(06) Under Fire
Season 1 Episode 6
HOTCH: On SWAT we broke shots down into three steps.
One: front sight, focus on the front sight, not on the target.
Two: controlled trigger press.
Three: follow through, after the shot, you come right back to the target.
Now, what did you do wrong?
REID: I didn't follow through.
HOTCH: Right. You came off the target to see where you hit.
REID: Hotch, my firearms qualification is tomorrow morning. I barely managed to hit the target.
(Hotch takes the gun and demonstrates.)
HOTCH: Front sight, trigger press, follow through. You do those three things, you'll hit your target every time.
(Reid tries again. Shoots the target on the crotch.)
HOTCH: Did Elle teach you that?
REID: No, Z did. They're going to take away my gun.
HOTCH: Huh… Profilers aren't required to carry.
REID: Yeah, and yet you carry two of them.
(Hotch takes his second gun and shoots the target three times in the chest.)
HOTCH: When I joined the BAU, Gideon said to me, "You don't have to carry a gun to kill someone."
REID: I know. You forget who taught me how to defend myself.
HOTCH: Yeah… What's going on with you anyway? You’re usually better than this..
REID: Z’s been working a case for the last 3 months. Something big. International. She went undercover 2 months ago and nobody’s heard from her for the past month. They are thinking of declaring her KIA.
HOTCH: You know that she is okay, she always is. You told me that. If I remember correctly you said she was ‘too snake-y to catch and or kill.’
REID: Yeah but that was before she went completely 0 contact with me. Until now, she always managed to somehow get the message to me that she’s alright or alive and then I would have to tell the agency. It’s eating me alive.HOTCH: We both know that whatever I tell you know is not going to ease your worries but I will remind you that she will do absolutely anything to get back to you. You know that. She wouldn’t want you to worry so much that you can’t even hit the target.
REID: Yeah, I guess so…
HOTCH: Good luck tomorrow.
(Next day. F.B.I., Behavioral Analysis Unit, QUANTICO, VIRGINIA)
ELLE: Reid failed his qualification.
GIDEON: Well, he can re-test in two weeks.
ELLE: Yeah, but he's going to be embarrassed about it, so let's not mention it.
GIDEON: Yeah, let's not, huh?
MORGAN: Not a word.
(Reid enters. Morgan walks to his desk.)
MORGAN: Hey. We're all here for you. I'm serious. If you ever need anything… Just blow on that. (Reid hurriedly takes the whistle off his neck and rushes away. Elle and Gideon look at Morgan with a ‘Are you actually serious right now?!’ look. Morgan shrugs. They are joined by JJ and Garcia.)
JJ: Where is Spence going?
GIDEON: Morgan teased him about his gun qualification.
ELLE: I told HIM not to mess with Reid. And he does what? He messes with Reid as soon as he sits down at his desk. And gives him a whistle! What a jerk! I will never understand men.
Garcia makes a horrified sound and slaps Morgan on his hand, “Let’s go find him. We have to check if he’s alright!”, and pulls Elle and JJ with her following where Spencer ran off.
They get to the smaller hallway that leads to empty offices and old storage rooms. As they get closer to the door they see Spencer holding a phone to his ear, his back turned towards them as he nervously walks back and forth and runs a hand through his hair. They hear him speak into the phone
“...need you back, I am barely functioning right now. Hotch is getting concerned and the team is a bit edgy with me.I failed my qualification this morning. It’s such a failure, but I just couldn’t get a voice from this morning out of my head telling me that they are petitioning to start ‘killed-in-action’ for you and Haz if you don’t get back in two months. Fury called me yesterday afternoon to tell me. And Dray, too, I’m assuming, as he showed up at my door not even an hour later.” Spencer says into the phone and sighs.
JJ, Elle and Garcia, hidden by the door, look at each other confused and concerned for their friend. Garcia sees JJ looking a bit green as she asks if they know who Spencer is leaving a message to.
“I don’t know but it sounds bad. I mean, killed in action?” Garcia says as she looks at Elle and eyes back JJ She sees Elle giving her a subtle shake of her head, a sign telling her not to ask anything. “And who’s Dray? And Haz?” Just as Elle shrugged and was about to comment Reid spoke again, now sitting on the floor, looking crushed, knees bent up and hand that was going through his hair earlier resting on them as it held his head up.)
“He took one look at me and pushed me to take a shower and get ready. He took me out to this restaurant and it was really nice and the food was really good but I just couldn’t focus on him 100% and then he took me back home and we watched movies until we fell asleep. Thank god for his internal clock because I would’ve slept in and then I would’ve been late for work and qualifications. Not that it really mattered.” He laughs to himself self-deprecatingly and bangs his head into the wall behind him as he hangs up. “Maybe I should’ve just stayed in bed today.”
“Oh that's so sad. He’s so sad, he’s like a sad puppy. I’m going to cry.” Garcia whispers and Elle can see her eyes actually filling up with tears so she shushes her and hugs her. Spencer would be really angry if he found them listening in on him right now. Probably. Maybe. She doesn’t really know anything about how Spencer would act right now with everything that’s going on.
JJ huffs and can’t help herself but to comment, “So he’s sad about this person missing but is telling them about his date with this ‘Dray’ person?? I don’t understand him.”
“JJ what–” Elle stops herself and Garcia from asking JJ what she was talking about when, just as JJ opened her mouth to continue, doors on the other end of the hallway opened and the three of them saw Hotch walk in, take a look at the figure of Spencer sitting by the wall in the middle of the hallway and sigh loudly.)
Spencer panicky looked up and when he saw that it was just Hotch there he relaxed again. Hotch walked up to him and asked “Still nothing?”
“No… I got the call yesterday that they announced the beginning of the 2 month period in which if they don’t make contact with anyone on our side, they’ll be pronounced killed in action. I don’t want to lose them, Hotch. Haz went undercover too and I’ll lose two of them to that damned case and then Dray will leave back to the UK because being here will be too painful and I’ll be alone.” Girls see Spencer get more and more distressed as he speaks and Hotch slowly walks towards him. He holds his hand out for Spencer to grab to help himself up from his position on the floor and they hear him say “Both of them will be back. Haz probably got himself into something and had to be saved and that’s why both of them are AWOL. You know Z knows the rules and will make sure to make contact before the 2 months are up.”
“I know, but it’s still hard. I just got used to having Z close by and able to answer my calls whenever. We were supposed to go to the UK for the anniversary, you know…”
“Hold up boy genius, what anniversary?”
“Anniversary?!”
Elle quickly motions to Garcia and JJ to shut up and quiet down.
“You mentioned it a few months ago, I think. Did you tell their brother? What’s his name…” Hotch asks, now both of them are standing, their backs to the place where the girls are hiding.
“Eliot. And no, I haven't called him yet. Dray and I will do it together tonight. There’s no way I would be doing that phone call alone. I mean how do you tell someone that both of their siblings are gone, presumed KIA. And I know he will be angry because he knew something was wrong even before anyone else did. And then he says to me that whatever powers twins have don’t translate to triplets too.” Spencer laughs in a way that tells the girls that this was a known argument between friends.
“He’ll survive, he has his friends, Dray has you and other friends, and you have him and me and Jack. And the team is there for you too, you know that. Now come on, meeting room 3 awaits. We have a new case.” Hotch says to Spencer and patts him on the back, but Spencer notices he said the last part with some apprehension.
“Why’d you say it like that?”
“It’s a complicated one. And it might hit you harder considering the circumstances right now, so I need you to tell me if it starts being too much, okay?” Hotch tells Spencer looking at him with a serious bur compassionate face.
“Yes sir!” Spencer says with a smile and then more seriously, “Thank you for checking on me. And for the pep talk.” And they both walk out of the hallway.
“Seriously what the hell is happening? I mean why is he hiding stuff from me?” JJ comments as all three of them straighten out from their hiding space.
Elle and Garcia look at each other but choose to ignore the jealous undertone in JJ’s voice.
“He’s so sad. And scared. And we haven’t even noticed. We have to show him that we care too!” Garcia swears and her brows knitted together, gaze turning sharp, like she silently made up her mind and that’s that.
Elle looks around and then at her watch, “Let’s go before they start looking for us. Hotch said we have a new case.”
JJ briefs the BAU on the latest case- the shooting at Franklin Park. We later learn that three victims were actually shot at the park, and that this attack has been the third shooting in two weeks. Victims are as follows- Henry Sachs (only fatality), Doug Miller, Kevin Parks, and the three at the park- Jerry Middleton (JH teen), Kate Murray, and Tim Reilly. All victims were shot long distance, in the abdomen, and we learn that one of the latest victims (Doug Miller) has a bullet still in him and is still in recovery at a local hospital. Unsub is using ammo that breaks upon impact, making ballistics impossible to recover, so being able to extract this bullet will be huge.
(In the plane)
HOTCH: L.D.S.K.s are so rare we haven't been able to build a standard profile. Here's what we do know: they're always male, they frequently have law enforcement or military experience, and they always contact the police or the media.
ELLE: To take credit or relive the experience?
GIDEON: Both. All serial killers attempt to relive the ecstasy they get from their killings. Some use souvenirs taken from the victims, and others return to the dump site to interact with the body. Both modes require contact with the victim. Contact which, by definition, long distance serial killers don't have.
REID: The Beltway Shooters in 2002. left a tarot card at one of their crime scenes. Later they called a tip hotline.
HOTCH: Which ultimately led to their capture.
MORGAN: But our UnSub hasn't contacted anybody.
HOTCH: He will.
ELLE: Until he does, what do we have?
GIDEON: Sometimes it's not what the UnSub does that reveals the profile. Sometimes it is what they do not do.
REID: He doesn't kill his victims.
GIDEON: "Underkill" is a unique signature.
HOTCH: Question is, does he shoot them in the stomach intentionally, just to wound them or is he just aiming at the biggest part of the target? Specifically, does the UnSub lack the skill to make the head shot, or simply the will to take it?
(Reid looks up from the file in his hands and almost absentmindedly stares at something far away in the plane, thinks aloud)
REID: If he had formal sniper training, he'd know to aim for center mass, but stomach wounds are inefficient if he's trying to neutralize a target. A trained marksman would favor the thoracic cavity—higher probability of stopping power without a headshot. Stomach wounds are painful, but they take longer to incapacitate. Too long.
(The team turns to look at him. Reid blinks, realizing he's said too much.)
MORGAN (raising an eyebrow): And you know that how?
REID (clearing his throat, shifting slightly): Ballistics research. Case studies. The FBI sniper training manual has an entire section on wound ballistics.
(The team says nothing to that, they all saw that it was not completely the truth but Spencer also didn’t lie, they knew he read all those books, so they kept quiet. Hotch watches him carefully but says nothing. Gideon smirks faintly, obviously knows something, but the team knows better than to question him.)
(At the scene; The whole team goes to the Franklin Park)
DETECTIVE CALVIN: Agent Hotchner?
HOTCH: Detective Calvin, this is Agent Morgan, Agent Reid.
CALVIN: Thanks for coming. Follow me. The cones mark the places where the victims were.
HOTCH: So we know he fired from somewhere in this area. Close enough to hit all three victims, but far enough away not to be seen.
ELLE: If he's wounding his victims intentionally, we would classify him as a "sadistic killer."
(The team looks at her)
CALVIN: That would help us?
ELLE (shrugs): Well, we know a lot about sadists.
MORGAN: But most want to be close to their victims to watch them suffer.
REID: A powerful scope would allow him to observe it from a safe distance.
(Hotch looks at him, but without saying a word turns back to the park and watches where the victims were when they were shot.)
CALVIN: Well, how do we determine if he's a sadist?
GIDEON: We spend some time in his shoes, and we let him tell us.
ELLE: "Yeah, but how’s he compensating for wind and elevation so perfectly on every shot? Even trained shooters need adjustments."
REID (absentmindedly, first looking around, then down at the park): He’s probably using a bolt-action rifle, maybe a Remington 700 or an M24. Standard sniper platforms. Or… Marine Scouts use M-16. Depending on the scope, he’s accounting for Coriolis effect, bullet drop, wind drift, and mirage distortion. Given the grouping and impact angle, he’s firing from at least 500 yards out—probably more. (Continues looking around. Stares at the building behind them.)
(Silence. The team stares at him. Detective Calvin whispers a barely heard ‘What the-’ and eyes Reid up and down appreciatively which weirds Morgan out. He looks at Spencer and then back at the detective and she realises what she did and turns around embarrassed.)
JJ: Okay…
HOTCH (looks around in the direction where Spencer is staring at): This handicapped spot couldn't be further away from the entrance to the building.
MORGAN: Yeah?
HOTCH: It also has line of sight to all three victims and the flagpole .
JJ: What are you thinking?
HOTCH: As Reid just said we know that the UnSub would have to factor in wind direction and speed as he shot. To do this, he needed a spot with a wide field of fire, where he could see the flag to judge how the wind would affect each shot.
GIDEON: He came here before the shooting, decided this was his spot, and ensured that it would be empty when he came back.
JJ: So he's shooting from his car.
MORGAN: Well, that would mean he wanted to get away from here quickly, that he didn't stick around to watch his victims suffer.
ELLE: So he would not be a sadist.
CALVIN: What would he be?
HOTCH: A very smart, very resourceful, very paranoid sociopath.
GIDEON: Let’s go to see what they have in the hospital. There is a victim that still has a bullet in them.
(In the car as they are driving to the hospital.)
MORGAN: So we're dealing with a sniper who doesn’t miss, except when he wants to. Great.
ELLE: And Reid, Hotch knowing about snipers I can get, the man was on S.W.A.T. team at one point, but you?
REID (just now realizing what he did, fumbling slightly): Oh. Uh, well, it’s basic physics. Ballistics is just applied mathematics. And I may have read some military manuals.
JJ: But why Spence? And where did you even manage to find a military manual about all that?
(The team exchanges glances but moves on as if they know they won’t get the full truth out of him and they have arrived at the hospital.)
The team regroups as they all arrive at the hospital. It is decided that Gideon, Elle and JJ will go in and talk to the doctors while the rest will head back to the station to start working on the profile.
Gideon, Elle and JJ witness two doctors fighting about the dangers of the surgery.
Later, the egotistical Dr. Landman brings them the bullet and says that the patient will recover just fine.
While Gideon and the girls are at the hospital, Hotch and Spencer are looking over the case board with Detective Calvin while they wait as Morgan talks with Garcia.
HOTCH: We think the shooter has intimate knowledge of law enforcement procedures.
REID: Detective Calvin, how far out of your jurisdiction is crime scene number two?
CALVIN: About a sixth of a mile. Why?
REID: If he knew how difficult it is for local police departments to interact with each other, he may have intentionally crossed jurisdiction lines.
CALVIN (smiles in disbelief as she gives Reid and Hotch a stink eye): Y'all are saying the shooter is a cop.
HOTCH: We're saying it's a possibility. He scouted and prepped each crime scene.
REID: He chose an elevated position with excellent enfilade, and perfect field of fire.
CALVIN: That's textbook military practice.
HOTCH: True.
CALVIN (Interrupts Hotch as he was about to continue): Yeah, but maybe he was in the Army.
(Morgan hangs up with Garcia and joins them.)
MORGAN: He was probably a Marine, Ranger or other specialized unit. Garcia says the bullet was a .223 fired from an M4 variant of the M16. So our boy-genius was right. (Looks at Spencer weirdly proud but at the same time royally confused with how he knew.)
HOTCH: All the services use an M4.
MORGAN: : It's got a shorter barrel than the M16. (Calvin rolls her eyes at him and Derek is confused as she looks at Reid with admiration as he starts to explain. What the hell… )
REID: It's less accurate, and it's a lot harder to fire, especially at these distances. This level of skill indicates specialized training.
MORGAN: If he has specialized training, he knows exactly what he's doing.
HOTCH: He intended to wound them.
MORGAN: The "underkill" is deliberate. (Calvin rolls her eyes at him again as Horch continues on.)
HOTCH: Everything he does is deliberate, but it's as if he needs to show us how smart he is.
MORGAN: Well, since the crime scenes aren't centered around one single location, Garcia can't get a geographic profile without additional data.
CALVIN: What kind of data?
MORGAN: More crime scenes. ( Now she’s concerned?? )
HOTCH: She's going to get them. This guy's got something to prove.
CALVIN: What now?
HOTCH: Now we are going to wait for the rest of the team to come here and go over everything with them again.
Hotch set the case file down, his sharp gaze sweeping the room "We’re looking for someone with formal training—law enforcement, military, or a background in marksmanship. These shots are too calculated for anything else."
"Doesn’t fit the profile, though," Elle comments. She drummed her fingers against the table, her brow furrowed. "Why wound and not kill? If he has the skill, why hold back?"
Reid, who had been quiet until now, absently tapped his pen against the desk "It’s not uncommon for some long-distance shooters to practice control rather than lethality. In fact, in certain military circles, there’s a belief that wounding a target is more effective than killing as it forces more resources to be spent on them, causes more panic in a unit. But this isn’t a battlefield."
Morgan gave him a side-eye "Okay, hold up. You said that way too casually. Since when do you know ‘certain military beliefs’ about sniper strategy?"
Reid froze for just a second too long. It was barely noticeable, but everyone caught it. Morgan leaned back, watching the young genius carefully.
Reid cleared his throat "It’s… just something I’ve read."
Elle snorted "Right. Just like you just read about wind compensation and bullet trajectory?"
Hotch cut in, his tone firm "Regardless of how Reid knows, he’s right. Our unsub isn’t just a lousy shot. He’s choosing his shots carefully. The question is why."
JJ, Elle and Morgan grumble quietly but get back to reading the files.
Gideon tapped a photograph of the crime scenes "Look at where the victims were shot—each one close to a hospital. He’s wounding them, but he’s leaving them near immediate medical help. Almost like he wants them to live."
That changed the angle. Not a spree shooter. Not a traditional L.D.S.K. A new pattern, something different.
JJ pulled out a file and flipped through some notes "That means we’re likely looking at someone with medical knowledge. Someone who understands trauma wounds but isn’t aiming to kill outright."
Reid sat forward, something clicking in his mind "An ER nurse. Someone with military training and access to hospitals. That would explain both the precision and the choice of locations. And the ER nurses work the exact same shifts as cops do."
Morgan raised an eyebrow "And where exactly did you pick up on how ER nurses think?"
Reid looked at him blankly, this time prepared for Morgan’s tease. "The same place I pick up everything else—books. You should try reading once in a while."
Morgan shook his head, grinning slightly "Yeah, yeah, real smart.."
Hotch, already moving, ignored them "JJ, get Garcia to cross-check military personnel with medical licenses in the area. If we’re right, we don’t have much time before he strikes again."
By the time they reached the hospital, tension thrummed in the air like a live wire. They had a name now — Phillip Dowd, a nurse with a history in the military who used to pick up shifts at Arlington station before he was fired just before the shootings started. It all fit too well.
The ER bustled with activity, doctors and nurses moving between patients, the controlled chaos of a busy hospital masking the real danger lurking inside. Hotch and Reid moved in quietly, scanning the room while the rest of the team was outside waiting for the S.W.A.T. team to come.
And then they saw him.
Dowd stood near the nurse’s station, his posture too stiff, too alert. He was watching the room, eyes calculating.
Reid barely had time to process the situation before Dowd moved. The gun was out in seconds, pointed right at them.
"Put it down," Hotch ordered, his voice steady.
Dowd only smiled, shaking his head. "You don’t understand. This isn’t about killing." He shoots the lights out which started the alarm that would tell the team outside that something was happening in the ER.
Reid swallowed hard. He could see it—the erratic look in Dowd’s eyes, the kind of controlled delusion that came with someone who had rewritten their own reality.
Then, suddenly, Dowd moved, grabbing a nearby doctor and pressing the barrel of his gun to the man’s head.
"Nobody moves," he warned. "Or I start making real kills."
For a second, nobody did. Reid’s mind raced, processing every detail. The weight of the rifle in Dowd’s hands, the stance he took, the way he adjusted for leverage. He had studied this before—not in theory, but in the way someone else had once explained it to him, long ago.
A voice in his head. Never pull, always squeeze the trigger. Anticipate the recoil. Control the shot. Make it count.
Reid turned his head slightly, speaking low to Hotch quietly as the cries of hostages made it impossible for Dowd to hear him. "If you get a shot, take it. But he’s going to expect a standard response—center mass. If you go for the shoulder instead, you can disarm him without risking the hostage."
Hotch barely flickered an acknowledgment. But he had heard.
A fraction of a second later, the shot rang out.
What they didn’t expect was Dowd having the rifle on full auto. Hotch did shoot him in the shoulder but as Dowd was falling down, he pulled the trigger. Hotch saw Reid jump to take the gun away as soon as Hotch pulled the trigger on his gun but now Dowd’s trajectory was full point and center - Reid. So Hotch tackles him out of Dowd’s range and in all that mess falls down and promptly uses Reid as a cushion. Reid manages to take his second gun and shoots Dowd before he could get the gun in his other hand.
S.W.A.T. bursts in and Reid crumples down onto the floor, wind knocked out of him by Hotch falling on him, trying to calm his breathing. For a second, Reid just lay there, stunned.
Hotch crouched beside him, voice calm but firm "Reid, what did I tell you about staying down?"
Reid coughed, wincing "Not to move?"
"Not to move." Hotch repeated, standing up.
Reid groaned as Morgan reached down to haul him to his feet "You know, there are better ways to make a point about qualifications than shooting down the unsub in a hostage situation.."
Hotch just gave him a look before he went towards the rest of the team, but not before telling Reid to get checked by the doctors.
The scene buzzed with activity around them—officers swarming in, securing the area. But something in Hotch’s gaze lingered, just for a moment, before he turned away.
Reid exhaled slowly. It was over.
Reid sat in the back of the ambulance, still catching his breath. The sting in his ribs where Hotch had landed on him was more annoying than painful.
"You did well." Hotch walked over, arms crossed.
Reid glanced up, surprised "I did?"
Hotch nodded. "You made the right call about his shooting pattern. And about where to aim." A pause. "But if you ever move like that again when there’s an active shooter, I will be the one you’ll be scared of, not the unsub."
Reid smiled slightly "Duly noted."
Hotch studied him for another moment, then shook his head "Where did you learn all that?"
Reid just eyes him and then does the ‘are you for fucking real right now?’ look and tells him that she has made dinner for the whole team.
“Ah… Of course, I don’t know why I didn’t connect it immediately.” Hotch says and Reid just smiles at him “You did better than I expected with the proceedings of the case considering…”
“Yeah, just needed a good distraction.”
HOTCH: You all right?
REID: Yeah.
HOTCH: Nice shot.
REID (Jokingly): I was aiming for his leg.
HOTCH (Eyes wide): You what!?.
REID: Kidding, kidding…
HOTCH: You better: Well, I hope I didn't hurt you too badly when I fell on you.
REID: Hotch, I was a 12-year-old child prodigy in a Las Vegas public high school. You falling on me felt like being kicked by a 9-year-old girl. (Tries to give Hotch his gun back.)
HOTCH: No, keep it. As far as I'm concerned, you passed your qualification.
They leave and when they walk by Morgan, Reid throws the whistle he gave him at the beginning of this case ono Monrgan’s chest, hard.
“ Touché, kid. ” Morgan admits.