Criminal Minds -- North Valley High School Massacre
It's the ten year anniversary of the North Valley High School massacre. There's plans to commemorate those who lost their lives that tragic day. But someone wants to remember the occasion in a very deadly manner.
Principal Doug Gibbons is at his home when his digital alarm clock won't stop beeping. He tries shutting it off and it won't stop. Been there, done that. He finally resorts to unplugging it and it still keeps beeping. Inside of it he finds a bomb. An intruder enters and shoots him in the leg. When the principal uses his cell phone it causes the bomb to detonate.
The team has a hard time trying to figure out who could be trying to finish off the survivors of the school massacre. Their first suspect is Brandon Slade, little brother of Randy, the school shooter who set off a bomb, as well, to kill himself. He actually holds a key to the puzzle. After Randy's death, the then seven year old Brandon found a hit list of all the people Randy wanted to take out that day.
The list is an interesting list. One part of it features all the popular kids, and the other half of the list features all the school losers.
The next victim is a girl named Chelsea. She's packing to get out of dodge after hearing about Principal Gibbons murder. She has an altercation with Louis, who tries to get her to stay. Right after he leaves, there's a knock at her door, and when she opens it she gets a punch to the face.
Hotch thinks Randy had an accomplice and Garcia determines it was Louis. He admits to helping Randy with the list of names, but says he never thought he'd go through with it. He's a recovering addict and he came back to admit his part in the massacre. He swears he has nothing to do with the killings and Hotch tends to believe him.
The real killer is a man named Robert Adams. Jerry is his next victim. Jerry told the media after the massacre that he looked Randy in the eyes when he dared him to and Randy said he wasn't worth shooting. But Jerry lied; it was Robert who did that.
The ten survivors that got interviewed by the press were nicknamed the Top Ten, and that's who Robert has been targeting, feeling he should have been one of the top ten, since he was the only one who had the nerve to look crazy Randy in the eyes. He bombs the restaurant where the remaining top ten are having dinner and holds them at gunpoint.
After Robert awoke from the explosion he couldn't feel anything. Hotch tries to give Robert a simple flesh wound, but Robert pops up saying he doesn't feel anything, so Hotch is left with no choice but to kill him.
In an event that possibly echoes the school massacre, Hotch's son Jack is been bullied by a classmate named Paul Jack's answer is to invite him to his house and try to be nice to him. When Hotch tries to get Jack to open up to him about Paul, Jack claims Paul isn't being mean to him.
That's the sad fact with these school shootings. Kids won't tell their parents when their being bullied, and sometime the right kid with the right psychological make-up will finally act out in a violent manner. Kudos to the teacher in this episode for being on the ball and alerting Hotch to what was going on, because he believed Paul was a good friend of Jack's, not a bully being mean to Jack. More teachers need to do what this teacher did. The parent can't know what's going on in school with their kids because they're not there, but the teachers are. And kids need to go to their parents when their being bullied. If a lot would, maybe a lot of the school shootings might have been prevented.
This has been a stellar season, so far. The show has really picked some hot-button issues to incorporate in the show.
