Perennials
Directed by Michael Lange
Written by Bruce Zimmerman
A boy was born at the same time a known serial killer died in the same hospital, and as a grown man he believes himself to be the reincarnation of that serial killer. He goes after people born on the same day as "his" victims were killed, believing them to be reincarnations of them.Written by Bruce Zimmerman
Reid: "I have never yet heard of a murderer who was not afraid of a ghost." John Philpot Curran.
Tropes
- Break the Haughty: Hotch won't let the UnSub die thinking he'll be reincarnated as anything but a worm.
- Contrived Coincidence: The UnSub finds it too much of a coincidence that he was born two weeks after his mother's due date, and just as they were rolling serial killer Russell Smith into the ER where he died shortly after.
- Non-Indicative Name: Garcia feels that bullet-proof vests should be called bullet-resistant vests, since you still get bruises if you get shot through one.
- Reincarnation: The UnSub and his abusive grandfather believe in reincarnation. The UnSub was born at the same time a serial killer died in the same hospital. He believes that he’s killing reincarnated forms of the original killer’s victims. He goes to a nearby hospital believing he will be reincarnated into a newborn baby and kill his final victim in twenty years.
- Shout-Out: JJ tells Morgan and Garcia that Hotch wants them at the round table.
- Would Not Hurt A Child: Played for Horror: the UnSub leaves his final victim alone not because he's a kid, but because he believes he's the reincarnation of a Serial Killer. He promises to come finish the job when the kid's older and goes to commit suicide in the local hospital's delivery room, thinking that it will make his spirit infest a newborn so he'll be able to "wait", subverting the trope.
- Rossi: "The doctrine of the immortality of the soul has more threat than comfort." Mason Cooley.
