12E20 - Unforgettable

Reid's case takes many turns, including his and Lewis' discovery in the cognitive interview that the person in the motel room was not Scratch, but a woman, identifying features about her which he now remembers. This news Lewis is able to pass along to the team to work as a new lead. Another turn is that his trial date has been moved back by six weeks, which Duncan actually sees as a possible blessing in disguise. Reid also receives an unexpected visit in prison, that visit which is bittersweet, but which may have a more direct bearing into his case than he would have imagined. Walker in particular is sidetracked from Reid's case when an old colleague, Sam Bower, the two who worked together undercover in Russia in the BAP, is in hospital on what looks to be a heart attack. However, Walker directly discovers that he was injected with a radioactive toxin which was supposed to mimic a heart attack, the toxin which is now causing internal organ failure. As such, the BAU decides to work this case to assist Walker and his friend. The leading belief within the team is that the attack on Bower is the Russians' doing, despite Bower having been undercover when he was in Moscow, and he long having worked a desk job within the BAP. Garcia is able to find other recent cases of people who were admitted to hospital on heart attacks but who eventually died from internal organ failure, the tie between the cases being that all the victims are federal government employees. As such, the belief becomes that the Russian-styled tactics are meant to obscure the unsub's true motives, which are one of three possibilities: that the unsub is a disgruntled current or former federal government worker; that the unsub is using the attacks to profit by making available an antidote to the toxin; or that the unsub has a personal grudge against only one victim, the other victims being smokescreens. As the BAU works on the case, Walker cannot help but reminisce about his long friendship with Bower, and the parallels in their lives. One divergence is that while Walker is still happily married to Monica, the job in part led to the acrimonious break-up of the Bower marriage, Sam now being estranged from both his ex-wife Lisa and his college student son Zach, who sided with his mother in the situation.