'Criminal Minds' Season 10, Episode 7 'Hashtag' recap

The Intro

A teenager and her friend are shopping at the mall. It shows them in a dressing room, and the girl is taking risque selfies. Then, it flashes to a back room, where it shows a mall employee watching her on the security cameras.

Out in the mall, the man runs into the girl, and a creepy conversations occurs between the two. The man keeps talking about how excited he his to finally meet her in person; he follows her on every social media site. Then, the two pose for a selfie together.

That night, the girl is murdered in her home. She is looking into her mirror when a man hits her from behind, shoving her face into the mirror. He then uses a shard of broken glass to stab her. Before leaving, he stages a selfie of her dead body to upload to all of her social media accounts.

Image via Facebook from Criminal Minds

The Case

The team is dealing with a “Selfie Killer.” Meaning, they believe the man responsible for the murder is targeting young people who have an addiction with posting selfies and sharing their personal information online. He stalks online profiles to find the people who post the most about themselves.

They believe the guy has something against vanity, probably because he feels ignored. The team is afraid his killing spree isn’t a personal vendetta, but rather something he hopes to take viral; he wants people to notice him. He captioned the picture of his first victim with “fear me #selfie.”

The weapon used to murder the young teenager was picked spontaneously, so the team believes they are dealing with an immature and inexperienced killer.

First Unsub

The team’s preliminary investigations send them in the direction of the creepy stalker man who took a selfie with the girl at the mall shortly before she died. While he was guilty of stalking her and posting inappropriate images of her without her consent, he was determined innocent. He was seen walking his dog the night of the murder.

The Profile

After media spreads the story of the “selfie killer,” the unsub gets creative. He establishes a brand for himself by altering peoples’ selfies with a picture of a man’s face in the background. The team determines the picture is from a website called “Mirror Mania,” a fictional urban legend horror story surrounding a man who refers to himself as The Mirror Man.

With his next victim, the killer stages yet another selfie and posts it, creating his own name with the caption “#MirrorMan.” Alex Harris, the second victim, is killed with a nail gun. A hashtag symbol was carved into the back of his car seat with the nail gun as well.

The team recognizes that the killer is recreating the story of the Mirror Man in real life. The weapons used were not spontaneous, but taken straight out of the story line.

The team alters the killer’s profile to include a man who is very tech savy and possibly older, in his late 30s or early 40s. He probably suffered some type of abandonment in his childhood as well, causing him to feel neglected. His killings and the media attention are ways for him to get recognized.

Another Victim

The third victim’s story is slightly different from the others’. The first two victims were connected; they were both online famous and followed each other. This third victim was not connected to the previous two. However, his last post before he died was a mocking of the Mirror Man killer. He was killed by a nail gun as well, proving to be the killer’s weapon of choice.

However, this victim wasn’t just murdered, he was found mutilated. This tells the team that the unsub they are looking for is probably younger than originally expected, because he shows signs of immaturity and rage. They believe they are now looking for a teenager.

Second Unsub

Conner Hault is a teenager who attended the same high school as the victims. He is suspected by the team for his recent purchase of a nail gun and for his frequent posts about the Mirror Man.

The team catches him trying to escape his house through a window, but he surrenders himself. He claims he didn’t commit the murder, but admits to being behind the creation of the Mirror Man story. He’s a writer and wanted to create a modern day horror story.

The team questions him about anyone who might have been involved with the story. They think the killer may look up to Conner, so he would be younger than him and have a urge to bring Conner’s story to life. Conner immediately thinks of William Pratt, a junior whose parents recently died in a car crash. He works at the mall where the first two victims were in connection to.

Third Unsub

The team finds the boy arriving at the mall. They see a nail gun in his backpack, but he runs off before they can catch him; a chase ensues.

The team catches up to him in the parking garage, but he has taken a hostage. He holds the nail gun to her head, threatening to kill her if they don’t let him go. The team is attempting to talk him down from his anger high when a media crew pulls up to the scene. Seeing this as his chance to be recognized in front of a national audience, the boy pulls the trigger on the nail gun; at the same time, Derek shoots him.

The Arrest

At the hospital, Derek’s surgeon girlfriend operates on the two injured people. Derek is worried about the health of the boy, because he shot him on national TV. However, both of them recover. The boy is arrested, but it doesn’t seem to phase him.

He tells Conner he won’t be in jail for long, and commemorates his shot wound by taking a selfie in his hospital bed. It proves that he was so far lost in the story to realize the severity of his actions.

Derek’s Story

Throughout the episode, Derek is dealing with the struggles of juggling a relationship alongside a demanding career. At the beginning of the episode, he surprises his girlfriend at the hospital where she works. He asks her why she hasn’t packed yet, because they are planning to leave for vacation the next day. She tells him she has learned not to get her hopes up, because his work always takes precedent. He promises her the vacation, still.

However, she proves to be correct the next day, when news of the “selfie killer” ruins their vacation plans. Garcia tells him he needs to stop making large plans with her that he can’t keep and, instead, make small, but meaningful, plans.

Image via Facebook from Criminal Minds

At the end of the episode, Derek and his girlfriend share a romantic moment when he takes her to the house he has been resToring. He gives her a long speech about how he needs her in his life, but he recognizes both of their jobs are demanding, yet necessary. So, he asks her to move in with him so they can share more of their free time together. She accepts, but just before they enter the house they both get phone calls from work, ruining the moment. I’m sure this will be continued in future episodes.

Next Week

The next episode takes the team to Boston, where they will investigate a revenge murder. The trailer shows the team hunting down a group of boys terrorizing a man from their past who abused them. The episode is titled “The Boys of Sudworth Place.”

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