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criminalxminds2009-09-30 04:18 pm
a_blackpanther) wrote in criminalxminds2009-09-30 04:18 pm
Entry tags:
Haunted
This is the discussion post for episode 5x02 "Haunted". Watch out for SPOILERS in the comments.
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\o/ 2: Hotch's spiffy new security system and how he put on his gun before answering the door (carefully checking the peephole). And his snippyness (even with Garcia). I'm glad they're giving him a decent post-traumatic reaction and not blowing this off.
\o/ 2.5: Hotch expects Foyet to come back.
\o/ 3: Hotch refusing to move. He's still got some fight in him.
\o/ 4 and another notch in the Rape Theory belt: Emily picking him up and walking him up to his apartment, and that Hotch is letting her do it. He was raped by a man, so it makes sense he's letting Emily (a woman) fill the job Rossi normally fills as his confidant/support.
\o/ 5: Joe M.'s tone of voice saying, "she wants to." ROSSI KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED, THAR. (Possibly without Hotch even telling him; how awesome is Dave?)
\o/ 6: Morgan as the team watch-dog. It's a continuation of what he did with Gideon. Continuity squee.
\o/ 7: Spencer being all "I'm Mr. Cool" about the leg. Welcome back, honey, I haven't seen you hardly at all since S2.
\o/ 8: Garcia's cookies. I bet she gave them to him even without the yelling because Garcia? Gets It.
DragonLady
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I think Hotch is letting Emily be close because she does it in an understated way. She doesn't cuddle and she doesn't push. She's just there for support, ready to intervene when necessary. See how she told him he is not alone at the end there? Very very subtle she is.
Rossi has the dramatic approach ("Here, take mine"), Morgan pushes an wants to be protective, Garcia is being too sweet about it. He can't really handle that. Props to Rossi for seeing that and letting Emily take the lead on this one.
no subject
Sexualized object rape or actual physical rape, either way, if Hotch didn't feel a little safer around women for a while, it would be unusual.
It wold have been useless for him to add that to the attack.
Mmm. It depends on the Reaper's goal. If it's just to terrorize, yes, absolutely.
However, physical rape would have the bonus of being just enough like consensual sex that the mechanics of sex itself would become a post-traumatic trigger. Rape victims often feel the rapists hands on them during foreplay or like the rapist is in the room when trying to engage in meaningful consensual sex (as opposed to engaging in meaningless promiscuous sex in an attempt to prove to themselves that sex -- and the rape -- does not matter, also a normal reaction). If the Reaper's goal was to isolate Hotch from all other relationships, then adding physical rape would serve to further that end because it would be entirely possible Hotch wouldn't even be able to make out without freaking.
Such as it is, IMO, Foyet has managed to make the smell of blood a trigger, which is making Hotch's job very difficult.
The third thing is that if the Reaper did something that looked like he was getting ready for physical rape and Hotch panicked and reacted? The Reaper would have chased that reaction even if physical rape hadn't been part of his original plan at all or if he'd even considered it and discarded it as superfluous.
And Emily has her awesomepants on, I agree.
DragonLady
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The only way they can catch him is with the profile. He's too smart for anything else. But if Hotch doubts the profile (and himself) no one will ever catch him. I think that's what he was trying to achieve.
no subject
I think they both take each other too personally for it to be a simple narcissist-dinking-with-the-cops deal.
Rossi and Hotch both insisted in the apartment that the Reaper would be caught and Foyet would be safe (and that, therefore, they knew his profile). However, in "Omnivore," Foyet delivered his "then why can't you catch him" to Hotch, looking at Hotch, and his entire bit about "being bigger than Bundy" and "more famous than you'll ever know" was also delivered to Hotch. He only looked away from Hotch to taunt Derek and then, bam, right back to Hotch. He offered the deal to Hotch and then killed a bus full of people and faked his death (dramatic much?) when Hotch refused.
Before meeting Hotch again Foyet went to a lot of effort: learning to break and enter instead of relying on a cop ruse, ditching the Alexis Denisof haircut for a butch buzz, adding muscle at least in his arms so he wasn't the reedy thing he was in "Omnivore." Then he replicated his own scars on Hotch's body. Just scaring him up wasn't enough, no, it had to be Foyet's scars. That was not just principle or dominance, that was incredibly personal. And I think his offense at the impotence-bit was also personal: not only did Hotch think he was "less of a man" in some way, but narcissits as a whole have a history of not taking the impotence thing well (something Gideon and Rossi have both used to their advantage).
Hotch, for his part, forgets how to be rational whenever the Reaper comes on scene. He wasn't pissing in the Reaper's cornflakes to force the unsub into making a mistake in "Omnivore" and "Nameless, Faceless," he was shooting off his mouth out of emotion.
They drive each other to behavior that is outside the norm for both of them. That's not a simple narcissist/detective dynamic, IMO.
DragonLady
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Ahahaha!!! I was laughing a full minute after reading that, hahaha!! (I like the "Alexis Denisof haircut" comment too, haha!)
And, I agree, for Hotch and Foyet it'll always be an abnormally close connection (even for their positions in life) for them and they will likely continually push each other to extremes.