A girl has been chatting with a boy on a supposedly secure social media site for teenagers. Through no fault of her own, the boy is a serial killer, and his romantic notions inspire him to murder her parents and kidnap her. Meanwhile, Tara leads a team of cops to find a bunker containing 16 dead bodies, some of which she determines to have been there for decades. Garcia is called to return for just this case, because the supposedly safe site was designed by her. David Rossi is dealing, or rather fervently refusing to deal, with the loss of his wife Krystall.
Tropes
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Downplayed and defied. Garcia keeps slapping Luke's arm out of frustration, but stops when he tells her to stop doing that.
- Driven to Suicide:
- The UnSub kills himself when law enforcement closes in. This puzzles the BAU, who didn't profile him as suicidal.
- Chrissy almost kills herself out of guilt that her parents were killed by a boy with a crush on her.
- Flashback:
- We are shown that in 2005, the year the first season took place in, a man was brutally murdered in a bunker.
- We get one to Rossi's proposal to Krystall in season fourteen.
- It's All My Fault: Chrissy feels that it's her fault her parents were murdered.
- Killed Offscreen: A policeman Tara discusses the case with thinks the UnSub might have died from COVID, seeing as the latest victim in the bunker is from 2020. Tara figures it's just as likely he just stopped hunting because everyone just stayed at home for two years.
- The Lost Lenore: Krystall has died of cancer, and Rossi has a hard time dealing with it.
- Precision F-Strike: Luke says they can't issue an Amber alert on Chrissy because they don't know the make and model of the car her abuctor drives. Rossi tells him to fucking get it.
- Something Only They Would Say: Chrissy realizes who her abductor is only when he offers to take her to California like she's always wanted. She only told one person that.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: Rossi talks Chrissy out of killing herself when she's distraught over having, she thinks, gotten her family killed inadvertently by sharing his grief about losing his wife.
- Teens Are Monsters: Garcia failed to account for this when she created a social media site that is only available for people under 22. Turns out the UnSub is 19.
- Would Not Hurt A Child: The 19-year-old who murdered his online girlfriend's parents spared her baby brother.
