Criminal Minds - True Genius

Criminal Minds – True Genius

Series 7 – Episode 11

Criminal Minds finally returned to our UK screens last night (3^rd of February) from its Christmas break. I was on countdown all week due to severe withdrawal symptoms over the Christmas period and I was not disappointed.

The episode started with a couple parked up in a secluded area (will people ever learn?) It then skips and shows Prentiss and Reid at a seminar where Patricia Cornwell is a guest speaker and shows Reid give his own speech. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him when the audience weren’t interacting with him but maybe that is just my love for him and wanting to give him a big hug.

Reid seemed to be disheartened after the speech when seeing Prentiss confidently speaking to people but then a senior stops him giving him the boost he needs in which Reid offers him the FBI internship (how we all would love that offer) after seeing a lot of himself in this boy. However he was shocked to find out that this senior had his own company as he was the founder of Nanavax which was going to be a multi million product. It here that we first see that something is bothering Reid.

This episode is focused on the possible return of the Zodiac killer even though this killer would now be in his sixties the similarities in the MO and crime scenes are uncanny but how could someone in their sixties still do this? I did wonder if it would revisit the idea they had with the Butcher – father/son team especially when it showed the two men playing chess, one who was significantly older then the other but thankfully they had another surprise in store for us.

When Hotch and JJ visited the crime scene it showed that the crime scene was identically to the one the Zodiac had done years before but the Reid came in claiming that it wasn’t the real Zodiac with no other evidence but a feeling. Got to love Reid and deep down you know he is right.

We then go to Morgan and Rossi going to visit the Sergeant that was on the original Zodiac case who is extremely ill and bed ridden with Parkinson’s. He use to have plenty of visits from people who was obsessed with the Zodiac, this summing up to a huge list of suspects when they find photos that had been taken at the old crime scene and places at the recent one in the Sergeants old files.

Another amazing Reid triumph came when he leads a man speaking to a press into a false security when he claims that his cousin could be the one doing all the killings and after Reid takes charge and says ‘The FBI would greatly appreciate it if people would stop making false claims in order to get their fifteen minutes of fame’

We then get to see the unsub Caleb again at his best friends pre wedding party Harvey who decides to make his own speech after the best man has made him. During his speech we get the sense that Harvey is uncomfortable during this speech, what is it that he doesn’t want his fiancée to know. It then becomes clear that Caleb has got feelings for Marissa as he says they both had a crush on her, it seems even though they are friends they have always been rivals as they met during a chess tournament. When Caleb said ‘Your soul mate stands before you’ made me think he was telling Marissa look at me, here I am. You then see Harvey not really wanting to have a whole weekend with Caleb when he is surprised with a stag weekend to Vegas but he agrees to go after Marissa tells him too. What happened between Caleb and Harvey?

We then get to see the genius that is Spencer Reid at his best when he works out a secret code that sends then to a location where they can wait for the unsub, this turns out to be a trap when they only catch someone delivery a message for Reid which reads ‘You’re not as smart as you think you are.’ In the meantime the unsub has led them onto a wild goose chase while he was killing another couple in a different location.

The profile was then given with someone that is about to lose the object of obsession forcing him to kill in such a small space of time, we know this to be true as Marissa is about to marry Caleb. We see more of Caleb’s obsession when he meets Marissa at a restaurant assuming that she is wanting to call off the wedding and then he dismisses the idea of her surprise saying that Harvey would hate it and how much did she really know about him. This making us more intrigued to his past.

We then see Reid in a café over going the online paper printouts and also seeming a little off it. He then admits to Prentiss that he doesn’t feel like he has lived up to his own expectations and not knowing why he is in the FBI. I thought this scene was really nice and it showed the chemistry that Reid and Prentiss had for the first time since she returned from the dead. I loved the reverse psychology and how antsy he got when Prentiss took over the online paper printouts which then actually gave him the answer he had been looking for. We also found out that Reid turned thirty which the rest of the team had forgot which made me think that maybe Reid’s doubts about his life choices are more to do with him getting older.

It showed Reid a code in which the unsub places an add in the paper using codes which then shows the team that not only the writes is smart but to whom it was written for had to have an IQ of 160.

Another killing involving a taxi appeared and showed the driver had been shot and Morgan noticed a void in the blood spatter pattern which Rossi tells us that there had been a passenger, but where was the passenger now? Also souvenir photography of a young boy was left.

We then see Caleb and Harvey set off on their road trip only for Caleb to change his mind and take him to the first crime scene if the killings, even though Harvey is a little resistant at first we find out that they were both obsessed with catching the Zodiac killer when they were younger. Harvey then discussed how the Zodiac would have killed the couple in great detail and he does this at every crime scene that Caleb takes him to, not once does Harvey question anything.

During this time Reid has worked out the coordinates of the crime mirrors a chess board which leads them to the final place where in chess the opponent would have been check mated or lost his queen. We then know that Caleb is holding Marissa somewhere and it was time to finish the game.

It then a race to get to the two friends and Marissa. We find out that when they were fifteen they killed a boy something that Harvey won’t take responsibility for and what he kept secret from Marissa. It is now clear that it wasn’t Marissa that was the object of his obsession it was Harvey and how they used to be. Harvey soon passes on blame when Reid interrupts them and Harvey agrees with Reid to try and get away from him. Harvey doesn’t like the home truths when Caleb tells him about how he enjoyed the killing of Robbie Shaw even though he only chose him and Harvey changes and says that they are in it together when it looks like he will get in to trouble. After finding out about Harvey’s transfer Caleb tells Reid that the body is buried in Harvey’s back yard before discarding the gun and giving himself up.

The ending really put a smile on my face and I was happy when Reid mentioned Gideon it’s nice that he hasn’t been forgotten. I loved how happy Reid was with his surprise party and it showed how much of a family the team really are and it’s a family that I am sure each and every one of us wished we were a part of.

All in all the episode stood up to my high expectations and I am happy that Derick Morgan along with the rest of the team is gracing my TV every Friday night. The only thing I am hoping for with the rest of the series is to get to the bottom of Reid’s headaches which came up in series 6 and maybe a few episodes where we don’t see the unsub until the team catch the unsub.

More Criminal Minds next week where the team search for a serial rapist known as ‘The Piano Man’ returns and is attacking his previous victims. It is also the 150^th episode. I’m looking forward to watching this episode and writing a blog about it too. =] xxx