"Devil's Backbone"
When former clinical social worker-turned-serial killer Antonia Slade (
Frances Fisher) receives the bloodied clothes of missing boys in the prison mail, the BAU go to interview her in solitary. It becomes clear to them that she committed her own crimes because her father murdered her boyfriend when she was a teen, and the present
UnSub is her protégé.
Tropes in this episode:
- Call-Back: Rossi mentions that even Gideon could never get Slade to talk.
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: The BAU visits Antonia Slade in prison after someone sends her the bloody clothes of two missing boys. They wind up returning in the next episode, as she's the only inmate willing to discuss a mass-breakout she was aware of.
- Monster Fangirl: Antonia Slade has either several Monster Fanboys including the UnSub or just the UnSub using several aliases.
- Psycho Psychologist: The killer the BAU is consulting (with all the obligatory The Silence of the Lambs shout outs) is Antonia Slade, a therapist and social worker who used her position to target, abduct and kill at-risk children. The UnSub turns out to be a former patient she groomed into a copycat killer.
- Shout-Out: Slade writes Hotch a note that quotes The Shining.
- A Storm Is Coming: Slade tells Hotch this in the last scene.
- Teen Pregnancy: Slade was impregnated by her boyfriend when only 14-years-old. She was forced to give birth by her own father, but did not get to keep her child. The identity of her son is one of the mysteries of the episode.
