S14.E12: Hamelin

[secnarf]

This aired last night but I don't see a topic:

The BAU team flies to Iowa to investigate the disappearance of three 10-year-old children who appear to have been abducted from their homes, with surveillance video from a park as their only lead to finding the children's whereabouts.

[Annber03]

So I liked this episode. The stuff with the kids being lured out of their homes was creepy (as was the bit with the mom in the kitchen, yikes), and I liked how the team all contributed to the case. The unsub was also an interesting mix of somewhat sympathetic and just flat out creepy. Like, even if the parents had been wrong about the whole "inappropriate behavior" thing, you still get the sense that he may have been a bit...off...for a while, even before his firing. I also liked the way Rossi and Reid each dealt with Arthur. 

And the story with JJ and her mom was a good continuation of some of the issues that were touched on earlier this season. Especially loved the way Reid checked in with her throughout, and their little talk at the end :). 

Plus, this case was set in my state, so that made it interesting, too :p. 

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

So I liked this episode. The stuff with the kids being lured out of their homes was creepy (as was the bit with the mom in the kitchen, yikes), and I liked how the team all contributed to the case. The unsub was also an interesting mix of somewhat sympathetic and just flat out creepy. Like, even if the parents had been wrong about the whole "inappropriate behavior" thing, you still get the sense that he may have been a bit...off...for a while, even before his firing. I also liked the way Rossi and Reid each dealt with Arthur. 

And the story with JJ and her mom was a good continuation of some of the issues that were touched on earlier this season. Especially loved the way Reid checked in with her throughout, and their little talk at the end :). 

Plus, this case was set in my state, so that made it interesting, too :p. 

Hello, fellow Iowan.  :)

[Annber03]

Hi :)! What part of the state are you in? I'm in the northern half. 

[BooksRule]

Quote

The stuff with the kids being lured out of their homes was creepy (as was the bit with the mom in the kitchen, yikes), and I liked how the team all contributed to the case.

That was creepy.  When Reid explained her behavior, it reminded me of an episode of 'CSI', where a guy had been bludgeoned in his bed while asleep, but he still had enough 'life' in him to turn off the alarm when it went off, brush his teeth, go downstairs and fix breakfast before he expired at the breakfast table (all the time just leaving a gory blood trail everywhere he went).  It kind of makes me want to do some research to learn more about it.

[Annber03]

I seem to remember hearing a real life story like that once, too. A guy had been...shot in the head, I want to say? And yet he still went downstairs and went through his usual morning routine before he finally felt the effects of the wound. 

The brain is amazing and weird. 

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

27 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Hi :)! What part of the state are you in? I'm in the northern half. 

Southeast.  Right next to the river, separating us from Illinois.

[mamadrama]

I liked the episode in general. The motive, however, was a bit of a letdown for me. 

[Danielg342]

Let's run this episode through The Checklist.

• Every UnSub has a family issue. (1/1) This guy had a dead son, whom the UnSub was accused of abusing via town gossip.
• If there's a man being attacked in the episode, you can be sure he's going to killed and you get to see the torture in all its glory. (1/1) The UnSub, who was male, did shoot himself...and the following scene had quite a bit of blood flowing from his head, though it was covered.
• If there's a woman who is being victimized, you can be sure you'll never see her get hurt, she'll be portrayed as "precious" and she'll be saved. Nine times out of ten she may even have a "you go girl!" moment where she outsmarts the UnSub and saves herself...all for female empowerment or something like that. (0/2) No "you go girl!" moment, and though we didn't see the Mayor's wife get hit in the head, we did see the aftermath in all its bloody, bloody, bloody glory.
• Rapes never happen, even when they would make sense for them to happen (most real serial killers are sexual deviants, after all). Oh, and don't expect rape as a backstory either, even though it would be totally understandable. (1/1) This guy's got kids who are prone to suggestible impulses and has them locked up...but still, no sex.
• If a case involves something on the Internet, such as social media or online banking, expect it to portrayed in an entirely negative light that will put you in peril in some way. (1/1) "Kids wired to their computers will only lead to UnSubs sending them things to kidnap them, no matter how much you watch them!"
• The crimes will be so maddeningly simple that you wonder why the FBI is called in at all. Why have local police if they don't need to do any actual work? (1/1) Aside from the strange ruse, the UnSub was a local who was found looking up local records and was presumably known to the town. Furthermore, those E-Mails he sent should have been easy to trace- they came from an E-Mail account, right?
• If there isn't 300 million different feints to give the illusion of complexity, the case will fit together all too easily...but the BAU will still spend half the episode saying, "this doesn't make sense" and "how does this all fit?" (1/1) Don't recall too much hemming and hawing from the BAU (though there were a few times the audio was clear from the UnSub's tape but we still hear the agents ask, "what did he say?)", but the case moved with some of the strangest leaps in logic somehow easily fitting into the puzzle.
• Men will be expected to give the women oodles of fanservice by being shirtless and showing off those muscles, even if it doesn't make a lick of sense. Women, on the other hand, will never be used for similar fanservice, even when it would make sense, because "we gotta make a statement about objectification", or something. (1/2) No men as fanservice, but no women were either.
• Expect ominous music to play when something bad or important is going to happen. Because the audience can't deduce that for themselves. (1/1) That moment where the Mayor's son went to answer the door had to have been the worst.
• The BAU field members will all be interchangeable, spouting whatever lines and doing whatever action the plot needs at that moment. None of them will have a personality, because none of them need one. (1/1) Yup...very interchangeable tonight.
• If a team member gets the spotlight, expect it to come in some lazy bookend segments that are supposed to "shine a light" on their personal lives but really don't offer much insight at all. (1/1) It's JJ's turn to "reconnect" with her seemingly estranged mother, with the mother apologizing for ignoring JJ because she was grieving over Rosalyn. It could have been a nice story if everything wasn't glossed over so quickly.
• Well, except Reid...but Reid will only get used to be victimized (something about Matthew Gray Gubler being so good at crying, or something) or to be CM's Wikipedia. No need for him to do anything else. (1/1) Reid was informative and he had a nice tackle early in the episode...but, he was still very much "Reidapedia".
• Garcia will be an insufferable, whiny child who will wear ridiculous outfits and place even more nonsensical trinkets on her desk because, even though by now she should be a professional (after 14 years on the job), she "totally needs things to get through all those icky, yucky images". (1/1) "I need to take four showers!"
• Team members can totally go rogue, unless this is the episode where someone remembers "it's not a good idea for the police to do that". (0/1) No rogue team members this week.
• The team can also openly disrespect the law and conduct illegal searches and interrogations because they're "the good guys" and those are "the bad guys", so it's OK to abuse someone's rights. (1/1) The Faux UnSub at the beginning may have been on parole...but the BAU can't just arrest him because he's reading a manual at a public park.
• Don't expect anything to happen in the daylight, because nighttime adds "mood"...or something like that. Because who cares if the audience can actually see what's going on. (1/1) From the dark dungeon where the UnSub kept his kids, to the kids being lured at night to even the poor lighting at the Mayor's house...lots of stuff happened in the dark.
• If the episode is supposed to have an impact, expect it to be a cheap payoff where a team member suddenly learns their only-referred-to once aunt or mother or significant other or whatever other person close to them is in trouble and needs their help. 50/50 on whether they actually get saved, with the odds being higher for female characters and lower for male characters. (1/1) JJ's mother had her living room flooded because her pipes burst, which allowed for her to awkwardly resolve whatever issue she had with JJ. That counts, doesn't it?
• Or, a team member gets put in peril, and, unless you know that cast member is leaving, expect that member to survive. (0/1) No one in peril...unless you count Tara getting shoved by the Faux UnSub as "peril" (I also really wonder if a judge would really find that shove as "assault"...it was rather weak and he was being accosted for no reason).
• Need tension? Just add gratuitous gore, or insert a female character or a child character whose only purpose is to get kidnapped for the BAU to later save. (2/2) Mayor's wife with a bloody head after being bashed in the skull? Check. Case about kids needing to be saved? Check. They also all get saved too.
• Need the UnSub to be sympathetic? Insert a scene where he reminisces about his lost mother or his lost wife. If you have a female UnSub, insert a scene where she reminisces about her lost children...and it will always be about lost children, because female UnSubs will have always shot their abusive ex. (1/1) OK, so it was a father reminiscing about his lost son...so a twist but still the same idea.
• The UnSub will be male, unless we actually need the UnSub to be a sob story. In that case, 90% chance the UnSub is female. (1/1) Male UnSub, yes. He was also a sob story, and a poor one at that.
• You do not shoot female UnSubs, even when it would make sense. Males...totally go for it. (1/1) The male UnSub shot himself.
• Oh, and despite how "progressive" the CM writers think they are, forget about making an UnSub that's homosexual or transgender, unless you want to do "a very special episode". Heteronormativity, baby! (1/1) Though the UnSub's sexuality was not revealed, he didn't make any overtures that he was homosexual. In fact, he was quite distraught that people thought he acted that way towards his son.
• Penultimately, if CM ever deviates from any of the above points, it will be a one-off and next week they'll be back to normal again. (1/1) First time in a long time that a female character was actually shown having been brutalized. I don't expect a repeat next week.
• Finally, don't expect anything like actual character development, or real nuances, or a simple case that gets built upon, or even a case or an UnSub that makes logical sense...because doing any of that would take actual work from these writers and we all know they're as lazy as they come. (1/1) It's an episode where kids are the target...of course the BAU is going to save them. There was also a very cursory attempt to model the story after the infamous "Pied Piper" tale but there was no real attempt to explore it.

Final score: 23/28, or 82.14%.

[Hotchgirl18]

16 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Let's run this episode through The Checklist.

• Every UnSub has a family issue. (1/1) This guy had a dead son, whom the UnSub was accused of abusing via town gossip.
• If there's a man being attacked in the episode, you can be sure he's going to killed and you get to see the torture in all its glory. (1/1) The UnSub, who was male, did shoot himself...and the following scene had quite a bit of blood flowing from his head, though it was covered.
• If there's a woman who is being victimized, you can be sure you'll never see her get hurt, she'll be portrayed as "precious" and she'll be saved. Nine times out of ten she may even have a "you go girl!" moment where she outsmarts the UnSub and saves herself...all for female empowerment or something like that. (0/2) No "you go girl!" moment, and though we didn't see the Mayor's wife get hit in the head, we did see the aftermath in all its bloody, bloody, bloody glory.
• Rapes never happen, even when they would make sense for them to happen (most real serial killers are sexual deviants, after all). Oh, and don't expect rape as a backstory either, even though it would be totally understandable. (1/1) This guy's got kids who are prone to suggestible impulses and has them locked up...but still, no sex.
• If a case involves something on the Internet, such as social media or online banking, expect it to portrayed in an entirely negative light that will put you in peril in some way. (1/1) "Kids wired to their computers will only lead to UnSubs sending them things to kidnap them, no matter how much you watch them!"
• The crimes will be so maddeningly simple that you wonder why the FBI is called in at all. Why have local police if they don't need to do any actual work? (1/1) Aside from the strange ruse, the UnSub was a local who was found looking up local records and was presumably known to the town. Furthermore, those E-Mails he sent should have been easy to trace- they came from an E-Mail account, right?
• If there isn't 300 million different feints to give the illusion of complexity, the case will fit together all too easily...but the BAU will still spend half the episode saying, "this doesn't make sense" and "how does this all fit?" (1/1) Don't recall too much hemming and hawing from the BAU (though there were a few times the audio was clear from the UnSub's tape but we still hear the agents ask, "what did he say?)", but the case moved with some of the strangest leaps in logic somehow easily fitting into the puzzle.
• Men will be expected to give the women oodles of fanservice by being shirtless and showing off those muscles, even if it doesn't make a lick of sense. Women, on the other hand, will never be used for similar fanservice, even when it would make sense, because "we gotta make a statement about objectification", or something. (1/2) No men as fanservice, but no women were either.
• Expect ominous music to play when something bad or important is going to happen. Because the audience can't deduce that for themselves. (1/1) That moment where the Mayor's son went to answer the door had to have been the worst.
• The BAU field members will all be interchangeable, spouting whatever lines and doing whatever action the plot needs at that moment. None of them will have a personality, because none of them need one. (1/1) Yup...very interchangeable tonight.
• If a team member gets the spotlight, expect it to come in some lazy bookend segments that are supposed to "shine a light" on their personal lives but really don't offer much insight at all. (1/1) It's JJ's turn to "reconnect" with her seemingly estranged mother, with the mother apologizing for ignoring JJ because she was grieving over Rosalyn. It could have been a nice story if everything wasn't glossed over so quickly.
• Well, except Reid...but Reid will only get used to be victimized (something about Matthew Gray Gubler being so good at crying, or something) or to be CM's Wikipedia. No need for him to do anything else. (1/1) Reid was informative and he had a nice tackle early in the episode...but, he was still very much "Reidapedia".
• Garcia will be an insufferable, whiny child who will wear ridiculous outfits and place even more nonsensical trinkets on her desk because, even though by now she should be a professional (after 14 years on the job), she "totally needs things to get through all those icky, yucky images". (1/1) "I need to take four showers!"
• Team members can totally go rogue, unless this is the episode where someone remembers "it's not a good idea for the police to do that". (0/1) No rogue team members this week.
• The team can also openly disrespect the law and conduct illegal searches and interrogations because they're "the good guys" and those are "the bad guys", so it's OK to abuse someone's rights. (1/1) The Faux UnSub at the beginning may have been on parole...but the BAU can't just arrest him because he's reading a manual at a public park.
• Don't expect anything to happen in the daylight, because nighttime adds "mood"...or something like that. Because who cares if the audience can actually see what's going on. (1/1) From the dark dungeon where the UnSub kept his kids, to the kids being lured at night to even the poor lighting at the Mayor's house...lots of stuff happened in the dark.
• If the episode is supposed to have an impact, expect it to be a cheap payoff where a team member suddenly learns their only-referred-to once aunt or mother or significant other or whatever other person close to them is in trouble and needs their help. 50/50 on whether they actually get saved, with the odds being higher for female characters and lower for male characters. (1/1) JJ's mother had her living room flooded because her pipes burst, which allowed for her to awkwardly resolve whatever issue she had with JJ. That counts, doesn't it?
• Or, a team member gets put in peril, and, unless you know that cast member is leaving, expect that member to survive. (0/1) No one in peril...unless you count Tara getting shoved by the Faux UnSub as "peril" (I also really wonder if a judge would really find that shove as "assault"...it was rather weak and he was being accosted for no reason).
• Need tension? Just add gratuitous gore, or insert a female character or a child character whose only purpose is to get kidnapped for the BAU to later save. (2/2) Mayor's wife with a bloody head after being bashed in the skull? Check. Case about kids needing to be saved? Check. They also all get saved too.
• Need the UnSub to be sympathetic? Insert a scene where he reminisces about his lost mother or his lost wife. If you have a female UnSub, insert a scene where she reminisces about her lost children...and it will always be about lost children, because female UnSubs will have always shot their abusive ex. (1/1) OK, so it was a father reminiscing about his lost son...so a twist but still the same idea.
• The UnSub will be male, unless we actually need the UnSub to be a sob story. In that case, 90% chance the UnSub is female. (1/1) Male UnSub, yes. He was also a sob story, and a poor one at that.
• You do not shoot female UnSubs, even when it would make sense. Males...totally go for it. (1/1) The male UnSub shot himself.
• Oh, and despite how "progressive" the CM writers think they are, forget about making an UnSub that's homosexual or transgender, unless you want to do "a very special episode". Heteronormativity, baby! (1/1) Though the UnSub's sexuality was not revealed, he didn't make any overtures that he was homosexual. In fact, he was quite distraught that people thought he acted that way towards his son.
• Penultimately, if CM ever deviates from any of the above points, it will be a one-off and next week they'll be back to normal again. (1/1) First time in a long time that a female character was actually shown having been brutalized. I don't expect a repeat next week.
• Finally, don't expect anything like actual character development, or real nuances, or a simple case that gets built upon, or even a case or an UnSub that makes logical sense...because doing any of that would take actual work from these writers and we all know they're as lazy as they come. (1/1) It's an episode where kids are the target...of course the BAU is going to save them. There was also a very cursory attempt to model the story after the infamous "Pied Piper" tale but there was no real attempt to explore it.

Final score: 23/28, or 82.14%.

Yep. Our rabid feminist producer is at it again.  I bet she's the kind who gets off on doing what was done to that Unsub. 

[mythoughtis]

I would have sworn JJ had a second  sister in an much earlier season. One that was a little wild and  played a role in a case- and I do not mean  the one that died as a teenager.  Am  I maybe thinking of a cousin or something? Or was JJ’s Mom a little wild in a very early season and that’s what I am misremembering? This show has been on so long and had so many writers that I sometimes get confused in the backstories. 

I felt like I was listening to Parseltongue when the children were getting their post hypnotic suggestions. 

Edited January 12, 2019 by mythoughtis

[ams1001]

3 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

I would have sworn JJ had a second  sister in an much earlier season. One that was a little wild and  played a role in a case- and I do not mean  the one that died as a teenager.  Am  I maybe thinking of a cousin or something? Or was JJ’s Mom a little wild in a very early season and that’s what I am misremembering? This show has been on so long and had so many writers that I sometimes get confused in the backstories. 

I felt like I was listening to Parseltongue when the children were getting their post hypnotic suggestions. 

Wikipedia lists her family as:

• Rosaline Jareau (sister, deceased)
• Unnamed niece
• Sandy Jareau (mother)
• Unnamed sibling
• Unnamed aunt

I had the same thought about Parseltongue :)

[mythoughtis]

9 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

Wikipedia lists her family as:

• Rosaline Jareau (sister, deceased)
• Unnamed niece
• Sandy Jareau (mother)
• Unnamed sibling
• Unnamed aunt

I had the same thought about Parseltongue :)

Thank you! I was sure there was another sibling.  However, in this episode, JJs Mom specifically mentions only the two ( JJ and Rosaline). She does this when discussing the lobster and when apologizing to JJ for  not being there for her after Rosaline died. 

Edited January 13, 2019 by mythoughtis

[ams1001]

23 minutes ago, mythoughtis said:

Thank you! I was sure there was another sibling.  However, in this episode, JJs Mom specifically mentions only the two ( Jj and Rosaline). She does this when discussing the lobster and when apologizing to JJ for  not being there for her after Rosalie died. 

I guess the writers forgot...

[Danielg342]

JJ mentions she has a niece in "The Boogeyman", which would imply she has another sibling she has not mentioned. However, it could also mean that Rosalyn (not Rosaline) had a child as a teen, since was only 17 when she died. That could have been the initial reason she went to counselling in the first place.

[Annber03]

Even if Rosaline had had a child as a teenager, though, they would've been older than eight by the time of that episode. Roz died when JJ was eleven years old, and by the time of "The Boogeyman", JJ would've been in...what, her late 20s then? 

But yeah, that's the only episode that could ever point to any possibility of any other siblings in her life. Otherwise, they've always written it as her just having Roz as her lone sister. 

[Danielg342]

I don't think JJ's age has been revealed. It is possible that she joined the FBI very young (maybe at 19). Maybe she fast-tracked her degree or Hotch or Gideon got her into the FBI early.

Let's also go with the easy answer and know that these writers stink with things like continuity and math. Reid had two different start dates with the BAU, Morgan had two different birthdays listed in the same episode and Hotch...no way all the things the show has claimed he's done fits into a reasonable timeline.

Oh, and "Nelson's Sparrow" completely forgot about Max Ryan and Gideon's prior history.

[idiotwaltz]

2 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Even if Rosaline had had a child as a teenager, though, they would've been older than eight by the time of that episode. Roz died when JJ was eleven years old, and by the time of "The Boogeyman", JJ would've been in...what, her late 20s then? 

But yeah, that's the only episode that could ever point to any possibility of any other siblings in her life. Otherwise, they've always written it as her just having Roz as her lone sister. 

I’ve always thought that the writers only came up with Roz story in S5 because they needed someone from the BAU to take! it! personally! 

There was an episode about suicides in S3 (the name escapes me atm) and JJ didn’t blink an eye. 

I tend to think of CM as 3 different shows: S1 on its own, S2-7, and everything that came after. 

ETA: this reminds me of a really good fanfic I read a long time ago which gives a perfect explanation of the discrepancies about the backstories, but I can’t for the life of me find it right now. 

Edited January 13, 2019 by idiotwaltz

[Danielg342]

8 minutes ago, idiotwaltz said:

There was an episode about suicides in S3 (the name escapes me atm) and JJ didn’t blink an eye.

"The Angel Maker"? I believe that was S4...anyway, that one had someone killing depressed people and making it look like suicides.

9 minutes ago, idiotwaltz said:

I tend to think of CM as 3 different shows: S1 on its own, S2-7, and everything that came after.

So, basically, each time CM had a new showrunner- Jeff Davis ran S1, Edward Allen Bernero ran S2-6, and Erica Messer has run everything since S7.

I'm somewhat the same way, though I split Bernero's watch in three parts- S2 (with Gideon), S3-S5 (with Rossi) and S6 (after the first firing of JJ and Prentiss).

[kathyk24]

There is an obvious explanation to whether JJ has a niece. Will could have a niece making her JJ's relative by marriage. I liked this episode especially how they learned how the kidnapper lured the kids.

[idiotwaltz]

1 hour ago, Danielg342 said:

"The Angel Maker"? I believe that was S4...anyway, that one had someone killing depressed people and making it look like suicides.

So, basically, each time CM had a new showrunner- Jeff Davis ran S1, Edward Allen Bernero ran S2-6, and Erica Messer has run everything since S7.

I'm somewhat the same way, though I split Bernero's watch in three parts- S2 (with Gideon), S3-S5 (with Rossi) and S6 (after the first firing of JJ and Prentiss).

A Higher Power, apparently. The Angel Maker was the one where everyone in a small town collectively freaks out about an executed serial killer coming back to life and Hotch still has a busted ear. 

[Annber03]

15 minutes ago, kathyk24 said:

There is an obvious explanation to whether JJ has a niece. Will could have a niece making her JJ's relative by marriage. I liked this episode especially how they learned how the kidnapper lured the kids.

She hadn't met Will yet when that episode aired, though. 

Agreed on the episode being a good one. It's creepy and sad, but it's good. And it's got some funny moments among the team as well :D. 

[illdoc]

JJ could have an older (older than Roz) brother. That would explain the "niece", as well as the mother's "after Roz died, I forgot I had another daughter" comment---there were only the two girls, brother being (a) male (and presumably closer to the father) and (b) away (at college?) wouldn't count.

[mythoughtis]

1 hour ago, illdoc said:

JJ could have an older (older than Roz) brother. That would explain the "niece", as well as the mother's "after Roz died, I forgot I had another daughter" comment---there were only the two girls, brother being (a) male (and presumably closer to the father) and (b) away (at college?) wouldn't count.

It appears to be a discrepancy -and  not just my imagination. 

I still am almost positive that I saw an episode in a very early season where JJs’ Mom asked her to intervene on behalf of her sister because her sister was having issues and it somehow figured into the case of the week. I sadly am one of those people who forget  every episode name 5 minutes after I read it- if I ever knew an episode name to begin with.  Maybe I dreamed it.  

[Hotchgirl18]

18 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

I don't think JJ's age has been revealed. It is possible that she joined the FBI very young (maybe at 19). Maybe she fast-tracked her degree or Hotch or Gideon got her into the FBI early.

Let's also go with the easy answer and know that these writers stink with things like continuity and math. Reid had two different start dates with the BAU, Morgan had two different birthdays listed in the same episode and Hotch...no way all the things the show has claimed he's done fits into a reasonable timeline.

Oh, and "Nelson's Sparrow" completely forgot about Max Ryan and Gideon's prior history.

And there's two different versions of how Garcia met Morgan.

[Annber03]

2 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

I still am almost positive that I saw an episode in a very early season where JJs’ Mom asked her to intervene on behalf of her sister because her sister was having issues and it somehow figured into the case of the week. I sadly am one of those people who forget  every episode name 5 minutes after I read it- if I ever knew an episode name to begin with.  Maybe I dreamed it.  

There was an episode in season 2 where a woman from JJ's hometown specifically requested JJ and the team help her find her missing daughter. Said daughter had been abducted along with two of her friends, and everyone in the town was getting desperate for extra help. Maybe that's the one you're thinking of?

I double checked to be sure, but yeah, we didn't even get to see JJ's mom for the first time in person until the season seven finale, when JJ got married. 

[jls1792]

In "The Tall Man", we learned that JJ's parents were gettting a divorce when Roz killed herself, and in this episode we learned JJ's dad is remarried. Maybe the niece that JJ mentioned in season 2 was the child of a step sibling? 

[Danielg342]

1 hour ago, jls1792 said:

Maybe the niece that JJ mentioned in season 2 was the child of a step sibling?

Would she actually refer to her as her niece or as her step-niece? Or would she even view this niece as family at all?

[jls1792]

I mean, I'm sure that's not what the writers at the time were going for. They probably originally intended for JJ to have a sibling and for that sibling to have at least 1 kid. It seems the Roz story was created in season 5. But given what we know now, it could be written off as a step niece.

Would JJ refer to a step niece as her niece? It depends. If she was close to her step sibling and their child then she might. Or maybe she would refer to a step niece as niece to avoid any confusion or long explanations. My mom got remarried when I was 20. My three step sisters through that marriage are a bit older than me and all have kids. For a while, some of the kids called me Aunt, despite not being that close to me.

I don't know how close JJ is to her dad and his new family. He wasn't at her wedding, so maybe they're not that close. Though at the time Erica and AJ were going with the idea that JJ's dad was dead...

[Josette]

On 1/10/2019 at 6:45 PM, BooksRule said:

When Reid explained her behavior, it reminded me of an episode of 'CSI', where a guy had been bludgeoned in his bed while asleep, but he still had enough 'life' in him to turn off the alarm when it went off, brush his teeth, go downstairs and fix breakfast before he expired at the breakfast table (all the time just leaving a gory blood trail everywhere he went).  It kind of makes me want to do some research to learn more about it.

On 1/10/2019 at 6:51 PM, Annber03 said:

I seem to remember hearing a real life story like that once, too. A guy had been...shot in the head, I want to say? And yet he still went downstairs and went through his usual morning routine before he finally felt the effects of the wound. 

 

 The real-life victim was Peter Porco who was struck in the head with an axe wielded by his son Christopher. 

[ForeverAlone]

I thought this episode had potential case-wise, but then it degenerated by the middle of the episode. I get tired of the sad unsub backstory, and it just felt like he devolved way too quickly and committed suicide. I thought it was rather creepy at the beginning and I was curious about the case. But it went downhill for me once we actually saw the unsub. 

Minor quibbles:

Wouldn't the children have been reunited with their parents at a hospital rather than a police station?

Other than AJ being busy prepping her directorial debut, I don't see the point of her subplot. This show has a tiring tendency to reduce a character's personal development into about one, maybe two things. Like with Reid, it's usually something with his mother in some form or fashion. And now with JJ, it's her sister. I just think the writers go to certain character wells too often, and it grows tiresome and pointless from a viewer's perspective. 

I have long since come to terms with the fact that outside of some very big things, this show doesn't try to get continuity. They certainly don't capture these little details and nuances we hear about in episodes. It's not like there is some big, deep, coherent background for these characters for the writers to draw upon. No, it's just that they are making stuff up as they go along, and don't either know or care what previous writers put out there about their characters. Like in the past ( I think it was Zoe's Reprise), JJ told Rossi that she decided to apply to the FBI after hearing some sort of seminar presentation by him It's not like it was her lifelong dream or anything. 

[MarylandGirl]

Agree that this had a creepy beginning and interesting premise, though fell apart and felt too rushed at the end. Must every episode end with a hostage situation? They could have achieved basically the same thing if the unsub just suddenly started waving his gun around (or just pointing it at his own head) and ranting about his son without taking a hostage.

The mayor's wife's death was quite creepy though, still making the burger. I'm guessing Reid realized what was going on, which is why he said she was already dead (rather than thinking she'd just passed out).