Exit Wounds (Season 5, Episode 21)
Premise: With Garcia joining them in the field, the BAU hunts a killer in an isolated Alaska fishing town who preys on residents planning to leave.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 21
- Unsub
- Owen Porter (Mark L. Young)
- Location
- Franklin, Alaska
- 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), Kevin Lynch (Nicholas Brendon)
- Opening quote
- “Nature, in her most dazzling aspects or stupendous parts, is but the background and theater of the tragedy of man.” (John Morley, read by Garcia)
- Closing quote
- “Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as real strength.” (Ralph W. Sockman, read by Garcia)
- Guest stars
- Eric Ladin as Joshua Beardsley, Dale Dickey as Carol, Wings Hauser as Sheriff Rhodes, Karen Strassman as Martha Porter, Scarlett McAlister as Deputy Susan Flack
- Director
- Charles S. Carroll
- Writers
- Rick Dunkle
Summary
The Case
“Exit Wounds” opens on the docks of Franklin, Alaska, where fisherman Keith Graves leaves first mate Brenda Bright to finish up alone, and she is attacked. Three people have died in under a week in a town of 1,476 that has never had a murder investigation. Hunter Jon Baker and schoolteacher Dedaimia Swanson were shot with a rifle; Brenda was stabbed with an arrow, and both women were buried under trash. Garcia flies out to run a satellite link, and Sheriff Rhodes sets them up in a tavern owned by Carol, whose son Josh has just moved home.
Doc Johnson finds human urine on Baker’s remains, a hunter’s trick, and Brenda’s body bears postmortem cuts. That night Garcia comes upon fisherman Craig Ramey, who was packing to leave town, dying near the tavern; the attacker runs from her, and Ramey’s spleen is taken. The profile describes an immature local hunter in his twenties with abandonment issues. A teacher points to Joshua Beardsley, who is held overnight, though Garcia argues that Josh, knowing she is unarmed, would not have fled from her. Garcia then finds that every victim was leaving Franklin, and the team puts waitress Kat Allen, who is also leaving, into protective custody. That night Carol is mutilated in her home.
Told of her death, Josh insists on leaving, and the team suspects he knows the killer; a deputy follows him. Animals blamed on a rabid bear turn out to be a person’s work, and the profile shifts to a teenager. Josh’s college essay describes leaving a younger “brother” unprotected, which leads to Owen Porter, whose home the sheriff has visited for domestic disturbances. Owen’s mother, Martha, admits he came home bloody the night before, as he often has. Josh slips his tail as a hunting party heads into the woods. Martha names a childhood fort at Lake Lafayette, but Owen turns up at the harbor.
The Team
Ramey dies as Garcia holds him; recalling her own shooting, she wanted him to see a kind face. She refuses Morgan’s request for a cognitive interview. Earlier, JJ presses Prentiss to call Red Cell’s Mick Rawson, and Kevin, on the phone from Quantico, learns that Garcia is sharing a room with Morgan.
The ending
Spoiler: At the harbor, Josh, Keith and other armed men confront the agents over Owen, 16, who tells Josh he killed Carol because Josh left him behind. The standoff ends with a single gunshot that wounds rather than kills. Before leaving Alaska, Garcia tells Morgan she fears the job will harden her; he promises not to let that happen, and she decides to stay.
Why it stands out
- In the briefing, the team notes that Alaska had not handled a serial murder investigation since the Robert Hansen case in the 1980s.
- Dale Dickey (Carol) and Dean Norris, a guest in the previous episode, later played husband and wife Clay and Juanda Husser on Claws (2017).