Criminal Minds - Fate - Review: "Rossi Has A Family!"

Upon first watch of the episode, my thoughts were so jumbled that I had to watch it a second time. Rossi's emotions and sass grabbed me and didn't let go, and the near-perfect unknown subject (UnSub) made for a great episode. The second time I watched it was much better; things seemed more clear. Great job, Janine, you wrote it quite well.

At the beginning of the episode, we are greeted by skateboarding kids and a woman closing up her hair salon for the night. She's on the phone with her friend, and her friend says, "Chill. Jessica, just calm down." I am a lot like this woman - if you tell me to calm down, I will only get more angry with you. Jessica hears a noise in the restaurant, yet she hangs up the phone on your friend. Don't you think it would be better to talk to your friend while you investigate said noise? Anyway, next we see Rossi chilling in traffic. That is amazing to see. There's a mysterious woman carrying Rossi's file. Well, that can't be good. Rossi goes into a coffee shop and buys two coffees. I wish he was meeting with Blake. I stand by my headcanon. Then, we are greeted with SO MANY sassy Rossi quotes. "Yesterday, when I saw that you were following me, I thought it had to be a coincidence, but by today, ooh, probably not." "It's a long story." "Well, I'm a writer. I hate the short ones." "Now, most people would ask for the coffee back, but, being a gentleman, c'est la vie." I want Rossi to speak more Italian, but French is all right with me.

Next, we're brought to a seemingly happy family. Aw, the husband is doing the cooking. That's nice. And the woman is doing the killing. What a refreshing change of pace. I'm digging it. We have had a lot of women unsubs already in the tenth season, which is wonderful. And this woman appears to show some remorse - interesting. My ideal woman unsub kills like a pure psychopath; a Frank Breitkopf of sorts. Looks like I will be waiting a bit longer for my perfect unsub. Anyway, Reid and Hotch finally get a few scenes together; which is fantastic. I love their relationship. Now we see the unsub at work. Damn, her boss took credit for the work. She'll pay for that, I'm sure. Oh, the unsub had an accident? An extended 3-week break due to a disability? That has to be relevant. Rossi, Kate, and Garcia have some moments together. Rossi asks Garcia to get some intel on someone. "OMG - you have a groupie. That means you're officially a rockstar!" Garcia is so adorable. Furthermore, here's how Rossi became James Wilson from the TV show House. "This is why I don't get remarried. I struck out three times. I'm better off just doing my job, writing my books, and living alone." Wilson also had three ex-wives, and moped about how he should focus on work and live alone. Well, not completely alone, he always had House. Rossi can have Hotch, whom I do believe is a bit like House himself. Speaking of House, the actress Tina Holmes, who plays the unsub, was on an episode! Coincidence? I think not.

I told my parents I really wanted Rossi to be the one to guess that the unsub might be a woman. And he did guess that, yes! I love him so much. Then, Hotch talked to the friend Jessica was talking to & he looks so concerned. The more scenes with Hotch being involved and sympathetic, the better. This medical examiner looks very familiar. After doing some research on the Wiki, my suspicions were correct. This M.E. was the same one from The Replicator (8x24). The unsub was institutionalized? Damn it, one day I'll get my dream lady unsub. Then, we get another Rossi, Kate, and Garcia scene where Garcia has news on our mystery woman. "I think she's a fangirl!" "Is that another name for crazy person? ...It's a psycho fan who thinks I'm Comic Con." AMAZING! I laughed so hard there. Kate called her a sycophant? I learned about them in school; interesting. We see the unsub in the car. Does she have DID? It has been a while since we have seen a criminal with that disorder. I love how the husband is the one calling the wife asking why she's not home yet. And the wife had to come up with a lie. It's beautiful to see, really. We're taken to her boss's house next. Yikes, she killed two victims this time. "No, Ellen!" appears to be a joke of some kind, or at least it was on Twitter, anyway. I did like that the unsub wants her victims to say what she desired of them. For instance, she wanted her boss to admit that she stole her ideas. Regardless, she still killed her.

Next, we finally get a profile on this crazy woman. She has Intermittent Explosive Disorder, and Trichitilomania. Interesting, but kind of weird how they got all this from some hair. She was involved in a car accident too, that's not good. The following morning, the unsub goes to work and they have a picture of the former boss in the hallway. The unsub ran out immediately. She returns home where the husband has many questions and got very angry. This is, once again, a nice change - The husband was mortified, and yet he's being very kind to her...until he mentioned the police. Oh god, she killed her husband. Just in time, too. Her daughter came home and she rushed her out of the house. Rossi has to leave the brainstorming session because the mystery woman is back. "I'm your daughter!" And the bombshell has been dropped. Oh, Kate, don't try and get involved. Rossi's going into flashback mode. That was quite the scandalous flashback of his wife. Next, the unsub and her daughter go confront one of the teenage girls that was involved in her car accident. "Who are you?" "The woman whose life you destroyed." This confrontation was really intense. Rossi tried to talk Ellen down while playing the daughter card, because now he has a daughter. Cute. JJ went to talk to her daughter; yes! This is good. I love JJ a lot this season. Keep it up! Rossi tells Hotch he needs a car, and Hotch asks Rossi, "Is everything all right?" You can trust Hotch, Dave. He understands more than anyone how important family is.

Lastly, we get this very emotional scene where Rossi tries to catch up to his own daughter, who is about to leave. Gia Mantegna, the daughter of Joe Mantegna, who plays Rossi, sang the song that was playing in these scenes. That was really quite beautiful. Rossi caught up to Joy, they talked, and shared some heartfelt words. "Your mom and I had a complicated relationship." His voice was breaking as he said this. "I can't speak for the David Rossi of 30 years ago. I'd like to think I would have [stayed]." Dear god, this is so heartbreaking! Rossi has a grandkid, and Joy's husband is Italian. AND, she called him 'dad'. What a wonderful ending. Joe Mantegna should win many awards for this. All in all, it was a good episode. One of my favourites of the season.

What did you think of Fate? Did it make you have a lot of feelings for Rossi? Are you going to enjoy the two-week break we have before Amelia Porter airs, or are you going to go crazy waiting? Leave a comment down below!