JMO

Was there something serial about it, before the cop was killed? The BAU was no closer than the rest of Quantico. Made no sense to me.

So many questions--- Why was the BAU involved? Why was Garcia planted at the hospital? Other than being a 'message episode', was there a point to this story? And, until more than half-way through, where was Reid?!! He. was a most welcome sight, and I sort of enjoyed his scene with the daughter. I thought AJ did well holding down the episode.

I feel the same way about the episode. I watch it with my finger firmly on the fast forward button. I don't mind the JJ/Garcia scenes, as I like both of them in this episode. But I only enjoyed the flashbacks for their curiosity factor, and am not inclined to watch them again. And absolutely nothing about the unsub was palatable, including the scene where Rossi killed him.

Rossi had a few good lines, something about the"'unsub trigger hall of fame", "I specialize in mood adjustments" and, most importantly, "I just spoke to Reid." I do like the gray on him. That was pretty much it.

Glass half full, Annber! Sadly, I'm back to work today. Fanfic will seep out slowly.

I've lost track. Is tomorrow's episode Reid-less?

WE TV is running their new weekly Saturday marathon. Just watched Elephant's Memory. I love this episode from top to bottom. The exposition on Reid and Morgan, Reid's determination to save Owen, at all costs, the relationship between Hotch and Reid---love, love, love. It's one of a handful of episodes where they use the team member's identification with some aspect of the situation to reveal more about the team member, without being heavy-handed or concrete. Love.

For me, The Fisher King, especially part two, has such a campy feel to it, that it seems like it was always meant just to be enjoyed, and not to be taken seriously. The logic issues are huge and endless, and yet it's so much fun that it's one of my favorites. I think MGG was outstanding in showing us a Reid who was simultaneously excitable and burdened, and Jane Lynch brought the perfect amount of brittleness to Diana's personality. Absolutely none of the episode made sense, and yet I enjoyed it immensely, for all of the reasons you have mentioned, JenJen and Annber.

I don't think Haley married a workaholic. I think she married her high school sweetheart, the 'worst third pirate', whose work ethic wasn't visible to her, back then. I doubt either of them had any more of an idea what marriage would be like than any other couple starting out so young. We can probably all point to stories of both success and failure in similar circumstances. As to having a child---I don't recall if we were told whether they'd been trying, and dealing with infertility, or if they'd simply decided to postpone having a family. Were we? I'm curious as to what makes you think Haley changed the terms of their marriage.

I've always sympathized with Haley. I don't remember learning whether she had her own career or not, so I don't know if she gave something up to become a parent. I don't recall day care or preschool ever being mentioned, so I think she became a full time, stay-at-home mom once Jack was born. We do know, from his forgetting his son's appointment (where Jack was diagnosed with 'a condition' that was never mentioned again), that Hotch wasn't fully present to the parent role, as long as Haley was there to occupy it. While she might have tolerated his long absences in their childless days, I get it if Haley felt abandoned once Jack came along. It must have been very lonely for her. Even those who thrive on kids need adult conversation from time to time. I don't see this as Haley changing her expectations, or not tolerating his job. I see it as the natural progression of the life of a couple that evolves into a family. Haley was with one guy, Hotch, since high school. Being a wife and mother was likely what she had in mind when she entered the relationship. But, with Hotch putting work first, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd come to feel like the forbidden mistress. It's possible that Hotch thought he was doing the right thing by excelling at his job and providing an income to the household. But Haley was pretty assertive in letting him know that it was his presence that she needed. When he heard that, and still withheld it, he essentially rejected her.

Same to you, Annber!

I won't use the language you do, but I will say that anyone----those you like, and those you don't----can suffer grief. Respecting it is always in order.

Tomorrow marks five years since the murders. The memories, and the facts, of the event are still raw for a great many people in our part of the country, and especially so for family members. While I wouldn't hold the actress responsible for the words, I have to admit that I cringed to hear the event used as a plot device, even when there was an attempt to write it sympathetically. I can fully understand how it might have been exquisitely painful for those living it the stark reality of it. I can simply take the family member at her word, and acknowledge that she is still grieving. From there, it's very easy to be supportive, and not disparaging.

Giving credit where credit is due. This was the first Reidless episode that held my interest. Not that I didn't miss him, because the subject matter virtually cried out for him, and they probably would have solved things at least a day earlier if he'd been there. But it turned out to be a good opportunity to focus on Tara, and Aisha did a great job with it. Loved the guy in the cabin, but wondered why Emily didn't post at least one deputy outside, to avoid Alvez and Simmons accidentally shooting someone when they burst in. Zelda Williams handled her role well, as the unsympathetic character you could love to hate, even if she hadn't turned out to be the unsub. I could feel my BP rising as I listened to her dismissal of reality as conspiracy. Sort of like reading Facebook. Speaking of which....I applaud Breen's courage in tackling the idea of conspiracy theories, and especially his inclusion of such a wide array of examples. He risked some fans identifying with the conspiracists, so I wondered what would happen. Take a look at the Facebook comments to find out. JM directed this one. It was the first time I've appreciated his work. I also liked the use of flashback scenes, and the inversion of the timeline of investigation. Can't leave this post without commenting that the sheriff's hair was a character unto itself.

Here's something we can agree on. There have been two scenes ('take one moment', and I forget the other) where poor Emily had these extremely trite words put into her mouth by the writers. I may have been projecting, but it looked to me like Paget was having trouble getting them out with a straight face.

Specific examples from seasons 12 and 13 re: Prentiss and JJ? We would be talking excessive and sustained violence, to meet the 'super ninja' criteria. And I'm clueless as to what your comment on 'Dead poets Society' means. Can you explain?

a) sounds like it b) I think that ship has sailed. I haven't seen a superwoman ninja on CM for years now.

Interesting, I didn't know that, but I see it on their schedule now. Wonder if ION and A&E are continuing. I can't see my original post on here anymore, so to reiterate: WeTV will start showing CM with a marathon on December 16. They've bought rights to ten seasons.

Catching up on 'This Is Us'. Does teenaged Kevin remind anyone else of a young Reid? Not the nerd, just the face.

Excellent analysis, Norm. I love your description of Reid's self-imposed mission, and think it fits perfectly with what we know of his childhood. Surely, someone has been keeping track. Any statistics out there? I feel like Hotch was always good for a kill shot. Can't think of anyone else who has killed other than by shooting, apart from Hotch.

It is an interesting discussion, in part because the circumstances for each team member have been so varied. I think that, as people grow older and more experienced, there is a certain amount of practicality that creeps in, and idealism that seeps out. And I think we see that in the various circumstances where the team members have taken lives. Reid, for whatever reason, seems to have been given an unusually large dose of idealism, and has lost it only slowly, in increments. Is that because he has nothing to lose? No family waiting at home, no specific dreams for the future? Is that what has made him less likely to end a case by killing the unsub? Is Rossi more likely, because he's simply seen too much? There are obvious reasons to kill an unsub, such as when a victim is in immediate danger. Reid's done that at least three times that I can think of----the LDSK, once to save Alex Blake, and in season 12, to save Morgan. So have the others, to save victims and colleagues. But that raises the question of how immediate is the danger? Would a moment of negotiation work? Does the agent care, or would it be just as easy to get everything over with right now? Are they actually trying to negotiate, or just to distract, to get the better shot? Do they kill for revenge? For example, did Rossi draw out Gideon's killer for the purpose of shooting him as a way of avenging the death of his old friend? Or was he being practical, knowing that the guy had already been killing for decades? Was it because Rossi had seen the judicial and penal systems fail too often? Does it happen in the height of emotion, a la Hotch vs. Foyet? Was that a practical killing, taking out Foyet because he'd already shown an ability to escape? Was it to eradicate the threat to Jack? Or was Hotch just insanely, and understandably, angry? Does that make it murder? Was Hotch impaired, in the moment? Was JJ, in her moment? Elle? I liked that we saw some fallout for Elle, after her shooting of the rapist. I wish we'd see more. Some uncertainty about the appropriateness of the shooting, some discussion of how else it could have been handled. Maybe even some uncertainty, after the fact, of whether they'd gotten the right person. Even some discussion about what separates a 'justified' killer from a serial one. For me, it would inject new life into the series.

It would have been interesting, at some point along the way, to have seen what happened at trial for some of their unsubs, what it was like for the BAU, for the families of the victims, the effect of pleading out vs. pleading insanity, vs. an actual murder trial. I suspect an agent's experience with that would impact how he or she felt about what to do in the field, and when 'justice' needed to be imparted before trial. I know we had Tabula Rasa, but that case was too specific a circumstance to count.

It turns out that the advantage of a Reidless episode is that one can 'watch' it while cooking. I thought it was okay, at least as regards the involvement of the media, even if it was a variant on 'Limelight'. CM was overdue for an acknowledgement of the role of the media when the presence of a serial killer becomes known to the affected community. We used to see a little bit of that, back in the days of JJ as the media liaison, but very little since. Luke Alvez seems to work well with each of the other members of the team, and I like him more and more. Matt Simmons, on the other hand, is inoffensive but blah. I don't see what he adds to the team. As to the other discussion, I'm inclined to agree that the pendulum has swung too far, and too long, in the direction of the 'explainable unsub', especially when said unsub's prior trauma is so specific to the murders. Trauma leading to emotional stunting, yes. Trauma leading to such specificity, recreating the trauma, no---not even remotely to the extent CM tries to portray it. The other big problem with the 'explainable unsub' is that it so often results in bad storytelling. We've had several examples already this season, including this one, where they had to utilize an exposition dump to create the unsub's history. There is no deducing from earlier scenes, no point in trying to guess at the identity or motive of the unsub, no reason to engage intellectually with the story at all. I do think they would be better off acknowledging the sexual connotations of most serial murders, and injecting suspense via trying to suss out whether m.o., or victimology, or geographic profiling will bring them to the desired result. In this particular episode, I would have been on the edge of my seat if the BAU and LEOs had had trouble identifying which mall parking lot held the car with the endangered child, and then even more trouble actually locating it in the lot. The element of danger, the pressure of time, and the frustration of getting stymied by simple things would have brought more dramatic weight than what we got. More Reidless the next new episode, but at least it was written by Breen Frazier. Fingers crossed. Happy Thanksgiving, to those celebrating. Mine's delayed a day (hence, this post).

I think we suggested having Reid make some phone calls, but no one knew to suggest a scene of him teaching until we saw the premiere, three days before MGG left for his fall sabbatical. So, if such should happen, it was already planned. Honestly, I don't think there's much opportunity for them to respond to fan feedback within the time constraints of the same season. Not none, but not much. Which doesn't mean they shouldn't try, within the constraints of time, talent and contracts.

Okay, I can buy that. They can have focus on Alvez during a non-Reidless episode, provided Reid plays a big role in that focus!