Criminal Minds Season 13 Episode 8 Recap: Neon Terror

Rossi gets interviewed about his new book on a Miami station, which the team watches on TV. The BAU is called in to investigate the deaths of three women in Miami. Then a couple on a first date also gets killed. JJ and Alves figure out the unsub hides in plain sight. The unsub also puts hair clips on his victims, a weird ritual. The unsub is providing footage to a local station. Sandra Madsen, the news director there, has dubbed him The Neon Terror. The unsub is picking out potential victims from a dating site. He kills another woman. Alves suggests the unsub is a member of the media. The BAU finds a potential suspect in Kal Montgomery, a videographer whose ex resembles the victims. Montgomery admits that a stranger supplied him with the footage. So they switch to someone with a connection to that station. Prentiss fears the unsub is going to make a snuff film next. This comes true when he shoots and films his next victim. There was a little girl in the back seat of the car. The unsub, Jefffrey Whitfield, witnessed his babysitter being killed 20 years ago. Madsen interviewed him at the time, the last time he felt relevant. He started his killing spree after his parents died, getting the footage to Sandra to publicize his crimes. Now Sandra is refusing to run his footage, so he goes to take over the newsroom. He threatens to kill Sandra and stream it on the Internet. Garcia terminates his feed. Prentiss and Rossi promise him a primetime interview, and he surrenders his gun. Sandra then embraces the spotlight that comes from being Jeffrey's captive.