"The Popular Kids" is the tenth episode of Season One of Criminal Minds.
Summary[]
The BAU is called to investigate the murder of two small-town high school students who may have been victims of a cult killing. Based on the crime scene evidence, the team begins to suspect that someone other than a cult member may be responsible.
Full Summary[]
At Massanutten Mountain, in Virginia, two teenagers are jogging together. The girl is tired, and the boy agrees to take a moment to stop. She tells him to go ahead and move forward, and they agree to meet up at the Point after she gets over her cramp and catches her breath. She gets freaked out and calls into the woods for the boy, Adam. When she comes up emptyhanded, she begins to run again, only to end up finding Adam incapacitated. When she goes up she sees that he’s dead. A figure appears and she screams.
Adam’s being covered as the cops arrive at the scene. Another cop calls for the sheriff, and they find another body, heavily decomposed. The head was busted open just like Adam. They find another piece of information by the body.
At the bureau, Morgan is teasing Reid. But it turns to a serious conversation when Reid asks Morgan if he’s ever kept up by dreams. He admits that he’s having nightmares. Morgan advises him to speak to Gideon about it. Elle comes in, calling them both to the conference room.
JJ talks about the victims and the case file, and Gideon says that it’s a satanic cult. The information that the sheriff found is in red blood/ink on a tree, saying Satan lives and a series of letters.
On the plane, Hotchner asks JJ to keep the murders out of the media. They talk about how there’s never been a proven case of ritual satanism in the US. At the scene, Reid, Hotchner, and JJ look over the scene. Elle and Morgan are joined by Hotchner down the trail to see where the kid, Adam was killed.
The sheriff sets up a volunteer search party and the team agrees to profile who shows up. JJ goes with the sheriff to the station to help coordinate a search, while Reid goes to call Quantico about the LOD.
While at the station, Reid meets Cory, a football player, and the son of the sheriff. He agrees to bring the team and cheerleaders to help with the search party. Gideon notices a cheerleader looking at the scene and is curious about her. He also remarks how the unsub is in the search party.
Reverand Paul Burke is a suspect, a reborn convict for a moment, before Garcia finds Henry Dent, a person who has a record for assault with a bat and a house in foreclosure. In their search grid, Elle sees a piece of clothing attached to a tree and a note with blood on it that reads ‘Satan commands that the virgin be sacrificed at the next full moon.’
At the office, Hotchner calls Reid out for his nightmares, but Reid feigns ignorance. They discuss how while there hasn’t been an official case of human sacrifice but there have been cults, animal sacrifices, and other instances. Their profile says they are looking for a younger male, but he’ll be older than the rest of the group. He’s charismatic and there will be sex and drugs. Cory mentions that he knows someone like the teams profile.
His name is Mike Zizzo and he hangs out with highschoolers, despite being in his twenties. They call themselves the lords of destruction. Cory tells his dad that he’s been there to hang out and drink beers. Zizzo is at the old Jensen house. The team goes to investigate.
Gideon sees the girl from earlier as they’re leaving, and stays out of the raid to talk to her. While at the rid, there are kids partying, doing drugs, and drinking. Mike Zizzo is on a platform when the team and cops get to him. Meanwhile, Gideon follows the girl to the church. She admits that Cherish going missing is her fault.
At the station, Zizzo laughs at how they call Cherish a virgin. They show him pictures of the crime scene and he’s confused.
Back at the old Jensen house, Reid and Morgan are keeping watch. The uni goes down into town to get coffee. Reid talks to Morgan about why he mentioned his nightmares to Hotch and he says he told Hotch and Gideon. Reid gets upset with him because he confided in them. Morgan admits he had nightmares six months after starting the BAU. He admits that it was a strangler case, where he said he could get a profile nailed down when there were more victims. He found the girl the next day, her eyes wide open, staring at him. Gideon found out about it. Before he can finish talking to Reid, Cory drives up and starts worriedly searching inside the house. He tells them that there is an outbuilding and shows them where it is.
At the church, the girl tells Gideon about the first body. It was a tourist or someone who fell down the hill, cracked his skull open and died there. She knew about it, just like all the other teenagers because it was a spectacle. They all watched it decompose.
Zizzo says that he doesn’t know what the pictures of the pentagram or anything from the crime scene came from.
At the outbuilding, Morgan and Reid see the pentagram with LOD beneath it in spray paint. Morgan goes in while Cory stays outside with Reid. Upon entering, he finds Cherish, dead, her eyes wide open and staring back at him. When he comes out, Cory wants to go in and asks about her. Morgan admits that she’s in there and goes to call it in.
Zizzo tells Elle and Hotch with the sheriff that he didn’t do anything. Gideon interrupts. At the house, Morgan instructs Reid to go back and see if the deputies came back since he has no service. Cory muses about Cherish.
Gideon tells them that after talking with the girl, Brandy, she tells him that only the jocks and cheerleaders knew about it, and that the pentagram wasn’t there a few months ago, meaning that someone is trying to frame Zizzo and the LOD.
Gideon asks how Cory interjected himself into the situation, and advises him to get ahead of it, before Cory hurts himself or anyone else, only to find out that he went to the house to see if they found out any information on Cherish. It’s also revealed that there is a revolver missing from the gun locker, and Cory took it.
At the house, Morgan talks to Cory more and it’s hinted that he knows who really did it. Reid comes back just as he calls him out on it. Cory grabs Reid and holds a gun to him. He admits that Cherish wasn’t supposed to get hurt as she never ran it with Adam. He gets Morgan to put his gun down. There is a fight and Morgan wrestles the gun away from Cory.
On the flight back when nearly everyone is asleep, Reid is idly staring at the wall. Gideon opens his wallet and shows him Deborah, a 13 year old who was abducted and they rescued. He reminds him that it’s important to think about the people you save, because that is what can help you push on.
He gives Reid the picture and he’s able to close his eyes, suggesting that he falls asleep.
Guest Cast[]
- Jon Barton - SWAT Leader
- Matt Bennett - Adam Lloyd
- Chris Butler - Deputy Harris
- Shanna Collins - Brandy Dreifort
- Julie Davenport - Ashlee Johnson
- Dale Duko - Reverend Paul Burke
- Kovar McClure - Deputy #2
- Michael McGrady - Sheriff John Bridges
- Aaron Paul - Mike Zizzo
- Rae Ritke - Veronica Hanson
- Will Rothhaar - Cory Bridges
- Clay Wilcox - Henry Dent
- Ellen Woglom - Cherish Hanson
Referenced Criminals[]
Music[]
- "Hate" by Drowning Pool
- "Make Slow" by Agents of the Sun
- "Always Leaving" by Cowboy Mouth
- "Make Tomorrow Today" by Paul Buchanan
Bookend Quotes[]
- Jason Gideon: Sir Peter Ustinov said, "Unfortunately, a super abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares."
- Jason Gideon: Playwright Eugene Ionesco said, "Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together."
Trivia[]
- During the episode, Gideon claims that there has been no confirmed examples of ritual murder. This would no longer be true six months after this episode aired, as Gerald Robinson was convicted of murder for the ritual killing of Margaret Ann Pahl.