P911
Directed by Adam Davidson
Written by Simon Mirren, Andrew Wilder, & Edward Napier
Written by Simon Mirren, Andrew Wilder, & Edward Napier
Gideon: Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "The test of a morality of a society is what it does for its children."
The BAU team up with the trafficking unit to locate a missing child who seems to be kept in a doorless room being filmed 24/7. They go on chatrooms pretending to be children, and find a minor who makes child porn. Gideon connects with him by guessing his traumatic backstory and convinces him to meet with the UnSub so they can learn who he is and arrest him.
This episode provides examples of:
- Breather Episode: While the subject matter is still quite heavy, this episode is a noticeable outlier for the series with zero deaths, almost no violence, and an unambiguously happy ending, especially coming off of the Fisher King Wham Episode two-parter.
- Control Freak: Gideon pegs Cole as this early on. She's ultimately a Downplayed example. as while her controlling tendencies don't impair the investigation they also don't cohere well with the BAU's team dynamic.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Reid, Elle, and J.J. all have different hairstyles from the previous episode, demonstrating that some time has passed since then (specifically, the duration of Elle's medical leave).
- Foreshadowing: Morgan reacts very badly to the pedophile principal, nearly assaulting him. 10 episodes later, we learn why Morgan has such a problem with preferential child molesters . . .
- I Have Brothers: Garcia has four, enabling her to identify the Boy Scouts-esque organization that Peter/Dustin owns a jacket belonging to because they were all part of it too.
- Promoted to Opening Titles: As of this episode (and for the rest of the series), Garcia gets this treatment.note
- Took a Level in Jerkass: While she was never a total sweetheart, Elle has become noticeably more impulsive and rebellious since getting shot by the Fisher King, which concerns the rest of the team (Reid in particular).
- Would Hurt a Child: This episode's UnSub is a child kidnapper and trafficker who stole the kid from his mother when he was a year old, and shows no compunctions about killing him when the attempted sale gets found out.
