[s6e19] With Friends Like These May 2026
Early theories suggest a "pack" of killers, but Hotch quickly realizes it is one single, highly disturbed individual leaving the same shoe prints at every crime scene. The unsub is Ben Foster (played by Bug Hall), a paranoid schizophrenic who believes he is being pursued by the ghosts of three friends he killed in a fire when he was a child. These "ghosts" (Matt, Tony, and Yolanda) now haunt him, acting as "imaginary foes" that force him to kill to get them to stop nagging him.
The BAU realizes the overkill is a desperate act to burn energy so Ben can sleep and get a reprieve from his hallucinations. [S6E19] With Friends Like These
Compare this episode to other "psychological" episodes? Early theories suggest a "pack" of killers, but
13/20 on the Unsub scale, mostly because the villain is more victim than monster. The BAU realizes the overkill is a desperate
Spencer Reid is deeply affected by the schizophrenic unsub, fearing his own mental health issues and struggling with the team's loss of Prentiss.