3rd Life
Directed by Anthony Hemingway
Written by Simon Mirren
A widowed Boston mobster quits the life and goes into witness protection with his daughter. Years later, a group of high school boys make the grave mistake of kidnapping his daughter and her friend. The friend is found dead, and the BAU get involved. When they figure the UnSubs have probably taken the girls to a currently abandoned high school building, the former mobster goes after them with the blessing of the parents of the dead girl. After he kills one of the kidnappers in cold blood, he and his daughter have to move somewhere else and come up with new names and backstories.Written by Simon Mirren
Hotchner: "No man or woman who tries to pursue an ideal in his or her own way is without enemies." Daisy Bates.
Tropes
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When finally cornered by the vengeful father of his victim, the final UnSub desperately begs for his life. It doesn't do him any good.
- Asshole Victim: The three Unsubs were vicious teens who decided to kidnap and rape a couple of teenage girls for fun. When finally rescued, Lindsey even urges her father to kill the last one, saying he deserves to die for murdering Katie.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Reid tries to convince Jack that it's not worth killing the final UnSub. He notes accurately that Jack fought for years to give his daughter a better life, and he doesn't have to return to the cycle of violence. However, Jack and Lindsey retort that this UnSub brutally raped, tortured, and murdered an innocent girl and has no remorse for it.
- Cassandra Truth: Lindsey repeatedly tells the UnSubs how her father's going to kill them, the boys not realizing that she's the only reason Jack's no longer a hitman.
- Dirty Coward: The final UnSub goes from being a leering rapist to a sniveling coward in two seconds flat, once he ends up on the receiving end of Jack's rage.
- Due to the Dead: The final scene of the episode is of Lindsey and Jack at their new home and life in Atlanta, the former introducing herself as Katie: the name of her best friend who was murdered.
- Double-Meaning Title: The first life Lindsey sees taken is Katie's; the second, a kid who wanted to leave the group; the third is that of Katie's murderer. Likewise, the life as a hitman was Jack's first; his life in a town in California, his second; and at the end of the episode he starts a third one in Atlanta.
- Foreshadowing: The end quote takes nine more seasons to pay off.
- I Gave My Word: Katie's father helped Jack get to the boys who kidnapped their daughters on the condition that Jack avenge Katie's murder. When Lindsey identifies the boy who killed Katie, he doesn't seem to feel like he has much of a choice.
- Knee-capping: When one of his daughter's abductors tries to resist him, Jack promptly makes the boy more talkative by obliterating his right knee with a shotgun.
- Mugging the Monster: The UnSubs who kidnapped Lindsey and Katie got more than they bargained for when it turns out Lindsey's father is a former hitman for the mob.
- Papa Wolf: Jack, but also Katie's dad, who tells Jack where to find the UnSubs on the condition that he kills Katie's murderers.
- Red Herring: Jack's mobster connections have nothing to due with Katie and Lindsey's abductions.
- Retired Monster: The reason Jack turned state's evidence has nothing to do with some moral epiphany, but is because he promised his wife on her deathbed he'd protect their daughter from his lifestyle. He has zero compunction to going back to his old ways if it means getting his daughter back.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: One of the UnSubs freaked out after Katie's murder when he realised they were in too deep and tried to back out. Fearing he'd go to the cops, the ringleader fatally stabbed him.
- Shout-Out:
- Katie recorded a video of herself singing Rihanna's Umbrella into her hairbrush.
- Averted with Emerald Sea of Dreams, the novel Lindsey plagiarized her backstory from, which is completely fictional.
- Teens Are Monsters: The culprits are three teenage boys, the oldest of the three being the leader, who got drunk and got it in their heads that they should kidnap a couple of girls to brutally rape and murder them.
- Tempting Fate: As she was being held hostage by her rapist abductor, Lindsey coldly tells him what he plans to do to her will be nothing compared to what her dad will do to him once he finds him. The rapist mockingly tells her, "Ooh, I'm scared". A second later, Jack sneaks up and bashes him in the head with his shotgun. Seeing the angry father of his intended victim pointing a loaded shotgun at his face makes him scared for real. He tries to beg for his life. His plea was ignored.
- Villains Want Mercy: The final UnSub pleads for his life once Jack corners him moments after he planned to rape and kill Lindsey. He's messily shot dead.
- What You Are in the Dark: Reid deals with a moral dilemma at the end: he saw Jack execute a young man, after trying to reason with him. He notes that getting Jack arrested would traumatize Lindsey further, and he's the only witness. Rossi tells him that it's his choice what to do. Reid decides to let Jack and Lindsey start a new life, and vows to not let another "kid" get killed on his watch no matter how monstrous they are.
- Witness Protection: Jack is a former hitman for a Boston-based mob who turned state's evidence after the death of his wife, in a car crash that was deliberately meant for him.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Reid tells Jack this so he won't kill the third teenage boy, even as Lindsey is shouting at him to do it. He reminds Jack that he worked hard to get out of the cycle of violence to protect his daughter. Sadly, it doesn't work, but Jack acknowledges that Reid did have faith in him.
- Hotchner: "It is a wise father who knows his own child." William Shakespeare.
