"Dorado Falls" is Episode 3 in Season 7 of "Criminal Minds." The episode aired on October 5, 2011, at 9 pm ET on CBS.
The episode opens in Charlottesville, VA, where a man goes into an internet security corporation and kills eight people.
Because the victims were gunned and knifed, and because the murders were premeditated, the BAU is puzzled. Typically unsubs with this much rage are mentally ill, and the killings end in suicide by cop, but this unsub had a reason to stay hidden.
SPOILERS!
"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."- FDR
Three victims were stabbed and five shot, suggesting that the killer had one victim in mind and killed the rest as witnesses. Due to blood patterns, the agents suspect the killer wasn't a threat, and may have had some other motive besides killing, like stealing company information. The boss, Adam, took four bullets instead of one like the others, suggesting the killer had it out for him.
We then see the killer, Luke, go into his parents' house, and not recognize his father. It's here where we suspect Luke as being mentally ill and probably having spent time in the military. He locks his parents in a closet, turns the stereo up, and executes them through the doors.
Rossi and Hodge find Luke's dead parents, and assume they were bound and gagged as Luke was trying to get information. Having served thirteen years in the navy, the agents believe that his mental disorder is somehow making him relive days of combat, making everyone around him his enemy. Reid says Luke has a form of PTSD, but it's especially worse as he's been in war. Despite his mental state, Luke is still capable of covering his tracks like a professional killer.
The BAU discuss how navy seals are trained to be resistant to PTSD, making it more mysterious as to what triggered Luke to kill a fellow navy seal (Adam) and his parents. Garcia finds out that Luke got into a recent car accident but refused medical treatment, suggesting that perhaps he has an unknown medical condition or tumor that is making him act this way. Dorado Falls is the 'mission' Luke is currently on, an agents need to find out what that means.
Luke breaks into a couple's home and kidnaps the husband. The wife tells agents that Luke came into the house and tied her up, saying that the couple replaced his family, and mentioning something about gas-lighting, as well as the mission.
Reid suggests that Luke may have capgras syndrome, a delusional disorder where the person thinks their loved ones are being replaced with impostors. With this disorder, looking at a loved one doesn't illicit the same emotional response one would expect, but the auditory connection remains so if the person in question heard a loved one but didn't see them, they'd think they were real. This was most likely brought on by Luke's head trauma from the accident, and his military background is making the paranoia worse. He is killing because he feels like he has to.
We learn that the husband Luke kidnapped was a general in the Dorado Falls mission, and that Luke had to kill two innocent kids on a boat because Intel failed to identify their being there. Rossi calls the husband's cell and talks to Luke about this, trying to identify his address, but Luke is one step ahead. Hodge and Morgan find the general gagged but alive, while Luke kills a cop, steals his uniform and heads into FBI headquarters.
He sneaks up behind all the agents with a gun, while Rossi and Reid try to convince him of his disorder. Agents get Luke's wife and child to speak to him over the loudspeaker, convincing him that they indeed are his real family. Luke surrenders, making sure to keep his eyes closed, but his daughter bursts through the doors, forcing him to open his eyes, making him crazy again.
"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone." - Orson Welles
Overall, this episode was interesting as it introduced some concepts that most of the public were probably not aware of.
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