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| “ | Next, we're gonna go upstairs. And you're gonna be really, really nice to the boy. Not like the little bitch we both know you are. You understand? | „ |
| ~ Joe Smith threatening his latest victim. |
Joe Smith is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "In Name and Blood". He is a misogynistic serial kidnapper and murderer who abducts women to the "perfect mother" to his son, David, and kills them when they inevitably fail to reach his unreasonable expectations.
He was portrayed by Eddie Cibrian.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
A self-employed carpenter living in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, Joe had a young son with his wife, who left him after he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Joe, already a misogynist before his wife left, blamed the entire female sex for his relationship problems, and especially for her abandoning David. He became obsessed with finding the "perfect mother", being selfless, devoted, and, above all, subservient, for his son. To that end, he began abducting women using David as bait, and forcing them to act as a mother to the boy, according to his unreasonable demands. When they inevitably failed to meet Joe's impossible standards, he would kill them by cutting out their hearts. By the time the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) started investigating him, he had killed five women.
"In Name and Blood"[]
Joe abducts his latest victim, Claire Thompson, from a local mall by threatening to kill David with a box cutter unless she goes with them. As with his other victims, Joe forces her to act like a mother to David, all the while berating and threatening her. David grows to like Claire and asks Joe to spare her life. In response, Joe yells at David and hits him in the face. He then kills Claire and dumps her body by a cement plant.
Meanwhile, the agents of the BAU profile the killer as a misogynist with borderline personality disorder who lives in the area and works with his hands, and is killing to avenge a real or imagined abandonment by a woman. They also theorize that the killer has a young child and uses them to lure his victims. Technical analyst Penelope Garcia cross-references area contractors with marriage, divorce, and birth records, and finds Joe.
The agents of the BAU head to Joe's house to arrest him. Agent Emily Prentiss sees David at the door and asks to talk to his father, and David, believing that Prentiss is his latest "new mommy", lets her in. When Joe sees Prentiss, he overpowers her and holds her at gunpoint. He then orders David to kill her, and begins ranting about his hatred of women. Prentiss signals her colleagues with her cell phone, and they burst in and arrest Joe. As he is taken into custody, Joe says that he will be dead before they can put him in prison, that his next intended victim was the nurse at David's school.
In a later episode, it is revealed that Joe died in prison of his brain tumor. In another later episode, a now adult David becomes a serial killer in his own right.
Trivia[]
- Joe is inspired by multiple real-life serial killers:
- Wayne Adam Ford, an American serial killer of various women who were slashed and mutilated, out of Ford's outrage against his wife for leaving him.
- Fred West, a British serial killer of teenage girls with his wife Rosemary, having abused his children and previous wife before conspiring with Rose to kidnap and murder teenagers they'd lie to about wanting to hire them as nannies. They were buried all around the West family house, some of their body parts cut out to keep as souvenirs.
External links[]
- Joe Smith on the Criminal Minds Wiki
