CRIMINAL MINDS Season 10 - 1014. Hero Worship - Review

First of all, I don't know how I got lucky enough to get the week that there was a "Reid" episode, but thank goodness I did!

Reid is really struggling with the loss of Gideon. Rossi tries to console him throughout the episode, but Reid is reluctant to accept Rossi's help.

The episode starts with a busy restaurant in the Indianapolis area - a waiter pushed beyond his limits. At this point, I'm thinking he is going to go postal on his patrons, but an explosion occurs across the street at a coffee house across the street. Garcia and Hotch explain to the team that there was a bombing at an elementary school in Indy the previous week. At first, they thought the elementary school bombing was an isolated incident, but with the latests bombing, the BAU is now on the case. Reid feels that the latest bombing is straight out of the "Anarchists Cookbook, TNT for Dummies". The team is afraid there will be another bombing, so they head to Indianapolis.

On the plane, the team discovers that the victim in the first bombing wasn't supposed to be at the school and may have been killed by accident. The second bombing is a big escalation with the bomber striking during rush hour at the coffee house. Reid meets a patient at the hospital who is looking for his father - who he discovers died during the blast - this seems to bring up memories of Reid's loss of Gideon.

JJ and Kate interview the man, Allan Archer, who rescued a pregnant woman and her unborn child from the coffee house, and his wife, Brenda. There are pictures, almost like a shrine, of her first husband in their home. Allan and Brenda's first husband, Grant, were best friends.

Rossi and Morgan meet with the forensics expert, Dr. Einstein, who is most likely as brilliant as Reid and would be a great love interest for him in the future… hint, hint my dearest writers. Reid has carried his chessboard with his and Gideon's last game on it with him and tells Rossi that playing the game helps him to focus. Reid and Rossi determine that since the media focus is now on Allan Archer as the "hero" that the bomber may strike again to get the focus back on him.

Archer's daughter comes in and interrupts an intimate moment between himself and her mother. Archer tells his wife that he is "going to run to the store" and goes to his truck where he watches the news of the bombing from earlier in the day and cries as they mention those who lost their lives. When he starts his truck, he hears a click and looks down to notice wires attached to his brake pedal.

Archer is trying to get his wife and daughter to leave the scene as Reid and Morgan are the first to arrive on scene. Somehow, they have managed to beat the bomb-squad there. Morgan is trying to help Archer remain calm. Both Archer and Reid ask Morgan if he can do something to help with the situation. Morgan has to make a decision as to which wire to cut to diffuse the bomb. The bomber has used all of the same color wires, but somehow, Morgan manages to cut the correct wire and save the day. Where would we be without Morgan? Well, this time, Reid would be blown to bits, so I'll forgive the fact, in this instance, that Morgan has come in to save the day.

The team now delivers a profile that the UNSUB is an "ego driven personal cause bomber". They ask the authorities to keep the location of the latest bomb confidential and that he will definitely strike again. While searching Archer's truck, Morgan and Reid are trying to determine how Archer realized there was a bomb in the truck and they discuss the fact that he married his best friend's wife and he had been crying in his truck and he might be desperate for recognition. They decide to ask Archer more about it. Garcia digs into their lives but can't find anything relating to bombs, however, when she researches Brenda Archer's first husband, she discovers that he was a specialist in explosives. They think that Allan may have planted the bomb in the coffee shop so that he could save someone and become a hero to his wife and live up to her expectations. As the rest of the team is interrogating Brenda and Allan Archer, Morgan and Reid discover bomb making manuals in Allan's truck. Brenda claims that Allan had her hide them because he didn't want the FBI to see them when they came to visit them at their home. Rossi and JJ talk with Brenda while Hotch and Kate interrogate Allan. Kate and Hotch get him frustrated until he admits to killing "all those people". Brenda is watching as he admits this and, in my opinion, can't believe she's married to this monster.

This is when the team realizes that there is a second UNSUB. Allan admits that he has no idea who this other person is and that he has taken credit and basically pissed off the other bomber by taking credit for his work. We now see the second UNSUB building another bomb. They go back to the original bombing to try to get the profile. In the meantime, the press has found that the Archers were targeted and Allan is once again in the headlines. The team fears that with the focus back on Archer, the original UNSUB will strike again soon. The media wants the Mayor to give Archer a key to the city. The team decides to use this opportunity to draw out the UNSUB. Brenda doesn't want to cooperate, but JJ convinces her to go along.

During the presentation ceremony, there is a van that pulls up to the area with 55 gallon drums wired to a timer. You think there is going to be a huge explosion (I'm thinking back to Lo-Fi at this point), but there is nothing. The van is a decoy. During the ceremony, Garcia learns that some ethanol was stolen from a local plant, at which there was a fire. There was also a member from the school board in the district of the original elementary school bombing that was fired due to having an affair with a student - and the affair was on the grounds of the ethanol plant. The school board member's name is James Burke. Hotch shows the driver of the van a picture of Burke and the driver identifies Burke as the man who paid him to drive the van.

Reid and JJ find Burke in the basement of a nearby building and they convince him not to set off the device he has. If he does, he won't be able to tell the world how he was wrongly accused - since the student he had the affair with was over eighteen. They are able to arrest him without any further deaths. Brenda wants nothing to do with Allan.

On the plane, Rossi approaches Reid again about dealing with Gideon's death. Rossi tells Reid that Gideon didn't like unfinished business and picks up Gideon's side of the game. When Reid asks Rossi if he knows how to play chess, Rossi says "Who do you think Gideon played before he met you?" then they continue to play.

I enjoyed this episode, although it was predictable at times. I have always enjoyed the interaction between Rossi and Reid and would like to see Rossi mentor Reid more in the future. I loved the forensics specialist and thought she would have been the perfect girlfriend for Reid; I just think it's time for a little bit of happiness is Reid's life. It was nice to see Reid being more assertive and a little more of a "tough guy" at the end of the episode instead of Morgan making the arrest. I am looking forward to next week's episode as the preview looks great!

~~~~Guinevere