Criminal Minds

Hello?

Man: Oh, my god, Liz, where are you?

Brian?

No, no, it's jay.

I've been trying you since yesterday.

You missed a board meeting. I got worried.

I even went to your house.

Are you OK?

Where are you?

I'm in my car. I'm...

Liz, where in your car?

Downtown?

Where downtown?

Ohh...

Liz?

Liz! hello? are you there?

I'm here. I'm on sixth, near the doughnut shop.

Woman: Is she OK?

Jay: I called your husband.

Brian's on his way back to town right now.

Come on. Wait.

I--I woke up in the car. I...

I don't know how I got there.

You don't sound well.

I'm gonna come and get you, OK?

You said you're near the doughnut shop?

I left work and then...

It's all just a blur.

Jay: Please, just stay where you are.

I'm heading to my car right now.

Liz.

Liz!

Hey, are you OK?

Miss?

Somebody call 911!

Man: You got this, bro.

Second man: OK, all right.

Man: Here we go. Come on.

Second man: That's it.

Philip "the brick" brooks, ladies and gentlemen.

Sorry.

Brick? That's not a thing, man.

What are you talking about? Sure, it is.

Brick. I mean, you're practically indestructible.

That's a solid nickname.

Yeah.

So what's the deal, man?

Why haven't you been returning my calls?

I'm busy.

Busy?

What, so now I gotta pick up your every call

like I'm your high school girlfriend

or your grandmother's gonna come around

and drop the hammer on me?

She will, too.

Yeah. I think I could take her.

I don't know about that.

My grandmother's pretty street.

You know that.

Yeah.

So, come on, man.

It's me. What's going on?

It's been 3 years, man.

3 YEARS AND I'M STILL Right where he wants me,

in this chair.

What are you talking about?

We caught the crimson king.

We put him away for good, man.

You were a big part of that.

I may have escaped with my life, thanks to you,

but after two years of P.T. all I got to show for it

is a few tentative steps.

You just hit a wall.

What do the doctors say?

They say to keep on working, I'm getting stronger,

but every day is just like the last.

I'm never gonna walk again, man.

Hey. Ranger up, all right?

You were never afraid to do the work before.

It's not just that.

Look, I gotta--

It's OK, man.

It's OK. Go. Duty calls.

All right, when I get back,

we're gonna have dinner and we'll talk about this more.

Hey.

You better be buyin', 'cause I've suffered enough in this life

without having to eat our cooking.

As some of you know, Tara is headed to Bridgewater

to assist in Ferell's criminal trial.

We will be Lewis-less while she makes sure

he doesn't slip through the cracks.

Go ahead, Garcia.

OK, fam. We are heading to Austin, Texas,

where two women have been abducted in the past week.

The victims, Hannah accord, 32, AND LIZ MEYER, 34,

were both found alive, in their own cars,

but miles away from where they were last seen.

Both women were badly disfigured.

The unsub left a white plastic mask

on the passenger seat of both of their cars.

It looks like their faces have been sliced

and abraded several times.

What's that saying, "death by a thousand cuts"?

Lingchi. It's a form of torture and execution

in ancient china. Knives were used

to methodically remove portions of the body

over an extended period of time,

eventually resulting in death.

Except our unsub wants these women alive.

Yeah. He's getting off on making them live with their scars.

It would have taken time.

And patience, to slowly and permanently

mark these women's faces

to take away their beauty, their identities.

The mask could be a taunt, a cruel reminder to the victims

that they're gonna have to spend the rest of their lives

hiding their faces.

It says here neither of the women

could remember what happened or where they had been.

Cell phone tracking confirms their original whereabouts,

and then goes offline until they resurfaced.

It's hard to tell from these initial photos,

but Hannah's injuries, though extensive,

when compared to Liz's, seem more superficial.

I agree. Liz's wounds seem to indicate

a cleaner, steadier hand at work,

which means our unsub's only gaining in confidence.

Yeah, and he might strike again soon.

Which is exactly why we are wheels up in 30.

We've only reached the third day *

Of a seven-day binge

And I can already see your name *

Disintegrating from my lips

We've only reached the third day *

Of a seven-day binge

I can already see your name

Disintegrating from my lips

Prentiss: "when there is pain, there are no words.

All pain is the same."

Toni Morrison.

Hey.

You all right?

Yeah. Yeah, I, uh...

I went to visit my old partner this morning.

His doctors thought he'd be paralyzed

permanently from the waist down.

Just about a year ago he got some feeling

in his toes and he was even able to take a few steps,

but he just is...

He's plateaued.

Phil was there for me.

Ranger school,

while we served in the 75th,

and we even came into the bureau at the same time.

He was my brother.

It's just tough to see him struggling like this.

Well, the road to recovery's tough.

You and I both know that.

I'm just wishing there was something I could do to help.

Oh, there is.

Just knowing what that is is the real question, right?

So both victims were women in their early 30s.

Hannah, the first victim,

is a single mom with 3 kids.

She's from Austin,

works from home as a CPA.

And she was last seen having lunch

with a friend from high school.

The friend went back to work,

but Hannah never returned home.

Her mom, who was watching her kids, called the police.

Liz Meyer, on the other hand, moved to Austin 6 months ago

and was last seen leaving work.

And these two women don't know each other?

Not as far as I can see and I can see really far.

I looked into all their former boyfriends, girlfriends,

husbands, lovers, et cetera.

Nothing's tripping my alarms.

Then Hannah and Liz look like victims of opportunity.

Which is odd, given the time the unsub took

to repeatedly cut and abrade their skin.

I mean, it feels personal.

So maybe they're surrogates.

There's an element of spectacle to this,

almost like these women aren't surrogates,

but statements.

So what's he trying to say?

I hate women?

When we land, Reid, JJ, go to the hospital,

see what we can find out from Liz.

Luke, Matt, take Hannah through a cognitive.

Dave and I will go to the disposition site where Liz was found.

Austin pd is holding the scene.

Chief Foles, I'm SSA Luke Alvez,

this is SSA Matt Simmons.

Pleasure.

We got you set up in the back here.

We're still working on pulling the traffic cam footage

of the surrounding abduction and, uh, dis--