Criminal Minds - Episodes 09.01 - The Inspiration - Review

Last night was the season premieres of Criminal Minds 9th season and I must say I was a bit afraid before watching this episode. I almost stopped watching the show during season 7. Storylines, unsubs were not really interesting and it really felt like the writers were running out of ideas. But season 8 proved me wrong, so I kept watching. And I don’t regret it today. Last night episode was great, kind of classic Criminal Minds but it still felt new (and Reid’s new hairdo is super cute)

I was a bit disappointed at the beginning of the episode. The car chase was nice but we knew Morgan and Jarreau would be fine and won’t end up smashed by a big red truck and then came the running jokes about BAU agent not able to have vacations… Not that interesting. I’d love if they talked more about Strauss’ death but only her job position mattered. So, maybe Hotch will be chief, or maybe not. It felt kinda repeating. The writers already used this storyline a lot before. We know Hotch is not going anywhere (he better not !!!), so I don’t really see the point of raising the question. Hotch raised a stupid point when he said “I don’t want some outsiders coming in”: Strauss was a total pain in the ass at first, but it was nice to watch her interact with the team and turned to an ally for them. So, if we all hate the new chief for this season, it won’t be so dramatic. I hope they get this solved by next week ! We want Hotch in the field, and some outsider to replace Strauss.

The case of the week was quite interesting. The casting was perfect, Fred Koehler is excellent at being creepy ! He really gave me the chills while watching. So, basically he is a disturbed young man who was in love with some chick and when he learns in the papers she was getting married, he became really psycho and killed her. Afterwards, he saw his dead girlfriend in other girls and he killed them too, after feeding them parts of the decomposed head.

Eww… The head was disgusting ! I’ve watched this episode in the morning and I couldn’t finish breakfast. Also, I must admit the whole “prey mantis” theory was bit difficult to get at first, but it was okay. (I love Jarreau’s face when Reid actually says “prey mantis” !) Clearly, it isn’t the writers’ best idea, but I really like the cannibalism part (probably because I just finished watching Hannibal). It was really gross watching people eating dead flesh like that. But that’s what’s interesting about Criminal Minds : psychopaths, how they operate, why they kill... It’s horrible, but trying to understand that kind of people has always intrigued me. And cannibalism is really hard to understand… Anyway, what is really great about the case is the big final twist :

The BAU got the wrong unsub ! He has a evil twin !!! Maybe I’m a little cheesy, but I always like evil twin storylines. It’s fun, and I thought it was well introduced. I really did not see it coming. Of course, we can wonder why the mother did not say anything about her other son, but the BAU just questioned her about Wallace. Garcia should have find out about the twins. One thing bugs me : why Wallace would let the BAU arrest him if he was innocent ? He was freaking calm ! I’m confident the writers will give us all the answers next week !

Romain Ossust (aka Julian Denton)
Writer