X
Directed by Glenn Kershaw
Written by Erica Messer
Written by Erica Messer
Rossi: "I remained too much inside my head, and ended up losing my mind." Edgar Allen Poe.
An UnSub has a thing for cut-off frozen body parts, which he buys online. The real UnSub takes them from his victims while they're still alive. In the end we find out the real real UnSub is a team of human traffickers who kidnap joggers and sell them online, but the BAU doesn't learn about that. Kate Callahan joins the team.
Tropes in this episode
- Bait-and-Switch: Dylan Myers is assumed to be the UnSub, and he physically resembles the UnSub, but the team find evidence he was in fact the first victim. He also did not fit the psychological profile. The FBI's profile suggested that the killer was an introvert and habitual loner, while Dylan was a life-long extravert who was happy only when surrounded with friends.
- Callback: Callahan comes from Andi Swann's unit. Morgan asks about Seaver, who transferred into that unit between seasons 6 and 7.
- Dissonant Serenity: The UnSub's last victim has had her arm cut off without any kind of anesthesia, but she keeps her calm long enough to get the upper hand.
- Double-Meaning Title: "X" references that this is the start of the tenth season but also that it premiered on October 1, 2014.
- Downer Ending:Kate notices that some details of the case do not match the killer which they caught. Hotchner tells her not to nitpick closed cases, and to just move on. The audience learns that there was an entire network of kidnappers, killers, and their paying customers, all operating under the FBI's radar.
- Remember the New Guy?: Apparently, Reid has done karaoke with Callahan before, and JJ too has met her before.
- Title Drop: We are shown archive footage of a crime scene dated 10/1-2010.
- Too Much Information: The UnSub's wife immediately regrets asking if her husband's collection of frozen legs is a sex thing.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Callahan is introduced flirting with a man and getting him to show her his collection of child pornography. When he goes to get it, thus unintentionally showing her where he keeps it, she calls in the cops and arrests him.
- JJ: "Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed." Irene Peter.
