Criminal Minds Review Episode 7.08 'Hope'

  

   In the latest episode of Criminal Minds entitled Hope the team searches for an unsub who they believe is responsible for not only kidnapping a little girl, but abducting the girl’s mother years later. The episode written by Kimberly Ann Harrison did a wonderful job showing the audience how mothers of missing children never give up hope in their desperate search to find their children, no matter how much time passes.  I thought the story was a believable and well thought out one.  I believed with all my heart that any mother in Monica’s situation would have done the exact same thing.  To me the best scene in the episode was at the gas station.  Monica was given a choice: to either walk away and call the police (but take the chance she would never see her daughter again) or go with the unsub willingly (with the hope they she would see her again.) Monica never hesitated she ran straight for the truck and waited for the unsub to return.  I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t do the exact same thing under those circumstances.

     While the episode did focus on Garcia it still had some great team moments.  Hotch presenting the case to the team for Garcia was a kind but subtle gesture.  JJ walking Garcia through the moments before Monica’s abduction was wonderful; to me it showed just how much the team trusted one another. The team also had some great profiling moments throughout the entire episode.   Those kind of profiling moments have been missing in the past and I was very glad to see them back.  The only really bad thing about the episode was the ending.  Garcia talking to the unsub on the phone I could buy, but her going into the house was so unbelievable to me.  I have a hard enough time with Garcia presenting the cases to the team, but her becoming a hostage negotiator even under these circumstances lost it for me.  I loved that Monica shot and killed the unsub in the end. This man not only abducted and raped both her and her daughter, but was also directly responsible for the daughter taking her own life. Who could really blame her?  

     All in all I thought the episode was a good one.  Believable up until the very end, if Garcia had not have walked into the house it would scored a 10 in my book.  It wasn’t suspenseful, but it didn’t need to be. I guessed the unsub was a member of support group in the first scene, however it did tell a wonderful story of a mother’s love and sacrifice. In my opinion if an episode make you stop and think what you might do in the same situation it is a good story, this episode did exactly that for me. I hope we get many more just like it.