TV Bender

Wow. What a fantastic episode. I’m still kind of recovering from it AND I have a wicked head cold, so excuse me if I’m not completely coherent.

Gideon is out buying flowers for a date when Hotch calls. It seems the BAU is under review a little bit earlier than usual this year, and the only file not requested for review is Hotch’s. They mention Elle’s departure, Morgan’s arrest, and Reid’s issues and are both a little worried about how this is going to turn out. Wow. Hard to believe all that stuff happened in just one season. Gideon stops when he sees Jane wandering around across the street. When she disappears behind a car, he convinces himself he’s seeing things. Until Frank gives him a call on his date’s cell phone from Gideon’s place.

Gideon rushes to his ladyfriend’s apartment and finds her in pieces. He takes off. The team arrives and decides they need to find both Frank and Gideon despite not being invited into the investigation of the ladyfriend’s murder (I’m sorry, I’m not going to call her his girlfriend. It sounds weird.). Hotch convinces Gideon over the phone to work with Garcia on finding out who Frank really is.

Turns out Frank is really, really evil. He has a list of victims that Gideon’s saved and if Jane is not returned to him, he’s going to kill them all. The team tracks down Jane after she’s arrested and we find out that she left after Frank almost killed her during an argument. She also provides Frank’s last name, which they use to find out that his father was absent and his mother (who Jane reminds him of) was a hooker - the basic recipe for a serial killer. Meanwhile, Frank shows up at Rebecca-From-”The Fisher King”’s place and slices her up.

He arranges a meeting with the team to exchange Jane for the next victim on the list, Little-Sister-Fanning-From-”Boogeyman”, who moved to the New York area after almost being beaten to death by a psychotic kid. Gideon shows up to confront Frank with all the information he has on him. Somehow Frank manages to talk Jane into coming with him again and they jump in front of a train, disappearing behind it as it puls into the station. Reid and J.J. go to Frank’s apartment and find not only Little Sister Fanning, but the decayed corpse of Frank’s mother.

Hotch meets with his boss, Karen Hayes from 24, and she tells him that she believes he is no longer effective in his position as head of the team. Hotch and the rest of the audience thinks this is bullshit, and he profiles her to show her how good he is at his job. He also semi-profiles the team for her. He is able to keep his job for the moment. Karen talks to another member of the team that we can’t see and tells them to help her end Hotch’s career if they want to stay at the BAU. The person she’s talking to? Prentiss.

I have to admit that I’m a little worried about this storyline. A lot of crime shows have tried to do the villian arc with some type of authority figure trying to break up the team or whatever and they usually fail miserably. But if any show can pull it off, it’s Criminal Minds.