Line #19 Recap/CriminalMindsS2E7NorthMammon


1	!!North Mammon
2	->Directed by Creator/MattEarlBeesley\
3	Written by Creator/AndrewWilder & Creator/EdwardNapier
4	--> '''Jareau:''' ''Legendary basketball coach, John Wooden said, "It's not so important who starts the game, but who finishes it."''
5
6	Three high school girls are kidnapped right before graduation, and find themselves locked inside a cold, wet bunker, with an unseen man demanding that two of them kill a third to go free, otherwise they'll all be left to die. With seemingly no other options, the girls begin to grow increasingly desperate, even as the team arrives in town to find them.
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8	!!This episode provides examples of:
9	* TheBadGuyWins: [[PyrrhicVictory While the [=UnSub=] does end up arrested]], his plan for the girls ultimately worked, and one ended up dead.
10	* [[BunkerWoman Basement Woman]]: All three girls are kept in a basement by the killer, although they aren't sexually assaulted.
11	* BitchInSheepsClothing: The [=UnSub=] believed this was the case for the three girls. While we don't see much of their lives first-hand, they don't really do anything worse than bicker like teenagers do.
12	* BittersweetEnding: More on the bitter side. Two of the girls are rescued and the [=UnSub=] is arrested. However, he succeeded in getting two girls to kill their friend and the surviving girls are traumatized from the experience.
13	* BloodSplatteredInnocents: The two surviving girls, after the third was killed.
14	* ADayInTheLimelight: Downplayed, but JJ gets some BackStory and CharacterDevelopment in this episode.
15	* DisproportionateRetribution: The [=UnSub=] blames his old high school friends for taking the scholarship that "belonged" to him, which he lost after a football injury that was nobody's fault, and decides to take his revenge on three completely innocent teenagers.
16	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The bickering between Brooke and Kelly at the start of the episode, with Polly being the one in the middle. Kelly attempts to kill Brooke, only to be killed in retaliation. Polly is conflicted throughout.
17	** The coach's speech at the beginning would also qualify, though with a lot less subtlety.
18	--> "Our children will be asked a question. How they answer that will define us all. The question is: when...life and death, hang in the balance, [[PunctuatedForEmphasis WHAT. ARE. YOU. CAPABLE. OF?"]]
19	* IGaveMyWord: After Brooke kills Kelly, the [=UnSub=] frees her and Polly, drops them off close to town, and even give them back their phones so they can call for help.
20	* FutureLoser: The [=UnSub=] was this, while the [[GreenEyedMonster other members of the team weren't]].
21	* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Brooke has a cough throughout the episode, which is made worse by her captivity. Kelly cites it as proof that Brooke will probably die anyway. Ultimately subverted, in that it isn't Brooke who dies.
22	* {{Irony}}: Mrs. Seymour calls Brooke and Polly "bad seeds" caused by low breeding. At that exact moment, her own daughter was killed in self-defense after being the only one of the trio to actually attempt to kill one of the others.
23	* JerkassHasAPoint: Kelly says that if she and Polly kill Brooke, it doesn't mean they're bad people and that [[IDidWhatIHadToDo they just did what they had to do]]. For her troubles, she is killed by their would-be victim first.
24	* KillingInSelfDefense: Brooke kills Kelly because Kelly planned on killing her to set herself and Polly free from their captor.
25	* LetsYouAndHimFight:
26	** The [=UnSub=]'s plan is to cause the [[ChildrenForcedToKill girls to fight to the death]], as one needs to die so the other two can be freed. It works.
27	** To a lesser degree, the parents and coach of the girls' soccer team also end up bickering and blaming each other for the kidnapping.
28	* ManipulativeBastard: The [=UnSub=] takes away most of the girls’ clothes, puts them in a cold basement, and deprives them of food and water with intention to turn the girls against each other and force two of them to kill one of their friends.
29	* SadisticChoice: The [=UnSub=] kidnaps the three girls and gives them two choices: two of them kill one of their friends and be set free or all three will die from the cold and lack of food and water.
30	* StepfordSuburbia: The town of North Mammon looks like a very nice place to live, until something bad happens and it turns out it's full of {{Jerk Jock}}s and {{Alpha Bitch}}es willing to tear each other apart. The [=UnSub=] did what he did because he was ostracized by the members of town who [[EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether were all in the same class with him]].
31	* ThousandYardStare: The two surviving girls, after being freed.
32	* TranquilFury: When the [=UnSub=] mockingly tells the sheriff that he’ll be cleaning up the [=UnSub=]’s messes for once, Gideon quietly tells his men to take the criminal away, disgusted by how unsympathetic the man was that he forced three friends to turn on each other.
33	* WhamShot: Two:
34	** After Kelly and Polly say they agree to the [=UnSubs=] terms, he drops a pair a hammers into the room. It's then that they (and the viewers) realize, realize he's not making them choose who dies, but making them do the killing as well.
35	** An In-Universe one when the BAU see the freed girls...but see that there's only ''two''.
36	* WhatTheHellHero: JJ gives the parents a good chewing out when they decide to act petty and blame each other for their daughters being abducted rather than do anything to help find the girls.
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Context Recap / CriminalMindsS2E7NorthMammon