S13.E11: Full Tilt Boogie

[ReidFan]

written by Erica Messer and Kirsten Vangsness, directed by Simon Mirren.  And Reid is finally back!

 

"The BAU team’s investigation into the home invasion and attempted homicide of a police chief’s wife uncovers a world of secrets in a small town in Virginia"

Edited January 10, 2018 by ReidFan

[Annber03]

And now the title of this episode makes sense :D. 

Really liked Reid talking to Trish's daughter and bonding with her, and helping her feel a little better. That was so sweet :). Also liked his line at the end about how drugs are never the answer. A good, subtle nod to his own past struggles with that issue.

As for the case, wow, Michelle was a piece of work. Telling Kat's daughter to say goodbye to her gave me a shiver. I liked the use of multiple suspects in this episode-really did well at keeping us wondering who all might have a motive. Trish's husband yelling at JJ was intense. I can easily see why they would've been suspicious of him, though.

And I liked the way the show touched upon the sad realities of drug addiction in small towns, and how prevalent it is, too. It's sad that people think they have to keep all of this secret...hopefully that can change with time, and the town can tackle these issues at last. 

Yeah. This was a good one. 

[JMO]

So many questions---

Why was the BAU involved? 

Why was Garcia planted at the hospital?  

Other than being a 'message episode', was there a point to this story?  

And, until more than half-way through, where was Reid?!!

He. was a most welcome sight, and I sort of enjoyed his scene with the daughter. 

I thought AJ did well holding down the episode. 

[AuntieL]

In my area a prominent doctor was just arrested for the murder of his wife (the murder actually happened several years ago, it took them a while). His motive was that she found out about his side opiate drug dealing, in partnership with a motorcycle gang no less.  There's also been a federal investigation into major drug dealing involving police fire and teacher health insurers. So this was a timely episode. 

[UncleChuck]

9 minutes ago, JMO said:

Why was the BAU involved? 

Not sure why exactly the BAU was needed, but the FBI had the case because the woman's would-be grave was located on federal land near D.C.  And for the BAU it was a local case so they didn't have to fly anywhere...so why not?

[JMO]

2 minutes ago, UncleChuck said:

Not sure why exactly the BAU was needed, but the FBI had the case because the woman's would-be grave was located on federal land near D.C.  And for the BAU it was a local case so they didn't have to fly anywhere...so why not?

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

[Hotchgirl18]

We get it. Opioid addictions are bad. It was a good plot and all, but I can't enjoy anything right now. 

[CoyoteBlue]

59 minutes ago, JMO said:

So many questions---

Why was the BAU involved? 

I assumed because Elle Greenaway was the unsub, but it turns out Kathryn Winslow and Lola Glaudini are apparently dopplegangers......

[Sharpie66]

I am guessing that they could have kept Reid out of this ep entirely if it hadn’t dealt with addiction, so they put him in as soon as MGG was back from his break instead of waiting until the next ep. It felt a bit awkward to have him suddenly appear, but I appreciated his presence considering the subject matter. I liked his very subtle remarks at the end, and especially loved his interaction with the daughter. Her mom issues, and her using random subjects to research to find something to connect with, really struck home with Reid. 

The rest of the ep was pretty solid, imo. I appreciated them taking on the opioid crisis in this country, showing white rural residents who are being victimized by addiction. The writers didn’t try to present the crisis as a new discovery but as a fact of life in 2018 America, which I found rather refreshing. 

Overall, a big improvement over last week’s pirates. Arrrrrrgh.

[Sharpie66]

(BTW, I am surprised the ad for The Alienist didn’t highlight the fact that it is about a proto-profiling unit investigating a serial killer, right up a CM fan’s alley!)

[ForeverAlone]

Hmmm...I expected more from a Kirsten/Erica collaboration, but I wasn't exactly feeling this one. I found the investigation generally interesting (though a bit preachy at times, but the opioid crisis is a popular storytelling device these days) , with plenty of red herrings thrown at us (so much so, we knew that none of these would stick, because they were coming at us fast and furious), though I felt the episode took a real dip in quality towards the end with the wacked out mother. I kept waiting for Reid to show up, because I thought he was supposed to be in this episode, and he finally did halfway through. I figured the unsub was a woman after Mac's killer was completely obscured.

I guess my central problem with this story is that the BAU would never have been called in on this case in the first place. The cops had a named suspect. Who cares if she was found in a national park? At worst, then officers from the Virginia FBI field office would do any sort of investigation if it required a federal presence. This wasn't even a good pretext for getting the BAU involved, and I felt there was very little actual profiling. This was all just straight investigation, and not even necessarily the most interesting investigation to begin with. 

Edited January 11, 2018 by ForeverAlone

[bkathi]

I live in Ashburn and I wish they had taken a second to do some research.  We don't have a mayor, and our sheriff is a county guy, not just Ashburn.  They did use the major road (Belmont Ridge) to name the hospital where the sheriff's wife was treated before they moved to the small town.

Other than that - loved seeing Ben B on my tv!

[mythoughtis]

It was a federal crime not only  because If where it was, but because it was against a cops spouse.  At least that is what was said. 

It was a good episode, but I did find it preachy.  Too many stats about opiates included. 

[normasm]

The topic, timely, I'll give you that. Emily saying that "Opiate addiction is a most prolific serial killer," or something to that affect, is true. And, they could have gotten a lot preachier, but were somewhat restrained. I'll glide on past the ridiculousness that made this a BAU case (not buying the national forest bit) and the whole 4 members of the team drove up and the other 14 (including Reid!), with no explanation, joined them after half the show was gone bit was weird; plus, why was Garcia at the hospital at all? OK, I'm gliding, i'll stop.

The main victim was a good actress, and her "daughter" was even better. Her scene with Spence was tender, real, without being sappy. JJ acquitted herself well as point person for the episode (in this case, it's not a JJ-centric episode). Not too much annoying Garcia, just one little spurt.

But when Spence showed up.... I don't know if it's the writing, the actor, or what, but this seems to be Spence 2.0. Subdued. Calm. Sad at the mistakes people make, but sympathetic because he's made some of them too. I'm not sure I like the direction they are taking him, because it seems like he's heading for the exits, for real this time. I hope, if he is going out, the show gives him a lovely arc at the end of this season, which might encompass the 300th episode. I won't watch without him, but i'll watch while he's there, and I hope they write him right!

[secnarf]

22 hours ago, CoyoteBlue said:

I assumed because Elle Greenaway was the unsub, but it turns out Kathryn Winslow and Lola Glaudini are apparently dopplegangers......

Glad I wasn't the only one who thought this!

[Hotchgirl18]

It would be cool if Elle did make a comeback. 

[chillenout]

I wish they’d stop trying to make the guy who plays Matthew into the new Derrick Morgan, it’s annoying and  it’s not working. 

[Hotchgirl18]

53 minutes ago, chillenout said:

I wish they’d stop trying to make the guy who plays Matthew into the new Derrick Morgan, it’s annoying and  it’s not working. 

Again. What's the purpose of Luke Alvez?

[JMO]

13 hours ago, normasm said:

But when Spence showed up.... I don't know if it's the writing, the actor, or what, but this seems to be Spence 2.0. Subdued. Calm. Sad at the mistakes people make, but sympathetic because he's made some of them too. I'm not sure I like the direction they are taking him, because it seems like he's heading for the exits, for real this time. I hope, if he is going out, the show gives him a lovely arc at the end of this season, which might encompass the 300th episode. I won't watch without him, but i'll watch while he's there, and I hope they write him right!

The show is so accommodating to MGG that I'll be surprised if he leaves before it sunsets. 

Many of us are waiting for the other shoe to drop in terms of fallout for Reid from last season's trauma.  I'm hoping the quiet changes and world-weariness you noted are not the extent of it.  To some degree, I wonder if the show's accommodation to the actor contributed to some of the differences visible in the character this week.  I haven't gone back through social media to research it, but I think that MGG was on vacation for part of the filming of the episode, accounting for Reid's being absent for more than half of it.  It might also have limited his prep time, so that we got MGG playing sensitive Reid without having fully entered back into the Reid character. I did like his scene with the daughter, but it was not the kind of scene we usually see for Reid (making it harder to get back into character), and I also felt that he came across more as a middle school guidance counselor than as Reid.  I know it always takes me at least a few days to get back into work mode after vacation.  Maybe it does for an actor as well, especially if they are joining filming already in progress.  

Even if MGG stays until the final episode, I hope Reid gets an appropriate farewell arc.  

[normasm]

Well, JMO, I agree with you about the other shoe, yeah, I hope it's not over with regard to Reid's PTSwhatever. But MGG has been playing Reid for 13 years, so, I think he knows how to jump back into the role; I just think he was portraying Reid doing what Reid doesn't usually do, play counselor. There was no profiling for him, really, it seemed like he was concerned about the child of a sick mother, because he empathized, and because he wanted her to lift herself out of the dumps of her mother's illness.

[Sharpie66]

I really like seeing current Reid interact with kids, because he is really good at it, as opposed to Season 1 Reid, who was pretty awkward with everyone. Also, I much prefer competent, confident, quiet but intense Reid over babbling on-the-spectrum Reid, so his demeanor in this ep was much to my liking.

[Mystery]

On 1/10/2018 at 10:44 PM, ForeverAlone said:

 with plenty of red herrings thrown at us 

I thought they'd find out why the wife kept being hospitalized for broken bones. At one point I thought maybe her daughter was beating her up. I just felt like the story wasn't finished. 

I loved the scenes with Reid and the daughter; I agree that the actress was very good. 

[UncleChuck]

Quote

plus, why was Garcia at the hospital at all?

Because KV wrote the episode, and she gave herself something extra to do instead of just sitting in front of her magic computers.

[Danielg342]

I'm not sure I'll ever get Erica Messer's Criminal Minds. It seems like they either try too hard or they just don't try at all.

This was the former.

Obviously, this was supposed to be a heavy-hitting episode about the dangers of opioid abuse and the rising danger of drug abuse in general across many demographics of North America. No longer are the drug addicts the strung-out cokeheads who lay out on the streets looking no worse for wear- no, the drug addicts of today are the over-stressed middle class, doing all they can do to make ends meet and struggling with diminishing returns.

It's a sad story, and it's the one this episode tried to tell...but it failed to do so. Miserably.

The biggest fault is that it just couldn't decide on the track it wanted to go with. First this was a story about an encounter at a bar that the Lame Lothario wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Then it became a story about domestic violence, one that others above me noted the show never really adequately addressed.

Then it became a revenge story about the overlooked cop looking to hit back at the newcomer that stole the promotion from him.

Once they finally dealt with all that...then it became a story about opioids. What about opioids, I still don't know, because we still had to have yet another misdirect where Victim #1's friend from the bar was deemed the UnSub before we got to the actual UnSub.

Phew. Got all that? I'm not sure the writers did.

What we were left with is an UnSub that wasn't explained at all, crimes with zero motivations and a mishmash of stories that were poorly hacked together and never finished.

Seriously, this episode feels like five different scripts for different episodes that were never finished with Messer deciding at the end to combine them into this one. There was just zero coherence.

I suppose I should say something positive- the acting was brilliant in this one (except from the UnSub...she was horrible), and it was nice to see Reid back, even though he did absolutely nothing. In fact, the team did little more than just spout lines...I'm not sure anyone really put their brain to use.

Which leads me to say this in conclusion:

I never thought I'd ever say this because I thought I'd be here to the end...but, as these episodes get more of a chore to watch and it becomes apparent the magic is all but gone and never to be felt again...I feel like I'm going to give up. When CTV had the show on at 8, I could watch it because it was not impacting my sleep schedule.

Now that I need to stay up until 10, it means my sleep is impacted, so I'll have to watch it later. I don't have the motivation to watch this show anymore.

I'm not saying "the end", but I'm getting close. I just may decide that I'm gone after 300- no use sticking around after that.

ETA- I want to take aim at Messer's obsession with family drama as the fuel for her UnSub stories. They're getting ridiculous with the amount of times they get brought up, and they're bordering on the fantastical with the scenarios Messer cooks up. This wasn't as bad as the Pirate in the previous episode- he had no reason to kill anyone, and certainly killing because he lost his childhood friend is beyond ridiculous- but it's bad. I'm not saying that having an UnSub kill because of family issues or a childhood trauma isn't workable- those can be great episodes- I'm saying that we've gone to that well way too much. It's time for other motivations for people to become serial killers, and there's plenty more than just "scorned lovers".

Edited January 13, 2018 by Danielg342

[Hotchgirl18]

11 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

I'm not sure I'll ever get Erica Messer's Criminal Minds. It seems like they either try too hard or they just don't try at all.

This was the former.

Obviously, this was supposed to be a heavy-hitting episode about the dangers of opioid abuse and the rising danger of drug abuse in general across many demographics of North America. No longer are the drug addicts the strung-out cokeheads who lay out on the streets looking no worse for wear- no, the drug addicts of today are the over-stressed middle class, doing all they can do to make ends meet and struggling with diminishing returns.

It's a sad story, and it's the one this episode tried to tell...but it failed to do so. Miserably.

The biggest fault is that it just couldn't decide on the track it wanted to go with. First this was a story about an encounter at a bar that the Lame Lothario wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Then it became a story about domestic violence, one that others above me noted the show never really adequately addressed.

Then it became a revenge story about the overlooked cop looking to hit back at the newcomer that stole the promotion from him.

Once they finally dealt with all that...then it became a story about opioids. What about opioids, I still don't know, because we still had to have yet another misdirect where Victim #1's friend from the bar was deemed the UnSub before we got to the actual UnSub.

Phew. Got all that? I'm not sure the writers did.

What we were left with is an UnSub that wasn't explained at all, crimes with zero motivations and a mishmash of stories that were poorly hacked together and never finished.

Seriously, this episode feels like five different scripts for different episodes that were never finished with Messer deciding at the end to combine them into this one. There was just zero coherence.

I suppose I should say something positive- the acting was brilliant in this one (except from the UnSub...she was horrible), and it was nice to see Reid back, even though he did absolutely nothing. In fact, the team did little more than just spout lines...I'm not sure anyone really put their brain to use.

Which leads me to say this in conclusion:

I never thought I'd ever say this because I thought I'd be here to the end...but, as these episodes get more of a chore to watch and it becomes apparent the magic is all but gone and never to be felt again...I feel like I'm going to give up. When CTV had the show on at 8, I could watch it because it was not impacting my sleep schedule.

Now that I need to stay up until 10, it means my sleep is impacted, so I'll have to watch it later. I don't have the motivation to watch this show anymore.

I'm not saying "the end", but I'm getting close. I just may decide that I'm gone after 300- no use sticking around after that.

ETA- I want to take aim at Messer's obsession with family drama as the fuel for her UnSub stories. They're getting ridiculous with the amount of times they get brought up, and they're bordering on the fantastical with the scenarios Messer cooks up. This wasn't as bad as the Pirate in the previous episode- he had no reason to kill anyone, and certainly killing because he lost his childhood friend is beyond ridiculous- but it's bad. I'm not saying that having an UnSub kill because of family issues or a childhood trauma isn't workable- those can be great episodes- I'm saying that we've gone to that well way too much. It's time for other motivations for people to become serial killers, and there's plenty more than just "scorned lovers".

Messer is so dramatic. If she wants to write soap operas, she should write Days Of Our Lives. She has no ideas about his actual serial killers work. 

[MMC]

19 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

I'm not sure I'll ever get Erica Messer's Criminal Minds. It seems like they either try too hard or they just don't try at all.

This was the former.

Obviously, this was supposed to be a heavy-hitting episode about the dangers of opioid abuse and the rising danger of drug abuse in general across many demographics of North America. No longer are the drug addicts the strung-out cokeheads who lay out on the streets looking no worse for wear- no, the drug addicts of today are the over-stressed middle class, doing all they can do to make ends meet and struggling with diminishing returns.

It's a sad story, and it's the one this episode tried to tell...but it failed to do so. Miserably.

The biggest fault is that it just couldn't decide on the track it wanted to go with. First this was a story about an encounter at a bar that the Lame Lothario wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Then it became a story about domestic violence, one that others above me noted the show never really adequately addressed.

Then it became a revenge story about the overlooked cop looking to hit back at the newcomer that stole the promotion from him.

Once they finally dealt with all that...then it became a story about opioids. What about opioids, I still don't know, because we still had to have yet another misdirect where Victim #1's friend from the bar was deemed the UnSub before we got to the actual UnSub.

Phew. Got all that? I'm not sure the writers did.

What we were left with is an UnSub that wasn't explained at all, crimes with zero motivations and a mishmash of stories that were poorly hacked together and never finished.

Seriously, this episode feels like five different scripts for different episodes that were never finished with Messer deciding at the end to combine them into this one. There was just zero coherence.

I suppose I should say something positive- the acting was brilliant in this one (except from the UnSub...she was horrible), and it was nice to see Reid back, even though he did absolutely nothing. In fact, the team did little more than just spout lines...I'm not sure anyone really put their brain to use.

Which leads me to say this in conclusion:

I never thought I'd ever say this because I thought I'd be here to the end...but, as these episodes get more of a chore to watch and it becomes apparent the magic is all but gone and never to be felt again...I feel like I'm going to give up. When CTV had the show on at 8, I could watch it because it was not impacting my sleep schedule.

Now that I need to stay up until 10, it means my sleep is impacted, so I'll have to watch it later. I don't have the motivation to watch this show anymore.

I'm not saying "the end", but I'm getting close. I just may decide that I'm gone after 300- no use sticking around after that.

ETA- I want to take aim at Messer's obsession with family drama as the fuel for her UnSub stories. They're getting ridiculous with the amount of times they get brought up, and they're bordering on the fantastical with the scenarios Messer cooks up. This wasn't as bad as the Pirate in the previous episode- he had no reason to kill anyone, and certainly killing because he lost his childhood friend is beyond ridiculous- but it's bad. I'm not saying that having an UnSub kill because of family issues or a childhood trauma isn't workable- those can be great episodes- I'm saying that we've gone to that well way too much. It's time for other motivations for people to become serial killers, and there's plenty more than just "scorned lovers".

Well now I am convinced that Erica, not to mention Rick and Breen also, having had been writers on the show Alias was the reason we ended up with this so called spy drama crap. Which in my opinion had no place in a show that was suppose to be a psychological crime drama. Likewise Erica use to write for the show The Party Of Five. Which might very well explain this so called obsession of hers(Family drama) that you have noted when it comes to the unsubs.

Edited January 14, 2018 by MMC

[needschocolate]

I must have missed something because I couldn't figure out why the unsub wanted to kill the cop's wife. I know the wife called a drug hotline run by the unsub, which prompted the unsub to decide to kill her. But why? 

 

Was there any Behavioral Analysis in this episode?  Seems like everything the BAU did could have been done by any non-specialized FBI agent.  

[Danielg342]

21 hours ago, MMC said:

Well now I am convinced that Erica, not to mention Rick and Breen also, having had been writers on the show Alias was the reason we ended up with this so called spy drama crap. Which in my opinion had no place in a show that was suppose to be a psychological crime drama. Likewise Erica use to write for the show The Party Of Five. Which might very well explain this so called obsession of hers(Family drama) that you have noted when it comes to the unsubs.

I think what more gets me is how, in recent years, the show has shied away too much from the "classic" serial killer, the kind that were driven by perverse or repressed sexual urges. I mean, I understand that the show would want to explore other ideas for stories and that sex-based crimes are kind of taboo these days, but I feel like the show is getting away from what made it a draw in the first place. I always criticize TV and movies for avoiding talking about sex and sex-based crimes because it avoids reality, and I don't believe we'll ever have meaningful solutions to the problem of sexual misconduct unless we talk about it.

More to the point, I came to this show to understand the worst of the worst and why they did what they did. This should be a show about people who cause real terror and justifiably send communities into real panic. Not about some lame duck guy with a pirate fantasy that Encyclopedia Brown could arrest in his sleep.

19 hours ago, needschocolate said:

I must have missed something because I couldn't figure out why the unsub wanted to kill the cop's wife. I know the wife called a drug hotline run by the unsub, which prompted the unsub to decide to kill her. But why?   

I believe she feared being exposed...or she wanted to destroy people who were destroying their lives. I don't know...the episode was so haphazardly written that I'm not sure there was a real explanation offered.

[Hotchgirl18]

1 hour ago, Danielg342 said:

I think what more gets me is how, in recent years, the show has shied away too much from the "classic" serial killer, the kind that were driven by perverse or repressed sexual urges. I mean, I understand that the show would want to explore other ideas for stories and that sex-based crimes are kind of taboo these days, but I feel like the show is getting away from what made it a draw in the first place. I always criticize TV and movies for avoiding talking about sex and sex-based crimes because it avoids reality, and I don't believe we'll ever have meaningful solutions to the problem of sexual misconduct unless we talk about it.

More to the point, I came to this show to understand the worst of the worst and why they did what they did. This should be a show about people who cause real terror and justifiably send communities into real panic. Not about some lame duck guy with a pirate fantasy that Encyclopedia Brown could arrest in his sleep.

I believe she feared being exposed...or she wanted to destroy people who were destroying their lives. I don't know...the episode was so haphazardly written that I'm not sure there was a real explanation offered.

Our executive producer is not grounded in reality. 

[Annber03]

Episode review:

https://www.spoilertv.com/2018/01/criminal-minds-full-tilt-boogie-review.html

[normasm]

Nice review, Annber03. There was some accommodating of MGG that was evident with Reid only showing up the last [almost] half of the episode. His contribution was lovely, and I hope they show more of this subdued Reid, if that's how Matthew wants to play him. It was a higgledy-piggedly written episode, not one of KV-EM's best but far from the worst.

 

Thanks for posting your thorough review!

[Annber03]

Thanks, @normasm :)! Yeah, I figured that was the out-of-show reason, it's just odd they didn't find some way to explain Reid's absence on the show itself for the first half :p. But eh, well, he showed up, so yay :D.

"Subdued" is an interesting description for Reid's demeanor lately. It does seem like he's trying to find some sort of peace with all he's been through, trying to return to his "old self" in a way. Some of his actions and feelings both last season and in "Wheels Up" clearly unnerved him, because of how dark and aggressive they were, so it would make sense he'd want to distance himself from that as a result. I do wonder how long that will last, and if anything will happen later in the season to shake that up again, but for the time being, I like that he's trying to see this as an opportunity to learn and grow while also holding on to his general "Reid-ness", as it were. 

Anywho, glad you liked the review, and thanks again for the comments! Much appreciated!

[Hotchgirl18]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

Thanks, @normasm :)! Yeah, I figured that was the out-of-show reason, it's just odd they didn't find some way to explain Reid's absence on the show itself for the first half :p. But eh, well, he showed up, so yay :D.

"Subdued" is an interesting description for Reid's demeanor lately. It does seem like he's trying to find some sort of peace with all he's been through, trying to return to his "old self" in a way. Some of his actions and feelings both last season and in "Wheels Up" clearly unnerved him, because of how dark and aggressive they were, so it would make sense he'd want to distance himself from that as a result. I do wonder how long that will last, and if anything will happen later in the season to shake that up again, but for the time being, I like that he's trying to see this as an opportunity to learn and grow while also holding on to his general "Reid-ness", as it were. 

Anywho, glad you liked the review, and thanks again for the comments! Much appreciated!

I do wish he would be a little dark and aggressive. :)

[normasm]

Hotchgirl, he's lucky to get onscreen these days.

[Hotchgirl18]

They can't write for him period. They can only write for the supergirls. They're just being lazy at this point. 

[webruce]

Liked how Rossi explained the Episode name as well. It was nice that Police Chief Steve Gaines( liked him on Stargate SG-1 and Farscape) wasn't hiding some big drug kingpin. He was only trying to help his wife and her problems with pain control. We never did find-out about her broken bones, was it from drug over use, falling etc??

I did like the longer list of suspects. But as stated above, there was little profiling. And as my wife points out, that was what she liked about it compared to the cop shows of the day. But we always, or almost always know, that the first couple suspects are red herrings. I did wonder about Chief Gaines being upset with JJ and then how Deputy Chief Jimmy MacKenzie being "to nice". Then you had "Bad Boy" Rick Sturgess. Then all the girl friends at the bar. I did think it odd that Trish met the girls at the bar after Steve, Dana and Trevor went on a camping trip. Seems she was out for some excitement and maybe fooling around. But Rick wasn't what she really wanted, or she changed her mind? But with Steve texting her often, he knew something was happening.

Was hoping the team would get to Kat Mackrel before Michelle "Shelly" Gorman convinced her to kill herself. Her cute little girl Justine saying "good bye mommy", made me tear a little. I thought Shelly looked like Elle Greenaway also. I think because because Kat,  Shelly's sister was a druggy and can't take care of her daughter, that even though she is trying to get better, Shelly thinks she is a failure. She sees time and again how she fails to get better. So others, like the Chiefs wife looks successful and in real life is a drug user. Shelly hates it that her sister is known as a drug user and Trish is being hidden from her failures being public? Her hubby is prominent and hides her problem. Also he supports it to a certain extent. When the information became clear to her on her help line she snapped. That is why Shelly runs so many "Help Lines".

Figured when we first saw Garcia and Tara at the BAU, then shortly they were stationed at the hospital that the drive wasn't to far. Did like Reid's talk to Dana, and also JJ's with everyone. The team seams at times to have extra members, and not all are needed on each case.

Not sure I like Rossi going grey so quickly. And no one commented on it? He has worked so hard to hide it. I know it's for tv, but with my grey I'm not as diligent as he was covering it up when the color starts to fade. So letting it go several episodes earlier, I was surprised no one said anything? Or did they?

Talking of subdued Reid, well we know he was in prison, which has to take some out of you. He was worried about his moms health and then found-out the person taking care of her was out to get him? That would take a lot out of anyone. I hope he does at-least some what return to old Spenser. He has had a rough BAU life. Probably not what he expected when he joined them to help profile and solve crimes. Maybe with his talk to Dana he also saw himself??

Law and Order: SVU has all Sex based crimes. NCIS had one lately too.

Also liked Garcia's New Years dinner for the team.

Edited January 26, 2018 by webruce
Added thought

[Danielg342]

On 26/01/2018 at 12:27 PM, webruce said:

Law and Order: SVU has all Sex based crimes.

I grant that I haven't watched nearly as many episodes of SVU as CM, but from what I've seen, lately SVU seems more to be a show about murders with a sex crime thrown in to give an explanation about why the SVU is on the scene. They haven't really been exploring sex crimes for a while now.

[ForeverAlone]

SVU goes in waves with the sorts of crimes it has. In the early to mid seasons, much of the crimes were murder with some sort of sexual element that was a pretext to bring in SVU. But in the later seasons (seasons 13 and beyond), the bulk of the crimes are actual rapes, much of them acquaintance rapes between people who know each other. And an eye rolling preponderance of pretty white female victims, and rich, powerful male perpetrators. Just like CM, they need to mix up their crimes and motivations, in my opinion. SVU needs more murders and different classes of victims and perps, and CM needs more sexually motivated crimes. 

Edited January 28, 2018 by ForeverAlone

[pumpkin]

This episode felt really all over the place to me:/. It sort've seemed like they had no idea what they wanted to do with it so they brought in the opioid boogey man.

And yes, opioids are really big problem and there are a lot of issues around addiction, drug supply and drug criminalization in this country that need to be addressed and rethought. But they weren't saying anything new here, they were basically just like people use drugs because they're sad inside and it's a current hot button topic and total bummer. Not exactly an intricate picture of drug users, with no offered solutions aside from if your loved one is using you should be a jerk to them... how about that narcan that the EMT administered, saving a life? nah its too late because we ran out the clock with other plot lines. 

Which brings me back to the all over the placeness! I was really surprised to see that by like half way through the episode they were still on red herrings. Wheres the meat CM?? There was so much going on we barely had time to become invested in any of the characters. Were they stalling on the drug part of the episode till Reid got back since he's a recovered opioid abuser? (Not that they even really brought that up either. Oh drugs aren't the answer? Oh okay my bad) Even the team was scattered all over the place! Some people were still Quantico and some people were in the field and of the field people they were like oh for sure we should send in Garcia to sit on her laptop at the hospital? 

Add that to the fact that the episode title was literally a throw away line and that theres not really a reason this was even a BAU case you just get a whole lot of whaaat? There wasn't even any profiling!   

It's a shame because CM has definitely brought up social issues like this before but in a much more nuanced way. And because one of the things I've enjoyed about this show over time is how tight they keep their episode plot lines! This just felt like they ran out of red herrings and were like THE BAD GUY WAS DRUGS ALL ALONG 

Edited February 18, 2018 by pumpkin

[Shades of Scarlet]

I thought this episode was outstanding.  It had actual mystery and originality, as well as complicated motives.  AJ anchored the episode beautifully and the daughter was an amazing actress.  Can KV write more shows each season?