throw another bear in the canoe

Being a review of Criminal Minds 06x08, "Reflection of Desire," written by Simon Mirren (yay!), directed by Anna Foerster.

Thematic statement, drink:
Pathetic fallacy!

I really like the juxtaposition of Garcia onstage with the UNSUBs. That's really nice. I also love the victim-POV: that is the kind of thing that makes this my show. And Garcia-as-killer.

Also, the acting intructions. Oh, metacommentary.

Meanwhile, Emily and Morgan arrive at the scene. And we get the dead woman's point of view on her would-be avengers.

Emily bracing herself, compartmentalizing before the tarp goes back, and Morgan making himself look.

"Look at her face, Prentiss."
"Yeap."

"That's a luxury we can't afford."

Garcia hides the evidence of her extracurricular activities.

Melodramatic Rossi is melodramatic; phlegmatic Reid is phlegmatic.

"Maybe he ate them." (chew, chew)
"I'm going to have that memory burned into my mind for the rest of my life."
"You asked."

Really, really working the noir thing, with the rain and the dark.
And the Marilyn Monroe. (She's a theme of my life this week.)

"Emotions that are in direct conflict with one another."

Prentiss points out the salient fact.

"Post." And a world of small mercies in that one word. (For the record, the M.E. would have had to dissect her throat to look at the larynx and hyoid bones, so if there was something in there, it would have been noticed then. However, this is made up for by the magic of MGG's Jodi Foster impersonation. And the fact that they handwave it helps.)

Prentiss and Morgan buddy show!

Courier FTW!

"Who uses chloroform nowadays?"

"We would be awesome together."
"Aren't we already?"
She means on stage, sweetie.

Morgan gets it. Prentiss gets it.

Oh man, she named her kid Rhett? No wonder he's a serial killer.
Psycho much? Oh show.

"You're so much like your father was."
"What? Tell me!"
"You're weak." Okay, her Katharine Hepburn is kind of awesome.

Of course Garcia is a cosmetics geek.
And Hotch is still a theatre nerd.

"They've already named him the Hill ripper."

"We all wanna be famous."

"Just like that. IQ of 187 is slashed to 60." Prentiss, I love you.
And Prentiss gets her Gideon on and takes the victim's place.

"A guy like this can't hold down a job."
Cinderella has agency. Nice. Of course, given the fairy tale, there's only one way this can end.

And a nice headbutt. Nice fakeout as she covers her mouth.

"I am not the one you want in front of that camera."
"Oh yes you are."
This whole scene is fabulous. It reminds us of what we're missing in JJ, and it shows us the team.

Oh, and Penny getting up and walking on her mutilated feet. Ow. Brave brave girl. See, last week's episode? This is how you make a victim heroic.
Garcia movie star, handed out of the car.

"It's a small repertory theatre--"
"I know that."

"He likes blonds and I'm red now."

Morgan is a real man. He can hold a woman's purse.

It's a noir film. Even Garcia is in black.
I also love that there's a learning curve on the team working around JJ's absence, so we can see the hole. That's good writing. And there they are, manipulating the press and the UNSUB like mad.

Yep. Psycho. This episode is all about the narrative inevitability.
"We all have things for ourselves."

"How does it end?"
"If I told you that, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?"



Mwahahaha.