By: Mariah Thomas
New agents take part in a hostage negotiation simulator run by Agent Tom Milliken (Jamison Jones). We previously met him this season in episode two as a former colleague and friend to Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez). Milliken plays the role of the active shooter. As the agents roam the set, they discover Milliken’s shooter persona has a hostage and their job is to convince him to put the gun down or “shoot him.” Agent Billy Lowell (Xavier Jimenez) is tasked with sneaking around to set up a shot in case the negation tactics don’t work. In his ear, Lowell is told to take the shot. He does and shoots Milliken in the head as his gun had active bullets. He is immediately distraught. The other agents immediately rush to get help and they try to talk the hand out of Billy’s hands. Another agent, Peter O’Connor (Nicholas Gonzalez) sends the building into an active shooter lockdown. Billy’s friend, Agent Owen Helm (Guillermo Alonso) reminds him the “real deal” is coming and will shoot him as well if he doesn’t put down the gun. Supervisor Agent Joey Barlow (Calahan Skogman) is ultimately the one to eventually get the gun out of a shaken Billy’s hands.
Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) and Tara Lewis (Aisha Tyler) discuss the shooting that occurred. We learn that this was a training for the rescue hostage team. The exercise was unusual and out of the program’s typical teachings. Due to this, Rebecca (Nicole Pacent) requests the BAU’s help to get to the bottom of things before the FBI has to go public with this information. As Tara and Emily arrive at her office, Emily gets a call from Brian (Paul F. Tompkins). She is quick to say “What have I told you about phone calls on Saturday’s?” This is a fun call back to the first time we meet Brian’s character in season 15’s “Saturday”. He assures her he wouldn’t call if it wasn’t emergent. He eventually catches wind of Tara being in the room and lights up. From that previous episode we know he had a little crush on Tara as he reminded her of his ex-wife, Shelia. Brian eventually gets back on track and informs the women he was sent something from “The Fan”. Though the message is different, the repetition of multiple typed messages is the same as the ones sent to Voit.
Prentiss heads to the training facility to get caught up by Rebecca. This case is a need-to-know basis as they don’t want it to get out. If this information got out before they got a handle on things, this is the type of thing that could get the department shut down. Agent O’Connor arrives to answer questions for them. O’Connor was Tom’s chief of staff, so he was in close contact with him constantly. He tells Prentiss Tom spoke highly of Prentiss and her team with the recent case they helped him with. Though Billy took the shot, the investigation is to determine if the death was intentional or accidental. O’Connor fills them in on Tom’s methodology. Having actors and intense acted out scenes is not part of the standard training process for agents. Prentiss spots Luke and JJ (AJ Cook) on the scene examining the body. Luke is overcome with emotion and says he needs a minute before heading out.
Brian arrives at the BAU office cradling his briefcase in a comical way. He is immediately greeted by Tara and Rossi (Joe Mantegna). Brian attempts to be cheeky and get his meeting to only be with Tara, but Rossi shuts it down. Once Tara and Rossi look at the papers for themselves, Brian realizes they have seen this before. They excuse themselves from the room to discuss. It is identical to what was sent to Voit. They realize The Fan wants to have direct contact with Voit. Rossi points out they need to present this information to Voit. Rossi sends Tara back in to convince Brian not to relay this information to anyone else. Back in the room, Brian works up the courage to suggest a date with Tara. She is quick to tell him she’s married. He says “lucky guy” and Tara corrects “gal”. Though shocked, Brian quickly accepts this.
Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) checks on Luke. She reminds him though she doesn’t need to tell him, the deeper he pushes down his grief, the more painful it will become. Luke jokes she just did, referring to her saying “I don’t need to tell you.” Garcia cracks a smile before telling him not to deflect. “I see you. I really do.” “You do.” Luke goes in for a small side hug as Prentiss approaches. She informs Luke he is able to stay on the case but reminds him to only go where the evidence takes him. He will run this case with Tyler (RJ Hatanaka)
Luke enters the interrogation room where Tyler and Billy already are. Without a word, he plays the video of Tom being shot for Billy and angrily asks, “Why?” Tyler closely watches Billy’s face, when he doesn’t answer Luke plays the video again. He tells Billy they will keep watching the video until he responds. Billy finally just says “I had the shot, I took the shot.” They next question Agent Helm and they ask why Billy keeps repeating “I had the shot” like a mantra. Helm informs them it is something Tom has drilled into their heads. Tom had designed a no winning scenario where the active shooter couldn’t be taken alive. All of the agents had to run the simulation in Billy’s shoes. The goal is to shoot Tom’s role as the shooter before he shoots the hostage. Billy would freeze up every single time he would go to take the shot in the previous runs of the simulation. This set off Tom. When Tyler sympathizes with how tough Tom could be, Luke steps in to remind them Tom’s joke was to get agents field ready. Since Tom was like family to him, he seems to be taking this banter personally.
In a flashback, viewers see Tom’s intense style of “teaching”. When Billy doesn’t take the shot in a previous simulation, he berates him in front of everyone in the room. Presently, Agent Barlow tells Luke and Tyler the current simulation only came after failed attempts with others. From dummy targets to role-players and laser pistols to real guns (with blanks.) These changes did not help Billy. Barlow says Tom’s behavior to Billy went beyond reprimanding. He would lash out and even hold a gun to Billy’s head. Luke tries to spin the narrative that Billy was fed up with Tom’s behavior towards him though Billy remains certain that while he shot Tom, he didn’t kill him. This angers Luke and tells Billy to stop messing with him. Tyler seems to understand and believe Billy while Luke doesn’t. Tom handed the guns and ammo out himself, so it doesn’t make sense for Billy to have had his own gun. Luke pulls Tyler out of the interrogation room when Tyler begins to suggest Tom may have been suicidal. Given Luke’s personal history with Tom, he is quick to shut it down. Prentiss checks in on the case and Luke quickly tells her they are looking at intentional homicide while Tyler tells her it could be suicide. She watches the two men bicker before telling them they have two good theories that need to be narrowed down to one.
Tara and Rossi visit Voit in prison to relay the updates they have from Garrity. Voit suggests another podcast episode that will be live so The Fan potentially calls in. Voit thinks Rossi should be the one to be on with Garrity since The Fan is trying to follow in his footsteps. It is known that Voit had a level of admiration for Rossi before Voit was on the BAU’s radar due to his books. This also means the fan read Rossi’s books. The Fan would in turn be a fan of Rossi as well. Though he doesn’t want to hear it, Rossi knows Voit is right.
JJ and Rebecca visit with O’Connor to check up with things learned in the interviews with the trainees. There is no incident report of Tom pulling his weapon on Billy. O’Connor says he’s not surprised a report was never filed. He is now hearing rumors that Tom had friends in high places that were willing to look the other way.
Luke looks at a photo of himself and Tom before having a flashback. He appears to have had a recent catch up with Tom over drinks. Tom complained about his new class bringing out his old habits. He also talks about his wife, Cindy (Yvette Nipar) and how they are in counseling. He reveals he’s been barking orders at her like she’s a trainee. Luke feels overwhelmed with his grief. Presently, JJ checks in on Luke and realizes he is not okay. Luke then becomes aware of who he is talking to and apologizes for her loss as well. JJ assures him if anything, she is someone who gets it. The two have a close bonding moment in their grief and JJ reminds Luke she and the team are there for him. He admits he needs her and Tyler to take over being the lead on this case as he is aware of his behavior and emotions.
Tyler and JJ reinterview all of the trainees. With the knowledge that Tom often hid things from being reported, they have a new line of questions. Barlow reveals he once opened Tom’s door to see him crying. They noticed his behavior change recently. Luke barges into the room and tells Helm that in the 20 years he’s known Tom, he’s never seen him cry. Helm reveals there had been a rumor his wife was leaving him. This adds to the potential suicide theory. Luke returns to Tom’s office to greet Cindy. He embraces her with a hug and apology. Luke tries to lightly ask Cindy directly if he planned to leave him. She is offended to learn Luke thinks Tom was suicidal. Cindy says Tom was finally working on himself after 30 years and getting in touch with his emotions. She says the crying was good and she had no plans to leave him. She tells him when it came to work, he had a hard time deciding if he wanted to be loved or feared. While Luke loved him, many others didn’t.
Luke checks in once again with Prentiss. Luke admits he doesn’t think Billy killed Tom intentionally and he also doesn’t think Tom took his own life. He shares all of the new information he learned from Cindy. He points out if he was threatening to drop Billy, he was also threatening to stop Helm and Barlow. He now thinks one of them swapped a gun for Billy to kill Tom. Luke points out there is only an hour until the news breaks so the team needs to work to prove this theory. Tyler admits Luke’s theory makes sense but he doesn’t think Barlow or Helm are capable of that level of deception. Though he agrees, there is a way to find out for sure. They plan to give Billy a cognitive interview. JJ encourages Luke to be the one to guide Billy through it. He starts off by apologizing to Billy for his anger earlier. He guides Billy through the cognitive by getting more information about Billy’s background and past interactions with Tom. He then tries to place Billy back in that moment to remember that day. He is able to remember O’Connor gave Billy a pat down when he was throwing up after another failed simulation. At that moment, they realize O’Connor switched the bullets.
Rebecca and JJ tell Peter they were looking for a journal that his wife couldn’t locate. They convince Peter to open the safe for them and this proves he knew the code. The only thing in the locker were Tom’s bullets. The same ones that killed him. By having access, it confirms he was responsible. They also uncovered Peter’s brother was a trainee of Tom’s. Due to how Tom teaches, his brother took his own life. While they sympathize with that, they remind him he set Billy up for murder and that makes him no better.
In the BAU roundtable room, Garrity has his podcast set up with Rossi. He has a pre-written script he is not allowed to sway from. Garcia is closely monitoring any phone calls coming in the podcast to watch out for the fan. Voit is also in the room but silent as they don’t want the fan to know this information. Eventually the fan calls in and Tara recognizes the voice to be Lance Kingston’s (Connor Storrie). We then see Lance set up in a torture like chair while he reads what his captor types on a screen. The Fan keeps questioning if Voit is in the room and Brian goes off script to confirm he is. In his mind, the fan would want to talk to Voit. However, confirming he’s there he begins to brand and supposedly kill Lance. Lance screams as the BAU, Voit and Brian look around in shock as Garcia works to track the location.