Criminal Minds - Collision Course - Review: “Control”

So I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still not over the craziness that was the “Spencer” episode a couple weeks back. It was dramatic and shocking, and gave us a few surprising answers to questions that had been building throughout the season. It also forced us to see Reid in a situation that it’s safe to say we never expected to see him in.

Thing is, though, that episode was just the beginning. Sure, we all knew going in that “Spencer” promised to be intense and worrying, but honestly? I think this week’s episode, as well as the ones yet to come, will be even more nerve-wracking, for the simple fact that, despite knowing Reid’s expected to be in jail for the next few episodes, we still have no definitive answers as to just where this storyline at large will go. Nor can we really predict just where Reid, and the team, will find themselves the closer we get to the end of the season.

This episode was a perfect example of the concerns that both the team and us fans had to deal with, as Reid found himself faced with the possibility of very lengthy prison sentences, as well as a damning piece of news that threw quite the nasty wrench into his chances at freedom. The team, meanwhile, had to come to terms with the possibility of losing their friend and teammate for a potentially very long time, and were left to their own devices in terms of figuring out a game plan going forward. And us viewers were left still adjusting to seeing Reid in prison, and wondering just how this hearing would play out.

It wasn’t all despair and fear, though. “Spencer” gave us some wonderful glimpses of the team’s ability to rally around and support each other through a difficult time, and this episode was in many ways a lovely continuation of that close bond. We saw a much more vulnerable side of Emily this week, sympathized with the team’s struggle to accept Reid’s current situation, and shared in their emotional reactions to the results of his hearing. We also met a new woman who could potentially prove very helpful to Reid and the team going forward, and saw Reid rising to the challenges before him as he prepared to defend his innocence.

And since serial killers don’t have time to sit around and wait for Reid’s trial to end before resuming their crime sprees, we also got our usual case of the week as well, complete with a little extra help from Garcia. I think the writers were well aware that our main focus would be on everything with Reid this episode, however, as the case, while one of the creepier and more interesting ones in recent months, still felt like an afterthought in some ways. Even so, it was still nice to have something to try and balance out the Reid storyline, and it was a good distraction at times from the tension leading up to his trial.

So let’s dive in and discuss the events of “Collision Course”, and sift through the many questions it raised.

The Case:

Our first indication that the case won’t be taking center stage this week comes with the fact that we don’t even get an opening “introduce viewers briefly to the first victim of the episode before something terrible happens to them” scene prior to Garcia’s usual briefing. Instead, we jump right to the briefing itself. What makes this case even more unusual is that it didn’t come to the BAU through their usual channels; rather, it was passed on to them by the National Transportation Safety Board.

And why are they contacting the BAU? Because they’ve recently gotten footage of two people being run down in the street at various times by two cars in the previous week, and on the same road, no less. Garcia shows the team the footage in question, and it’s hard not to flinch at seeing these poor people being hit head on. The cars don’t even swerve, either, which is suspicious, as that would be most people’s natural reaction upon seeing a person ahead of them in the road.

The good news is that the first driver and pedestrian (Tim and Jan, respectively), survived their dangerous encounter. The bad news is that the pedestrian in the second accident wasn’t as lucky. His name was Todd, and he was hit by a woman named Marta. She survived, he did not. Since there’s a death from these recent accidents, and given the strange and similar nature of the accidents themselves, the NTSB felt the BAU could be of some help to see what’s going on here.

And there definitely looks to be something odd going on. Despite the fact the drivers didn’t swerve to avoid the pedestrians, there’s no indication of error or malicious intent on the driver’s part, nor are there any weather issues that would’ve explained the accidents. So what other possible explanation could there be for these accidents? That’s when the team hits upon a rather disturbing theory. Since the cars are newer models, and since many newer cars have technological devices in them, it’s possible this could be some sort of hacking crime at work. The team decides to bring Garcia along to help explore that avenue, given her tech skills, and since Emily is busy with “Reid duty”, as Rossi puts it, Rossi is the de facto unit chief for the rest of the team this episode. Further proof this is not going to be your typical case.

On the jet, after Garcia critiques the style of the plane’s interior and Emily checks in with the others with an update on how Reid’s doing, the team continues poring over the case file. There’s two drivers and two pedestrians involved in these accidents thus far. So that begs the question: who’s the unsub’s main target? Or are they trying to take both the drivers and the pedestrians down? There’s no connection between the drivers and pedestrians at all, no similarity in the victimology.

The team also notices that the drivers had the same type of car, which implies the unsub has a type vehicle-wise. And if the unsub is controlling these accidents, they’ve got to be watching them happen from somewhere, so they’ve got voyeuristic tendencies of some kind. Luckily, the most recent survivor, Marta, has agreed to do an interview about what she experienced, so hopefully that’ll give the team some better answers.

“You did not cause that accident. You did nothing wrong.”

Tara is the one assigned to the interview, and it’s clear right from the get-go that this poor driver is horribly shaken up by what happened. She feels incredibly guilty about causing Todd’s death, and it’s obvious this was not an evil, intentional act on her part at all. Tara tries to keep her calm and focused, and walks her through a cognitive interview. According to Marta, she left work like normal, and her car was in its usual spot. Once inside her car, she turned on the radio to listen to the news, and insisted nothing seemed odd or out of place.

At first, anyway. Marta halts at this point, freaked out at the prospect of recalling these painful memories, but Tara helps get her back on track and continue her story. She then describes how, as she got closer to home, the radio started acting all wonky. The stations seemed to be turning of their own accord (eek), and the radio eventually turned itself to station 98.2, and stayed on that station. No matter what Marta did to try and change stations, she couldn’t get it to go back to the one she’d been listening to. Freaky, huh?

Things got even creepier when Marta’s windshield wipers and windows started moving on their own! She tried to pull over so she could investigate just what the hell was going on, but her car wouldn’t even manage to let her do that. Instead, it sped up, ran a stop sign, and turned left, again, all of its own accord. The poor woman was utterly powerless to stop this car that had seemingly suddenly developed a mind of its own. That is frightening. If I were her, I’d be fearing I’d stepped into a Stephen King novel and brought a haunted car by mistake.

It’s at this point Marta claims she saw Todd in the middle of the road, and despite her attempts to warn him to get out of the way, her car hit him, and the ensuing nasty sound of car and body colliding has, understandably, traumatized her deeply. Tara continues to do her best to reassure and comfort her, and it looks like the team’s hacker theory officially has merit.

Meanwhile, JJ, Luke, and Garcia go to the scene of both accidents. It’s a popular crosswalk, so plenty of opportunity for victims. But where is their unsub hiding out to watch? That’s when Garcia makes note of a traffic camera nearby. They’re everywhere, and it’s easy to hack them. Voila. They have their answer.

At this point, we see another man driving home, and he starts experiencing a lot of the same issues Marta mentioned earlier. Except instead of his radio acting up, it’s his iPad that he’s got plugged in. This time, we also see glimpses of a shadowy man that is so clearly the unsub sitting in a room somewhere, and he’s hard at work with his hacking skills, watching the poor man struggle to drive. Unlike the woman from earlier, this guy’s car starts to actually swerve on the road, but like her, he too screams for people to get out of the way. The radio station in his car turns to, you guessed it, station 98.2...and shortly after that, he hits a woman square on.

The team investigates this latest crime scene, and takes note of a few other differences from the previous cases. The street the hacking occurred on has changed, as has the make of the car. There’s no traffic cameras on this street, either, which means the unsub’s found another means with which to observe his crimes. While exploring the car itself to try and figure out how the unsub might’ve hacked it, Rossi and JJ (whom Rossi refers to as Jennifer, for some reason) notice a dashboard camera. So there’s that mystery solved.

There was also a witness to this crime, unlike the other accidents, and the team’s starting to think the pedestrians are the main targets, and that the first accidents were simple practice runs to help him hone his hacking skills and learn how to target the people he really wanted to go after. They also think that the unsub spent time observing workplace parking lots, so that he could figure out who’s got a newer car that he can hack into. In short, this unsub’s got WAY too much time on their hands.

The team soon learn that this latest driver’s name was Mark, and the latest victim’s name is Meredith. Mark survived, Meredith did not, and she was about as low-risk a victim as they come, and single. Despite the fact that the pedestrians appear to be the main targets, though, there’s no immediate connection between them. And the drivers are clearly victims, too. So this is a very puzzling case indeed. Since most of the pedestrians hit thus far have been women, however, and since pedestrians seem to be the unsub’s main focus, that seems to indicate a possible motive for this unsub’s rage.

Shortly afterward, we see yet another car being made to move on its own, and this time it’s driving wildly through a neighborhood. This accident is the most graphic one yet, too, as a woman who’s standing by her car winds up getting pinned between her car and that of the person who hit her. OW. So much ow. This is the fourth time I’ve watched someone get hit by a car this episode, and I’m still flinching every single time. The woman who’s struck by the car, Veronica, is obviously killed right away, but the driver, Tim, winds up dying later from his injuries as well, unfortunately. Veronica happens to look rather similar to the other women who were killed. So the unsub clearly has a type, and these women are a surrogate for a woman who’s upset him somehow. I tell you, somebody really needs to introduce these sorts of unsubs to the concept of, “she’s just not that into you”.

Garcia comes upon a dating website Veronica's friends had put her on, called Amorous Intrigue, and further digging has her zeroing in on a man named Jonathon Rhodes. He had a profile on that site, and tried to catch the attention of women like Veronica and Alyssa, but they didn’t respond to his romantic advances. Jonathon’s profile on that site also happens to list his hobbies and interests. He likes driving games (hmm), he’s super tech savvy (aha)...and he worked at a radio station. Gee. I wonder which radio station that could be? Ladies and gentlemen, we have our unsub.

At this point, we finally get our first proper glimpse of Jonathon as he corners a woman named Alyssa who’s getting into her car. She shoots down his attempts to ask her out, and he gets all Fatal Attraction on her in response to her rejection, saying he “will not be ignored”. That’s when he shoves her back into her car and forces her to start driving. Oh, boy. Luke and Garcia come upon the scene a short time later, hoping to interview Alyssa about Jonathon, only to find her purse abandoned on the ground.

After finding out they’re in Alyssa’s car, Luke and Garcia immediately give chase, with Garcia working furiously to do her own hacking to help keep tabs on Jonathon’s whereabouts. This leads to a pretty hilarious back and forth between these two, with Garcia being the worst backseat driver ever and Luke trying to reassure her that he has no plans for her to die in their car (well, that’s comforting, thanks!). Luke’s also busy trying to figure out what Jonathon’s endgame is, believing he wants to experience the impact he’s forcing his victims to experience. Lovely.

In the other car, Alyssa is trying to plead for mercy, but Jonathon just orders her to keep her eyes on the road. He then proceeds to start in with his hacking, leading Alyssa to start panicking. The next thing we see, they’re heading straight towards a loading dock. Luckily, Garcia’s hacking manages to override Jonathon’s, and while Alyssa’s car does go through a barricade, Garcia manages to get it to stop short of crashing into a nearby building. Shortly afterward, Jonathon is taken into custody, Alyssa is rescued, and that’s how the case ends.

No, seriously, that’s really it. We don’t get any attempts at understanding Jonathon’s true motives beyond a basic “he was angry at women who rejected him” explanation, there’s no extensive “troubled backstory” about some mother or wife who abandoned him, we don’t even know why the heck the radio station he worked at was so instrumental here outside of being a clue as to where he worked, showing off his hacking skills, and creeping people out. Did a co-worker from that station dump him or reject his advances, thus making him bitter towards any women from the dating website that rejected him? Did he have to sit and listen to people call in requests for loved ones at that station, adding to and triggering his bitterness and jealousy? We honestly don’t get any concrete answers.

There’s also the fact that, judging from what I’ve read from tech expert sorts in other comment sections out there related to this episode, this sort of hacking is, thankfully, not something that can be done. Good news for the real word (though I can’t help but feeling there should be a “…yet” qualifier to that statement, given the way technology is nowadays), but obviously, it does add a rather unrealistic aspect to the case.

Even with that, though, it was still one of the creepier cases thus far this season. The very idea of somebody doing that, regardless of how realistic it is, is unsettling, and the crashes themselves became more and more horrifying to watch as the episode went on. And despite my questions about the specificity of Jonathon’s motives, at the same time, I do like that they kept things relatively simple and uncomplicated with him this time. We’ve had plenty of bizarre motivations and convoluted backstories for unsubs lately, so the simplicity is a good change of pace. It makes the crimes that much creepier, too. This guy’s cruel just because...he wants to be cruel. That’s more than enough to keep a person up at night.

In terms of non-unsub related topics, I like that Garcia got to join the team on this case. It’s always fun when she gets to leave her office and be out in the field, and it was a fun way to watch her and Luke work together as well. I do kinda wish we’d gotten a sweet moment between them after the unsub was apprehended – they may be getting along better, but it’d still be nice to see them have a good heart-to-heart talk. Maybe they could’ve praised each other’s skills, or Garcia could’ve opened up to Luke about her worries regarding everything with Reid, allowing him a chance to try and reassure her. Just something to help further show there is a closeness developing between them.

As noted, though, the writers seemed pretty well aware where our main focus would be this week, so the abrupt end to the case makes sense in that context. And honestly, they’d be right with their assumption that everything with Reid would be our main concern.

Of course, this now begs the obvious question: just how did Reid fare this week?

Meanwhile, back at Quantico:

Well, it takes a bit before we get the answer to that, as our first glimpse is not of Reid himself, but rather, his desk. It’s still got open books and papers scattered about, as though Reid had merely just stepped out for a moment, intending to return, and the image drives home how unreal this whole thing is. Judging from the forlorn look on JJ’s face, she’s still taking everything with Reid incredibly hard, to the point where she’s flashing back to the poignant memory of seeing him shackled, and the hug she’d given him before he’d been escorted away.

She’s snapped out of that flashback quickly, though, as Garcia joins her to share in the sadness. JJ then tells Garcia that she left a change of clothes for Reid at the prison, but he was sleeping, so she didn’t get a chance to actually see him, which, she figures, is probably for the best right now. She also mentions that she’s been visiting Reid’s mom every single day, and reveals that Diana knows what’s going on with her son. And she’s not taking the news well, either – according to JJ, Diana’s been crying at the thought of Reid being stuck in jail, and is feeling incredibly guilty about the whole thing, which, way to give us a heartbreaking image there, show. Unfortunately, those moments are also interspersed with moments where Diana goes into her usual forgetful state, and she asks when Reid will be home. So yeah. Let’s just dig that knife in further, shall we?

Rossi joins in the conversation, then, informing the two women that prison officials took another swab from Reid for testing, and that, unfortunately, the comprehensive toxicology report Emily had ordered last episode is still working its way through the channels. The three of them then discuss Reid’s chances of getting out on bail. Rossi states that he’ll pay the bail regardless of how high it is, and I think it’s safe to say Garcia speaks for all of us with the big hug she gives him in response to that. Fist bumps for you, Rossi. You are awesome.

“My battle, my choice. Please let me help you.”

Finally, we get our first glimpse of Reid in prison, as he wakes to find Emily standing outside his cell. She brings good news, too: she’s found a lawyer to represent him, a woman by the name of Fiona Duncan. Emily’s known Fiona.for a long time, apparently – they met in Italy years ago, so she can vouch for her abilities, and she makes a point of telling Reid that Fiona’s a Rhodes scholar, and lists off all her impressive credentials.

Problem is, Reid’s initially hesitant to accept this offer, though. Not because he doesn’t appreciate the help, but because he feels incredibly frustrated at the FBI’s refusal to help him, and feels guilty about putting his friends in this situation at all. He’s fretting over the thought of Emily doing anything that could hurt her reputation in the Bureau, which, hi, Reid, have you met Emily Prentiss? The woman refused to play mole for Strauss, remember?

Emily’s not backing down, though. She assures Reid she will do whatever she can to help him out, and she will take whatever risks she wants to take on his behalf. Reid is touched by her words and her determination to help him, and luckily, he ultimately agrees to let Emily bring Fiona on board. Hooray!

Emily and Fiona meet up soon afterward, and Fiona expresses her honest concerns about the case. In her defense, judging from what all’s in the file, it’s easy to see where she feels it’ll be an uphill battle to prove Reid’s innocence. Emily goes to bat for Reid at that point, talking up all that’s great about him, and going on about how much she trusts him and believes in his innocence. Thankfully, her speech wins Fiona over. She likes Emily’s faith in Reid, and agrees to meet with him and talk things out.

Later, Emily introduces Fiona and Reid, and leaves them to their chat. Fiona starts their interview by acknowledging the attorney-client privilege, and then she asks Reid to tell her everything that happened to him in Mexico. Unfortunately, Reid’s memory is still hazy about a lot of things, and he tells her he can’t remember specifics. Fiona makes a point of telling Reid that she’s not there to judge any of what he did; rather, she’s just here to help keep him out of jail. And she will not accept any lies. Her message is clear: she is not here to mess around.

The interview turns rather tense after that for a time, with Fiona implying that there were things Reid was keeping secret from Emily, that there’s more to the story than he’s admitting. Reid immediately protests this assumption, but Fiona presses on with her questions. She asks about the cut on his hand, and how he got it, and what he remembers from the day Nadie was murdered. Reid is very vocal in his response, vehemently insisting he didn’t kill Nadie, and that he’s trying his hardest to remember who did kill her. Fortunately, Fiona believes his protest of innocence, which Is good, because, as Fiona will surely learn soon enough, Reid’s just not that great a liar.

As intense as the interrogation was, it was also a good way for Fiona to demonstrate her tough style as a means of showing just how hard she’ll fight on Reid’s behalf, as well as let Reid get an idea of the sorts of questions he might face from the prosecutor in the courtroom. Fiona then hands Reid her card, and informs him of their plans going forward. She’s going to see to it he gets out on bail, and Reid will plead not guilty, because, a) it’s the truth, and b) they haven’t found the murder weapon, and no murder weapon equals a tougher case to prove.

She also talks to Reid and Emily about the deal that the prosecutor has offered, just in case he wants to look at any other possible options.. According to the offer, Reid could plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and get two to five years in prison. It’s not an ideal offer by any stretch, of course, as it means Reid would spend time in jail, but it’d be significantly less prison time than the twenty-five to life sentence Reid could be facing if they go ahead with a proper trial and he’s found guilty (and now I’m sitting here trying to wrap my mind around the horrifying thought of Reid being in jail for the rest of his life, and...yikes).

Taking this deal also means Reid won’t be staring down the most severe of murder charges, which is another plus. Emily’s a little concerned about the fact that the prosecutor’s offering such a low deal, but she tells Reid she’ll be supportive of whatever choice he decides to make. And I’m not even remotely surprised when Reid refuses the deal, saying he prefers to fight, and goes with a “not guilty” plea.

Funny thing about that whole “no murder weapon” business, though. Halfway through the episode, Reid, Fiona, and the rest of the team all get the very, very, VERY bad news that the Mexican police have found the knife that killed Nadie in the desert. And Reid’s prints, as well as his blood, are on said knife, and the style of the blade matches the blade that cut his hand. So let’s just add that to the increasing list of “Oh, s...” moments here, shall we? Thanks to that devastating news, the prosecutors are now looking at five to ten years for Reid, and what’s worse, he has until his arraignment to take that deal. If he refuses, there are no more offers on the table, and he is officially looking at twenty-five to life, and only that, if he’s found guilty at trial. Eep.

Again, though, to nobody’s surprise, Reid refuses to take this latest deal. He’s still determined to go with a “not guilty” verdict. He doesn’t want to leave the FBI, it’s his home, and he sure as hell doesn’t want to go through life being marked as a convicted felon for something he didn’t do. All perfectly reasonable explanations for Reid to take such a risk.

“We will exonerate you. But what if we can’t do that this week, or this year, or this….decade?”

Emily, however, is less sure of Reid’s decision. She tries to plead with him to consider taking this latest deal, to the point where she actually finds herself on the verge of tears. She’s visibly scared about the idea of Reid going away to jail for a really, really long time, and she can’t bear the thought of losing him. Reid gets caught up in the emotion of the moment as well, showing his own fear over his bleak prospects, and he starts crying as well, and these two really need to stop crying already because they’re making me cry! Despite her fears, however, Emily assures Reid once again that she will support him in whatever decision he makes, and the two share a very bittersweet hug.

After the case wraps up, the rest of the team comes to Reid’s arraignment, ready to stand by his side. They’re all visibly nervous, as am I (this episode reminded me why I absolutely hate commercial breaks, let’s just put it that way), but solidarity in numbers, and all that, and Emily tries to reassure them and helps prepare them for the hearing.

While that’s going on, Reid’s on the phone, talking to his mom. He’s apologizing to her for putting her through this whole mess recently, telling her not to blame herself, and assures her he’s okay. He then tells her he loves her, and makes a point of saying goodbye to her, and it all sounds so final and has me terrified that he’s changed his mind about his plea, and he’s all emotional and tearful yet again when talking to her and for cripes’ sake, “Criminal Minds”, have you not made me cry enough already these past few weeks? Sheesh.

Anyway, after that heartwrenching conversation, the hearing begins, and much to my relief, Reid sticks with his “not guilty” plea. Fiona presents her case for letting Reid free on bail, and the prosecutor presents his case for keeping Reid in jail. I understand this prosecutor has to do his job, just as Fiona’s gotta do hers, but the way he’s talking about Reid, calling him a flight risk and describing him as some sort of scheming criminal mastermind, is ticking me off something fierce. He also says at one point that as an FBI agent, Reid has contacts all over the world, which had me sitting here thinking, “...he does?”

Unfortunately, the judge doesn’t seem very sympathetic to Fiona’s arguments. She refuses to let the team be character witnesses for Reid, she seems pretty eager to get out of there (”It’s almost six o’clock”, she informs Fiona, because yeah, sure, let’s all just go home. Who cares about the fact that an innocent man’s life is on the line here, right?), and she feels there’s just not enough reason to risk letting Reid go. She’s got a “tough crap” attitude about the whole thing, and she’s irritating me about as much as the prosecutor is, if not more so.

As a result, to the shock of Reid and his friends, Reid’s bail is denied! For the second time in the span of a week, we see Reid put in handcuffs, and he’s led out of the courtroom, off to continue his stay in prison, as the team looks on with a mix of despair and anger. Luke’s even got his arms around Garcia, trying to comfort her! And judging from the promo for the next episode, as well as the synopses coming up, it looks like Reid’s going to be there for a while, and worse yet, he may find himself in danger in prison as well. Wonderful. Fiona makes it clear she’s not done fighting, but at this moment, it’s hard not to feel utterly defeated.

So yeah. Things are getting increasingly scary for Reid, to say the very least. I wouldn’t have blamed him one bit for taking the two to five year deal – if my regular viewing of true crime shows has taught me anything, there are many people who get that kind of prison sentence who get out well before the two years is even up, let alone any other time beyond that. Reid would’ve had as much of a chance as anyone else with that kind of a sentence.

At the same time, however, as risky as his choice is, as noted, I’m glad Reid is willing to stick it out and fight to prove his innocence once and for all. That’s the Reid we all know, after all. And the fact is that he is innocent. Why should he plead guilty to something he didn’t do? I especially loved his statement about how the FBI is his home, and how he wasn’t willing to give that up. Considering it was just a few short years ago that Reid was struggling to figure out why he was even in the FBI, and what his purpose was here, hearing him make clear that the FBI is where he belongs spoke volumes about how much this job, and his teammates, mean to him. As upsetting as it was to watch him being led away in cuffs again, as much as it sucks that he didn’t get out on bail, I do love seeing his “I will not give up” attitude coming out in full force. I trust it’ll serve him well during his upcoming stint in prison, and hopefully the risks he’s taking here will pay off when the trial finally rolls around.

And speaking of seeing how much people mean to each other, as always, I’m continuing to love the way the team’s got Reid’s back throughout this whole ordeal. Rossi acting all fatherly towards Reid is just such a lovely thing to see – remember when he first joined the team, and wasn’t quite sure what to make of Reid, and wasn’t fully on board with this whole “the team is a family” sort of deal? My, how times have changed.

JJ’s support continues to interest me as well, with how particularly affected she is by this whole situation. Like with the last episode, I love that she’s keeping watch over Reid’s mom and helping her learn to deal with all of this. Since we know Diana’s expected to show up again in a couple more episodes down the line, it’d be really nice if we got to actually see a scene with JJ and Diana bonding and talking about everything going on with Reid. I just keep wondering what all they talk about in regards to him, as well as what they discuss in regards to themselves. It’d be a fascinating insight of sorts.

The way Emily is stepping up to help Reid, though. That warms my heart so, so much. She and Reid have forged a close friendship over the years, and they’ve been through so much together. Her emotion at the mere thought of losing her best friend for years, possibly the rest of her life, spoke volumes about just how deeply she’s come to care about him, and their conversation and hug in this episode was one of the most touching moments of their entire history together.

I also like that she expressed some realistic concerns about Reid’s choices – it’s a good example of her professional side coming out, reminding her that she’s got to think like a unit chief and focus on the practical side of things. And it’s also a good reminder that while there’s no doubt she’ll stand by Reid, she’s also not afraid to be honest with him, and not sugarcoat things for his benefit. Reid’s going to need a lot of that going forward, and I’m glad he’s at least willing to hear her out with her concerns, even if he’s already decided on what to do next.

And I like Fiona herself. Her determination to help Reid made it much easier to feel for her when her attempts to get him out on bail failed, and I like that she shares the same level of determination as Reid. Their shared fighting spirit, combined with Emily’s “I will do everything in my power to help you” attitude, and the team’s support, are the main things that give me hope this situation will end on a happy note. And like Emily, Fiona’s got a realistic, “no BS” attitude that I think will serve her and Reid well in terms of getting the truth of what really happened down in Mexico.

Of course, there’s still a few concerns to mull over going forward. All of Reid’s continued insistence of his innocence has me wondering and worrying if that means we’re in for a horrible twist down the line on that front. What if Reid’s memory of what happened with Nadie turns out to be wrong? What if we learn down the line that he is indeed the one who actually killed Rosa? Sure, he would’ve been doing so under duress, since he’d have been drugged by whomever’s involved in this evil plot, but still, the fact remains that he could’ve actually committed a murder all the same.

And if that winds up being the case, how would a jury react to that? How would Reid, and his mom, deal with that realization? How would his teammates handle that news? Obviously I hope that Reid isn’t the one who killed Nadie, I hope that it’s all the work of somebody trying to frame him, but still, it’s a possible scenario we may have to prepare ourselves for, and one that would no doubt change things pretty dramatically for the team.

There’s also the fact that Fiona, at one point in this episode, mentioned that Reid’s trial would be a few months away. Does this mean Reid will be stuck in jail for much of the remainder of the season, or will his trial come more quickly than that? Will Fiona manage to find a way to get him out on bail before then? And if she is able to do that, does that mean potentially good news for Reid’s chances of going free at the trial itself? And what else will Emily and the rest of the team do in order to try and help Reid?

All these questions are enough to make one’s head spin, aren’t they? Right now, however, the main focus will be on seeing how Reid fares in prison. Judging from the promo for the next episode, there’s a chance he might find an ally, but for the most part, this looks like yet another opportunity where Reid will have to use his own strength and courage to survive. Luckily, whomever drugged and framed him clearly hasn’t managed to destroy those aspects of Reid thus far, so as scary as this stint in prison will no doubt be, it’ll also be a great opportunity to see how he continues to fight back.

In the meantime, let’s all keep our fingers crossed for any more potential good news.

What did you think of the episode? Did the outcome of Reid’s hearing add to your worries about his future, or did it feel like a natural speed bump? Do you think Fiona will prove to be helpful to Reid’s case? Do you think there’s a possibility Reid could be wrong about his own innocence? What other sorts of dramatic lengths do you think this team will go to in order to help him? Did the case leave you scared to cross the street or drive ever again? Did you enjoy Luke and Garcia working together throughout? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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