Criminal Minds Minicaps: Season 4

[ Back: Season 3 ]

A brief review of our team's particular emotional traumas, as evidenced in the first three seasons:

Hotch, aka Aaron Hotchner. Grim, stone-faced leader. Weight of the world on his shoulders. Workaholic nature led his wife to leave him, taking their child. Father died of cancer. Possibly abused as a child.

Morgan, Derek. Cheerful, sexy action hero. Definitely abused as a child. Mad at God.

Rossi, David. A hotshot profiler from the original team with Gideon, Rossi returned last year from retirement and a successful book career with the ulterior motive of checking up on an old case in which he believed the then-children he saved were in danger again. Then he stuck with the team because, you know, Gideon's gone and they needed an old guy. Enjoys mind-gaming team members.

Reid, Spencer (Dr.) Geeky, awkward, superknowledgable prodigy. Victim of childhood nerd-based beatings and humiliation. Has a schizophrenic mother and worries about developing schizophrenia himself someday. Overidentifies with young unsubs, particularly those smart enough to identify their own mental illness. Became addicted to dilaudid after hostage/torture situation. Attends "Clean Cops" 12-step program and seems to be clean now, but failing to save victims gives him cravings, and cravings makes him sullen. Seems to rate his own safety rather low on the priority scale. Prone to nightmares. Lovely.

Prentiss, Emily. In-control, competent and amibitious team member. Eerily good at compartmentalizing. Mother is a diplomat or something. Knows a lot of languages. Worries about becoming too objective/inhuman. Briefly wanted to adopt a teenage girl.

Garcia, Penelope. Funny computer/communications expert. Fun Bond/Moneypenny fruitless flirting relationship with Morgan seems to have real loving heart. Also flirty with everyone else. Distant enough from the horrors of the job to still find them emotionally affecting; volunteers to counsel families of victims in her spare time. Originally recruited to the BAU after a successful hacking career. Got shot in the gut while on a date. Currently in a cute relationship (not with the guy who shot her, with a geeky FBI counterhacker played by Nicholas Brendon).

JJ aka Jennifer Jareau. Good-with-people liaison. Successfully maintained top-secret weekend relationship with Louisiana cop for a year before coming out and promptly getting knocked up.

 

4x1 Mayhem

It turns out the random New York City subway shooters from last season's cliffhanger are actually bombers! No, terrorists! No, assassins! Plot twists and turns abound.

Character Arclets (Such As They Are): The British FBI lady that Hotch likes dies (in an explosion which also leaves Hotch with a head injury that he ignores until he collapses), leading to even more frowny-face; Morgan does some unnecessarily self-risking heroics, much to Garcia's dismay.

Highlights: Morgan calls Garcia his "God-given solace."

 

4x2 The Angel Maker

A dead killer's girlfriend finishes his serial murders for him.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Hotch ignores doctor's orders to avoid loud noises or he might go deaf. And yet, he does not go deaf.

Highlights:

 

4x3 Minimal Loss

Prentiss and Reid get trapped on the compound of a libertarian cult during an FBI siege.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Not sure. Prentiss protected Reid a bunch.

Highlights:

Guest Stars I've Heard Of: A threefer! Luke Perry is the cult leader; Connor Trineer (Michael from Stargate Atlantis) is an army guy; and another cult member is Katherine Wilhoite who played Luke's sister on Gilmore Girls and also the voice of Pepper Ann. Possibly I watch too much TV.

 

4x4 Paradise

A Norman Bates-esque hotel manager psychologically and physically tortures couples.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Hotch feels guilty after they discover the killer is someone he already interviewed, but who didn't ping his killerdar.

Guest Star I've Heard Of: Wil Wheaton! The serial killer is Wil Wheaton!

 

4x5 Catching Out

A hobo rides the rails and, um, serial kills people. Because this is Criminal Minds.

Cast Changes: In this episode we are introduced to Jordan Todd, whom JJ is training to cover for her while she's on mat leave. Morgan flirts with her before finding out who she is.

Highlights:

 

4x6 The Instincts

While the team tries to find a little boy who has been abducted in Vegas, Reid has strange dreams.

Character Arc (Finally, A Decent One! Reid-Centered, Of Course): The case dredges up a recurring nightmare Reid has been having since childhood about finding a dead boy behind a washing machine in a basement. He asks his mother about the boy, whose name Reid thinks is Riley, but Reid's mother says that Riley wasn't real--he was one of Reid's imaginary friends. Morgan looks into it and finds out that Riley was, in fact, a real child who was killed in Reid's neighborhood when Reid was four. When Reid has the nightmare one final time, he sees the face of the killer, and it's his father. Ha ha ha this show is awesome.

Highlights:

 

4x7 Memoriam

Reid remains in Las Vegas to investigate his father for the murder of the young boy that haunts his dreams.

Character Arc (I Love You Reid): Reid tries to hide his suspicions from the team, saying he just wants time to spend with his mom, but Morgan and Rossi secretly stay behind and join in his investigation. Reid is flustered and anxious yet determined as he doggedly pursues the truth, despite many other characters assuring him it would be OK if he let it go, and probably better if he didn't stir things up. Eventually, the solution to the mystery is that Riley was killed by a pedophilic murderer, and Riley's father killed him after Reid's mother inadvertently led him to the culprit. Feeling responsible for the whole thing, Reid's parents helped Riley's father cover it up. All this was brought on after the pedophile approached Reid, but Reid's mother (lucid off her meds) assures Reid that he was never touched. Nuts, I thought we were going to get a hat trick. (Actually, I thought much if not all of this was going to turn out to be in Reid's head. So much for that. We're reaching the end of peak onset years, here, people! I'll be so disappointed if this show ends and Reid isn't on antipsychotic medication.)

Highlights:

 

4x8 Masterpiece

A creepy college professor with a Golden Ratio obsession turns himself in, daring the team to find his hostages.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Even though the professor wants to talk to Reid, whom he considers his intellectual equal, Rossi insists on keeping the interview, saying he's built up a rapport. He seems insecure about his own intelligence. In the end, he cracks it, so yay. (Reid helps behind the scenes, though, including getting a crazy figuring-it-out montage in which he is superimposed over the cosmos and roses opening and the works of Leonardo da Vinci and shit. You'll never get that, Rossi.)

Guest Star I've Heard Of: The creepy college professor is Jason Alexander in a long white wig. It works, almost!

Fun Facts: We finally get the skinny on Reid's education. He has undergrad degrees in Psychology and Sociology and doctorates in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering, and is currently working on an additional master's in Philosophy.

Quote of the Episode: "I never have any normal fans." --Reid

 

4x9 52 Pickup

The team tracks a killer who lures women from a nightclub.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Jordan Todd, in her first JJ-less assignment, incurs Hotch's wrath by lying to a grieving family. Hotch accuses her of "misrepresenting the bureau." Later, when Prentiss asks what happened, she says, "Did she misrepresent the bureau?" You get the feeling Hotch is always going on and on about that.

Highlights: There are two other character arclets so amusing I decided to classify them as highlights.

 

4x10 Brothers in Arms

The team tries to find a copkiller.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): At one point Morgan gives a brief speech to an FBI-unfriendly cop about how he knows what it's like because he used to be uniform himself and his dad died in the line of duty, and in about the last five minutes of the episode, we see Morgan going to great lengths to comfort the grieving family of one of the cops. So I guess it was supposed to be a Morgan episode.

Recapper Milestones: This episode is notable only in that a friend came over while I was watching and asked of Hotch, "Is that Greg from Dharma and Greg?" And I said "No, it's... It is! It's so Greg!" I can't believe I didn't notice it before. I mean, what, 80 episodes, it's been? Now it's so obnoxious, I can't see him as not Greg.

 

4x11 Normal

A disgruntled family man takes up the hobby of shooting motorists with a sawn-off shotgun.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Jordan is horrified at finding some bodies, and tells a strangely comforting Rossi, "I can't do this job." Rossi assures her there's no shame in that. Maybe he just wants to get rid of her?

Highlights:

Guest Stars I've Heard Of: The unsub is Mitch Pileggi and the lead cop on the case is Gina Torres. So, to sum up, they're now had guests stars from X-Files (or Stargate Atlantis, depending on whether you know Pileggi as Skinner or Caldwell); Firefly (or Hercules or Cleopatra 2525); Seinfeld; Star Trek; Gilmore Girls; 90210; Xena; Malcolm in the Middle; Weeds; Dawson's Creek; House; Psych; and if you count main cast, Dharma and Greg, The Simpsons/Joan of Arcadia, Dead Like Me and Andy Richter Controls the Universe/Friends. All they need is Callum Keith Rennie, Garret Maggart and Rider Strong, and they will have done ALL THE SHOWS I LIKE.

 

4x12 Soul Mates

Morgan and Rossi try to get one half of a rare dom-dom killing team to give up his partner.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Am I the only one who is pretty sure the character arc consisted mainly of strong textual hints that Morgan is totally gay? He keeps harping on the emotional bond that is revealed in the letters between the two killers, and when the detainee tells him he doesn't know what he's talking about, Morgan says, sounding very facetious, "You're right. I have absolutely no idea what it's like to be in love with another man."

Other Highlights:

 

4x13 Bloodline

Every show has to do an episode about gypsies! Reid is careful to point out that the family of killers they're tracking is perverting Romani culture. Whatever, gypsies!

Character Arc (Is There One?) They're pretty in love with the A-plot this episode. The only character stuff really is Jordan giving Hotch a little speech about how teams are like families and they take on the characteristics of the leader (which is really only true in the context of this episode, but whatever), and Hotch is emotionless, so..., anyway, she hopes he appreciates JJ, because her job is hard, and she's arranged to have JJ back from mat leave next week. It's early, but it's what they both want. Hotch is like, sure. The fans (and Garcia) are like JJ YAY WE MISSED YOU. And JJ may just be like "Oh god I hate my baby."

Fun Facts: Prentiss doesn't speak Romanian, but she recognizes a Romanian term of endearment from when her mom was stationed "overseas." Oh, yeah, they're always speaking Romanian there.

 

4x14 Cold Comforts

Tracking a necrophile who kills by enbalming, the team competes with the services of a psychic who assures a missing woman's mother that her daughter is still alive.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One) JJ, back from mat leave, is feeling slightly emo and helps the psychic, because she wants to believe. She's mad when Rossi tries to discredit the psychic, asking, "Why would you take away her hope?" The episode is ambiguous as to the veracity of the psychic's abilities (as is the custom on TV), but seems to come down on the side of science when Rossi tells JJ at the end of the episode that he once trusted a psychic's lead and took a case in the wrong direction, leading to a child's death.

Highlights: More of Reid's purple scarf and some delightful innocent-Reid reaction shots whenever fucking dead people is mentioned. (Also he coughs nervously when discussing drugs, but that could be incidental. He coughs nervously a lot.)

Guest Stars I've Heard Of: Cybill Shepherd appears briefly as the unsub's mother; Mercedes McNab, Buffy's Harmony, plays the abductee.

 

4x15 Zoe's Reprise

Rossi uses the notes of a victim, a criminology student, to track down her killer, an unsub who perpetrates seemingly unrelated crimes using the MOs of various historical serial killers.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Rossi feels responsible for the death of Zoe, an eager-beaver student who tried to sell him on her grand unifying serial killer theory at a book signing the night of her murder. He tries to make it up by paying her funeral expenses anonymously, pissing off her mother.

Guest Star I've Heard Of: Zoe's mother is played by Bess Armstrong, better known as the mom from My So-Called Life.

 

4x16 Pleasure Is My Business

A high-end prostitute with daddy issues kills wealthy businessmen who have abandoned their families.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): I think when the prostitute/killer says at the end that Hotch, the man who's arresting her, is the only man who hasn't let her down, it's supposed to be poignant because of course he has let people down--his own child, specifically, by being a working too much, something he's doing even now. But it doesn't work because I can't imagine what the killer is referring to. Seriously, the BAU did nothing in this episode. The major confrontation, between the killer and her businessman father, happened without any involvement from them.

 

4x17 Demonology

A priest kills schizophrenics and addicts during exorcism rituals.

Character Arc (Okay There Is One): We finally see Prentiss show some emotion and right off the bat, as the first scene is her meeting with a friend (Shane from The Shield) who informs her that someone called Matthew is dead. She insists on investigating what appears to be Matthew's natural death due to his pre-death insistence that someone was after him, even though he was admittedly a paranoid drug addict. Hotch is willing to play along at first, but ends the case when they're pointedly not invited on by the local police; Rossi helps Prentiss continue her investigation anyway. We learn that Matthew was Prentiss's friend as a teenager and that he defied his uber-religious family to help her get an abortion. (When Rossi asks if he was the father, Prentiss says no, and we get a hint later on that it was Shane from The Shield.) There's also a bit of business with Morgan wanting to hold off and not jump to any conclusions about the religiosity of the murderer, but nobody listens to him.

Guest Star I've Heard Of: Shane from The Shield.

 

4x18 Omnivore

Hotch's first profilee, the prolific any-victim ("omnivorous") serial killer the Boston Reaper, resurfaces after a truce with his lead investigator expires. After various plot turns, the team uses Hotchner's ten-year-old unofficial profile to arrest the Reaper, but in a last-minute twist, he escapes!

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Hotch's guilt, of course. (Are we sure Prentiss was the Catholic one?) Hotch feels worse with every murder that happens after he refuses the Reaper's offer to renew the truce until Rossi finally offers him a gun and is like GET IT OVER WITH ALREADY. Ha. Morgan also gets a guilt/regret arclet when the Reaper knocks him out, but doesn't kill him, preferring instead to steal his badge and leave him a bullet as a present, as if to say, "I could have killed you." Hotch advises him to let it go. WHERE IS REID. I mean he is around looking sickly and waiflike and able to be knocked down with a feather as usual but wheeeeeere are his character arcs.

Credit Where It's Due: I've never actually known any of the places that the BAU went before, and I was pleasantly surprised at how many Boston location details they managed to get right: the look of Boston police and public transit vehicles and location shots were all beyond nitpickery.

 

4x19 House On Fire

A small town is rocked by a series of incredibly destructive fires.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): It's a semi-decent Garcia storyline. She's frustrated when Hotch expects her to go above and beyond her job description--interpreting not just data, but people; finding out their backstories and personal secrets, and attributing possible motives to them. She knocks the assignment out of the park just to show she can (key information she digs up about how one of the women in the town was totally boning her brother leads to the discovery of the arsonist), but then she tells Hotch she didn't like being forced to look for the bad instead of the good in people, and she doesn't want to do it anymore.

 

4x20 Conflicted

The team figures out that the hot boy victims in a spring break resort serial killing are being bound and subdued by a team--a hot girl and a strong man--but they don't realize until so far into the episode and so many anvilicious hints have been given to the viewer that the two killers are in one and the same body (a hotel worker with multiple personalities) that by the time of the "big reveal" I'm sure the answer must be something more complicated.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): It's a Reid episode, I guess? (Some parallels are drawn between the timid male personality, Adam, and Reid, but we don't ever get Reid in drag, worse luck.) Reid is the one who figures out how to interpret the weird readings on the lie detector test, and who talks down "Amanda" (the dominant, powerful, serial killing personality) when she threatens her abusive stepfather with a knife. Later, when Reid goes to interview Amanda (Reid being no stranger to mental institutions), he's frustrated that the Adam personality no longer seems to be accessible.

Guest Star I've Heard Of: Adam/Amanda is aptly played by the adorable Jackson Rathbone, aka Twilight's Jasper "Vacant Stare, Big Hair" Hale.

 

4x21 A Shade of Gray

The clues don't add up in a case involving a boy who's been abducted out of his home, and it slowly dawns on the team that the parents and local police chief are covering up for the murdered child's brother.

Character Arc (I Wish There Was One): In retrospect I'm thinking this was a Prentiss episode as it was she who, interviewing the brother, came to the slow and awful realization that he was a sociopath, but she really didn't do much else. And everyone else figured it out separately.

 

4x22 The Big Wheel

Another obsessive-compulsive killer, this one a filmmaker who documents his crimes--including leaving the message, "Please Help Me," for the police. The team finds him after tracking down the blind son of a former victim whom the killer has befriended.

 

4x23 Roadkill

The fluidity of memory is I guess supposed to be the theme as a troubled veteran runs over red sports car drivers as revenge for a red sports car killing his wife, and another man (ALSO A TROUBLED VETERAN??? I'M NOT SURE) confesses to the triggering crime (it turns out the confessor didn't do it--he had the dates mixed up--and the killer was, in fact, the one responsible for his own wife's death.)

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): There's a subplot where Garcia's boyfriend is considering taking a foreign service job, but it's notreally related to the main plot in any way. It is heavily implied that Garcia unethically and possibly traitorously sabotaged the position to keep him, though, so there's that.

 

4x24 Amplification

After several people whose only connection is that they were in the same park at the same time die of a special weaponized strain of anthrax, the team tracks down a disgruntled scientist. Reid accidentally breaks a vial in his lab and quarantines himself. REID GETS ANTHRAX. ATTENTION, ATTENTION: REID GETS ANTHRAX. It's a race against time to the find the antidote before Reid fades artfully into attractive sickliness.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): There could have been more, honestly. There's just the expected stuff with Reid pushing himself to work even as he develops symptoms and Morgan being upset that he let it happen or that he's not doing more. (Yay, shippiness.) But Reid doesn't get trapped until more than halfway through the episode, and his "genius" in the face of disaster is truly sub-par. (He gets all the credit for finding the antidote when really it was a CDC woman in a Hazmat suit. All Reid did was say it would be "somewhere unexpected.")

Nitpicks: I don't understand why it was a big deal when the CDC people discovered that Reid had cut his hand on a thorn. Isn't anthrax airborn?

Guest Star I've Heard Of: Dan Lauria, the dad from Wonder Years, plays an army guy.

Highlights:

 

4x25, 4x26 To Hell... And Back (Parts 1 & 2)

The team heads to Canada! after a Chicago man drives into a border guard station and confesses to several murders. Actually, he's not the killer; he's just the brother of a vic, trying to draw attention to the crimes. The team traces the real killer to a pig farm in Ontario. Only he's paraplegic! Only he's making his enormous mentally deficient brother do the murders for him. It's a really unpleasant, grimy, piggy, medical-experiment-y episode and there are not even any mounties in dress uniform.

Character Arc (Is There One? Maybe a Few Bits of One?): It's sort of unclear. Ummm. Rossi gets to be a gritty badass playing Bad Cop to the paralyzed man. The others, especially Hotch, are worn-down by the whole experience. Morgan complains that this guy has killed over a hundred people in the time he's been with the team, making their other victories--and the minor victory they score today, by rescuing the latest kidnappee before she's killed--seem irrelevant. In a milestone show-ending voiceover, Hotch just talks--not quoting anyone, and indeed noting lamp-shade-ily that there's not always a clever quote to wrap everything up. In the final minute of the episode, he goes to his home bar to pour himself a drink, and it looks like he might shoot himself, but instead a gun barrel appears from stage right. The Boston Reaper appears and shoots Hotch at point-blank range, giving us our season-ending cliffhanger. Ha! Whatever. We all know that on this show, getting shot at point-blank range is only fatal in the first five minutes of the episode.