Reid finds a body in a storage unit. It's Owen Quinn, a former FBI agent. But he isn't dead, just confused, and he takes an EMT hostage. Reid gets through to him. He asks what year it is. When Reid says 2018, he tries to kill himself. Owen aspired to be a profiler. He quit the agency to pursue an unsub he called The Strangler, who he said was killing women along the East Coast. Reid got the tip about Owen from an email. Quinn tells Reid the killings were taking place in towns starting with the word "New." Quinn was drugged and abducted by a serial-killing couple and kept in their home for a year. Quinn formed a bond with the couple's son Theo. Alves and Lewis find the contents of a girl's apartment in the unit where Quinn was located. They also find seven dated hyoid bones. Theo was in Reid's profiling class. Alves and Simmons find Theo's parents dead in the basement of their home, shot with Quinn's gun.  The ViCAP team, Quinn's coworkers, don't think he would hurt anybody. When Theo's parents tried to get Quinn to kill Theo's girlfriend April, Theo knocked out Quinn and shot his parents. Then he stashed Quinn in the storage unit. Theo kills two men at a train station. The men were stalking Theo. April is hiding Theo at a family cabin. Theo explained that his family was part of a cult led by The Messiah, who would kill the women his father abducted in front of the serial-killing cult. They arrest The Messiah, Benjamin Merva, then figure the cult will break down without him. While most of the BAU parties at Rossi's, Quinn gets shot. Agent Meadows, a cult member, kidnaps Garcia and uses her as leverage to get Reid to free Merva.