The Crossing (Season 3, Episode 18)
Premise: While JJ fights to protect a young lawyer from a stalker who has followed her from Atlanta, Hotch and Rossi help a Boston prosecutor judge a wife who shot her husband.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 18
- Unsub
- Mike Hicks (Scott Lowell)
- Location
- Silver Spring, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts
- Starring
- David Rossi (Joe Mantegna), Aaron “Hotch” Hotchner (Thomas Gibson), Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), Jennifer “JJ” Jareau (A.J. Cook), Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness)
- Opening quote
- “No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.” (Christian Nestell Bovee, read by Prentiss)
- Closing quote
- “A woman must not depend on the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.” (Susan B. Anthony, read by JJ)
- Guest stars
- Bonnie Root as Keri Derzmond, Mary-Margaret Humes as Audrey Henson, Barbara Eve Harris as DA Eve Alexander, Jeffrey Pierce as Ryan Scott, Brad Beyer as Detective Steve Berry
- Director
- Guy Norman Bee
- Writers
- Debra J. Fisher & Erica Messer
Summary
The Case
“The Crossing” opens with Keri Derzmond, a lawyer in Silver Spring, Maryland, discovering that the man who sent her anonymous notes in Atlanta has followed her north. Local police say they can’t act until she is hurt, so JJ takes the case to the team while Hotch and Rossi are at a seminar in Boston. When Prentiss calls the case a drain on resources, JJ recalls a Denver woman the unit turned away who later had acid thrown in her face. The letters picture a shared future, and the stalker’s photos of himself never show his face but reveal him building muscle, getting a tan and copying the haircut of Keri’s fiancé, Ryan Scott. He leaves antique earrings he calls family heirlooms, takes her dog, Brodie, and seems to be working up the nerve to meet her. Combing through Keri’s life, Garcia and JJ uncover clinic visits that reveal an abortion Ryan knew nothing about; Ryan learns of it and leaves. Keri realizes she has seen the man around town. While Ryan scuffles with a man walking Brodie, paid by someone in an old brown van, Keri is taken from her house.
In Boston, Suffolk County district attorney Eve Alexander asks Hotch and Rossi to help disprove Audrey Henson’s claim of battered woman syndrome; Audrey shot her husband, Philip, as he slept. Audrey turns out to have no license, accounts or recent medical records, and her son, Nathan, calls her stupid and praises his father. Audrey insists Philip never hit her. Hotch and Rossi conclude she suffered psychological abuse and total control, and when she explains that she cleaned up the blood because Philip would have been angry at strangers seeing a mess, Alexander decides to seek a charge of criminally negligent homicide.
Garcia’s van search turns up Mike Hicks, an unemployed tech worker who once serviced law firms’ computers. Reasoning that he would take Keri somewhere she loves, the team heads to Chesapeake Beach, where Ryan proposed. Keri plays along until the team arrives, and after a struggle Hicks is taken away. His van reveals they met on February 21, 2006, when he worked on her computer; the date on his first card marked one month later.
The Team
Between interviews, Rossi admits he isn’t sure he was ever happy in his marriages, and Hotch says he gave everything to Haley, Jack and the job until something had to give. Between them, they count four failed marriages.
The ending
Spoiler: Afterward, JJ seems off and is urged to go home and rest. She makes a phone call to say they need to talk, and reveals she is pregnant.
Why it stands out
- A plaque on a building behind JJ and Prentiss reads “Bernero Bros Building,” a nod to series producer Edward Allen Bernero.
- Stalking is now a crime throughout the US, though the laws vary by state; behavior that can reasonably be expected to cause emotional distress can be enough, letting police act before anyone is physically hurt.