torture chamber, yeah, because that would totally be listed in the manufacturer's specs
mood: 
mellow
mellowCold open dude is asking for a face full of jellyfish.
Poor crabs!
Hotch with no jacket!
You know, I'd think it would make more sense to send in divers experienced in underwater archaeology/body recovery, rather than messing up the site. But maybe that's just the archaelogist in me.
But apparently Reid can do a minimum number of individuals and a sedimentary analysis from a bucket of sludge in twenty minutes... complete with forensic... not entomology. What's the study of marine parasites?
(It's TV, Bear. Breathe in, breathe out, let the crappy forensic anthropology go.)
Hotch does JJ's job. Drink.
Not sure about the sudden random intrusion of This Time It's Personal with an aunt and cousin we've never heard of before.
Reid and Morgan crack the case!
Reid, that's just a little too much of a leap of logic. Creepy setup, but I fear I'm just not buying this one... too many leaps of logic to cram it into the 41 minutes, I fear. I think we may be needlessly overelaborate here in order to build the near-supernatural horror.
Why does the drug make the victim compliant to the UNSUB, but not his son?
Seaver has nice triceps. She could be a climber.
Picky as I'm being about the logic in this one, the victim interviews are really nice, and Rossi interviewing Morgan is pretty sweet.
Morgan's aunt has a wonderful dignity, though. The victims and survivors are a great strength of this show.
"Magic 8-Ball!"
Go dad. It was a good effort, anyway. :-(
Of course Reid doesn't know who he'd fight that hard for; and Morgan does. Nice.
And the scene with Morgan and his Auntie where he explains that there is somebody they need to save right now is gorgeous. Recovering from a rocky beginning, so far.
"We can't afford to be wrong."
"You're not that guy."
Morgan's talk-down speech is kinda awesomely nihilistic. Wonder how he's doing with that church-going? Rossi gets points for not bringing it up.
"It's a big sea."
Also, the Rossi-Morgan teamup is great. And Morgan is going to regret that not-quite-lie one of these days.
The last fifteen minutes of this episode makes up for the handwaving at the beginning, I think.
Did you catch our lovely Penelope making major time with the crew from the spin off afterward? I think I might be able to like these guys just a little.
He was lying.
But he did do what Morgan said he did.
Also, it was nice to see Morgan get an ep again.
Plus, Jim Clemente writing again! That's always fun.
Yeah, he's not over it. And good for him.
Oh, yes, Reid is totally not over it.
*g*
There were moments of that higher standard throughout--I almost wonder if there was Network Interference in the first half. Because Reid suddenly growing a whole 'nother professional skillset was weird, and usually they don't flinch from dragging in a pathologist... so why would a forensic anthropologist be any different?
Poor Derek didn't get to tackle anything.
Everytime I see the ep title, I want to put the word Great in front of it. :D My fandom wires getting crossed...
I loved Garcia tonight, especially the line you quote for the title of the post.
This ep felt like a CM ep.
And I'm right there with you with the Great Big Sea. *g*
There was no reason whatsoever that Reid could not have been working with a CotW style Forensic Anthropologist for this ep. The FBI's got specialists on that order on gorramn speed dial, but could the stand-in writers think around that bend?
Grr.
Why the hell aren't YOU writing for this show, Bear?
Clemente and Frazier are good writers, and both of them have been with the show for a good long time: "Lauren" and "Lessons Learned" (not in that order) among others. Clemente is the show's FBI consultant.
Sometimes, things just don't gel. I too would have thought using a forensic anthropologist as the CoTW would have been the better course of action, but... *shrug* what the heck else was there for Reid to do?
They have lost a lot of my favorite writers over the past few years--Andrew Wilder, Dan and Jay, Oahn Ly, Chris Mundy--among others. But I also like Frazier's work a lot, and Clemente's.
And I'm not writing for it because I haven't sent a spec script, so they've never had the opportunity to hire or reject me. I like Connecticut. I don't want to move to L.A. It's hot there, and there aren't enough apple trees.
Reid specializing in everything amuses me--he's a genius, but he only spent, what, eight years in college? There goes the realism--but he looked pretty handling the bones and his lines were in character, so I'll dismiss it. (Yeah, I'm shallow. Hey, with JJ and Emily both gone, I need to focus on the eye candy we have left! On that note, Shemar Moore is an unfairly beautiful man and they need to stop putting sunglasses over his gorgeous eyes.)
It bothers me a little how much they've been relying on Garcia to do their legwork for them, but that's been a problem for...what, over a season now? Over two seasons? I don't remember. I just miss how, in earlier seasons, they could find the unsubs without dragging in too much tech or making unreasonable leaps of logic.
All that aside, I did like this episode! Especially Morgan's talk-down speech and last moment with his aunt. Oh Morgan. Even if you technically don't say anything false, it's still a lie if you purposely lead someone to a false conclusion, and it is going to screw you if the writers remember to come back to it.
I blame the network.
This episode did feel a lot like one writer wrote the first half, a better writer wrote the second half, and then they just shoved it all together. Wikipedia lists two writers for this episode, not that I'm jumping to conclusions or anything. ;D
I hope someone writes fic about Morgan first finding out his cousin is missing. I need something more to make it believable to me. Besides, it's an open invitation for angst! Doesn't fandom love that?