Criminal Minds: Cold Comfort
By fred | February 12, 2009
(S04E14) It’s been a while since we had a new episode of Criminal Minds, and for their return the team had a very welcomed little something in store for us : the return of JJ. This episode had both good and bad things going on for it, and JJ’s return was definitely on the column of the goods. Unfortunately, the show didn’t really return with a great episode or even one as good as we’ve seen previously this season.
Not to say it was bad, it wasn’t, not really, but there are some things that didn’t really do it for me. But let’s start with the good stuff, because it’s always more fun, and that would set up back at the beginning of the episode was the team was goofing around, reading horoscopes and questioning whether this was pure crap or could possibly meant something, a not to subtle way to echo things to come.
The fun part though, besides Reid being asked and of course knowing Prentiss DOB, time included, was when Prentiss just went with it and flipped them off! Funny stuff, and a little after that Morgan walked away, and that as the last we saw of him. Okay not really, but this episode was very heavy on JJ and Rossi, leaving Morgan almost not involved, didn’t it? not that Prentiss or Reid had that much more to do…
By the way, silly stuff for a minute: Did Prentiss looked a little annoy when everyone was commenting on JJ’s ring ? I don’t know, I thought she had a weir look on her face, like it reminded her of some bad memories or something… Did Prentiss had/lost a kid or something? So JJ is back, really happy about that, and I do like her new haircut by the way.
Lastly, one little question about Reid: is it me or did he change the way he looks ? Feels like his hair and clothes have been somewhat different than in the past ? I don’t mean that in a bad way, I’m just wondering whether or not he’s seeing that cute bartender from a few episodes back…
It was an episode that dealt with people who also use their profiling abilities to read people, the so-called pick-up artists. This week we had another kind of people who often do the same: psychics. But I really didn’t like the way this was worked into this case, because it felt somewhat off to me all along. It wasn’t really necessary for anything at all, I found the fact that JJ would go and ask him about the case on her own to be somewhat off character, but that was nothing compared to Rossi’s behavior.
I wouldn’t classified it as out of character, it was actually exactly how the guy would act, but man did that feel useless and overdone already! I mean the minute he heard of the psychic he was clearly not liking the idea of having him around/involved in the case, you could tell he was happy when Garcia found out he had a past, it was so obvious that their was some history there where once Rossi let a psychic get involved and things got screwed, it really got boring after a while, and I wished Hotch would have been a little more insisting on telling Rossi to drop it and forget about his own personal feelings towards the guy, or his “profession,” because it was affecting his work.
Cause it was, and he was pretty rude with the mother, rubbing it into her face all proud that the guy was a fraud and she shouldn’t hope her daughter was alive — as that’s pretty much how it could sound like. Which is why JJ got to react I guess, but to jump from there to being a believer and somehow valuing the psychics’ words almost more than what the profile said felt just off.
Plus, we all knew things would end with some kind of way to, in the end, make it so that the psychic maybe wasn’t wrong, like what Hotch saw behind the window. Honestly, I hated that, and the way both he and Rossi looked at that like it meant anything. I don’t think it did, Hell if anything I’d say the rain was a better fit than the painting, because at least that was water, she was surrounded by water.
But to pass that as possibly what he meant, reinforced by the quote that came just then, that was really wrong, to me. It’s got nothing to do with believing or not, if when a psychic says she’s near water it means water, or a painting of water, or a picture, or a kid’s drawing of the ocean, or a spilled glass of water, or a TV on with a documentary about dolphins, I mean based on this I’d say there’s no comparison to be made between that and profiling, which gets results that are a lot more tangible.
I don’t know, I didn’t like the whole psychic aspect in this episode, I didn’t like how JJ seemed “changed” or “less professional” just because she was a mother and it involved a mother dealing with the possible loss of her child, and quite frankly the actual case of the week was a bit predictable. I mean seriously, when Reid talked to the guy at the cemetery, and was told about the grave dug up but only to steal a dress and stuff, did anyone not thought that was the unsub’s doing ? Not even when right after we have Hotch talking about how the unsub dresses them up and stuff ? Shouldn’t they have followed on that sooner ? Shouldn’t Reid’s crazy brain have noticed the earrings and made the connection without the need for a mention of “genuine article” ?
All in all it wasn’t a bad episode, but it was merely an okay one I think. Agree? Disagree?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Criminal Minds
I think you hit the nail on the head — the psychic stuff sucked. I love Supernatural and am happy to treat psychics as real for 45 minutes on that show, but the Criminal Minds universe is very much like our own, and this angle felt forced and useless. And yes, it was as predictable as the sunrise that TV would validate him at the end of the show. I want CM to be better than that. The chief joy of having JJ back instead of Jordan is that JJ can handle herself. Until now. She can feel bad for the mother of the victim all day long, that makes sense, but she should never, never compromise key evidence by removing it from the station and letting someone with no professional standing or credibility handle it. Hotch the former prosecutor should have come down on her like a ton of bricks. The quote about belief was particularly egregious on a show about investigators who, well, prove things. They have to. It’s really beside the point to a law enforcement investigation whether the psychic is right or not, because he never comes up with anything that would help convict anyone in court. The point should really be not about belief, but the fact that the way the BAU does things is their only legitimate option, and it works, and running off the rails the way JJ did can only hurt them. I also don’t think that Rossi was out of line at all for challenging the mother’s faith in the psychic, because had her daughter been dead after all, the mother could have been devastated. He had experience more than issues.
And on a lighter note, yes, Reid has been looking very GQ the past two weeks. It’s either wildly out of character, or indeed, he’s hiding a girlfriend who’s given him a makeover. If that’s the case, the mystery now becomes why Morgan hasn’t teased him about the new look. Since when does Morgan ever miss a chance to tease Reid?
Yeah, exactly, JJ would have had a connection with the mother but never went as far as going to see a psychic, especially without telling anyone like it seems she did here.
About Rossi and the mother, maybe he was right to question the mother’s belief, yes, but it felt to me as if even before they heard the call, he had made up his mind and refused anything that wasn’t going the same way.
He could point out that whispers are hard to identify, but I felt he was almost attacking her – blaming the psychic(’s influence) – and refusing to accept that she could have recognized her daughter. Of course she wanted it to be her, but any mother – psychic or not – would have wanted the same!
About Reid: I hope we’ll find out soon what’s going on there… and yes, it’s odd Morgan didn’t pick up on that and teased him about it, you’re right.
But who knows, if it is the bartender from a few eps back, then Morgan pretty much introduced them, and maybe he’s in the known or something?