"Hope" is Episode 8 in Season 7 of "Criminal Minds." The episode aired on November 16, 2011 at 9 pm ET on CBS.
The episode opens with Garcia speaking in a group meeting about her parents being killed by a drunk driver. She encourages another participant, Monica, to speak about the loss of her daughter Hope. Monica reveals after the meeting that the anniversary has come of her daughter's disappearance. In her car, Monica reads a letter supposedly written by her daughter, urging Monica not to call police at the behest of Hope's kidnapper. A man then taps on Monica's window, and says he saw a young girl with an older man wandering outside of the building. Monica gets into this man's car in a hurry to find her daughter, only to realize that this man is Hope's kidnapper.
Noticing that Monica left her cell phone in her car, Garcia panics and contacts the police, while Agent Morgan shows up to help as well. Morgan finds the letter from Hope in Monica's car.
SPOILERS!
"Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark." - George Iles
The kidnapper takes Monica into a gas station convenience store, telling her that this is the first place he laid eyes on Hope. He tells her not to cause a scene or else he'll hurt her daughter. Instead of running, she chooses to get back into the kidnapper's car in hopes of seeing her daughter.
Back at the BAU, Hodge reveals the case to the other agents as Garcia is upset. Seven years ago Hope was abducted from her front yard, and has since been presumed dead. Now Monica has been abducted as well. Reid mentions that it's not uncommon for kidnappers to contact the victims' family, evidenced by the Natalee Holloway/Joran van der Sloot case. He also notes that abducting Monica at that location was high-risk, as it was a very public place.
Rossi and Prentiss go to Monica's home- an apartment nearby her old house. The house lights are on a timer, incase Hope came home, and Rossi finds a key under the mat. Obviously the unsub would have had easy access to kidnap Monica in her home, but instead choose to abduct her in a public place. At the BAU, Reid reveals that the letter shows no signs of female penmanship, suggesting it wasn't written by Hope. Garcia also finds camera footage from the former gas station where the unsub took Monica. Agents now suspect that the places he's taking Monica have some significance.
Meanwhile, the unsub takes Monica to his home where he's been keeping Hope. Monica eerily notes that she's been driving past this house for years. Inside, she sees all the photos of Hope that the kidnapper has taken.
Agents suspect that the unsub is putting Monica through all the steps of his abducting Hope, perhaps because he carries a shared attraction to both mother and daughter. Hodge guesses that his fantasy has matured, with his sights now being set on Monica instead of on young Hope. Most likely Hope is dead, and he's taken Monica because she reminds him of Hope. Back at the unsub's home, Monica demands to see her daughter, knowing now that the unsub had been lying all along. He shows her supposed live footage from a camcorder, in which we see that Hope is cooperating with Bill (the unsub).
Reid tries to narrow down the unsub's comfort zone, which is an area of about 20 miles. Prentiss brings in a butterfly necklace which was found on the bicycle of Hope's friend, Heather, two weeks after Hope was abducted. Hope was with Heather when she was abducted, so the unsub was sending Heather a 'thank you' message in regards to 'helping' him kidnap Hope. Meanwhile, Monica is brought to the room where she had just seen her daughter on the camcorder. Bill, the unsub, refuses to tell Monica where Hope is. He covers his eyes and insinuates playing hide-and-seek with Monica, before she starts to run away.
Prentiss and JJ speak with Heather hoping to gain new information. Heather is still dealing with her grief over Hope. She reveals that the day of the abduction was not the first time she'd seen the unsub. When Hope was kidnapped, the girls were playing hide-and-seek, and when Heather opened her eyes, the unsub was there with a jar of butterflies. Because of his present, Heather gave him permission to play with them, and Hope was abducted soon after. Meanwhile the unsub creepily goes 'seeking' for Monica in his home.
At the BAU, the profile is given: The unsub was initially a child molester, but most likely his preference evolved into an erotomanic obsession with Hope. In Hope's absence, the unsub's attention has shifted to Hope's mother. Despite the high risk, he abducted Monica in public, suggesting that she is key to his fantasy now that Hope is dead. Garcia insists that Monica is a fighter and would not give up easily.
At the unsub's home, Monica enters the attic and finds a dead body in the bed upstairs, presumably her daughter Hope. The unsub follows Monica and reveals that he was in love with Hope too, comparing her to a butterfly, and that he didn't want Monica to find out about her daughter's death this way. Monica, in hysterics, blames Bill for killing her daughter, but Bill insists that Hope killed herself.
Agents suspect, due to the unsub knowing so much about Monica, that he too is a member of Garcia's support group. JJ gets Garcia to retrace the meeting in her mind, and Garcia remembers a man putting his hand on Monica's shoulder. Garcia now identifies the unsub as Bill. Meanwhile, the unsub explains to Monica how he discovered that Hope killed herself. When he broke down her locked door, he found she'd cut herself, while we as viewers see that she had scribbled sayings on the walls like "Why Me?" Monica now recognizes this story as the one Bill had told in group about his wife; he was speaking about Hope all along.
Agents now suspect that Bill didn't want to make advances on Hope until she was older, which explains why he kept her for so many years. Hope didn't want to have his child, so she exerted the only control she did have and killed herself. Kidnapping Monica was his way of recreating his 'bond' with Hope. Meanwhile, the unsub tells Monica that he plans on having a baby with her, before forcing her on the bed and having sex with her. Afterwards, he brings her tea, and she throws it on his face before trying to escape.
Garcia manages to track down two addresses, and demands she go with the agents. One location is clear, but on the other, Garcia calls Bill's house phone and demands talking to Monica. Bill answers and holds the phone up to Monica's mouth before hanging up. Garcia calls back, and Bill reveals that he's opened his front door for her. JJ reluctantly allows Garcia to go inside. Garcia tries to convince Bill that she understands the pain he feels. Bill finally reveals to Monica that he's so upset because Hope was pregnant when she died.
Agents come in through the back door and force Bill to drop his weapon. However, Monica picks up the gun and shoots Bill immediately afterwards. The episode ends with Monica releasing butterflies from a jar.
"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." - Joseph Campbell
Overall, I wasn't expecting much from an episode about child abduction, but writers managed to create a unique storyline that kept me interested. My only question is whether Monica was eventually arrested for killing the unsub, as although it was warranted, it technically was not in self-defense.
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