...A Thousand Words
Directed by Rosemary Rodriguez
Written by Edward Allen Bernero
A serial killer with tattoos of his victims on his body calls 911 and shoots himself while the emergency responder is trying to figure out where he's calling from. When the BAU get involved because his latest victim may still be alive, they profile him as a part of a couple, and as unlikely to be suicidal. They theorize that his partner must be pregnant and that he's trying to protect her.Written by Edward Allen Bernero
Rossi: "A sincere artist tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing." Painter, William Dobell.
Tropes
- Creepy Good: The tattoo artist the team consults about the dead killer’s body art is a seedy Nightmare Fetishist, but he also provides the team valuable information and insight even after they reject his request to see the body in person.
- Dead Man Writing: The UnSub writes his wife a letter to inform her that he will have killed himself before she receives the letter. He includes instructions about how to dispose of their latest victim.
- Does Not Like Men: The Unsub's wife, herself an UnSub, hates men so much she won't even acknowledge her newborn baby when she learns it's a boy.
- Double Standard: A cop wonders aloud why women who kill themselves take care not to leave a mess, while men who commit suicide always leave giant messes. Rossi replies that the women worry about who has to clean up, while the men don't give a damn.
- Freudian Excuse: The UnSub's wife, Julia Monroe, was raped by her father as a child, and is repeating the cycles as an adult by marrying another convicted rapist.
- He-Man Woman Hater: The UnSub who killed himself hates women, with the exception of his man-hating wife.
- Samus Is a Girl: The tattoo artist Rossi and Prentiss consult assumes the UnSub's professional tattoos are done free-hand by a man, but they were done by the UnSub's wife.
- Screaming Birth: The UnSub's wife goes through one.
- Shout-Out: To The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury.
- Significant Birthdate: Exploited. The BAU determine that the UnSubs' baby isn't born yet at the time of the male UnSub's death, since he hasn't written a date on the invisible fetus tattoo, but he puts dates on the tattoos of all of his victims, so dates are important to him.
- Super-Speed Reading: Reid is asked to read the UnSub's meticulous journals. He gets through two and a half in about five minutes before he finds an important clue. JJ says he goes to another world when he reads.
- Wanted a Son Instead: Inverted. Julia moves away from her newborn son, saying he was supposed to be a girl and will hurt her just like the other men in her life.
- We Need a Distraction: The UnSub puts all the evidence for his past crimes in storage and shoots himself over the phone with an emergency responder. The BAU think it's too flashy to be the most important clue.
- What You Are in the Dark: Becky ends up alone with the newborn baby of her dead abductors and abusers when they're trapped in an isolated basement and the mother suffers Death by Childbirth. They’re alone and no one will know what she does, but she tries to comfort the crying baby rather than ignoring or hating him due to his parents' actions or her focus on escape.
- Hotchner: Gandhi said, "I have seen children successfully surmount the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul."
