The Perfect Storm (Season 2, Episode 3)
Premise: When a pair of killers in Jacksonville start mailing videos of their torture to victims’ mothers, the BAU must find out which partner is really in charge before another woman dies.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 3
- Unsub
- Amber Canardo (Nicki Aycox), Tony Canardo (Brad Rowe)
- Location
- Jacksonville, Florida
- 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)
- Opening quote
- “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.” (Mark Twain, read by Gideon)
- Closing quote
- “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” (Khalil Gibran, read by Hotch)
- Guest stars
- John Verea as Detective Robert Portillo, Michelle Pierce as Tiffany Spears, Katie Mitchell as Mary Clemensen, Frank Ashmore as Henry Davin, Paul McCarthy-Boyington as Joey Davin
- Director
- Félix Enríquez Alcalá
- Writers
- Debra J. Fisher & Erica Messer
Summary
The Case
“The Perfect Storm” opens in Jacksonville, Florida, where Frank and Mary Clemensen play a disc they think holds their daughter Laura’s vacation photos and instead see her being tortured; Frank, who has a heart condition, dies watching it. Laura is the fifth woman raped and murdered in the area in two years, and the camera’s movement tells the BAU that two killers are at work: a dominant partner who kills and a submissive one who films. Laura’s body is found posed under a bridge, missing a pearl ring, and Garcia finds two earlier strangulations that fit, raising the toll to seven. The first victim’s mother pleaded on television, so when Tiffany Spears is taken while jogging in nearby Middleburg and her mother goes on TV, the team fears a new video.
Garcia traces parts from the victims’ cars to Joey Davin, a car thief who pulls a gun when agents arrive and is shot dead. Gideon calls Garcia to learn who Joey shared a prison cell with: Tony Canardo. Tony’s wife, Amber, later arrives at the station bruised, saying Tony hit her, and Gideon notices her new ring looks like Laura’s. Morgan catches Tony, who sits through Hotch’s flattering interview and then asks for a lawyer. When Amber is sent in to reason with him, he names a storage unit that only Joey’s father, Henry, can open, and the team briefly suspects Henry as a third partner; the unit is empty.
Rewatching the meeting, the team sees that Amber leads and Tony follows, and Garcia’s cleaned-up soundtrack has Amber giving the orders on the videos. Amber slips out of the station. DNA from the first two victims matches neither Davin, and Garcia unseals a file showing that Amber was raped and beaten at 15 by her father and brother, and that her mother called her a liar. Gideon tells Tony that Amber used another man before him and set Tony up, and Tony gives up a cabin in the woods.
The Team
Garcia is shaken after hours of isolating the audio from the torture video. When Gideon phones her himself for the cellmate’s name, she is surprised by the call, and he tells her she did great work.
The ending
Spoiler: Agents arrest Amber at the cabin and find Tiffany alive. Police later find remains on the property believed to be Amber’s former boyfriend, whose DNA the team expects to match the first two victims.
Why it stands out
- Nicki Aycox guest stars as Amber Canardo, a rape survivor who abducts and murders women, with Brad Rowe as her husband and partner, Tony.
- In profiling killing teams, the BAU cites real cases: the D.C. snipers, the Columbine shooters and the Hillside Stranglers, cousins Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi.
- A small figurine of Goku from Dragon Ball Z can be spotted on screen when Gideon calls Garcia.