The Big Wheel
Directed by Rob Hardy
Written by Simon Mirren
An UnSub whose OCD compels him to kill women and witnesses to his crimes begs the authorities for help to stop. The BAU comply, and think he must be repeating a pattern he witnessed as a child that he has never gotten out of his system. Ironically, the specificity of his compulsion has allowed him to spare one witness, because he was blind, and he has since befriended his child, who does not know that the man is the same one who murdered his mother.Written by Simon Mirren
Hotchner: "In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present." Francis Bacon.
Tropes:
- Chronic Villainy: Noteworthy among the show's usual UnSubs. Vincent's OCD compels him to kill.
- Freudian Excuse: Vincent witnessed his father stabbing his mother in the stomach when he was a child. As a grown serial killer he stabs his victims in the stomach. The ones he deliberately hunts down are women who resemble his mother.
- Ironic Fear: Vincent says that he's afraid of heights, but still brings Stan into a ferris wheel.
- Mugging the Monster: The two gangbangers who walk up on Vincent clearly didn't count on him having a knife he'd be able to use as fast as he does.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The gangbanger's partner gets the hell out of dodge when he sees Vincent kill his partner and then take a gut shot while barely blinking. You almost don't blame him.
- Too Dumb to Live: Stan subverts this trope by sneaking out at night for a drive with his mother's murderer.
- Verbal Tic: Vincent has a few, like repeating himself twice.
- Visible Victimology: Vincent's victims that he purposefully seeks out (he also massacres a gang in self-defence) are blonde women who resemble his mother, whose murder he witnessed as a child.
- Morgan: "No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are always possible." George Chakiris.
