While on their vacations, each of the team receives a clue from a psychopathic killer challenging them to save his next victim.

The BAU team continues to unravel the clues given to each of them by a psychopath in order to save his most recent victim. Gideon decides not to focus on the personal aspects of the case. Rather, he tells the team to profile the killer as they would in any other investigation. Reid stays behind to work on a personal connection that could solve the case as one member of the team fights for life.

In this conclusion of a special two-part episode, finding the serial killer becomes critical to the BAU when the team realizes Reid is being held captive and a live feed of him being tortured is shown on the internet. Meanwhile, Reid's troubled childhood is revealed in flashback sequences as he drifts in and out of consciousness.

While investigating the abduction of a young boy in Las Vegas, Dr. Reid starts to have dreams that might help reveal buried memories from his childhood.

As Reid's investigation of a young boy's murder in Las Vegas continues, he discovers possible connections to his own past.

Reid has returned from Houston, where he was visiting his mother who is in a new facility on an experimental drug program. He is called back home from the office while the rest of the team heads off on their next case. It isn't until the team is in the air that they learn that Diana is no longer in the Houston facility, but that she is now living with Reid, as the trial drug was not having the intended effect.

The BAU investigates when several federal government employees, including a close friend of Walker's, succumb to symptoms of a heart attack; Reid anxiously awaits his trial date.

Derek Morgan brings the BAU a lead in the case against serial killer and escaped convict Mr. Scratch.

With a member of the BAU in the hospital, the team searches for Everett Lynch, and his daughter, Grace. Also, Spencer has a meaningful visit with his mother, Diana Reid, while she’s experiencing a period of lucidity.

Following an explosive face-to-face encounter with Everett Lynch, a.k.a. “The Chameleon,” Dr. Reid suffers from a brain injury and, while experiencing hallucinations, is visited by ghosts from his past. Also, the BAU makes a shocking discovery about Lynch that affects Rossi personally, and the entire BAU team comes together to celebrate Rossi’s retirement.