Incel
Struggling to come to terms with Jess's death, Barnes, Hana, Ortiz and Gaines are given the assignment of tracking down a member of the incel community on a murder spree.
Tropes:
- Back-Alley Doctor: Dr. Reuben Palomino, whom the incel community idolizes due to him performing surgeries on multiple of them without bothering to do psych evaluations on them like other doctors do while also claiming that his job is to "help people find self-love", much to the Task Force's exasperation.
- From Bad to Worse: The situation worsens when another incel community member, Jericho Brown, becomes inspired to follow Erik and assist him in his crimes.
- Informed Flaw: Erik Perwin had been struggling with Body Dysmorphic Disorder, which caused him to hyperfocus on any perceived flaws he had and led to him undergoing drastic facial reconstructive surgery in a desperate attempt to woo his trainer Eden Cunningham after falling in love with her despite her already being engaged to someone else, only for him to become violent when she instead became repulsed by what he had done to himself.
- Sanity Slippage: Erik was already unstable due to his BDD, which was amplified by his lack of social skills and went into overdrive after meeting Eden Cunningham and falling in love with her. Getting involved with the incel community was the worst thing someone like him could've done, as it wound up corrupting him into a Psychopathic Manchild who only sees people as "beta males", "Chads" and "Staceys".
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: Erik's parents' reaction to seeing what their son now looks like after having not seen him in person for the last three months.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The only reason Erik was in love with Eden was because she had been flattering him in order to keep him on as a client at the gym she worked at, not having any actual interest in him. Erik however saw it as legitimate which eventually led to the events in the present day.
- Yandere: Erik murders Eden’s fiancé and father after she rejects his proposal to her, then later her after he flips out over the wedding ring that he bought for her not fitting on her finger.
