‘Criminal Minds’ Recap: Season 11, Episode 18: Shemar Moore Exits In ‘A Beautiful Disaster’

After a very emotional charged episode of Criminal Minds last week, viewers were eager to know if fan-favorite Derek Morgan’s (Shemar Moore) pregnant fiancé, Savannah (Rochelle Aytes) was alive after being shot at from an unknown sniper. Last week’s episode also left a cliffhanger showing Morgan supposably walking into a trap after trying to find her shooter.

‘CRIMINAL MINDS’ RECAP: Shemar Moore Leaves Series

The BAU had been hunting an unknown subject (UnSub) who was been targeting Morgan for the last few episodes. First he was kidnapped and tortured and now his pregnant fiancé was in the hospital. The BAU is still under the impression that the UnSub is targeting Morgan, but they aren’t any closer to finding out who. The team was under the assumption that whoever it was wanted to send Morgan a message that he couldn’t always protect his family.

Before the team shows up to the scene, Penelope Garcia’s (Kirstin Vangsness) phone rings and they meet up with Morgan at the hospital.

The team is able to conduct their investigation inside one of the conference rooms in the hospital. During the meeting, Hotch (Thomas Gibson) tells Morgan he cannot be on the case considering he is too close to the victim. Morgan doesn’t take too kindly to this and tries to argue but fails and storms out. The team was able to uncover a familiar face in the traffic cams at the time of the shooting: Chazz Montolo. Montolo is Giuseppe Montolo’s father, the hitman from earlier in the season. They also realize that the man they see in the videos is actually the person that called Garcia about the shooting.

After spotting Montolo on the cams, Spencer (Matthew Gary Gubler) consoles Morgan about the case. Spencer mentions something about a “fatherly instinct” which causes Morgan to think the UnSub is a father. Morgan makes the connection between Montolo and his father, Giuseppe.

After discovering that the phone call was not from a hospital orderly, JJ (A.J. Cook) goes to investigate the pay phone that was used and discovers a note. She then shows Morgan but he tells her he has no connection to the note. Hotch doesn’t believe Morgan but Morgan won’t break and tell him the truth. Morgan rushes off to find Savannah’s doctor.

As the team continues to investigate, Savannah’s doctor enters to speak with Morgan but Morgan is gone. The team jumps into action to find Morgan. Hotch calls him and asks him where Chazz is, but Morgan refuses to tell him. Morgan is afraid Chazz will go after someone else he cares about. Morgan hangs up on Hotch and throws the phone out his window. Moments later, Morgan enters a house.

Morgan is met with the end of the barrel of a gun and is forced to sacrifice his gun and is lead to a table by Chazz. Chazz empties his gun except for one bullet and spins the chamber before he asks Morgan if he killed his son. Morgan answers, “no.” Chazz points the gun at Morgan and pulls the trigger but it clicks to signify no bullet was there yet.

Meanwhile, the team is scrambling to find Morgan. They discover that he might be at one of the houses he has renovated years ago. Chazz adds another bullet to the chamber and spins the gun again before telling Morgan that he is going to give him a chance to say good-bye to his family before he kills him. The phone connects to Garcia and she patches the rest of the team into the call.  Morgan tells them that the decisions he made led him into the situation he is in and that it’s no one else’ fault. Seconds later, the gun go off and the phone gets quiet.

The scene quickly changes as Morgan gets the gun away from Chazz after realizing that the house didn’t have a landline when he worked on it and Chazz has been “using” a landline phone to prove his threat to kill his team was real. Morgan fights with his demons to pull the trigger but decides against it as the team rushes in the house.

Morgan rushes back to the hospital to see that Savannah will be delivering their baby via C-section and their baby boy is born moments later. Hotch urges Morgan to take some time off to be with his family and at that mention, Morgan simply says, “about that.”

The next scene shows Morgan walking around their office to say goodbye to the BAU team. Before he leaves, he stops by Spencer’s office and announces that his child’s name is Hank Spencer Morgan. The team realizes that he is actually quitting the FBI and the BAU.

Criminal Minds airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST.