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The continuing research of team “Not Criminal Minds” this week leads them to Jerry Brudos. He’s a cross-dressing murderer who likes to keep the feet and shoes of his victims as souvenirs. If Quentin Tarantino ever made a movie about a serial killer, Jerry Brudos would be the star. During their early encounters with Brudos, the killer denies any of the crimes he was convicted of. This was a new problem for the team, as usually their subjects are open books. Upon the advise of Wendy, Holden tries relating to Brudos by recounting the time his mother walked in on him masterbating. This eases Brudos into opening up more. When Holden reveals a new pair of heels as a gift for Brudos, the murderer tells the agents everything they want to hear before walking to the corner and masterbating to his new shoe.
Gruesome images come with the territory when studying the minds of murderers and rapists. This is something Holden Ford and Bill Tench were very much aware of when they started their study, but the reality of their job description is finally starting to catch up with.
For Bill, this comes to a head when his young son finds a crime photo in the family home. Constantly being wound tighter by the horrors of the world, he finally unleashes on his wife about all of the terrible things he’s had to see. Bill is a man we’ve come to know as no-nonsense and professional. To see him unravel further humanizes him and adds more depth to what was already the series’ best character.
Bill’s home life isn’t much simpler than his life at work. He’s at a standstill with his adopted son, stumped on how to communicate with him. That Bill can find conversation with murderers and rapists but not his own son is a bit on the nose, but works well enough. I prefer it immensely more than any other home-life sideplot we see from the other members of the team.
Holden has done a much better job at separating work from home, allowing himself to enjoy his time with girlfriend Debbie without his mind being focused on bloody crime scenes. This changes by the end of the episode when Debbie wears the same style of heel as the one Brudos masterbated to earlier in the episode. It’s a rare reminder in his normal life of the grisly images he experiences at work and results in Holden pushing Debbie away during sex.
Holden and Bill are two men dedicated to their work. Their findings are potentially revolutionary. The burden this places on their personal lives is one that grows bigger everyday, and there’s no telling how much more they’ll have to sacrifice moving forward.
—There was a lot of baby talk between Debbie and Nancy Tench in the previous episode, and now Debbie’s feet are getting bigger. Could she be pregnant?