S10.E08: The Boys of Sudworth Place

[formerlyfreedom]

When a prominent attorney goes missing in Boston, the BAU unearths secrets in his past which could point to the reasons for his disappearance,

 

 

[Droogie]

Is it not Sutton Place? Thought I read it on the CM Roundtable blog. The stills look mighty fine.

NM -- I'm wrong.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Droogie

[Danielg342]

So the male is the damsel in distress...and I bet since he's a lawyer, he'll be a jerk too. I guess this means we've gone full circle on the political correctness chart...maybe the only solace is that this doesn't appear to be a murder case.

[normasm]

It is Sutton Place on Kim's script. I don't know where Suddworth comes from. Maybe they changed it in the midst of filming? No one could say Sutton?

[NYGirl]

Is it bad that I was rooting for the unsubs the whole episode? That is until we found out that the janitor actually was a child molester too.  What a sad episode.

 

I didn't like the end at all but I'm guessing that's going to be the ongoing story this year.

 

I don't watch every week anymore... just cherry pick the ones I want to watch

[zannej]

Well, I almost turned it off before the opening credits because we saw the faces of the unsubs before the credits. The non-violent unsub had some bad line delivery. It got all convoluted and once again we get this thing where the victim is not sympathetic and its multiple unsubs. Reid and Hotch were barely in this. I think they were in maybe 4 or 5 scenes total. I'm not surprised that there was very little Reid.

 

Once again JJ was more prominent. At first I was glad to see her being sensitive and nice to the pregnant wife, but I really think it was a bad idea for her to break the news about her husband being a pedophile-- especially when she knew it could stress her out and that isn't good for a pregnant woman.

 

I got very bored with all of the unsub scenes. They just fell flat for me and I was bored. 

 

It wasn't something I couldn't watch again, but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again. I did like the bits with Kate and Morgan talking to one another. I felt that JLH's line delivery seemed sincere and "real" this time around. 

 

For some irrational reason, JJ's ponytail swinging as she was walking away with one of the unsubs in custody was pissing me off. I was shocked to see Reid out in a vest although it was very brief.

 

Once again Garcia's magical computer did most of the legwork for them. I was hoping to see them interviewing people in various places, but I think we had more time spent on the unsubs than on the team so we couldn't get much profiling.

 

I facepalmed when Meg let her photo be taken. ugh...

 

I wasn't expecting much given the writer though, so I'm glad it wasn't worse. I give this one a D.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

So the male is the damsel in distress...and I bet since he's a lawyer, he'll be a jerk too.

 

It's better than that, he was a pedophile. To a point, making me feel for the UnSubs might have worked, but this just didn't. Mainly because the guys weren't very good actors. I felt a little sorry for the one in the white shirt, but otherwise? Meh.

 

And again with not enough Reid. I don't expect him to be all over the place every episode, but why is he the only one who usually gets just snippets? Although Hotch apparently vanished at some point. I didn't even see him on the jet at the end.

 

Meg is......not bright. Her aunt or whatever she is works for thee BAU and deals with murderers and whatnot, and she still puts her picture out on the web for God knows who? Sigh.

 

Who's already aggravated by the previews?

[Droogie]

Zannej, I think you're being very charitable with that D. I try to watch objectively but it was nearly laughable how little Reid and Hotch were in this. I was instantly annoyed with JJ. Sorry, but I couldn't help it. Of course she had the salient points and talked with the wife and (surprise, surprise) went to the takedown with Morgan.

Do the writers even notice how little Reid is used? I think he maybe said ten sentences. Garcia and her magical computer powers are all they need now. How does MGG stay on this show?

My skin crawled with the subject matter. I hate, hate, hate a kid-toucher. But really I thought it was very ham-handed and overwrought. Morgan did his scenes well but the writing was just bad, IMHO.

And again with not enough Reid. I don't expect him to be all over the place every episode, but why is he the only one who usually gets just snippets? Although Hotch apparently vanished at some point. I didn't even see him on the jet at the end.

 

 

Who's already aggravated by the previews?

Snippets. Exactly. Nothing brilliant, usually deflecting to others. Dunno how much more I can take. And yes, already annoyed with the previews. But of course, I'll watch. Because masochism.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Droogie

[ForeverAlone]

This episode was an interesting case. We don’t often have cases like these. This was one of those cases I couldn’t feel empathy for any involved, except Westbrook’s poor, deluded wife. It was definitely impossible for me to feel any sort of empathy for the “victim”, Westbrook. Not only is he a pedophile, he is a master manipulator, and I felt icky inside watching him try and manipulate Brian. It’s not too often that the “victim” is frankly worse than the unsubs. Here though, only the one boy in the white shirt was even REMOTELY sympathetic, but even then, I didn’t feel THAT much empathy for him.

 

But at least he surrendered his weapon. I am rather tired of the BAU killing the unsubs and being so ineffective at talking them down. It was good to see Morgan build rapport by sharing his childhood experiences, and effectively get him to surrender. It would be nice to see Morgan bring something other than his past molestation to the team (surely he has other skills and attributes), but he was effectively used in this case.

 

I think this episode would have been more effective and shocking if we hadn’t seen so much of the unsubs early. I mean, we saw two of them before the opening credits even rolled. I had already deduced that Westbrook had molested the boys who abducted him just by their interactions, so by the time we got the proof when Kate found the pictures in his man cave, it was just confirmation. I mean, I knew there would be some sort of dark secret about the victim, just because there was so much emphasis on him being perfect at the beginning of the episode. But I feel it would have been more powerful for the audience to realize he was a pedophile when the team realized he was. This was an example of how the audience knowing more than the team diminishes the power of watching the BAU do their job.

 

I was surprised that the BAU was called in on this case so early. I mean, he had only been abducted like eight hours prior. There was no ransom note, and he wasn’t that high profile, so I wonder why the local law enforcement called them in. I think the BAU gets called in on all or most child abductions, but an abduction of an adult male? I wish there had been some sort of explanation of why this was a BAU case in the first place.

 

I will say that the trend of the BAU entering every single dwelling with guns (even when the situation doesn’t call for it) to continue in this episode. I mean, Morgan and Kate entered Westbrook’s man cave with guns blazing. However, at that point, I don’t think they thought anything was amiss about that place, other than possibly housing a mistress. You would think they would have knocked politely or asked the landlord to let them in. Now, for the second home entry with Hotch and Rossi, that one made more sense why they went in with guns, because that point, the team had deduced that Brian was one of the unsubs. I got a little thrill of excitement at seeing Reid in tactical gear, because that is a rare thing these days. But alas, that excitement was premature, because once again it was Morgan and JJ for the takedown.

 

I think the unintended (maybe?) PSA for this episode was that if you encounter a criminal busting up your car with a baseball bat, don’t just stand there and watch, and DEFINITELY don’t chase after them into an alley. Run away and call the freaking police from a safe place. Maybe that was a man thing (or at least THIS man thing, because he was likely to be narcissistic enough to think he could take a criminal on by himself), because I think almost every single woman would flee the scene and not confront a criminal if we aren’t armed. Self protection first, everyone. Insurance would probably cover the damage to the car, but they can’t rescue you from abduction.

 

So Chris is a “he.” Sorry those who were hoping for Kate was a lesbian.

 

Initially I was annoyed at the ending scene with Meg and her friend because it seemed so superfluous at first, and then I was creeped out. Obviously this is a breadcrumb link back to the first episode and the traffickers. Was this just supposed to show that predators are everywhere, even when we least expect it? Or is this foreshadowing that something bad will happen to Meg? I certainly hope that is not the case. Please don’t go there Criminal Minds.

[SSAHotchner]

I have to say that I thought this was better than a lot of episodes from the past few seasons. No maggots, sawed off limbs, eyelids cut off, etc. However, no way was this a BAU case. As for the division of team responsibilities, I could understand having JJ speak to the wife since she is a wife and mother and the woman would more likely open up to her. I understand based on the subject matter that Morgan was heavily featured. But I still think that JJ should not have been at the take down at the end. There were plenty of other agents and cops who could have been there. She had her key scenes with the wife. And I know kids are reckless, but I can't believe someone being raised by an FBI agent would be foolish enough to send a picture to an unknown person online. Meg would have been instructed by Kate as to the dangers of that. Disliked that Garcia provided all the info for solving the case. I hated her hair ornament. It looked like a prize ribbon from a state fair. And I'm tired of seeing her typing with a pen in her hand. What does she need the pen for when she is searching the net? Where was the profiling? True there wasn't enough Hotch, Reid or Rossi, but I will admit to loving that I got to see Hotch bust open a door instead of Morgan. Seeing that man in his vest wielding his gun is always exciting for me. I hate pedophilia but I didn't feel any sympathy for the victims. Well, I did at first for the last guy, but then he turned out to be a pedophile himself, so no. But the episode did hold my interest, although I have no interest in watching it again.

[JMO]

I will have to admit that I didn't find the 'original' interesting enough to watch in detail, so I could be wrong about this----but wasn't this essentially a rehash of Morgan's revisiting of his childhood trauma? I thought that one was about Buford's victims exacting revenge.

[ForeverAlone]

Yeah, there were some similarities to "Restoration" when Rodney started killing pedophiles, but he couldn't target Carl, because Carl was already in jail. 

[Danielg342]

Boy...I can't stop shaking my head about this one.

 

First of all...Jerry Sandusky. The man whom Jack Westbrook was based on, a person who took advantage of kids he was trying to help out. Sandusky's story was a very compelling case...and this is how the show appropriates his story?

 

*sigh*

 

For those of you who don't know Sandusky, he was the former defensive co-ordinator for the Penn State Nittany Lions, who were- until his allegations came public- one of U.S. college football's top teams. In 2011, he was indicted on multiple charges of child molestation and, in 2012, he was convicted of those allegations. One of the witnesses brought forward was a Penn State janitor, who stated he saw Sandusky in a shower with a boy (which probably explains why Brian Stiller was a janitor in this episode). What made the allegations against Sandusky worse- as if they could get any worse- was the fact that Sandusky used his program for troubled youth as a way of procuring victims, but, surprisingly enough, this wasn't the worst part of the story.

 

The worst part about the Sandusky scandal was that it came to light that the entire university covered up the entire affair, out of the not unfounded fear that if Sandusky's actions were brought to light, the university would suffer. Caught in the crosshairs was Penn State's legendary coach, Joe Paterno, with many blaming him (due simply to his legendary status and his role as the head coach) for not doing enough to stop Sandusky or bring him to justice. I'm of the opinion that Paterno's blame was made to be greater than it actually was, but that's a different matter. The point is, this entire case was a huge missed opportunity.

 

Why couldn't Westbrook have been an underling to a prominent Boston law firm that specialized in reforming street kids into upright citizens? That would have been a nice case- the BAU could have uncovered Westbrook's crimes and have to not just fight the firm to bring them to light but the entire city, interested in not destroying a program of incalculable value to the city. You'd have a wonderful story about a web of corruption and cover-ups, as well as a debate about the ethics of justice and that sometimes, no matter how many people it may affect in the short term, there are some crimes that no one could ever let go. Of course, that would require the kind of elaborate world building this show has shown to be so utterly incapable of producing, as well as a level of intracacy and detail far beyond the willingness of the writers to provide, so it's no shock Kimberly Ann Harrison dropped the ball.

 

(Also, an aside- is it a small coincidence that the central figures of the pedophile ring were Brian Stiller and Jack Westbrook? Brian Westbrook was a running back for the Philadelphia Eagles...I can't help but think he was the inspiration behind some of the names here)

 

As for the episode itself...well, I'll start with the one good thing I liked. Morgan. Or, rather, Shemar Moore, because he brought the emotion and the gravitas needed for the role tonight and while I won't call it Moore's best moment on CM, it's up there. I thought he did great in showing Morgan's discomfort with the case and how he wrestled trying not to let it affect him, and I liked how he showed some genuine sympathy for the UnSubs. I do think the writing let him down, though, since I don't think it did nearly enough to explore Morgan's feelings, and I have to wonder why this case affected Morgan when so many other molestation cases come up and he never bats an eye. Were Westbrook and Buford friends? There was another angle they could have built on but, nope, expanding on a story is too much work.

 

Way too much UnSub...way too much posturing, way too many pointless scenes, not enough profiling or any kind of exploration behind the motives, the crimes themselves, the effects on the community (especially this- the BAU's accusing a guy who's been a pillar for the community and no one raises a fuss about it? I would think there would be local opposition against the feds and there would at least be some fallout)...there are so many dropped balls I've lost track. Then, of all the balls that got picked up, it had to have been the Idiot Ball...even I knew it's a fool's game to confront a maniac who's busting your car, and you'd think a prominent defense lawyer who's worked with street kids would know that...but, then we wouldn't have had an episode...

 

The wife of Westbrook...total and utter yawn. Is she some kind of robot incapable of producing tears? Because I don't think I've ever seen a worse attempt at crying in my life (okay, maybe there have been worse...but not many). I also rolled my eyes that Supermom was the one who talked to her...seriously? Kate could have done it...heck, Hotch could have done it too.

 

(Speaking of which...this is a case involving a lawyer and Hotch is mysteriously underused...has the show forgotten he was once a lawyer too?)

 

As for the victims and the UnSubs themselves...well, there was a nice idea of having a situation where you don't really know who's the real criminal and who the real victims are but, like a lot of things in this episode, it was never explored. There were just gratitous scenes of one kid yelling and telling the guy to take off his shirt, stuff that had no real substance to the plot...everyone it seemed was just a caricature.

 

Lastly...Meg. Oh Meg...seriously? (Aside- at least Meg questioned the intelligence behind deciding to send the pictures, though she seemed a little too naive about it). I believed I called it way back in reviewing "X" that the show was going to damsel her and I was right. As soon as I saw her and her friend were talking to someone online I knew it was a predator...just once, it would be nice if the show would acknowledge that, while the risk of talking to strangers online is very real, more often than not you're going to be talking with someone real. It was a way too predictable well to go down and I'm disappointed CM travelled down it...at the very least, I would have liked it if we waited a few seasons before Meg's inevitable damselness comes into play.

 

Zannej, you gave this a D...I give it a F-. Very disappointing overall, due mainly to the missed opportunity for the story.

 

(Man do I need to get my own storywriting back on track...I need to start banking on the opportunites TV seems to provide me...)

[idiotwaltz]

So .. why was this a BAU case? This should've been an episode of SVU instead, complete with the terrible young actors as UNSUBs. 

 

That said, I didn't mind it too much. I liked Kate this week and her exchange with Morgan on the plane. Sympathetic yet respectful. Meg is dumb as rocks though, but 13 year old girls tend to be. The writers have no idea how to write tweens, do they? The dialogue about homework and America's Next Top Model was so stilted. 

 

The "victim" deserved to die, not because he was a pedophile, but because of what a terrible lawyer he was. That ham-fisted closing was straight out of A Time to Kill. I kept waiting for him to say, "AND IMAGINE IF THE LITTLE BOY WAS BLACK." On that note, isn't sentencing decided by the judge and not the jury? The jury decides whether or not they are satisfied that the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the crime, not whether the kid should go to prison or get probation. Am I right about this? Or has Law & Order been lying to me again? 

 

Again, this episode supports my theory that the people in this show only has sons. Of course the lawyer's wife is pregnant with a boy. Of course JJ understands! She has a son too! She would never be able to relate if somebody had a daughter! 

 

I totally didn't even remember Reid was part of the team until I saw him sleeping on the jet. Sorry, Reid. 

Edited November 20, 2014 by idiotwaltz

[Danielg342]

That said, I didn't mind it too much. I liked Kate this week and her exchange with Morgan on the plane. Sympathetic yet respectful. Meg is dumb as rocks though, but 13 year old girls tend to be. The writers have no idea how to write tweens, do they? The dialogue about homework and America's Next Top Model was so stilted.

Agreed. Is America's Next Top Model even a thing anymore? Maybe I'm so far out of the loop but I don't think it's on the air anymore, or it doesn't have the buzz it used to have. Why not use "The Voice" instead?

The "victim" deserved to die, not because he was a pedophile, but because of what a terrible lawyer he was. That ham-fisted closing was straight out of A Time to Kill. I kept waiting for him to say, "AND IMAGINE IF THE LITTLE BOY WAS BLACK." On that note, isn't sentencing decided by the judge and not the jury? The jury decides whether or not they are satisfied that the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the crime, not whether the kid should go to prison or get probation. Am I right about this? Or has Law & Order been lying to me again?

Kind of thought that closing sequence sounded familiar...thanks. I did let it go because we never saw the whole trial, so he might have had some wonderful arguments before then.

As for the sentencing...as far as I understand, for serious crimes, you can be sentenced by a jury. I don't know the details but I've heard about it being done.

Again, this episode supports my theory that the people in this show only has sons. Of course the lawyer's wife is pregnant with a boy. Of course JJ understands! She has a son too! She would never be able to relate if somebody had a daughter!

Good point...no one seems to have daughters. Well, except Meg, but she was adopted, and she's essentially a prop for Kate. I think another point I want to make is that it's a (frustrating) trend in Hollywood that female roles tend to be centred around their family or having some kind of familial bond or connection, and JJ, by being so intrinsically tied to her son, fits that mould. So the CM writers are contributing to Hollywood's own inherent misogyny, whether they realize it or not. Same thing with Callahan and how big Meg is in her life. Hotch, it seems, avoids it- though Jack is a big part of who he is, at least he has more "parts" that he brings to the table in every episode. JJ? She's just Supermom.

[Old Dog]

Just watched it. Underwhelmed with a capital U. Too much unsub, too much of Garcia's magic computer, too little of Reid, Hotch and Rossi (as expected from this writer). The best bits were Kate who came across very well this week and surprisingly Morgan played it better and more subtly than I thought he would. Would I ever watch this again? No.

Also what's with this thing JJ has about walking around  with her hands in her pockets? I've noticed her do it before and women don't usually do that. Is she trying to be "the tough guy"?.

[JMO]

The storyline didn't hold my interest, since its essence was the same as Restoration (thanks for the reminder on the name, FA).  So I just have random observations to make:

 

• In the first scene, I thought it was odd that the jury was supposed to decide a sentence that might be as light as probation and community service.  I thought the judge did that, and that juries get involved mostly for death penalty considerations.
• This happens pretty much every episode now, but----what happened to them using tablets?  They made an issue of it that Reid wanted paper, but that's pretty much all any of them use these days.
• I did think SM gave an appropriately understated performance of recalled angst.  He's better at that than he is at exposition.
• I actually think JLH gives the most genuine, least stilted performance of any of them.  MGG is capable, but only if they give him room, which they no longer do.
• Meg is like every other teen---she's been taught about it, she knows about it, and she doesn't completely recognize it when it happens.  This is obviously the season-long story line.  I hope they handle it well.
• I am increasingly worried about the permanent fading of Reid into the background.  The less he's written, the less the next writer 'knows' him, or what to do with him.  Not that they couldn't remedy that situation by watching old episodes, but I don't think the current crew has the humility to realize that they need to.
•  

Overall, I'm with Old Dog.  A big 'U' from me.  And the promo for next week made me wince.

Edited November 20, 2014 by JustMyOpinion

[Old Dog]

And the promo for next week made me wince.  Lifted straight from fanfiction???  (Sorry - I've messed up responding to a quote - techno challenged OldDog!! ) 

Edited November 20, 2014 by Old Dog

[normasm]

Well, i'm forced to watch this again, because it was so boring, that even though my eyes were open and I remained awake, i hardly remember anything about it.

 

I do remember Kate rattling off a statistic and Rossi saying, "You too?" and Kate saying "I googled it."

 

This made me cringe on 2 levels. One, in the past, Rossi would have said, "What, are you Reid now?" but didn't, because, hey, Garcia is a genius too…. and Two, Kate's statement implies that not only is Reid's genius not needed or appreciated, soon, Garcia will be replaced with google….

Edited November 20, 2014 by normasm

[Danielg342]

And the promo for next week made me wince. Lifted straight from fanfiction??? (Sorry - I've messed up responding to a quote - techno challenged OldDog!! )

Guess you can't teach an OldDog new tricks. :p

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

[Old Dog]

That's where my name comes from! Dang these new fangled techno oojits!

Edited November 20, 2014 by Old Dog

[normasm]

About the promo for next week. I called it either here or (elsewhere) a while ago; Rossi has a daughter with "crafty' wife No. 2.

 

 

*groan*

[zannej]

I have to disagree about the trend of having female characters centered around their families being "misogyny", but I do think it is sexist. Its one of my pet peeves when "misogyny" gets thrown around inappropriately. Its not hatred of women, its just inability to see them as equal or its just them sticking to the trend of defining women by their expected gender roles. But there were worse things to nitpick in this than semantics.

 

I swear they might as well just give Matthew a phone and tell him to say a line so he can phone it in without having to bother to be on set with the way they have diminished his contributions. I can't figure out if he was busy or something during this one or if he'd been written lightly because he was expected to direct or if its just that Kim has no clue how to write him. It could be a combination of things.

 

I walk around with my hands in my pockets sometimes, so I don't think there is any significance to it. Maybe AJ just doesn't know what to do with her hands.

 

I agree that there were so many missed opportunities. I wanted to see Hotch mention *something* about his time as a prosecutor and how he knew what it was like to get threatening messages from people who were prosecuted.

 

The victim telling the jury to close their eyes and picture the defendant... Oh man... I would not have been able to keep my eyes closed and would have been bored out of my mind with that crap.

 

I have to admit that the promo for the next episode looked more interesting to me than this entire episode, even if it is straight from a soap opera. And hey, someone on the team will finally have a daughter that is NOT adopted. 

 

I hope I'm making sense, I'm feeling pretty sick right now so my thoughts are really scattered.

[Guest Accused Dingo]

I liked last night's episode and I am not a big fan of Morgan. I like Kate and i like how the episode incoporated her. This is her area after all and with Morgan's past this was bound to be their episode.

I didn't even notice the lack of Reid but then i don't really care about him one way or the other. The Big JJ scene fit with her character so i don't really see why anyone has a problem.

As for the story....it is rather topical considering what is going on lately. It brought to mind Stephen Collins. A little different, different profession, different gender of victim but same idea. so that is probably why the BAU got the case plus a high profile attorney..,.also once a show hits season 5 the cases get a little iffy i wouldn't be surprised if one starts with jay walking.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Accused Dingo

[alexvillage]

Started watching then changed to modern family

Nitpick: I know shows make courtroom scenes somewhat exciting, but the guy asking for the jury to close their eyes? Oh, please! I would simply not do it. That scene was written so poorly, even by CM standards. And why do they have to make the judge so inept and the prosecutor so incompetent? Criminals that commit crimes because they had a tough childhood deserve a second chance. Ok then! Of course, the kid was white

 

Another nitpick: the voice on the 911 call sounded like a text-to-speech voice. 

 

Then I quit watching

[Chaos Theory]

Started watching then changed to modern family

Nitpick: I know shows make courtroom scenes somewhat exciting, but the guy asking for the jury to close their eyes? Oh, please! I would simply not do it. That scene was written so poorly, even by CM standards. And why do they have to make the judge so inept and the prosecutor so incompetent? Criminals that commit crimes because they had a tough childhood deserve a second chance. Ok then! Of course, the kid was white.

Aaaactuly as someone who dated a defence lawyer this is sadly true. It is ALOT easier to get off a white guy then a black guy even if they are both guilty. No one wants to convict the boy next door or worse yet send their own child to prison so getting a nice white jury for a middle class white kid is ideal and you'd more then likely get him off. So that scene was not completely far fetched for a competant lawyer.

[alexvillage]

I was appalled by the tactics. "Close your eyes and imagine". I may be a rebel, because I would not close my eyes.  Too much of emotional manipulation and it does not fly with me.

[normasm]

alex, I wouldn't close my eyes either, I would look right into the attorney's eyes. Stupid tactic, and I would hope the judge would speak up.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Yeah, there were some similarities to "Restoration" when Rodney started killing pedophiles, but he couldn't target Carl, because Carl was already in jail. 

 

And in Restoration Carl ended up dead anyway, since when Rodney was arrested and even more allegations started to come out, his new friends behind bars turned on him and somebody killed him.

 

The "victim" deserved to die, not because he was a pedophile, but because of what a terrible lawyer he was. That ham-fisted closing was straight out of A Time to Kill. I kept waiting for him to say, "AND IMAGINE IF THE LITTLE BOY WAS BLACK."

 

I gotta get in here about this, because although I can understand the aggravation in the context of this episode, A Time To Kill is the only time I've liked Matthew McConaughey as an actor in ever.

 

I do remember Kate rattling off a statistic and Rossi saying, "You too?" and Kate saying "I googled it."

 

I couldn't decide which one of them I wanted to smack more. Firstly, Kate may know how to use Google, but what she needs to Google is 'parenting'. I know she's not JJ the Sooper Dooper Mother, but on the real, you'd think she'd school Meg a little better. Sure, kids behave recklessly, but Kate deals with serial killers. It's ridic that she'd let her picture be taken that way.

 

And I could almost let Dave off the hook, since he also cracked on Morgan in Supply And Demand when Derek said something random about the wrecked car the cops found a couple of bodies in the trunk of. But even that was annoying in its own way, since even I know how much mileage certain cars get to each gallon of gas. You don't need an IQ of 187 to know that.

[Keekski]

I get that previous seasons of this show used to be much, much better. But you people are relentless! LOL. 

 

I'm really surprised at how much I'm not annoyed by JLH. Like I'm almost enjoying her character. I do not like where I think they're going with her and her niece. It is her niece, right? 

[Chaos Theory]

 

I couldn't decide which one of them I wanted to smack more. Firstly, Kate may know how to use Google, but what she needs to Google is 'parenting'. I know she's not JJ the Sooper Dooper Mother, but on the real, you'd think she'd school Meg a little better. Sure, kids behave recklessly, but Kate deals with serial killers. It's ridic that she'd let her picture be taken that way.

 

 

Actually this is extremely realistic.  I have a relative who is a police officer and he has told his teenager daughter about the dangers of the internet several times and even made her take a class on internet security but he still found a naked selfie of her  on her phone that she supposedly sent only to her boyfriend but to this day he is worried is out there on the internet.   People underestimate how stupid teens are....it is a wonder any of us survive our teen years.  

 

It doesn't matter how much Kate told her niece? about the dangers of internet predators.  Once her friend said "lets do it" peer pressure and teen hormones took over.  

[Danielg342]

Actually this is extremely realistic. I have a relative who is a police officer and he has told his teenager daughter about the dangers of the internet several times and even made her take a class on internet security but he still found a naked selfie of her on her phone that she supposedly sent only to her boyfriend but to this day he is worried is out there on the internet. People underestimate how stupid teens are....it is a wonder any of us survive our teen years.

It doesn't matter how much Kate told her niece? about the dangers of internet predators. Once her friend said "lets do it" peer pressure and teen hormones took over.

...and, to be fair, Meg was reluctant to share her picture online, so at least she had a sense that it was a bad idea- she was just talked out of it.

[normasm]

I agree, chaos, the depiction of Meg giving in was realistic. Breaks my heart, but, yeah, kids, even super smart ones, will do this almost every time.

[Knittzu]

That was absolutely terrible. It encapsulated pretty much everything I hate about this show these days ... half the episode was devoted to the unsubs, another retread of the boring Morgan backstory, Reid vanishes mid-episode and only appears at the end in sleeping form, JJ everywhere and doing everything (with what quality I can't say; I've joined the ranks of those who just FF through her because I just can't take any more of that actress.)

 

Don't care about Meg, either, and the last thing I want is another "post your photo online and DIE" story from the CM hacks.

[Lillybee]

I have to give this episode a F. It was everything that I dislike about CM. Too much JJ and not enough Reid and I thought for this storyline we could have had more Morgan.

 

On a shallow not, why don't the seats in their PP recline?

[alexvillage]

I think the writers failed in their apparent attempt to raise some drama based on the movie "Sleepers".

Nothing t say. FF a lot, did not care enough

[zannej]

I guess I was never an average teen. I grew up in a LEO family and always had the backbone to stand up to people to say "no" and not go along with stuff that I thought was stupid. I didn't care who else was doing it or how many other people were doing it. If I thought it was a bad idea or was stupid, I would say so. I even stopped friends from doing stupid things sometimes. I had friends who later told me they went to do something and then thought about what I would think if they did it, so they stopped. LOL. So, not ALL teens will do stupid stuff or give in to peer pressure.

 

I admit that the portrayal of teens on TV does annoy me because I just can't relate to any of it.

 

At least Meg was reluctant to send a picture but I wish they'd made a different call. I'm willing to bet that pic will turn up somehow and Kate will be furious. Would have been funny if they had just sent pics of teddy bears or something else. 

[MCatry]

Hi. I've been reading the latests posts here in order to avoid annoying double posts, and now I think I got an idea about where am I. 

One of the things that caught my attention here was the discussion regarding if the JJ and/or unsub over exposition was in fact real, or it was just a matter of perception. The same happened with the disappearances of other characters, such as Hotch or Reid, or even the too much/too little Kate.

I started to think it would be a good idea to really find out if its just me, or it is really happening, so I did some timing while 'watching', since nowadays most episodes are rather boring to look at while doing nothing else at all.

According to my findings, during this last episode the unsub time was 20 minutes and 33 seconds. Second place goes to Morgan, with 13'46'' followed closely by JJ with 13'27''

The one with less screen time was Reid, with 5'41'', which includes the round table scene, the airplane scene, the delivery of the profile, the short interview he did with Morgan and again Reid sleeping in the plane.

Not only I did the same with episodes 6 and 7, but also I decided to count lines for this episode 8, after reading in some other post that Reid had only nine lines.

It wasn't like that. He had 12 lines, and a quote. Those lines included four questions (three standard and one rather dumb), two factual data, four obvious pieces of information, and two pieces of standard profiling. 

He said things such as the following:

• Did you just hear that? Garcia, can you enhance the audio at the end?
• Had he received any threats recently?
• It says that he and his wife did a lot of moving around in the area.
• I'm starting to think his abduction had nothing to do with a case.
• Look for guys with spotty work histories, mostly working odd or solitary jobs.
• I checked the main office. Brian wasn't there.

 

A total of 241 words. 

Now I know I am not just over reacting, right?

Edited November 23, 2014 by MCatry

[Knittzu]

According to my findings, during this last episode the unsub time was 20 minutes and 33 seconds. Second place goes to Morgan, with 13'46'' followed closely by JJ with 13'27''

 

 

Wow. So when I said that half the episode was taken up by the (boring, poorly-acted) unsubs, I was only exaggerating by about a minute.

 

Unsubs, Morgan, and JJ. No wonder this show bores me to tears anymore.

[Danielg342]

I do think if we had the Morgan that consistently beat up baddies, kicked down doors, had very nice bonding moments with Reid, played the reasonable skeptic, roleplayed the UnSubs and displayed actual warmth and sympathy- the way he was like in the early seasons- he wouldn't be a boring character. He probably also wouldn't be so boring if he wasn't always paired with Supermom and used simply to show how "tough" Supermom is. He had a bigger role this week but I don't think he had enough.

I also thought with the Meg situation that maybe it would have worked better if the person behind the other computer actually *was* the kid she was talking to- only for us to learn later in the season that he's simply a "lure" for the actual criminal. Sure, she's still "damseled" but at least it's a bit of a twist on the usual predator story.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Danielg342

[Droogie]

I can't quote on my phone but McCatry, there are no words to express how sad the facts in your post make me.

[MCatry]

I just noticed I did a mistake.

Reid didnt have 241 words. He had 214.

Me, and my dislexia...

And I noticed the episode lasted 40 minutes and 20 seconds, so the unsubs took more than half of the show this time.

Edited November 23, 2014 by MCatry

[normasm]

MCatry, I was counting lines, not sentences, and, although i could be wrong in the way I understand scripts, I stand by my claim of 9 lines, which may contain more than 9 sentences. Minor point, I guess.

Edited November 23, 2014 by normasm

[MCatry]

That's all right. It wasn't my intention to start an argument. What I did was to download the subtitles and then hear the episode parts in which I knew Reid was talking (due to the count of the scenes), and then extracting his lines. When I read your post you made me think that just knowing the time someone was in a scene was not really enough to measure his/her relevance in that said scene. For instance, in the round table they are all there, so all of them got the three or so minutes of the scene, but the amount of screen time and lines they say is not the same. Hence, and thanks to you, I started counting lines. Then, sentences. Now, I count words. I'm like the count that counts in Sesame Street,

(I guess it's less painful to say 12 sentences than 9 lines, or to say 214 words than 12 sentences, and so on...)

Still, I think the main problem is not the amount of lines, sentences or even words, but the relevance of what he has to say lately. His 'contributions' make him sound 'unnecessary', and i have the feeling that little by little the writers are getting rid of him.

[Old Dog]

This is so very depressing MCatry. At least it is proof of the continuing dominance of JJ - and we have her PTSD episode to come! They really should retitle the show - Jennifer Jareau Crime Fighter or something!

[Droogie]

But why would they want to get rid of Reid/MGG? That's what I can't figure out. He's a fan favorite, and by all accounts, MGG is a sweetheart and everyone loves him.

As far as him leaving on his own, I read a couple of years ago that he promised to stay as long as they would have him. I think even if he wanted to leave, he wouldn't, because he said he wouldn't.

[JMO]

My guess is that we care a lot more about Reid's screen time and relevance than MGG does.  Regardless of how much work he has to do, he still gets paid.  If he's not even in the background of a scene, he probably doesn't have to be on set that day.  So he gets to spend a lot more time on all of the creative projects he seems to enjoy so much.  It's the ideal job, in some ways.  And he's got enough of a fan base that will continue to tune in, hoping and praying to see him, that CBS/ABC would have no reason to let him go.

 

Having said that, I really think he has some acting chops, both for drama and comedy, and I'd love to see them put to use.  So despite the fact that I don't think it will happen, I would love to see him head off to another vehicle that would actually provide a platform for his skills to be displayed. 

 

I do still love the Reid character, and would be sorry to see him come to an end.  But, if we're not getting him anyway, what's to lose?

[normasm]

Thanks, Count MCatry (muuuuuuaaaaaahahaha), yes i know you aren't trying to start a ruckus, I was just trying to be clear in my own way of expressing. 

 

I don't think they are trying to get rid of Reid, but i do think - for whatever reason, demographics or whatever - they marginalize him constantly (and Hotch to a secondary, and Rossi to a tertiary degree) because they think JJ, Morgan and Garcia are the faves. I'm not yet sure, and don't think they are either, what place Kate holds in the mix, but i think she's getting a fairer shake so far than JT was when she first came on.

Edited November 23, 2014 by normasm

[Old Dog]

 

 

I don't think they are trying to get rid of Reid, but i do think - for whatever reason, demographics or whatever - they marginalize him constantly (and Hotch to a secondary, and Rossi to a tertiary degree) because they think JJ, Morgan and Garcia are the faves.

I don't know why they wouldn't think Reid isn't a top favourite - especially in the younger demographic they seem to aim at these days - because certainly on social media he has the biggest following. On Twitter he is not far off 1,000,000 followers and if you go into the CM tag on Tumblr most of the posts feature him. I think it is much more likely to be the fact that Erica Messer dislikes the character, doesn't know how to write for him and tolerates him being there because of his fanbase, I wish I knew what was really behind him dropping his directing this season and whether it was because he disliked KH's script and is being "punished" by not getting another or if he is just winding back his involvement to free him up for other projects. I just know that if we don't get any kind of Reid centric episode this season there will be quite an outcry from fans.

[JMO]

 

I wish I knew what was really behind him dropping his directing this season

 

There have been a couple of comments to this effect on the board.  Has this been announced, or are we just assuming it because he didn't direct in the first half of the year?