- Penelope Garcia: Okay, guys, I just got Samantha Malcolm's medical records, and... oh, my God, she was doomed. Like Emily Bronte doomed, like Shakespeare doomed, like red-shirted ensign in "Star Trek" doomed.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: [voiceover] Isaac Asimov wrote: "in life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate."
- Dr. Spencer Reid: [reminiscing about Gideon] I realized why my friend quit. He was tired of repeating the exact same patterns and expecting a different outcome.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: [voiceover] Mildred Lisette Norman wrote, "Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions."
- Aaron Hotchner: So, she has them paralyzed and she can do whatever she wants. Why is she killing them?
- Dr. Spencer Reid: Well, I don't think she mean to. Eh, the brain is a machine, designed to respond to stimuli. You keep the brain awake but the body immobile, it breaks down, loses its hair. After two months it eventually strokes out
- David Rossi: So, death isn't this unsub's goal, it's an unfortunately side effect
- Dr. Spencer Reid: Exactly
- David Rossi: Pretty public spot for a dump site
- Dr. Spencer Reid: You know, technically I think it would qualify more as a disposal site. You don't leave a body at a Merry Go Round out of convenience
- Aaron Hotchner: The unsub we're looking for is a woman. She's a collector. It's a psychopathology similar to hoarding.
- David Rossi: So when we say "collector", we're not talking about stamps or baseball cards. It's not what your kids, or even you, might pursue as a normal hobby.
- Aaron Hotchner: This is an attachment to objects that's become obsessive, by someone who is antisocial and extremely introverted.
- Emily Prentiss: These people attach a part of themselves to their collection. If you try to separate them from it or take it away from them, they will react violently, even psychotically.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: They've suffered damage to their prefrontal cortex. That's the part of the brain that regulates basic Freudian fantasy/reality. They can still function, like drive a car or go to work, even do their taxes.
- Derek Morgan: In fact, she excels at goal-oriented jobs, like the precision of sewing, or the details of abduction.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: But they've lost their ability to categorize the difference between living and dead, uh, belonging and loss. That has been irreparably destroyed.
- Detective Marty Cotrone: So what's she collecting, women?
- David Rossi: Actually, we think she's collecting dolls.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: Technically, replacing them. Uh, we believe that she lost the originals sometime within the last three months, and this is what served as her stressor.
- David Rossi: She searched for a replacement, and when she couldn't find them, she started abducting the closest possible surrogate.
- Emily Prentiss: Women of different ethnicities but a similar physicality.
- Derek Morgan: The drug-induced paralysis is part of the fantasy. She puts her victims in a position where they can't talk back so she can fetishize them like the objects she's lost.
- Detective Marty Cotrone: Um... look. I respect your analysis, but this woman kidnapped six women and killed three of them. And you're telling us this is about dolls?
- Emily Prentiss: This unsub stitched a wig onto the scalp of her latest victim. It's a technique used to attach hair to porcelain dolls.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: And keep in mind, collectors and serial killers do share certain traits. Uh... a lot of serial killers take trophies, attaching the same significance to them that this collector does to objects.
- David Rossi: But this unsub's intent isn't violence. She needs this collection to be complete so she can feel in control of her life, probably to overcome some trauma she experienced.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: She really only feels that control when the collection is complete, which is why she's repeating an abduction pattern with living victims. If she loses a doll, or in this case, if she loses a woman who represents a doll, she has to replace it.
- Aaron Hotchner: This woman works alone. We know she has medical training. Look for nurse's aides or orderlies who were fired for a lack of social graces. She can't fake a bedside manner.
- Emily Prentiss: We believe she's currently working as a tailor or a seamstress, and we're following those leads now. But do let us know if you notice any overlap in your suspect pools. Thank you.
- Eric: I see checkmate in 5. What do you see?
- Dr. Spencer Reid: [considers chess board] I see it in 3.
- Eric: [Eric works out the 3 moves] We've missed you out here.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: Oh, thank you. Thanks. I, uh, had to take a little break.
- Eric: How come?
- Dr. Spencer Reid: I used to play with a co-worker friend of mine. He's probably the best mind I ever went up against. One day, he just decided that he didn't want to play anymore.
- Eric: So you gave up, too?
- Dr. Spencer Reid: Just the opposite. I attempted to play through every permutation of moves on a chessboard.
- Eric: That's an infinite number of games.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: It's not infinite. It's just -- it's exponentially large.
- Eric: You couldn't have played through them all.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: There's an average of 40 moves per chess game, and I'll tell you something the more I played, the more I realized that every single match, every single chess game, is really just a simple variation on the exact same theme. You know? It's aggressive opening, patient mid-game, inevitable checkmate, and I realized why my friend quit. He was tired of repeating the exact same patterns and expecting a different outcome.
- Eric: So you have a lifetime of chess strategy in your head and you're just sitting on it.
- Dr. Spencer Reid: [reading message on cellphone] I still use it. I just, uh, I apply it differently. I have to go. It was good seeing you.