The Tribe
Directed by Matt Earl Beesley
Written by Andrew Wilder
Written by Andrew Wilder
Hotchner: Nietzsche wrote, "The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe."
An UnSub is released from jail and starts a cult where he has his followers immitate the execution methods of various Southern tribes in an attempt to incite a race war.
This episode provides examples of:
- Blatant Lies: The father of the abducted girl makes a televised interview to demand her release... even though he knows that she's actually been taken by "deprogrammers" hired by himself. After watching it, the deprogrammers contact the police and tell them the truth.
- Bound and Gagged: Holt ties up the cult members this way before handing them over to the rest of the authorities. Somewhat justified since he doesn't have that many handcuffs.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: One of Jackson's disciples is a college student abducted in another attack, then brainwashed into becoming one of his devoted followers.
- Cartesian Karma: In the case of a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, the fact that the cult members were brainwashed doesn't clear them of murder or attempted murder charges. They're Bound and Gagged before loaded into a police car.
- Combat Pragmatist: Blackwolf advises Hotch to use an army knife rather than a gun on reservations land. Hotch doesn't exactly say "Nuts to that" but he uses a gun to save Blackwolf's life after humoring him.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Blackwolf is annoyed that Hotch used a gun in the final standoff, even though its use saved his life. He does respect Hotch, though, for protecting all of the students and teachers, and he admits Hotch has a point when the latter repeats his Badass Boast of "There are many paths to the same place".
- Contrived Coincidence: The deprogrammers and the cult strike in the same place and only seconds apart, completely unaware of the other.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Some of the cult's victims were impaled or skinned alive.
- Cruel to Be Kind: The BAU act this way towards Ingrid's father. When they figure out he was trying to get his daughter out of a cult and didn't want her to go to jail, they convince him to tell them everything he knows so that they can get the jump on the Tribe and save more innocent lives.
- Cult: Jackson Cally's titular "Tribe".
- Does Not Like Guns: Blackwolf hates guns, refuses to carry one, and is very disapproving of Hotch using his own during the final standoff.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: 13+ seasons on and Blackwolf is still one of the most remembered local authorities by fans, despite not appearing or being referenced again in the show.
- Evil All Along: The girl abducted in the prologue is actually on the UnSubs' side and acting as a mole to get them more victims. Her "abduction" is her being taken by unrelated "deprogrammers" hired by her father.
- False Flag Operation: The Tribe attacks whites and Native Americans in order to create conflict between both communities. They go the extra mile and use tactics from the other side: killing whites using the most brutal Native American tactics (skinned alive, impaled, etc.), and attempting a mass shooting at a Native American school.
- Fire-Forged Friends: At the beginning, Hotch and Blackwolf can barely stand to be in the same room together, after the raid on the school, the two separate on good terms.
- Good All Along: The people who kidnapped the girl in the opening are revealed to be deprogrammers. They contact the FBI when they're accused of kidnapping her, explaining the full situation. As we find out, they didn't face criminal charges because they gave the FBI a lead and were falsely accused.
- Gory Discretion Shot: In contrast to other episodes, none of the victims are shown on the presentation of the case, just bloody objects, and pools.
- Heroic Bystander: Despite not being a police officer or law enforcement, Blackwolf helps the FBI catch the Tribe in the school. He takes down at least three tribe members.
- I Owe You My Life: Despite the fact that Blackwolf hates how Hotch used a gun to save him, he's gruffer about it, referring to him as "Captain America," which may be a stealth compliment since Cap was the Bully Hunter. When Hotch points out his Badass Boast "There are many paths to the same place" to justify his actions, Blackwolf can't help but give a tight grin.
- Know When to Fold 'Em:
- Ingrid's father is convinced to come clean about Ingrid being a murderess in a cult when the evidence stacks up against her. He's heartbroken about it, and the BAU are sympathetic that he was trying to rescue his only daughter.
- Only one cult member has the sense to surrender when Hotch shows he will shoot to kill. He raises his hands, drops his gun, and says he gives up.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: The cult has a problem in that because they only know common knowledge about the Apache and other Native Americans, they come across as very stupid. Blackwolf spells it out best:Blackwolf: Did "grandfather" ever teach the meaning of the word Apache? It comes from the Zuni word: A-Pa-Chu. It means "enemy". If "grandfather" knew the first real thing about us, he would have told you we call ourselves the De-Ne, it means "the people".
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Cally suffers a Humiliation Conga in the climax; he's caught unarmed in the end, and all of his followers are arrested, and his False Flag Operation dies before it can begin. He'll be another nameless criminal in the system.
- Ingrid gets arrested and is in full Never My Fault mode when Blackwolf gets her to admit that she's following a Mighty Whitey cult leader. She starts breaking down as he points out all the holes in her story and that "Grandfather" didn't even get his facts right. Her father also can't defend her, going Know When to Fold 'Em.
- Let's You and Him Fight: The Tribe's ultimate objective is to create a "war" between whites and Native Americans.
- Mighty Whitey: Jackson Cally claims to be an Apache elder despite neither him nor his disciples having any Apache ancestry. One of his followers even chides out Blackwolf for supposedly turning back on the ways of his ancestors and claims Cally is better at honoring them.
- Never Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight: Blackwolf claims that he can beat a gun wielding opponent with a knife. If the person is within twenty-one feet, he can use the knife while they are still drawing/aiming, if outside that distance he can move away while they are doing so. This is shown in the climax where he uses a knife to kill a gun wielding opponent.
- Subverted Trope...leaving him exposed and helpless to a second one who has him dead to rights, and is saved when Hotch shoots him.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Cally made the Apache Cult to initiate a race war for power and manipulation, but tricked everyone into thinking it was to get non-Apache out of the desert.
- Parents as People: Ingrid's father had the best intentions in breaking her out of a cult. He was just willing to throw her deprogrammers under the bus for that purpose, and the FBI in Cruel to Be Kind mode say that they understand when learning the full situation, but she has to be treated like a criminal.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Despite posing as an expert on Native Americans, the UnSub is deeply racist against them.
- Race Lift: It's the Helter Skelter scenario, except with Apache replacing black people.
- Red Herring: The team goes through several suspects that turn out to be innocent. Ingrid's abductors (actually deprogrammers hired by her father), Blackwolf (an Apache nationalist with a dislike for the FBI and whites taking Native American ancestral lands), and Roy Minton and his anti-Apache right-wing militia.
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: Roy Minton, who brags of descending from the first white settler in the area and that his family has fought the Apache for over a century. He has his own armed group. Fortunately or unfortunately, he's not the Tribe leader.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The Tribe is an almost replica of Charles Manson's "Family", and the abduction and 'recruitment' of Ingrid resembles that of Patty Hearst by the SLA.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Blackwolf is known to be this, and has been used to help law enforcement before with it. He even deduces that Hotch as a gun in an ankle holster, as the footprints were slightly deeper on that side.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ingrid's deprogrammers end the job and take her to police after watching her father's appearance on TV. This ends up being the right call; the FBI not only refuse to press charges but get a lead on the Tribe.
- Shout-Out: Blackwolf calls Hotch "Captain America".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- This is why Ingrid's father tried to get her out of the cult before she was connected to the murders. Generally, law enforcement does not consider brainwashing as a factor for mass killings. The FBI charges her when they realize she is involved, playing Cartesian Karma straight.
- Blackwolf asks Hotch politely to use his baton instead of his gun because guns are disrespectful on the reservation land. Hotch respects his wishes for most of the climax because he can catch the Tribe members by surprise. Then he sees two armed cult members about to fire on Blackwolf. He gives them a fair warning to put their guns down before firing and knocking one down, making the other surrender.
- Symbology Research Failure: In-universe, the cult's attempts to frame the local Apache boil down to employing all of the most brutal The Savage Indian tropes they know. The local Apache cop points out that to anybody even a little bit familiar with the culture it's obvious that they combined elements from multiple tribes with no understanding of the symbolism, resulting in a confused mess.
- Wham Line: Hotch asks Ingrid's father one.Hotch: How long has your daughter been in a cult?
- Would Hit a Girl: Hotch gives one warning to the two cult members about to fire on Blackwolf. Then he shoots the one about to fire in turn, who is a woman. She goes down moaning in pain.
- Would Hurt a Child: The cult slaughters Roy Minton and his family, including two young daughters, and were ready to kill all the Native American children they could find (luckily, they had advance warning and hid).
- Hotchner: There's an old Apache saying: "You can take many paths to get to the same place."
