Omnivore (Season 4, Episode 18)
Premise: After a dying detective confesses he made a deal with the Boston Reaper, the killer resumes his murders and turns his attention to Hotch and the BAU.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 18
- Unsub
- George Foyet, “The Reaper” (C. Thomas Howell)
- Location
- 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
- “Fate is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity.” (Publilius Syrus, read by Hotch)
- Closing quote
- “Men heap together the mistakes of their lives and create a monster they call destiny.” (John Hobbes, read by Hotch)
- Guest stars
- Louis Ferreira as Roy Colson, James Handy as Tom Shaunessy, James Hanlon as Sgt. Michael O’Mara, Frank Novak as Arthur Lanessa
- Director
- Nelson McCormick
- Writers
- Andrew Wilder
Summary
The Case
“Omnivore” opens at the deathbed of Boston detective Tom Shaunessy, who asked for Hotch. Ten years ago, he confesses, the serial killer called the Reaper offered to stop killing if police stopped hunting him, and Shaunessy agreed through a personal ad in a Michigan paper, then closed the case and sent the BAU home. Now he senses the Reaper waiting for him to die. Soon after Shaunessy’s death, a man who stops to help a young couple with two flat tires kills them both, leaving the glasses of George Foyet, the Reaper’s ninth victim and only survivor. The team goes to Boston uninvited and works with Sergeant Michael O’Mara. Posing as a police officer, the killer next murders an older couple, the Lanessas, and adds a question mark to his eye symbol.
Hotch presents the profile he has quietly built for a decade: an “omnivore” who will kill anyone but needs recognition, and who lingers with young female victims, suggesting an attraction to teenagers. Author Roy Colson, who wrote the book on the Reaper, leads them to Foyet, who lives under several names, rides only buses and refuses protection. When the Reaper phones Hotch to offer the same deal, Hotch turns him down, and the killer then attacks a bus. Numbers left on it match Foyet’s addresses. The agents split up; O’Mara is killed, Morgan is knocked out and robbed of his credentials, and blood and drag marks at one address suggest Foyet is dead. But Foyet’s supposed girlfriend had known him only briefly, and one of his aliases was fired over conduct with female students. The team realizes Foyet is the Reaper, who wounded himself after calling 911. They reach his hideout as he threatens Colson for not printing the Shaunessy deal, and he is taken into custody.
The Team
Hotch blames himself for the Reaper’s new victims, both for the decade he let pass and for refusing the deal. Rossi tells him that taking the blame is ego, not conscience, and that the guilt belongs to the killers.
The ending
Spoiler: The blood found at the address turns out to be Foyet’s own, collected over time to fake his death. In prison he is found convulsing and vomiting blood, and after being rushed to the prison hospital he escapes. Plans for every jail and courthouse in Massachusetts turn up among his things, and the team expects he will not be found.
Why it stands out
- C. Thomas Howell guest-stars as George Foyet, the lone survivor of the Boston Reaper’s attacks, with Louis Ferreira as Roy Colson, author of the book Night of the Reaper.
- Louis Ferreira later worked with Shemar Moore again on S.W.A.T., playing his superior.