Criminal Minds -- The Womb Raider
Blast from the past...
I'd have to say this has probably been my least favorite episode this season. It seemed more like a filler episode. Most of the episode involved the team speaking in front of an auditorium full of students about the Womb Raider case, so it lost the intensity and emotional attachment you develop for a case you're watching playing out before your eyes.
The episode opens with Rossi and you can see he's on edge about something. He's going over a list of names he has; some of the names are crossed off and some aren't. He's on edge because he has to talk about the Womb Raider case and as we find out later, he's still living that case.
The Womb Raider was a serial killer who would kill a high-risk female victim and low-risk female victim and seemingly go underground for years until he resurfaced again. He would mutilate their genitals, removes their reproductive organs and cut out their vocal chords. As it turned out, the Womb Raider wasn't taking a rest, he was just more careful in disposing of his victims bodies so they weren't found. All in all, the man killed 101 women.
The Womb Raider was emotionally and physically abused as a child by his grandmother. There was one scene in which granny apparently made The Raider dress in a dress and then locked him out of the house. She also made him spend time in a dog house. Let's just say this granny didn't like to bake cookies and make you hot chocolate while she told you warm and cuddly bedtime stories.
Granny may have been taking it out on her grandson that he was conceived in rape. Her daughter was raped and died giving birth to him. Years later, as she's dying, she claims that her daughter's womb was cursed. If she told that to her grandson on a daily basis, it's no wonder he's going around cutting out women's wombs.
In his adolescence the Raider began setting fires and according to JJ, that's one of the triad of warning signs of a potential serial killer in the making. For some reason it made me remember an old movie where Gary Coleman played a disturbed kid starting fires. I think one of the other two warning signs is being introverted [have to admit I wasn't paying all that much attention] and I'm like, "Gee, I have one of the warning signs." But then I assured myself I don't like starting fired and I'm definitely not cruel to animals, so I guess I'm safe.
The Raider's first kill was when he stabbed some bullies who were bullying him. Can't really rev up any outrage for a bunch of nasty bullies getting stabbed. Would that all bullies in the world got stabbed and there might be a lot less of them in the world. Bullies like to bully because they generally suffer no consequences for their bullying behavior.
One of the spots where the Raider was picking his victims on was the spot his mother was raped on. It was through that fact that Garcia was able to figure out who the Raider was. His name is Thomas Yates. And they finally were able to catch him.
But it didn't end for Rossi when Yates was caught. They only found about forty of the women he killed and Yates boasted he'd kill 101 women. So he struck a deal with Yates. Yates will tell Rossi where one of his victims is buried once a year; on Rossi's birthday. It seems to give Yates a sick thrill he can make Rossi celebrate his birthday every year by going and digging up a murdered woman's body and going and telling her family she's no longer missing and was murdered by this sicko. Since he never enjoyed his own birthdays, Yates can make sure Rossi doesn't enjoy his, as well.
The really sick part of this deal is Yates and Rossi are not young men, so all the victims' burial spots won't be revealed before either one of them kick off and many families of these missing women will never have closure. They'll never know want happened to their family member. And some of the families may die out before Yates reveals where he buried one of his victims.
