Compulsion
Directed by Charles Haid
Written by Andrew Wilder
Written by Andrew Wilder
Gideon: Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
An UnSub sets fires at a college campus, but doesn't conform to the usual patterns of arsonists. The BAU figure out that it's motivated by religion, and that the UnSub has OCD.
This episode provides examples of:
- Alone with the Psycho: The episode continues where the previous one ended, with Gideon being held at gunpoint by the Footpath Killer.
- Arc Number: 3. The UnSub is obsessed with the number 3.
- As the Good Book Says...: The walls in Clara's room are covered in Bible pages.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Gideon irritates the Footpath Killer by telling him he's a dumb bedwetter according to the profile. The Killer tries to order Gideon to take the camera to take his pre-mortem photo as per his ritual, but Gideon has made him so angry and nervous he can't pronounce the word, so Gideon makes him even more mad by smiling and claiming he doesn't understand what he says. Eventually, the Killer becomes agitated enough for Gideon to disarm him successfully.
- Backhanded Compliment: The Footpath Killer asks Gideon whether he's impressed that he killed six people whose corpses were found. Gideon says he's very impressed — he didn't know the man could count.
- Churchgoing Villain: The arsonist has Scrupulosity and believes she's setting fires in the name of punishing others for sinning.
- Creepy Souvenir: The Footpath Killer leads Gideon to a closed room with post-mortem photos of some of his victims (all shot on the forehead), in contrast to the ones outside that were taken when they were still alive.
- Curious Qualms of Conscience: When Hotch attempts to talk down the arsonist, it gets through to her to an extent, but she ultimately decides that she has to do it since it's their duty to.
- Dissonant Serenity: The arsonist as she speaks to their next intended victims while they're trapped in the elevator, knowing that she will be setting them alight, along with Creepy Monotone.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Reid seems to be fairly new at chess.
- Funny Background Event: When Jeremy asks Hotch if he knows how to solve the three-body problem in the elevator, Reid is silently nodding in the background.
- History Repeats: Both the Footpath Killer and the arsonist have a stutter that reveals their identity to the profilers.
- Last Het Romance: The student patrolling the school breaks up with his girlfriend between his interactions with Gideon.
- Loners Are Freaks: Discussed in a way when Elle is describing that arsonists tend to be socially-incompetent, which leads to Reid staring at her.Elle: ...And of course, he's a total psychopath.
- Number Obsession: The arsonist has OCD relating to the number three. She tends to repeat words and actions three times and is compelled to kill with fire whenever she encounters a trinity of threes. When confronted she admits what she is doing isn't right, but as Hotch explains the UnSub isn't killing because she wants to, but because she is compelled to.
- Previously on…: Said by Gideon as the Footpath Killer's profile is repeated at the start of the episode.
- Room Full of Crazy: Lots of religious passages from torn-up notebook pages plaster the arsonist's dorm room.
- Rule of Three: The arsonist is obsessed with the number three.
- Samus Is a Girl: The BAU assumes the arsonist is male. They're wrong, and Hotch is the first to figure it out.
- Shout-Out: Clara is an avid reader of Paradise Lost.
- Skewed Priorities: During an evacuation of the school from the arsonist, Jeremy refuses to leave because he has to study with two female schoolmates. This leads to the trio becoming the hostages during the climax.
- Speech Impediment: The Footpath Killer has one, and mocking it is a Berserk Button.
- The Unreveal: Elle wants to know why the Footpath Killer had his stutter, but in the end, she learns that even Gideon doesn't know why he did. (And that in fact no one knows what causes a stutter.)
- Too Dumb to Live: Matthew Rowland, the first victim, was too busy gawking at the situation and ends up curiously investigating what ends up becoming the third fire despite repeated warnings from the cameraman.
- Gideon: Faulkner once said, "Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors, try to be better than yourself."
