Directed by Holly Dale
Written by Jennifer Johnson
A woman was abducted seven months prior in 2007 from her engagement party and is presumed murdered. Lilly and Scotty are instructed to take the woman's presumed killer on a night drive to prison. During it, they suspect that she may still be alive.
Tropes:
- Beneath Suspicion: John mocks his victims for believing that he is this - it's how he gets them alone and kidnaps them.
- Bunker Woman: John Smith abducts women and imprisons them in basements.
- Buried Alive: What John Smith does to his victims: incapacitates them in basements, watches them give up, and then leaves them to starve to death.
- Despair Event Horizon: John explicitly attempts to drive his victims over it. The only reason he doesn't manage to kill Brenda, his surviving victim, is that she can hear church bells ringing and is able to keep track of time.
- Driven to Madness: John's goal for his victims.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Brenda. Aside from undoubtedly needing therapy after her experience, she is able to hold on long enough for Lilly to rescue her, and is reunited with the fiancé who never stopped looking for her.
- Evil Stole My Faith: Smith recalls how one of his earlier victims, a devout Christian, was broken the easiest because she couldn't believe God would abandon her.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Smith imprisons Brenda near a church, enabling her to keep track of time by listening to the ringing bells. Therefore, she won't snap the way his other victims have. To top it off, this rattles him so much that he makes the mistake that gets him arrested and his determination to make Lilly give up like his other victims did leads to him making the final mistake that tips Lilly off not only to the fact that Brenda's still alive, but where she is.
- I'm Cold... So Cold...: When John flashes back to his first kill (inadvertent, as he merely let the woman die rather than outright harming her), he remembers a woman trapped in a well, frantically treading water and babbling, "Cold...so cold".
- Mind Rape: John does to his victims as well. A notable example is when he shows one of his victims a home video of her baby, who is growing up without her.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Exactly how John gets caught. He's speeding and the police that pull him over discover Brenda's property in his car. It becomes a plot point as Lilly realizes he has to have reacted like he did for a reason.
- No Name Given: Lilly and Scotty never learn John Smith's real name. His licence is fake and his DNA doesn't match anything in the system. Serves to make him creepier.
- Room Full of Crazy: What the basements in which the victims are discovered look like when they're discovered. They write desperate messages to their loved ones on the walls when they are kidnapped and slowly starve to death.
- Saved by the Church Bell: The last victim is saved from her abductor because the villain gets overconfident and tells the investigators that she is able to stay sane due to being able to hear nearby church bells, which she uses to count her days in captivity. Det. Rush's knowledge of the neighborhood in question allows her to determine where the woman is being held and rescue her.
- Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere: Kind of. John puts his victims in basements in extremely poor, deprived areas of cities.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: John Smith is one. He hardly raises his voice throughout the episode.
- Talking the Monster to Death: Lilly and Scotty eventually help to turn the tables on John Smith like this.
- Villainous Breakdown: John Smith has the beginnings of one prior to the episode's plot. He hears Brenda singing and realizes he has failed to break her like he did his previous victims. When Lilly realizes that not only did Brenda maintain her hope but is also alive, Smith's smug arrogance is shattered and replaced with desperate ranting and denial.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: John does one of these to kidnap Brenda, asking for help with his car.
