When a recent attendee at a popular motivational speaker's conference in Seattle is murdered, the BAU looks at the speaker as the main suspect, but they have to refocus their investigation when the speaker himself goes missing. Also, Garcia is puzzled when Morgan declines to attend a dinner honoring an old family friend.

The BAU heads south to investigate a fast-moving UnSub whose signature matches that of a serial killer from 30 years ago. Also, the team learns that someone is tracking their cases and replicating crimes the BAU is solving.