JJ and Luke survived the bomb from the previous episode. Emily decides it's time to use the jet again. Benjamin is discovered, dead from a shot in the head.
The first thing his uncle did to young Lee was to "teach him helplessness", even citing a study where they taught a dog to give up hope and just take electric jolts. He spends the next several years teaching him to be a very efficient serial killer.
Tropes
- Accidental Truth: The only thing Silvio gets right about the murder he supposedly committed, though the BAU don't know it, is that Maria was murdered in someone's uncle's cabin.
- Arc Number: 2. Garcia realizes that Sicarius always hunts on 2nd Street wherever he is.
- Closet Gay: Silvio it turns out is a closeted gay man, as was his novio (boyfriend). They stayed in the closet because being gay wasn't acceptable for Latino gangsters.
- Continuity Nod:
- Garcia named her new kitten The Black Queen.
- Tara mentions her ex-husband, whom we found out about in Broken Wing.
- Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: Everyone but the BAU believe it's plausible that Benjamin Reeves was Sicarius. Emily is certain he was a patsy and that he was never intelligent enough to pull off anything on Sicarius's level.
- Fall Guy: Lee's uncle hung the murder of Maria on Silvio Herreras.
- False Confession: 20 years ago, a woman named Maria was murdered, and Rebecca got a man convicted for it after he confessed. Problem is, he doesn't know a thing about the case.
- Flashback Episode: Much of the episode shows how Sicarius grew up after his parents died and his uncle adopted him.
- Freudian Excuse: Elias Voit, aka Lee, aka Sicarius, had the most convincing one of all: his uncle literally taught him to subdue people and to get rid of the bodies.
- Gaydar: Tara, who is dating a woman herself, quickly discerns that Silvio's a closeted gay man from the way he looks at the photo of his boyfriend which she shows him.
- Gayngster: Silvio was a member of a Latino gang, as was his boyfriend, which they stayed in the closet about due to this being considered unnacceptable in that culture.
- I Have Your Wife: Silvio falsely confessed to Maria's murder as a result of a persistent death threat against his boyfriend, and had maintained his guilt for years as a result.
- Shout-Out: The opening quote is from James Baldwin.
- You Are Already Dead: Lee informs his uncle that he put a slow-acting poison in his IV an hour ago, and just came to watch him die.
- You Just Told Me: Inverted. A convict named Silvio Herreras insists he killed a woman named Maria is his uncle cabin. Emily asks affirmatively if he means the cabin in the photo she's holding; he says yes. She tells him it's just a random shack in Ireland, and that the police never found out where Maria was killed.
