"There's No Place Like Home" is Episode 7 in Season 7 of "Criminal Minds." The episode aired on November 9, 2011, at 9 pm ET on CBS.
The episode opens in Wichita, Kansas during a heavy storm. A young man has tied up and gagged another young man, before dragging out this victim in the rain and beating him.
Back at the BAU, Garcia informs the team that the bodies of two teenage Caucasian boys have been found in Kansas in the aftermath of a storm. Both victims died from blunt-force trauma to the head. The first victim had one leg taken off, while the second was missing arms; agents aren't sure if this was caused by the unsub or the storm. Most likely the unsub is killing in the storm so the weather washes away evidence, or cause he wants agents to believe the storm is what killed the victims.
SPOILERS!
"For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously." - George Gissing
On the plane, agents learn that both victims were street hustlers, and the unsub is most likely a sexual predator, possibly keeping the victims' body parts as a fetish. Meanwhile, Kansas is in chaos as the ongoing storms are causing various other deaths.
On location, Prentiss and Morgan learn that the unsub definitely has his own mode of transportation to retrieve the victims, while he could possibly be a storm chaser- someone who chases storms for the thrill of it. Hodge suspects the unsub is familiar with the victims' lifestyles as all the victims are tough street kids. Meanwhile, the unsub picks up another victim, paying him $50 bucks and beer to persuade the victim to come along.
At the ME's office, the victims' bodies contained cough medicine and alcohol, while the rest of their injuries were from the storm, except the missing limbs which were cleaved off. Reid and Rossi suspect the unsub is definitely keeping the limbs, but the question is what significance the limbs have to him. Meanwhile, the unsub has drugged and tied up his latest victim, while he talks and the shakes the hand of one of his dead victims- or rather, the hand-limb of his former victim.
Agents then find the unsub's latest victim, a runaway, who again was missing any forensic evidence due to the storm. All that is left of this victim is a severed arm and severed head. Agents now know that the unsub will strike at any hint of bad weather, while Reid suspects the unsub isn't just taking body parts as a fetish, but rather is constructing his own body with various limbs from his dead victims.
The profile for the unsub is as follows: White male, mid-late twenties, mobile, follows storms, most likely lives in his driving vehicle, anti-social, but has to hold some type of day-job in order to pay for gas, bribing money and ice (to keep the dead limbs fresh). Reid notes that Jeffrey Dahmer created his own 'zombies' using the body parts of young men, and the unsub may be following a similar path. Agents explain that the unsub is probably a symphorophiliac- someone who is sexual aroused by staging disasters (like fires, traffic accidents).
Reid has a theory that the unsub began killing and severing body parts as part of a fantasy. He gets Garcia to look up grave robberies and body-part thefts in Tornado Alley. She finds that a left leg was stolen one year ago from a funeral home in Tulsa during a cyclone, from a 47-year-old father of two. Now agents know that the unsub won't stop building his puzzle until he finds 'the perfect head' from a potential victim. Meanwhile, the unsub is rejected at a bus stop by a young man with his little brother. He follows the pair and hits the older one over the head.
At the Kansas police station, the latest victims' parents come in with the little brother, an agents learn the latest victim was a straight-A student- not fitting the criteria of the unsub. JJ suggests that perhaps the unsub is trying to rebuild the body of someone that he loved and lost. The little brother provides a sketch of the unsub, while Garcia looks up young men who've lost a little brother in their life. Agents end up matching the boy's sketch with a photo of the unsub, whose name is Trevor.
Garcia discovers that Travis lost his older brother and mother in a past tornado. Travis, along with other young boys, had testified against a local pedophile, but the man was acquitted. Protecting Travis, Travis' older brother confronted the acquitted pedophile, but a tornado hit and Travis awoke to his brother being in pieces. Agents now suspect that Travis is trying to rebuild his older brother, while Reid notes that due to Travis' experience, he most likely believes that tornados have the power both to take life and give it back- similar to Frankenstein. His brother's memorial was also disturbed, hence, Travis is under the delusion that he can bring his older brother back to life, completing the body with the head from his latest victim.
Meanwhile, there are two twisters in the area, so agents split up trying to track Travis' position. Agents discover Travis ready to cut the head off his latest victim. Morgan, Reid and JJ persuade Travis to drop the weapon, but only because a tornado is nearby. Agents retrieve the victim and go into a storm shelter, while Travis and his headless Frankenstein eerily blow away into the storm.
"Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are." - Arthur Golden
Overall, this was probably the best episode of "Criminal Minds" thus far this season. It discussed a rather foreign fetish and had some cool 'tornado effects' near the end.
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