A Real Rain
Directed by Gloria Muzio
Written by Chris Mundy & Andrew Wilder
Written by Chris Mundy & Andrew Wilder
Gideon: W.H. Auden said, "Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society must take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness."
An UnSub is a court stenographer who thinks the voices in his head will go away if he kills enough guilty people who were exonerated anyway.
This episode provides examples of:
- Amazing Freaking Grace: Played at the funeral of the murdered undercover cop. The lead cop mentions that she can hear that song at all times, and wishes that cop killers be forced to hear it for all eternity.
- Bluffing the Murderer: Gideon bluffs the "vigilante" who turns himself in by making him confess that he stabbed his victims in the groin, when that wasn't the case — the police held back the detail that the vigilante stabbed people through the ear canal for this exact reason.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: At dinner, Elle asks the team to talk about something other than the case. Hotch promptly asks if she's dating anyone, and she immediately begs them to talk about the case again.
- Cop Killer: One of UnSub's victims had previously killed two Port Authority cops. The "vigilante" who turns himself in also killed an undercover cop.
- Death by Irony: The UnSub, a vigilante, is killed in an example of Vigilante Execution because he was probably going to garner support and beat his charges - just like his victims.
- Fame Through Infamy: The Red Herring murderer who turns himself in at the midpoint of the episode (and killed an undercover cop) is suspected by the BAU that he did it so he would get the fame for the murders - and sure enough, he is.
- Groin Attack: Suspecting someone who turned himself in isn't the UnSub, they ask about "why" he stabbed a Pedophile Priest this way.
- Jack the Ripoff: At one point, a wannabe tries copying the UnSub in order to steal all the praise the actual killer is receiving.
- Miscarriage of Justice: The UnSub murders people who beat the charges and were found innocent at their trial, but he believes them guilty.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The UnSub murders people who commited crimes, yes, but he is doing so just to see if that will get rid of the voices in his head that don't give him a break.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Though the case doesn't have much to do with it besides taking place in New York City, the commentary on vigilantism and popular attitudes to it are clearly inspired by the Bernhard Goetz case.
- Self-Made Orphan: The UnSub's final (attempted) victim is a man who killed his own parents. He claims that it was self-defense after years of abuse, but we never learn for certain if that's true.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is part of a line of one of Travis Bickle's speeches describing how New York is full of human garbage in Taxi Driver.
- The closing montage of New Yorkers giving their personal opinions about the vigilante (divided between him being a hero and one more scumbag) is similar to a montage that closes The Boondock Saints.
- Vigilante Man: The UnSub, who kills people who were found innocent of murder at their trials, but he believes them guilty.
- Vigilante Execution: The entire raison d'etre of the UnSub.
- Vigilante Injustice: While the vigilante is targeting criminals because he believes that they have gotten away, the BAU raids his house and get evidence that helps them determine the man is suffering audio hallucinations and is hypersensitive to sound and is just looking for some way to make the voices go away.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The UnSub, who has garnered much popular support during his spree. The episode ends with people stating that the police killed him because they knew he was going to walk free.
- You Are What You Hate: The UnSub is a murderer who murders murderers who beat the charge and didn't go to jail... which of course, he doesn't intend for himself, either.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The UnSub believes he is doing society a favor by killing people he thinks guilty of murder but who could not be convicted.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Hotch shooting the UnSub, who is clearly mentally ill to some degree, and was not an immediate threat (but could be passed as such due to him having a gun and a hostage). There is a not very subtle implication that he did it to prevent the UnSub from being declared innocent by a sympathetic jury... in other words, making the UnSub into the very thing he hates and giving him his own (preventive) treatment.
- Gideon: Gandhi said, "It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence."
Hotchner: Gandhi also said, "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."
