- A serial killer in Boise, Idaho, is revealed to have been posting his murders on the Internet, accumulating quite a collection of fans in the process.
- Three young women have gone missing from Boise, Idaho, in the last six months, each abducted from their home without signs of forced entry. Through Garcia, the BAU learns of the unsub tracking these women through social networking sites, and that the unsub, using those sites, tells the victims' friends that "they are on vacation." The BAU assumes the unsub has already murdered his victims and discovers how the unsub manages to get into the houses through evidence found in their homes. They also quickly learn that the unsub uses the Internet for more than just tracking his victims. When Reid figures out the similar physical characteristics of the victims, the team is able to put together a profile. As the BAU gets closer to identifying the unsub and his next potential victim, he becomes more brazen by taunting the BAU, whom he knows is watching him. It becomes a war between computer expert Garcia and the computer expert unsub.—Huggo
- A home in the suburbs is heavily fortified with window locks, alarms, etc. Nevertheless, a masked man is seen creeping up the stairs -- and entering the room of a sleeping young woman. SMASH CUT to BAU headquarters, where Jennifer explains that three women have gone missing in recent weeks in Idaho. Different hair colors. Different body types. "No sign of forced entry or a struggle," Derek observes. Garcia discovers that all the women frequented social-networking sites on which the unsub tracks their movements.
"Can somebody explain to me the appeal of these sites?" Rossi asks while flying to Idaho. Nope. Derek theorizes that the unsub talked his way into the women's homes before the abductions in order to scout out the security details. On the ground, the team meets Det. Fordham -- and interviews haggard parents and friends of missing women. One boyfriend notices that the position of a pair of pictures have been switched. Derek and Emily head to the women's home -- and discover that the unsub moved the pictures to hang something on the wall. "Cameras," Emily says. "He put up cameras."
SMASH CUT to the inside of a creepy van. The unsub watches a woman shower on his laptop -- and he's parked right outside her home! Back at the missing woman's house, the team has discovered a handful of tiny cameras. "Once he learns their routine all he has to do is pick the lock, put up the rest of the cameras and boom: he has their whole life at his fingerprints," Derek says. Garcia, meanwhile, finds a video posted online of the predator breaking into the house ... and strangling the missing woman. Garcia then discovers that the video was posted LIVE during the murder. "He wants an audience," says Rossi, who then wonders why the unsub takes the dead bodies with him when he leaves.
Garcia tries to trace the post back to the murderer, but discovers that he must be a computer specialist as he has created an online "paper trail" that leapfrogs continents. Reid then enters with news: the women's faces do have geometrically familiar facial features. "He might not even be aware that he sees it in them," boy wonder says. Asks Rossi: "So whose image does he really see?" Answers Reid, who name checks Narcissus: "His own." Profile time. "He takes them to a secondary location where we believe he preserves them," Hotch tells the Boise cops. "So that each time he looks at them, he sees his own ego reflected." That means that the unsub looks roughly like his victims. Emily passes out a police sketch. Jennifer, meanwhile, talks to the press -- and quickly discovers that someone in the police department leaked the "facial similarity" profile. Uh oh.
Later, Garcia notices a leapfrogging video feed similar to the one earlier. The team logs on to watch -- and it's not pretty. The unsub, clearly angry at being exposed at the press conference, charges into a home of another social-network user ...and begins strangling her. She dies while the team watches. Garcia FREAKS OUT and Derek attempts to calm his "baby girl." "I want to watch him suffer!" Garcia screams in frustration. Later, Derek and Emily search the house of the latest victim and find a fiber optic cable. The unsub brought his own cord into the home because he needed the bandwidth to stream video.
Emily theorizes that the unsub works for an Internet installation company who cases the homes -- and installs his own cable -- on home visits. Reid and Jennifer go to the cable company and get a name: Matt Jones, a former employee who was "hoarding" cable and making unauthorized house calls. Garcia does a search and uncovers Robert Johnson, who spent time in prison for producing "torture videos." Bingo. Alas, the man surely isn't using his real name anymore, so Garcia searches for his "hacker" handle. "That's how the FBI caught me," Garcia says. "I'll get you the unsub -- I promise." Derek, in the meantime, grills a child-porn watcher who admits that he also watched the murder video. "Before this guy accepts you into the club, he gives you the illegal stuff," the man explains. "He has to know that you're risking as much as he is." The unsub's handle: Watcher 89. Garcia immediately gets to work -- and pulls up online profile's the killer is monitoring. Spencer with his computer-like brain determines that only one matches the facial profile, a woman named Lucy Masters.
Emily and Derek head to the woman's house. As soon as they step inside, a computer monitor snaps on, showing Lucy hanging from a meat hook. Derek then notices a camera on the wall. "He's recording us," the agent whispers. Garcia magnifies the wall behind Lucy. "It's a walk-in freezer," says Rossi, who has an idea. One of the men suspected of watching the murder video was a store owner who sells such equipment. An angry Rossi confronts the man, an innocent-looking grandfather who claims to have done nothing wrong. Rossi demands to know where the freezer is, threatening to publicize the man's arrest. His grandkids will someday Google his name and learn horrible things about Grandpa. The man gives up the information.
CUT TO the freezer, where the unsub is about to kill Lucy on camera. Just in time, Garcia tracks the connection and blocks the video feed. "No!" the unsub screams. Just then, Rossi and Emily CHARGE into the freezer, where the other victims reside on similar hooks. "What do you see when you look at them?" Emily asks. Growls the unsub: "My followers? They understand." Case closed.
Rossi comes to the old man, still sitting in the interrogation room, and says, "I didn't do this." News of his arrest has made the paper. The old man hangs his head and weeps.
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