"What Fresh Hell?" is the twelfth episode of Season One of Criminal Minds.
Summary[]
The BAU is called in to assist in the search for eleven-year-old Billie Copeland, who was abducted from the local community park in broad daylight twenty hours earlier.
Full Summary[]
In Wilmington Delaware, a bunch of girls are playing soccer. The coach argues with a girl beside her who has a broken arm. It’s her daughter, Billie. She claims that Billie has a bad attitude because she doesn’t want to come to the game since she can’t play, and suggests that she run laps while the rest of the team practices.
Billie hides and calls her dad, leaving a message that they’re fighting again, and that she wants to stay with him. She is stopped by someone with a leash, and he claims that he lost his dog. He leads her away, and abducts her. We see Billie screaming and pounding on the window in the back of the Jeep as he drives away.
Back at Quantico, Garcia thanks Gideon for flowers she’d received from him. When she leaves, JJ comes in, asking about the flowers. He didn’t send them. We are taken to the round table where JJ fills the team in on the assignment. The child was abducted almost 20 hours ago and they put themselves in a time crunch, once Reid goes over the statistics, saying that by 24 hours, most children are dead.
Gideon and Elle talk to the parents, Hotch and Morgan go to the abduction site, and Reid goes with JJ to talk to the press and limit what’s been put out. Detective Russet gets a call from unis, and it’s announced that there was another kid who may have spoken to the unsub. They go to her.
While Gideon is looking at Billie’s room, Elle is talking to her mother about what happened yesterday and trying to get more information about who might’ve taken her. Gideon deduces that Billie had a dog that passed two weeks ago. Billie’s dad shows up and they argue. Mr. Copeland had turned his phone off and that’s why he didn’t answer her call. At first, Mr. Copeland says that he was in Brandywine at his cabin, a short drive away, but when pressed, he admits that he was at a hospital seeing a specialist. His cancer is back and in his lymph nodes. There’s nothing more they can do for him. He begs Gideon to find his daughter.
Hotchner, Russet, and Morgan go to the other girl who’d seen the unsub, named Connie. He tried to abduct her by saying that his dog, Candy, was lost. But she told him that she couldn’t help look for his dog because she had to go to lunch and would get in trouble if she was late. He came back afterwards, but she was late for soccer practice. So she turned down helping him again.
The team gets back together and determines that the unsub is comfortable and in the area. He gets the team to corral the media so they can hold a press conference. Before that though, they hold a meeting for the detectives and other officers. They say that they need to lessen presence or he’ll get rid of Billie, and deliver their profile. Morgan calls Garcia and has her look up sex offenders in the area. She says there aren’t any level 3s, but there are a few level 2s, and a handful of 1s.
Meanwhile, Elle is talking to Mr. Copeland, and he’s mad about the strategies they’re employing. Mrs. Copeland notices that Mr. Copeland is sick again, as he’s taking his meds again. Elle tells him that they’re going to do a press conference. He gets the door, and Mrs. Copeland laments over how Mr. Copeland has already gone into remission twice.
Outside, a woman who lives in the neighborhood is handing a list of sex offenders to Mr. Copeland. He drives off to go after them himself, and Elle calls Hotch to tell him about it. Copland waits for a man to come home. His name is Dennis Jones. He attacks him with a pipe wrench. Hotchner and Morgan show up and break it up.
Back on the streets, the lead detective, Russet, along with Gideon and Reid are watching the police presence disappear. They talk about how most cases of abductions revolve around people that the children see every day. They get a call on the radio that they’ve found a body in the water.
At the scene, Detective Russet stops right before the clearing of the water and says that she can’t look at the body in case it is Billie. Gideon and Reid understand and go look at the body. It’s not Billie Copeland.
Back at the station, Hotch informs Mr. Copeland that Mr. Jones isn’t interested in pressing charges. Hotch then states that Mr. Jones isn’t a pedophile, but Mr. Copeland is still suspicious and questions Hotch. Morgan steps in and says that his sex offense was soliciting a prostitute, which is why he’s on the list, but it had nothing to do with children. They then ask the Copelands to make a plea to the media looking for tips on a man driving a green SUV, as he ‘might have seen something.’
At the press conference, while they try to stick to what they were told to ask, a reporter asks about the body, something that the Copelands didn’t know about. JJ rushes them off stage and gets angry with the reporter.
Morgan approaches them, and Hotchner confirms a body was found, but Gideon says that it was a much older woman, probably a junkie who had been dead for days. While looking at files, Reid concludes that the man probably didn’t answer his door at the initial questioning. They compare the hotline tips to people who didn’t answer the door.
With the parents, Mr. Copeland is overwhelmed and leaves the room. Mrs. Copeland admits that when he got sick he asked for the divorce. She let Billie think that it was her fault because it was easier than saying that he ran away from them. Gideon talks to Mr. Copeland, who’s upset about his cancer, and Gideon tells him it’s not in vain, as the extra time gave him memories with Billie.
They get a tip from Mr. Lomax, and he points them towards his neighbor, Don, who drives a green Ford Explorer and spends time at the park. He also used to have a golden retriever named Candy who died six months ago. Morgan calls Hotch and Gideon. They show up and Gideon wants to break down the door. Russet says that no judge will sign off on a warrant based on the evidence they have because it’s not enough.
Meanwhile, Gideon charges towards the house, breaking the window and Morgan kicks the door open because they don’t want to waste time. Gideon comes across Don and demands to know where Billie is; his gun in the unsubs face. He pushes him out of the way at Morgan’s insistence and tells the team to tear the place apart.
By the time the cops tear through the house, it’s dark and Billie’s not there. However, Reid and Morgan have found tons of photos and videos of children in the house. Morgan tells Gideon he needs to see a video, which is revealed to be a video of the unsub sexually assaulting a child. (Only a small clip of audio is played for the viewers, while the camera shows Gideon.) After watching the video, he demands they keep looking.
Hotch approaches the unsub, and he asks where the warrant is. When Hotchner ignores the question he demands a lawyer. Inside the house, Hotch tells Russet and Gideon that Don Curtis lawyered up. While looking at the floor, Gideon notices a broom that has insulation on it, just like Don’s jacket.
He goes for the attic vent and unlocks it, climbing up. Inside is Billie Copeland. She’s tied up and gagged. He frees her from the restraints and then he helps her down while saying that they’re going to bring her back home to her parents.
Back in the jet, the team is playing poker, the round of which, Reid is winning. As they reshuffle, Gideon asks about the flowers. Hotch reminds him that sometimes people need to know they're important and sometimes he forgets that. He tells Hotchner that he got her an mp3 player because they last longer. Elle tells Gideon she thinks that the Copelands are going to stay together, but since Mr. Copeland is dying and Billie’s kind of used to him not being there, it might be better if they stayed apart. Gideon says that it wouldn’t and when Elle asks how he knows, he simply says that he knows. He just knows. When he returns to Quantico he puts a photo of her on his photos of survivors.
Guest Cast[]
- Jon Barton - SWAT Leader
- Kevin Breznahan - Dennis Jones[1]
- Dwier Brown - William Copeland
- James C. Burns - Commander Lewis[2]
- Kathleen Mary Carthy - Helen Godfrey
- Katie Cecil - Belinda Copeland
- Eric Christie - Sergeant Cooper
- Len Cordova - Hal Greene
- Brooke DeBetties - Connie Sutter
- Skyler Gisondo - Boy #1
- Tracey Needham - Marilyn Copeland
- Judith Scott - Detective Charlotte Russet
- Ned Vaughn - Donald Curtis
- Time Winters - Kirk Lomax
Music[]
- "When the Music's Not Forgotten" by Deadman
Bookend Quotes[]
- Jason Gideon: The poet W.H. Auden wrote, "Evil is always unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed, and eats at our table."
- Jason Gideon: "Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Trivia[]
- During a conversation between Gideon, Reid, and Detective Charlotte Russet, the former two mention the "stranger danger" (commonly known as "Don't talk to strangers") program that was widely shown in public schools. Reid mentions it taught children about a "scary man", ignoring the fact that most child abductions and harm are not due to strangers, but instead by persons known to the child, resulting in children and others being misinformed about the risk of stranger abduction, leaving an entire generation of children unaware that strangers are only a fraction of the offenders.
- Key parts of the case were taken from an unspecified case James T. Clemente, then the show's BAU consultant, worked on during his time with the unit.
- At the end of this episode the camera pans over the photos of Gideon's "survivors" (the people he helped rescue) and the second to last photo is of Josh Patel, the drunk passenger aboard the train that was hijacked in Derailed. A photo of the Davenport twins who appeared in Broken Mirror can also be seen.
References[]