Plot

The team head to Canada to investigate the disappearances of a number of homeless people, drug users and sex workers and uncover something horrific.

Iraq War veteran Sgt. William Hightower goes to extreme measures to get authorities to investigate the disappearance of several people in Detroit, Michigan, one of those people being his sister Lee. The reason why the Detroit Police Department did not originally investigate is because those missing are exclusively people who live on the streets, specifically those that call the streets of the Cass Corridor home. Despite Hightower's action potentially landing him in jail, he gets his wish in that the BAU are brought in to investigate. The BAU's investigation brings them into Canada. Although they are there on the invitation of the RCMP, the BAU face the obvious problem of jurisdiction. When they get to the site and person they believe the unsub, they are initially dumbfounded due to the unsub's physical state. But he may know more than at first glance, which they will have to get out of him before the latest missing person, a young woman named Kelly, is found dead. This case is especially difficult for Hotch, who may need to unwind with a drink when he gets home. However, others things are waiting for him when he arrives.—Huggo

Detroit, Michigan -- An intense-looking man approaches the Canadian border in a dark sedan. "What's the nature of your visit?" a border guard asks. Growls the man: "Pleasure." He then slams on the accelerator, wheels the car around and rams the border-guard cabin! "Call the FBI," he screams. "I've killed 10 people in the last month!" Inside the wrecked car are photos of the victims. He wanted to be caught. But why?

Jennifer explains that all the apparent victims were "transients" from Detroit that were apparently taken across the border and dumped. The man, meanwhile, is a former war hero named William Hightower. "It could be a case of post-traumatic stress disorder," Rossi suggests. Not wasting any time, Hotch assigns roles: Emily and Derek will go the slums of Detroit, where all the victims are from; the others will go to Canada.

Rossi arrives at the border and shakes the hand of Officer Jeff Bedwell, a former protégé of the author/ investigator. Emily and Derek, in the meantime, are busy casing the streets. Derek interviews a junkie who recognizes a photo of one of the missing. His name is Charles. He went missing a couple of days ago. The junkie also recognizes a photo of Hightower. "I need to know everything this brother does," Derek tells the junkie. "How he talks. How he moves. Every bit of his behavior."

Armed with Derek's info, Hotch heads to the holding cell to interview Hightower. "Give me a dumpsite," Hotch demands. No dice. Hotch then explains that they know Hightower was often among the transients, photographing and cataloging them -- much like a sergeant at bed check. "Your behavior was more like a protector," Hotch notes. "You've gone to a lot of trouble to confess to a crime you didn't commit."

Hightower breaks down. Turns out that he went to the Detroit cops three times asking for help when the transients began to disappear. He collected the photos of the missing victims, rammed the border guard booth and confessed just so the authorities would be forced to investigate. "When I got home from Iraq, the first thing my mother told me was that my baby sister Lee was on the streets," says a crying Hightower.

He managed to find Lee and bring her home. A couple of weeks later, she disappeared again. Hightower received a cell-phone call from his sister that night. Using his military connections, he was able to triangulate the signal and determine that Lee was in Canada. Unfortunately, the area is near one of the busiest border crossings.

We cut to a pig farm, where a giant man drags someone (it looks like it could be Charles) from a table to the pigpen. Swine squeal and grunt. The man marks a spot on the back of Charles's neck and hits him with a hammer. The next we see of them, Charles is back on the table and the man is using a syringe to remove some viscous fluid from the back of the neck.

Back at police headquarters, Rossi and Hotch convince Bedwell to release Hightower into FBI custody. The veteran agrees to assist the team. Garcia, meanwhile, calls with crime reports from Detroit. "On five of the abduction nights, Detroit PD reports a break in or robbery at some type at a medical facility," she explains. The unsub stole IV tubing, sutures and other supplies. Odd? Spencer doesn't think so. "We believe the unsub gets gratification from keeping his victims alive to endure more torture," he explains. This "sexual sadist" probably has some sort of medical training.

The team then interviews Maxine Hightower, mother to William and Lee. She explains that Lee briefly came home between stints on the street. But the young woman disappeared soon after she cashed a welfare check. Spencer's eyes light up. All the victims disappeared near the first or middle of the month. "You think he has a way to get them alone based on the way they cash their checks?" Rossi asks. Indeed.

Derek and Detective Benning of the Detroit PD do a little checking and discover that street folk have been illegally cashing their welfare checks at a nearby flea-bag motel. They quickly arrive at the scene. "Have you been giving them cash in exchange for their welfare checks?" Derek demands. The owner admits to the scam -- and then says a dark-colored sedan frequently stops to pick up street walkers. In fact, the sedan just drove off with a young woman who had recently traded her check. Bingo.

But watching the regular border crossings produces nothing. We see the unsub stop his car at a riverbank and place the young woman in a rowboat. The good guys have no chance of catching him at the checkpoint. Hightower suggests checking alternate means of crossing the border. Perhaps the Civil War-era underground railroad running from Detroit to Canada. Garcia identifies a single Victorian home that still stands along the route. Emily, Hotch and Hightower speed to the property and discover stashed cars in the trees. Garcia does a quick search on the car and gets a name: Mason Turner, a former medical student. And where does Mr. Turner live? "Looks like a farm," Garcia says.

Seconds later, the team storms the farm with guns drawn. Stinking pig pens are filled with blood. Stacks of medical equipment line the walls. But it gets weirder. The team finds a quadriplegic man hooked up to a breathing machine. "Get the hell out of my house!" the sick man gasps. This bed-bound man is Mason Turner? Then who is the unsub? More importantly, where is the unsub? Bedwell is furious. He demands to take Hightower back into custody.

But before everyone can start arguing, Derek discovers a bin behind the farmhouse filled with bloody shoes. "We said we were looking for 10 missings?" Derek asks. "There's got to be over 100 shoes in that thing." Bedwell wonders where the bodies might be. Spencer directs the team's attention toward the pigs. "They're omnivores," boy wonder explains. "They'll eat anything." And he means anything.

We cut to the killer's secret underground lair. The obese man grunts and shakes in the corner. Nearby, the prostitute, Kelly, pleads for her life and notices child-like drawings hung on the walls. The big lug clutches a cell phone. "Is someone supposed to call you?" Kelly gently asks. Cries the man-child: "He always calls!"

Back at the farm, Rossi accuses Mason of being an accessory to the crimes. He notices mirrors all over the room -- carefully placed so that the bed-bound man can see what is happening in adjacent rooms. "Some very bad things have happened here," Rossi says. He covers or moves the mirrors so the man can no longer see out of the room. Mason protests. Rossi keeps asking questions. "How many victims were there? 100? More? Do you even know for sure?" Rossi demands to know the location of the "other guy." To emphasize his point, he ominously places his hand on Mason's breathing tube. "It was my brother, Lucas," Mason explains. "He's crazy. He did all of it."

Rossi grabs a photo of Big Lucas and shows it to the team. The man is huge and, according to Mason, "inhumanely strong." Mason urges the team to shoot first and ask questions later (or never). Rossi and Hotch, naturally, are suspicious. The next morning, Garcia arrives on the scene in order to search Mason's laptop. The quadriplegic is not happy about the legal invasion of privacy. Derek, in the meantime, approaches Hightower. The BAU agent hands Hightower dog tags found in the bin of shoes -- the same dog tags that Hightower gave to his beloved sister. Tears roll down the veteran's face. Lee is dead.

Later, Spencer finds the hay loft where Lucas sleeps. "I doubt he's psychotic," Spencer tells Hotch. "There's a collection of drawings up here that suggest autism or moderate mental retardation ... It's more likely he doesn't fully understand the acts that he's committed." Garcia, in the meantime, discovers something very disturbing on Mason's laptop. "They were doing experiments," she tells Rossi. "He tried to fix himself." Mason chuckles, saying no jury would convict him. After all, the quadriplegic hasn't technically touched any of the victims -- even if he did direct attempts to study their spines. Hightower, meanwhile, seems to be growing quite angry at the sound of Mason's taunting words.

Back in the cave, Kelly attempts to talk to her captor. She asks for food--she'd thrown up previously--and while Lucas is out to find food for her, she attempts to escape, to no avail. She does, however, find Lucas' cell phone, and tucks it into her sweater. Lucas returns with some berries for her, and Kelly continues her attempts to communicate with him, offering her name and asking his in return. "Mason says never know names!" Lucas cries. Kelly persists and eventually Lucas relents. She tells him she needs to pee; he provides her a bucket. Insisting that girls need privacy, Kelly convinces Lucas to take her outside. "I'm not leaving," she says. "But I need some privacy." Hiding behind a bush, Kelly takes Lucas' cell phone out of her pocket, turns it on and discovers to her dismay that usage is restricted--she can't dial 911. She presses the redial, however, and back at the farmhouse Mason's phone suddenly starts to ring. Garcia answers; Kelly whispers that she's in the woods with Lucas--and then is cut off as Lucas realises he's been tricked. He takes the phone from her and drags her back into the cellar. Garcia provides a location; Rossi, Hotch and Spencer race toward the signal.

Kelly hears the team and SWAT calling her name and begs Lucas to not fight back when the FBI enters. "Just put your hands up, Lucas, okay?" She attempts to calm Lucas as Hotch enters the underground lair. Lucas rocks and weeps while Kelly is led to safety. Just then, Lucas begins to stand--with no way to gauge his actions, the SWAT team opens fire. "No!" Derek screams -- but it's too late.

Back at the farmhouse, Mason has been left unsupervised and Hightower is only too happy to take advantage. He picks up a shotgun and pumps the bad doctor full of lead. Mason smiles just before he dies.

As the episode draws to a close, Hotch provides a voiceover. "Sometimes you do everything exactly right and you still feel like you failed," he says. "And what about my team? How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won't be able to recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes?" All good questions, but the answers will have to wait.

Hotch returns home to his lonely apartment and pours himself a stiff drink. Suddenly, a masked figure steps out of the darkness holding a huge gun. It's The Reaper, first seen in Omnivore. "You should have made a deal," the intruder rasps. Then, with the sound of a single gunshot, the screen goes black.

To be continued ...