Minimal Loss (Season 4, Episode 3)
Premise: When a raid on a Colorado cult goes wrong, Prentiss and Reid are trapped inside with its prophet, and the BAU must get the women and children out alive.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 3
- Unsub
- Benjamin Cyrus (Luke Perry)
- Location
- La Plata County, Colorado
- 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
- “To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.” (Benjamin Franklin, read by Reid)
- Closing quote
- “Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it.” (Ayn Rand, read by Prentiss)
- Guest stars
- Jeff Fahey as Kane, Kathleen Wilhoite as Kathy Evanson, Jenna Boyd as Jessica Evanson, Karina Logue as Nancy Lunde, Joel Murray as Attorney General
- Ripped from the headlines
- Benjamin Cyrus is reportedly a blend of Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones, Randy Weaver of the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff and Branch Davidian leader David Koresh of the 1993 Waco siege.
- Director
- Félix Enríquez Alcalá
- Writers
- Andrew Wilder
Summary
The Case
“Minimal Loss” starts with a TV news report on a standoff in La Plata County, Colorado, then goes back three days to a 911 call from a 15-year-old girl who says a man comes to her bed and calls it God’s will. Prentiss and Reid go into Liberty Ranch, home of the Separatarian Sect, posing as child-abuse interviewers alongside caseworker Nancy Lunde. Jessica Evanson, 15, says she is the wife of the sect’s leader, Benjamin Cyrus, with the consent of her mother, Kathy. Then state police, sent by an attorney general who hid his own inquiry from federal agencies, raid the ranch. A gunfight follows; Nancy is killed, a trooper later dies, and the two agents are trapped inside.
The BAU takes charge with Rossi as lead negotiator and lays out a “minimal loss” plan to coax followers out a few at a time, swapping fatigues for ranch clothes. Rossi brings in supplies alone and sees that both agents are unhurt. Cyrus stages a mass poisoning with wine, but the team reads it as a loyalty test like one Jim Jones once ran, and an aide notes who weeps. The ranch’s jailed founder, Leo Kane, reveals that Cyrus is really Charles Mulgrew, whom Kane threw out at 17 for molesting young girls; Mulgrew later served time in Kentucky and took over the ranch at gunpoint. A leak tells the press an undercover agent is inside. Prentiss admits it and is beaten, telling the listening team she can take it. Reid wins Cyrus’s ear, and Cyrus trades a child for the agent’s name, then releases the followers who failed his test and promises to surrender at noon before the cameras.
Reid signals that the promised surrender is a cover for a final sacrifice. The team plans a 3 a.m. raid, hides bugs in a food delivery and finds a way to tell Prentiss the time. Kathy admits she made the 911 call to save Jessica and agrees to gather the women and children in the basement.
The Team
Hotch makes Rossi lead negotiator; both men admit they are too close to Prentiss and Reid to be detached, but Hotch wants Rossi doing the talking, and he puts the attorney general off his crime scene with a threat of charges.
The ending
Spoiler: When the raid begins, the building turns out to be wired with explosives. Prentiss and the children are brought out, while Reid argues scripture with Cyrus in the chapel until Cyrus is shot before he can set off the charges. Jessica’s fate is left unclear. Afterward Prentiss tells a teammate that what Cyrus did to her was her own choice and she would make it again.
Why it stands out
- Luke Perry guest-stars as Benjamin Cyrus, with Jeff Fahey as Leo Kane, the ranch’s founder.
- Joel Murray, who plays the attorney general, had earlier co-starred with Thomas Gibson on Dharma & Greg.
- Kathleen Wilhoite and Jenna Boyd, mother and daughter here, also played mother and daughter on Ghost Whisperer.