The Fox (Season 1, Episode 7)
Premise: The BAU tracks a killer who moves in with families about to leave on vacation, plays the father for days and then murders them in the basement.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 1, Episode 7
- Unsub
- Karl Arnold (Neal Jones)
- Location
- Maryland; Arlington, Virginia
- Starring
- Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), Aaron “Hotch” Hotchner (Thomas Gibson), Elle Greenaway (Lola Glaudini), Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), Jennifer “JJ” Jareau (A.J. Cook), Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), Haley Hotchner (Meredith Monroe)
- Opening quote
- “With foxes, we must play the fox.” (Thomas Fuller, read by Gideon)
- Guest stars
- Tony Todd as Eric Miller, Abraham Benrubi as Frank Fielding, Bonita Friedericy as Dr. Rachel Howard, Chane’t Johnson as Barbara Raleigh, Sharisse Baker-Bernard as Fay Arnold
- Director
- Guy Norman Bee
- Writers
- Simon Mirren
Summary
The Case
“The Fox” begins with the Crawfords of Maryland packing for a trip to Disney World. Days later all four are found dead in their basement, and state police call it a murder-suicide by the father, Chris. The BAU links the case to the Millers of Arlington, Virginia, killed a month earlier with their suitcases also packed. Both families stayed in their houses for days after they were due to leave, yet had been dead only about a day, so the killer stayed with each of them. Reid questions Eric Miller, the Millers’ violent ex-husband and father, by reciting his history of abuse until he breaks down; Miller says he found his children dead and fled, and Reid concludes he did not kill them.
At the Crawford house the team notes a missing wedding ring and dog collar, the collar being the only way through a chip-operated dog door, and a colorless painting by daughter Emily. The team asks why no neighbor heard the families scream. Allison Crawford’s secret phone leads to her mentally ill brother, Frank Fielding, who has another of Emily’s paintings and says he glimpsed a small stranger at the family’s dinner table. The profile describes an orderly, self-confident planner who keeps records, takes the fathers’ rings and acts out the role of father before killing.
Both victim households had government jobs and saw counselors. Garcia and Reid trace a prescription to Dr. Rachel Howard of the Applewood Family Center, who says counselor Karl Arnold handled the Crawfords. Arnold, whose wife left with their two children five years earlier, has just phoned her from a house where children can be heard. Children’s paintings hidden in his office point to his next family, the Dunkens, Howard’s own clients, who are planning a trip to the Adirondacks. Agents storm the house and find Arnold in the basement holding the baby, and he is taken alive.
The Team
As the case comes in, the team visits Hotch and Haley to meet their newborn son.
The ending
Spoiler: With no DNA tying Arnold to the murders, the team needs a confession. During his interview Arnold insists that two photos of the victims have been mixed up, which only someone who knew the Crawford and Miller children could tell. He then describes watching each family, holding its members apart until a final meal and killing them one at a time, youngest first and father last, so the father would see what comes of a weak head of household. He calls himself an excellent father.
Why it stands out
- Neal Jones guest stars as Karl Arnold, who became one of the series’ most notorious killers.
- Mandy Patinkin improvised the screams Gideon lets out in the bedroom to test whether neighbors could have heard the family.
- Guest stars Tony Todd and Bonita Friedericy later played Chuck Bartowski’s bosses on Chuck.