Plot

The BAU must profile a criminal's past in order to catch him after he escapes from custody and begins a killing spree.

Hotch is back at the helm of the BAU after turning down Strauss' offer of a full retirement package. He and Morgan have a heart to heart about Morgan's tenure as head of the unit. Meanwhile, while transporting a fugitive into custody in Lockport New York with a local police officer named Bunting, Prentiss is injured when the fugitive is assisted in a getaway by an unknown partner. That fugitive is Dale Shrader, who had just been paroled from prison, where he was serving time for a series of bank robberies in which the moneys stolen were never recovered. Since his release two days earlier, Shrader killed a junkie named Stacy Ryan who was the sister of someone Shrader served time with five years prior, and kidnapped his daughter Jenny as an act of revenge toward his ex-wife Connie. These two acts are seemingly a dichotomy in personality. During the getaway, Shrader killed Bunting. Prentiss did see the partner, but the BAU do not know who that partner is. They have to delve into Shrader's life as a bank robber and his eleven years in prison to uncover the meaning of Ryan's murder and of Jenny's kidnapping, and hopefully the identity of the partner and the two fugitives' whereabouts.—Huggo

We open with a man running through the woods of Lockport, New York. FBI agents, including Derek and Emily, chase after him. Finally, Derek catches up with the man and TACKLES him. "Dale Shrader, you're under arrest!" Emily screams. Turns out Shrader kidnapped his pubescent daughter. Emily demands to know why the man also killed an innocent woman. "How do you know she is innocent?" Schrader asks. While transporting Schrader back to jail, Emily & a local officer named Bunting are in the front seat & Schrader in the back behind Bunting who is driving. Schrader hunches over, pretending to be sick, but is really removing his seat belt & getting his cuffed hands in front of himself. Bunting pulls over to see what's up, & Emily realizes Schrader is about to escape when -- BLAM! -- the car is hit by another vehicle. It tumbles down the hillside.

Cut to the inside of the car. A bloodied Shrader strangles Bunting and then turns his attention to a woozy Emily. He manages to wrestle the keys from her, argues w/ the guy from the pickup - who is obviously helping him - and then flees w/ his accomplice in the pickup. Emily stumbles out of the car, gun drawn. She FIRES at the escaping pick-up truck. Back at headquarters, Reid and Hotch begin profiling. Shrader was a bank robber in the 1990s before spending years as a model prisoner. Two days after release, he kills a stranger named Stacey Ryan, kidnaps his own daughter and then escapes custody. "This is a lot for one man to coordinate," Reid says.

Garcia does a background check on Stacey Ryan, a junkie whose brother was in prison w/ Schrader about five years ago. Other than that, there is no obvious motive for the killing. Garcia then reveals that much of the money from Schrader's robberies has never been recovered. Interesting. Finally, a criminal named Dan Otey apparently ratted out Shrader, putting the psycho in prison. Cut to the home of Dan Otey. Schrader and his unnamed partner approach the front door and say they want to come in. No dice, so Schrader shoots thru the door. They enter to find Otey bleeding on the floor & Schrader kills him when he realizes Otey used his son as a shield at the door. The partner is HORRIFIED.

Later that night, a bruised Emily interviews Otey's sudden widow. She apparently saw the two bad guys leaving the scene. "Dale trashed the place and the other guy took us upstairs -- he locked us in the bedroom," she says. Emily wonders why the partner would try to protect them. One brainstorming session later, Emily reveals all her memories of the Schrader escape. She recalls that the partner was a white male in his 40s. She also remembers that the partner wouldn't let Schrader kill her. "He was helping me," Emily says. The team then theorizes that perhaps the partner is desperate -- going along with the crimes because he has no choice. Sure enough, we cut to the partner's family, who are being held hostage somewhere. It appears as if the partner, a man named Joe, is being coerced into becomming an accomplice lest his wife and children are killed. "How do I know you haven't killed them already?" Joe asks. Says Schrader: "If you stop helping me, they're dead." Of course, the BAU isn't privy to this scenes, so the hunt goes on.

Examining the files, Derek notices a witness who never testified on Schrader's behalf. They theorize that the man could have been an undercover cop. Sure enough, Garcia does a search on the man, Joe Muller, and discovers that he once attended police academy. Emily takes one look at a photo and identifies Muller as Schrader's partner. "He has a wife and two kids," Garcia says. J.J. does some checking and discovers that Muller and his family have gone missing. "Schrader probably has them hostage," Rossi theorizes. But why?

There's only one logical answer: Schrader is after the money from his last robbery. "If we can figure out where Schrader hid the money, we'll know where he's going," Emily says. Cut to Emily and Derek visiting the evidence room at a local precinct. The woman behind the desk informs the BAU buddies that Muller was just there. He apparently took something out of lock up! They run outside and spot the pair in a nearby truck. Muller has a key -- probably to a safe somewhere containing all of Shrader's stolen booty. "Don't kill him!" Muller screams. But when Shrader makes a move toward Derek, Emily FIRES. Schrader falls dead. "You just killed my family!" Muller screams.

Cut to headquarters, where Muller explains that he couldn't kill Schrader because the man was holding his family at a mystery location. As proof, Muller offers a voice mail from his wife. "I don't know where we are," the wife cries in the message. Now it's Muller's turn to remember. while Muller replays the events since his family was taken: he says Schrader realized he was an undercover cop & recalls watching Schrader kill Stacey Ryan in the alley of a bad neighborhood. Emily theorizes that the woman knew where Muller's family was being held and that was the reason for her death. "Schrader killed her to shut her up," Emily says. Better yet, she thinks that the man's family could be near the murder site.

Moments later, the team raids an abandoned building near the alley. They find Muller's wife, Molly, tied up on the floor -- but not the kids. "Find them!" mom pleads. A few rooms away, Derek finds Muller's little boy. But what about the younger boy? Sure enough, Emily spots the child wandering nearby. The family is reunited. It's a touching moment. Naturally, it reminds Hotch of his own recent tragedy.