- Morgan regrets his decision that a prisoner is ready for parole when the man murders someone days after being released.
- Hotch is off on leave, leaving Rossi in charge. Hotch has provided an electronic OK for Ashley Seaver to complete her remedial training at the BAU, she who wants to atone for the mistake she made in the strangled women case in New Mexico. With support from Prentiss who would act as Seaver's agent supervisor, Rossi provides his reluctant OK. Meanwhile, the parole board has asked the BAU to do a risk assessment on Don Sanderson, who has served his minimum twenty-five years of a life sentence for killing his wife and daughter. A former medical resident, Sanderson has always professed his innocence, telling a story of two men and a woman who he saw commit the murders. Rossi delegates the task of the risk assessment to Morgan, who sees in Sanderson a man who has lived solely for the sake of his now grown son, Joshua, and being able to tell him what he knows to be the truth. Morgan provides his approval for Sanderson's parole. Two days after his release, Sanderson is charged with the murder of Tom Wittman, who Sanderson admits to killing, but in self-defense. Garcia can't find any connection between Sanderson and Wittman prior to this altercation. To clear Morgan's good name, the BAU need to delve into the original murders of Sanderson's wife and daughter to find why Sanderson purposefully went to see Wittman.—Huggo
- Rossi, acting chief, speaks with Aaron Hotchner on the telephone. Hotch is taking some time off because Jack has been having some problems dealing with the first-year anniversary of Haley's death.
Section Chief Erin Strauss interrupts to give Rossi a case file on Don Sanderson, who is up for parole after 25 years in prison. He was convicted of murdering his wife and daughter, but has always claimed that his family was attacked. His son, Joshua, is still alive. He needs a risk assessment, so Rossi assigns the case to Morgan.
"There is no such thing as part freedom." Nelson Mandela
Morgan visits Sanderson at federal prison. During the interview Morgan learns Sanderson, a physician at the time of the crime, has been a model prisoner after seeing a vision of his son and decides to live his life in prison the way he would have lived in the free world. He had taught inmates to read, had started a mentor program, and had helped them receive their GEDs. Morgan appears before the parole board and gives Sanderson a positive recommendation and Sanderson is released. However, 51 hours later, Sanderson is arrested for killing Tom Wittman. Morgan confronts him police headquarters. Sanderson is claiming self-defense. He had also called the paramedics after Wittman had been killed and had not left the scene. It was not a random act of violence. Morgan and Rossi take Sanderson into custody, but he remains silent on what had happened.
At the BAU, the team looks at the night of the murders, March 10, 1985. Sanderson had always maintained he had been sleeping on the couch downstairs and ran upstairs when he heard his wife and children being attacked. He saw a man assaulting his wife with a knife and had been struck on the head from behind. Because of his medical background, prosecutors said Sanderson's wounds were self-inflicted. During his trial, Sanderson said a third person - a woman had been there but no one believed him.
Morgan is hard on Sanderson in the interrogation room. Sanderson tells him that Wittman did not kill his family but was going to lead him to the man who did. He had remembered Wittman years later when he heard his voice from the night of the murders saying, "That's enough." Tom Wittman, who was 18 at the time, had been a grocery delivery boy who had a crush on Carrie, Sanderson's wife.
Morgan and Rossi take Sanderson back to his former home for a cognitive interview. As he walks through the empty house, Sanderson remembers a man in a hood had stabbed his wife as his daughter, Abby, cried on the floor in the corner. The unknown woman held Joshua and wanted to keep him against the wishes of Wittman and the other man.
The BAU profiles the case. Garcia learns that Tom Wittman had a juvenile record in credit card scams and retail robbery. She cross-referenced for women who had been arrested for the same kind of crimes on the days of Wittman's arrests. Mary Rutka's name appears.
Prentiss and Morgan go to her apartment and break in and find her on the floor injured, but still alive. Morgan chases a man down the fire escape, but loses him. Prentiss calls for an ambulance but Mary dies on the scene. Apparently the man had been looking for something because the apartment was in disarray. Prentiss finds a dusty videotape on top of the kitchen cabinet. Back at the BAU, the tape reveals Carrie Sanderson eating breakfast in bed with Abby and Joshua before turning into footage of the night of the murder. Mary Rutka and the man in the hood can be seen walking upstairs as the man says, "Let's do this."
The team profiles the man on the tape and determines he must be a big-wig control freak who has been blackmailed by Mary Rutka with the tape. Since Don Sanderson had claimed the murderers broke through the bars in his basement, Garcia looks up previous owners of the home. They learn James Stanworth had lost the house in 1982 and is now running for Congress. His campaign slogan is: "Let's do this."
Section Chief Strauss tells them they have no evidence that Stanworth is the man in the hood, but Morgan and Rossi believe he is. "You don't understand what the politics are, do you Dave? You never have," she tells Rossi. He replies, "No. I do. I just don't care."
James Stanworth is hosting a fundraiser at his house that night, so the team pays him a visit. Morgan confronts him, demands to see the scratches that Mary Rutka had inflicted on his hand, and rants about his inner psychopath until Stanworth incriminates himself. He is arrested.
Don Sanderson is exonerated and meets Joshua for the first time in 25 years.
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered. The point is to discover them." Galileo
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