Criminal Minds: Memoriam
By fred | November 13, 2008
(S04E07) As expected this was a direct continuation of last week’s event, when while investigating a new case Reid started to have vivid nightmares, and recollection of another little boy who was murdered in Vegas, a kid about his age that he probably knew, and of whom he saw – in his dream – the killer. The killer who was no other than William Reid, father of the genius BAU member.
I was pretty curious to see how this would all go down, with one thing in mind I knew I did not want to see happening, because I felt it would just be way too much and make things completely unbelievable : it couldn’t be true, that Reid’s father was actually a pedophile and a murderer. One crazy mother is enough drama for the family, and any more would have been too much.
That being said, I gotta say that still, for the most part of the episode I was actually thinking that the mysterious killer was no other than… his mother! It just seemed to make sense, maybe, somehow, to me. That in a moment where she didn’t fully realize what she was doing, she would have killed the boy, that after that she convinced herself it didn’t happen, he wasn’t real, that this was the secret she was hiding from Reid, that William would have protected her and burned her bloody clothes… for quite a while I thought this might be the twist coming up.
But I’m glad it wasn’t, and I’m even more happy that Reid’s dad was not a pedophile, not a murderer either, even a vengeful one. And yet, I didn’t really like this episode all that much myself. We didn’t have no new/”real” case, and despite appearances there wasn’t much profiling going on.
Plus, what was especially disappointing to me, though I guess it might make sense given his implication in all this, is how Reid refused to see the profile, to see what facts were pointing towards, simply rejecting the profile when it didn’t fit his expectations. As Morgan told him, he was out to get his father, no matter what for. Reid wanted his father to be the bad guy, it’s almost as if he needed to to justify his resentment for him (and to be fine with him abandoning them).
But usually, even if he can let emotions in, Reid is the one who sees through everything and focuses on facts, he’s the one who’s able not to let his personal feelings clutter his interpretation of things as he instead gets into the mind of others, and this week he was clearly stuck into his own head, with his anger towards his father, and refused to see anything that didn’t point to what he wanted to be looking at.
Which, to me, was disappointing a little. That, plus the fact that first, everyone seemed fine with the guy being killed, because he deserved to die. I’m sure he fit the profile perfectly just as I’m sure he was actually the killer, but were there any actual proof ? He was creepy looking, around kids a lot, and played chess with Reid, that’s no proof of anything. Yes, he admitted to it, but beat anyone with a baseball bat hard enough and chances are they’ll admit to anything you tell them to.
The other thing I didn’t like, was William Reid. Good than he’s not a killer, and I’m sure that big secret was too hard for the couple to survive — even if it’s not like either one of them killed anyone. But still, the guy did not die or move to the other side of the planet, he didn’t even leave town !! He was leaving 10 minutes away, and he never visited Reid, not one single time in like 20 years ?
Neither did he visit his (ex-)wife, whom he abandoned despite her mental illness with their 4-year-old kid, and while he seemed to be doing very well financially, earning good and not spending much, don’t think he would at least be there to financially support them… I don’t know, going from that to the happily reunion in the end, just did seem right to me.
Also, I may be wrong on that one, but I was quite surprised that JJ asked Reid to be the Godfather. I don’t know, I never pictured them to be that close. One last thing I feel the need to mention though, when Morgan and Garcia were flirting again on the phone, the look on Hotch’s face after Garcia’s “I give good phone” was just priceless. How about that drug test ?
Not a bad episode, but really not one of the best ones either in my book – despite my liking of Reid (see him winning $2 000 at the casino and giving them away to a hooker). What about you : did you like this episode ? Are you happy with how things turned out ? Do you care about Reid’d dad at all ?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Criminal Minds
LOVED THE EPISODE!