The Eyes Have It (Season 5, Episode 6)
Premise: In Morgan’s first case as acting unit chief, the BAU tracks an Oklahoma City killer who hunts people like game and removes their eyes with surgical skill.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 6
- Unsub
- Earl Bulford, “The Eye Snatcher” (Todd Giebenhain)
- Location
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- 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)
- Opening quote
- “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.” (Matthew 5:29, read by Morgan)
- Closing quote
- “Dwell in peace in the home of your own being, and the messenger of death will not be able to touch you.” (Guru Nanak, read by Morgan)
- Guest stars
- Salli Richardson-Whitfield as Tamara Barnes, James McCauley as Lt. Phil Brantley, Anzu Lawson as Dr. Ruiz, Samantha Cutaran as Lani Sukarto, Jen Lilley as Megan
- Director
- Glenn Kershaw
- Writers
- Oanh Ly
Summary
The Case
“The Eyes Have It” sends the BAU to Oklahoma City, where 17-year-olds Megan Chertow and Bina Sukarto are found in a parking garage with their throats cut, days after 61-year-old John O’Heron was beaten to death and dumped beside a farm road. All three had their eyes removed, and the killer took them away. Such killers, called enucleators, are usually mentally ill and disorganized, yet this one picks his spot, waits and strikes fast. Bina’s Buddhist family ask the agents to find her eyes so she can be cremated whole. The medical examiner shows that O’Heron’s eyes were torn out while the girls’ were cut away with surgical care. A jogger, Tracy Copper, is next, brought down by a tripwire and bled from the neck like game.
As reporters start calling the killer “the Eye Snatcher,” JJ holds a press conference and the profile goes out: a white male hunter, 27 to 35, with some medical training, possibly driven by a delusion. Then a couple on a trail are hunted after the lights are cut; the woman’s eyes are taken, but not the man’s, whose eye was slashed as he fought back. Morgan reasons that the killer needs perfect pairs, like a taxidermist. Garcia ties O’Heron to Lloyd’s Wild Game Shop. Owner Lloyd Bulford died four weeks earlier, leaving his isolated son, Earl, 28, who has a record of animal cruelty and is losing the house and shop. Inside, the agents find O’Heron’s blood and mounted animals fitted with human eyes.
A customer list shows each attack took place near a home where Earl delivered a mount. Hotch and Lieutenant Phil Brantley reach a customer Earl has just visited, his van turns up nearby, and Hotch finds Earl attacking a woman in the street and overpowers him alone.
The Team
Hotch has resigned as unit chief, and Morgan is now acting chief. He picks the case, refuses Hotch’s office, and lets Strauss’s calls go unanswered until Hotch presses him to return them; she tells him people want him to succeed. Tamara Barnes, still grieving her brother William, thanks Morgan for attending a hearing and gives him something of William’s, promising a drink later. After the arrest Morgan tells Hotch he should have waited for backup, and Hotch asks whether Morgan would have.
The ending
Spoiler: Morgan tells Bina’s family that her eyes have been found and will reach their funeral home after processing. Back at Quantico, Garcia leads him to a new office that she set up after JJ arranged it, complete with a hidden play corner. Alone there, Morgan makes a call to ask whether that drink offer still stands.
Why it stands out
- This is the team’s first case with Morgan as acting unit chief, after Hotch steps down from the post.
- The profile cites Herbert Mullin, a real paranoid schizophrenic who killed 13 people in California believing the deaths would stop an earthquake; Marco Aiello plays him in a brief scene.
- Paget Brewster reportedly cut herself for real in the scene where Prentiss smashes a window with her elbow.