Goren and Eames track a spree killer who's targeting victims connected to his own family.
This episode provides examples of:
- Dramatic Irony: The audience knows from the teaser that Paul Devildis is the killer, but detectives interview him twice as a person connected to the victims before they realize he's a serious suspect.
- Imperiled in Pregnancy: Paul Devildis' first victim is his pregnant sister-in-law.
- Meaningful Name: Paul Devildis.
- Pater Familicide: Paul intends to take out his entire family, as well as a few other people he believes have contributed to their misfortune (his former boss who fired him, leading to his family's financial troubles, and his daughter's drama teacher, who he believes is leading her down an "immoral" path). He succeeds in killing his wife, his sister-in-law, her husband, and the two non-family members, but his daughter and mother are saved from his rampage.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Borrows heavily from the List family murder case.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Paul's reason for killing his family is that he believes the Earthly world is corrupting them and wants to send them to Heaven before they can further compromise their souls.
- You Just Told Me: Goren uses a trick of this type to try and get Paul to reveal whether Kathy is alive or not, asking him why he spared her life. Paul tries to evade the trap by giving Goren an ambiguous answer that doesn't confirm the premise of the question, but as it turns out, this still gives Goren the answer he needs — Goren knows that if Paul had killed Kathy, he would just say so, so the fact that he's hedging could only mean Kathy is in fact still alive.
