"Alchemy" recap/review

“Alchemy”

Written by Sharon Lee Watson

Directed by Matthew Gray Gubler

I cannot begin to explain to you what a struggle I have had watching the current season of Criminal Minds. I was therefore, pleasantly surprised this past week when I not only enjoyed “Alchemy”, but have now watched it several times. Considering most of this season’s eps have been deleted off of my DVR without a second viewing or a second thought, this is saying a lot!

Even though I didn’t quite understand the opening scene, it had that classic MGG “creepy” factor to it and was enough to draw me in, and was gross and disgusting enough to remind me why I don’t eat meat very often. (Kudos to anyone who had anything to do with that scene.) I could tell it was going to be a good ep.

Reid discovers what he believes to be a connection between two murder victims found in different jurisdictions. One was found on an Indian Reservation near Rapid City, SD and the other in Rapid City. He shares his belief that these are victims of a serial killer with Rossi and Rossi agrees with him, so they take it to the team.  Joseph Purl, who we see in that opening scene, turns out to be the second victim and was given herbs that cause hallucinations before he was murdered and hacked into pieces.  

The team travels to SD to help local authorities. At first, I thought maybe they were going to drive to SD since we didn’t hear the usual “wheels up in 30” from Hotch, but it turns out that they did fly. One thing for certain in this ep, there is a lot of profiling and discussion of theories going on. The team bounces ideas off of each other from animal activists, who might be angry with the logging industry to someone from the local tribe.

While the team is busy profiling, we see Tess, the manager of a local Lodge picking up Chad, a visitor to the area, by pretending that she’s afraid to walk out to her car alone because a an abusive ex-boyfriend. She offers Chad a room at the Inn she manages and then offers him so much more. There’s a hole in the wall of Chad’s room and someone, we don’t know who at this point, is watching everything that goes on.

The staff at the Lodge is told that Chad is a VIP guest. Amber, one of the staff, is let down when she learns that Chad is not famous and is just a “friend” of Tess. She tells a co-worker, Raoul,  that she thought Tess was married to an invalid, and Raoul states that she is. Amber then speculates as to whether or not Chad is more than just a friend. During this scene, we see an EXTREMELY creepy looking character telling Chad not to go hiking in The Badlands that day because it’s supposed to rain. At this point, I am totally thinking this guy is the UNSUB. Raoul keeps telling Amber to keep her head down and not to worry about things going on around the Lodge as long as she’s getting paid.

The team decides that since the victims have similar descriptions, that they may be a surrogate for a male figure for woman who lost a child and is possibly trying to get pregnant again. In the mean time, Tess is having sex with and drugging Chad and Amber is getting curious about weird things and sounds occurring around the Lodge. And you know what they say…..curiosity killed the Amber!

Rossi realizes that Reid is having a very difficult time dealing with the loss of Maeve. He tries to talk with Reid by telling him a story about his Uncle Sal. The entire scene is sad and touching and actually made me cry.

The team finally decides that the UNSUB is actually a team and they begin looking for a woman who owns a hotel in the area – having decided that she must be offering these men more than just sex. At the same time, they are searching for someone who is a naturopath, due to marks they have discovered on the victims’ bodies caused by “cupping”. Garcia and her machines once again save the day by coming up with, not only Tess’s name, but also Raoul’s name.

After discovering that Raoul has murdered Amber, Tess finally comes to the realization that Raoul has been manipulating her and decides she wants out. The team arrives just in time to save Chad from being cut into pieces. Tess flees the Lodge and actually returns to the lake her son was drowned in and drowns herself.

Rossi talks with Reid again on the plane and basically tells Reid to not be afraid to dream about Maeve. The final scene is beautiful with Reid having a dream in which he and Maeve are dancing.

I did enjoy this episode – probably more so than any other ep this season. I loved the camerawork throughout the episode, but especially in the final scene. I really liked the humour that Rossi’s character added throughout the ep. What I don’t enjoy is Blake’s character. I’m sorry, even though I’m a fan of Jeanne Tripplehorn, I am just having a terribly difficult time liking the character.