True Night
Written & Directed by Edward Allen Bernero
Reid: "Superman is, after all, an alien life form. He is simply the acceptable face of invading realities." Author Clive Barker.
A series of vigilante killings targeted at gang members and other criminals and performed with a katana turn out to be mimicking the violent comic book True Night. The killer is in fact the alternate identity of the comics creator, Jonny McHale (played by Frankie Muniz), created from the trauma caused by the brutal rape and murder of his girlfriend.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: Jonny has no idea that he is True Night. The interrogation at the climax makes it clear that Jonny is in denial, as he is forced to admit what happened.
- Apologetic Attacker: The BAU apologize to Jonny for restraining him and making him relive the night his girlfriend died.
- Asshole Victim: The victims were all gangbangers and rapists who will not be missed. As Rossi put it, "they were animals".
- Bittersweet Ending: It's revealed that Jonny McHale avenged his girlfriend unknowingly while acting out as a vigilante. He also needs to be committed to a psychiatric hospital due to his violence and delusions. They do allow him to keep his phone, and he keeps calling her voicemail to hear her voice.
- Creator Breakdown: An in-universe example. Jonny is a well-known comic book creator who suffers from a psychotic break after his girlfriend is raped and murdered in front of him. He draws out his murders, but he is unaware of him carrying out the murders until later. He spends half the episode reliving the night Vicky was killed and genuinely believes she's still alive.
- Deconstructed Trope: Of the '90s Anti-Hero. As noted, True Night's comics show him as a glorified vigilante in how he brandishes his swords and spouts one-liners. The BAU notes that he still committed murder, with several looking sickened at the state of the corpses they find.
- Deliberately Monochrome: True Night's murder scenes are shot in a Sin City-esque black-and-white style, with occasional splashes of color for blood splatter and rain.
- Forced to Watch: True Night's backstory is that a street gang forced him to watch as they murdered (and implicitly gang-raped) his pregnant girlfriend, whom he'd just proposed to. No wonder he snapped.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Jonny's murders are largely kept out of shot or restricted to comic-book depictions, but to tell from the agents' reactions, they're some of the most brutal kills they've seen in a while.
- Implied Rape: Jonny suffered a psychotic break and started slaughtering Asshole Victims from a violent street gang after they previously murdered his girlfriend — to whom he'd just proposed after learning she was pregnant — purely For the Evulz, while he was Forced to Watch, badly beaten, and left for dead. It's never outright stated, but heavily implied that they gang-raped her before killing her, based on the way they advance on her in the Flashback while Jonny struggles, his pained howl of "They made me watch!" in the present day, and Rossi agreeing that the gang members were "animals".
- Ironic Echo: "You're not going to want to miss this." The gang ringleader said this to Jonny before raping and murdering his girlfriend. Jonny spits it back at him before disemboweling and decapitating the guy.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Jonny imagines himself in a Badass Longcoat and Dual Wielding katana, while in the real world, he's wearing a hoodie and wielding hardware store machetes.
- Mad Artist: Jonny is basing his art on his murders. However, he doesn't even realize that he's been killing; he's on a psychotic break and has lost a lot of his grasp on reality.
- One Drink Will Kill the Baby: Apparently not, since Vicky seems quite happy to be drinking right after her doctor confirmed she was pregnant.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: By the time that Jonny is caught, he has brutally murdered most of the gang that killed his girlfriend and tortured the ringleader. The gang murdered his girlfriend and gang-raped her while she was pregnant. He makes sure to remind them of what they did.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Bobby Kim, Jonny's agent and friend. He's checking up on him regularly since the brutal incident and is worried that Jonny's mental health has deteriorated. Bobby notifies the BAU about the art he found and about his friend's erratic behavior.
- Shout-Out:
- Survivor's Guilt: Jonny McHale clearly regrets that he survived the night where his girlfriend died.Rossi: They cut you open, they practically eviscerated you! The doctors said it was a miracle you lived!
Jonny: Miracle?! You think living was a miracle?! - Sympathetic Murderer: Jonny is one of the biggest examples of the series. He was once a successful comic book artist in a happy, loving relationship. On the night that his girlfriend, Vicky, learned she was pregnant with their child, Jonny immediately proposed to her... only for them to be accosted by a gang of thugs who gang-raped and murdered Vicky while Jonny was Forced to Watch, then beat him almost to death and left him for dead in an alley. This caused Jonny to have a psychotic break so bad that he brutally murdered all of the gang members (and only them, not targeting any innocents) by slicing them to pieces with a katana, all without realizing he was doing so until the episode's climax. Even the team feels bad for him, and gets him committed to a mental institution to try to help him rather than prison.
- Sympathy for the Devil: The BAU is regretful when they drive a pinned-down Jonny to tears while asking him about the body of the gang leader. They admit that what happened to him is horrible and he needs help, not an arrest.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Jonny is unaware that he is living out the fantasies of his viligante character by murdering gang members at night until it is outright spelled out to him by the BAU.
- Vigilante Execution: Played with; Jonny is taking revenge for the rape and murder of his pregnant girlfriend, but doesn't realize he's doing it until Rossi points out the scar on his torso. The gang forced him to watch and nearly eviscerated him, and the trauma caused him to have a psychotic break.
- Villain Episode: Roughly half the episode is told from the perspective of Jonny McHale/"True Night", the UnSub of the week.
- Voicemail Confusion: Subverted. Jonny knows he's talking to Vickie's voicemail, but because of his delusion, he thinks she is ghosting him rather than that she is dead.
- Garcia: "The noir hero is a knight in blood-caked armor. He's dirty, and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time."note
