A teenager is kidnapped from her home in the Angeles National Forest and buried alive, a video of the burial is sent to her dad, a high-ranking Navy intelligence officer.
The team suspects his secrets may be the target of whoever did this, but it turns out the killer just enjoys making people suffer. This case visibly strikes a chord with Sam.
He, too, was once buried and left for dead, as a Navy Seal in Bosnia.
The show often reaches a bit to establish the military angle with these high-stakes cases, which it even acknowledged this week. Sam begged Hetty to stay on it, even though this is now an FBI case, after a personal appeal from the father.