By: Mariah Thomas
We see landlord Bill Sullivan (Myles Cranford) worried about one of his tenants. He calls for a welfare check when he can’t get a hold of him. Sullivan and an officer enter the dark apartment to find the tenant sitting in front of his gas stove with a match. He lets it go and sets the apartment ablaze.
Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez) somberly enters a graveyard and sits in front of a headstone. We then see a flashback to Alvez in a hospital waiting room before joining him in the present day. He gets a call and reports to the BAU. On the elevator ride up he grows extremely emotional and pulls the emergency stop button as he begins to hit the walls in anger. After giving himself a moment to collect himself, he strolls out of the elevator like nothing happened. He’s greeted by Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) and she immediately can tell something is up. He brushes her off and says he’s fine before heading to the conference room.
In the conference room, Luke quickly catches up with agent Tom Milliken (Jamison Jones). He informs him of a weird potential case for the team dealing with an Army veteran in the program he assists. Luke brings in Prentiss (Paget Brewster) and Tyler Green (RJ Hatanaka) to let Agent Milliken present his case. It is revealed Agent Mulliken previously helped Tyler with his basic training to become an agent himself. Tyler jokes he barely survived working under him. Agent Milliken presents the case as a suspicious death. The apparent sucicide in the opening case is extremely out of character for the agent. Luke points out it is odd for him to also kill others and not just himself. Prentiss is concerned that Luke is fighting for this case for personal reasons but he continues to provide logic. Prentiss gives the green light for Alvez and Green to further investigate.
Prentiss exits the conference room to the break room and runs into Rossi (Joe Mantegna). Rossi is moody over Voit (Zach Gilford) and his refusal to pick a victim’s family to speak to. Voit has been weighing his options carefully and Rossi feels like he is wasting their time. As Rossi leaves, JJ (AJ Cook) enters the break area. She questions Prentiss on what podcasts she listens to. She eventually gets to her point in her son Henry (Mehkai Anderson) listening to Voit centered true crime podcasts. She then reveals that Brian Garrity (Paul F. Tompkins) has one of his own and has been discussing the BAU. In a hilarious quick cut, Prentiss begins to say “Fu-“ before it cuts to an elevator ding and Brian Garrity sauntering out. He yaps Emily’s ear off as she walks straight to her office. Once in, Rossi is waiting and slams the door. Brian begins to apologize for his portrayal of Rossi’s relationship with Voit on his podcast. He hyped it up to potentially be a sexual mystery. Prentiss tells him the reason he was brought in is because he claims the BAU trained Voit to be a serial killer. They need him to clean the mess up. Brian says he will under the condition he gets an exclusive interview with Elias Voit himself.
In prison, Tara (Aisha Tyler) and Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) discuss with Voit the importance of speaking to one of his victim’s family. Tara stresses that he needs to be ready to answer whatever questions they may have and be honest within reason. Voit attempts to change the topic by pointing out Tara is now sporting a wedding ring. This confirms that Tara and Rebecca got married in the year time jump.
At the corner’s office, Luke sits with an American Legion Service Officer (Jim Hanna) as they await to see the body of the veteran who passed. He informs him they are looking into the death and realizes the officer’s presence means this man didn’t have a family. He goes in to pay his respects. While speaking to the medical examiner, Tyler and Luke discover Captain Smith had been lobotomized. This changes everything about the case given this wasn’t approved. They have also found other cases of lobotomized veterans.
Voit sits down with the mother (Meredith Salenger) of one of his victims. Voit poses the question “What do you want from me?” She claims to want to tell him what she’s learned. She learned how much pressure it takes to crush a larynx. She isn’t surprised to learn Voit already knew this. She is convinced Voit was trained by the FBI and sent out to kill before being captured by him. Voit is in complete shock over this and Tara tells her those are unfounded claims. At this moment, Voit learns about Brian Garrity’s podcast. Prentiss and Lewis visit Voit in prison to answer his questions about the podcast. He is afraid of the lies spewed and his daughters potentially hearing them. He also points out the danger in the misinformation and people idolizing him to a degree. He wants to be a guest on Brian’s podcast. His one condition is that someone from the BAU also record and release it to a rival podcast in the case Garrity alters anything.
Back at the BAU, the team continues to piece together things about the new lobotomy case. They have narrowed down the common connection between their victims, a program for veterans with PTSD. They theorize the unsub may have been rejected from the program and is out for revenge. In the midst of this, Tyler asks the group if everything is okay with Luke. Tara jokes in moments like this she consults “the oracle of Alvez” and asks Penelope the same question. She says she doesn’t know and would never gossip if she did.
In the conference room, Luke has another flashback. He is told the tumor has spread and nothing else can be done. He has to make a decision on the life of someone he loves. Garcia comes in to check on Luke and tells him the others are starting to notice. He promises to get it together. “Are you up for this?” “I have to be.”
Luke and JJ speak to the surviving lobotomy victim, Howard Newton (Jamie Nieto) and his wife Kim Newton (Lyndon Smith). His wife begins to recount the events leading up to his short disappearance and finding him. Howard sees something and begins to have a reaction. Through his slurred speech, he tries to convey a message. His wife thinks it’s her name. Luke stays back with him as Kim goes off with JJ to further help build their profile and map out locations. When alone with Luke, Howard tries to talk again. He grabs onto Luke and tries to grab his gun. We learn he has been trying to say “kill me” as his state of life has been altered due to the lobotomy.
After finding another victim, the BAU presents the case to Agent Milliken. Since he was an acupuncturist, they pin point headaches as the reason the unsub was set off. Excessive cluster headaches would bring constant pain he wants to be out of. Luke explains he wants the people who couldn’t help him to feel like he did.
Brian Garrity finally has his podcast episode with Voit. Alongside officers, Rebecca and Emily monitor the recording. Once Voit enters, Brain can’t contain his excitement. He has had a fictionalized idea of Voit in his mind due to the lies he has been telling on his podcast. Voit’s intention is to scare Garrity and stop the public romanticization of him through these true crime podcasts. He insults the type of people who listen to them and breaks Garrity’s sign to scare him. When Garrity looks to Rebecca and Emily for help they just remind him they didn’t approve of the sign. Back at the BAU, Brian rants to Emily about how the recording went. He knows his viewers will be put off by the tone of the episode and Emily gently reminds him he doesn’t even need to post it. However, he already sold ad space. Emily gives him the idea of changing his own stance and what the podcast is to be more in line with what Voit talked about. Brian loves the idea and tells Emily she is brilliant before passing out from the whiskey shots he had been taking. Rossi comes in and jokes that Prentiss killed him after all.
The team meets up together once more to put all of the different puzzle pieces together. In this briefing, Luke is noticeably still mentally checked out. This however helps him as he finds the missing piece. He realizes that the unsub may have a tumor. Garcia informs the team she found the identity of their unsub, David Graham (Richard Cabral) alongside the latest victim he just took. Tyler and Luke head to the scene. The men alongside a swat team get there just in time. In a haunting set of flashbacks and present day, we learn more about Luke. In order to talk the unsub down, he opens up about his suicidal past after leaving the army. He talks about how alone he felt and how the program they were both part of saved him by pairing him with a special someone. That special someone being Luke’s dog Roxy that has been seen in previous seasons. It is also revealed, Roxy recently had to be put down due to having a tumor. We see Luke feel immense guilt over not knowing how sick she was but the nurse assuring him he did everything he could. He promises to be David’s buddy and will continue to support him in prison. Graham agrees and allows the officers to arrest him. In another flashback, Luke thanks Roxy for saving his life and gives her a final hug before she puts down. Present day, he is visiting her gravesite and Gracia shows up to silently support him.
The episode ends with Garrity editing his new podcast tone. He focuses on the negative things Voit says. The episode ends showing the mysterious fan listening to the episode and offended by Voit’s words.