CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1122. The Storm [Season Finale] - Comments Thread

This thread is open for you all to post comments and talk about tonight's new CRIMINAL MINDS episode, titled 'THE STORM', written by BREEN FRAZIER and ERICA MESSER.

Hope you've enjoyed today's episode, and remember that... we'll have to wait for more until next fall!

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1122. The Storm - [Season Finale] Promo Videos

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1122. The Storm [Season Finale] - Sneak Peeks

TVLine Exclusive Sneak Peek: Hotch's Morning Is Rudely Interrupted [Video Behind the Link]

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1121. Devil's Backbone - Review

This episode was written by the wonderful Sharon Lee Watson and Directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá, and let me just say the product that both gave us tonight was just amazing. I know that many have bantered around the term “Classic Criminal Minds” over the years. Some episodes this season were deemed to be that ‘Classic Criminal Minds’ type of episode. However, after watching this episode those others pale in comparison. Right out of the gate we got a great lead in the scene, subtle yet suspenseful as we could just feel that more was coming. Oh, those unsuspecting Guards.

When we cut to the roundtable room it was all hands on deck and let me just say this, “Let the Profiling begin”. Sharon wrote each of these characters to perfection. Not one of them was over the top and all of them had input, and hail all the saints, we didn’t get the standard “Wheels up in 30” from Hotch!

From the very first scene of Antonia Slade (Played by the formidable Frances Fisher), the creep factor about this Unsub rose 10 fold. She’s smart, you can see it in her eyes. She’s also coming across as fearless in the face of her confinement. As the warden found out quickly. She’s the captive and He was dismissed as a nuisance, demanding conditions for the FBI to talk to her. The flashback scene was done so well, we’re seeing what really happened and then with such a straight deadpan face she says “And I gave her a cup of mint tea". Believe me I will never think of Mint tea in the same light again!

All this and we haven’t even gotten to the opening credits. This alone told me how this episode was going to go, and trust me I was on cloud nine.

I have to say when first watched this episode I caught the subtle way Hotch looked at the camera outside Antonia’s cell. On the second watch though it’s almost like he’s checking out where the cameras are. I also noted that the warden was specific about not taking anything from Antonia nor giving anything to her, yet Hotch did take the paper she threw towards him.

“All work and no play makes Agent Hotchner a dull boy”

That was repeated three times on the paper Antonia threw at the bars, which has me believing that there is more behind that statement then even the BAU thinks at this point. And Hotch with Reid looking at the note and figuring out that there’s a bigger message contained within was done just right. But I digress. Reid pretty much sets the stage for these ‘interviews’ by upfront asking “why the mind games?” Indeed what is this woman after?





I have to say here that seeing each of the team running ideas between them all doing some old fashioned profiling made my heart go pitter patter.

It’s at this point that I, and I hope my fellow viewers realize that the BAU is going to be feeding into Antonia’s machinations in order to get information that will lead them to the two missing boys. While of course I was a wee bit upset with JJ’s interview and Antonia trying to plant the seed that JJ should be running the BAU, once I thought about it I realized that I wouldn’t be prudent for JJ to denounce what she was saying, as that would have only made Antonia close off and the team wouldn’t get the information they needed. I can’t say this enough, really I can’t, the profiling in this episode was scarily good. It was all team, no magical revelations, no super agents riding to the rescue, just pure good ole fashioned profiling. I also liked that the team was able to work this case from their home base. The familiarity of the BAU made for paying attention to what the team was saying and doing easier.

Spencer Reid was excellent in this episode, not that I expected him not to be, but he was portrayed as strong, assertive in control. Not just as the simpering genius the team keeps around for the facts he carries around in his head. The scene between Reid and Slade, while sad because she touched on Morgan’s loss to Reid, also saw Reid standing his ground; Slade tried to play on his emotions regarding Morgan and I really don’t think he let her do that. I will say that I will never eat applesauce again. That scene where she draws on Reid’s palm after spitting the applesauce out was just... Eeeeeew!

Here we are about an ½ hour into the episode and we’ve not seen the ‘unsub’ who has the boys, all that much. Those scenes, the flashbacks, and the scene showing the boys still alive were perfectly placed to quickly fill in facts about what the team was profiling. Bravo again Sharon! Actually, I can’t believe we’ve gotten this much profiling, this much team in such a short amount of time. Whoever edited this episode deserves a raise!

I loved how Garcia didn’t use her magic computer’s to find information, some of it was simply relayed to her from the prison personnel themselves. And Garcia looks magnificent in the outfit she had on. More businesslike, more mature but still absolutely within Garcia’s personality. Congrats to BJ Rodgers for that!







Throughout the whole episode, we’ll see Antonia, go one on one with team member and then we’re back in BAU room going over it, with members of the team profiling what it all means. THIS, my friends, is Classic Criminal Minds.

Back and forth like a game of cat and mouse this episode went. Just when I, as a viewer, thought one thing, a new road opened and they went down another path. I was in Criminal Minds heaven. I’m a thinker, and this episode had my brain in overdrive. So again bravo Sharon and Félix!

So now we’ve come to the reasoning that time is running out. Those boys won’t survive unless the BAU gives into Antonia’s demands and sends her to Kentucky. But that’s not the end my friends. No, the BAU isn’t just letting her transfer, they’ve worked out that she wants to see these boys be killed, that they need her to find them. I loved Tara on the plane with Antonia going back and forth. Tara’s utter disdain for this woman is palpable.





Let me interject here the fact that yes, Hotch wasn’t in every scene. He was behind at the BAU, but he was very much running the show. Rossi, differing to Hotch over the phone about what they should do with Antonia’s demand to have the cuffs removed proves that. The split second decision Reid made to continue along the path Antonia was leading them on to some may seem like insubordination, but for me that spoke of his faith in their profiling. After all they were there because of that profiling.

We come to the end of the episode. So far profiling was paramount and this ending didn’t stop that. WOW… Just WOW… again, I want to say that Frances Fisher was creepily good. And the actor who played Barlow was wonderful at the end. His facial expressions as he looked mournfully at Antonia right before he blew his brains out was great directing and editing.

Now, we come to the closing scene between Hotch and Antonia. Thomas Gibson never fails to bring his best. Hotch laying out Antonia’s past, the fact that she was pregnant and the fact that her father killed her boyfriend, that her father punished her and made her give up the baby, that she was full of self-loathing, and not really a narcissist, was spectacular to watch.

How creepy was it with Antonia saying to Hotch:

“There’s a storm coming Agent Hotchner – And you’re about to be swept away.”

Lord have mercy bring on the finale!

So my final thoughts and grades. If for some reason you can’t guess I loved this episode, please get glasses... *LOL*

• Sharon Lee Watson wrote an amazing script.
• Félix Enríquez Alcalá directed wonderfully.
• The editing was perfect not a miss-step in the episode.
• The casting was just, off the charts. Frances Fisher, of course, was amazing. However, all the guest cast was so well done, and so well picked.

Mordred’s final grade: A++ (9.9 out of 10)

Now some of you may be wondering why only a 9.9 out of 10… That missing 10th is for CBS and the Heart Attack Factor they gave me from the promo!

Bring on the Finale!

Thank you for reading,


~~~~Mordred

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1121. Devil's Backbone - Comments Thread

This thread is open for you all to post comments and talk about tonight's new CRIMINAL MINDS episode, titled 'DEVIL'S BACKBONE', written by SHARON LEE WATSON.

Hope you've enjoyed today's episode, and remember that the SEASON FINALE will air MAY 4th!

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1121. Devil's Backbone - Sneak Peek

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1121. Devil's Backbone - Promo Photos

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1121. Devil's Backbone - Promo Videos

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1120. Inner Beauty - Comments Thread

This thread is open for you all to post comments and talk about tonight's new CRIMINAL MINDS episode, titled 'INNER BEAUTY', written by HABEN MERKER.

Hope you've enjoyed today's episode, and remember that next week we'll have a brand new one!

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1122. The Storm - [Season Finale] Promo Photos

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1122. The Storm [Season Finale] - Press Release

HOTCH IS APPREHENDED FOR SUSPECTED CONSPIRACY AND THE BAU SUSPECTS A LARGER PLOT MAY BE BREWING, ON THE 11th SEASON FINALE OF “CRIMINAL MINDS,” WEDNESDAY, MAY 4 Returning Guest Stars Include Frances Fisher as Convicted Serial Killer Antonia Slade and Sheryl Lee Ralph as Rossi’s Ex-Wife Hayden Montgomery THE STORM – The BAU is shocked when Hotch is apprehended by a SWAT team and suspected of conspiracy, and as the team scrambles to prove his innocence, they suspect a larger plot is on the horizon, on the 11th season finale of CRIMINAL MINDS, Wednesday, May 4 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. CHEAT TWEET: Hotch is apprehended & the BAU rushes to prove his innocence on the 11th season finale @CrimMinds_CBS #CBS 5/4 9pm http://bit.ly/23suQED WRITTEN BY: Erica Messer & Breen Frazier DIRECTED BY: Glenn Kershaw

REGULAR CAST: Joe Mantegna (David Rossi) Thomas Gibson (Aaron Hotchner) Matthew Gray Gubler (Dr. Spencer Reid) A.J. Cook (Jennifer “JJ” Jareau) Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope Garcia) RECURRING CAST: Aisha Tyler (Dr. Tara Lewis) Josh Stewart (Will LaMontagne Jr.) Mekhai Andersen (Henry LaMontagne) Cade Owens (Jack Hotchner) GUEST CAST: Frances Fisher (Antonia Slade) Sheryl Lee Ralph (Hayden Montgomery) Patrick Bristow (Asher Douglas) Matt Battaglia (Captain Grant Howard) Rif Hutton (Warden Bryan Nabb) James Shanklin (Timothy Ritchie) Jonathan Camp (Eric Rawdon) Travis Johns (Johnson) David L.M. McIntyre (Leonard Ennis) Bodhi Elfman (Peter Lewis) Michael James Lazar (Guard #1) David Patykewich (Spooky Prisoner)

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1120. Inner Beauty - Sneak Peeks

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 1 - 1119. Tribute - Review

Criminal Minds latest episode ‘Tribute’ was written by Virgil Williams and (guest) starred Paget Brewster. We catch up with former BAU agent Emily Prentiss who left the BAU and went over the ocean and accepted to work with Interpol.

THE CASE

In a botched undercover job, a police officer is killed, one whom Prentiss recommended take the assignment to help further her career. Prentiss learns the killer is now in the USA, so she calls her former boss, the unit chief of the BAU, and convinces a reluctant Hotchner to work this case.

This case reminded me a bit of a prior episode ‘Zoe’s Reprise’ in which a young serial killer is killing people the way other famous serials killers did in prior cases. While in 'Zoe’s Reprise’ the Unsub is trying to learn his way, this killer is doing it for the thrill kill. He is a pretty much a copycat killer.

The case itself was OK. I got enough to understand what his motivations were (killing to get famous by copycating what famous serial killers did).

But this isn’t why I was interested in this episode, after all the Unsub was just a means to get Emily back into the BAU, if only for one case, and interact with her former team.

CATCHING UP

Loved that we got to catch up to what’s been going on in Prentiss professional and personal life. We get to see she finally has someone in her life. First scene sees her waking up in bed with a boyfriend. Go girl! (This is from a Hotch and Prentiss shipper!). On the professional side, she is still at Interpol and is involved in a case that cost an officer her life.

Once she flies to the USA to meet with the team to work the case, we get great scenes between her and JJ. Lovely scene when she ask Garcia about Sergio, her cat who is now living with Penelope. She meets with Agent Lewis, who just joined the team this year. I like the interaction between the two, seems very easy going. The meeting with the guys on the team is equally friendly and they all seems happy to be together again. We get a rare thing in the meeting scene, Hotch hugging Emily!





The best scene was without a doubt Emily doing her imitation of Morgan to Garcia! One of my all-time favorite scenes. I don’t know if this was in the script or something Paget did on her own but it was awesome!


THE GOOD:

• The Unsub remained a mystery until the end.
• The nightmare scene where instead of the officer dying in a pool of blood, Emily dreamed it was her friend JJ. Pretty gory scene with blood coming out of poor JJ’s mouth!
• I like the idea that Emily is in London but, while being pretty much a workaholic, she did find time to get a boyfriend.
• Emily being back at the BAU, even if only for one case.
• The last scene with everyone relaxing while having a meal. I love scenes like this where they all enjoy each other’s company.
• Hotch FINALLY off the police station and working in the field!

THE BAD:

• Prentiss is the one that decides they can give the profile? Isn’t that supposed to be Hotch’s job to decide when they have enough information to do so? Not the first time the writers have done this, twice they did with JJ deciding it was the time for the profile!
• The girls give the profile together to a bunch of cops at the scene and the guys gives also the profile to a bunch of cops back at the police station. WHY, would they split the team according to gender? Was not necessary and made no sense at all.
• It did seem that it took JJ, Rossi and Prentiss forever to get to the dorm room where the Unsub was holed up with the two girls.

THE OBVIOUS:

• Really when an episode focus on character, in this case Prentiss, anyone not with said character when they are about to take down the Unsub, you know they will NOT be part of the action. In this case the moment I saw that Hotch, Lewis and Reid were together, I knew they would not be the one on the action and worse, once they got on the scene and Hotch said they would take the back, they simply disappeared.

CONCLUSION

As an Emily Prentiss fan, to me, she is second only to Hotch, I was happy to have her back. The case, while not the most exciting, the interaction between Emily and her former team and friends was well written and was entertaining enough that I did like the episode a lot. Yes, there was a lot of Prentiss but I knew this would be the case and still I didn’t mind. It was a solid episode despite some minor quibbles I had which I highlighted in the ‘the bad’ section I still enjoyed it, way more than the horrible ‘200’ in which Prentiss made a comeback. So I will give this one a 8/10.


~~~~Merlin

CRIMINAL MINDS Season 11 - 1121. Devil's Backbone - Press Release

THE BAU BEGINS A DANGEROUS GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE WITH A NOTORIOUS CONVICTED SERIAL KILLER WHEN THE TEAM TRIES TO DETERMINE IF SHE HAS INFORMATION ON TWO KIDNAPPED BOYS, ON “CRIMINAL MINDS,” WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20 Frances Fisher Guest Stars as Convicted Serial Killer Antonia Slade DEVIL'S BACKBONE – When guards at a Virginia prison intercept a package with evidence relating to the kidnapping of two boys several years ago, the BAU questions a notorious serial killer who may have information on the boys’ whereabouts, on CRIMINAL MINDS, Wednesday, April 20 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. CHEAT TWEET: The BAU turns 2 a serial killer 4 info on a kidnapping case #FrancisFisher guests @CrimMinds_CBS #CBS 4/20 9pm http://bit.ly/1TAnjgJ WRITTEN BY: Sharon Lee Watson DIRECTED BY: Félix Enríquez Alcalá

REGULAR CAST: Joe Mantegna (David Rossi) Thomas Gibson (Aaron Hotchner) Shemar Moore (Derek Morgan) Matthew Gray Gubler (Dr. Spencer Reid) A.J. Cook (Jennifer “JJ” Jareau) Kirsten Vangsness (Penelope Garcia) RECURRING CAST: Aisha Tyler (Dr. Tara Lewis) GUEST CAST: Frances Fisher (Antonia Slade) Jason Denuszek (Claude Barlow) Rebecca Lincoln (Cheryl Morrissey) Rick Peters (Warden Bart Shulman) Jason Caceres (Jimmy Bennett) Reid Miller (Adam Morrissey) Brandon Alan Makovy (Orel Wilbur) Chad T. Wood (Juan Lopez) R. Charles Wilkerson (Tyrell Curtis) Abby Donnelly (Helen McGill) Louie Enriquez (Hector Ramon) Brendan Chadd Thomas (Sam Meckler)