(07) Moving
Season 1 Episode 7
The BAU team is in Quantico. Hotch came to work with Hailey and baby Jack so that the team can meet him for the first time even though he was born almost a year ago. Small baby Jack reaches with his hand towards Spencer as he reckogises him from all the times Spencer came over to Hotch’s house or to babysit him when Hotch was out. The team just assumes it was random and Reid covers himself by calling Jack bald and wrinkly. Hotch and Hailey laugh but are thankful for his fast thinking. They don’t want the team to know yet that they are divorced. They have been for some time now. Hotch signed the papers just two weeks before Hailey called him that she was pregnant. After a lot of her threatening that she was going to abort the baby, in the end she found out it was too late for that and told Hotch that after the baby was old enough to go without her, he would have to take him in full time or she was going to leave him somewhere because she didn’t want the baby after all. So they agreed that after Jack turns two, Hailey will leave him with Hotch and that will be that. After Morgan jokes about sticking to practise, everybody laughs without noticing the sad look on Hotch’s face and how Hailey gets a bit uncomfortable.She and baby Jack leave quickly after.
JJ briefs the team on the Crawford family case. The whole Crawford family was found dead in the basement of their home three days ago, and that Maryland state police believe it was a murder suicide. However, the BAU is not so sure. A month ago another family was found murdered in the basement of their home- the Millers. The Millers were also supposed to be away on vacation when they were found. Both these families were discovered five days after their vacations were supposed to have started, but the coroners had ruled the death was only 24 hours previous to discovery. Meaning that the unsub stayed in the house with the families for five days.
A possible suspect is Eric Miller- the ex husband, who was found hiding in Virginia with the blood of his children on him. His ex wife had a restraining order on Eric because he was physically abusive to her. However, there is no evidence that Eric knew the Crawfords and none of his DNA was found at their crime scene. As the team was discussing all that Reid was distracted, barely following the conversation. His attention was more on his phone, badly hidden under the table. As the team gets up from their respective spots to head to the crime scenes, Reid stays seated not realising it because of his phone.
JJ, walking towards him and trying to see the screen of Spencer’s phone “Spence, what’s so important on your phone?”
Reid startles and Morgan snickers at that. “Nobod- Nothing! Just… research.”
Elle snorts and snickers again with Morgan who comments “Right. Because researching is done with a tiny smirk on your face. Who you texting, kid?”
Reid answers “No one.” way too fast again and locks his phone as he realises that JJ is trying to be subtle and look at his screen.
Gideon, who has been ignoring them until that moment finally speaks up when he realises that Hotch has already left and there is nobody left to stop them from messing around. “Let him be. We have a case to solve, and he’ll be too busy questioning the ex husband to stay distracted by his phone.”
“You want me to talk to him?” Reid stutters and shows his phone quickly into his bag.
“Yeah, you've done interviews before with other agents running point. You can go solo.” Gideon just continues giving orders to the rest of the team “Morgan, the Crawford house is a fresh crime scene.”
Hotch and Elle review the Crawfords' crime scene photos, noting Christopher Crawford’s missing wedding ring. Meanwhile, at the crime scene, Gideon and Morgan observe signs of financial strain—an overgrown lawn, a neglected car—contrasting with private school tuition and designer furnishings.
Gideon remarks "Allison spent money on what her friends could see and neglected what they couldn’t." He also spots a black-and-white drawing by Emily on the fridge.
Morgan examines the electronic dog door, large enough for someone to crawl through, linking it to the Miller case. Testing the neighborhood's response, Gideon screams for help, triggering barking dogs and porch lights. Yet no one heard the Crawfords. He concludes the unsub isolated each family member to maintain control.
The BAU learns that the Crawfords had been seeing a therapist, which could mean they were dealing with personal or family issues. However, instead of leading them to the therapist’s office, their investigation takes them to the home of Freddy Condore.
When the team arrives at Freddy’s house, they immediately notice a colorful painting stuck to his fridge—one that Emily Crawford had drawn.
Gideon examines the painting later, analyzing its colors and design. He determines that Emily’s use of bold colors and strong strokes suggests she was a self-confident, outgoing child with above-average intelligence.
As the team continues questioning Freddy, they discover that he is Allison Crawford’s brother. Hotch and Gideon are joined by Reid in the interrogation room while the rest of the team is watching.
As soon as the door to the interrogation room closed after Reid, JJ’s hand flies out towards the table where Reid has thrown his phone before he went in. She takes it into her hand which drags Elle’s attention towards her “Are you serious?”
“What? It’s not like you’re not curious.” JJ says as she powers up the phone
“This feels invasive…” Morgan comments as he realises what JJ is doing and Elle gives him stink eye “Oh, now you have morals? Unbelievable.”
But soon, without giving them any time to think about this, the decision is taken out of their hands as Spencers phone, still with JJ, lights up with a new message:
Dray :
Before we get swallowed up by the chaos of me moving in this weekend, do you want to grab dinner after work today?
I can get them to save us a table at Sam’s
JJ reads the message aloud. Elle facepalms but whispers one small confused “Dray?”, while Morgan whistles and says “Damn our boy got the moves.”
“Whatever. If Reid has a secret girlfriend he never told us about, it’s none of our business.” Morgan loses the smirk and nodds at Elle but JJ, however, looks slightly irritated, crossed arms and everything. “But why wouldn’t he tell me? I mean, unless there is something wrong with her or something. Or she looks way too similar to me so it’d be awkward.”
“Yeah, like right now is,,,” Morgan murmurs to Elle but they can’t discuss it further as Reid returns from the interrogation room. He looks around the room, then starts patting himself up and down, obviously looking for his phone. His phone that JJ is still holding. JJ, who decides it’s such a great idea to tell her coworker with an eidetic memory that he forgot his phone by the coffee machine.
They watch Spencer thank JJ with a confused look on his face until he unlocks the phone and sees the message. Three of them watch him smile at his phone before unconsciously nodding and texting back. Then he pockets his phone and turns to continue watching the interrogation.
The team has found out more about Freddy. He struggles with manic depression and has been off his medication, making him somewhat unreliable as a witness. However, he mentions that he had recently visited the Crawfords’ house. This revelation is crucial as it reveals that Freddy unknowingly saw the unsub while he was inside the house. When asked to describe this “friend” who was having dinner with the family, Freddy gives an odd answer:
"A really tiny man with red hair."
The room goes still. The BAU exchanges glances. They finally have a description of their unsub.
The case is finished. They got him. The team is packing up, getting ready to leave the office. Reid stands by his desk, ready to leave but distracted by his phone. Hotch and Gideon stroll down the stairs from their respective offices. Gideon says goodbye to everyone and leaves but hotch approaches Reid and stands beside him. “You good?”
“Yeah, getting there. Cases are a good distraction.” Reid sighs. The rest of the team subtly slows down with packing up, wanting to hear their conversation.
“You know where my office is if you ever need a break. Need a ride home?” Hotch asks Spencer as he puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah, no, I’m good, thanks. I’m meeting Dray for dinner at the restaurant close by and we’re going to ride together back to mine after. We wanted some peaceful dinner before the chaos of moving in drops this weekend.” Reid explains to Hotch as he finally pockets his phone. They both turn and leave the offices towards the elevator.
Back by their desks, JJ stands frozen, shocked as Elle carefully watches her and Morgan and Garcia stand and smile, both proud of their boy genius but for very different reasons.
“Eek! Boy genius has a live-in girlfriend” and “Damn boy genius’ gettin’ some!” followed by
“Eugh, Morgan!”