Criminal Minds - A Good Husband - Review: “Secrets and Lies”

Valentine’s Day may be here, but “Criminal Minds” clearly isn’t in a romantic mood at the moment, as this week’s case features broken hearts and abusive relationships.

The episode also touches further on the ever-developing storyline involving Reid and his mom. After the heightened drama involving them in “Surface Tension”, things are relatively quiet on that front this week. That doesn’t mean they’re any less troubled, however. Diana doesn’t appear in this episode, but we do get a little more explanation of how she, and by extension, Reid, are faring. Unlike “Surface Tension”, the storyline with Reid and his mom doesn’t fully overshadow the case this week. It does, however, help further set the stage for what’s sure to be an explosive storyline coming with the next episode.

The fact that the case is allowed a little room to breathe this week helps make it a little more interesting (and significantly less chaotic) than the one in the previous episode. Even then, though, it’s still a pretty typical one for the team...but given what’s coming for them, that may well be a good thing. So let’s delve into this tale of love and loss, shall we?

The Case:

As per usual, we start things off with an innocent, carefree scene. A girl’s driving down the street, happily singing along to the music playing in her car, tra, la, la, all is good.

At least, until her car stalls out due to the engine overheating. She’s about to tend to it when she notices something odd sticking out of a nearby dumpster. For some reason, she decides it’s totally a good idea to wander down a darkened alley, alone, to investigate this strange thing in the dumpster. Surely she’s going to be our first victim of the episode, right?

Thankfully, no. Her night still gets worse, though, because once she gets a good look inside the dumpster, she’s horrified to find part of a human body in there. And so begins the setup for this week’s BAU case.

Turns out the body part found was that of a male torso. If there’s one saving grace to this disturbing story, it’s that the body chopping happened postmortem (with some unsubs, it’s hard to tell how sadistic they are sometimes). Initially the team wonders if this murder has some possible connections to a similar, still unsolved case from a few years ago in the DC area, but they eventually rule that out, since that killer’s target was prostitutes.

There’s been no recent reports of missing persons in the area thus far, thus making it harder to identify this poor man, but the team can already make a few educated guesses about the type of unsub they might be dealing with here. His killing method indicates this may not be his first attempt at murder, and he must have some familiarity with the area, since he’s able to dump his victim somewhere in public in a big city and escape the notice of any witnesses. Experienced, methodical unsubs tend to be especially dangerous, so clearly time is of the essence.

By the time the team gets on the jet, however, they’re able to make a proper match for the torso. It belongs to a man named Paul. His ex-wife had just recently reported him missing after he didn’t show up to pick up their daughter for school. Paul wasn’t exactly a saint, however – the reason he and his wife divorced was because he’d apparently had a history of domestic violence, as well as a DUI. Charming. He was last seen at a local strip club, so between that and his sketchy criminal history, the team wonders if any of these circumstances could be reason for an unsub to target him.

As the team makes their way to California, we pop in with our next victim. He’s on the phone with somebody, talking about how he misses them. Then he starts to stumble, and sounds woozy. Shortly after, he’s attacked, and Garcia lets the team know that, just like Paul, his torso’s been found in a public setting, too. So now the team’s got a whole new crime scene waiting for them when they land. Woo.

Once in town, Emily and Reid head out to the police station to get things set up. They’ve yet to get an ID on their latest victim, but they get a break with the news that Paul’s ex-wife is there and willing to talk to the team about him. Problem is, her little girl is there, too, and she doesn’t yet know about her dad’s death. Reid immediately connects with the little girl, asking her about her doll (who has the same hair as him, she informs him, in what is easily the cutest moment in the episode), and he distracts her by taking her to get a snack, so that Emily can focus on interviewing the ex-wife. She tells Emily that Paul liked to drink a lot, and alone at that. She’s also struggling heavily with how to tell her daughter about what happened to her dad. Despite her rocky relationship with Paul, she’s obviously very distraught over his death, and trying to remember the happy times they did have once upon a time. Emily does her best to try and comfort the poor woman, but it’s hard to really know what to say.

Elsewhere, Rossi and Stephen visit the strip club where Paul was last seen, but they don’t go inside the building. Instead, the bouncer requests they talk outside, so as not to make the strippers or the customers nervous. He confirms that Paul visited the club, and regularly at that, and also echoes the ex-wife’s comments about his tendency to get drunk alone. Curiously, though, for a man who had a history of domestic abuse, the bouncer makes it clear that Paul never once got rough or handsy with the strippers or other customers. Rather, he just stayed in the corner and kept to himself. Maybe he’d been trying to change that part of his life?

Unfortunately, this particular strip club has no security cameras, so there’s no chance of getting any footage from Paul’s last visit there. They do have a lot of security guards keeping watch throughout the place, though. Maybe one of them will remember something strange happening prior to Paul’s death? Maybe the unsub was here, saw Paul leave, and followed him? Or made him leave? A few possible options to work with.

JJ, Tara, and Luke, meanwhile, are the oh-so-lucky team members who get to investigate the latest crime scene. This one’s already notably different from Paul’s crime scene, because this victim’s torso was dumped right out in the open, where anyone could see and stumble upon it. Evidently, the unsub’s looking to scare the bejesus out of people with this grotesque display, and possibly make some kind of big statement in the process.

Thanks to JJ’s discovery of a heart monitor attached to the torso, the team’s able to identify the victim. This guy’s name is Brent Miller, and unlike Paul, he didn’t have any children, nor had he ever been married, and he has no criminal record of any sort. He did have a girlfriend...but they’d broken up not long before his death. His girlfriend had moved to Alaska, of all places, with a new guy. Ouch. Reid jumps on that small but important connection between Brett and Paul. They’d both had relationships end not long before their deaths. Looks like their unsub is targeting men with broken hearts who are looking to drown their sorrows at local bars.

After finishing up at Brett’s crime scene, JJ, Luke, and Tara then head out to the morgue to get more information, and they learn of yet another notable difference between Paul and Brett. As noted earlier, Paul’s body was dismembered after his death. Brett was sadly not so lucky – the coroner tells JJ that he was dismembered while he was still alive. Yikes. Despite that fact, however, there’s no evidence of a struggle anywhere on Brett’s body. How can that possibly be?

Well, that’s when we get another creepy clue about this unsub’s M.O. The coroner reports that Brett had to have been paralyzed with a drug of some kind, so as to keep him from fighting back, and it looks to be a date rape drug specifically. Brett’s unable to move, but is still consciously aware of what the unsub’s doing to him. Paul was also given the same drug. Yeah. This unsub just gets scarier and scarier.

At this point, we’re introduced to a married couple, but it becomes instantly apparent that all is not well in paradise for these two. They’re fighting, and all the while, one of them is packing as though they’re preparing to walk out the door for good. Their spouse is clearly not on board with this “I’m leaving” plan, and he pleads with his husband to stay. He’s making all these promises about how he’ll get help for something, and the desperation in his voice is real. His spouse doesn’t buy it, however, calling him paranoid. In the background, there’s a news report about the murders that they briefly listen to, before friends of the spouse who’s leaving arrive. They’re apparently going to let him stay with them for a while. Despite his husband’s continued pleas, the guy leaves with the friends. Another relationship ending...could we have our next possible victim on our hands?

Well, yes, but not in the way one expects. The man who’d tried to beg his husband to stay later meets up with another man at a local bar. They share a drink, there’s a bit of flirtation, and eventually, they decide to “go somewhere quiet”, just the two of them. There’s no romance in this encounter, though, as shortly afterward, we see blood dripping from underneath a car.

JJ and Luke get to visit their second crime scene of the episode, and sure enough, there’s another torso laying out in the open. His name is Dale, and Emily and Reid interview his sister. She confirms that, like Paul and Brett, Dale had had a recent breakup...but it didn’t sound like the relationship was all that serious. She insists Dale was always careful with the people he dated, though. Dale’s sister also acknowledges that he was gay, and that she and his family had been very supportive of him.

Between this information about Dale’s sexuality and the fact that this last victim was being dumped in areas with a large gay community, the team’s starting to wonder if their unsub might be gay/bi as well, or is purposely targeting the gay community somehow. The "target" theory soon is ruled out, however, for the simple fact that the unsub’s targeted both straight and gay men. Rather, they believe he’s simply lashing out over issues of romantic rejection. The fact that all the victims are blond and healthy indicates he’s got a specific type he’s targeting as well, and is trying to get back at a specific man who’d broken his heart. The team also believes the torsos are the unsub’s “trophies”, so to speak, a way to depersonalize the victims, and that he must have serious control issues of some kind that he’s struggling to work through.

Elsewhere, the man who’d up and left his husband the day before returns home. His name is Bill, and his husband’s name is revealed to be Mark. Despite all the recent issues between them, Bill’s relieved when Mark comes out to greet him upon hearing him call Mark’s name. Apparently Bill had heard about the murders, and happened to know Dale (hmmm), and he’d been worried about Mark’s safety as a result. During their conversation, Bill notices Mark looks to have injured himself lately, but Mark brushes it off as some accident. A-ha. Well. That’s not an obvious hint at all.

At one point, Bill heads towards the bathroom, but Mark hastily stops him from going any further (with a kiss, no less), and manages to direct him to another bathroom in their house. This is a good decision on Bill’s part, because it’s revealed shortly thereafter that there’s a LOT of bloody items in that first bathroom. Yep. Mark is the unsub. And he spends part of that night trying to clean up and get rid of all the evidence. A risky action, too, because he’s also managed to entice Bill to spend the night with him. When he comes back to bed, however, he’s surprised to find Bill isn’t there. Did he hear Mark messing around in the bathroom, get spooked, and leave?

Nope. Turns out Bill just wanted to meet up with a friend of his at the bar. Apparently his friend knew Dale, too, and both men are quite shaken up about his death and looking for a shoulder to lean on. They also talk a bit about Mark, and Bill’s friend clearly does not think very highly of him. The two men commiserate over Mark’s controlling tendencies, and the friend encourages Bill to up and leave Mark for good, reassuring him that he’ll support him if he does so. Their comfort and support towards each other is totally innocent, but Mark, who’d followed Bill to see where he went (of course), is deeply upset at seeing him in the arms of another man, and jumps to the wrong conclusion.

After Bill leaves, Mark confronts the friend, whose name is Wes. He then proceeds to drug and murder him, and now we’ve got victim number four on our hands. Dog tags next to his body indicate his full name is Wesley, and he was in the military. He has a partner he’d been with for a while, and Rossi and Stephen go to interview him. With this latest death, the team decides to organize a covert stakeout of the area where a memorial has been setup for the victims, to see if they can get any clues from the public, or possibly spot their unsub. Reid and Tara are sitting in a car nearby, covertly snapping photos of people attending the event, while JJ holds a press conference to share their information about the case with the public.

Wesley’s boyfriend tells Rossi and Stephen about their date being cut short last night so Wesley could comfort Bill. He then tells them about Mark and Bill, and the issues related to their relationship. Rossi asks Garcia to look up info on Bill, and just as they thought, he matches the general look of all the victims. This also allows them to learn about Mark, and they plan to head out to Mark’s place to talk to him.

So how did Mark wind up at this point in his life? Well, it’s revealed that his own parents had split up when he was a child, and he struggled to deal with the divorce. Also, his dad worked in a butcher shop, and brought him there when he was a young child. So that explains his fascination with dismemberment. His dad was also a drinker, and basically abandoned his son after the divorce was final, thus explaining the intense issues with rejection.

Mark and Bill take a trip to the memorial site so Bill can pay his respects, and Mark continues to try and make a pitch for them to stay together. Despite their night together, Bill’s still unsure. He needs Mark to truly prove that he’s changed. Later, after they return home, they talk a little more about the issues in their relationship. Bill lays out his reasons for why he wants to leave – he doesn’t like the way Mark needs to know where he is all the time, he doesn’t like the lack of trust Mark shows in him, he doesn’t feel like he has much space to breathe and do his own thing. Basically, Mark’s coming off like a pretty controlling husband, and Bill’s tired of it all. Mark keeps trying to insist he’ll change and improve, but frankly, his entire speech sounds like the typical speech all abusive and controlling people make to their significant others, and luckily, Bill isn’t giving in so easily to his assurances that he’s a changed man.

Mark then accidentally lets slip that he saw Bill and Wesley at the bar recently, which angers Bill. He’s even more horrified to realize that Mark’s been responsible for all the recent murders, and has been using them as a means to control Bill further and keep him at his side at all times. Before he can even try and notify the police, Mark attacks him, and proceeds to start binding him so he can’t escape. Luckily, before Bill can become victim number five, the team arrives at their house and manages to get Mark to surrender. Mark tells Bill that because they’re still married, Bill can’t say a word to the police about what he’s done.

He’s wrong, though. Reid tells Bill that marital privilege only applies to words spoken between spouses. Bill may not be able to tell the police about what Mark did to others, but he can spill the beans about everything Mark did to him, and that should be enough to help see to it Mark goes to jail for a good, long while. Bill’s very relieved at this news, but he can’t let go of his guilt over everything with Mark, feeling like he should’ve paid closer attention to the signs. Reid immediately tries to reassure Bill, however, letting him know that nobody blames him for wanting to trust his husband and think the best of him. Nobody wants to believe the worst of somebody they love, and none of what happened is Bill’s fault. This seems to placate Bill a little bit, and hopefully it’s advice he’ll take with him going forward.

“Do we ever really know anyone?”

Afterward, Reid and Emily talk a bit about the case, and Reid muses on the question quoted above. On the surface, this sounds like the typical post-case analysis the team likes to often indulge in, but considering Reid’s shady and sneaky behavior in “Surface Tension”, hearing him ask that particular question seems to be some rather ominous-sounding foreshadowing in regards to what’s yet to come in regards to his personal issues.

This case reminded me a lot of season seven’s “Closing Time”, with a dash of similarity to season eight’s “Broken” mixed in (only in the sense that some of the victims were gay. Mark didn’t have the kind of self-loathing the unsub in that episode had, and didn’t come off anywhere near as sympathetic as that unsub did). The only differences were the fact that the unsub in “Closing Time” was straight and divorced, and the unsub here was gay and separated. Otherwise, it was pretty much the same storyline. Mind, many of the cases and unsubs the team encounters will share similarities of some sort, and sometimes it’s better to have a typical unsub than attempt to create some bizarre, out there case (such as the one in the previous episode), but still, it all did feel pretty much like your basic run-of-the-mill predictable case in the end. The show’s main focus right now seems to be ratcheting up everything related to Reid and his mom before all hell breaks loose with that storyline.

That’s not to say the case wasn’t completely uninteresting, though. I did like Bill, and felt for him with his struggle to break free of Mark. And I also like how this show writes and treats same-sex relationships, be they good or bad ones, the same way they write and treat good and bad heterosexual relationships. Mark was also appropriately creepy, and I thought the episode did a good job of showing how easy it is for people to be manipulated and abused in relationships, and reminding the audience of the signs to watch out for. Reid’s attempt to reassure Bill and tell him none of what happened was his fault was an important message, too. So often we hear people ask why the person doesn’t just walk away from a bad relationship, and Reid and Bill’s discussion nicely demonstrated why that tends to be easier said than done.

His discussion with Bill was also good in the sense that it was a comforting reminder of the old Reid we all know, which was sorely needed after the weirdness that was his behavior last episode. Same with his sweet interaction with the little girl. The unsettling promo for the next episode only further makes me want to hold on to these moments of Reid being his gentle, innocent self, because it may well be a while before we see that side of him again.

On that note, just how are Reid and his mom currently faring, anyway? Thankfully, they seem significantly more subdued than the chaos that was their interaction in “Surface Tension”, but even then, we still get clues throughout the episode that all is not completely settled and calm.

Meanwhile, back at Quantico:

Reid comes in late for this week’s case briefing, explaining his lateness with “traffic”. Anyone buying that excuse? No? Okay. Moving on. Before boarding the jet, Emily checks in with him and asks how things are going with his mom, and he tells her that the caretaker from last episode, Miss Campbell, has settled in and he’s impressed with her work thus far. He also tells her he and his mom are. adjusting to the new setup.

Emily tries to insist he take more time off work to help fully sort out these changes, but he goes into a “Reid speech” about how he’s managing to balance both his job and everything with his mom. The look on Emily’s face during this speech is pretty much mine – Reid is the worst liar in the world, and it’s so abundantly clear that he doesn’t have things anywhere near as together as he’s claiming. But since he does manage to work the case just fine, it’s hard for Emily to really argue with him any further.

“When you’re gone, she’s suffering.”

Reid does, however, take a moment during the case to call Miss Campbell and ask how things are going at home. She informs him that the medicine has allowed Diana to get some much needed rest, but she also says that when she’s up and about, her illness becomes much more apparent. Miss Campbell brings up the suggestion of putting Diana in a facility again, making it sadly clear to Reid that his absence is adding to his mom’s struggles. Reid is dismayed at this news, and tells her he’ll talk with her about this further after the case ends.

At the end of the episode, Emily tries talking to Reid once more about his issues of late. She calls him out on his insistence that he’s got everything under control, and he finally breaks down and admits that this plan of his to keep Diana with him isn’t working as well as he thought it would. He tells Emily that he’s going to fly to Houston to talk to the doctors at the facility about bringing his mom back there, and Emily seems a little reassured by that news. She ends their conversation by telling Reid that she’s proud of him for all he’s doing for his mom, and for being brave enough to ask for help, and just like with the foreshadowing with the whole “Do we ever really know each other?” conversation, her words of comfort to Reid leave the episode on an uncertain note.

Knowing what we know about where Reid will find himself in the next episode, I thought for sure this one would end on some sort of cliffhanger involving Reid being taken or waking up in prison or something. Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case, though it does leave me wondering now just how he’ll wind up in prison next episode. I can’t help but think that Reid was lying to Emily when he said he was going to fly to Houston, given some of the foreshadowing nature of his comments to her about truly knowing people and whatnot. My prediction is that his trip will be tied to his whole thing with smuggling that particular drug he tried to hide from his mom last episode, and that, combined with this supposed murder charge, will be how he’ll wind up getting thrown into jail.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that he really is going to Houston, only to wind up getting sidetracked or, more likely, kidnapped, either by Mr. Scratch or somebody else hoping to frame and punish him for a crime they committed. Whatever’s about to happen, I’m guessing it’s all tied to everything with Reid’s secretive behavior of late and the drug issues in relation to his mom. Time will tell just how right my guesses will turn out to be.

In the meantime, however, I did like the moments between Emily and Reid this episode, where she got to show a little deeper concern for him. Emily may be the unit chief now, but we’ve also seen how close of friends she and Reid have become over the years, so it’ll be interesting to see just how much this entire situation with Reid will test her on both a professional and personal level in regards to her relationship with him.

I also liked their interactions this episode because if anyone can get Reid to open up, even if only a little, it’s Emily. It was a relief to hear him admit that he didn’t have everything under control with his mom, heartbreaking though the admission was, and hopefully his talk with Emily helped make him start to rethink some of the questionable actions he’d been taking recently. If he really was going to Houston, that’d be a sign she actually got through to him. Of course, that would make what’s coming for him all the more tragic, if he’s getting thrown in jail just when he was starting to work on fixing the problems he’d been creating up to now.

I also liked the mention of Miss Campbell this episode, and knowing she’s still around helping Reid and his mom. I’m hoping this won’t be the last we’ll hear about her, especially since Reid’s going to be rather, um, occupied for the foreseeable future. It would be comforting to know that Miss Campbell’s still around to tend to Diana so she’s not sitting there all alone in Reid’s apartment while all this other craziness is going on.

On a non-serious note, we get a nice, albeit very brief, moment of bonding between Stephen and Luke over jazz music early on in the episode. Luke’s knowledge of it mainly comes from its connections to artists like Prince, but still, it’s a cool bridge between genres. And it was nice to see the two newest team members having a moment together. I imagine there’s a lot they talk about in regards to their newbie statuses.

And so we wrap up the last episode of relative calm before the massive storm that will be “Spencer”. I’m not even remotely prepared for what’s yet to come, but as always, I look forward to discussing it all as it unfolds with you guys.

What did you think of this episode? Did the case keep you interested? Do you think Reid’s really heading to Houston? What do you think he’s going to decide to do in regards to his mom? And what are your predictions/hopes/fears for what’s coming in “Spencer”? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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