"Riding the Lightning" is the fourteenth episode of Season One of Criminal Minds.
Summary[]
The BAU is sent to the Florida State Penitentiary to interview husband-and-wife serial killers set to be executed. After the initial interview, Gideon suspects that the wife may not be guilty of the crimes committed.
Full Summary[]
Gideon is crying as he listens to classical music. When he opens his eyes, he’s in a car and looks at the pictures from a case fifteen years ago. JJ, Gideon, and Morgan talk about a serial killer couple as they drive to the prison in Central Florida. In the other car, Hotchner, Elle, Garcia, and Reid. Sarah Jean and her husband were convicted of killing their two year old son Riley, and twelve girls. She only confessed to killing her son Riley
Inside the prison, the warden is taking Sarah Jean to her cell, where she’ll spend her last 36 hours before being executed. Sarah Jean mentions how it will be a full moon the following evenings and she asks if she can see it. He insists that it’s against regulations. She goes in her cell without a fight and looks off into the distance.
As the team pulls up to the Florida State Penitentary, you can see numerous people picketing, as well as ‘the women of Jacob,’ a number of girls who try to look like Jacob’s victims, as they have a clear fascination with the serial killer. Morgan makes a dark joke, asking if they should tell the girls that they’re missing one, to which Gideon replies that Lori Gibson may not have been the last victim and that they may be missing more than one.
Back inside the prison, we see Jacob Dawes, the exact opposite of his wife Sarah Jean. He’s cocky and smiling. As he’s being walked down the hall, we see the tattoo on his arm, a heart with his wife’s name in it.
Garcia starts the countdown clock as the team is in the command center. They talk about the case, and how Jacob killed the women, but when the police started to catch onto them he demanded that Sarah Jean kill Riley as the boy would only slow them down. They talk about how Jacob is a sexual psychopath, and Morgan reminds the team that Jacob said Sarah Jean was involved in the targeting, abduction, torture, and murder of all the girls, but Reid says the tests were inconclusive on Sarah Jean being a sexual psychopath.
Gideon tells Hotch to interview Jacob, wile Elle and Morgan go to the old home. Gideon takes Reid and goes to visit Sarah Jean with the warden. She’s staring at her paintings as they open the cell. Back with Elle and Morgan, they visit Sarah Jean’s mother.
Her house is in a mild state of disrepair since the murders. She tells them that she was brought up fine, and while Sarah Jean and her father didn’t see eye to eye, but he never laid a hand on Sarah Jean. They ask about the anonymous call to the police, and Sarah Jean’s mother says that while it wasn’t her, she knows who did. She pulls a letter from her purse from Sarah Jean. In it, she proclaims her innocence to her mother.
Back at the prison, Sarah Jean comments that Reid being a doctor and at a young age must make his mother proud. As she’s doing so, Jacob is led through a hall and sees her, calling out for her. She turns to Gideon after he’s pulled away, and asks if he learned anything from what he made happen.
Hotch is interviewing Jacob. He taunts Hotch, having no remorse or regret about what he did. Meanwhile in the other interview room, a call from Elle is patched through and Gideon and Reid recite the letter of innocence from Sarah Jean to her mother. Sarah Jean breaks down, admitting that while she may not have killed the victims they died as a result of her neglect.
Gideon shows Shapiro, the appeal lawyer, as well as the warden the recording of the interview, and Shapiro says it won’t be enough for a stay of execution. While they’re talking about her, Gideon notices the paintings in her cell, as they watch her on the camera.
In he command center, JJ comes up with an idea and calls for Hotchner. The doors open to Jacob’s interview room, and Jacob is entranced by the blonde that enters. It’s JJ, and they’re baiting her.
Meanwhile, Gideon goes back to talk to Sarah Jean. He has the paintings brought in, and he talks to her about them. The first is Riley running free. The second is the river, and the third is a bouquet of roses, one for each girl killed. He comments that there is a thirteenth victim, one that she doesn’t know about.
Dawes tries to negotiate with Hotchner. He says that they can play a round of a cards, and if he wins he gets another girl, but if Dawes wins he gets to smell JJ’s hair. JJ agrees, against Hotch’s wishes. JJ deals.
Gideon continues to question Sarah Jean about why she would say she killed Riley. She asks him if he has children, wondering what he’d do to protect them. She says that ‘its their children who suffers the parent’s sins.’ She muses about Gideon’s child and reminds him that she left him somewhere safe and clean. Gideon says she killed Riley to protect him, and she doesn’t agree with the statement, only that she put him some place safe. The warden interrupts, saying that the chaplain is there.
Back with Hotchner, JJ, and Dawes, we see how the game unfolds. Hotchner has a deadman’s hand of eights and aces. But Daws has a straight with a Jack leading. He looks to JJ, and Hotchner reveals that he tricked Dawes, revealing a third ace, so he actually won. Dawes says that there are no other bodies. As they leave, Hotch gets a call on his wire. They granted a stay of execution for Sarah Jean because they don’t think she killed Riley.
Dawes is outraged and says he knows where Riley is buried. Elle, Morgan, and a team head to the house where a gazebo shows a buried body. They dig it up. It’s a young girl, Ashley, a fourteen-year-old that Jacob murdered.
Gideon goes to see Sarah Jean, and she got a Hardees meal. He tells her about Ashley Varley, and she’s in shock and disbelief. Hotchner, seeing Dawes, demands to know how many more there are, and Dawes says that he doesn’t want to talk. They taunt one another for a moment before he walks away.
Gideon points to the paintings, and talks about the psychological significance. Sarah Jean asks him to leave, and he asks where Riley is. Garcia pulls up Riley’s picture and the team muses that Riley has to be alive. They check records to see if they can find him. Gideon insists that she has to know and the proof is in her cell. He approaches the warden, begging for five minutes.
The warden agrees and takes her outside so she can see the full moon. She looks at the moon and talks to the warden about his own sons, while Gideon searches his cell. She asks him about if he knows the story of the man on the moon. She tells him that she used to tell Riley about him.
Gideon sees the painting again and takes it off the wall. He rips out the back and sees a picture of a young man, with a string instrument. Outside, the warden says he has to bring her back in, then asks if there’s something that can save her to tell him, only she rebukes his statement, thanking him for letting her outside instead.
While searching for where Riley could possibly be, Jacob is being transferred to the execution chamber. He calls for Sarah Jean. When he meets Hotchner in the hall, he tells him that he’s made his peace 18 times, insinuating that there were 18 women he killed, and not the fourteen that they know of. The warden says there’s nothing more they can do.
In Sarah Jean’s cell, she’s looking at the painting while her hair is being chopped off. She turns the painting over and notices the picture is gone. In the command center they wonder if she’ll admit that he’s alive after Jacob’s dead.
In the execution chamber they’re setting him up to be killedThe curtain opens and there’s a number of people. The warden asks for any last words and he says, “bring it on.” Hotchner enters and holds up the photo saying, “Riley. You lose,” revealing that Sarah Jean never killed their son. They cover his face and he’s put to death.
Gideon goes to see Sarah Jean and says that Jacob is dead, begging her to tell them where Riley is. She says she made her decision fifteen years ago, and that it’s not about Jacob, but protecting Riley. They have Garcia looking up the families that Sarah Jean cleaned for and find a match with the Sheffield family. The picture matches, and it’s revealed that his name is now Byron Sheffield, and he’s a cello prodigy.
Elle and Morgan drive to Sheffield Heights. He goes to see her once again, and tells her that they are getting her son as they lead her to the execution chamber. Sarah Jean says that her son is free to be whatever he wants, and that he can be free of the legacy that Jacob would have left him. She begs him to save her son’s life, and Gideon says that he chooses to save hers. She replies that her life ended the day she met Jacob.
At the home, Morgan and Elle are trying to find the family. They are at the home. The family arrives, Mr. Sheffield gets out to talk to them. Sarah Jean begs him once again to save her son’s life, and to let her go. He’s torn, but hugs her, agreeing to her final wish. He tells Hotch to tell Morgan that it’s not Sarah Jean’s son and it’s a mistake.
Morgan apologizes and says that they have the wrong house. Mr. Sheffield stops him and thanks him for not shattering his family by telling Byron that he’s really Riley.
Outside the execution chamber Sarah Jean asks if he’ll sit in, so that he can be the last face that she sees. When the curtain opens they’re looking at one another. Even the warden tears up, realizing that she’s sacrificing her life so that her son can be free of Jacob.
The cello music starts up, and we see Byron Sheffield, Riley, playing at a concert. It’s the first scene from the episode. Gideon is crying.
Guest Cast[]
- Jeannetta Arnette - Sarah Jean Mason
- Jon Barton - SWAT Leader
- Roger Aaron Brown - Warden Charles Diehl
- Cher Calvin - Lara Sedgwick
- Ren Casey - Byron Sheffield (Riley Dawes)
- Rachel Nicole Hamilton - Sobbing Girl
- David A. Kimball - Frank Sheffield
- Cynthia Lamontagne - Becky
- Michael Massee - Jacob Dawes
- Michael B. Silver - Sam Shapiro
- Constance Towers - Deb Mason
Music[]
- "Cello Suite No. 1, Prelude" by Johann Sebastian Bach
Bookend Quotes[]
- Jason Gideon: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." - Genesis 9:6
- Jason Gideon: Albert Pine said, "What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal."