Hanley Waters
A mother grieving her son, traumatized by the fact she inadvertently caused the accident in which he died, spends his birthday shooting people who just don't understand.This episode provides examples of:
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Because it happens to fall on the same day and the family chose to spend it at the same place as her family would've, Shelley forces her ex-husband and the people in Sir Burger to celebrate one boy's birthday, including the celebrant himself.
- Antagonist Title: Hanley Waters was the name of the crook the police was chasing over a liquor store robbery, a chase that ended with Shelley and her son becoming collateral damage when their car was T-boned.
- Ballistic Discount: Slightly better than most examples. It's noted that the owner of the gun store wouldn't normally peg a mousy-looking woman who didn't know what a revolver was called as any sort of potential thief.
- Blunt "Yes":Hotch: We need to talk to the press as soon as possible.Detective: And do what? Just confirm we have an armed woman on the loose and we can't find her?
- Cop Killer: Narrowly averted, as the two cops attacked by Shelley survive.
- Five Stages of Grief: Hotch's interviews about Prentiss's death have each of the team demonstrate one of them:
- Morgan: Anger
- Garcia: Denial
- Reid: Depression
- Rossi: Acceptance
- Hotch: Bargaining. Of course, he also suspects that she isn't really dead because, as seen in the "previously on" segment, he noticed that JJ wasn't crying at the funeral.
- Died on Their Birthday: The episode centers around a woman whose son died a year prior on his birthday.
- Grief-Induced Split: Shelley's inability to cope with an injured police officer having been prioritized over her son, both in injury treatment at the scene and news coverage following both deaths, causes her relationship with her husband to deteriorate to the point of divorce.
- Hero Killer: Most of Shelley's intended targets are people considered as local heroes such as police officers and paramedics because her ex-husband is a firefighter.
- Idiot Ball: The initial shooting at the gun shop could've been prevented if the man running the store didn't just leave the revolver with her unattended.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- The other mother at Oakford Park who's an acquaintance of Shelley doesn't know that her son's dead and talks about her own before asking her about hers.
- Bill, the manager at Sir Burger chuckles a little as he explains that the birthday surprise is only for kids when Shelley attempts to order it.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: Shelley sings the song "This Little Light of Mine" while in the car after the gun store shootout. Turns out, that's the song she and her son sang before the accident.
- It's Personal: Hotch feels personally involved with this case, because it is the flipside of what happened to him when his wife was killed and his son survived, but in the Shelley's case, she lived, and her son died.
- Plot Parallel: The main plot is about a woman who can't handle her grief for her son. The subplot is the team dealing with their grief over Emily.
- Police Are Useless: Shelley believes this because they prioritized treating another officer over her son. It's not helped by the policeman who stops her and can't see her son in her empty backseat as she is reliving the accident. Hotch takes advantage of this by being genuinely helpful, thus confusing her enough to let her hostages go.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Shelley and her son were in a car accident when they collided with a thief who was on the run from a liquor store robbery. The police didn't rescue them immediately despite there being an ambulance because a police officer was also gravely wounded, and another was on the way. She survived while her son didn't, and her son's death got little-to-no media coverage because the same police officer was killed in action as well. Because of the incident, her relationship with her husband deteriorated until he finally got a divorce and a restraining order against her.
- Garcia's voice starts to crack as she realizes it.
- Tragic Villain: The BAU team are sympathetic with the extremely bad hand Shelley has been dealt when it's been revealed. Notably, Shelley's own husband admits when she confronts him that he's still full of grief over their son dying, but he tried to move on and find something constructive to do with it unlike Shelley who completely fell to pieces.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The main plot involving Shelley spaces out Hotch interviewing each of the team about how they're dealing with the loss of Prentiss.
- Parting-Words Regret: The last thing that Shelley did was scold Damion for kicking her seat while she was driving.
- Title Drop: Hanley Waters is the name of the criminal that was in the other car during the accident that cost Shelley her son.
- Why Couldn't You Save Them?: Shelley believes this of the EMTs and blames them for her son's death.
- You Did Everything You Could: Hotch tries to tell Morgan this during his interview.
- Hotchner: Poet Antonio Porchia wrote, "Man when he does not grieve, hardly exists."
