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Target Rich
Original Air Date: Nov 11, 2015
Caitlin- Senior Staff Writer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com
I don’t want to just say it’s been entirely too long since we’ve seen JJ, because her absence was due to her maternity leave- and AJ Cook’s own leave with her beautiful new baby boy- but let’s face it. It’s been entirely too long since we’ve seen JJ. Tonight, we remedy that with her joyful return!
Now, here’s the bad news- her joyful return, with Reid and Garcia and everyone being adorable, with presents and toasts and hugs, is just an opening meant to lull us into a false sense of security so that we don’t expect the multiple blows that get thrown at our characters- or the final terrifying kicker.
So you’ll remember our crazy, jaw-cutting friend whose associates are going to be sent after “The Dirty Dozen”? Yeah, well Morgan goes to try to talk to that guy in prison only to have him start choking up blood and drop dead. He was poisoned by a guard who was then himself shot dead. Let me tell you right now that however much that worries you, you should be even more worried. But before we can get into why, Rossi’s daughter Joy shows up at the FBI with a case involving kidnapped girls.
She’s been following the disappearances of several girls and has gotten a call about another one, Bonnie, who just went missing. Rossi gets Hotch on board pretty quickly and they begin investigating just as we see Bonnie trapped in the trunk of the car of a creepy guy who knocks her out when she screams. Morgan and Reid go to Bonnie’s college while the others learn she was an A+ student who abruptly dropped her classes. Bonnie’s sister, Asia, says that was only due to stress.
Morgan and Reid talk to Bonnie’s friend, the last known person to see her. They went to a party and got drunk before Bonnie tried to walk home alone. Security footage shows a man following her. It’s unclear whether he’s the same one who has her, but our unsub makes this class A scary. He carries Bonnie upstairs over his shoulder while his asshole father is in another room, then he locks her in a trunk. Finally, he responds to her screams by stabbing peepholes in the drunk. Counter-productive, dude.
Joy is very upset about Bonnie’s disappearance. Understandably so, but her reaction is extreme for reasons we’ll learn soon. For now, things just continue to get more disturbing. The unsub puts a collar around Bonnie’s neck- a collar attached to a leash that keeps her from getting to any doors or windows. Now, if you’re going to do that, I don’t see why you can’t at least also take the duct tape off her hands, but I guess our guy- who does seem nearly as freaked as she is- can’t be bothered.
Joy’s involvement is emotional blow one. We get blow two when Reid and JJ are walking around the crime scene and he confesses to her that his mom’s condition has been getting worse. She’s touched he told her, but is deeply concerned- as am I. That, too, has to go on the back burner, because she and Rossi need to brief the press and attempt to reach out to our unsub. Considering the kind of person his father is, though, I’m thinking this guy is beyond the help a bit on a news station can offer.
The guy from the security footage shows up of his own will, and let me tell you, he is sketchy as all get out. He claims to be a sober cab driver who was only concerned about Bonnie, but then looked away when another guy took her under his wing. His story checks out, so he must be released. Joy is not pleased. So not pleased, in fact, that she tracks him down herself just as we realize that he did not kidnap Bonnie but he did kidnap all the other girls. Which, seriously? That’s a heck of a coincidence.
Joy tracks this guy down under the guise of an interview. He says he didn’t call the police because he felt guilty about not doing anything. That’s suspicious enough, but when he throws her against a wall to “demonstrate” what he saw, it gets downright alarming. Joy asks him about another of the missing girls, and he just scoffs. JJ and a very pissed off Rossi arrive. When the later demands to know what Joy was thinking, she says she was attacked by and fought off a man who may have been the same guy. (We later learn he was not.)
This unsub brings Bonnie her usual order from her favorite Chinese place and suggests he’s doing all this because he cares for her before unbinding her hands. It should come as no surprise, then, that our guy- whose name we learn is Tom- was abused by the father he must now care for and has become basically a walking PSA for what abuse can do. The good news is, Bonnie is amazingly resourceful, making a pepper spray from pepper flakes and water. The bad news is, the plan fails when Tom overpowers her.
The team is racing towards Tom and his father’s house. Bonnie, not knowing what a royal dirtbag Tom’s father is, thinks she’s saved when he shows up. Instead, he wants to kill her. Tom won’t let him. They struggle, and Tom winds up killing the man (good riddance) just as the team arrives. They arrest him and free Bonnie from her bonds so she can be returned to her sister. And there’s other happy news as well- like Joy taking her father’s last name and Reid planning to visit his mom.
And then, just when you think we’ve had too many ups and downs already, we get the last scene. Morgan finds Garcia hiding out in her office- hiding from what she knows is coming for her. Because of her past hacks, she is part of the Dirty Dozen. Morgan tries to reassure her, but she points out that these killers managed to get to another killer while he was in prison. We leave on the traumatic note of this new and very real threat to her- and possibly the whole team as well. Someone hold me.
Next Week: Awake