Criminal Minds Review: An Unhappy Birthday

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Zzzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzz. Oh, I'm sorry, someone wake me when it's over - this week's Criminal Minds episode was nothing short of filler. I know that the writers only had two hours left this season, but that's no excuse for just tossing one away.

This week on "Profiling 101" the team headed to a college to give a lecture about profiling serial killers. And what did the students learn? That the agents' lives are bombarded with tragedy and death day in and day out. Awesome. Raise your hand if you're shocked by this at all.

Rossi Stresses

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, because I really do think that the lives that BAU agents lead must be incredibly hard from a personal stand point. It's like psychiatrists and grief counselors, they have to find a way to siphon off that heaviness or else it consumes them. But just because it was interesting to hear more about what they do and to see the toll it took on Rossi doesn't mean I want them devoting the second-to-last episode of the season to what essentially amounts to a Q &A.

Also, a lot of the dialogue read like a PSA about what we should know about profiling. It was robotic and forced, albeit cleverly packaged.

But speaking of Rossi: how twisted and cruel is it of Tommy to reveal his victims on his birthday? On his birthday dude? Really?!? That's just cold, there's no other way to describe it.

I think it speaks to how good a person Rossi is that, in his desire to bring closure to the victims' families, he's willing to drag out Tommy's inhuman demands over time. It must be impossibly difficult for someone who's trained not to play into the whims of criminals to allow someone else to call the shots just to have a means to an end. I liked how the team played off of each others' strengths (the Garcia/Reid simultaneous "thank you" was gold), but I don't think that an entire episode should've been dedicated to this case. They could've managed to put something else in there, too.

Now at least we have a glimpse into how they're going to kill off Prentiss (or at least I'm assuming that they'll have her die in an explosion). Next week's season finale looks good, but I'm not sure if a standoff that ends in pyrotechnics was what Paget Brewster had in mind when she asked to be written off of the show. Any way you cut it, I'll be sad to see her go (but I know many of you don't share that sentiment).

I'll just be happy to have a regular episode back, with no more of this BS filler and wasted time. What did you all think of this week's show? Am I the only one who was underwhelmed? Here's hoping next week isn't a disappointment, too.

Profiling 101 Review

Editor Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.2 / 5.0 (126 Votes)
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Criminal Minds Season 7 Episode 22 Quotes

Agent Prentiss: There's a lot about Rachel that tells us about the UnSub. She was young, so most likely he was, too.
Student: What makes you think that?
JJ: Well she lived in a shelter and had a part-time job, so she was a street kid, but not necessarily the reckless type. She wouldn't just go off with anyone.

Agent Rossi: Now these two girls couldn't be more different. But the one thing they both have in common is that they both crossed paths with the most prolific killer the BAU has ever seen.
Dr. Reid: What you need to understand is that no two killers are the same. They each occupy their own spot in the behavioral spectrum. Genetics, brain chemistry, psychology, they're all factors.
Agent Hotchner: But we believe this particular killer grew up in an environment so adverse he never had a chance.