Outfoxed
Directed by John Gallagher
Written by Simon Mirren
An UnSub copies the M.O. of Karl "The Fox" Arnold, killing families and taking the wedding rings, except that where he killed the father last, she kills families while the father is overseas on military duty. Hotch and Prentiss go to interview Arnold in the psychiatric unit. Later, Prentiss comes back alone and pretends to find Arnold fascinating, which works in a way Hotch's intimidation tactics never could. Reid deduces from the positioning of the bodies that the UnSub is familiar with mass graves, but it is Prentiss who figures out that she kills the girls last because she was the one left alive after her family dies in the war in Bosnia.Written by Simon Mirren
Morgan: "Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else, unless it's an enemy." Albert Einstein.
Tropes
- The Berserker: The UnSub is one due to her psychosis, to the point she's able to overpower the taller and heavier Morgan.
- Blood from the Mouth: The UnSub after she's fatally shot by Morgan.
- Call-Back: To the Fox, family annihilator.
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: The team decides to consult Karl Arnold when a new family annihilator emerges. When they get in contact with Arnold, they find out that it seems as though the new killer has contacted him. Turns out she didn't (although he did accidentally give Prentiss the idea to suspect a female killer) and the note was actually from a much worse source: The Boston Reaper.
- Evil Gloating: Arnold indulges in this once Hotch starts to realize who's been communicating with him. "It's great to see you squirm, Agent Hotchner".
- Failed a Spot Check: Lucy goes swimming in the pool, and does not notice that her family is shot a few feet away, nor that the killer walks into the pool she is swimming in before she drags her under.
- Freudian Excuse:
- The UnSub lost her family to American soldiers, so she goes after the families of American soldiers.
- Prentiss implies that Arnold was raped by his father as a child, and that by killing the fathers last he was killing his own abusive father over and over.
- Fetus Terrible: Reid audits a class where the professor talks about how, if a fetal brain produces too much serotonin in the womb, the brain is primed to become a psychopath.
- Gun Struggle: Morgan ends up in one of these with the UnSub. He's able to disarm and then fatally shoot her.
- No, You: Arnold says suffocating the girl is everything to the killer, but Hotch says that is true of Arnold, not the UnSub.
- Oh, Crap!: Hotch when he realizes the killer communicating with Karl Arnold is not their Unsub but George Foyet.
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Retroactive Recognition: A young Sydney Sweeney plays little Dani Forester. - Samus Is a Girl: The BAU assumes the UnSub is a man, but no.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Arnold was never a good guy, but he's actually worse now. The previous episode depicted him as a control-freak and a serial killer, but his crimes had no sexual motive. This episode turns him into a serial rapist and and a pedophile.
- Tragic Villain: The UnSub is a female survivor of the Srebrenica genocide who is triggered to kill whenever military-related noises, like planes flying over, cause her to have flashbacks to what she suffered there. Rossi even points out that a psychotic person growing up in the middle of a war zone like that was never going to turn out well.
- Wham Shot: Hotch starts flipping through the newspaper clippings sent to Arnold, and stops when he sees one marked with the Eye of Providence, revealing to everyone the real person he was communicating with: The Reaper.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- The UnSub has no compunction about killing children.
- Karl Arnold speaks fondly of murdering children, and it is strongly implied that he raped the girls.
