13x13 - Cure

[bunniefuu]

Man: Let's undo that.

Let's take the...

Let's take those other assets and move them over to Indonesia.

[Beep]

So what do those new numbers say?

[Beeping]

[Sighs]

They're saying we're still too exposed, primarily in European bond ETFs.

And by my calculation, we could stand to lose another 27 million.

Ohh, but I thought...

Oh, you're right.

Yeah.

God...

Just...

I'll have to start all over.

Abby, I really appreciate your help here.

I do.

But this is my mess.

I have to clean this up.

Andrew, don't be a martyr.

You've already gone way beyond the call of duty here, and Brandon and the boys are waiting for you.

Ok.

Have a good night.

Good night.

Oh, damn it.

[Abby whimpering]

[Crying]

Abby!

Abby, call the police!

[Beep]

[Footsteps]

You ready to go?

You ok?

Sorry?

Everything ok?

Yeah.

Yeah, it's just, um...

You know Linda Barnes, the Bureau's assistant director of National Security.

Well, she says she needs to set up a meeting with me, preferably the day after tomorrow?

Think she wants to talk to you about the covert work you did in the defense department?

Yeah, that's what she says.

And?

The last time I got an email like that from a person like Barnes, I was taken off the team.

That's not gonna happen again.

I honestly don't think that's even possible.

Well, I do.

Well, was Emily copied on the email?

Uh, yeah, yeah, she is.

There you have it.

Emily's not gonna let you get caught up in some crazy bureaucratic undertow.

Well, that's what Hotch thought, too.

He couldn't protect me either.

Hey, guys.

I know you were inches from a clean getaway tonight, but I just got a call from D.C.

Metro police.

They need our advice on an active homicide scene.

[Sirens]

Agents, I appreciate you coming out.

Lieutenant Wilson, the BAU is prepared to help out however we can.

These are the offices of a financial management business called the Swilcan capital group.

The property's cleaning crew found the two victims.

Their call came into 911 at 12:53 a.m.

When first responders got here, they found one of the firm's financial advisers, Abigail Fuller, tied up in her office but otherwise unharmed.

Was Ms.

Fuller able to provide you with a description of her attacker?

No.

She wasn't ready to.

We just had her transported to St.

Colette's.

She's very lucky.

You bet she is.

This is Andrew Hirota.

He was Swilcan capital's managing director and chief investment officer.

The unsub used Mr.

Hirota's blood to scrawl this symbol on the wall.

You have any idea what it means?

It appears to be an attempt to render the serpent-entwined staff wielded by the Greek god Asclepius, which historically has been used to symbolize the arts of healing and medicine.

Medicine.

Isn't that supposed to be the other symbol, the one with the winged staff and the two snakes?

That's actually caduceus, the rod of Hermes.

Unfortunately, the two symbols are often mistaken for each other because the U.S.

army medical corps mistakenly adopted the wrong Greek symbol for their branch plaque back in 1902.

I see.

But whoever this particular psycho is, obviously he's isn't trying to hang a shingle for a medical practice in here.

What do you think he's trying to say?

Whatever it is, it may be directly connected to Mr.

Hirota.

He was targeted, his blood was used to create the symbol, and his body was deliberately staged to face it.

Reid: It's also meant for law enforcement.

It feels like a warning, maybe even a calling card.

Yeah, and if the unsub feels compelled to sign his dirty work, it seems unlikely to be one and done.

No.

This one's just getting started.

[Typing, beep]

[Line ringing]

Male operator: 911.

What's your emergency?

[Voice electronically altered]

We are Asclepius.

We have begun the bloodletting.

Operator: Excuse me, sir?

You will fear us, for you are the disease, and we are the cure.

Reid: "It is impossible to suffer" "without making someone pay for it.

Every complaint already contains revenge." Friedrich Nietzsche.

[Man on recording]

For you are the disease, and we are the cure.

Alrighty, then, our self-proclaimed Asclepius left that rousing 911 at 4:27 this morning.

Were you able to run a digital trace?

Yes and no.

‭Would you believe it came from the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk?

Simmons: So whoever we're dealing with has some technical sophistication.

Lewis: Or at least one member of their group does, right?

Because "we are Asclepius and we are the cure." Yeah, which really sounds like we might be dealing with some sort of domestic t*rror1st group here.

And possibly an anarchist activist group similar to anonymous, though explicitly more violent.

Except they don't mention the victim by name, nor do they set forth a serious list of grievances.

So if they're driven by ideology, why be so coy about their goals?

The first goal of any t*rror1st group is to instill fear.

Lewis: Yeah, but why start the revolution with the blood of Andrew Hirota?

Hirota, 53, divorced, father of 3.

Nothing stands out in his victimology except for his job.

The Swilcan capital group, although boutique, has $260 million in managed assets, and money being the root of all evil...

It is possible he was targeted because of what he was seen to symbolize for the group, some evil specter of Wall Street.

Simmons: Especially if you're also seen as being personally responsible for some kind of financial misfortune.

Rossi: Well, if there is that kind of association, maybe one of these guys was doing business with Hirota and knew his way around that office.

Dave, why don't you and Spence take another walk through the scene.

Matt, JJ, talk to the medical examiner.

Luke, Tara, our surviving witness Abigail Fuller is recovering well.

She's gonna be released from the hospital, so if she seems up for it, let's bring her in here and get her statement.

I, uh...

I'm so sorry.

I want to help, it's just...

I never saw his face.

He was, um, wearing a mask.

A ski mask, and, um, and goggles.

All black.

I mean, he looked like a riot cop.

Ms.

Fuller, did you notice any kind of patches or insignias on his clothing?

No.

Nothing like that.

Did he say anything to you?

He didn't say anything.

Just stuck this huge g*n in my face.

And he...

I should have at least tried to scream.

Because maybe Andrew, he would have heard me and...

and he'd still be alive if...

There's nothing that you could have done to change what happened.

Alvez: Are you aware of any threats that might have been made to Mr.

Hirota personally or maybe even to the company as a whole?

There was this one email, but it turned out to be nothing.

Well, right now, we can't ignore anything.

You have to understand, we've been struggling this year, and some of our clients had concerns.

Alvez: A thr*at is more than just a concern.

So, with this email.

It was sent anonymously.

And whoever sent it said that they would burn the place down.

Andrew had one of our I.T.

guys track down the I.P.

address.

And the sender turned out to be the teenage son to one of our clients.

But Andrew decided to let it go because he knew, from experience, what the pressures of financial uncertainty can do to a household.

Ok.

What's the young man's name?

Kyle Reeves.

His father is Peter.

I'll follow up with Garcia.

[Camera shutter clicking]

The victim suffered 36 sharp force injuries.

Half of them would have proven fatal on their own.

Classic overkill, which usually suggests a more personal motive.

Now, there is something curious about all these incised wounds.

See how jagged each one is, and shallow?

Not one penetrated more than 4 inches deep.

Also, the way the soft tissue was damaged, it appears that the blade was curved.

Honestly, I've never seen this specific type of w*apon before.

I have.

It's called a karambit.

It's a close-combat w*apon.

Pretty popular in southeast Asia.

Woman: Wow.

You know, it seriously looks like a tiny bat'leth.

It's a traditional Klingon w*apon.

Mia, could you just finish with those autopsy photos, please?

JJ: Ok, so the unsub's choice of w*apon seems pretty consistent with him wearing the tactical gear.

Simmons: Yes, it does.

It also suggests he may have a background in the m*llitary or law enforcement.

Mia: Hey, guys.

He's got something in his throat.

That is definitely not Klingon.

Rossi: This looks an awful lot like the cryptograms the Zodiac k*ller sent.

Reid: And the Zodiac's 4 coded messages certainly display the same blocking of text symbols, and there are 20 lines with 30 symbols in each line, but where the Zodiac used symbols from 7 different sources, this unsub appears to be using letters from 4 pure alphabets...

Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Korean.

Ok.

The first thing I can tell you is that Kyle Reeves did not write that because a series of inappropriate emails landed him in juvie last week.

So, Spence, how long will it take you to cr*ck it?

Ooh, ooh, with my help, consider it already cracked.

I'm crazy for cryptograms.

5 will get you 20 that's a h*m* cipher, like your classic Caesar cipher.

Reid: Yeah, but where one letter of uncoded text can be transposed into one letter of coded text.

Here, one letter of uncoded text can be replaced by a code letter from each of the 4 pure alphabets.

Brainiac, you're making it sound way more confusing than it is.

I didn't tell them about the key number we're gonna need in order to determine the actual shift value.

Yeah.

Maybe we'll just leave you to it.

No, no, no, we got this.

It's all in the frequency analysis.

Exactly.

So let's start with the most common letter in the English language.

"E." Are you flirting with me?

'Cause "E" happens to be my favorite vowel.

Ok, if we hypothesize that that is true, then that could mean that our transpositional shift value equals 3, and if that's true, then our decryption looks like...

This.

"We, Asclepius, declare this manifesto.

Our society is beset by the cancer of today's institutions led by impotent men in our houses of law, capital, and worship, whose infidelities to those they claim to safeguard have poisoned us." Rossi: "These men are the essential cause of our social ills" "and it is the reason they are today, tomorrow, and forever the disease and we are the cure." They sure as hell ain't talking about the band.

But they are talking about a pattern of victimology.

This Asclepius intends to target men from the fields of law, finance, and religion.

Now, look at this part right here.

"Terms of surrender are offered" if we let the news media broadcast this manifesto tonight.

So if we put that out there, then this will all stop?

No, it's likely a narcissistic power play, if we indulge it, might cause more harm than good.

Reid: But this expression of narcissism does tell us that we're dealing with a single unsub.

This provocative posturing suggests a personality type that needs to feel superior to others.

Why make us think it's a group?

He's trying to instill fear by creating strength in numbers.

Prentiss: But it's unusual for a narcissist to provoke fear in this way.

You'd expect he'd just want to make himself look more dangerous.

It's also unusual that this guy would bother to write a manifesto these days and not post it online.

Instead, he folds it up into a puzzle and jams it down his victim's throat.

Which means this message was really just meant for our eyes only, that is, if we were able to decipher it.

Rossi: The game is afoot.

His game, with us.

He may profile as a hybrid of the zodiac k*ller and the Unabomber, but something tells me his real motive lies somewhere else.

And until we know what it is, this unsub will remain in the shadow of the night.

Have a good night, Mr.

Carmichael.

[Line ringing]

Hey, Jeff, it's Douglas, from BVP.

Kayla told me you called and that there's gonna be a delay?

No.

No.

Listen to me.

Fix this.

We have a deadline.

And I'm not gonna look like an idiot because you can't do your damn job!

Aah!

Aah!

Son of a bitch!

Wait!

Son of a...

Help!

Help!

Help me!

Somebody help me!

Matt, JJ, our unsub struck again last night.

Garcia should be sending you the address now.

Ok, got it.

We're on our way.

Hey, uh, what do you know about Assistant director Linda Barnes?

You mean besides the fact that she's the one responsible for decommissioning my old I.R.T.

unit?

I thought that order came down from the director after your unit chief compromised a mission in Russia.

No, it was a little more complicated than that.

You see, Barnes spearheaded an internal investigation designed to undermine the confidence of each individual I.R.T.

member.

Why would she do that?

Barnes profiles as pure political animal.

Eyes on the prize.

So, you think she wants to be director.

She's already remade the Bureau's foreign service units in her own image.

For her, it's not about the job, it's about consolidating power.

She says she wants to talk to me about reviewing some covert work I did a few years back.

Does Prentiss know about this?

Yeah.

Yeah, she was copied on the email, but I still haven't had a chance to talk to her about it yet.

[Camera shutter clicking]

Coroner just transported the body.

It looks like he was ambushed and then staged the same, facing the symbol.

The victim's name is Douglas Carmichael, chief executive officer of BVP worldwide industries.

I'm told it's an aerospace engineering company, and this is their corporate headquarters.

So the unsub's first two victims were businessmen types, even though he did thr*aten to target men of law, business, and religion.

And this time he caught Carmichael outside of his office, rather than inside, like the first victim.

Well, there was a security guard inside at the front desk last night.

Why didn't he respond?

That camera up there went down an hour before Carmichael exited the building.

The guard had no idea what was happening.

Simmons: The unsub probably disabled it, which is consistent with the technical skills he's been demonstrating.

It also means he's pretty familiar with this property, just like the last location.

And it's critical because he can't leave anything to chance, otherwise he won't have time to stage the scenes.

So the unsub isn't just stalking his victims.

He's scouted their m*rder scenes.

The methodology suggests he's got a list of preselected soft targets.

Lewis: Dr.

Cooke just pulled another cryptogram from Douglas Carmichael's throat.

It looks just like the last one.

[Beep]

Garcia: Ok, give me one second while I apply our key shift decryption.

And voila.

That was not what I was expecting to have happen.

Try all possible key shift values.

No, nothing.

It's the same 4 pure alphabet, only this one's not a Caesar cipher.

This is gonna be a lot harder to cr*ck.

Rossi: You know, I was skeptical that someone driven purely by ideology would bury his manifesto inside of a puzzle.

But now, he's doubling down.

It speaks more to his need to assert his power, particularly over law enforcement, like the Zodiac k*ller, who also produced 4 cryptograms, only one of which has been completely solved.

What if asserting his power over law enforcement is this guy's real motivation?

I mean, it's like you said, David, it could be all about his crazy game.

Lewis: So you're thinking that these murders and his coded messages are his way of taunting and then humiliating the D.C.

Metro police.

Alvez: Or even the FBI.

Our surviving witness, Abigail Fuller, she described her assailant as looking like a riot cop.

His choice of w*apon and tactical skills do suggest that there's a possibility he has a background in either the m*llitary or law enforcement.

So we might be dealing with a guy who's harboring real or imagined grievances against the cops or us.

Lewis: If this guy's goal is retribution against the police, then what does his pattern of victimology actually mean to him?

[Grunts]

Well, I've been thinking about some of the language he chose to use in his first cipher with us.

He says, "we're being led by impotent men." And yet it's their "infidelities" that made them the disease he's going to cure.

Lewis: His words do seem emotionally confused and unusually sexualized for a political manifesto.

Yeah, it sounds like he's pissed off at an unfaithful significant other.

Alvez: Maybe our unsub's male victims aren't just pawns in a crazy game.

Maybe they're actually surrogates.

Reid: I think subconsciously through these cryptograms, he's trying to tell us his real target.

Guys, you and Garcia get on that.

Tara, Luke, work with Lieutenant Wilson on a list of potential suspects that are connected to D.C.

Metro.

Dave and I will do the same from here on the Bureau's end.

[Car alarm beeps]

I don't know, Spence, if this guy is messing with us.

What makes you think these cryptograms aren't totally meaningless?

Because these ciphers are his way to demonstrate his superior intellect, and it's honestly that arrogant streak that makes me think he wouldn't completely re-conceive his encryption strategy.

So you still think we're dealing with a substitution cipher?

I do, except now instead of using just one shift value for each word in his plain text message, he's utilizing multiple shift values across all 4 of these alphabets.

Ok.

I buy that.

I swear I've seen this kind of cipher somewhere before.

I'm sure you have.

It's called a Vigenère cipher, and it uses one key word to determine all shift values.

Ok, so, even if this guy's key word is in English, there's like thousands of possibilities.

171,476 according to the Oxford English dictionary, but we know this guy's ego-driven, right?

So...

Try the word "cure," since he sees himself as the cure.

Ooh, I like that.

C-u-r-e.

And the alphabet will give us our shift values.

[Beeping]

Voila.

There it is.

Look, hammer, you nailed it.

"We, Asclepius, declare this our final warning to those complicit with the rotting flesh"...

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Down here.

"This third corpse marks the beginning of the end." We don't have 3 corpses.

We have Andrew Hirota and Douglas Carmichael.

This unsub has no reason to take credit for something he didn't do.

This victim must be a homicide that D.C.

Metro doesn't realize is connected with the others.

How the planets could they miss that?

Even if he wasn't using the same M.O., he would have left a bloody symbol or a cipher or something equally creeptastic.

Let's review all open cases in D.C.

Metro over the last month.

Ok.

Ah!

Unh!

Aah!

Aah!

Aah!

Aah!

[Grunting]

Stop!

Stop!

Oh, please hurry!

He's stabbing my boyfriend!

Elena, get back inside!

Get back inside!

[Gasping]

Aah...

[Gasping]

Oh, Scott!

Oh!

‭What...

[Siren]

The ambulance is almost here.

You're going to be all right.

Scott, don't close your eyes.

Look at me.

You're going to be all right.

[Siren]

[Indistinct P.a.]

Looks as though we have a survivor.

His name is Scott Taveras.

He's out of surgery and in stable condition.

We were told someone saved him?

Yeah.

He was very lucky.

Apparently Taveras is separated from his wife, moved out of the house a few months ago.

But his girlfriend, a woman named Elena Duran, just happened to be at his new place tonight...

Startled the attacker, called 911.

What do we know about Taveras?

Family court judge.

Sits on the bench at McNab Courthouse.

Family court.

Seems like kind of an odd fit for our unsub's pattern of victimology, doesn't it?

Yeah.

You know what?

We should get a statement from Taveras and also talk to his girlfriend.

[Inaudible]

Thanks, guys.

Just go ahead and put them right there.

Appreciate it.

What did you find?

It's an open case in Georgetown, two weeks ago.

Victim's name is Marcus Powell.

He was stabbed to death in his driveway. D.C.

police report describes the att*ck as part of an attempted robbery.

Mm-hmm.

But keep reading.

There's some curious connections to our case.

Powell was family services director at the McNab Courthouse.

That is the courthouse that Scott Taveras presides over as a family court judge.

That's an oddly related victimology.

His wound pattern even suggests a similar sharp force w*apon, but it's by no means conclusive.

Right.

'Cause he would have left a creepy cryptogram or a bloody symbol or something.

What if the Asclepius symbol in blood, like the 911 call, was actually part of the unsub's plan B...

an elaborate countermeasure taken out of frustration after law enforcement somehow missed the hidden cipher at the first scene?

Yeah, but the police would have seen it.

What are you looking for?

One of the witnesses said that she saw Mr.

Powell come home and collect his mail moments before he screamed for help.

Our unsub's first cipher.

Here's some more dessert, Scott.

Ohh.

Thank you.

Lewis: Mr.

and Mrs.

Taveras, we know this is a difficult time for you, and our questions aren't meant to pry.

But now you really need to start asking my husband how his girlfriend saved his life, right?

That's right.

Hey.

You watch that "48 hours"?

They need to eliminate you as a suspect.

[Chuckles]

‭[Groans]

Alvez: It's good to see you maintaining a sense of humor, Mr.

Taveras.

Huh.

Well, if I can't laugh, I'm gonna cry, 'cause this...

This is crazy.

Why me?

Lewis: You've never received any kind of a thr*at, personally, or even one directed at the court?

No.

Not really, not, uh...

Not in so many words.

I mean...

But it's my job to decide the custody of a child.

So, I'm the one who splits the baby, right?

Which means I'm usually a son of a bitch to somebody leaving my courtroom.

Girl: Dad!

Oh, my god!

Thank god you're ok.

I'm so happy to see you, too.

I love you so much.

I love you, too, sweetheart.

Boy: Have the police caught the guy yet?

No, son, no, not yet.

But these are agents from the FBI, and they're doing everything they can to hunt the man down.

My relationship with Scott isn't really as awkward as it might look.

He and his wife agreed to a separation a couple years ago, and that's when he and I first met.

But then Julia was diagnosed with cancer, and so Scott didn't want things to get too complicated for her and their health insurance, so they decided to remain legally married.

Mrs.

Taveras has cancer?

No.

Well, she's been in remission for 6 months now, thank goodness.

When exactly did you and Mr.

Taveras move in together?

We don't actually live together.

I just have a key to his townhouse.

And tonight, Scott called and asked me if I could, uh...

meet him at home.

And so I was there and saw him pull in.

And then I heard this, like, big thud right outside the front door.

And then I heard Scott yelling...

So I grabbed my phone.

I...

I dialed 911 and...

And I ran outside to help.

Please hurry!

He's stabbing my boyfriend!

And then he was going to k*ll me, too, but for some reason, he didn't.

He just looked at me...

And then he ran away.

Here.

Look at these two photos from the Scott Taveras crime scene and tell me what you see.

I'll tell you what I don't see.

I don't see a ninja-like unsub who so skillfully and savagely blitzed his first two victims.

Yes.

This act feels more impulsive.

The psychologist Sam Keen has a theory about human behavior that I tend to subscribe to.

He believes it's impossible for a person to k*ll another without first being able to objectify them.

That theory would explain our unsub's behavior.

Maybe he's struggling to dehumanize his victim.

Maybe because of some personal connection with Scott Taveras.

About as personal as you can get.

Garcia and I were able to cr*ck the unsub's last cipher.

In it, he bragged about a victim that we missed.

His name is Marcus Powell, and in missing Mr.

Powell, D.C.

Metro also missed our unsub's debut cipher, which basically reads like a first draft of his manifesto.

But a first draft that reveals that too much real emotional pain.

Word choices are steeped in a sense of betrayal, so his cure feels more like a teenager's revenge fantasy.

More than that, the unsub sincerely believes that he can outsmart law enforcement by misleading them.

So this Asclepius isn't some sort of alter ego, it's pure charade.

And the victims weren't just selected as surrogates, they were chosen so that his one true target would simply get lost in the body count.

So you're thinking not only is Scott Taveras the one true target, but that one or both of his children are responsible for the murders.

His son Rafael fits the profile.

Garcia: Disciplinary problems led to him being enrolled in a m*llitary boarding school.

After that there was a brief stint in the army, followed by an other-than- honorable discharge.

Reid: And while there, he received training to become an electronic warfare officer, which is how he acquired his skill sets.

So maybe Scott's son wasn't as comfortable with his father's new relationship as everyone thinks.

Not at all, and I think his notions of disease and cure very likely stem from his own mother's battle with cancer.

Ok, I'll coordinate with lieutenant Wilson.

We'll bring Rafael in right now.

When do the doctors think Dad will be able to go home?

Pretty soon, actually.

They said maybe the day after tomorrow.

So how long you think she's gonna be in there with him?

You really are strong like bull.

[Laughs]

[Groans]

[Sighs]

I must look a lot better than I feel.

You look good, baby.

You saved my life.

I really thought I'd lost you.

[Sighs]

Can I get you anything before I go?

No.

I'm fine.

Well, I'll be back later.

So you spend some time with your kids, and then you get some rest.

Yes, ma'am.

[Chuckles]

Hey, Mom, I'm gonna go outside real quick, have a smoke, ok?

You promised me you were gonna quit.

Soon, Mama.

Soon.

[Sirens]

[Honking]

[Sirens]

[Phone ringing]

Prentiss: Tara, no one saw Rafael confront Elena Duran?

No one saw anything, but we can't find Rafael anywhere and Elena's not answering her cell phone.

All we have is that footage Garcia found of Duran’s vehicle hightailing it from the hospital.

Hold up.

I got him.

Matt, JJ, about a quarter mile up, make a right turn on Bellevue.

Copy that.

I don't understand what's happening.

Where is my son?

Well, that's what we'd like to know.

When was the last time you saw him?

Just a few minutes ago.

We were upstairs.

He said he was going outside to grab a cigarette.

Was he with Ms.

Duran or was he following her outside...

Hey...

you're asking that like you think my brother did something here.

Look, ma'am, I'm sorry, but Rafael is a person of interest in this investigation, and we're going to need your help in order to find him.

Reid: Rafael meticulously planned his cure.

The ruse was intended to be the ultimate forensic countermeasure.

So even as he devolves, he'll try as hard as he can to maintain it, which means he can't take Elena Duran anywhere that would be linked to him.

[Siren]

Garcia, what do you see ahead?

Uh, nothing.

Nada.

I can't believe this, I just had him.

He can't cloak.

I got him.

I got him.

I found Elena's car.

Where?

Uh, inside the McKenna industrial park.

I'm sending the address right now.

[Siren]

The car's clear.

You got a pick?

So not only is Rafael Taveras alive, he is completely uninjured.

The blood on him was Elena Duran’s.

Do we think she's still alive?

Well, the forensic report says that there's no indication of arterial spray, nor do the stains of Rafael's clothes suggest a lethal loss of blood.

Alvez: Well, Matt and I started sketching out a geo-profile of the downtown area, and taking into account the time between Elena's abduction and Rafael's apprehension, he really couldn't have taken her very far.

All right, so we're looking at roughly a 4 1/2-square-mile area with the hospital at the center.

Lewis: But an area just big enough that even if we were to go door to door, it could take us days to find her.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

She's obviously very, very hurt.

What if we don't have time?

Rossi: What's Rafael saying?

Is he talking?

Prentiss: Yeah, he is.

And he's adamantly maintaining that he's another victim.

He claims he was trying to protect Elena, that he struggled with a masked assailant who overpowered him and threw him in the trunk.

You know, Rafael's narcissistic drive towards self-preservation might just buy us more time.

How do you mean?

JJ: Elena Duran is the only victim that we can connect directly to him, he knows that.

So there's a good chance Rafael thinks he can get away with hiding her.

Until the heat on him cooled.

His cure has to be sustained.

Like a cover story you need for a covered op.

And I know about that.

I wanna talk to him.

You and Matt.

Hey.

I don't appreciate being treated like some criminal here.

Ok?

I've told the police everything that I know.

I tried to help Elena, I swear I did.

We know you did, Rafael.

You're lucky to be alive right now.

This is by far the most dangerous assailant we've ever encountered.

He's also by far the smartest.

But we're hopeful that with your help will be able to rescue Elena.

We know how much she means to your father and how they hoped to get married.

Now that your mom's feeling better and the divorce can be finalized.

Yeah.

That's what he had hoped for.

Do you remember when your mom was diagnosed with cancer?

Of course I do.

What the hell does it have to do with anything?

Rafael, we have reasons to believe that your father was targeted because of his relationship with Elena Duran.

So it's important to take into account all the circumstances around the two of them met.

And got close.

Well, ask my dad about that.

Ok.

You think maybe your dad lied?

About when he started his relationship with Elena?

That maybe he started seeing her before he separated from your mom?

I don't know.

Do you think your mom suspected that?

My mother never suspected anything.

But how do you think that would make her feel?

How would that make you feel?

Heartbroken.

No.

Not my mother.

My mom is the strongest woman I know.

So strong.

And my dad...

He just pulls me aside and he...

Tries to tell me how much of a toll my mother's illness has on him, and I'm just like, "what the hell are you talking about, man?

She's the one who's dying!" How did that make you feel?

Like k*lling him with my bare hands.

JJ: Right.

You should have k*lled that heartless b*st*rd, because he is the disease and you are the cure.

But the problem is, if you k*ll your dad, you're suspect number one.

JJ: And then who's gonna look after your mom?

Your sister?

No.

Right?

Simmons: No.

So you gotta cover up your tracks.

JJ: And you did everything right.

You did.

You did everything right, except k*lling that son of a bitch.

This has always been about you and your father, but you lost your chance to k*ll him and now you just...

you want to see him hurt.

I get it.

I get it.

But Elena is innocent, and you know that.

And that's why you need to tell us where she is right now.

Her blood...

That's on his hands.

Not mine.

Oh, no.

We're too late.

The only way to make this right is for you to tell us where she is.

I used to work part-time security at a distribution center in Ivy City.

And there's an underground stockroom there that no one's using.

Man: ♪ whoa, whoa, whoa, mercy ♪ ♪ whoa, whoa, whoa, mercy ♪ ♪ will you come for me when I need you?

♪ ♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, mercy...

♪ It never does get any easier...

Outcomes like this one.

No, it doesn't.

And it also has a way of dredging up the past you thought you had locked away.

The "what ifs" and "if onlys." I know there are parts of this job that you really can't take home.

So if you ever want someone to talk to, know that I am always here for you.

Thanks.

♪ Take my hand and lead me on ♪ ♪ the promised land your...

♪ You're not going down?

I...

I have to go up, actually.

Oh, right.

You're meeting with Barnes.

Should I be worried?

Not as long as I'm in charge.

♪ Oh, mercy ♪ ♪ will you come for me?

♪ Good evening, Agent Jareau.

Assistant director Barnes.

I'm sorry for the sudden urgency in having to meet tonight.

However, effective immediately, SSA Emily Prentiss will be placed on administrative leave pending an internal review.

And so you will be the acting unit chief of the BAU.

I'm sorry, I don't understand.

If you wouldn't mind leaving your cell phone out here, we can talk in my office.