Criminal Minds: Bloodline
By fred | January 22, 2009
(S04E13) As you know, for some time now JJ has been missing and temporarily replaced by Jordan, whom I’ve never really been a fan of, far from it. I probably thought and would have been absolutely fine if they had only had her be there and do her job for the time she was needed, and then just left. No need to make her be or do anything special, good or bad, just do the work while JJ’s missing and that’s it.
Maybe they felt it wouldn’t have been satisfying, and wanted to flesh out her character a little, or maybe it was only a way to remind everyone what this team has to go through everyday, and how we/they might have gotten used to have JJ around but shouldn’t take her for granted, either way they actually had her not be a perfect fit for the job, and struggle with it.
It started in previous episodes, where she panicked a couple of times already, and went further this week, and I really didn’t like that. When she was rushing to Hotch’s office in the beginning I just could tell she would be that annoying self she can be, and when she “corrected” Prentiss, because it wasn’t “the target” but a little girl with a name, I seriously wanted to hit her.
They don’t have time to get personal, nor should they, because if they get emotionally attached they simply cannot do their job right. Ever heard of the rule that says a cop shouldn’t investigate a case too close to home, like when his own family’s at stake? That’s because they’re emotionally involved and it gets in the way of keeping it straight and doing the right thing. And here she was all “Eh the girl’s got a name, I’m Scott Malkinson and I have diabetes!” Gee! And I really hated when Rossi actually went on to validate her point later on, what the Hell was that??
Anyways, so JJ is coming back soon, and I couldn’t be happier. Because I like her, and because I couldn’t stand her replacement. On to the case, this was an unusual case and a very interesting, as well as disturbing, case. One thing I didn’t really like though, is that one a couple of occasion it seemed they felt the need to really to lay it out for us and tell us what was going on, in case we were too stupid to figure it out.
For example it was easy to understand that they were targeting little girls for their own son, and after Garcia found out the mother was one of the earlier victim it became quite obvious what was going on, and to have Rossi need to explain it all to Jordan felt unnecessary to me. Much like during the good cop/bad cop routine. Now that was some really cool stuff, but it was very easy to see Hotch wasn’t loosing it or anything like that.
Because that’s not like him, because Prentiss would have had no problem getting him out of the room if she felt he was going too far, not to mention how they kept signaling each other, making sure they were in sync and moving according to plan. You could even see Prentiss check for the mother’ reaction and wait for it before going at it again, just like Hotch would right the right time to come into her face and yell back at her again.
So it was good stuff, and also obvious at to what was happening — even more so with the rest of the team watching and being fine with what they were witnessing. So to have Reid mention that this was a good cop/bad cop routine felt rather insulting, like we needed to be told so to get it!
When the first abducted girl was found still alive, I gotta say I was surprised, and disappointed. I’m probably twisted, but it thought it would have made things better (you know, because they ‘d be worse) is she had been killed. They did make up for it by the end though, with the ideas that there were “brothers” out there, other people still continuing to perpetuate this crazy “traditions” and abducting girls and teaching the boys to be murderers.
I liked how opened it all was, and yet I actually hope we won’t hear of it again. Because it’s not like that’s one serial killer or two out there that they should be tracking, there’s been lots of them, for generations and generations and they never even had been spotted as serial. So why should it be any different now? This was just a reminder that sometimes, the bad guys “win” and are still out there, free and killing…
One thing I’m not sure I got though : what was their plan ? The unsub family, why did they had the mother trigger the alarm ? Seems the only thing it did was distract everyone to allow the others to get out, but why do that ? The husband and son were not know, and could have easily walked out on their own either way. Only for the mother was a picture available, so she could have tried to walk out on her own, and if she can they disappear, if not they then they’re in the same place. But why force her to get caught and arrested ? What purpose did it actually serve ?
What did everybody else thought of this episode ? Any idea what they do when their own child is a girl ? Do they kill them, or let them have a “normal” life ?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Criminal Minds
