Mayhem (Criminal Minds)

Infobox Television episode
Title = Mayhem
Series = Criminal Minds



Caption =
Season = 4
Episode = 1
Airdate = September 24, 2008
Production = 401
Writer = Simon Mirren
Director = Edward Allen Bernero
Photographer =
Guests = Sienna Guillory as SSA Kate Joyner Jack McGee as Det. Brustin Monica Young as TV News Reporter Moe Daniels as Lisa Bartleby
Episode list = List of Criminal Minds episodes
Prev = Lo-Fi
Next = The Angel Maker

"Mayhem" is the first episode of the fourth season of the television series, "Criminal Minds". Originally aired on September 24, 2008, the episode is written by Simon Mirren and directed by Edward Allen Bernero. The plot features the aftermath of the third season cliff-hanger Lo-Fi.

ummary

Hotch, suffering from slight hearing loss due to acute acoustic trauma, finds himself standing in an empty street with a burning SUV behind him. A passerby named Sam asks if he's all right, but Hotch just repeatedly tells him to call 9-1-1. The last thing Hotch remembers is getting into the SUV with Kate Joyner, the head of the FBI's New York field office. After looking for Kate around the SUV, he finally sees her lying some thirty feet away on the pavement in a pool of blood. Kate is disoriented and can't move her legs. Hotch clamps off the arterial bleed in her back as best he can, and Kate becomes distressed when she realizes it doesn't hurt. The ambulances pull up on the next block, but they don't drive in. Hotch shouts desperately for someone to help them, but Kate reminds Hotch that the profile warned the UNSUBs would target first responders.

Meanwhile in the NYPD Command Center, Rossi watches the news of the blast, while Reid tries to get in contact with the others. Rossi speculates that if the UNSUBs were using the shootings to gauge the response time, they're going to have 8 more bombs to contend with; Reid corrects him, stating that if they're attacking first responders as well, it'll be 16. On the news, the television reporter announces the bomb was within a black SUV outside Federal Plaza. Rossi calls Garcia, who has just heard the news as well. He tells her he's with Reid, but they can't contact anyone else, and tells her to find them. She starts calling the other members of the team and manages to get in touch with Morgan and Prentiss, but the system crashes again. She only gets JJ's voicemail. Garcia's partner in the CCTV office, Lisa, has found the camera closest to the blast. Garcia and Lisa watch the footage from the camera and rewind it for some sign of the bomber, who is seen placing an explosive under the SUV. They follow him on the cameras and see him duck behind a pillar to wait. A few minutes later, they find what they're looking for: after the explosion, the bomber had removed his sweatshirt and approached Hotch—it's Sam.

Meanwhile, JJ pulls up her SUV to ask an officer about the team, but no one's seen any of them, and back at the explosion site, Hotch continues to try to stop Kate's bleeding. Kate is still disoriented. Morgan arrives on the scene and tries to get through, but the Captain in charge of the barricade, a former Marine, lets him by only after Morgan reminds him of the rule to "Never leave a man behind." He gets to Hotch and Kate and tells Sam to get back; when Garcia calls and tells him who Sam really is, Morgan notices Sam has gone in the opposite direction. Hotch tells him to go, and Morgan gives chase. Soon after, an ambulance finally approaches, and as they work on stopping her bleeding, he tells Hotch he couldn't stand there hearing him shout for help.

Back at the command center, JJ and Prentiss arrive while Reid and Rossi go over the crime scenes again. Garcia calls and tells them Hotch seems all right, but Kate is seriously hurt, and that Morgan is chasing the bomber. Reid realizes that the bombers haven't made good on their "Death" card threat, and notes that the location of the actual bomb was nowhere near the other sites. They consider that compared to most terrorist acts, this group hasn't accomplished anything.

Meanwhile the EMT and Hotch get Kate into the ambulance, and Kate regains consciousness as Hotch starts driving them towards the nearest hospital, St. Barclay's. Upon arriving, they discover the hospital is closed, on a strict bypass, and it's only after Kate starts crashing that Secret Service lets them through the blockade. Doctors rush Kate to the OR. Hotch's hearing drops out again, and he loses his balance and falls in the lobby. When Morgan—having chased Sam into a subway and watched him commit suicide by electrocuting himself on the rails—arrives, Hotch has had some shrapnel removed from his leg, but is otherwise fine. He's close to panicking, asking for his clothes and about Kate. Morgan reassures him, but the worst of Hotch's worries is that the profile is wrong.

The team regroups at the hospital and discusses the problems with the profile. Reid mentions that the bomb from the SUV was the size of a cell phone, and Hotch reminds them that it would take a chemical engineer to construct a device like that large enough to cause serious damage. Rossi pulls up a file on a supposedly recently deceased bomb maker who fits the bill. Hotch, finally seeing the footage, asks if Sam actually called 9-1-1; it turns out Sam dialed a disposable cell six times, but not 9-1-1. Sam had only stayed with them to see if the ambulance (which would easily pass any roadblock) and its "paramedic", Ben Abner, reached them. Hotch mentions that Secret Service is protecting someone important in the hospital—the bomber's real target.

Hotch and the team warn Secret Service about the bomb, but find out that the person they're protecting is in surgery and can't be evacuated. Garcia takes down the cell service the UNSUBs have been using for detonations, but she reminds them it won't last more than a few minutes. While the rest of them pursue Abner, Morgan runs for the ambulance on his own without a word, planning to drive it as far from the hospital as he can. He manages to get it out and onto the road before the bomber can stop him. Garcia navigates him through the streets while Abner tries to get a signal on his cell, a knife to his throat as a last resort. Garcia warns Morgan that the system is about to come back as he approaches Central Park, and Morgan stops just short of telling Garcia "what you are to me" when the ambulance explodes. Seconds later, he is revealed to have rolled to safety before the blast, and informs Garcia that she is his "God-given solace," though she refuses to speak to him for the moment, after being terrified for his life. Elsewhere, the team finds Abner at the end of a trail of dead Secret Service agents, but he cuts his throat before they can apprehend him.

Hotch rushes to the OR as soon as he can, but finds it empty save the cleanup crew, who are mopping blood from the floor near a body with a sheet over it. The surgeon tells Hotch they did all they could; Hotch holds Kate's cold hand for a moment and places it gently under the sheet before he leaves.

At the end of the episode, Morgan and Hotch discuss the idea of Morgan heading up the New York field office. Then Hotch reminds Morgan that while he saved lives, his actions showed he doesn't really trust the team, even though Hotch continues to trust Morgan with his life.