S10.E14: Hero Worship

[zannej]

I know the CM character she was talking about was Einstein. I'm wondering if she posits that Einstein is a rip-off of a character in a bad fanfic.

Yes.

[Danielg342]

Yes.

Which one? I'm curious.

[zannej]

I don't know if I can pinpoint any specific one. She's sort of an amalgam of the different characteristics from bad fanfictions. She kind of reminded me of a character from some fanfic I read years ago that was posted on the official CBS forums for CM. I can't remember who wrote it or what the title was, but it was really awful.

 

But other than that aspect and the time at which the episode peaked, it wasn't so bad.

[MCatry]

I think it was a good episode with an awesome beginning and an awful end.
Good points were the amount of BAU work they all did: interviewing, analysing locations, checking evidences, talking to each other, interacting with the local law and enforcement. Also, all the main characters had a fairly good amount of screen time, and none of them looked superior compared with the others. I liked the quality of the interviews, and the good analysis and dialogues of the pieces of evidence they were finding. The explosion scene was great, and so the decoy bomb by the end of the episode.
"Not so good" points (more like "I am fed up of those") were Garcia finding again the exact information they were looking for the first bomber, the allusion to motherhood, and the lack of sophistication of that unsub. It is well established that bombers are the serial killers with higher IQ, and rather cool personalities, while that bomber was quite the opposite. With just a little chat he not only gave up, but also looked defeated and utterly nervous.
And regarding Einstein, I found her just poorly written, and even worst performed. On one hand it is said that she graduated from medical school with 19 years old, so from that we can infer she is extremely intelligent. On the other hand, she didn’t strike me as someone very smart while interacting with Rossi-Morgan and then Morgan-Reid. Good at her job, maybe, but not much more. And maybe because I come from another culture, but she doesn’t seem exceedingly young, as suggested by Rossi. According to IMDB she actually played the role of a nurse in Lost, by the year 2009. Finally, I didn’t like how dismissive she was about Morgan and Reid’s work: that thing about “That’s what you guys do. You just talk a lot” doesn’t seem a correct comment for an allegedly intelligent person who should know better (not only the FBI profilers work features, but also not to insult your colleagues).

Edited February 10, 2015 by MCatry

[hazel0711]

So many things I like about this episode! I'm a long time CM fan - I have overlooked a lot of flaws along the way - but this season has been really, really boring and disappointing. Until this episode.. It reminds me why I love Criminal Minds. All characters are back in their "supposed roles" and rather good interrogation session (it's been a long while).

[needschocolate]

I didn't mind Einstein. I don't know if she and Reid could be a couple in real life, but I certainly thought the show was going to go in that direction.  She is s young genius, a bit quirky, a doctor, and they showed the "I'm empty"-"something will fill it" in the previouslies. Since she is a 2 hour plane ride away, I figured they would have to have some sort of "next step" during this episode.  Therefore, I was surprised at the end when it turned out that Reid was playing chess against himself.  I expected him to be playing chess against Einstein vie text message.  

[normasm]

God, I'm so glad they didn't! We all know how long it takes Reid to let go and move on, and I don't mind him getting a little faster at it, i just don't want it to be any time soon, and certainly not immediately. Especially not with a cardboard character as a love interest. it has to be more organic than that. He has to fall in love with someone's mind first, the way he did with Maeve, IMO. Now, if we see later this season that he's been talking to her on the phone, a next step such as writing to her, going to visit, might make sense. But I just didn't like the character, too hokey.

[ForeverAlone]

And again, why not give Reid a relationship closer to home? Going down the long distance route again just seems pointless. But since we have seen these type of scenes before, I doubt we will see Einstein again.

[Watermelon]

It could be me, but I don't see Spencer with a braniac. I see him with a girl who IS smarter than average but has a more creative career. I'd rather he end up with a legitimately beautiful(not just cute) Web Designer.

[ForeverAlone]

Yeah, I could see Reid with a very smart artist. My personal preference for my viewing pleasure is for his lover to be smarter than average and an introverted book lover, but that leaves a wide variety of options.

[normasm]

I agree, FA, and preferably (for me, at least) an artist who works with her hands, or maybe a musician, since Spencer likes music. It would be a welcome break for his big ol brain while still requiring feeling and personal growth, eh?

[missmycat]

Did anyone else besides me get the feeling that they were trying to make this character as opposite as Maeve as they could, at least where her personality and demeanor were concerned.

[normasm]

I don't know, MMC, it just seemed that they were going for the Impossible Cute Factor for Reid. Dreck, IMO.

[spinner33]

As much as I would love to see Reid find love, I don't trust this group of writers to do it.   

[normasm]

I just wanted to say that previously, when I said Reid has to fall in love with someone's mind first, i do not mean that mind has to be exactly like his, he just has to love it because it "speaks" to him.

[missmycat]

And I would definitely want it to be someone that respected him and genuinely cared about his feelings the way that Alex Blake did.

[ForeverAlone]

Bombing episodes are never my favorite on Criminal Minds. I don't hate them per say, but they aren't the sort of serial criminals I am generally interested in watching, but I did enjoy this episode. I felt this was a well written episode with lots of good team and profiling, and especially by the standard of season 10, it goes into the top of this season. 

 

I enjoyed the tale of two bombers and how the team sussed out that there were two bombers. This episode had more profiling than the majority of the episodes this season. We saw very little of the unsub, and we didn't see the first bomber until towards the end. The team actually had to profile the crime and Alan Archer to determine what was going on. It is always nice to see the team using their actual minds to solve crimes and not just Penelope's magic computer. It was also interesting to see the complex relationship between Alan and his wife. At least it was an interesting motive. 

 

And while I had to roll my eyes at JJ being AGAIN part of the unsub takedown (there must be some unwritten rule for the writers that JJ must be part of the "heroics", and frankly supports my opinion that JJ being left with Penelope in "Nelson's Sparrow" was absolutely NOT a nod to JJ's PTSD), I did like that Reid and JJ actually used profiling to talk the unsub down. Far too often, the writers choose to have the team kill the unsub, and that just gets old after a while. It's a cheap way to catch an unsub. I like to see the team use their brains and their knowledge of the unsub to talk him/her down. This is supposed to be (or at least was in the past) a more cerebral show. So it was nice to see them actually use that strategy again. 

 

It was also nice to see the team employ a media strategy. It still is a relevant tool for the FBI to use to catch serial criminals. Of course in the last few years, we haven't seen that as much in the episodes. Part of it could be the increased interest on action and less on profiling in general, and part of it could be since the team doesn't have a media liaison anymore (which is bogus, because of course the team would have had a media liaison by this point in the real world), so the writers aren't thinking of ways to use the media in their stories. I liked the strategy proposed by Hotch about how to draw out the other bomber, and I did had to giggle about the mayor planning on taking credit for their idea if it was successful, or he would take them down with him if it failed. 

 

There was some definitely good Reid in this episode. I know I am incredibly biased being a huge Matthew/Reid fan, but I personally think Matthew is the most subtle actor on the show. Matthew is capable of conveying more thoughts and emotion with his eyes than most actors are with words. So it was nice to see those skills employed again to tie up his emotions over Gideon's death. And it was nice to see some good Rossi/Reid convos. Rossi seems like a good uncle figure for Reid, and it's amazing to see how their relationship has evolved over the years from Rossi thinking Reid was some sort of strange oddity, and seemingly annoyed by him. 

 

As for the whole Einstein thing, I have to wonder if CBS and the writers are trolling us, particularly CBS and their stupid tweet asking for their opinion on Reid and Einstein as a couple. Do they think Reid fans are so desperate for Reid to find that love that we would be grateful for any scraps thrown our way about someone who could POSSIBLY be interested in Reid? I saw nothing in their 30 second interaction that would indicate any sort of romantic coupling in the offing. So some woman actually smiled at Reid. Are we supposed to be excited about that? Are we supposed to think Reid is so pathetic and unattractive that we should be amazed and grateful any woman wants to pay him the slightest bit of attention? Because wow, Einstein said a couple words to him and smiled at him. I got no indication she found him attractive in any way or wanted to know more about him, or frankly he towards her either. Hell, I got more mutual vibes from Austin in "52 Pickup", and we never heard from her again (thankfully, because I wouldn't have wanted them to actually hook up). Weird. I think CBS has finally cottoned to the fact that Reid's fanbase is passionate and devoted, particularly on social media. So they are featuring Reid more, but they were also winding us up in certain ways. 

 

Overall, I put this episode in the win category. There was a lot that worked, and I liked the emphasis on team profiling from different angles, and the team using their brains rather than their brawn to solve the case.