The Apprenticeship

"The Apprenticeship" is the sixth episode of Season Eight of Criminal Minds.

Summary
When prostitutes in Miami are discovered murdered in a similar style to local animals found dead there, the BAU must work fast to find an unsub whose confidence is quickly escalating. Also, Morgan tries to increase Reid's athletic skills by convincing him to join the bureau softball team.

Guest Cast

 * Mekhai Andersen - Henry LaMontagne
 * Shira Scott Astroff - Hollie Riggio
 * Michael Broderick - Secret Service Player
 * Veronica Diaz-Carranza - Amanda Lopez
 * Hector Hank - Detective Sam Oglivie
 * Shirley Jordan - Dr. Rosa Escobedo
 * Eitra Kennedy - Jose Aguilar
 * Nancy La Scala - Claire Whitewood
 * Matthew Lillard - David Roy Turner
 * Marina Lyon - Shawna Radford
 * Cade Owens - Jack Hotchner
 * Chuck Pierce - Umpire
 * Harrison Thomas - Toby Whitewood

Referenced Criminals

 * John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, The DC Snipers

Bookend Quotes

 * Derek Morgan: "Better than a thousand days of diligent study, is one day with a great teacher." Japanese proverb.
 * Spencer Reid: "The greatest good you can do for another, is not to share your own riches, but to reveal to him, his own." Benjamin Disraeli.

Trivia

 * Many of the characters in this episode were named after characters in The Bad News Bears series of movies. The movies were about a team of misfits playing little league baseball.
 * The mentor/apprentice relationship between the unsubs in this episode is similar to the dynamic in How To Be A Serial Killer in which Matthew Gray Gubler played the apprentice. In that movie, as in this episode, Gubler's character wore a baseball cap. Some of the scenes with Morgan patting Reid on the shoulder while coaching him mirrored the interactions between Gubler's character and the serial killer mentor in that movie.
 * The mentor/apprentice relationship is also similar to the Star Wars character organization known as the Order of the Sith Lords, where a Master instructs an Apprentice. When the Apprentice feels he has learned enough, he kills the Master and takes his role.