The Naturals

Cassie is left to settle into the room she will be sharing with another girl. She starts to profile her absent roommate based on the clothes and shoes in her half of the closet but stops herself. Lia takes Cassie down to the basement to meet this roommate, Sloane, a Natural with numbers and data. In the basement are training sets meant to simulate crime scenes, and Sloane is running tests based on algorithms. Cassie notes that Sloane has trouble picking up on social cues and seems to be neurodivergent. Cassie also learns that there is one more Natural she has yet to meet: Dean.

They find Dean working out in the garage. Cassie notes that he seems withdrawn and that he and Michael do not get along. When Dean tells Cassie it is nice to meet her, Lia reveals this as a lie, which leaves Cassie wondering why he is not happy with her presence. Dean is a profiler like Cassie. Later that night, when she cannot sleep, Cassie slips into Lia’s mind, as if running a simulation, by recalling Lia’s BPE. This is a “game” Cassie used to play as a child. In Cassie’s imagination, Lia’s room is messy, and her door is locked because she is afraid of something outside, although the Lia in Cassie’s head denies being afraid of anything.

The next morning, Cassie feels guilty and wonders if her “game” is just her imagination inventing random traits about Lia or if it is her subconscious profiling of Lia’s real BPE. Michael and Lia explain that their experience in the program has been less hands-on than they would like—they watch FBI tapes and read transcripts from cold cases. They claim that the FBI agents wish they had Natural skills themselves. Cassie notices that Michael and Lia scatter when Locke arrives, as if wary of her profiling abilities. Locke tells Cassie that Michael and Lia felt pressured into joining the program. When Dean joins them, he declares that it is time for Cassie’s first lesson with Locke. Cassie still feels that her presence is unwelcome to Dean.

Locke, Dean, and Cassie head to the mall. Dean silently drives them, and Cassie spends the ride there trying to profile him. He seems uninterested in profiling her in return. At the mall, Locke asks Cassie to profile a random woman in the food court based on her behavior and appearance. Cassie notes that Locke seems interested in uncovering how Cassie is so sure about her profiling instincts. Hours later, Locke has Cassie practice with a random car, profiling the person who drives it. Cassie sees this as a new challenge, as she has never profiled an object before, and Locke explains that profiling crime scenes is similar. She instructs Cassie not to use the word “they” when describing the unknown subject, or UNSUB. Dean explains that this prevents a profiler from truly getting into the UNSUB’s mind; he uses the word “I.” Cassie worries she will not be able to go completely inside a killer’s head, and Dean remarks that she should not be in the program if she cannot. Locke suggests she use the word “you” instead.

That night, Cassie has a familiar nightmare of the moment she found her mother’s bloody crime scene five years ago. When she wakes, Cassie decides to go for a swim to clear her head. Underwater, Cassie sees a presence approach the pool and reminds herself not to be afraid. She realizes it is Dean, who is surprised to find her awake. He warns her that profiling is dangerous, and that Briggs should not have invited her to join the program. Cassie angrily claims that she is not afraid of Dean or of thinking like a killer. He responds by flipping a switch that illuminates the pool in black light, showing the simulated blood splatter of a crime scene. Dean explains that this crime scene is real; it happened elsewhere, but it was copied onto the house pool as a reminder of the program’s goals.

The next morning, Locke takes Cassie and Dean back to the mall for more training. This time, she gives them a real case scenario and asks them to develop a profile of the perpetrator. The victim is a girl who was kidnapped from the mall three years ago. Locke tells them that in real life, the FBI found her, but asks Cassie and Dean if they could do the same. While Dean steps into the mind of the abductor, Cassie goes into the mind of the girl as they try to solve the case.

Over the week, Cassie and Dean work through more solved FBI cases from Locke. Cassie notes that although she still cannot read Michael very well, she enjoys his company at breakfast. Locke presents Cassie and Dean with seven different crime-scene photos and asks Cassie to deduce which three women were killed by the same man. Dean explains that while a serial killer’s method of killing can change, their signature—bred by their fantasies, needs, and emotions—always remains the same. Cassie carefully studies the pictures and gets into the mind of the killer to correctly identify which women were his victims. She feels upset by her ability to easily connect with the killer, but Dean helps her calm down. Their lesson is interrupted when Locke is called away to work on her and Briggs’s current case for the weekend. When Lia suddenly appears and laments not being allowed to work an ongoing case, Dean implies that the Naturals program used to allow this.

The next day, Cassie tries to watch TV but is distracted by Sloane reciting statistics and Michael reading the expressions of the actors. Because Judd has gone out for the night, leaving the Naturals unsupervised, Lia proposes they play a game.

The group plays Truth or Dare, and Cassie sees it as an opportunity to learn more about the others. Sloane asks Cassie how many people she loves. Cassie has trouble answering truthfully because she has so few people in her life, but ultimately she settles on one: her mother. When Michael asks Lia her real name, Lia reveals she once went by “Sadie.” Lia dares Cassie to kiss Dean because she knows it will upset Michael. Although the kiss is brief, Cassie is strongly affected by it. She then asks Dean what he meant when he implied the program used to allow Naturals to assist with ongoing cases. Dean reveals that before the Naturals program was officially established, when he was just 12 years old, he used to unofficially consult on FBI cases with Briggs. Dean asks Cassie why she joined the program, and Cassie tells the group about her mother’s murder. Eventually, Michael asks Dean if he has seen the movie The Bad Seed, which Cassie thinks is a benign question until Dean angrily storms out of the room.