Criminal Minds: Limelight
By fred | January 24, 2008
(S03E13) Before I sat down to watch this episode, I had somewhat bittersweet feelings toward it. On one hand I was happy to see a new episode of Criminal Minds, which I think is a good show, and I was even pretty excited about the last episode which was one of the best of the series, but on the other hand it’s really sad to think that, despite this being only the 13th episode, there won’t be any more, not this season.
This was not intended to be a season finale, but because writers are on strike and things couldn’t get settled rapidly, this is the last episode that was completed and we’ll have to accept that this is how this season, which also started in a very special way as it found Gideon leaving the show unexpectedly.
So we will have to accept this was the season finale, even though it really didn’t feel like one. but before talking about the end, let’s go back to the beginning.
This episode had a different start, because there was no murder. Instead, all that was found was a bunch of files, letters, drawings, and magazines. It looked quite bad enough for someone to call the BAU. Well, to call Rossi to be exact. I did liked he way it started, and the fact that he thought there was nothing to prove that the guy had gone active, and that in lack of such evidence he had to turn the “offer” down, and go work on cases with actual victims, and bodies.
I was actually hoping that he would leave, and then they’d be called back a few days or weeks after that, when bodies would start to be found. But it did not go that way. Instead they went for a different approach, something that, while I appreciate the intention, didn’t get the best results.
Let me be clear : I like the idea of the cop caring first about himself, or herself, and putting the rest asides, like actual facts. I liked that she was ready and willing to lie in order to get what she wanted, and it’s not new to see the cop who’d rather go alone trying to get the scoop or be the hero, instead of following the rules and ensuring that his team comes with him. It’s nothing new to have one be filled with ambition like that, and nothing unusual either.
But there are a couple of things I didn’t like so much about this episode. For starter, it was relatively predictable. When she first pulled the hair out of her desk, I did find that quite odd, that she would lie or hide such evidence to Rossi. Okay, the guy is a legend of some sort, and maybe she wanted to “test” him. But she never looked like she wanted to “test” him as much as she wanted him to help, to take the case.
I’m not saying I called it, maybe not then. But when Rossi asked if hair was missing from the first victim they found, and the answer was no, my first though was just this : it was fake. At that time we knew she lied, that the hair aren’t from this case, and she only wanted them to be there and did whatever she had to to ensure they would get here.
Another thing that I really didn’t care about, was the whole thing about Rossi, how he understood her, and how she was him a few years ago. Now that was really crap, to me. At times it also looked like they were trying too hard to convince us that Rossi was indeed a legend, that he was indeed such a great profiler, I mean did you see how he nailed everything about her in the bar ? Yeah, if that wasn’t mainly to remind us, or show us, that he does know how to do profiling then what was that ?
I think it would have been much better if she was just wanting to become a famous and successful detective, without the whole “be like Rossi used to be” bit. Or the remarks about her being a woman, I didn’t like that either. It’s not the first time they had someone thinking about his self before the case, it’s not the first time someone went on TV without letting them know, none of this had anything to do with her being a female. Just being an irresponsible cop looking for glory or putting his own ambition ahead of everything else.
This episode wasn’t bad, overall, but I can’t help but thinking that it wasn’t as good as it could have been. Because there was no real surprise, there was no real mystery, and a few things that should have probably been left out. Like, again, the reference to the “old” Rossi, or Garcia and her wondering about pain that never stops.
Something was a little off. The way the team reacted felt right, I didn’t really took Hotchner’s comment to be meant directly towards Rossi – but that may be me – but the way Rossi acted, his obsession with himself, his lying – or hiding facts, or lies actually – to his team, was not right. This episode could have been much better, I think, but it wasn’t bad either. We’re far from the awful episodes we had at first.
No it was still a good episode, and liked it, I’m just really sorry that there won’t be anymore episode this season.
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Criminal Minds
