This episode opens with an obviously psychotic man in line at a pharmacy wanting to get a refill on his medication. When he learns he has no refills the man goes wild demanding is medication and ends up brutally killing three people and critically injuring several others.

It turns out that his doctor had taken him off of his medication in order to help him remember the tragic events in his life that led to him becoming psychotic to begin with.  Throughout this story you have two sides of the law with two different opinions about this psychotic individual. The first is the local police who see the obvious: a killer on the rampage that needs to be stopped at all cost.

Then you have the Criminal Minds team who understands this man is obviously dangerous but also understand that he is mentally unstable and needs help.

Once the psychotic man was off of his medication he starts remembering his childhood. He remembers his father as a serial killer who raped, tortured and killed little boys and forced his six year old son to help him dispose of the bodies.  This was a very tragic story of two sick individuals; one being a sick, pedophile killer and the the other is the pedophile’s son whom he drove insane by forcing him to participate in his madness.

This episode also carried a subplot surrounding the unit’s chief agent, Aaron “Hotch” Hotchner, which is played by Thomas Gibson. In this episode it is Hotch’s first time back after being assaulted and nearly killed by a serial killer that has been labeled “The Reaper.”  Several of the members of the team are concerned about his mental state as he seemingly puts his life on the line unnecessarily and doing so against normal unit protocols.  There are some that believe he has a death wish and may have lost the will to live.

This was a very good Criminal Minds episode that dealt with some basic human needs such as needing a reason to live and the need to know what makes us who we are.