For a show that's in its tenth season, Criminal Minds knows how to intrigue an audience. Despite the lack of Jeanne Tripplehorn, whom I miss very much, the BAU still felt like a functioning team, with the new addition of Jennifer Love Hewitt as Kate Callahan.
So, let's get right down to business, shall we? The episode starts off with a little boy running around in the sunlight. He stumbles into this creepy looking shed (it's ALWAYS a good idea to go exploring in abandoned sheds, right?). He runs away, looking very ghastly. Why? There are limbs inside. As it says in my bio, I am a huge Dexter fan. So, what do limbs make me think of? Dexter and The Ice Truck Killer. I thought that was very nice to see that resemblance. Speaking of Dexter, C.S. Lee is starring in the next episode! What a coincidence! Anyway, I thought it was a strong intro for an episode.
Next, we see Kate Callahan at a bar with a strange looking fella. She does not look at all like a soon-to-be FBI agent; she's undercover. She made a comment like:
A girl's gotta be careful these days.Seems a bit sad, don't you think? Moreover, this kind of took me back to Emily Prentiss's days where she would go undercover and "pretend to like a criminal to get him into custody". But, according to show runner Erica Messer, this is a completely unique trait to Kate. All right, then. It was a bit strange to have this as our first impression of Kate, and I'm sure it won't be the last we see of her undercover work. It was still cool to watch.
That opening scene with Kate and Reid in the elevator was nice. Although, I'm not sure what to make of her comment about "techno and tweaking". Spencer Reid's face afterwards said it all. We found out that she was in the bar during Gatekeeper (9x07) with the rest of the team when they sang Billy Joel's "Piano Man". That was nice to hear. We also got a 10 second mention of Alex Blake and how she's teaching full time in Boston (presumably with her husband, James). That was the highlight of the episode for me. In addition to all of this madness, there was a particular comment from Aaron Hotchner that I just can't seem to get out of my head.
Emily does not want to come back.Prentiss has a huge fan base and most of them continue to beg her and the network to bring her back full time on the show. I think this is the show's way of trying to quiet them down. Paget Brewster has openly stated that she will not return to the show full time, but she will continue to guest star whenever they would like her to. So please, do us all a favour, and let it rest? Thanks.
How about that quote from Penelope Garcia about how, "Is she [Kate] nice? Why is that the first question I always ask?". That's another indirect reference to Blake because that was the first question she asked about her. I enjoyed that very much.
Kate and David Rossi seem to be very close already, don't you think? They were paired up the whole time during this episode, and they're already making sassy remarks to each other. It looks like they will be a go-to pair for the entire season. I should probably mention the unsub's (Unknown Subject) profile. From very early on in the episode, it seemed promising. It mentioned many times that he is obsessive, he revisits the crime scenes, and he uses isolate dump sites; interesting. Within 20 minutes of the episode, they made an arrest. If you're a big fan of the show, you know how unlikely it is for the team to already identify and arrest the unsub around the 20 minute mark. Just as I suspected, he wasn't the unsub. With more comedic relief in the episode, with lines like, "You found a limb in his car?" "Actually, we found three.", you could tell that they tried really hard to make this episode less gruesome. The rest of the episode was pretty bland until we saw the unsub's latest victim escape and run away. Hurray, the BAU came just in time to save the day yet again!
While on the plane ride home, Derek Morgan decides to talk about how he has accumulated the most battle scars while making references to the season 9 finale Demons (9x24) and Omnivore (4x18). Interesting. We then see Kate at home taking care of a girl - possibly her niece (as released in some interviews). This could be a cool storyline to explore. And to end off the episode, we see a woman jogging around in broad daylight - always a good sign. A van pulls up next to her, and the woman in the passenger's seat asks her for directions. Meanwhile, someone in the backseat pulls her into the van. This speaks volumes as it is not only a reference to the season-long unsub of season 8 "The Replicator", but it also echoes the season 6 team of unsubs who were pulling off a Human Trafficking Ring, much like it seems these perps are doing. Maybe this is a reason to bring back Rachel Nichols and show how Ashley Seaver has been doing on Andi Swann's team?
All in all, this episode was decent. There was a lot of misogyny depicted in this episode, with comments like, "I bet you [Kate] had to work extra hard for that badge". For a show that seems to always tiptoe along the lines of misogyny, this one was definitely one of the closest to crossing that line. Furthermore, Kate's character seems to be the purveyor of sporadic pop culture references and memes. Twerking, animals doing cute things, and more are what we heard from her. I'm really not sure what to think of this. If she's going to talk about these things every week, I could see myself getting annoyed very quickly with her. Oh well, I still think there's hope for this season.
What did YOU think of the premiere of X? Are you excited for Burn? Be sure to leave a comment down below!
