UnSub, is a drug kingpin and goes into grisly details about how he tortures his victims, so the audience is unlikely to be upset when the real killer shoots him dead.
- Bigot with a Badge: The UnSub is obviously one, but the other deputy, Gentry, also says racist things as well.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: A variation. With Boyd driving straight at them, Morgan has to shoot through the windshield of the SUV to take him down, prompting Prentiss in the driver's seat to complain afterwards about him busting her eardrums from firing an automatic weapon next to her. Morgan retorts that there weren't exactly a lot of other options.
- Cop Killer: Boyd graduates to one when he shoots Sheriff Ruiz, then Deputy Gentry.
- Decapitation Presentation: One of the victim's heads is left outside Sheriff Ruiz's house to intimidate her.
- Disability Alibi: Inverted. The BAU notices that "Santa Muerte" the UnSub chases his victims with an ATV and assume it's a matter of convenience (moving large distances in the desert on foot is not easy) but eventually figure out that the UnSub has problems with his one of his legs and thus chasing after his victims on foot is not an option. Sure enough, Boyd has a limp.
- Frame-Up: Boyd tries to frame Morales by mutilating Sheriff Ruiz's corpse in the way he described, then placing the gun that killed Gentry in his hand after shooting the two of them.
-
Karmic Overkill: Deputy Gentry doesn’t hide his condescending opinions of illegal immigrants, but that still doesn’t justify Boyd shooting him dead. Especially since he’s shown to be horrified that Boyd went to the local Cartel’s hangout and shot them all dead unprovoked. Not to mention pointing out that Boyd can’t claim self-defense for killing Omar because the man is unarmed. - Killer Cop: Boyd is a Sheriff's Deputy who also happens to be a Serial Killer.
- Machete Mayhem: Boyd kills his victims using a machete.
- More Dakka: Knowing that they are going to a hot spot of Cartel activity, the team break out sub-machine guns just in case. They come in handy for taking out Boyd.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Sheriff Ruiz when she realizes that Boyd fits the killer's profile.
- Deputy Boyd when he hears over the radio that the BAU are onto him.
- The BAU when they find the graves outside Boyd's trailer and realize how many people he's killed.
- Oppressive Immigration Enforcement: The serial killer of the week is Ronald Boyd, a crazy sheriff's deputy of a New Mexico border town who spends his nights hunting down illegal immigrants trying to sneak into the United States and killing them. When the BAU arrives in town because of the huge body count he has left behind, he escalates to insane levels to not be caught, including annihilating a local Cartel group to try to frame them for the deaths, killing a fellow deputy when he is a witness, and trying to shoot it out with the FBI agents. He's even infuriated his boss Sheriff Ruiz investigated his victims' disappearances, declaring his victims can't be missing as they "ain't supposed to be here in the first damn place" right before killing him.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: An Implied Trope with Deputy Boyd; he offhandedly mentions that the victims "ain't supposed to be here in the first damn place", but it's never made entirely clear if this was his motive or if it just means he selected them because they wouldn't be missed.
- A Rare Sentence: Reid says: "Contrary to popular belief, decapitation is not that easy." Rossi comments on how rare it is to hear the words "popular" and "decapitation" in the same sentence.
- Serial Killer: Deputy Boyd hunts down and kills illegal immigrants, and also kills Ruiz, Gentry, Morales and several unnamed Cartel members.
- Sherlock Scan: At the Cartel’s hangout, the team quickly notes the scene was staged: Omar was killed by a shotgun, but Deputy Gentry only has a pistol.
- Villain of the Week: Deputy Ronald Boyd.
- Villainous Breakdown: After things stop going his way, Boyd "devolves", shoots three cartel members and his partner, goes on the run, and goes out Defiant to the End, firing on the BAU with a sub-machine gun rather than surrender.
- What the Hell, Hero?: JJ and Morgan warn Deputy Gentry that his inability to keep his racist remarks to himself is going to hinder the progress of their investigation.
- Hotchner: "Many persons have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose." Helen Keller.
