Reckoner (Season 5, Episode 3)
Premise: A dying judge hires a hitman to execute people he believes escaped justice for crimes against children, and the case pulls Rossi back into his Long Island past.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 3
- Unsub
- Judge Boyd Schuller (Lawrence Pressman), Tony Mecacci, “Bosola” (Tom Ohmer)
- Location
- Commack, New York
- 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), Jack Hotchner (Cade Owens)
- Opening quote
- “Justice without force is powerless. Force without justice is tyrannical.” (Blaise Pascal, read by Rossi)
- Closing quote
- “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruit than strict justice.” (Abraham Lincoln, read by Rossi)
- Guest stars
- William Sadler as Ray Finnegan, Cynthia Watros as Heather Vanderwaal, Vincent Guastaferro as Det. Gil Hardesty, D.B. Sweeney as U.S. Marshal Sam Kassmeyer, Leith M. Burke as Jerry Sorum
- Director
- Karen Gaviola
- Writers
- Dan Dworkin & Jay Beattie
Summary
The Case
“Reckoner” begins in Commack, Long Island, where Ben Vanderwaal is shot twice at close range in his home and his hands are sawed off; his wife, Heather, is taken and later found wandering the streets. Two earlier victims died the same way, with one bullet to the heart and one to the head: a former social worker who was starved before she was shot and a man whose genitals were removed. Rossi asks to sit the case out because Commack is the hometown he left 30 years ago, but he goes. Heather admits she found a naked photo of her daughter, Allison, on Ben’s phone, and the team learns that every victim was linked to a crime against a child that went unpunished. .22 bullets bearing no rifling marks point to a zip gun, and the camera flashes Heather saw suggest photos taken as proof of death for a paying client.
Rossi turns to Ray Finnegan, a childhood friend turned mob boss, who names a ghostly hitman called Bosola, after the killer in The Duchess of Malfi, and agrees to lure him to his restaurant at midnight. Bosola gets in before the agents can stop him and Ray is killed. The profile describes two men: a wealthy, older planner inside the justice system who has suffered a tragedy, and a hired enforcer. A mistrial points to hitman Tony Mecacci, and the judge in that case, Boyd Schuller, lost his wife to a drunk driver and has terminal cancer. Rossi knew her: Emma, his first love.
Schuller turns himself in and calls the killings justice. Garcia finds $50,000 payments for each kill and a recent $100,000 withdrawal, and Schuller has given his estate away. To rattle him, Rossi hints at an affair with Emma, and Schuller, demanding details, says the drunk driver, Dan Patton, is the last name. Patton is found shot. The team realizes the last payment covered two deaths, the second being Schuller’s own, but as he is led out past reporters a shot rings out.
The Team
Hotch wishes Jack a happy birthday from afar, and Marshal Sam Kassmeyer tells him Haley and Jack must move again because Haley phoned her mother. Hotch also learns that the counter-surveillance watching for Foyet has lost its funding; Rossi tells him an attack on him is an attack on the whole team.
The ending
Spoiler: Afterward Rossi confides that he never slept with Emma; he met her at 12 and let his career crowd out a life with her. He urges Hotch, once Foyet is caught, not to let his own family slip away. In a last scene, someone waylays a man about to drive off.
Why it stands out
- Lawrence Pressman guest-stars as the terminally ill Judge Boyd Schuller, and William Sadler as mob boss Ray Finnegan.
- The case takes Rossi back to his hometown of Commack, Long Island.
- Finnegan’s restaurant was filmed at The Smoke House Restaurant, across the street from Warner Bros. Studios.