Criminal Minds: Amplification
By fred | May 14, 2009
(S04E24) When you do what they do, investigating and tracking serial killers for a living, it’s easy to see how you could get affected emotionally by all the terrible things you see, as well as how you might find yourself in a dangerous situation, life-threatening even. It’s something they have to just accept as part of their job, and it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen again, or that when it will it won’t have an impact.
Just because you know none of them will die, this being a TV show and all (although, the end of the season if pretty close…) doesn’t mean writers can’t work things well enough to make a scene really emotional and very effective. And just because this episode was quite predictable, doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable.
There were things I liked and others not so much, in this new and pretty good case we got there. It might have been a little cliché all this talk about whether or not they should tell all they know, or if lying can be a good thing, it’s the kind of discussion you’re bound to find in any such situation, TV or movies, but and while after a while I thought it might became a bit much, I guess it worked out because Emily never liked lies in the first place, and in he end she did not do anything she wasn’t supposed to.
And JJ’s reaction was also very believable, because she’s a young mother, and it would be odd for her not to be conflicted over what to do : respect protocol and let her family be in a potential danger she could maybe prevent, or put her family and baby first, and do anything she can to ensure they’re safe no matter what. And while it’s true that in the end we don’t know what she would have done, had she had the chance to speak, it’s better that way. (Plus, if this was 24 she would have talked, even leaving all the compromising info on the answering machine!)
It was interesting to see her conflicted like that, trying to seek advice from Hotch and Garcia, and never sure of what she would do. I was just a little annoyed that the only people who seemed to be questioning what to do, whether or not they were doing the right thing, were females. Good thing that neither of them did break the law, but they both were tempted and maybe came close to.
The most surprising of all, though, was Reid. JJ was obviously affected, and questioning about whether or not the baby survived was obviously resonating differently to her ears when she had her own child in mind, and I thought it was a bit odd for Reid to be so “cold” or unable to pick up on that. Oh well, I guess it’s not like he was a profiler whose job is to get into people’s mind and… wait, what?
Anyways, at least guys were unprofessional as well, both Reid in walking in by himself, especially if the door was already open (and if it was not, why did he just entered like that?), and later Morgan, proving he’s not ready to be a leader. I can see why he wanted to stay with Hotch, but being a team doesn’t mean they have to be together all the time, it also means they have to be able to trust each other and do what’s best as a whole. In this case, Hotch was right, and the fact that Morgan couldn’t even agree with the decision – much less make it – proves he’s not ready to be leading yet.
A few things were predictable, as soon as Reid got attacked by a flower you knew it would have consequences, just like when the General showed up it was easy to guess he and Hotch worked that one out. Which, by the way, was yet another reason for Morgan not to be there, the goal isn’t to put as many agents as possible in danger. Also predictable, of course, was Reid making it out alive and well.
Still, him recording a message for his mother was a strong moment. Also, I thought the ending was really wrong. Maybe I missed something, but it gave the impression that once it was over, no one cared about Reid’s condition, no one ever wondered and asked whether he was still alive or not, whether they had found the antidote or not, nothing. That JJ would think about her kid first, I can see, but that Hotch was calmly on the phone or Rossi and Prentiss just chit chatting like that, it just sounded odd to me.
I knew he was fine and Morgan would be by his side, but still. Anyways, best line of the episode: “Don’t ‘Emily’ me!”
What did everybody else think?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Criminal Minds
