S4E7 - “Memoriam”
We open in – Vegas baby! We’re still here. We never left. Last episode Reid kept having flashbacks about running into someone’s basement, seeing the dead body of a young boy, and then seeing his father. The same father who ran out on him and his mother when he was very young. Morgan does some research and discovers that there was a suspicious death involving a young boy named Riley Jenkins, who would’ve been a few years older than Reid at the time. Reid was actually living in Las Vegas, nearby when Reilly was living at the time of his disappearance.
Reid has vague memories of an imaginary friend he had named Reilly, and when he speaks to his mother Diana Reid about it, she also thought that Reilly was an imaginary friend. But we also remember that Reid’s mother is currently in a psychiatric facility, so her memories may not be the most accurate. Reid decides to stay behind in Vegas, thinking that his father, William Reid, may be responsible for Reilly’s murder.
Reid tells the rest of the team that he’s going to stay behind for a couple days to spend time with his mother. And Morgan and Rossi are like, no worries- take a few days, do what you need to do. Reid goes to the local Las Vegas police station and asks for the file on the 1984 murder of Reilly Jenkins. We meet the original detective on the case, Detective Hyde, who tells Reid that the family was initially suspected. Reilly’s body was found in the basement of his house. A la – Jon Benet Ramsey. HOWEVER, Mr. Original Detective tells Reid that he always though that someone outside of the family was responsible. Detective Hyde thinks Reid is barking up the wrong tree. He tells Reid to: “Go back to the Fountain View, have a drink by the pool and think about things.”
Reid hurries back to his hotel room, looking forward to spend a night solo working on the case, only to find Morgan and Rossi have stayed behind. Reid tells the bois that he believes his father is responsible for the Reilly’s death. MEANWHILE, back at BAU Headquarters in Quantico VA. Agent Todd (who met in episode 3, JJ’s replacement while she is on maternity leave) is shadowing JJ for the next couple weeks.
Back in Vegas BABY. We learn that Reilly Jenkins’ father Lou was supposed to pick Reilly up from TBall practice at 4pm. But Lou got delayed, prompting Reilly to walk the 3 blocks home. When Reilly’s mother got home in the early evening, she found Reilly’s body. He was sexually assaulted, stabbed 9 times, and his mouth was taped.
And we get a lil profile
At the time of Reilly’s death, it was profiled that the unsub was a white male in his late 20s to early 30s, which would make him 50s now
Likely knew Reilly, possibly been to his house, A neighbor
Need based, sexual in nature – the unsub is a pedophile.
Reid realizes that his family lived less than a ½ mile from the Jenkins. Reid now SUPER thinks his father is the unsub. Reid visits his mother Diana at the psychiatric facility. Reid asks Diana if his father liked to be around children and Diana says yes- if it was up to Reid’s father, Reid would have a house full of sisters and brothers. She also says that he was good with kids, and actually coached Reid’s little league team (AKA THE TBALL TEAM REILLY ATTENDED).
Back at BAU headquarters- JJ works with Agent Todd. The BAU gets a buttload of cases, and it’s JJ job to sort through the stacks and determine which cases need priority. And then… JJ starts having baby cramps.
Back in VEGAS BABY the BAU bois meet with Reilly’s father Lou. And Reid learns that Lou Jenkins and Reid’s own father, William, were close friends. Reid also learns that his father has never left Vegas. Like, he lives 9 miles from Reid’s childhood home. They show the fuck up at William Reid’s office and Reid and Reid Sr. face off. Mr. Reid says: “You don’t look like me anymore. You used to, everybody said so.” And Reid says: “And they say that some people look like their dogs too. It’s attributed to prolonged mutual exposure. Elderly couples to, they unconsciously mimic the expressions of people they’ve been around their whole life, so it kinda, kinda makes sense that I wouldn’t really look like you. I haven’t seen you in 20 years.”
Reid asks his father about the case of Reilly Jenkins, and straight out ACCUSES his father of killing Reilly. He’s like, I had a dream that you killed Reilly Jenkins. And Mr. Reid is like: “Interesting dream.” Morgan is like: “We just want permission to access your computer, look through your records.” And Mr. Reid is like: “Get a warrant.” Cut to Reid calling Garcia and being like: “I need you to hack his computer, we can’t get a warrant, we need to go under the radar.”
Reid gets back to his hotel room and finds that someone has stuffed a manila envelope under his door. He opens the envelope, which has a yellow sticky note on it saying, “You’ve got the wrong guy.” There are photos in the envelope, arrest photos. Reid then has a flashback, realizes that he used to play chess with this guy. We learn that the guys name is Gary Brendan Michaels and that he was arrested for exposing himself to a minor.
Then Garcia, Prentis and Hotch call, advising Reid that his father does not look good for the murder. His financial records are clean and there is no untoward information on his computer. Other then the fact that his father purchased a ticket to see Celine Dion several months ago. Hotch tells Reid that he doesn’t believe that his father fits the unsub’s profile. And Prentis is like, “We can tell you other things about him if you’d like to know.” And Reid is like whatever, I don’t care. And Prentis is like: “He’s a workaholic, he actually logs more hours than we do. He makes decent money but doesn’t spend a lot of it. He has a modest house, he drives a hybrid, he doesn’t travel much, he stays away from the casinos. And um… according to his veterinary bills, he has a very sick cat.” And Hotch says: “He appears to spend most of his free time alone, he goes to the movies a lot, and he reads. And from his collection of first editions, it seems his favorite author is Isaac Asimov.” Garcia tells Reid that his father also has one other hobby: Stalking Reid from afar. Reid is like “He googled me, like that makes up for everything.”
Rossi then takes Reid to a hypnotist named Dr. Jan to be hypnotized to see if he can recover memories. The hypnotist is like “This is not a good idea” and she tells them that anything Reid experiences will not hold up in court. And Reid is like, that’s fine, I just want to remember what happened to me. She hypnotizes Reid. He flashes back to when he was 4, in his bedroom, hearing his parents arguing. His father then came into his room and said: “I know you’re awake Spencer. Daddy loves you, you know that?”
Reid then flashes slightly forward in the flashback, remembering the morning after this last memory. He walks into his living room, and sees his mother standing at the living room window. He notices that she’s been crying, and she stares out the window. His mother then leaves the room, and Reid hurries over to where she was standing so that he can look out the window. And he sees his father burning bloody clothing.
Reid then tries to talk to his mother about everything he’s found out, and she has a mental breakdown. Nurses rush in to calm her down, and they give her some sort of drug to relax her. And as she is being drugged she tells Reid: “It could’ve been you.” So now Reid is like, my father is a pedophile who killed Reilly because he couldn’t kill me. Morgan, ever the skeptic, is like, you can’t know this Reid. And Reid is like: “I don’t know how my father is involved, but I know that he’s involved.”
Reid and Morgan meet with Detective Hyde (the original Detective on Reilly’s case) at the Las Vegas police station. He is upset that they have been asking questions, and he tells Reid that he doesn’t believe that Reid can be objective because he’s accusing his literal father of being a murdering pedophile. Morgan asks Detective Hyde to officially invite the BAU to assist with the case, but Detective Hyde refuses. Reid demands that Detective Hyde arrest his father, or at the very least detain him, and Hyde finally relents and agrees to pick William Reid up.
Meanwhile, Garcia has been digging into Gary Brendan Michaels, the man whose picture was stuffed under Reid’s door. Garcia can’t find any recent paper trail for Michaels, it looks like he fled town right after Reilly’s murder. However, Garcia does find that he has another record, this one is a juvie record for trespassing at a preschool. As JJ, Todd and Garcia are sitting there, JJ starts wincing again, and they realize that she is going into labor. As Prentis and Garcia are walking her out the door Prentis says: “Agent Todd I hope you’re ready, your job starts right now.”
Back in VEGAS BABY, William Reid is detained. Morgan tells Reid that he believes that Gary Brendan Michaels is responsible for Reilly’s death, especially seeing as he fled shortly afterwards. Reid tells Morgan that he believes that Detective Hyde was the one who slipped Michaels’ information under his door at the hotel, because Michaels told him to: “Go back to the Fountain View, have a drink by the pool and think about things.” And Reid never told him what hotel he was staying at. So now Reid thinks that Detective Hyde is in conspiracy with William Reid.
William Reid refuses to talk without council. He tells Reid that he’s proud of him. Reid is like “whatever”. They face off. William Reid says: “I didn’t kill that boy, but I know who did.” Hotch calls and advised Rossi, Reid and Morgan that Gary Michaels is dead. He was assaulted and beaten to death with a bat, and listed as John Doe on the records. However, there are fingerprints on his body that were never identified, and there is the opportunity for the BAU to run the prints and find out who killed Gary Michaels. So they run the prints, and the prints belong to Lou Jenkins, Reilly’s father.
So here’s the full story- Gary Michaels kills Reilly Jenkins. Gary Michaels then approaches Reid as the potential next target. Diana Reid sees this, and she tells Lou Jenkins. Lou Jenkins then kills Gary with a baseball bat. And then Diana sees that Lou Jenkins has killed Gary. And she falls over into Gary’s blood. So then she goes home, and William Reid burns her clothes. And then they got divorced, because William Reid couldn’t handle it. And Detective Hyde knew what happened???? But Lou Jenkins has to go to jail because he killed his son’s killer??? Because Reid kept pushing?????
Anyways JJ had a BB.
Rating Criteria:
Criminal/Serial Killer: 5/20
Character development/ character arcs: 15/20
Forensics/Context: 5/20
Script writing: 7/20
Background characters: 10/20
Overall: 42/100