By: Mariah Thomas
The episode continues to center around Voit (Zach Gilford) as he remembers more and more of who he is. Two officers stumble upon a choking man and immediately rush to assist. As one officer administers compressions, spiders begin to crawl out of the man’s mouth.
Tyler Green (RJ Hatanaka) is hyper focused on cracking the code related to the mask sent to the team last episode. He stares at a photo as Rossi (Joe Mantegna) approaches him and provides advice in a mentor way. He guides Tyler to profile and figure out what information he is missing. He reveals he researched the mask on his own time and theorizes the relation to the mask. This conversion is cut short when Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) brings a new case to the team. She shows them a video of a Sicarius spider burrowing into the ground and tells them the history of the species. These spiders were found in their latest victim and Prentiss (Paget Brewster) notes it is very literal to Voit. Garcia is visabilly uncomfortable with the spiders and tries to reason how this is possible. The team takes turns providing logic to her fears and JJ (AJ Cook) points out Voit’s past with using latex condoms to keep the spider’s alive in the body. They think this new unsub could be doing this as a tribute to Voit. Rossi prompts Tyler to share his theory from earlier with Prentiss and the rest of the team.
Tara (Aisha Tyler) and Tyler present the newest case to Voit. It has strong ties to his own method of killing, so they need to know who he shared this to. They could not find conversations about spiders on his site, so prompted him to reveal who he told. He is overwhelmed by the conversation and shuts down. For the first time, he seems unwilling to help the team.
Prentiss, Rossi and JJ discuss the logistics of the case in Prentiss’s office. They discuss theories as Garcia comes in with an update. She reveals how hard it is for these spiders to be purchased and the unsub must be getting them from the dark web. Rossi suggests she go back further in records to see where Voit would have learned this from.
Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) and Evan (Geoff Stults) tensely talk in a room as we find out Evan is replacing Rebecca as the DOJ’s liaison to Voit. He was given the case without Rebecca being notified. She points out how he should’ve given her a courtesy heads up. He tells her the head of their department thinks she has a conflict of interest in the case due to dating Tara. They come to an understanding and she gives a tip on what to get Voit back to the BAU.
The current unsub is in his lab with a new victim, Tate (Mustafa Speaks). He forces his mouth open and feeds him the spiders. He taunts Tate and tells him he needs him to deliver a message for him if he wants to live. Meanwhile, Voit and his new lawyer, Jeff Darcy (Derek Basco), meet with Prentiss, Rossi and Evan. Darcy is stern with Voit and tells him not to say anything. When they walk in he begins to say whatever questions they have will be answered by him. However, Prentiss cuts him off and says “No questions, we have a theory about a case. We want Elias to listen.” His lawyer continues to be stubborn and Evan offers increased immunity. They tell Voit the last record of legally imported Sicarius spiders was in 1997 and were sent to his uncle Cyrus (Silas Weir Mitchell). They also discovered Cyrus’s DNA was on the mask sent to the BAU. Their theory is that Cyrus created Voit to be the monster he is and now he’s back. Voit instantly says that it’s not possible because he killed him.
Rebecca has a small crashout moment to Tara out of fear she will lose her job. She talks through her fears with Tara and highlights how much appearance matters for her job. Since she is dating an FBI profiler, it puts her in a negative light. However, she quickly clarified their relationship is not up for debate. Tara encourages her to draft a brief and explain how she is not in a conflict of interest with the Voit case. They end the conversation with a light hearted joke as she sets off to do just that.
Upstairs, the meeting with Voit continues. Rossi pries further about Voit’s past with Cyrus. Voit explains how well Cyrus knew his darkness. Voit seems to have a deep interest in Sicarius spiders and the way they kill. He is very knowledgeable on the species. Voit explains why he lawyered up when he saw the newest case. When he was a young boy, he had to help Cyrus bury bodies. He also compares how that awoken an addiction to killing in him, the same as drinking.
JJ and Tara find something that may be a break in the case. A certain type of plastic was found under the nails of their victim. The type is only found in very specific things. Tara notes it’s a hard swing to take but worth it if they find their John Doe. They head to Garcia for help. They walk in on her burning sage in her office and she begs them not to tell Emily. She previously banned her from burning it after a fire alarm incident. They laugh it off and have her do the needed search. She is able to find their victim and last locations. Garcia is seemingly able to hack in and find the victim’s missing truck. JJ tells her to pull up nearby security cameras and record because she is skeptical of how easy it was to locate. Back with the unsub, he is delighted the FBI turned on the tracker and reminds the man to deliver his message.
Garcia shows the team security footage of their unsub in the same mask they’ve been dealing with taunting the camera. Also, the missing truck they are looking for is 500 feet away from the current footage. He left a note on the outside of the trailer that reads “Sicarius will want to see this.” Evan tells his lawyer they simply want Voit on site and he won’t be in any danger. Voit goes against his lawyer’s advice for a new deal and agrees to go.
On site, Tyler and Luke (Adam Rodriguez) talk with the SWAT team for next steps. The lead on site, Captain Hannah Hardison (Nanrisa Lee), guides them through breaking into the trailer. Tate gives them the needed message and they bring it out to Voit. Luke checks in with him to see if he swallowed the balloons and he confirms he did. With this intel, Luke works to keep him calm to avoid popping them. Tyler brings Voit an ipad with a recording that turns out to be a live video call. The person on the other end taunts Voit by saying you always need to make sure someone is dead before leaving. The person appears to be Cyrus, his alleged dead uncle. Tate refuses to be moved and says Sicarius is the only one who can give the go ahead.
Garcia taps into the livestream for Tara, Rossi and Prentiss to see. They quickly realize it is a deep fake. It is the same programming used on BAU gate. They check in with Tyler on site for updates. Voit’s uncle refers to his network as “devils [he] abandoned” and he gave them purpose again. Garcia struggles with encrypting the site and Emily reminds of something she said prior that helps her get in. In a cool transition shot, Voit goes from speaking on the ipad, to being in a dreamlike world talking to his uncle face to face. Though he knows it’s not really his uncle, this person did their research on how he would speak.
Luke calls Prentiss with an update. They originally thought the trailer was rigged bombs but after careful inspection, they are most likely fake. He feels like they are playing a big game of red rover. As Luke and caption Hardison realize the “bombs” were not real, they grow frustrated. At the same time, Garcia is able to crack into the unsub’s system and finds some sort of explosive that is able to be detonated remotely. She works to disable it as they realize they are in Tate’s stomach. The unsub knew they would be able to hack into the system so switched things around. Instead of switching them off, Garcia set them off. This instantly killed Tate as Luke was walking him to an ambulance. Everyone is in pure shock over this and Garcia feels immense guilt.
While in her office, Garcia is on the verge of tears as she lights more sage. Luke goes to check in on her and wordlessly takes her into his arms. The pair hug as she weeps and processes what happened. Stressed with the chaos of the day, Prentiss takes a power nap in her office when Rossi comes to see her. He says they have been focusing on the wrong person. There is someone else who is truly running the show, not Voit. With this new information, the team piece together a new profile. Garcia is able to get a hit on another truck and they race out to find the other abducted men. Unfortunately Tate was killed, but they were able to save the others. In the center of the truck was the body of Vincet Orlov (Brian White), who was Voit’s old lawyer. He seemed to be working with the network.
Working through her guilt of technically killing someone, Garcia goes to talk with Voit. The death was supposed to bring out the real Voit and Garcia is worried what that means. She wants to see the humanity in him still and wonders who the real him is. Voit says he doesn’t know if he’s a good person but maybe can be. Evan approaches Rebecca and Tara and says Voit’s lawyer contacted him requesting to meet with them about an issue with the case. Rebecca is confused as she is technically off the case now. They decide to directly head over to his office. As they get out of the car and head to the elevators, a masked figure opens fire on them. Evan appears to be shot in the head while Tara takes two shots to her stomach. Rebecca was pushed out of the way by Tara who saw the shooter first. Rebecca emotionally looks around wondering what to do next as she holds Tara’s face in her hands.