Recap / Criminal Minds S 8 E 15 Broken

The Broken

Directed by Larry Teng
Written by Rick Dunkle

Blake: "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places." Ernest Hemingway.

A gay man kills his lovers because he was traumatized by conversion therapy as a child, and now feels that gay sex is so filthy as to warrant the death penalty.

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Tropes in this episode

• Archnemesis Dad: The UnSub blames his homophobic father for forcing him into a conversion therapy camp. It did not help that his father's idea about turning him straight involved forced sex and participation in father-son threesomes,
• As the Good Book Says...: The conversion therapy camp the UnSub was sent to focuses heavily on Leviticus 18:22. Rossi also talks the UnSub out of killing himself by quoting John 13:34.
• Bittersweet Ending: The UnSub accidentally kills his best friend and ex-boyfriend, but Rossi talks him down from suicide, with his testimony the conversion camp is shut down, and several other boys are rescued from torture and rape.
• Cure Your Gays: The UnSub was subjected to this as a child and is very traumatized by it. At the end of the episode, the FBI shuts down the conversion therapy camp he went to.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Completely averted, as usual. The fact that Isabella Grant (and, it's implied, other female sex workers) had sex with the boys at the conversion therapy camp to attempt to "turn them straight" is referred to as rape and treated with all the horror and disgust it deserves, and Hotch outright calls Grant a child molester. The UnSub's father playing this attitude straight and wanting his son to have sex with her to be "a real man" as a kid is also shown to have been a huge part of why he's so messed up as an adult, and the UnSub wants to have another man rape his father in revenge.
• Everyone Has Standards: Rossi points out that homosexuality is frowned upon in some religions. He also points out that none of them would resort to torturing children.
• Forced to Watch: The UnSub was forced to watch his father having sex with a prostitute (who was also abusing the UnSub) as part of the conversion therapy. When the conversion camp is raided and shut down, we see several kids strapped to chairs with IVs, forced to watch (presumably hetero-normative) porn on a projector.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Camp Willing. They are responsible for the rape and torture of presumably dozens of young gay men, and are what drove Paul towards becoming a murderer.
• Morton's Fork: The team describes the UnSub's situation as this. If he has intercourse with a man, he snaps and kills him because he’s been tortured to believe being gay is wrong. If he has intercourse with a woman, he kills her because he blames her for his impotence and because she reminds him of the prostitute that raped him when he was younger.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The UnSub is horrified when his best friend is fatally shot during a Gun Struggle with his father, to the point of trying to kill himself before Rossi and Morgan talk him down.
• Predatory Prostitute: The UnSub's Start of Darkness involved being taken to a conversion camp where a prostitute, Isabella Grant (see her quote below to illustrate just what a horrible person she is), was paid to molest him. It's also stated that she made the parents watch as a form of insurance.
• Rape and Revenge: The UnSub was molested by a female prostitute at a conversion therapy clinic. He then tries to have a gay man rape his homophobic father in retaliation.
  Paul Westin: They all thought that they could rape us straight. I think it's time we see if it works the other way around.
• Rape and Switch:
  • Attempted. Camp Willing employs Isabella Grant (and, it's implied, several other sex workers) to rape young gay men in an attempt to "turn" them straight.
  • Also discussed by Paul, who plans to force a gay man to rape his father in revenge for what happened to him as a child.
• Tranquil Fury: Hotch exudes this while confronting the prostitute who molested underage children at the conversion therapy camp, all while shattering her initial confidence.
  Aaron Hotchner: I'd like to talk to you about Camp Willing. [Isabella barely contains a smirk]
  Isabella Grant: What are you offering?
  Aaron Hotchner: You don't seem surprised.
  Isabella Grant: It was a matter of time. And you've already got me in here for everything else. So what are you gonna give me if I talk?
  Aaron Hotchner: I don't make deals with child molesters.
  Isabella Grant: I didn't molest anyone. I was hired to help those kids.
  Aaron Hotchner: Being paid to prey on your victims doesn't change anything.
  Isabella Grant: I had parental consent.
  Aaron Hotchner: Is that what the camp told you to make you feel better?
  Isabella Grant: They didn't have to.
  Aaron Hotchner: Why? Because you didn't care, or because you'd spoken to the parents directly? You show absolutely no remorse for what you've done. Why should you? Smaller the victim, the easier to control. And that's what it's all about for you, isn't it? Control. That's why you're showing me all this false confidence.
  Isabella Grant: I'm done talking.
  Aaron Hotchner: You've said plenty. A professional like yourself wouldn't trust the camp to protect you. You had to get some sort of insurance directly from the parents, didn't you? Make sure that they were just as culpable for the crime. Your word against theirs wouldn't hold up in court, not with a child testifying to your abuse. Unless, of course, the abuse damned the parents as well. They were in the room with you, weren't they? You made them watch. [Hotch stands up and walks to the door]
  Isabella Grant: Where are you going? What about my deal?
  Aaron Hotchner: We never had a deal.
• Visible Victimology: The UnSub tries to have sex with slender, blonde women before snapping and killing them. His feminine beauty ideal seems to match Isabella Grant in appearance, though not in personality.

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Rossi: Try John 13:34 instead. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."