The Slave of Duty (Season 5, Episode 10)
Premise: Days after Haley’s death, the BAU hunts a Nashville killer who forces his victims through a romantic evening, while Hotch decides whether to leave the FBI for his son.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 10
- Unsub
- Joe Belser (Wes Brown)
- Location
- Nashville, Tennessee
- 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), Erin Strauss (Jayne Atkinson), Haley Hotchner (Meredith Monroe), Jack Hotchner (Cade Owens), William “Will” LaMontagne Jr. (Josh Stewart), Kevin Lynch (Nicholas Brendon)
- Opening quote
- “It’s love that makes the world go ’round.” (W.S. Gilbert, read by Hotch)
- Closing quote
- “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson, read by Hotch)
- Guest stars
- Rena Sofer as Erika Silverman, Khary Payton as Det. Landon Kaminski, Molly Baker as Jessica Brooks, James Lowe as Grant Franklin, Patty Malcolm as Ann Herron
- Director
- Charles Haid
- Writers
- Rick Dunkle
Summary
The Case
“The Slave of Duty” begins at Haley Hotchner’s funeral, where Hotch gives the eulogy, before the team is called away to Nashville, Tennessee. Two successful brunette women, a defense attorney and a corporate executive, have been killed in their own homes on consecutive Friday nights, with rose petals on the floors and no sign of forced entry. Working with Detective Landon Kaminski, the agents find that the killer hurt each woman early to keep her compliant, cooked her the same dinner, served it with careful manners and then drew a bath, where Melissa Johnson fought back and was stabbed. The profile describes a polished, educated man reliving a romance after a recent loss and, like Ted Bundy, choosing women who resemble someone he lost.
The unsub then keeps a third woman, Erika Silverman, with him overnight; when her boyfriend, Grant Franklin, lets himself in, the killer murders them both. Fearing he will strike again at once, the team sends JJ on the news. Garcia’s check of the victims’ car navigation logs shows that apart from work, Erika went only to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, where valets parked the cars at a fundraiser. Valets hold keys and can read home addresses from a car’s GPS, and one valet company served every venue. Reasoning that the killer grew up with money but has lost it, the team zeroes in on Joe Belser, a scholarship prep-school graduate sunk in debt whose engagement ended weeks earlier when his fiancée slept with his best man. His empty apartment holds universal garage door openers. A list of women at the lounge where he is working leads to Ann Herron, and the agents reach her home as he attacks her; she survives, and he is arrested.
The Team
After the funeral Hotch says he broke his promise to Haley and doubts he can help Jack, and the team leaves for Nashville without him. At home he watches videos of Haley with Jack, and Strauss visits to offer him retirement on full pension, adding that Morgan’s promotion could become permanent. Haley’s sister, Jessica, offers to care for Jack whenever Hotch must travel. In Nashville, Morgan tells Rossi he will do whatever Hotch needs.
The ending
Spoiler: Later, a teammate finds Hotch at Haley’s grave and asks whether he has told her he is coming back to the team. Hotch answers that she already knows.
Why it stands out
- “The Slave of Duty” is the alternate title of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance; in his eulogy Hotch recalls meeting Haley at the tryouts for a high school production of it, and the opening quotation comes from another Gilbert and Sullivan work.
- Two names on the lounge’s customer list, Jennifer Ketelsen and Heather Aldridge, are in-jokes for members of the show’s crew.