Ep 12. The Black Queen

The ninth season of Criminal Minds, episode 12, titled "The Black Queen", sees the BAU team investigating a series of murders that follow the chess game's moves known as the Sicilian Defense. The killings take place in various cities across Northern America, suggesting that the unsub is a long-haul truck driver. As the killings escalate, the BAU deduces a connection to a series of murders that went down three years before in Des Plaines, Illinois.

The episode opens with the discovery of a dying woman named Charlotte Richman in her home in Memphis, Tennessee. The m.o. of the double homicide prompts Agent Matt Simmons to recall the story of the Black Queen, a tale his father told him when he was a child. The story tells of a great chess player who created a signature move with his queen, the Black Queen, and then went insane and killed his wife and son. Simmons believes the unsub is invoking the legend of the Black Queen in his killings.

As the BAU team examines the multiple crime scenes, they witness that the unsub is leaving chess pieces at the murder locations, indicating his next move. With the assistance of the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program database, the team finds a correlation between the location of the previously hidden bodies and the chessboard moves.

With pressure from their superiors to make progress in the case, the team splits up, and Simmons deals with his personal challenges while investigating the Black Queen killings in his hometown, Des Plaines, Illinois. His father, who continues to live in the city, sheds some light on the decades-long interstate trucking industry's development and how it may have led to the killer's ability to commit crimes in multiple states.

Simmons finds some evidence that links the killer to his target, and it directs the BAU to the Black Queen killer's hideout in Texas. Despite Simmons' presence, the unsub is still able to slip away, leading to a tense chase that could mean the difference between life and death for the agents.

The show's primary draw is how the team applies profiling and psychology to catch the killer. The audience will learn how the use of psychological profiling plays an essential role in a criminal investigation. By getting into the mind of the criminal, the BAU is often ahead of the culprit and able to predict their next move, thereby stopping them before they can take another victim.

In conclusion, Criminal Minds season 9, episode 12 "The Black Queen" is an intense and suspenseful episode following the BAU team's efforts to track down a serial killer who leaves chess pieces at the murder scenes. With fascinating psychological profiling and compelling storytelling, the series delivers a captivating and satisfying watch.