normasm

Daniel and Walnut, get a room........! lol

Yes, JMO, the Mixed Signals episode had them joking back and forth, Tara talking down an unsub folie a deux style, and Luke using sign language to speak to a deaf victim. We also learned that Tara had been married before and it fell apart because of the development of unshared delusions. Nice for that interplay of the team members (because both have been pretty marginalized all season), but the unsub parts were dumb-dumb-dumb. Yes, the Reid/JJ interplay, especially the hug, seemed just like Reid telling her goodbye.

Yes mefein, Prentiss said he was on his mandatory sabbatical thingy.

Thanks, I'm enjoying this!

This is interesting, if you are interested in parole boards, these are actual transcripts of a few of the parole hearings Charles Manson had. You can read how many people are on the board, what they ask, what he is allowed to say. I haven't read it all, but it's pretty interesting. http://www.famous-trials.com/manson/251-hearings

I think it's usually 3 people on a parole board, so it wouldn't be a split decision. Daniel, if Jesse believes he's denied parole unjustly, I believe it doesn't matter. He has been adjudicated guilty, and sentence has been passed, and the parole board hears his set hearings for release, meaning the judge would say, hey, after he's serves this many years, he's eligible for parole, and if denied, he's eligible again in this many years. The parole board, as I said, weighs a lot of factors, his conduct behind bars, if he has done work that benefits others, etc., and, yes, they weigh what victims's families have to say. It may just be, like he thought he didn't deserve his sentence, that he just has to be quiet and serve the sentence he's given. The sentence he's given is a finite thing, though, which, in this episode's case, was pretty misleading. Say he got sentenced to 10 to 25. That means, he can't serve any more than 25, unless he did something in prison to add to that sentence, like try to escape, or kill someone. At maybe 8 years, he would have his first hearing for parole. If it's denied, no more time is actually added. He just has to wait another 5 years or whatever, for the next parole hearing.

No, that's not the way the parole board works. Jesse's only power in his prison situation would be if he could get a lawyer to find evidence that he was improperly represented at trial, or that the jury was tampered with, or that new evidence has been found and they ask for a new trial. But that has nothing to do with his request for parole. Jesse does not have an appeal to his appeal, if you catch my drift. By going in front of the parole board, he's appealing to be paroled and get out of prison. Unless he can bring evidence that his case has been mishandled (which would not happen in front of the parole board, but in front of an appeals court), he's there at the state's discretion.

There are no lawyers representing anyone in a parole board hearing - the victims simply state their case for keeping the guy or letting him go. As such, the victims or victim's family are not performing a legal plea, it's just a statement or petition of what they think would be just. No legal documents, just testimony. The parole board decides based on many factors, not just the victim's statement.

She started reading his words, then veered off-track to make her own statement, which wasn't even close to what he expected and wanted her to say. It was a betrayal of their agreement, and he was not able to state this to the hearing, because he had not been approved to make his own statement. A hearing can't "figure out" an opposing POV in a victim impact statement. The statement is entered into the record as stated. The hearing doesn't make mention of people getting upset. That's irrelevant.

illdoc, he tried to say something and the committee head told him to shut up or she'd have him removed. In most hearings, a person has to sign up to say something. If you aren't signed up, you won't be heard. That's why, when she took the statement he wrote (and she agreed to) off the rails, it was a betrayal.

Yes, this so much.

Actually, illdoc, as they were walking down the street, Garcia and Carlos discussed the other brothers, and she actually named all 3 or 4 (I don't remember their names except "Manny") and Carlos said they would not come, didn't want to see the guy.

Yes, FA, that seemed really long as a sentence for the crimes (not at all diminishing the severity of the crime). I just haven't heard of really long sentences for such; in fact, I think even murder one usually brings sentences of 8 to 10 with possibility for parole, unless aggravated, or in the case of capital murder. Maybe they thought that 20 years was as far as they dared stretch the de-aging of Penelope, lol.

Yeah, Garcia's 38, riiiiight. This was so awful when it might have been really good. As others have said, it was all about Garcia for Garcia, it didn't matter to her that her brother felt the way he did, and trusted her to express what he couldn't in person. No, it's about how enlightened she is, and everyone should just give it up, take up their beds and follow her. Honestly, could the character of Carlos been more flimsily written? He was simply a device to point to Garcia's loss. We feel nothing for him, because the character is a pencil sketch on toilet paper. The case was derivative of Amplification and Poison, two stellar episodes of the past, and it didn't hold a candle to either. I imagine the only thing folks will take away from that is a queasy feeling the next time they go to a buffet bar. Ick. Tara having to be the Reid of the episode, well, at least it wasn't Simmons. And, at least Alvez got to be the Morgan in the takedown. Yes, I do believe it's that rote with the writing, especially by Karen Maser. On the positive side, that girl playing 18-year-old Garcia was adorable, and a better actress than KV. And it was nice to see the local ME again. I think the last time we saw her was when Gideon was killed.

Just discovered (you guys may have known this) that the director was Lily Mariye who used to play nurse Jarvik on ER. I thought I recognized the name, then saw her picture, and sure enough! She did a good job, although i didn't enjoy the episode very much.

Agreed, JMO. They gave Simmons and Fam a centered episode early this season, too. I agree that they write Alvez with more mystery, and Lewis with more intelligence than any of the other newbies since Blake.

The OK parts? Rossi, playing Cat to Leonard Death Row's mouse. Tara quickly taking over and doing the Cyrano de Bergerac thing for Matt's wife. BUT This was not Criminal Minds but Criminal Matt. I happen to like the way Alvez and Lewis have fitted in, so I'm not complaining about Newbies per se. They've calmed Garcia down a bit, so that's good. No, I'm alarmed at the giving over of a bunch of the show's narrative to a character from a completely different show. And yes, even though Beyond Boredom shared the name Criminal Minds and they had a swanky jet, too, that show couldn't have been less like the Criminal Minds I know and love if it tried. I do hope Erica Messer is sated with Matt-dominated episodes, and it calms down after this. I'm not looking forward to 300 featuring him.

Well, my objection is that it's morally wrong, to my way of thinking, the end does not justify the means. Not to say police don't do this frequently, and sometimes, i'm sure that's the only way to stop a clever criminal. But it's not "best practices" in the eyes of the law, and less-than-clever and/or innocent people can be deceived into false confessions. Happens all the time. BTW, could you to point me to the place in the Constitution where it says law enforcement may lie to a suspect? Asking for a friend.

Yeah, that's what happens when they put Joe's history on top of Dave's!

I agree, I really liked the understated Alvez dating bookends. He was interesting, decent, attractive...

Hahahahahaha, JMO, yassssss

I had the same ick factor with the way they wrote Kate, making it seem OK to joke about beating up suspects and lying in interrogations. They ended up toning it down, but then they focused on her niece/daughter for that arc, and it was awful. As you say, she might have been really good with better writing.

I'd say she's about 10, 12 years younger than he, even on the show. Joe IRL is 70, but I think Rossi is supposed to be 62.

And they've spent non-work time together! Working on cars, stuff like that. Even if it's strictly platonic, it could be a great partnership, like Morgan and Reid.

After watching a second time, I like it better. I have to say, it almost felt like a backdoor pilot for a Rossi spinoff. I think I might watch an attractive, older, man with a sense of humor who solves crimes and plays music from the '50s, especially if he had a sidekick who was tall, smart, and handsome and had 3 PhDs. As others did, I totally approve of the silver fox look, and Rossi has definitely got his sass back. I rejoiced that he's not romantic with Hayden anymore, and I liked his casual friendship with Krystall. His relationship with Garcia in this was fun (she can be in the spinoff, too, if she doesn't get super annoying again). However, I must say I ship him with Tara, who seems to enjoy the heck out of him, and he reciprocates. The episode was OK. I particularly enjoyed the ME mourning the loss of Morgan ("don't worry 'bout me, I'll be fine"). I liked Prentiss being impressed by Luke's anecdote about the Native American women, and I expect to see that plaque before the season's over. I like that Tara picked up on the songs, and I loved the plot device itself (thanks, Bruce, I know how all those songs go). And, we found out for sure who the real unsub was when they did, partly because of the hand-raised roses Spencer pointed to (see, JJ? The tidbit did come in handy! PFFFFFFFffffffffffftt!) All in all, it was better than I thought it would be.