Criminal Minds Season 10 Episode 14 Review: Hero Worship
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Some people will do anything for love, it seems. Even to the point of destroying their favorite coffee place.
Criminal Minds Season 10 Episode 14 gave us the case of a man with low self-esteem trying to gain the admiration of his wife.
And what better way to do that than to kill seven people and wound a bunch of others? I guess flowers doesn't always quite say it all.
It was fun watching the team go through what looked like a routine investigation, right up to the high intensity interrogation of their suspect until he finally blurted out his confession. You had to love the "oh crap!" expression on his face right after he repeated then why did I kill all those people?
Except....when that happened, only half of the episode was over and the team realized that Confession Man had only planted one of the bombs. There was a second unsub!
The puzzle pieces for this episode made it captivating, even if it was difficult to fathom the mind of a man who would purposely plant a bomb - hoping to hurt no one - in order to gain status with his wife.
For that matter, the original unsub had a similar deficiency as well, and hadn't intended on killing anyone either. Except....once he had, he sort of got off on it, and was willing to do it again.
As much as I liked the case of the week, the other two subplots - both involving Reid - were more engaging.
Too bad we couldn't have spent more time with Rossi getting to the bottom of Reid's grief over Gideon. It felt like that needed a lot more explanation, and shouldn't have been so easily wrapped up by having Rossi play chess with him at the end.
Still - it's always fascinating when the writer chooses to examine one of the main characters, however briefly it plays out.
The more subtle subplot had to do with the brilliant new forensic specialist with the interesting name of Dylan Einstein. She certainly has her namesake's cheerfulness doesn't she? And she graduated medical school at age 19!
I think Reid may have found his mate. Only where he mostly has a sober approach to his unique intelligence and talent, she's more bubbly and even bratty - if the conversation she had with Morgan and Reid is any indication:
Einstein: That's what you guys do. You just talk a lot.
Morgan: Well there's also a lot of kicking down doors involved.
Einstein: Sure.
She was fun to watch.
And call me a romantic but I hope they bring her back and let that Reid/Einstein possibility evolve.
Final notes:
- Would the mayor of a city really go along with a sting operation like this, knowing that he was giving false honor to a criminal? Seems doubtful. Seems like political suicide, actually.
- There was an actual unintentional hero in the story: he was never seen on camera but we heard about him when his injured son told Reid about how he let a pregnant woman go into the washroom ahead of him. She lived, he died.
- I'm having trouble understanding how the pregnant woman survived, when the bomb was placed in the toilet "Lethal Weapon style". Seems she was in a protective bubble when everyone outside the washroom was blown away. Well okay then.
- The rather cloying song at the end was "West" by Sleeping At Last. It's on the album "Atlas: Land".
What do you think? Was there a spark between Reid and Einstein? If so, are you in favor? What did you think of the case of the week?
Remember you can always catch up on missed episode when you watch Criminal Minds online.
Douglas Wolfe was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He retired in 2016. Follow him on Twitter
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