Criminal Minds -- The Company
I wasn't really looking forward to this episode, since Morgan is probably my least favorite character on the show. I didn't think I'd end up crying in the end.
It was a different episode in that someone wasn't going around killing people. What was happening almost seemed a lot worse and more evil than merely killing someone. You really couldn't have any sympathy or empathy for the villains in this story; they just seemed unrepentantly evil. For me, there didn't seem to be a punishment harsh enough to make them pay for the evil they committed against these women. Killing them would be too easy; since they should live and suffer the way they made these women suffer. It's a horrible thing to say, but I can only hope when they get into the prison population, the inmates do to them what they did to the women they victimized. They were nothing but a pack of cowardly little bullies who wouldn't have the guts to face up to someone their own size.
The episode begins with Morgan's sister, Desiree out driving when she spots their cousin, Cindi, in a car. She gives chase and gets in a car accident. When Morgan comes to visit her she tells him she saw Cindi, but he refuses to believe it. It's at that point, Morgan reveals he lied to his entire family that Cindi was dead, hoping to give them some peace of mind and to make them stop hoping she'd be found alive some day.
Needless to say his family don't see it that way. His mother is appalled at what he did and his aunt gives him a well-deserved slap across the face. Morgan also confesses what he did to Hotch, who is shocked but doesn't judge him for what he did. Garcia, however, calls him to task when he starts making the whole investigation about himself rather than about his cousin.
Cindi was being stalked by someone before she disappeared and they believed the stalker killed himself. It turns out Cindi's real stalker was a man named Malcolm Ford who killed another man to frame him for being her stalker and then abducted Cindi.
The team begins investigation and learn about this S&M group called The Company. They make the women sign slave contracts and have them convinced if they ever try to leave them there family will be killed. And they begin a manhunt looking for Ford, when Cindi's mother recognizes Ford at being at their church.
Ford wants to take Cindi and leave the country, but she doesn't want to leave because of some cabin she wants to go up to. It turns out she had Ford's child and he's keeping him up at this cabin. It's how he's controlling her and making her be his obedient sexual slave. It's how all the men of the sexual sadist group called The Company force the women to cooperate with them.
Ford takes Cindi to a house of another member of The Company and the wive reveals she lives down in the basement where her room is filled with a lot of S&M equipment. This is why I say that there's no punishment fitting enough for these sub-human animals. They can never suffer as much as they made these women suffer. This woman isn't even treated as good enough to live in the main house, this pig has her confined to the basement.
Ford's fatal mistake is his plan to take Cindi away from the cabin and access to her child. It gives her the courage to turn on him, which the arrogant pig doesn't even suspect. He thinks he has her completely whipped and beaten and that she's completely under his control. That's where he's wrong. Taking her away from the child he's using to enslave and control her is giving her the courage to reach out for help before he can take her away.
The team manages to nab Ford, but Cindi isn't with him. Ford keeps asking what time it is, since he's arranged a nasty little treat for Morgan. He totally plays Morgan like a fiddle when Morgan begins to think Ford has killed Cindi and that's why she wasn't with him when they apprehended him. That is, until Cindi shows up with a lawyer, claiming Ford is her husband and she's with him willingly.
Cindi's mother shows up trying to get through to her and sees marks on her neck where Ford strangled her with her seat belt for disobeying him. Cindi holds strong to wanting to be with Ford and they leave together. He must have made a deal with her, because he takes her up to the cabin to see her son and he even agrees to take the boy with them when they leave.
When Morgan realizes Cindi purposely shoplifted in front of a store camera and sees what she stole [a can of microwavable pasta] it makes something click for Morgan. It was something she and Morgan always ate as kids. It's not something she would cook for Ford. It's through this Morgan figures out these man are keeping these women in line by keeping their children away from them at this cabin. Morgan gets Ford's lawyer to turn over on them.
The team arrives at the cabin where it looks like they're keeping fifteen to twenty kids there. Morgan finds Cindi in the woods with her son as Ford tries to take down Morgan. Cindi grabs Morgan's gun, planning to shoot Ford, much to her everlasting shock. Morgan convinces her Ford isn't worth it. Ford isn't so smug when he gets taken away this time.
At the police station Cindi is finally reunited with her family.
There are worst things than serial killers. The usual unsub is sick from something that happened to them in their past, but these men were just evil, enslaving these women and treating them worst than you'd treat an animal. Again, there's really not a punishment fitting enough for what they did to these women, and to a smaller degree their own children. That's why I truly hope each and everyone of them suffer some prison justice and get a good taste from the other end of the stick of what they dished out to these women.
