S16E2 - “Sicarius”

The episode opens with the pushing of a gurney. We see an unsub pushing a very delirious and out-of-it guy on the journey. The unsub cuts the shirt off the drugged-out delirious man, and he counts his prisoner’s vertebrate. The unsub sets up a tripod under the face of the man who is on the table. The man on the table asks questions and asks what is happening. The unsub asks: “Can you feel that?” And the kidnapped man says: “No, I can’t feel anything.” A bloody piece of gauze falls onto the floor in front of the kidnapped man, and he begins to freak out. The man unsub says: “I need you to listen to me very carefully. Because you have a choice to make.” The camera pans up, and we see that the ubsub has cut and pulled back some of the skin over his prisoner’s spine.

Now we cut away and see Garcia working out in her home. She is wearing a tracksuit that is reminding me of Squid Game despite the fact that I never watched that show. We now see her living her best life. Picking which glasses to wear and making a smoothie. We see her getting into a video call with the Soar team. They start with their daily dance party. Wholesome. We stan. 

Now we cut to JJ, and she and Will/Bill are getting ready for the day. Will/Bill says that he got them a table for an Italian date night. But JJ is like, “uhh…another body showed up in Rock Creek Park”. They get into a discussion because WIll/Bill says that JJ is supermom and works very hard, but he’s concerned that they aren’t spending enough time together. JJ says she promises to make it up to him, but Will/Bill seems dubious.

Now at Quantico, we see the team assemble at a meeting. And when I say team, I mean JJ, Alvarez, and Rossi. JJ shows them what the case is – the body of a man named Alex Arnold was found outside of a rest stop in Silver Spring 4 days ago, and his cause of death was a severed spinal cord. However, last night it was “serial” with Steven Duncan, the same COD. Both good-looking men in their 30s – which is not the kind of victimology they see often – usually these are the unsubs! However – both of these men had something in common. They had dating apps where they both advertised their services as “bulls”. According to JJ, a “bull” in the kink community is a man who sleeps with another man’s wife as part of consensual cheating.

Besides the weird cause of death, the BAU’s last unsub – Rory Gilcrest, switched cars at a Walmart parking lot, and this unsub apparently did the exact same thing. The BAU profiled that Rory had a partner, and they thought the partner may have been the unsub responsible for the shipping container. However, none of the bodies in the shipping containers had a severed spine. It’s a specific signature. But details from the last case are showing up – so whoever is behind the shipping container may have two partners. 

Now Prentis and Tara are walking to a facility where the BAU has stashed the shipping container they found in Seattle with the sixteen bodies (re: last episode). Tara is talking about how they are hoping to get a DNA breakdown from the containers for both the bodies and the unsub. Deputy Director Doug Bailey shows up. He is upset that Prentis specifically disobeyed his orders and had the shipping container shipped to Quantico.

Cut to Whitfield County GA. We see Daddy Voit get out of the car and pull out two cases of gasoline. He goes to another shipping container half buried in the ground, just like the one the team found in Seattle. His phone rings, and it says he is getting an encrypted message. He gets a text from the spine unsub that says: “Want to see something all the way from DC?” Of course, Daddy does! He’s been sent the video taken by the spine-cutting unsub at the beginning of this episode. The unsub on the video offers a choice- death or life as a quadriplegic. The victim tells the spine cutting unsub to kill him, and the unsub does. Daddy texts the spine cutting unsub and asks if he followed the rules. Spiney Boy says, “to the letter”. Daddy Voit tells him to pause because Daddy has work to do.

Back at Quantico, Alvarez says that according to the cellphones of the bulls, they made a lot of women very, very happy. Alvarez was looking for crossover – if both of the men had slept with the same woman before, but there was nothing. Rossi tells them to do a toxicology – especially since someone performing a spinal cord surgery would need more than just a bonk on the head to knock someone out. JJ has looked into hotels to see if there is any information there, but so far, nothing. Turns out the wife of a city councilman was the one who paid for the room.

Now we see Garcia ending the call with her SOAR people. She gets a random message from someone named Anon412, who says that they know how SOAR was compromised. They send her a bunch of encrypted files, and one opens up detailing information about Chrissy from the previous episode. Another shows information on the city councilman the BAU has just brought in for questioning.

Alvarez meets with the councilmen, who is nice enough, but does not want to talk and does not provide any useful information. While Alvarez tries to talk to him, JJ talks to the councilman’s sexy wife. She tells JJ that she hooks up with bulls and sends videos of her encounters to her husband, who gets off on it. She states that she received a video from the spine-cutting unsub (and it’s the video we just saw Daddy Voit watch).

Deputy Director Doug Bailey, tells Prentis and Tara that all of the costs associated with the shipping container are coming out of the BAU budget. Prentis and Tara are like wtf. Doug is deeply patronizing, and this hurts twice as bad because the BAU has not recovered any useable DNA or evidence from the storage container. Inside the storage container, we get more information about the bodies inside. Tara thinks the bodies weren't just trophies, but experiments because the unsub killed each victim differently. Daddy Voit put sicarius spiders down one of the victim’s throats, and Tara tells Prentis that members of the FBI have dubbed him :”Sicarius”.

The BAU gathers in the conference room to watch the video they’ve uncovered of the spine-cutting unsub. the one we saw before. Although they can’t see the unsub’s face or where he’s operating out of, they do spot a kill kit. The BAU discusses how serial killers would operate in a pandemic. A killer would not be able to kill or hunt. The compulsion would still be there, but it would have to be channeled into something else. The BAU thinks that the killers started communicating, telling and teaching each other how to be better murderers. So these aren’t just connected cases – it is a network. 

Tara introduces Rossi and Prentis to her friend Rebecca who works for the DOJ. Rebecca used to work with Bailey, and has the details. She says that Doug is just using the BAU as a chess piece to get a promotion. He is efficient with money, but basically he’s still a jerk, and doesn’t understand how in other departments they will get and see results, whereas the BAU works off of patterns, etc. especially – why fix whats not broken. Also- Rebecca and Tara are girlfriend and girlfriend. Finally.

In Hamitlon County TN, we see Daddy Voit get an encrypted call, and he answers. It’s the same man as before (the spine-cutting unsub). Daddy Voit calls him Robert, and asks why Robert is disobey him. Robert wants to “go” – kill again. Daddy Voit tells him to wait. We then watch Daddy Voit go into a hardware store and buy a ton of duck tape, electrical tape, batteries – he basically pays for $400 worth of shady material in cash. He flirts with the cashier there, named Tawny. He tells her that he works in network security. Tawny asks Daddy if he wants to join the rewards program, and he’s harsh with her. He then overcompensates by telling her that having a dog is the most effective form of security, because Tawny has a picture of her dog behind the counter. We learn that Tawny’s dog is named “Moose”. She tells Daddy that he’s not a protector and is “a goofball”.

Back at BAU headquarters, Garcia calls Rossi and says she needs to see him. They meet, and she hands him a thumb drive and says there is evidence on there. Garcia tells him about the user on SOAR who reached out to her, and Rossi aggressively tells her that she has to come back to the BAU. Garcia tells Rossi that she’s in therapy and tells him that for her own mental health, she can’t go back to work.

We cut to Frederick Me. We see a woman get out of a car in front of a Costco and start sexting someone. Before she can start shopping, she’s blitz attacked by an unknown assailant who injects her and knocks her out.

Back at BAU headquarters, JJ tells us about the attack of the young woman, whose name is Michelle Tucker. Michelle has been kidnapped and is presumed to be held captive by the spine-cutting unsub aka Robert. However, the victimology is different compared with who the unsub has abducted before. Michelle’s husband reported her missing. The BAU also gets the toxicology reports from the male victims. Paralytics were used on every single one of them, and additionally other drugs that are more common placed were found in their systems as well. One condition that would prescribe the more commonplace drugs- a back injury. A side effect of a back injury- erectile dysfunction. Rossi adds: “Our fears come out in our sex lives – we hate to admit it, but its true!” He cant perform anymore, so he’s punishing those who still can. 

Michelle’s husband is on his way to the office – he’s apparently “just landed” ARE YOU TELLING ME HE FLEW FROM FREDERICK TO QUANTICO? GIRL. Mr. Tucker is having a bit of a meltdown, but he hands over a cell phone and shows the BAU a chat between Michelle and a bull that Michelle was supposed to meet up with after her little Costco trip. Alvarez searches the photo of the bull on the internet using a reverse image search, and it turns out the photo of the bull is from a sexy firefighter calendar. So Michelle and Tucker were CATFISHED! The BAU give the profile to Tucker, regarding the back injury and failure to perform. And Tucker instantly tells them that the unsub is Robert Harris. He was a bull that Michelle was supposed to hook up with, but then he got in a motorcycle accident, and was unable to perform.

Now we see Garcia meditating. While this goes on, she’s getting notifications saying 911 help, and these notifications look like they’re from one of her workers at SOAR, someone names Riley. But it’s not Riley! It’s Anon412 who calls her using a voice encryptor. Anon412 asks Garcia if she decrypted the coordinates he sent her, and she tells him that she handed the coordinates over to the FBI. Anon412 freaks out and tells Garcia that other people are going to die, and that their deaths will be on her head. He then hangs up on her.

We cut to former bull Robert Harris’ house. He’s got Michelle heavily medicated on his surgery table. He’s about to operate.

Garcia goes back to Quantico. Rossi brings her into her old office and sets her up on her old computer. It’s been 1009 days since she last logged in. She puts the thumb drive that Anon412 gave her into the computer. There are thirteen keys (coordinates) that need to be cracked using advanced software. Rossi asks if she can crack the decryption. Garcia puts on “It’s Tricky: by Run-DMC. While this plays, she’s whizzing through the work, and just being the insanely talented Garcia that she is. 

Now we see Tara in the storage container. She calls Prentis because something in the storage container has started beeping. It’s the unsub’s kill kit. Apparently Daddy Voit but a transponder on it that Garcia activated when she cracked all the codes.

Meanwhile, Voit also notes that someone has cracked the code. He turns on the TV and sees a news report that police are looking for Robert Harris. Daddy is PISSED! Daddy calls Robert just as Robert is about to cut into Michelle. Robert has broken the rules!

Minutes later, the BAU and the FBI SWAT team swarm Robert Harris’ house. They are too late- Robert Harris has died by suicide. Michelle is fine (Tucker will be relieved). So just like Rory, Robert has killed himself and nothing about either of them profiled as suicide. So they think that must be one of the bargains for joining the network – kill yourself before you get caught. Rossi thinks he has an idea. 

Now we see Voit stalking the girl from the shop, at home, watching TV with her goofball Moose.

Quick cut back to the BAU- Garcia’s office. Garcia shows Rossi that a lot of the transponders are now turning off. So they are losing the signals. Garcia asks Rossi if he honestly believes the BAU can catch Sicarius without her. And Rossi is like “hell no!” Garcia asks for a minute, and psychs herself up in her office. She finds a cute note that she wrote herself back in Season 15, and decides to rejoin the team. Meanwhile, outside in the hallway, Rossi calls the hotel and checks out. We’re growing.

Cut to Seattle, WA. We see Daddy Voit in a garage grabbing some boxes and luggage. He opens some and it looks like they are kill kits – and we see he has Moose’s collar. Daddy walks into his bougie ass house, and there’s a sexy woman there. It’s his wife- Bridget. Daddy tells Bridget that he’s going to make breakfast for their daughters (Hollie and Harlow). He’s a family man!

Now we see JJ and Bill/Will. JJ all pensive, and asks Bill/Will if their fears really come out in tier sex lives – since Rossi put that idea in her head. JJ is getting existential, saying their life is a clock and there isn’t enough time. Will comforts her, and they decide that instead of “date night” they will do “date morning”.

Back at BAU headquarters- Rebecca from DOJ has news. She meets with the team to share highly classified information. She’s giving them dirt on Bailey, and talks about how the FBI considers domestic terrorism the biggest threat to America right now (thats true) and not serial killers. So basically there is money in fast rising threats, but not serial killers, which means he wants to “reorganize” the BAU, and folded under the domestic terrorism department. He can do this if he can prove that they are a wasteful department – which right now it looks like they are. Re. shipping container.  What this means is that Alvarez, JJ, and Tara would be reassigned. Prentis would be replaced. And Rossi – retired. Fuck no. Prentis thanks Rebecca, and the team regroups. Prentis is like, in GO mode. So now they have to justify what they do – and prove that this kind of serial killer network is its own form of terrorism. Rossi adds – we have our own secret weapon – Garcia enters and is like “lets get to work!”