Empty Planet
Directed by Elodie Keene
Written by Edward Napier & Andrew Wilder
Written by Edward Napier & Andrew Wilder
Gideon: Robespierre wrote, "Crime butchers innocence to secure a prize, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime."
An UnSub who makes pipe bombs and was given up for adoption as a baby is convinced that a famous science-fiction author is his biological mother.
This episode provides examples of:
- All for Nothing: Everything Kenneth Roberts did was to get Professor Kent's attention to the fact he's her long lost son. She tells him that she only had a daughter. He doesn't take it well.
- Alone with the Psycho: Professor Kent is in her office when suddenly Kenneth sneaks in and takes her hostage.
- Assassination Attempt: The UnSub's targets that involve the civilians are aimed at two tech geniuses that work on artificial intelligence. Both attempts fail the first time, but he does succeed killing Dr. Cook the second time.
- Batman Gambit: Gideon has JJ lie on TV that nobody took responsibility for the bombing, which frustrates the UnSub to call.
- Blatant Lies: JJ goes on TV saying that nobody took responsibility for the bombing, which the whole team knows will get the bomber to call.
- Debate and Switch: Kenneth's/"Allegro's" presentation as a Unabomber-esque Evil Luddite and the discussion about how technology is invading our lives goes out the window very quickly when the BAU figures out there is a different kind of Freudian Excuse to his actions (namely, he thinks he can impress the woman he believes is his long-lost momma by enforcing the message of her book on society).
- Even Evil Has Standards: The UnSub has specific targets, technology and two scientists, he isn't trying to kill random people. That's why when his umbrella bomb killed two people he went with a compression detonator for his targets instead.
- Evil Luddite: The UnSub is defined as this when it becomes clear he's bombing technological locations that are sufficiently advanced. However, it's implied at the end he doesn't really believe it since he's just copying a book to get the author to notice him.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Hotch notes that the UnSub will have anger issues.
- Happily Adopted: Kenneth never knew he was adopted until his dying father told him and that he learned he had nothing genetically in common with him. Although it is implied that his family life was not perfect since he went crazy looking for his biological mother.
- I Choose to Stay: Morgan refuses to leave Dr. Brasier alone while she has a bomb under her seat. He just didn't want her to be terrified as she almost dies.
- Impossible Task: The UnSub's main demand is shut down all technology that's replaced workers in a week. Everyone knows that will not happen.
- Insane Troll Logic: The UnSub lives and breaths this trope.
- I Reject Your Reality: Kenneth refuses to believe Ursula is telling the truth she never had a son but a daughter.
- Luke, You Are My Father: Kenneth Roberts is convinced Professor Kent is his mother given she wrote Empty Planet to cope with her decision to give her baby up for adoption. She shuts this down by pointing out the baby was a girl.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: When the team realizes who the last target is, they go racing across Seattle with their police lights flashing trying to reach the target in time... despite the fact that there should be numerous police and campus security who could have been notified to get to the individual first.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Dr. Emory Cooke is killed via a bomb rigged in his car before the team could do anything about it, while Dr. Betsy Brazier and Dr. Ursula Kent both survive despite the former being stuck in a similar bomb and the latter was held hostage by Kenneth. Additionally, the two victims killed by the first bombing were incidentally both male.
- Morton's Fork: Morgan explains at Dr. Cooke's crime scene that Gideon offered him protection but he refused, but Hotch points out that the Compression Detonator went off after he left the office, meaning it would've been useless.
- Motive Rant: Kenneth Roberts.Kenneth Roberts: I came out here to take your class. For a year I sat right there (points to a front row seat). Right there! And you never saw me! How could you not recognize me!? Then I realized that the only way for you to see me was to live out the book. Well guess what, I did that, and now you see me, don't you? This is our destiny!
- Murder by Mistake: What the victims of the bus bombing turned out to be. The intended target was Dr. Cooke, but the bomb was moved shortly before it detonated. As a result it killed a random passenger and the driver instead.
- Obviously Evil: Hotch makes it clear during the profile delivery that the UnSub will not have neighbors that are surprised by his arrest, and will have no problem believing he's a criminal, unlike the common saying.
- Old Shame: In-Universe. Professor Kent comes to regret writing Empty Planet by the end of the episode, throwing away the book in disgust before she's taken hostage.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: The UnSub has plagiarized entire chapters out of Professor Kent's book, which she takes a slight offense to.
- Police Are Useless: Downplayed in that the local FBI office and Seattle PD are competent help to the BAU, however, when the team first arrived they made a simple mistake in not taking note of where the passengers of the bus were at the time of the bombing.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Aside from the reason why he's going on a bombing spree, Kenneth copy-cats the Unabomber so closely that the BAU even points it out In-Universe.
- Samus Is a Girl: The author of Empty Planet is not a man, but professor Ursula Kent. Garcia found out very easily.
- Saying Too Much: The UnSub wants his manifesto printed in the Seattle Ledger; this gets Gideon to note he wants someone in Seattle to see it.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Hotch has to order Morgan to move away from the car, but Morgan can't even think of leaving Dr. Brasier alone. Gideon later tells him that what he did was stupid but not wrong.
- Something Only They Would Say: Reid recognizes the name Allegro from the Empty Planet book he read as a child. Ursula Kent finds that some of the wording in the Manifesto makes her think of Kenneth Roberts, a former student.
- Sore Loser: Played for laughs at the end, where Reid cheats in the card game that he, Hotch, and JJ play, but is still beaten by JJ.Reid: Genius Doctor Reid let you win.
- Spotting the Thread: JJ figures out that one of the passengers on the bus was Dr. Cooke, and recognizes he was sitting under the bomb before it was moved.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Professor Kent can't help but feel sorry for Kenneth, who just wants to know who he is.
- Taking the Bullet: Professor Kent stops a sniper from killing Kenneth this way.
- Villains Act, Heroes React: Since the BAU has no idea where the bomb will be set off, they're forced to wait before they can do anything.
- Villainous Breakdown: Kenneth becomes a screaming mess when Ursula tells him she only had a daughter.
- We Wait: A grim version. The UnSub calls multiple media stations and tells them that there will be a bombing "where it began". The BAU sadly note that since they have no idea what "it" is, they can't possibly predict what city the bombing will happen in, so all they can do is wait for the first bombing to happen and go from there.
- Wham Line: Two.Kenneth Roberts: Don't hate the book, without it, I never would've found you...Mother.
- Ursula to the above.
Ursula Kent: The baby I gave up...It was a girl. It was a daughter. - Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The UnSub is initially believed to be a terrorist, but Reid notes it's a vague definition. Turns out the UnSub sees himself as a soldier, but Gideon points out there isn't a war and he's living out a work of fiction.
