Criminal Minds 4x14 "Cold Comfort"

[jadesfire]

This was very much billed as "the one with Cybil Sheppard", but if you're tuning in for her alone, be prepared to spend a lot of time with your finger on the fast-forward button. And whatever you do, don't pop to the loo or you'll miss her. Mind you, her performance certainly made the unsub easier to understand. One thing I like about Criminal Minds is that the bad guys are always humanised in some way, and this one is no exception. I can't remember exactly when, but in a previous episode, Hotch or Gideon (yes, okay, faulty memory alert - enlighten me?) says that all the people they catch are ill in some way. So the experience that would traumatise most people or hurt them or give them nightmares for life has a different effect on the mind of the unsubs and drives them beyond what a 'normal' person would ever do.

Getting back to the episode, I liked a lot about it.

- Kevin! Nice to see him still around.
- I have a real soft spot for memory-bank-Reid. Maybe it's just my trivia loving soul, but it's more than that somehow. It's also a team thing, in a way that I can't quite put my finger on. That's probably another meta for another day.
- The psychic. I liked that they kept us on a back and forth with him. He wasn't an unsympathetic character at all, and Rossi's hostility made me more inclined to like him. The part with JJ was pretty obvious cold-reading (which is, of course, profiling done for effect - Hotch in "Tabula Rasa" is my favourite - and is a common trick of 'psychics'), which made me think that he was going to be wrong. Then JJ's conviction made me thing he was going to be right again, and the red-herring of the family house worked well. The reveal was a little disappointing, since I would have liked him to have been wrong in the end, but then I like non-obvious conclusions.
- The parents. Sheesh. The reasons unsubs do things are not excuses, but you can understand where this one came from. Spending two days (or more? you wouldn't believe I only watched it an hour ago, would you?) alone with the body of the only woman who really loved him? That'd unhinge most people to some degree.
- JJ's haircut (what? *paddles in the shallow end*) which is very cute. Also waaaaay more practical a length with a tiny baby around.

Things I didn't like:

- The procedural parts. The graverobbing was really, really obvious, guys. Why wasn't that investigated more? They follow up all other leads except this one? I know it was for dramatic effect, but I get ticked off when I'm brighter than Reid.
- The filming style. Normally I don't notice, but there was something about the direction of this episode that made it feel flat to me.
- The ending. I know they like to force things along to give us the exciting climax, but this felt more forced than usual. I'm trying to work out if they have really good or really bad timing. Because it strikes me that good timing would have been about five minutes earlier than they actually got there...
- The JJ+Rossi scene at the end, which felt terribly forced.

Things I got thinking about:
- What's going on with Prentiss? She seemed so off at the very beginning, more than just not interested in the horoscopes, but almost hostile. There have been hints that her compartmentalising is breaking down a little since "A Higher Power". I really hope we're going to see more of this.
- Seriously, JJ. Do you think these guys don't know you got engaged/married? They knew about you and Will almost before you did.

Actually, that last point, I really like. No one can hide anything from anyone in this series, but they don't say anything. It's their job to know things that other people don't, but because they respect and like and have to work with each other, they only bring things up when they become relevant. That feels much more like how real people work/live together than an all-sharing approach, and is probably why I didn't like the last scene, although the episode probably needed it.

Overall, this wasn't a stand-out episode for me. I liked the premise, but felt the execution lacked the pacing and drama of other episodes this season. I'm going to give it 6/10, I think.

Just for comparison, my scores for this season would run something like:
9/10 - The Angel Maker, Minimal Loss, 52 Pickup, Normal
8/10 - Brothers in Arms, Bloodlines
7.5/10 - Memoriam (disliked the premise, loved the performances)
7/10 - Mayhem, Catching Out, The Instincts
6/10 - Paradise, Masterpiece, Soul Mates

but it's possible that I'm a hard sell. There are some episodes that I can watch endlessly; I don't think "Cold Comfort" is going to be one of them.