Route 66
A man who witnessed his father's suicide when he was five, and spent days alone with the body during a heatwave, has understandably ended up on the wrong path. When he gets out of prison, he abducts his own daughter and tries to escape to Mexico with her.
Tropes in this episode
- Bait-and-Switch: The episode begins with two teens making out in the back of a car, implying they're about to be victims of Terror at Make-Out Point when they're set upon. Then it turns out the attacker is the girl's father.
- Call-Back: Hotch has to sit this one out on account of old injuries.
- Clip Show: In Hotch's dream sequence, he and Haley watch clips of Jack, Hotch and Beth from former episodes.
- Daddy's Girl: The UnSub's daughter is clearly a lot closer to him than her mother.
- Dead Person Conversation: As he's fighting for his life in surgery, Hotch dreams of his dead wife Haley. She urges him to choose to be happy and commit to his new girlfriend Beth.
- Dream Land: Hotch is in a weird one. An empty theater, his dead wife all dressed up, and then her murderer, whom he murdered, shows up and is friendly with Haley. No wonder he spends most of his time looking confused.
- Freudian Excuse: The UnSub's mother died in childbirth, his father committed suicide when he was 5 and he's desperate for the happy family life with his daughter that he never got to have.
- The Lost Lenore: Haley, Hotch's ex-wife, who was murdered back in Season 5.
- Motive Misidentification: The profilers believe that the UnSub is out to hurt his daughter, that he double-crossed his partner, and that he is on a killing spree. They are convinced he is evolving into a serial killer. The UnSub is actually trying to help his daughter who wanted to run away from home, he was double-crossed by his partner, and his other killings were not premeditated. He killed one person in self-defense, and another when he reached for a gun.
- No Kill like Overkill: The UnSub's trigger was his partner trying to double-cross him after an armed robbery gone bad. The partner tried to shoot him from behind, but his gun jammed, after which the predictably furious UnSub emptied his gun into his partner.
- Papa Wolf: The UnSub is first introduced when he stops his daughter's boyfriend from pressuring her into sex, then beats the kid to within an inch of his life.
- Suicide by Cop: What the B.A.U. fear the UnSub is going to do when he's finally cornered. His daughter talks him out of it, insisting she'd rather he's alive in prison where she can at least see him, than lose him.
Hotchner: "Life is a dream, realize it." Mother Theresa.
