A Real Rain

"A Real Rain" is the seventeenth episode of Season One of Criminal Minds.

Summary
The BAU travels to New York City to investigate a series of murders that appear to have been committed by a vigilante who is exacting revenge on other criminals who have been released by the justice system.

Guest Cast

 * David Aaron Baker - Will Sykes
 * Dennis Boutsikaris - Lance Wagner
 * Pat Connolly - Marshall
 * Sarah Scott Davis - Uniform Cop
 * Natalie Graziano - Woman on the Street #2
 * Joel Heyman - Man on the Street #6
 * Joe Jagatic - Man on the Street #5
 * Loren Lazerine - Walter Derbin
 * Wahn Lee - Woman on the Street #3
 * Mike Muscat - Man on the Street #7
 * Ethan Phillips - Marvin Doyle
 * Tonya Pinkins - Detective Nora Bennett
 * Munda Razooki - Officer Clark
 * Nate Reese - Older Black Man
 * Irene Roseen - Parishioner
 * Marc Anthony Samuel - Ted Elmore
 * Elizabeth Tatus - Woman on the Street #4
 * Donnell Turner - Man on the Street #1
 * Sheilynn Wactor - Leanne Elmore
 * Glen Walker - Reporter
 * Scott Wilder - Second Man
 * Pauline Yasuda - Young Asian Woman

Referenced Criminals

 * The Zodiac Killer
 * Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris, The Toolbox Killer
 * David Berkowitz, Son of Sam
 * Bernhard Goetz, The Subway Vigilante
 * George Metesky, The Mad Bomber
 * Theodore Kaczynski, The Unabomber
 * Robert Blake
 * O. J. Simpson
 * T. Cullen Davis

Music

 * "Hallelujah" by Ben Cooper

Bookend Quotes

 * Jason Gideon: W.H Auden said, "Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society must take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness."
 * Jason Gideon: Gandhi said, "It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence."
 * Aaron Hotchner: Gandhi also said, "I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."

Trivia

 * The episode's opening quote is reused in the novel Criminal Minds: Jump Cut.
 * The title of the episode is a reference to a line uttered in the 1976 vigilante film Taxi Driver. The quote is: "All the animals come out at night – whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."