In The Blood
Directed by Michael Lange
Written by Bruce Zimmerman
An Unsub executes women as witches and self-flagellates. Then he starts killing men as well. When a woman has the nerve to check out his favorite library book about witchcraft, he kidnaps her and her daughter.Written by Bruce Zimmerman
Reid: "After all, what are men but a horde of ghosts? Oaks that were acorns that were oaks." Walter de la Mare.
Tropes in this episode
- Asshole Victim: The only male victim of the episode was a local sex offender who was stalking a young mother and her daughter. The guy had a long list of crimes in his past, but he was probably killed just because he had asked whether he could buy a book about witchcraft from the library.
- Callback: For Garcia's Day of the Dead celebration, the team brings photos. Those include Maeve Donovan, Reid's girlfriend who was murdered in Season 8, Haley Hotchner, Hotch's wife who was murdered in Season 5, JJ's sister Roslyn who committed suicide and Morgan's father who died on duty before the series.
- Red Herring: Several in this episode. One of the victims was a former member of a utopian cult, and the profilers noted superficial similarities with the murder of another cult member that took place half—a-decade ago. The cult leader is viewed as a suspect by the profilers. Another of the victims had a secret drug habit, and the profilers suspected that the killer may have been on a vigilante mission against drug users. As seen later, the Unsub knew nothing about his victims' respective pasts and these details had nothing to do with the murders. All (except one) of the victims were bibliophiles, and the Unsub was choosing victims among the people who regularly visited a local library.
- Shout-Out:
- To express his dark side, Reid quotes Dirty Harry. Then he explains that he was quoting Dirty Harry.
- A cop compares the case to The Scarlet Letter.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Several scenes are seen through the eyes of the killer. He views his victims as 17th-century witches, he is speaking to a frenzied crowd, and he sees monk-like figures performing some kind of ritual. The victims do not resemble what he sees, and the other figures are figments of his imagination.
- Witch Hunt: What the UnSub believes he's on.
- Garcia: Mitch Albom said, "Death ends a life, not a relationship."
