S10.E03: A Thousand Suns

[formerlyfreedom]

When a passenger jet crashes in Colorado, the BAU team is called to build a profile around the suspicious circumstances. The case hits close to home for Kate, who is reminded of a family tragedy.

 

 

[Wilowy]

Here's a promo:

 

http://criminalmindsfans.com/promo-criminal-minds-episode-10x03-thousand-suns/

[Danielg342]

This could either be really campy or really good- it'll all depend on the execution. I do like the idea of someone taking over planes and crashing them- it's a novel idea, kind of like Gotham's "The Balloonman" that used weather balloons as a murder weapon.

[normasm]

Extended promo: http://criminalmindsroundtable.blogspot.com/2014/10/criminal-minds-season-10-1003-thousand_12.html

 

This one looks intense. We know it will feature Kate's past secret, but i hope it ties in with Reid a lot. 

[zannej]

I'll have to watch it later. thanks for the link.

[missmycat]

Extended promo: http://criminalmindsroundtable.blogspot.com/2014/10/criminal-minds-season-10-1003-thousand_12.html

 

This one looks intense. We know it will feature Kate's past secret, but i hope it ties in with Reid a lot. 

From what I understand Kate is going to confide in Reid about this secret.It's something that Hotch and Rossi supposedly already know.Anyways I really hope it's not a centric episode. IMO it's a bit to soon for her to be getting one of those.

[SSAHotchner]

So much BS. I'm shaking my head. However, lots of great Reid. I can almost forgive the writer for that.

[Watermelon]

This episode seemed to have more Spencer, no?  

[ForeverAlone]

Sharon is one of the two current writers most likely to write a lot of Reid and good Reid.

[vibeology]

That was awful. So much of that was just detached from the actual world in a way that is truly insulting to real world situations involving airplane crashes/terrorism.

 

Of all the over the top, ridiculousness spewed, the most unbelievable part was that the decision if/when to shoot down a commercial airplane full of civilians would be left to the BAU and some Air Force commander or whatever that woman was rather than, you know, the President of the United States.

 

Also, how does damaging the remote the Unsub was using to control the plane totally shut down his system? That's like if someone broke my keyboard and my computer shut down. 

 

If someone wants to make a show about a fictional NTSB go for it. I'm a plane nerd, I'll watch it, but don't suggest that FBI profilers know what porpoising is or have the credentials to be the only people in the room listening to the CVR.

Edited October 16, 2014 by vibeology

[SSAHotchner]

It was like a made-for-TV disaster film. I can't believe that no one on staff or the cast questioned this pile of crap.

Also, I found it hilarious that the BAU had time to fly from VA to AZ BEFORE the local news teams got to the crash site.

[LexiconDevilOne]

Grrrr....

[Danielg342]

That was um...strange. My first overall gut reaction was "there's no way in the world something like this could actually happen" even though many of the episode's explanations did make sense. Still...everything was just...off. I can't put my finger on it but Sharon Lee Watson managed to make the completely explainable...unexplainable.

 

I'm not sure if I've ever seen that before.

 

First of all, I fail to see why the BAU got called in...this seemed like your rudimentary air crash. There were unusual circumstances, sure, but nothing I saw from the initial expositions that would suggest that would suggest needing BAU involvement. Sure there was a "white flash" (a flash, I will point out, that seemed unnecessary and was never explained), but that would only prompt the military to get involved. There also wasn't a whole lot of profiling involved- the clues were all mechanical (aside from the text to Kristina Morrow, but that should have come up through a routine background check on the passengers), and if the government investigators had done their jobs, they would have figured out some guy was remote controlling the plane on their own. Really, this entire episode just felt like your routine plane crash investigation with the BAU being mouthpieces. It was poorly done.

 

That said, I liked Callahan in this one- Jennifer Love Hewitt hit the right note in between "sad" and "angsty"- and her bonding with Reid was a wonderful moment. It was a great callback to Maeve and a nice reference to his mother, and it seemed to ease Callahan in that she saw that the nice guy really did know what suffering is about. Of course, he could have realized all this without Maeve having to be killed, but I think we've crossed that bridge already.

 

Also...while I'm sure there are those who will scream "misogyny" and deplore Criminal Minds for making the African-American military woman useless compared to Hotch when it came to the military whackjob but I believe it made total sense. It was a realistic moment where something like that could actually happen, and the show didn't imply that the character was useless, just that the whackjob didn't trust her. I do believe the military lady could have been used a bit more, but I wouldn't chalk it up to inherent misogyny.

 

Furthermore, I thought the acting was top notch and made a lot of the horrible writing watchable. Good job, casting department.

 

Overall, this was a "high concept" episode with a lot of potential that...was poorly thought through and ultimately failed on a number of levels. I don't think it was from a lack of effort, but I do think Watson was in way over her head...this should have been a case where she enlists some help, and maybe Erica Messer ought to have made this a later season effort so that Watson could have had more time to fine tune things. Kudos to her for thinking outside of the box and giving an honest effort, though.

[Danielg342]

Like I did with "The Wheels On The Bus..." on TWoP two years ago (can't believe it's been that long...) I figured I'd take a stab at how I would have written this episode. So here goes:

 

-Plane still gets hijacked, crashing under mysterious circumstances (it always has to)

-You get your rudimentary investigation, everything seems normal, but then one of the investigators, looking forlornly at that Tonka truck the kid had just played with, discovers a sheet of paper that had blown into the truck

-The sheet contains some kind of weird message- done in code- that prompts the BAU to come in, since the investigator thinks some strange weirdo that only the BAU could understand wrote the message

-Then, as if on cue, some group of Internet whackjobs chime in and claim responsibility for the crash. Cue the BAU bringing them in and interrogating them to get some answers

-Despite some clear bravado from the whackjobs (and a fake answer to the code), the BAU concludes that the group is really just trying to cash in on the fame by claiming responsibility for something they didn't actually do

-This forces the team to re-examine the message, with Reid (who else?) cracking the code, with the message being revealed to be a suicide note. They also notice that the guy in the white shirt who acted as the team's "point man" for the investigation seemed to know a little bit too much about how the plane "possibly" failed

-So the team investigates White Shirt Guy and realizes he had a friend on that plane, so they bring in him in

-WSG reveals himself to be a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, revealing that, like Callahan, he too lost someone close to him on 9/11. He brings up many of the conspiracy's explanations, such as structural concerns with the Twin Towers, coming to those conclusions after he studied 9/11 himself

-Then, some of WSG's friends- the ones posing as Internet whackjobs- lose their jobs during the 2008 financial crisis, which WSG sees as a "second 9/11". It's here that he's inherently convinced that the government truly is trying to "gut" its own people

-So WSG concots "the perfect hijacking" (involving remote controlling the planes) in retaliation and plans it for years, although he was a little skittish about launching it

-Then WSG's best friend gets a terminal illness, galvanizing WSG into putting the plan in action so that his friend could "die in peace" and that the government could see that the people are capable of pushing back

-The team realizes that for WSG's plan to work he actually needs to get caught, making them fear he's got control of another plane in airspace

-WSG reveals that plane is "leverage" and if he's not let go, that plane will go down too

-The team tells Garcia to override WSG's control of the plane, which throws her into a panic since she realizes it'll be an ardous task

-The team then decides to go with WSG's plan, believing he's not bluffing. WSG returns the favour, and lands the plane safely

-However, the team bluffed on their end of the bargain, seeking to "re-arrest" him after the landing. WSG, knowing this was a possibility, pulls out a detonator from his pocket and presses the button

-...only that it does nothing, because Garcia overrid the controls, allowing him to be taken into custody

-Perhaps the episode ends with Callahan herself reading clippings from 9/11, maybe even leaving it open-ended as to whether or not the conspiracy theorists were right after all

[Old Dog]

I will hold up my hand and say I actually really enjoyed it. Sure there were flaws in the story but for the first time in many many moons I had that "edge of my seat" feeling. I thought the set people did a fantastic job with the crash site. I liked all the false leads as to the unsub and that it took till the end to work out who it was. I thought JLH came over well. I liked that it was a team episode and Hotch was at his most Hotchly. JJ was acceptable although Garcia was still a bit flippant given the nature of events. Also SLW knows how to write Reid and he looked even more breathtaking than usual in this one. I will have to watch it again to let the flaws come to the surface but for me on first watch it was exciting - and I haven't felt that with CM for such a long time.

[crowsworks]

I just hope this isn't another  Lone Gunmen premiere thing.

 

You know... where in a few months people will be saying "Wow how did they know?"

[idiotwaltz]

I didn't think it was too bad, if one is able overlook all the implausibilities of, well, everything with the plot. I liked that it was case-focused and there was minimal taking-it-personally by any of the characters, aside from the bit about Callahan's sister. Even that was done in the right dose and not too heavy-handed. 

 

 

Also, how does damaging the remote the Unsub was using to control the plane totally shut down his system? That's like if someone broke my keyboard and my computer shut down.

 

I LOLed when I saw the control; it looked like the UNSUB was playing with his XBox. 

[zannej]

I admit that I was very tired when this episode came on. I was napping until my alarm went off to tell me it was coming on and I started to doze off during commercial breaks, but I was still interested and engaged in what was happening on screen. While watching I did have some things that struck me as not making sense or not ringing true, but for the most part, I did enjoy it.

 

The idea of someone hacking the system via someone's laptop or other device seemed preposterous to me, but I did notice that they mentioned the helicopter being controlled by remote in a previous episode. So even if it doesn't fit in with actual reality, it does fit in with the show's established reality.

 

I will say that Sharon Watson really does seem to listen to the fans about what they want. She seems to be making more of an effort than other writers to use elements from the earlier seasons. Things like : green screen where a team member talks about what happened while seeing what they envisioned happening at the crime scene, more Reid actually sounding intelligent and figuring things out, the unsub not being shown until the last few minutes, and strong guest characters that were competent. I felt like they seemed human and had personalities even though they didn't have to reveal anything personal about themselves. It really came off as a team effort- which I can tell you does not always happen when the feds try to work with the military.

 

I say kudos to Dr. Watson for her effort, but there were still some things in the episode that were off.

 

I've come to just accept that most of the cases they do now would not be BAU cases so in the realm of the show, I will try to believe that there was a reason to call in the BAU for it-- or just do some handwaving and ignore it. This one didn't bother me too much because it was sort of a joint task force thing and not solely the BAU. Although in my head I thought it would have been more of a case for the anti-terrorism section instead.

 

There was never any explanation about the streak of light the one nutjob claimed to have seen. Was he lying? Did he imagine it? 

 

Despite not seeing the unsub, I felt that there wasn't quite as much profiling as there could have been. Instead of relying on more of the team actually doing the victimology, we had Garcia googling things about people. She is too much of a crutch for them and I miss having the team members actually talk to family members to find stuff out instead of having Garcia google. I didn't like Garcia just hacking in and getting people's text messages-- I don't even know if that is actually possible if the phones were destroyed.

 

Maybe I missed it because I was tired and fell asleep as soon as the show was over, but I didn't quite get what the guy's motivation was and didn't feel that his being rejected was enough of a stressor.

 

While I liked that Reid shared with Kate, I felt something was off about the way he told her about his girlfriend and mother. It was partially the line delivery that bugged me and then something I can't quite explain about it seeming off.

 

The director was using some camera techniques that actually distracted me from the episode where I really noticed the camera moving or doing things that bugged me.

 

Now for the good: I already mentioned the elements that Dr. Watson brought back that were common in earlier seasons. I liked those for the most part. I liked that the screen time seemed balanced with the team. I liked the tertiary characters. I liked the mystery. I did like the suspense although I knew they were going to save the second plane in the end. I did recall they said that if the equipment was destroyed the unsub would lose control -- so I guess they counted the remote control as the equipment. I liked that Kate has emotions but that she was trying to keep it together and not make it about herself. I like that Hotch was taking charge.

 

Overall, I would give this episode a B and its one that I will re-watch without feeling like I'm forcing myself to eat those disgusting canned string beans I hated so much as a kid.

 

DanielG, I really like your idea for what could have been done in the episode.

[Lostinthehouse]

I greatly enjoyed the suspense.  But I do a lot of flying, and any TV show involving plane crashes usually leave me unsettled.  The absolute preposterousness (is that a word?) of the plot, development, and unsub's motivation really settled my nerves.  

 

But I'm smh on the motive - a blind date went very wrong some years ago, so the guy develops a way to crash a plane that the girl was on????  Am I misreading that?  Then why the second plane?

[normasm]

Well, I enjoyed it, even with some eye rolling at the BAU being called in on this case. As you said, zannej, one has to cut some slack for plausibility because TV, but i hate when they put dumb speeches in Reid's mouth.

 

When he intones this guy is "a serial killer," all i could think is "by what definition of the term, Dr. Reid?" Have they redefined a serial killer as something other than a killer with a cooling off period who's killed at least 3 people? This guy was a mass murderer, sure, maybe even a domestic terrorist, and maybe the definition could have been stretched if he had succeeded in downing the second plane into the football stadium, at least that would have been a series of killings. Ah, technicalities.

 

But the balance of the writing was lovely, after last weeks awful Garcia boohooporn. 

 

Reid doing the green screen thang!! Loved it. The plane crash reenactment while he was speaking was truly scary. But the crash scene seen from the crane shot was bad; couldn't they have bulldozed a bit of dirt here and there so it didn't just look like stuff carefully placed just so on top of a smooth roadbed?

 

I agree, zannej, Reid casually tossing off that his girlfriend died and his mother is schizophrenic, "since we're sharing," rang utterly false, and i don't think it was MGG's fault. 

 

I will say I want to see this one again, and not just to see what I missed by being sleepy. I liked JJ interviewing the copilot, and that they didn't send her out to get the unsub (whom we didn't see till the end, yay!). But they ended up killing the unsub again, and with a Hotch-shot. Again.

 

But the next to last shot, when Reid, Kate and JJ are placing flowers at the site (yuck), then JJ's phone goes off and Kate's phone goes off, and you definitely know that Reid's phone ain't going off...

[JMO]

Count me among those who enjoyed it.  I didn't find the premise to be all that inconceivable.  If we've learned nothing else over the past decade and a half, we've learned that we have many vulnerabilities, and there are many ways someone could take advantage of them.  That means we've had to rethink which resources to deploy, how to deploy them, and the necessity of a rapid response.  If we learned, someday, that behavioral analysts have been drawn into the investigation of possible terror plots, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

 

I liked the back story for Kate, and wonder if we'll meet 'Chris' (nice androgynous name, to leave us wondering).  The exchange with Reid was well done---a little reminiscent of his social awkwardness, in sharing his life tragedies to make her feel better about hers.  It reminded me a bit of the ending of the first episode, when Morgan and JJ were comparing traumas with her-----except that this exchange was more contextural and sincere. 

 

I like JLH and MGG in scenes together---they are both good at subtlety without coming across as flat.  I think Kate might be good for Reid, in that she seems to be able to make him laugh, and has never yet laughed at him.

 

The tension was good, and I liked the team's slow unraveling of what actually occurred.  Loved Reid walking (literally) through his theory of how the plane came down, liked that Garcia's feats were only slightly improbable.  I did think the wife of the co-pilot was a bit over the top (and thought it conveniently odd that she lived close enough to have driven there).  The conspiracy theorist was great----for a little while, I could believe I was watching part of an old X-Files episode.  I thought JJ and Morgan were oddly loud and demanding of the copilot when they first went to see him in his hospital bed, then was glad to see the more soft-spoken JJ reinterviewing him.

 

The main thing I would have changed was the take down.  I would have loved to see Reid along for that one, because he would have known how to end it all quickly.  Pull the plug.

 

Overall, a good episode.  It definitely passed the 'Reid-meter', so I will watch it again.  The next one--------ick.  Don't like bugs.  Don't want nightmares about them crawling all over me.  Maybe I'll have to wait and see if you all survive it first.

[St. Claire]

I thought this was a relatively enjoyable episode to watch while I was knitting. It didn't make me stop what I was doing to make me concentrate on deciphering the plot (which probably means I missed plot holes, since I was just accepting things as they came), but kept me interested enough that I didn't go looking for the ballgame. I sort of like Kate's "So I took in her ten children...that was a joke" moment. Just enough angst to make her unsettled but it wasn't All.About.The.Feels. 

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I'm having to watch it online, because my cable got on a wild hair last night and I missed it.

 

Didn't the Replicator take the team's helicopter out of the air in a similar fashion when he kidnapped Alex? Or is this going to be different?

 

Also, pro tip - CBS' website sucks, because first I had to disable my ad blocker so the video would run, then clear my cookies because it still wouldn't play.

[JMO]

 

Didn't the Replicator take the team's helicopter out of the air in a similar fashion when he kidnapped Alex? Or is this going to be different?

 

I think Reid makes a reference to this in the episode.

[missmycat]

I'm having to watch it online, because my cable got on a wild hair last night and I missed it.

 

Didn't the Replicator take the team's helicopter out of the air in a similar fashion when he kidnapped Alex? Or is this going to be different?

 

Also, pro tip - CBS' website sucks, because first I had to disable my ad blocker so the video would run, then clear my cookies because it still wouldn't play.

CoStar do you have Time Warner cable because if you do CBS now has Criminal Minds on demand

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I do have TimeWarner, MMC. Does On Demand come on different channels depending on time zones?

[Droogie]

But the next to last shot, when Reid, Kate and JJ are placing flowers at the site (yuck), then JJ's phone goes off and Kate's phone goes off, and you definitely know that Reid's phone ain't going off...

Oh, gosh. Ditto.

[normasm]

Can anyone tell me what the title of the main "LEO"(?) man was? Was he NTSB? I liked him a lot. Well drawn character, I liked the way he told Morgan and JJ about the porpoising, about the slats (ailerons?), etc., and it was something they didn't know. He was authoritative but natural, business-like but human. 

[Danielg342]

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt3997466/fullcredits/cast?ref_=m_ttfc_3

^ According to this, based on the pictures the actor is Eyal Podell and the character is Charlie Hosswell. I agree, I liked the character too, although I felt he could have made a wonderful UnSub (see “my version of the episode” post- he's “White Shirt Guy”).

[missmycat]

CoStar I'm not sure about that. I do know where I live it's channel 1001. You could probably find it using the guide button on your cable's remote control.

 

Okay I tried using the quote icon but was unsuccessful. Has anyone else had any issues with it today. 

Edited October 16, 2014 by missmycat

[alexvillage]

I have no idea if what Reid explained about the planes and wings and stuff is true, but it was the only part of the episode that did not bored me to death. And the guy who knew everything, not sure who he was, but he seemed trustful.
The production team could have taken the time to at least put a big satellite on top of the cabin in the woods because seriously? joysticks? and why couldn't the super awesome BAU extraordinaire have shot the guy in the head before overriding the President's orders to pull the jets away from the plane?
And Hotch's "he only talks with my team" is pretty arrogant. Again, one line about how he already talked to the FBI Director, the big boss, and he  said he had flu authority or something would not be that hard to include in this mess of an episode.
And even though I am usually biting my nails when it comes to planes almost falling movies, this one left me yawning.
I am trying show. It is not working

[ForeverAlone]

Hmmm...I like the idea behind the episode. This is a subject that the show hasn't yet explored, but yet this is a terrifying real possibility. So there is that. The inspiration for this episode was an amalgam of real world events obviously. I remember reading about the test case of the guy who hacked into the training software. I believe I read it in the wake of Malaysia 370’s disappearance and all the conspiracy theorists were out in full force. Sure there is no evidence it has happened yet in real life, but it’s probably just a matter of time, so I will accept that as the reasonably plausible underpinning of this crime. I mean, how many people would have predicted that a band of terrorists armed with nothing more than box cutters and fake bombs would be able to commandeer multiple aircraft and turn them into guided missiles, until it actually happened of course? And I fly A LOT, and have had many visions of something just suddenly going wrong with the plane. Of course now when I experience turbulence, I’ll be wondering if it’s somebody who hacked into the controls. 

 

When I saw the conversation between Reid and Kate, I was rather taken aback at how Reid just blurted out his dark history. He opened up about Maeve being killed in front of him and his mother’s schizophrenia. That's bold on his part, though maybe he did so to make Kate feel less emotionally exposed. But it was the first time he has talked about Maeve’s murder to somebody who didn’t already know about it. This could open up an interesting friendship between those two. I like the personal interplay between Reid and Kate, and am curious how that connection will develop. She doesn’t treat him like a child, a circus freak, or comic relief. I think I am going to like this friendship between them. It’s understated and just sort of feels natural for me. Though yes, poor Reid at the end of the episode. Kate had Meg calling her at the end, and presumably Will called JJ. But nobody is going to call Reid to check up on him or tell him they missed him. *sighs*

 

I liked the profiling the team went through to determine possible victimology, the unsub’s motivations and the psychology behind his actions. It was nice to see the unsub introduced late in the episode and very little time spent focused on what he was doing, and more on WHY he was doing it.

 

I liked the guest stars working as part of the task force. It was good to see the BAU working more with local agents. We don’t see that as much these days, or we’ll see it in the beginning and then they just sort of disappear.

 

I liked the use of green screen and Reid’s explanation for what happened to the plane. It was a nice callback to early seasons, just like she did last year with “Final Shot” (also another good Reid monologue). It took what was important words to know how the crime happened, and made it more visually interesting.

 

Some quibbles:

 

1.  Uh...we have active duty military personnel working in Homeland Security? I highly doubt that. Active duty military work in Department of Defense. Sure, this was billed as a joint task force, but she was supposed to work in Homeland Security. And NO WAY in hell would a mere O-5 (her rank) be delegated the authorization to shoot down a civilian airliner. Yeah, I get some things were glossed over for story telling purpose, but let’s not gloss over the sheer weight of the decision to shoot down a US civilian aircraft. That is a decision reserved for the President, the Vice President, and maybe a few others. If that authority WAS delegated to a military officer, you can almost guarantee it wouldn’t be below a general officer level. Yes, this show frequently gets many things wrong when it comes to its depictions of roles of government (a point I harped on in my review of “200”), but come on. Let’s show the real gravity of such a decision.

 

2.  Race or gender? Both? Really Hotch? Not even one thought that she is in a military uniform, and this Galen dude sounds like a conspiracy nut who likely hates the government? What kind of profiler is Hotch? I was able to pick up on that instantly. And did Galen actually see something or was he just a conspiracy nut? I mean, we have to believe that he didn’t see anything since the plane obviously wasn’t shot down by a missile.

 

3. Serial killer? Not really Reid. There is a difference between a mass murderer,  a terrorist, and a serial killer, but this isn't the first time the show has been a bit off in its references. Reid also declared another unsub a serial killer in “25 to Life”, because he had supposedly now killed a grand total of three people (decades after the fact).

 

4. Seriously, yet another killing of the unsub? Hotch couldn't have shot to wound? There was no reason Hotch HAD to shoot this guy in the head. Why didn’t someone just shoot the controls out of his hand or something? Or Morgan do one of his signature tackles?

 

5. Really, the plane was able to make an emergency landing that quickly? Yes, I get the show needs to compress things for TV, but come on!  It would have been one thing if some time was supposed to have passed, but the show presented it as a mere few minutes, so I must call BS.

 

6.  This one is super minor, but it is strange to me nonetheless. Kate raised Meg since she was basically an infant (since she is 13 and 9/11 was 13 years ago), and Meg has never known anybody but Kate to be her mom. Presumably Kate adopted Meg so she is legally her mom. So why would Meg call  her “Kate” and not “Mom”?

 

Outside of some wasted time on red herrings that would have been better served exploring team interpersonal dynamics (I'm looking at you first scene with the survivalists that ultimately had no point), and some serious compression of events at the end-including yet another needless killing of the unsub, this was an intriguing episode. Yes, we can argue about the plausibility of the scenario, but it was a different tack for the team and outside of their usual bailiwick. And compared to last week’s emotionally manipulative sobfest, I thought this episode was rather refreshing and practically understated.

[SSAHotchner]

Foreveralone, I did read in John Douglas' book "Mindhunter" that they are trained to take the headshot. I always wonder why they don't just wound them enough to get the gun away or shoot the tires on a car instead of shooting at the rear window, but I did read this from a "real FBI guy." :)

[Watermelon]

6.  This one is super minor, but it is strange to me nonetheless. Kate raised Meg since she was basically an infant (since she is 13 and 9/11 was 13 years ago), and Meg has never known anybody but Kate to be her mom. Presumably Kate adopted Meg so she is legally her mom. So why would Meg call  her “Kate” and not “Mom”?

I think  Kate wouldn't want to.  She may love Meg like she's hew own, but she's only her guardian because of a tragedy. I bet she would feel a level of guilt and maybe even an erasure of her sister were she to let Meg call her mother.

[ForeverAlone]

Yeah I can see Kate feeling guilty about being called Mom, but I also think it would be a bit weird for her to tell Meg to call her Kate and not Mom (as I'm guessing something like that would have to happen) or even Aunt Kate. I mean, Meg never knew her birth mother, so she would only think of Kate as her mother, and yet did Kate tell her she is not her mother, but rather her aunt? That might be kind of weird for a kid, but I am only speculating. 

[wknt3]

4. Seriously, yet another killing of the unsub? Hotch couldn't have shot to wound? There was no reason Hotch HAD to shoot this guy in the head. Why didn’t someone just shoot the controls out of his hand or something? Or Morgan do one of his signature tackles?

 

Shoot the controls out of his hand? Do you want realism or not? Here's a pretty good explanation of why it doesn't work that way in real life http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/19/police-deadly-force_n_5693020.html

 

From a story point of view I agree that I am tired of "BAU kills unsub at the last possible moment before he completes his evil plan" and would love to see more arrests and questioning, but don't want to see killing the unsub replaced by "super elite ninja Hotch saves the day with his sharp shooting". The only thing I'd like to see less is "ninja JJ saves everyone with her fighting skillz".

[joelene]

I actually kind of enjoyed it. I don't expect any episode to make sense at this point and for some reason I was engrossed enough to put my phone away. That hasn't happened for a long, long time. Enjoyment, however, doesn't necessarily mean that it was good.

Why did a football game as a potential target get an "Oh God!!" over a water park (or a suburb or whatever the third was)?

[Watermelon]

I actually kind of enjoyed it. I don't expect any episode to make sense at this point and for some reason I was engrossed enough to put my phone away. That hasn't happened for a long, long time. Enjoyment, however, doesn't necessarily mean that it was good.

Why did a football game as a potential target get an "Oh God!!" over a water park (or a suburb or whatever the third was)?

More people.

 

Assuming this is real time and the "University" was a popular one, there were bound to be more people at the college football game than those at a water park and the mall(?)

[SVNBob]

Thing is, I don't think this UnSub would have targetted the stadium.  They found him by determining that he had called the one survivor from the first crash, stating that there being a survivor spoiled the "perfection" of the first crash.  I thought he was going to kill two birds with one stone (or a lot of stones with one big metal bird) and crash the second plane into the hospital.

Edited October 18, 2014 by SVNBob

[needschocolate]

To me, this episode felt like a pilot for a spin-off with airplane crash experts, except there were no plane crash experts..  It was just so odd to have the BAU be called in so soon for this.  Then the BAU are the ones who determined that the plane wasn't hit from the outside and that someone took control of the plane.  They should have at least had there be a suspicious glider accident, then a suspicious 6 seater plane crash, then this one - so that there would be some "serialness" to it. 

 

I did appreciate the show going through all the trouble to have the militia guys there and then have them not be the ones who took down the plane.  In real life, there would be a lot of false leads (I am still waiting for CSI to find something at the crime scene that doesn't end up leading them to the killer - like discovering that the  mustard stain is from a jar of French's, an not from a jar of specialized mustard sold only in three places in the US and only served at one restaurant in LV).

 

The idea of someone hacking the system via someone's laptop or other device seemed preposterous to me, but I did notice that they mentioned the helicopter being controlled by remote in a previous episode. So even if it doesn't fit in with actual reality, it does fit in with the show's established reality.

 

It was also the plot of the latest season of 24 

.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

but I did read this from a "real FBI guy." :)

 

Are you sure his name wasn't Brad? :-D

[LolaRuns]

Put me down for liking this episode even if it was wonky. I enjoyed that there was such a large number of red herrings. I actually ththought hacker in the opening scene because of the flickering laptop but then some of the red herrings actually were made to look plausible for a bit before they returned to it. I appreciated the change of pace. Did think though that the exposition of the new agent felt pretty cheesy, but whatevs.

Plus, I was familiar with the hacking a plane news story so to me it didn't come that out of the blue.

To me the quality of the cases has gone down a lot in the recent seasons. I particularly hated that period where it seemed like there was a slew of cases that relied on victims being held for a long time (like that terrible school abduction/video game/forced hunger game scenario one or the one where the killer poses as one half of an abducted couple so he can bond with the female abductee) that all just seemed way too contrieved to me. Or that idiotic twin episode.

I know many people watch for the characters and not the cases, but imo when the quality of the cases just screams that TPTB just can't be bothered anymore and have run out of ideas it's usually a sign of the overall decline no matter how likable the characters and actors still are.

Edited October 25, 2014 by LolaRuns

[webruce]

Can they really control an airliner like that? I at one time thought it was NTSB guy was in on it. Commander Jumilla Reardon did a good job. Them worrying about 2nd plane may hit stadium and the F-16 waiting to stop it was a bit exciting. I knew it wouldn't happen but still. But we find it wasn't about Kristina. Rossi and Hotch had to shoot him to stop it. Big relief when plane landed.

The Kristina Marrow text help put the team on to ex Bf Hayman Vasher. It was all about Oppenheimer(sp?). Rossi used it at end.

Galen Patoski told what he saw and his theory on what happened.

Pilot Frank Canvers was lucky to make it. It was thought to be military. Or surface to air missile. We also had depressed Co-Pilot Phillip Trans. So we had a few ideas come out and sub plots.

Cole Marshak is David Marshak's brother and he had hand held missile launcher. He was a weekend warrior. He had a problem with either Commander Reardon's race, rank or sex. So Hotch had to control it.

Garcia calling Reid, "Brainiac" was funny.

Nice for Kate to confide in Reid about her loosing her sister, in 9/11. That is why she has Meg. Reid had a good amount of air time.

Nice that JJ, Reid and Kate put flowers on the crash site! Nice of Meg to call Kate at end too.

[zannej]

The Braniac thing made me think about how in DC Comics, Brainiac was actually a villain named Vril Dox. Although in Legion of SuperHeroes Vril's descendant, Qerl Dox, was called Brainiac 5 and was a hero.

 

Did anyone else wonder why the people weren't told to turn off their internet devices on the plane? I thought that was a no-no. But I haven't been on a plane in over a decade so I don't know what current protocol is.

Edited October 30, 2014 by zannej

[Danielg342]

Zannej, on planes nowadays you can get airline wifi...so you're now told to keep your wireless receivers off only on landing and takeoff.

[webruce]

Well my idea of Penelope calling Spencer that isn't a bad one. It just seems he knows so much about things from his studying that she feels inferior because her infomation isn't retained in her mind but is found on her computer.

Edited October 30, 2014 by webruce

[normasm]

Well my idea of Penelope calling Spencer that isn't a bad one. It just seems he knows so much about things from his studying that she feels inferior becasue her infomation isn't retained in her moind but is found on her computer.

 

Then why, oh why, does Garcia frequently say that she's a genius, too! I'd like to go back and count how many times she has called herself that. Oh, and no one says anything when she says she's a genius… she should get a clue.

[zannej]

Ah. The last time I flew, wifi was not a thing-- at least not a thing that I knew about. LOL. I don't think its a bad thing to call Reid Braniac, although I bet nerdy Reid would have pointed out that comic book Brainiac was a villain who put his consciousness into a powerful robot. :P

[webruce]

Then why, oh why, does Garcia frequently say that she's a genius, too! I'd like to go back and count how many times she has called herself that. Oh, and no one says anything when she says she's a genius… she should get a clue.

Well in her own way she is a genius. She can use and find things on the internet and databases through her computer a lot faster then anyone else in the BAU. At times different members of the team stroke her ego. Ofcourse especially Morgan.

 

Ah. The last time I flew, wifi was not a thing-- at least not a thing that I knew about. LOL. I don't think its a bad thing to call Reid Braniac, although I bet nerdy Reid would have pointed out that comic book Brainiac was a villain who put his consciousness into a powerful robot. :P

I have not flown since 1987, so I can't help on the airline etticate. 

 

Reid by now would know that Garcia or others are kidding for the most part. But I wouldn't put it past him to blurt out that bit of information anyway.

Edited October 30, 2014 by webruce

[ForeverAlone]

A short article about this very possibility.

 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2014/11/hacking-aircraft?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fbl%2Fed%2Fremotecontrol