S11.E12: Drive

[thewhiteowl]

When bodies are discovered in public places throughout Boston, the BAU investigates whether a taxi or ride-share service the victims used before their deaths could lead the team to the UnSub.

 

 

[Danielg342]

Well I'm Uber-excited. :)

(Bad pun I know)

I am curious about CM's take on ride-sharing. Can't imagine law enforcement loves it.

[ForeverAlone]

CM's views on ride sharing is probably the same as their views on the Internet (nothing but predators on the service, and you are likely to die if you use it). :) :) :)

[Lebanna]

Well, they've done evil, murderous taxi drivers before, in more than one episode.

This is just a variation on a theme.

Edited January 20, 2016 by Lebanna

[ForeverAlone]

This was definitely a "meh" episode for me. You know it is potentially eye rolling (and in this case head rolling) when we see the unsub within the first five seconds of an episode and see a ton of unsub throughout the episode. While the profile SEEMED to match the crimes we were seeing on the screen, I don't exactly buy the unsub's trigger, MO and victimology. It just seemed like he would target men more than women, and him killing strangers didn't really seem to match his anger at his former school principal. And another thing that stood out for me during this episode. This is a question we should probably ask about more episodes, but it is standing out for me this episode. Why don't the local police do ANY sort of preliminary police work before calling in the BAU? I mean, the local LEOs haven't even checked any cell phone or credit card records or done any sort of research on the victims. All of this should have been done earlier and then the LEOs could have reported all of this to the BAU when they arrive. But it gives the impression the police were just sitting on their ass, waiting for the body count to hit the magic three. It just didn't really work for me.

Edited January 21, 2016 by ForeverAlone

[SSAHotchner]

I knew not to expect it to be good after last week's good episode, but I was hoping it wouldn't be awful. I was just bored. Too much Garcia. So sick of her childish attire and behavior. Too much unsub. I knew when they finally got around to figuring out the motive for the unsub it would be predictable and they'd try to make us feel sorry for him. I thought the script was very amateur. Good distribution of screen time for the team, but it really was a snooze and relied on torture of the victims rather than psychological profiling to draw in the viewers. Problem is, that doesn't work for me. I actually liked the scenes between Rossi and Lewis. They gave us more background on her without trying to make her perfect. But like so many of the episodes beyond season 5, I don't find myself wanting to watch it again. 

[Vicky8675309]

Wouldn't he have shocked himself when he grabbed the victim's arm and shocked the arm? In other words, if you touch someone when you are tasering him/her, wouldn't the electrical current spread from them to you since you are touching their bare flesh?

[ReidFan]

blech.

[peacheslatour]

 

Too much Garcia.

This has been a problem for a long time.  I don't like her, she just annoys me.  I only watch in syndication now.

[ReidFan]

Wouldn't he have shocked himself when he grabbed the victim's arm and shocked the arm? In other words, if you touch someone when you are tasering him/her, wouldn't the electrical current spread from them to you since you are touching their bare flesh?

I asked hubby the cop. He says they're taught to NOT touch the person being tased because yes, it can spread to you as well, although that depends on which model you're using and how far apart the current prongs are on the tasee. Rule of thumb is to not touch them for your own safety.  (oh, and he also said tasering the guy in the arm was just "effin' stupid"... go for the chest.

Edited January 21, 2016 by ReidFan

[Vicky8675309]

I asked hubby the cop. He says they're taught to NOT touch the person being tased because yes, it can spread to you as well, although that depends on which model you're using and how far apart the current prongs are on the tasee. Rule of thumb is to not touch them for your own safety.  (oh, and he also said tasering the guy in the arm was just "effin' stupid"... go for the chest.

 

Thanks!

I figured it was like using a defibrillator during CPR or during cardioversion...don't touch the body when shocking it:-)

[JMO]

Apologies for simply copying my post from another forum, but it didn't warrant the additional expenditure of energy:

 

It was 'acceptable' on the Reid-meter, but off the charts on the snooze-meter, the too-much-unsub meter, and the lame-reason-for-serial-killing meter.  

 

And that's all I will remember of it.  

Edited January 21, 2016 by JMO

[ReidFan]

well, earlier I said blech. I stand by blech, but it's my nature to find at least a couple small things to like about it:

1. love Joe Mantegna's cars. Epic!

2. Reid was at least written and performed in character. Not dumbed down, not the butt of jokes. He actually determined it was a guillotine when they were brainstorming about the methodology. Yay Reid.

 

okay, I feel better about the blanket 'blech' from earlier now.

[normasm]

SweetTooth and JMO said it best: it brought back all that is the worst of CM - Unsub Show/Torture Porn/Tag Team profile delivery. Lame reason for Unsub. And ReidFan says Blech, which I echo. D.

[Kelda Feegle]

Serious question from a non-USA resident - do the FBI have a runway near their building?

I ask because 'wheels up in 30' has always seemed impractical to me - get to the car, get to the airport, pre-flight checks etc, unless they can helicopter from the roof of their building to the airport - even then it seems a stretch.

 

Wasn't Aisha supposed to be temporary?

[ReidFan]

It's their own jet so I imagine every time hotch says wheels up in 30 he's immediately on the cellphone to their pilot so that he can do all those pre flight checks. And that the team is less than a half hour drive from whatever airstrip/airport they use. We did see the heliport at the top of their building in "the replicator"... Not sure how close any actual runway is though.......... Off to google maps I go.

[ForeverAlone]

Since the FBI (or at least the BAU) does not have their own jet in reality, it's just one of those fake things in the CM universe we have to accept. Quantico in reality is a Marine base, so I imagine there is a runway nearby. But it doesn't matter what reality is in this case, because they wouldn't be flying with their own jet anyway. 

[Danielg342]

First off: note to the CM writing staff- making Tara Lewis a car restorer doesn't make her an interesting character. Giving her a storyline and things to do will. You still utterly fail at this concept.

 

Granted, her and Rossi have unbelievable chemistry. It's almost like she's Rossi's daughter...

 

I also have to say that Detective Connie Lawlor has the thickest New Englander accent I've ever heard, although this time it was appropriate. So props for that...however, after her accent, Lawlor really didn't stand out, like much of the characters in this one. Including our dear old BAU.

 

Still, I actually think I would put this in the "win" column. It's a hesitant "win", but it's a win nonetheless. It really boils down to the performance that Eric Nenninger put on as the UnSub, James O'Neil, because once Nenninger got something to do- the angst of having to deal with the torture put on him at the hands of his former principal- he really shined. I mean, don't get me wrong- it wasn't Emmy worthy by any stretch, but at least Nenninger brought life and humanity to the character. Even though it was a predictable cliche- the last minute "sympathy plug"- at least it fit with the story, and at least it was acted well. True, O'Neil isn't the first person to have ever been abused and become an UnSub (actually, I don't think there's a single UnSub in this show's history that wasn't abused in some way), but at least he sold it.

 

Furthermore, knowing that O'Neil was abused was the clue that solved the case, so I'll give Karen Maser credit in that this episode actually had some profiling.

 

Also, props to Maser for inverting the usual "order of the victims" by having all the women be pawn-like victims with the lone man being the one getting saved. However, Maser doesn't get props for having that man be the only one whose torture was seen on-screen- sorry, I like my sadists to be equal opportunity, because in 2016 women shouldn't be "too weak" to be torture victims.

 

Oh, and Reid actually contributed. Quite a lot. He actually had a wealth of useful information and no one disparaged him for it. So props, Maser. Only thing I'll say is that the guillotine thing did kind of feel "pulled out of Reid's ass", because Reid's justification was clunky. I blame Maser here, because a "more authentic" Reid would have noted something about the neck wounds that would have pointed to the guillotine's blade, like the fact it was a straight slice and not, say, on a diagonal like you'd expect a katana blade to have been.

 

Also- what was with these guys and not knowing what a katana is? Did none of them obsessively watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and collect all the toys while they were growing up?

 

(Okay that was just me...*hangs head in shame* Moving on...)

 

That's really all about it I would say was great about this episode. The rest was kind of...blah.

 

First of all, the first half of the episode was every kind of police procedural cliche you could think of- "normal" cold open with the end of the scene revealing that the guy's really the criminal by victimising the girl, the investigators going through all kinds of leaps of logic and just "happening" to arrive at the right conclusions, sad attempts at evoking sympathy for the victims by having their poorly whimpering loved ones talk to the authorities, the local investigators all chiming in about how "deranged" and "twisted" the crime is (come on...show's been on for 11 years. There's nothing these guys- and by extension us as audience- haven't seen)- there was nothing really special or novel about the first twenty minutes or so.

 

Also, the whole Southie business didn't really ring true. I didn't believe it was a real term, but Google corrected me. Still, why was it Lewis that made that observation, and not Mr. Geography?

 

I also have to really wonder how the local police couldn't have handled this case. Even though profiling was eventually what solved the case, I'm not sure it was the kind of "high level" stuff the BAU would be needed to bring in- any detective worth half of their salt should have been able to solve it:

 

-Victimology was very basic. They all had moral transgressions, and, though they were different, they "random", so victims were procured simply because they transgressed.

-Knowing that the victims were beheaded, and beheaded cleanly on a line (except the first victim), should have ruled out swords or axes, because those won't always cut in a straight line. Which then leaves the guillotine.

-Maybe it's just me, but I think those with even a basic knowledge of history would know about the guillotine's role within the French Revolution. They're practically synonymous with each other, as well as the idea of very public executions for people who had to answer for their transgressions against France. Furthermore, even on this continent public executions aren't rare- even today, executions are open to the public, and at least in Canada executions in a public square were in use into the 1950s.

-So connecting what was known about the victims in their conduct and in their wounds and knowing the guillotine's symbolism in exacting punishment should have led authorities to think about the victims as surrogates for the UnSub's own vengeance.

-Factoring all this, realizing the wounds on the knuckles are reminiscent of Catholic school abuse should have eventually led the authorities to an abuse victim

-Since the stuff about ride sharing wouldn't have been that hard to spot (and, after checking phone records, knowing that the ride shares still happened despite the official fare being canceled), it shouldn't have been a stretch for the authorities to find an abuse victim fired by a ride share company. There can't be that many.

 

...and voila. Your UnSub...and I'm not a "trained" profiler.

 

(Of course, I could debate about the actual effectiveness of criminal profiling in real life, but that's a debate for another day)

 

I think it might have been a more interesting twist if the victims were suffering and the UnSub used the guillotine as a method of euthanasia, as the main reason why the guillotine was used was because the inventor claimed it was a "humane" way of killing people. That would have required some major league profiling, since something like that wouldn't have been obvious to a detective. However, the guillotine as a torture device? Please.

 

I also have to wonder, though- if O'Neil is using sheet metal as a blade, wouldn't it blunt over time? I never saw him once sharpening the blade, and keeping it sharp through three beheadings is no picnic.

 

Some other notes:

 

-Everyone except Reid was a cipher. Robots could have performed the plot and no one would have noticed.

-Takedown was pretty clunky. Pretty sure if O'Neil's got a blade that could cut through a head he's got a blade that could cut through a bedpost. It was a terrible way to resolve a "dead man's switch", and risky to the victim too.

-Pretty laughable that on January 20 in Boston there wasn't a huge pile of snow on the ground. Considering how much snow they've got this year, that's some major luck the Boston in the CM world didn't get snow. Maybe CM's United States is located somewhere near the tropics? Only way that makes sense.

 

Overall...I still wound up being entertained, but it had a lot of holes. B-.

[secnarf]

-Maybe it's just me, but I think those with even a basic knowledge of history would know about the guillotine's role within the French Revolution. They're practically synonymous with each other, as well as the idea of very public executions for people who had to answer for their transgressions against France. Furthermore, even on this continent public executions aren't rare- even today, executions are open to the public, and at least in Canada executions in a public square were in use into the 1950s.

...

-Takedown was pretty clunky. Pretty sure if O'Neil's got a blade that could cut through a head he's got a blade that could cut through a bedpost. It was a terrible way to resolve a "dead man's switch", and risky to the victim too.

What public executions happened in Canada in the 1900s? I thought the last person publicly executed in Canada was Nicholas Melady in 1869. I always remembered that the last public execution was only two years after the BNA Act.

 

I totally agree about the takedown. It was way too risky, and they probably traumatized the victim just as much as anything the unsub had done.

[Danielg342]

What public executions happened in Canada in the 1900s? I thought the last person publicly executed in Canada was Nicholas Melady in 1869. I always remembered that the last public execution was only two years after the BNA Act.

 

I stand corrected. I remember reading that Stephen Truscott was supposed to have been hanged...so I conflated things. Doesn't change my overall point, though.

[Droogie]

Too much Garcia. So sick of her childish attire and behavior.

This, times infinity. I didn't mind the episode as a whole so much -- there've been far, far worse ones -- but I quite liked Garcia last week. Then this week they had to go put her back in the kitten ears. Whose idea is this??? It isn't cute in the least; it's ridiculous, and it simply has to stop. If I were Hotch, I would've reached over and ripped them off her head during the Roundtable briefing and then snapped them in two.

But like so many of the episodes beyond season 5, I don't find myself wanting to watch it again.

Again, you echo my sentiments. I've already committed to buying the season on DVD, but so far it's only so I can own and rewatch Entropy.

[ReidFan]

droogie, you can save the rest of the cost of the dvd set and just buy "Entropy" from iTunes. Dunno where you live, but for me it's 3.49 Cdn and I'll do it rather than buy the seasons. It's probably cheaper for you. AND you don't have to wait, it's already there.

[Droogie]

Genius, RF! That didn't even occur to me but I might just do that. I will wait to hear about any extras they might add to the set, though. Last year I wasn't gonna buy it (bc I hated the cover) but then did, just to own the commentary for "Mr. Scratch."

[Bookish Jen]

While watching this episode, I couldn't help but wonder how it would have been handled during CM's "Classic Coke" period, the earlier seasons. First, we wouldn't have seen all the torture porn; there would have been some mystery. I think we can all figure out what corpses look like without their heads. We don't have to see actual photos. Plus, the unsub would have been kept a mystery and we wouldn't have seen his method of beheading. Instead, the profilers would put on their thinking caps and figuring the case out, profiling the unsub and his motivations (along with us viewers). However, I guess I'd be remiss not to note that this episode did throw us a bone and let Spencer profile like a boss. And once they found out the unsub's use of a guillotine, I can imagine Rossi making a snarky remark about purchasing a guillotine from eBay or Amazon or making one in shop class just to add some humor to the situation.

 

Now, I attended public schools until college but wouldn't corporal punishment be on the way out by the 1980s, even at Catholic schools? I just think it would have made more sense for the unsub to be a bit older and someone who attended Catholic schools in the 1940s or 1950s. But maybe I think this way because the nuns at my collegiate alma mater were all a bunch of Oprah-esque "You go, girl!" nuns. My dad attended Catholic grade school back in the day and he has some stories to tell about corporal punishment.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Bookish Jen

[SSAHotchner]

First off: note to the CM writing staff- making Tara Lewis a car restorer doesn't make her an interesting character. Giving her a storyline and things to do will. You still utterly fail at this concept.

 

Granted, her and Rossi have unbelievable chemistry. It's almost like she's Rossi's daughter...

 

I also have to say that Detective Connie Lawlor has the thickest New Englander accent I've ever heard, although this time it was appropriate. So props for that...however, after her accent, Lawlor really didn't stand out, like much of the characters in this one. Including our dear old BAU.

 

Still, I actually think I would put this in the "win" column. It's a hesitant "win", but it's a win nonetheless. It really boils down to the performance that Eric Nenninger put on as the UnSub, James O'Neil, because once Nenninger got something to do- the angst of having to deal with the torture put on him at the hands of his former principal- he really shined. I mean, don't get me wrong- it wasn't Emmy worthy by any stretch, but at least Nenninger brought life and humanity to the character. Even though it was a predictable cliche- the last minute "sympathy plug"- at least it fit with the story, and at least it was acted well. True, O'Neil isn't the first person to have ever been abused and become an UnSub (actually, I don't think there's a single UnSub in this show's history that wasn't abused in some way), but at least he sold it.

 

Furthermore, knowing that O'Neil was abused was the clue that solved the case, so I'll give Karen Maser credit in that this episode actually had some profiling.

 

Also, props to Maser for inverting the usual "order of the victims" by having all the women be pawn-like victims with the lone man being the one getting saved. However, Maser doesn't get props for having that man be the only one whose torture was seen on-screen- sorry, I like my sadists to be equal opportunity, because in 2016 women shouldn't be "too weak" to be torture victims.

 

Oh, and Reid actually contributed. Quite a lot. He actually had a wealth of useful information and no one disparaged him for it. So props, Maser. Only thing I'll say is that the guillotine thing did kind of feel "pulled out of Reid's ass", because Reid's justification was clunky. I blame Maser here, because a "more authentic" Reid would have noted something about the neck wounds that would have pointed to the guillotine's blade, like the fact it was a straight slice and not, say, on a diagonal like you'd expect a katana blade to have been.

 

Also- what was with these guys and not knowing what a katana is? Did none of them obsessively watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and collect all the toys while they were growing up?

 

(Okay that was just me...*hangs head in shame* Moving on...)

 

That's really all about it I would say was great about this episode. The rest was kind of...blah.

 

First of all, the first half of the episode was every kind of police procedural cliche you could think of- "normal" cold open with the end of the scene revealing that the guy's really the criminal by victimising the girl, the investigators going through all kinds of leaps of logic and just "happening" to arrive at the right conclusions, sad attempts at evoking sympathy for the victims by having their poorly whimpering loved ones talk to the authorities, the local investigators all chiming in about how "deranged" and "twisted" the crime is (come on...show's been on for 11 years. There's nothing these guys- and by extension us as audience- haven't seen)- there was nothing really special or novel about the first twenty minutes or so.

 

Also, the whole Southie business didn't really ring true. I didn't believe it was a real term, but Google corrected me. Still, why was it Lewis that made that observation, and not Mr. Geography?

 

I also have to really wonder how the local police couldn't have handled this case. Even though profiling was eventually what solved the case, I'm not sure it was the kind of "high level" stuff the BAU would be needed to bring in- any detective worth half of their salt should have been able to solve it:

 

-Victimology was very basic. They all had moral transgressions, and, though they were different, they "random", so victims were procured simply because they transgressed.

-Knowing that the victims were beheaded, and beheaded cleanly on a line (except the first victim), should have ruled out swords or axes, because those won't always cut in a straight line. Which then leaves the guillotine.

-Maybe it's just me, but I think those with even a basic knowledge of history would know about the guillotine's role within the French Revolution. They're practically synonymous with each other, as well as the idea of very public executions for people who had to answer for their transgressions against France. Furthermore, even on this continent public executions aren't rare- even today, executions are open to the public, and at least in Canada executions in a public square were in use into the 1950s.

-So connecting what was known about the victims in their conduct and in their wounds and knowing the guillotine's symbolism in exacting punishment should have led authorities to think about the victims as surrogates for the UnSub's own vengeance.

-Factoring all this, realizing the wounds on the knuckles are reminiscent of Catholic school abuse should have eventually led the authorities to an abuse victim

-Since the stuff about ride sharing wouldn't have been that hard to spot (and, after checking phone records, knowing that the ride shares still happened despite the official fare being canceled), it shouldn't have been a stretch for the authorities to find an abuse victim fired by a ride share company. There can't be that many.

 

...and voila. Your UnSub...and I'm not a "trained" profiler.

 

(Of course, I could debate about the actual effectiveness of criminal profiling in real life, but that's a debate for another day)

 

I think it might have been a more interesting twist if the victims were suffering and the UnSub used the guillotine as a method of euthanasia, as the main reason why the guillotine was used was because the inventor claimed it was a "humane" way of killing people. That would have required some major league profiling, since something like that wouldn't have been obvious to a detective. However, the guillotine as a torture device? Please.

 

I also have to wonder, though- if O'Neil is using sheet metal as a blade, wouldn't it blunt over time? I never saw him once sharpening the blade, and keeping it sharp through three beheadings is no picnic.

 

Some other notes:

 

-Everyone except Reid was a cipher. Robots could have performed the plot and no one would have noticed.

-Takedown was pretty clunky. Pretty sure if O'Neil's got a blade that could cut through a head he's got a blade that could cut through a bedpost. It was a terrible way to resolve a "dead man's switch", and risky to the victim too.

-Pretty laughable that on January 20 in Boston there wasn't a huge pile of snow on the ground. Considering how much snow they've got this year, that's some major luck the Boston in the CM world didn't get snow. Maybe CM's United States is located somewhere near the tropics? Only way that makes sense.

 

Overall...I still wound up being entertained, but it had a lot of holes. B-.

You're way more generous than I can be. People do know about guillotines. I don't know what it is with the CM writers, but they all seem to think the audience is a bunch of buffoons. Maybe it's because they read all the stupid comments made on the CM FB page. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was a snooze and that the writer should have her knuckles rapped, or maybe should be guillotined. 

[ReidFan]

don't hang the head......there is a boxful of TMNT figures and accoutrements in my basement too. I'd say they're my daughter's but she was only 3 at the time, although she did grow to love them.

[normasm]

I loved them (TMNT), and it was lucky my nephews did too!

[JennyMominFL]

As a New Englander I laughed at the Southie thing. It's totally what a Bostonian might say.  yes, it's definitely a thing.  That cop had a think working class Boston accent.Someone with a love for Boston was working on this.. So many references.

And as a Former Marine, they could theoretically fly from Langley AFB or Edwards .. I can't recall if Quantico has an airfield, but I don't think so.

[ForeverAlone]

Since in this CM universe, it is supposed to be plausible for Reid to live in DC and commute to Quantico via public transportation, or get from Quantico to DC in 30 minutes, this Quantico probably has an airfield. :D :D :D :D :D

Edited January 23, 2016 by ForeverAlone

[Noirprncess]

I liked Rossi and Tara's cars. That's all I got.

[smoker]

Genius, RF! That didn't even occur to me but I might just do that. I will wait to hear about any extras they might add to the set, though. Last year I wasn't gonna buy it (bc I hated the cover) but then did, just to own the commentary for "Mr. Scratch."

 

could you please tell me how juicy the commentary is?? pretty please!! 

[ReidFan]

could you please tell me how juicy the commentary is?? pretty please!! 

I loved it. Matthew usually does a lot of clowning around but he was pretty focussed about directing this one. He gives a lot of little insights into the choices he made (music, utter silence etc, casting decisions, shot choices) Talks about the Mr Scratch drawings the 'victims' drew (he did them). I hadn't been able to find it on youtube or anything so I actually broke down and bought the dvd set just for his commentary. And it was worth it. It's the full episode. I'd vidcap it and share, but the file would be 3+ GB......

[smoker]

I loved it. Matthew usually does a lot of clowning around but he was pretty focussed about directing this one. He gives a lot of little insights into the choices he made (music, utter silence etc, casting decisions, shot choices) Talks about the Mr Scratch drawings the 'victims' drew (he did them). I hadn't been able to find it on youtube or anything so I actually broke down and bought the dvd set just for his commentary. And it was worth it. It's the full episode. I'd vidcap it and share, but the file would be 3+ GB......

thanks!! I'll buy it when it's cheaper for sure.

Some of the extras can be watched on youtube. Sadly, comments are not available.

 

I'm glad he's focussed, I remember when I was watching The shield comments and how they talked about other things in my favorite scenes xP

Edited January 23, 2016 by smoker

[ReidFan]

he's a little tease too. Talked about wanting to find someone to play the part of Mr Scratch....just wearing a black leotard and turtleneck sweater, and the headpiece and talons the props/wardrobe people made for it. Carried on and on....and ended up doing it himself. And for MONTHS I scoured the Internet looking for film footage of Mr. Gubler in a black leotard. I would KILL for that visual.

 

And he finally posted a clip of himself playing the role of Mr Scratch on his twitter/instagram a couple weeks ago...and he's in regular clothes. No black leotard. Little tease!

[Droogie]

could you please tell me how juicy the commentary is?? pretty please!!

Reidfan pretty much covered it -- I will say that he talks a lot about selecting the actors in the episode, and setting up the shots, which I found really interesting. He talks about how shooting a few of the scenes went -- I'm not an actor but if I were one, I might love to have him as a director. He seems quite nurturing and like he would use a lot of positive reinforcement. There some funny bits too. It's obvious he's alone, watching the episode and talking, and a couple of times he makes cracks about himself, as if he's a little self-conscious.

Overall, it was really enjoyable. Having that is worth the price of the whole set, IMHO.

[The Wild Sow]

 

 

However, the guillotine as a torture device? Please.

I also have to wonder, though- if O'Neil is using sheet metal as a blade, wouldn't it blunt over time? I never saw him once sharpening the blade, and keeping it sharp through three beheadings is no picnic.

Just the fact that he did it face-up  (like the Halifax Gibbet!) made it a "torture device!"  Having to see what was going to happen....... Ewwwwww!  Ewwwwwww!  {{shudder}}

 

And, hey, we didn't see him eat or sleep or go to the bathroom either, but presumably those things happened off-camera in the few days the show was taking place.  Sharpening could have been among them.

 

I'm a little confused about one thing.....was the male victim actually at the hotel with "Tanya"?  Or did he lie to his sponsor about being with a woman instead of admitting he was holed up in a hotel room alone to drink?!

Edited January 23, 2016 by The Wild Sow

[Danielg342]

don't hang the head......there is a boxful of TMNT figures and accoutrements in my basement too. I'd say they're my daughter's but she was only 3 at the time, although she did grow to love them.

 

Every single toy that came out my brother and I literally collected them all. Our basement was full of those toys...we had everything from the Technodrome to the van to Krang's body to well...just about everything. Not sure what happened the toys...I believe we sold them.

 

*cry*

 

So when the BAU talked about katanas, the first thing I thought of was, "doesn't everyone know that's Leonardo's weapon?" I guess CM world aren't as big of TMNT geeks as I am.

Since in this CM universe, it is supposed to be plausible for Reid to live in DC and commute to Quantico via public transportation, or get from Quantico to DC in 30 minutes, this Quantico probably has an airfield. :D :D :D :D :D

 

Let's also not forget this is the same CM universe where it doesn't snow in Baltimore, Boston or Wyoming in January. I'd love to have their weather.

[ReidFan]

Every single toy that came out my brother and I literally collected them all. Our basement was full of those toys...we had everything from the Technodrome to the van to Krang's body to well...just about everything. Not sure what happened the toys...I believe we sold them.

 

*cry*

 

So when the BAU talked about katanas, the first thing I thought of was, "doesn't everyone know that's Leonardo's weapon?" I guess CM world aren't as big of TMNT geeks as I am.

 

every toy? oh GOOD! then maybe you can tell me about this TMNT panda I found in the box with Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael. (Funny story, in Revelations, every time James van der Beek was 'Raphael' I kept picturing a red mask wearing turtle.....) And Donatello is missing because my daughter went to university and took him with her.

[JMO]

Let's also not forget this is the same CM universe where it doesn't snow in Baltimore, Boston or Wyoming in January. I'd love to have their weather.

 

Can't speak to Wyoming, but, until today, this was the universe where it didn't snow in Baltimore and Boston, in January!

[BooksRule]

Also- what was with these guys and not knowing what a katana is? Did none of them obsessively watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and collect all the toys while they were growing up?

 

Or 'The Walking Dead'.  As soon as I heard the word 'katana', I thought Michonne from TWD.

 

Anything with guillotines creeps me out, so I didn't really like this one.  I did like the scenes with Rossi and Tara.  I especially liked Tara's car, but I had to laugh a little at her struggling to get her tall form out of that really low-slung small car (with coffee tray in hand as well).

 

I agree with the posts about how cartoonish Garcia has become.  She could still be a little eccentric but still professional (I haven't seen old episodes in a while, but I seem to remember her not being so outlandish), but they've really ruined her character over time.  By this time in her career with the BAU, she shouldn't still be shocked at anything she sees.  You would think that headless bodies would be almost routine compared to some of the other things she's probably had to see.

Edited January 24, 2016 by BooksRule

[wknt3]

I am curious about CM's take on ride-sharing. Can't imagine law enforcement loves it.

CM's take on ride sharing is the same as it's take on taxis, public transportation, cars, walking, other internet apps, and just about anything else you can name - it provides an easy opportunity for psychotic serial killers to catch you with your guard down and then torture and kill you.

[Danielg342]

every toy? oh GOOD! then maybe you can tell me about this TMNT panda I found in the box with Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael.

 

Panda Khan. I believe he was in one of the video games. As I understand, he was in the comics (I didn't read those), but I do recall he was one of my favourite toys- likely because his garb was mostly blue (my favourite colour).

 

Oddly enough, Donatello wound up being my favourite of the Turtles...I guess because he's the Smart One like Reid.

 

Can't speak to Wyoming, but, until today, this was the universe where it didn't snow in Baltimore and Boston, in January!

 

"Risky Business" was set in Wyoming in January...and they didn't have snow on the ground there either.

 

I'm also going to sick of 'edgy' episodes. I'm just naming them that but they might not actually be edgy. What I mean is episodes that involve things like app (this one), social media, live streaming crimes, internet stories, sites encouraging others to do bad things. I get it's the world we live in but ugh.

 

I think you mean "trendy" or "topical"..."edgy" is stuff that pushes boundaries and tests what could be "acceptable". Stuff like torture porn is edgy, since that's on the fringes of "mainstream audience acceptance", but Uber isn't. Uber is trendy, though.

[needschocolate]

I am normally law-abiding to a fault, but if I ever visit the CM set, I will do my best to steal that ridiculous cat ear headband Garcia wears.  Then I will cut it up in little pieces and spread them out between multiple garbage cans in multiple counties, just so they could never possibly be glue back together.  

 

I didn't get how a guillotine was sharp enough to slice quickly through the victims's necks, but it didn't slice through the wooden table leg(?) that Hotch used to stop it.  

 

I also wondered if your hands would ever be normal again after having all your knuckles broken.

 

I'm a little confused about one thing.....was the male victim actually at the hotel with "Tanya"?  Or did he lie to his sponsor about being with a woman instead of admitting he was holed up in a hotel room alone to drink?!

 

I believe he was cheating on his wife with Tanya.  I don't have solid proof (Garcia's amazing computer could probably find a video of the affair taken from a  security camera at a mini-mart 2 blocks away), but I offer this evidence --

 

-- In addition to the 3 bottles of wine(?), there were 2 meals ordered from room service.

 

-- His AA sponsor made a point about alcoholics being really good liars and in the his next scene he is telling the unsub that he loves his wife and the unsub is believing him.  

 

-- After the unsub gets off the phone with Tanya, the victim immediately confesses.  If he didn't have an affair, he would have no reason to worry that Tanya would say anything to incriminate him.  

[smoker]

I didn't check Route 66, but isn't Rossi's car the same he drives in Hotch's dream?

Edited January 27, 2016 by smoker

[ReidFan]

yes it is, Smoker. And now it makes sense to me that Rossi is the chauffeur in Route 66.....

[Old Dog]

yes it is, Smoker. And now it makes sense to me that Rossi is the chauffeur in Route 66.....

Ugh! How I hated that episode! It's in my worst ten list!