If The Shoe Fits
Directed by Bethany Rooney
Written by Bruce Zimmerman
A woman who is psychologically frozen in early childhood believes she is the fairy tale princess archetype and that men who fail to meet her Prince Charming standards deserve to die.Written by Bruce Zimmerman
JJ: "Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence" Vittorio Alfieri.
This episode provides examples of:
- Blatant Lies: Callahan lies about one of the girls in the videos which an especially arrogant witness received. She claims the girld iwe underage in order to spook him into being more cooperative.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Reid points out that the original versions of fairy tales were this.
- Call-Back: At JJ's place, we see a picture of her wedding, which was in season 7, and Henry approaches her with the same book she read to him in the same season.
- Comically Missing the Point: Played for Laughs with Henry, whose favorite zoo animal was the pigeons.
- Driven to Suicide: JJ's sister Rosalind killed herself when she was 17 and JJ 11. It's not quite clear why, though JJ's mother says that there were warning signs she and her husband ignored. We find out why in a season fourteen episode, which makes this episode potentially unintentional foreshadowing.
- Everyone Has Standards: The frat boy Callahan interviews is a smug jerkass who uses his knowledge of legal technicalities to avoid charges for the videos he received, but when he is told that one of the girls in the videos he received might be underage, he gets physically sick and immediately tells her everything he knows.
- Fairy Tale Motifs: The UnSub's history and modus operondi draw heavily from Cinderella.
- Parents as People: JJ and her mother argue about whether or not to tell Henry about Rosalind. Both their stances make sense. The argument makes it clear that they both still have major issues with Rosalind's suicide.
- Psychopathic Manchild: The UnSub appears very childlike. She has a child's idea of morality, speaks like a little girl, and takes fairy tales very literally. Reid is able to exploit this to take her in without incident.
- Samus Is a Girl: The BAU initially thinks that the UnSub might be a gay man, only for them to realize that the killer is actually a woman when some of the puncture wounds on the victims are determined to be caused by a stiletto heel.
- Reid: "The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract positive thinking." Albert Einstein.
