The Last Word

"The Last Word" is the ninth episode of Season Two of Criminal Minds.

Summary
The BAU is called to St. Louis to assist the investigation into two independent serial killers who appear to be competing with each other. Meanwhile, Gideon and Hotch are visited by a prospective new team member, Emily Prentiss.

Guest Cast

 * Hanna Alltop - Hysterical Woman #1
 * Sara Alltop - Katie Carroll
 * Karina Bennett - Female Reporter #2
 * Christopher B. Duncan - Agent James Sheridan
 * Bethany Geaber - Hysterical Woman #2
 * Kate Rene Gleason - Female FBI Agent
 * Landall Goolsby - Male Reporter #2
 * David Barry Gray - Tom Carroll
 * Jeff Grays - Sheriff's Deputy
 * Rochelle Greenwood - Marci Mitchell
 * Chip Hormess - Jason Mitchell
 * Jonathan Kehoe - Angry Man
 * Victoria Kelleher - Ellen Carroll
 * Robert C. Koch - ND Agent
 * Scott Michael Morgan - The Hollow Man
 * Trevor Olsen - Male Reporter #1
 * Jason O'Mara - The Mill Creek Killer
 * Natalie Salins - Cara Becker
 * Maury Sterling - Jim Meyers
 * Inger Tudor - Female Reporter #1
 * Cory Tyler - Security Guard
 * Deborah Van Valkenburgh - Betty Mitchell

Referenced Criminals

 * David Berkowitz, Son of Sam
 * Paul Bateson or Richard Cottingham, The Torso Killer
 * Russell Ellwood and Victor Gant
 * Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman, The Serial Shooters
 * Mark Goudeau, The Baseline Killer
 * Ted Bundy
 * Mark David Chapman

Music

 * "Field Below" by Regina Spektor

Bookend Quotes

 * Jason Gideon: Elbert Hubbard once wrote, "If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate."
 * Aaron Hotchner: Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Remember that all through history there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they seemed invincible. But in the end they always fall. Always."

Trivia

 * This episode marks the first appearance of Paget Brewster as Special Agent Emily Prentiss.
 * Though Reid only names three examples of instances when more than one independent serial killer has been active in the same area at the same time, there are several more examples, including (but not limited to):
 * Serial killers Edmund Kemper and Herbert Mullin were both active in Santa Cruz, California, at the same time.
 * Patrick Kearney, William Bonin, and Randy Kraft were three independent serial killers in California at the same time, whose individual strings of killings were initially believed to be committed by a single man they nicknamed "The Freeway Killer".
 * Derrick Todd Lee, a.k.a. "The Baton Rouge Serial Killer", was active in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the same time as Sean Vincent Gillis, who actually feared being "outdone" by Lee.
 * Lonnie David Franklin, a.k.a. "The Grim Sleeper", was initially believed to be an unrelated serial killer referred to as "The Southside Slayer", who turned out to be at least four independent killers, Louise Craine (who committed at least two of the Slayer's murders), Michael Hughes, Daniel Lee Siebert, and Ivan Hill (the latter three of whom were attributed to at least one Slayer murder each).
 * In addition, an unrelated series of murders, which was erroneously dubbed the "Strawberry murders", began in succession of the murder of Debra Jackson, a victim of the Sleeper; these murders had a similar M.O. to Jackson's murder.
 * Serial killers Joel Rifkin and Robert Shulman were both active in the Suffolk and Nassau counties of Long Island, New York, at the same time; they even lived a few miles away from each other and killed some of their victims on the same days.
 * After Rifkin's arrest in 1993, Shulman then shared the same area of operation with an unidentified third serial killer known as (among other names) the Gilgo Beach Killer until his own arrest in 1996.
 * Serial killers Anthony Sowell and Joseph Harwell were both active in Cleveland, Ohio, at the same time.