The Crossing
Directed by Guy Norman Bee
Written by Erica Messer & Debra J Fisher
A woman's stalker resurfaces after she thought she got away from him. She demands the BAU track him down. Hotch and Rossi are away and investigating a case where an abused wife killed her husband in his sleep and immediately turned herself over. They only suspect that she may have been abused when they talk to their grown children, who unintentionally confirm the suspicion by describing how their father treated her.Written by Erica Messer & Debra J Fisher
Prentiss: Author Christian Nestell Bovee once wrote, "No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities."
Keri's stalker steals her dog and gets someone to walk it past her house the next day, creating a distraction so he can kidnap Keri herself. Keri does what Prentiss and JJ told her to and plays along long enough for him to let his guard down, then escapes.
Tropes in this episode:
- 555: Keri's phone number contains this sequence.
- Becoming the Mask: Audrey Henson really believes she is all the things her husband and children have been calling her all these years.
- Brainwashed: The woman who shot her husband in his sleep has suffered many years of verbal and emotional abuse, to the extent that both she and her grown children believe every word he ever said about her.
- Domestic Abuse: Hotch and Rossi are asked to consult on a murder case solely because the DA doesn't believe that a woman who killed her husband really was abused by him. They find out that while the husband never was physically violent, he was extremely emotionally abusive towards his wife and even raised his children to participate in the abuse. Once the DA realises just how abused the woman was, she is visibly horrified.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Mr. Henson believed that no one would sympathize with his wife because he never physically abused her. But thanks to Rossi and Hotch, the DA working the case realizes that the emotional abuse is just as bad (if not worse), not that he’ll live to see it.
- In hindsight, there is a case of Evil Cannot Comprehend Survival Instinct. Mrs. Henson put up with all the emotional and verbal abuse to survive. The moment she sees a shotgun, she subconsciously kills the man responsible for her suffering, even when she herself can’t explain why she did it.
- Foreshadowing: Prentiss and JJ explain to Keri exactly what she must do if her stalker gets her alone.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Defied. The stalking victim had an abortion early in her relationship with her current fiance because she didn't want a child then. This is never condemned, JJ and Prentiss treat her with compassion and JJ outright says that this was her right. The fiance overhears the conversation and seems angry about it briefly, but by the end of the episode they have reconciled. It's also implied that JJ has at least briefly thought about it, given the way she stares at her positive pregnancy test at the end of the episode before calling Detective LaMontagne, her boyfriend.
- Irony: The prosecutor for the murder case calls in the BAU to disprove that the victim abused his wife, who killed him. They end up finding proof he did.
- Loophole Abuse: Mr. Henson apparently believed that he would be immune to charges of domestic violence if he left out the ‘violence’ in his abuse.
- Pet the Dog: After seeing the extent of abuse the defendant in her case had endured until she finally snapped, the DA agrees with Hotch and Rossi to not put her through the trauma of a trial and offer a plea deal for criminally negligent homicide, which will make her eligible for parole.
- Plot Parallel: Two cases where abusive men psychologically torment women they claim to love. Audrey Henson killed her husband after her children were grown, and she herself doesn't understand why she did it, but Hotch and Rossi conclude it was Stockholm Syndrome and she put up with all the humiliation and control in order to survive. Keri Derzmond only goes along with her stalker for a short while during her kidnapping, also in order to survive, and she also drops the act when she sees her chance to escape.
- Refuge in Audacity: Mike Hicks pays a man to walk Keri's stolen dog past her house, and warns the man that someone in the neighborhood is stealing dogs.
- Tyke Bomb: Mr. Henson raised his own children to be verbally and emotionally abusive towards his wife to the point that they believe he was the one being abused.
- What Happened to the Mouse??: It’s never revealed what happened to the Mrs. Henson’s children after the DA reduces the murder charges against her to criminally negligent homicide with the eligibility for parole, though it’s likely that they’re unhappy that their mother will be getting (from their point of view) a slap on the wrist.
- Jareau: Susan B. Anthony said, "A woman must not depend on the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself."
