Criminal Minds: 100
Nov. 26th, 2009 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityI wish I could accurately convey how I feel about this show (and assume I am about to feel about this episode).
The first time I ran into this feeling was when I read our own![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sharim's fic "Broken". This was a while ago, but the intervening time has not provided me with the words. But let it be known that when I say things like "That was horrible" or "It made me want to vomit" I don't mean it in the bad way. But it's not really good either. It just...moves me. Which is why I cannot listen to "One of These Mornings" (thank you Jack from Without a Trace), among other things.
And that is how I feel about Criminal Minds. I am about to be moved.
+++
Before I dive into the episode, I would like to mention something I thought of this morning. The Reaper is about Power. First it was power over those he killed, but that only lasted until the ninth victim. After that, it became all about power over the police/FBI. And everyone remembers Hotch...but I would like to remind you all that the only reason Derek Morgan is alive is because he was unconscious. And look at who is leading the team.
If Hotch did that on purpose I will freaking die.
+++
Okay, that was possibly the best opening sequence this show has ever made. It passes Fire and Enya, which to this point had been my favourite. I just...loved how it was us, how we saw the team as they were, waving us in, puking in the yard or offering comfort if they could. And we don't know who we are (we're supposed to think we're Hotch) and we don't know where we are (we're supposed to think it's Hailey's house), and they don't show us enough to make the tension ridiculous...well done, show! I hope the rest of it is this good.
You know why I love Episode 100? EVERYONE GETS TO PLAY! *hearts Will and not!Xander*
*cues freaking death*
I think I am going to have to watch this episode a lot before I can full process the awesomeness (and horribleness) of it, so for now, numbered lists:
1. The pacing was very nearly perfect. Every flash back felt right, every interrogation was spot on...just, brilliance. It just barreled on like a train.
2. I loved how each of them "played their part" during the interrogations, particularly Prentiss (and also Rossi). Because we all know, the more in character they get, the more screwed we are, and that's exactly what happened. And then at the end, we had an entirely different Aaron Hotchner, because his part has changed.
3. Dude, Emily freaking Prentiss.
4. One of the things that I found super awkward while writing fanfic for this show was that quite a bit of it takes place on the phone. You can do that on screen in ways you can't on paper. So the scene with Hailey and the Reaper? WAS STUPENDOUS. God, I don't think I breathed, except for all the gasping sobs. And when you consider that all the actors were shot in scenes by themselves and thus had no one to play off of? EVEN BETTER.
5. Do not try to tell me that Hailey was fridged. One, you're wrong and two, I am not in the mood to explain to you how you are wrong.
6. The other great use of flashbacks in this episode was during the Foyet/Hotch fight. Just...brilliance, again, because you know that's what Hotch is thinking, that everything he's ever seen has led him to this moment, to this man's head in his hands and a broken table. And it's the one thing Foyet could not account for, the one thing that the profile always leaves out. Because the Abyss might look into you, but your family pulls you back just as hard. So in that moment, all of Foyet's calculations fell apart, because he couldn't account for love.
7. I was very, very terrified that Hotch would somehow be tricked into shooting Jack. I love so much that Hotch and Jack have this Thing They Do that I refuse to think about it being creepy that Jack bonds with his father by hiding in a trunk in his office.
8. Seriously, I can't think of all the reasons this episode was great.
9. As for Erin Straus, I think Hotch played her. Hotch plays everyone, so this is not a surprise, but I think he played her as much as he played Foyet. In stepping down, he wasn't covering his own ass, he was allowing her to cover it for him, and he never forgets that she loves her son the most, so he makes sure that Jack is his trump card. And that is why I frakking love this show.
I am going to have to watch this episode a lot. But I might need to go look at some kitten pictures first.
The first time I ran into this feeling was when I read our own
sharim's fic "Broken". This was a while ago, but the intervening time has not provided me with the words. But let it be known that when I say things like "That was horrible" or "It made me want to vomit" I don't mean it in the bad way. But it's not really good either. It just...moves me. Which is why I cannot listen to "One of These Mornings" (thank you Jack from Without a Trace), among other things.And that is how I feel about Criminal Minds. I am about to be moved.
+++
Before I dive into the episode, I would like to mention something I thought of this morning. The Reaper is about Power. First it was power over those he killed, but that only lasted until the ninth victim. After that, it became all about power over the police/FBI. And everyone remembers Hotch...but I would like to remind you all that the only reason Derek Morgan is alive is because he was unconscious. And look at who is leading the team.
If Hotch did that on purpose I will freaking die.
+++
Okay, that was possibly the best opening sequence this show has ever made. It passes Fire and Enya, which to this point had been my favourite. I just...loved how it was us, how we saw the team as they were, waving us in, puking in the yard or offering comfort if they could. And we don't know who we are (we're supposed to think we're Hotch) and we don't know where we are (we're supposed to think it's Hailey's house), and they don't show us enough to make the tension ridiculous...well done, show! I hope the rest of it is this good.
You know why I love Episode 100? EVERYONE GETS TO PLAY! *hearts Will and not!Xander*
*cues freaking death*
I think I am going to have to watch this episode a lot before I can full process the awesomeness (and horribleness) of it, so for now, numbered lists:
1. The pacing was very nearly perfect. Every flash back felt right, every interrogation was spot on...just, brilliance. It just barreled on like a train.
2. I loved how each of them "played their part" during the interrogations, particularly Prentiss (and also Rossi). Because we all know, the more in character they get, the more screwed we are, and that's exactly what happened. And then at the end, we had an entirely different Aaron Hotchner, because his part has changed.
3. Dude, Emily freaking Prentiss.
4. One of the things that I found super awkward while writing fanfic for this show was that quite a bit of it takes place on the phone. You can do that on screen in ways you can't on paper. So the scene with Hailey and the Reaper? WAS STUPENDOUS. God, I don't think I breathed, except for all the gasping sobs. And when you consider that all the actors were shot in scenes by themselves and thus had no one to play off of? EVEN BETTER.
5. Do not try to tell me that Hailey was fridged. One, you're wrong and two, I am not in the mood to explain to you how you are wrong.
6. The other great use of flashbacks in this episode was during the Foyet/Hotch fight. Just...brilliance, again, because you know that's what Hotch is thinking, that everything he's ever seen has led him to this moment, to this man's head in his hands and a broken table. And it's the one thing Foyet could not account for, the one thing that the profile always leaves out. Because the Abyss might look into you, but your family pulls you back just as hard. So in that moment, all of Foyet's calculations fell apart, because he couldn't account for love.
7. I was very, very terrified that Hotch would somehow be tricked into shooting Jack. I love so much that Hotch and Jack have this Thing They Do that I refuse to think about it being creepy that Jack bonds with his father by hiding in a trunk in his office.
8. Seriously, I can't think of all the reasons this episode was great.
9. As for Erin Straus, I think Hotch played her. Hotch plays everyone, so this is not a surprise, but I think he played her as much as he played Foyet. In stepping down, he wasn't covering his own ass, he was allowing her to cover it for him, and he never forgets that she loves her son the most, so he makes sure that Jack is his trump card. And that is why I frakking love this show.
I am going to have to watch this episode a lot. But I might need to go look at some kitten pictures first.
