'Criminal Minds' season 12 episode 3 spoilers: Emily Prentiss returns to help BAU solve case of 3 missing women

"Criminal Minds" season 12 returns on Wednesday for episode 3, which also serves as Paget Brewster's welcome as she reprises her role as Emily Prentiss. It looks like Emily will be called in to help the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) investigate a tricky case.

First though, here's a quick recap of last Wednesday's episode titled "Sick Day," which was also Thomas Gibson's (Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner) farewell episode. However, it remains to be seen how his exit will be played out, hopefully in the coming episodes.

Episode 2 focused mostly on Jennifer "JJ" Jareau (A.J. Cook), as the episode showed how the cruel cases that the BAU handles affect her, a mother to two young boys. The case they worked on hit close to home as it involved child abductions in Los Angeles.

The effect on JJ was too obvious, that even newbie Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez) told her, "You don't look fine. I've seen you look fine and that's not it. I know I'm the new guy and everything, but I'm here if you need me."

As a mother herself, she could sympathize with the parents of the victims, and the fact that the case was coming together slowly was frustrating to JJ. It was later on deduced that the perpetrator is a younger brother of an older sister who works in a fire-related business, which is why most of his victims were set aflame. The unsub was termed a "sadistic pyromaniac."

JJ and Luke were the first ones to reach the burning warehouse with three abductees inside, but with JJ's burned hand, she wasn't able to rescue all three. Hence, she ended up blaming herself instead of the psycho unsub.

On Wednesday's episode titled "Taboo," Emily Prentiss will be called in to help the BAU solve the case of three women who disappeared mysteriously. As per the synopsis shared by Spoiler TV, the team later on finds the bodies of the victims with limbs cut off and encased in cement. Check out the promo trailer below:

During the investigation, Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) observes that all victims have chemical burns while Prentiss deduces that the unsub is trying very hard to hide the bodies of the victims, which is why he's encasing them in layers of cement. It remains to be seen how the BAU will solve the case.

Since episode 2 was Gibson's last episode, the upcoming episode will "see" Hotch being sent off on a special assignment. Future episodes will reveal how the character will be written off the series.

"Criminal Minds" season 12 episode 3 airs Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 9 p.m. EDT on CBS.