Criminal Minds: Paradise
By fred | October 23, 2008
(S04E04) Once upon a time there was another team leader for the Behavioral Analysis Unit, once upon a time the addition of Rosi wasn’t all that smooth, but one thing for sure this season is that all that is in the past. Now the team might have changed, just like it had before, but there’s simply no question about it : they are all part of the team, all fully integrated and caring for each other.
Maybe it’s because they all were involved in some traumatic events, but either way and as illustrated again this week, the show is better than ever. This season had been very consistent at delivering one great episode after the other, and if it continues to do so we’re definitely in for the best season of Criminal Minds to date.
In other words, this was a terrific episode.
The set up was really well done, from the opening with a pretty cool (ahem, I mean terrible) truck/car collision to the description of the unsub. For a long time we didn’t get to actually see him, he was always there, but only as a presence, an uncomfortable feeling, an eye hidden in the wall, nothing more. Just as they were describing it as the profile was materializing, we would see him having fun spying and mentally torturing their victims, and it was pretty creepy for sure.
After been at the core of things last week, Reid and Prentiss weren’t as much used this week, but they were not really in the back either, it was very much a team effort. JJ didn’t had too much to do, but she’s pretty pregnant so that’s okay, and Garcia was I felt also not as much used as she usually is, but then again it was a very collaborative work and I never felt like someone was missing.
About Garcia, a very happy Garcia should I say, I think that Hotch had this week the funniest line ever from the show. No really, and it wasn’t just the line but the delivery as well. Straight face, eye on the board, he doesn’t even look like he’s letting his mind move away from his train of thoughts, he’s only making a mental note out loud : “Remind me to have her drug tested.”
That said, Hotch seems to have been quite affected by either the events of the season premiere, the death of his colleague, and/or the “loss” of his family, but he is a bit more “emotional” than he used to be, isn’t he?
One thing I didn’t understand this week, at all, is the way everyone acted, regarding him as “failing” when it came to not having caught the unsub when he first talk to him : what is it exactly that Hotch did do wrong, or did not do ?
I know he’s great and expected to never fail, I’m sure he has a hero-complex and I totally understand that he would feel guilt, since he was there, he talked to the guy, who had the victims near by, and didn’t see nothing. But then again, Floyd had been doing this for quite a long time, he was also very good at hiding things. So while I understand Hotch feeling guilty and wishing he had done more, he had seen it the first time, I don’t understand why others were basically agreeing with him, like when Rosi told him that it happens to the best of them, or that it could have happened to anyone.
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Criminal Minds
