Parasite
Directed by Charles S Carroll
Written by Oanh Ly
A conman romances wealthy women to get them to invest in his nonexistent hedge fund. His wife knows nothing, but when one of the women he cheated with — Carla — finds him out, he flips out and strangles her. Not long after, he slips up and gives a male client the wrong alias, and when the man asks who he's talking about the UnSub beats him to death with a wine bottle. The BAU figure that if the UnSub's wife isn't in on it, then she still uses her real name, and they learn that she recently came into a lot of money. While the UnSub's off hiding bodies, she tracks down one of his mistresses, the one who just found out she was pregnant, and confronts her about the affair. They talk like adults, until the UnSub shows up with his son.Written by Oanh Ly
Rossi: "If I am what I have, and if I lose what I have, who, then, am I?" German psychologist Erich Fromm.
This episode provides examples of:
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The UnSub has a wife and a young son that he clearly cares for. He actually seems to care about a couple of his mistresses too, especially the one who is pregnant. Though, this love is actually shallow and one-sided, as the BAU mention that he only sees them as extensions of himself.
- Flashback: The UnSub seems to be traumatized by his own actions, enough so that he flashes back to the murders.
- It's All About Me: Even though the UnSub loves his son, it’s only because he sees the child as an extension of himself and does not once think about the trauma his actions would have on him. Lampshaded by Prentiss when she mentions that he committed suicide-by-cop in front of him to avoid going to prison.
- Lack of Empathy: The UnSub loves his family because he only sees them as extensions of himself, and therefore incapable of actual unconditional love. The fact that he committed suicide-by-cop in front of them shows that by the end of the day, it’s all about him.
- My Skull Runneth Over: A variation. Rossi speculates that the UnSub has so many false identities in his head that they're starting to bleed into each other, and when they shatter the cons he's trying to pull, the UnSub falls into an unstoppable rage.
- Papa Wolf: Tragically subverted. While the UnSub doesn't want his son to be caught in the crossfire between him and the B.A.U., he has no issues with committing suicide by cop right in front of him or his wife, showing that it is impossible for him to have genuine paternal instinct.
- Suicide by Cop: How the UnSub chooses to die when finally cornered.
- These Hands Have Killed: Agent Goldman, the FBI White Collar Crime agent working with the B.A.U. has this reaction after killing the Unsub in the mistaken belief he was reaching for a weapon. Though Prentiss tells him it was a justified shooting, and the UnSub chose to die, Goldman is still shaken by having killed an unarmed man.
- Prentiss: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive." Sir Walter Scott.
