Heathridge Manor
Directed by Matthew Gray Gubler
Written by Sharon Lee Watson
In an abandoned former psychological institution, a dead woman is found, dressed up in a Victorian-era dress, showing signs of starvation, torture, and strangely enough, pre-death drowning and rescuscitation. She turns out to be the victim of an Unsub who suffers the delusion that he's been given a holy mission to identify and execute witches.Written by Sharon Lee Watson
Prentiss: "We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell." Oscar Wilde.
Tropes present in this episode:
- An Arm and a Leg: Catherine, the UnSub's mother, chopped off her daughter's hand to make her less appealing to the devil.
- Downer Ending: Lara, the UnSub's little sister, who seemed healthy before then, has a delusion of the devil visiting her in the last scene, making it look as though she will follow her mother and brother in their delusions.
- Eldritch Location: The BAU team wonder if the manor is one of these, as each of its owners wind up insane.
- Killer Outfit: The modus operandi of the UnSub is to sew his victims into nicotine-laced dresses and wait for them to die.
- Trial by Ordeal: The Unsub uses the "Water Test" used during the Salem witch trials to identify witches, where the accused was submerged in water - if she was innocent, she'd drown, and if she was a witch, she'd survive and be executed. Since the only possible outcome is death either way, the victim has no chance of survival.
- Hotchner: "All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream." Edgar Allan Poe.
