Hamelin
A man whose son killed himself over false rumors that his father molested children, finds the people responsible for that rumor and kidnaps their children.
Tropes:
- Character Focus: JJ stays behind and makes up with her mother.
- Fairy Tale Motif: Comparisons are made between the UnSub's modus operandi and The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
- Mass Hypnosis: The kidnapped children act like zombies, but Tara and Reid determine that they still make complex decisions regarding how to get away from their parents. They eventually figure the UnSub must have used a drug to make the kids suggestible.
- Red Herring: The initial suspect is a repeat sex offender named Arthur Brody.
- Revenge by Proxy: The UnSub lost his job and his son killed himself all because of a rumor that he was a pedophile, so he kidnaps the children of the people who spread the rumor.
- Title Drop: The trigger word to trigger the children's subliminally induced responses is "Hamelin".
- Would Hurt a Child: The UnSub is completely willing to hurt children to avenge the death of his son.
- You Are Already Dead: The UnSub goes to the mayor's home to kidnap the kid in person. The mother is home, and he smashes her neocortex with an axe, but as Reid points out her paleocortex must have remained intact so she just went back to making dinner with a crushed skull.
