Criminal Minds - Green Light - Review: “Puzzle Pieces”

Season twelve of “Criminal Minds” continues to rapidly come to a close, and luckily, the show’s ending on quite a strong note. The penultimate episode was easily one of the strongest episodes of the entire season – it started answering a whole lot of the questions related to Reid’s time in prison, it gave us a notable twist in the form of yet another surprise guest, and best of all, Reid’s long nightmarish stint in jail FINALLY came to an end.

This being “Criminal Minds”, however, the episode wasn’t all good news. Reid may be free from prison, but he’s certainly not out of danger. Neither are his friends and family. Emily, meanwhile, was put through the wringer as unit chief once again, and the stress of everything with Reid and Scratch is clearly getting to the team as a whole. That’s not good, considering everything that happens in this episode is building up to what looks to be a pretty intense finale,

But before we start speculating about what the finale will bring, obviously we need to break down the events of this episode. I’m dividing it up into multiple sections, because, as has been the case with a few of the more notable episodes this season, there is a LOT to cover.

Building a Mystery:

Fortunately, it doesn’t take very long at all for the show to start giving us answers. When the episode begins, Emily is meeting with Rossi in her office in private to discuss this rather troubling turn of events. She explains how, after Lindsay left with Diana, Reid met with her and Fiona to alert them to his concerns that his mom is now in danger. His mind is racing as he tries to figure out how and why she’s involved.

Unfortunately, as Reid tries to push his theory, Emily seems unsure of whether or not to believe him. And while we viewers already know Reid’s telling the truth, in Emily’s defense, it’s easy to see why she’d be a bit skeptical. Reid’s babbling in a way that does make him sound rather...out there, and he’s bringing up the name of a woman the team hasn’t heard from since 2008. A woman who was but a mere teenager back then, and not even an unsub to boot! From what we know about her, she has virtually no logical reason to attack Reid and his mom.

Reid is visibly frustrated by Emily’s doubts, to the point where he actually starts pounding on the table in anger. This leads the guard to physically restrain him, and Emily is so startled by Reid’s intense reaction that she agrees to check out this theory, if only to calm him down. His reaction also has Emily even more worried about his mental state and ability to even make it to trial, a concern which she expresses to Rossi.

Thanks to her time spent checking in on Diana, JJ’s gotten to know Cassie as well, so she volunteers to try and see if she can get a hold of the woman. When that proves unsuccessful, she and Stephen head out to Reid’s apartment to further investigate. On the plus side, there’s no signs of a break-in or struggle, no blood, and nothing’s out of place or stolen. On the downside, there’s also no sign of Diana or Cassie anywhere. JJ decides to try recreating Diana’s typical routines alongside Walker, in the hopes that doing so might give them some clues.

Sadly, JJ’s efforts may wind up being all for naught, as the team soon gets concrete proof that Reid’s worst fears are true. Upon gathering in the conference room, Garcia shows them security footage of Lindsay making her way in and out of the prison. As a result, Emily brings Luke, Tara, and Stephen up to speed on the Lindsay Vaughn case from the episode “3rd Life”, along with an epilogue about what happened to Lindsay’s father Jack. Apparently, he remained in Witness Protection even after murdering the unsub who’d kidnapped his daughter, because he was “too important a witness” to be removed from the program. He was also a model prisoner, which further aided in keeping him safe. So that’s nice. The questions the team has to consider now are: a) is Jack involved in this situation in any way; and b) why on earth is Lindsay targeting Reid?

The team also makes note of the fact that Lindsay managed to carefully avoid most of the security cameras save for one. So she clearly studied the layout of the prison beforehand, which seems to indicate this is something she’s been planning for quite some time. As everybody immediately heads out to try and track her down, they each rattle off various groups or individuals they think could potentially prove helpful – Luke knows a marshal that can try and get through WitSec’s red tape, and Tara tries to get in touch with Homeland Security to see if they can do their part. I especially liked Rossi mentioning a poker buddy of his at the DOJ who owes him. Emily, meanwhile, decides to hold off on telling Reid what she knows thus far, so as not to freak him out further.

The team’s investigation hits a rather big snag fairly quickly, though, with Homeland Security and the DOJ refusing to lend a hand. Shortly after, they also learn about the recent mass poisoning of prisoners, and Reid’s ties to that whole mess, and the news gets even worse when Luke calls Garcia and informs her that he found Cassie’s car. It’s completely abandoned. Never a good sign.

If there’s any bright spot in this increasingly distressing series of events, the spot where Cassie’s car is found leads the team to a significant clue. Her car was parked at a high school, which seems a strange and random spot...until you remember that Lindsay’s father murdered the man who’d kidnapped her at a high school in “3rd Life”. It may be her way of taunting the team, sure, but it’s also further proof of her involvement. What’s more, there’s security cameras in the area near the school. Garcia immediately gets on investigating the footage, and her searching leads her down another very interesting, and disturbing, road. There’s no sign of Lindsay on the camera footage at the school, BUT Garcia’s digging into her past does reveal that a woman by the name of Jamie happened to rent an apartment in Reid’s building recently.

Why is this important? Because Jamie is yet another alias Lindsay created, just like Katie and Carol before. So basically, Lindsay had been living next door to Reid and his mom for months, keeping tabs on them the whole time and waiting for the right moment to strike. That news sent a legit shiver down my spine, not even gonna lie.

Upon learning this news, JJ and Stephen immediately head out to the apartment Lindsay rented…and that’s where they find Cassie. She’s dead, having been shot in the head, and with that, my fear for Diana’s safety skyrockets, as there’s no question now that she’s been kidnapped. There’s also a whole mess of photos of Reid scattered about on a nearby table, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I got some bad Replicator vibes from that particular discovery.

A Drastic Move:

“Promise me you will find my mom.”

Needless to say, Emily is dreading sharing all of this news with Reid. But she does so, apologizing profusely all the while for not believing him sooner in the process. Reid is understandably upset with her for not listening to him sooner, but he does accept her apology all the same. Which is good, because when we next check in on Reid, frankly, his behavior is so concerning that holding grudges is the least of his (and our) worries.

As the team learns about the mass poisoning of the prisoners, it’s also revealed that all the prisoners affected have since recovered. On the one hand, that’s good news, because the last thing Reid needs is more charges against him. On the other hand, it also means that if the other prisoners learn that he’s the one who poisoned them, he’s dead meat. So Reid’s trying to do his best to avoid them, but he’s not exactly doing a good job of hiding his guilt and fear.

Sitting alone at lunch doesn’t exactly help draw attention away form him, either. He does get a brief visit from a fellow inmate at one point, though – remember Malcolm? He joined Reid on laundry duty after Luis’ death, and was among the prisoners who’d fallen ill? Well, apparently he still sees Reid as a friend, and decides to join him for lunch and a pleasant chat.

That all changes rather quickly, however, with Shaw hovering nearby and getting another prisoner to inform Malcolm that Reid’s a federal agent. Malcolm’s expression immediately turns to one of disgust, and he leaves with these ominous parting words: “That’s gonna get you killed.” So basically, we’re just going to spend this entire episode worrying about the Reid family’s safety as a whole. Great.

Believe it or not, however, that’s not the scariest moment involving Reid in this episode. Later, while he’s in his cell, we see him grabbing bits of wood and paper from his bunk and getting all crafty. Soon, we see what he’s made...and it’s a shiv. Oh, dear. Is he going to cut himself? Is he going to attack somebody else? Is this a sign that he’s reached the end of his rope? There’s just no way this can end well, right?

“You’re gonna need to grow eyes in the back of your head, because you’ll never see it coming.”

When Reid next returns to the cafeteria, Shaw’s presence causes him to reflect once more on all the conversations they’ve had thus far. He’s snapped out of those thoughts when Shaw comes to see him, making a point of threatening him in the process.

Reid’s not fazed by Shaw’s taunts, however. He responds in an eerily calm voice that he has a better idea…

...and then all of a sudden, he comes at Shaw with the shiv he’d made earlier! He’s all wild-eyed and aggressive, and it’s kind of terrifying and exciting all at the same time. Shaw tries to wrestle the shiv away from Reid, but this is where he learns that it’s a bad idea to try and outsmart Reid. Because you see, this was all a ruse on Reid’s part. He was trying to purposefully injure himself while putting the blame on Shaw so that the warden would have to move him to solitary confinement for safety reasons. Lucky for Reid, the ruse works, even if it does mean he gets a nasty little cut on his arm in the process. Judging from the look on his face, however, he has no regrets about his actions.

Frankly, I’m just glad he wasn’t starting to turn to self-harm. That was my biggest worry upon seeing him making that shiv and hearing about him stabbing himself – sure, he would’ve been doing it to try and get out of prison, but I also couldn’t help but worry that this was a subtle cry for help from him as well, a sign that he may be falling into some sort of deep depression. This may just be a one-off self-inflicted injury, but even so, given all the exceptionally dramatic actions Reid’s taken this season, I think that still speaks to some deeper issues Reid really should take the time to properly deal with and talk about with somebody.

Rallying the Troops:

While all this craziness is going on, Emily is doing her part to try and get Reid moved into protective custody, going so far as to get into a fierce argument with the warden in the process. The warden is unmoved by her argument and refuses her request, because 1) the higher ups want to keep Reid in general population, and 2), as he notes, Reid’s been causing a lot of trouble during his entire time in prison. Mind, I would argue that that’s because the other prisoners have been making his life a living hell, but whatever. Besides that, since the FBI isn’t backing the BAU’s attempts to help Reid, the warden isn’t exactly keen to tango with them in turn. Basically, things are looking pretty hopeless for Reid and the team at large right now.

“If Reid dies, I quit.”

And because Emily’s day hasn’t been nearly stressful enough, Garcia decides to add to it by informing her about Reid's recent attack and move to solitary. Emily’s able to see it for the ruse it is, but Garcia is deeply disturbed by the whole situation, to the point where she’s actually got her resignation letter all ready to turn in should things go even further south for Reid. Basically, as she explains to Emily, she’s just plain exhausted after the “emotional rollercoaster” that has been this year, and it’s impossible not to feel for her as she tearfully vents her frustration. I just want to hug her and tell her that she has my complete and total sympathy.

Since Garcia hasn’t officially resigned, however, she’s still got a job to do, and Emily thankfully manages to get her to refocus her efforts on tracking down Lindsay’s whereabouts. The rest of the team, meanwhile, compiles all the other information they’ve learned about Lindsay thus far. And in Garcia’s words, Lindsay’s apparently been quite “a busy, evil bee” over the years. Apparently Lindsay left the Witness Protection program five years ago, but the BAU was never notified about this because Witness Protection was duty bound to keep her safe.

Good news for Lindsay, bad news for everyone in her path. Because in the five years she’s been out, Lindsay turned to one hell of a life of crime, becoming a hit woman for a drug cartel along the U.S./Mexico border. Seriously. The team discovers a string of fifteen murders along said border that she was involved in, and the reason they were able to find that out was because of one little slip up on Lindsay’s part. She’s been using the gun her father once owned to commit these murders. During his conversation with Emily, Reid theorized that was because Lindsay was so much of a “daddy’s girl” that she needed to have that connection to him and carry on his legacy. That is some seriously twisted family bonding, I gotta say.

Because of this, the team naturally wants to try and talk to Jack to see if he can help them find his daughter, but Witness Protection being what it is, that’s proving easier said than done. Until, that is, Luke puts pressure on the aforementioned marshal to try and help, and he doesn’t hold back, either, going so far as to mention some incident in Yemen to scare the guy into getting on board. It’s a cold move, but it works, and Luke and Stephen soon find themselves meeting up with Jack in a random park somewhere in Wisconsin, of all places. At first Jack’s hesitant to help. Despite Lindsay’s violent crimes, she is still his daughter and he’s naturally protective of her.

But he does eventually relent, telling Luke and Stephen that he spoke to Lindsay just two months ago. She’d asked him about high grade pharmaceuticals in Mexico, and judging from the specific types she asked about, they fit the exact description of the types of drugs Scratch liked to use. Bingo. This, the team thinks, is why Scratch would’ve likely wanted to work with Lindsay. He may have been running low on his own drug supply and sought out anyone who was willing to help him with that aspect of things. And since Lindsay was already familiar with Reid to some degree, she would have an easier time getting to him in ways Scratch might not.

Tara also finds footage of Lindsay crossing the border into Mexico, and wouldn’t you know it, there’s a factory nearby that makes the particular drugs she needs, and that factory’s a short distance from the town where Nadie was killed. It’s also revealed that Lindsay had murdered a man named Victor a day prior to the attack on Reid and Nadie, in order to steal his truck. Aka, the same truck that Reid pursued in his high speed chase at the beginning of “Spencer”. Unfortunately, since the murder happened in another jurisdiction, it didn’t pop up on their radar until now.

So it’s all finally coming together, but there’s just one problem: this is all still purely circumstantial evidence. If Garcia can manage to nab Lindsay’s fingerprints, however, that’ll be the clincher to prove Reid’s innocence once and for all. Time is of the essence, too – Emily has to meet with both the judge and the prosecutor the following day to try and present her case, giving the team only twelve hours to put this case together. They work throughout the night, and just manage to hit the deadline.

This isn’t just any ordinary meeting Emily’s set up, either. She’s decided to go above the higher ups to make this happen. Not even Fiona knows about this meeting. It’s a huge risk, but Emily is desperate. Once the judge and prosecutor arrive, they get down to business, with Emily forcefully presenting her case. And I do mean “forcefully” - when the prosecutor tries to butt in and argue with her, Emily snaps at him every chance she gets. She is completely out of patience at this point, and it’s kind of awesome to see her just not giving a crap about playing nice. Fortunately, Emily’s no holds barred presentation works, as the judge sides with her. Hooray!

Reunited, Feels So Good:

And it’s just in time, too, because Reid’s day hasn’t exactly improved since his little stunt with the shiv. He’s having nightmares about both Luis’ murder and the brutal beatings he’d suffered (because we really needed to relive those horrible moments, I guess?), and Shaw continues to be a nasty thorn in his side as well. At one point, he gets an envelope from Shaw delivered to his cell, and all that’s in it is a piece of notebook paper with some very ominous-sounding threats. Shaw is making it abundantly clear to Reid that he can get to him anytime, any place, anywhere, and is it wrong that I’m kind of wishing Reid had actually attacked him with that shiv now? ‘Cause yeah. He’s scary. I regret ever trusting him and rooting for him to be a good guy now.

Reid tries to act like he’s not intimidated by Shaw’s threats, but it’s clear the guy’s words are getting to him. That’s made even more apparent when a guard comes and leads Reid out of his cell and down to the visitation room where he’d recently met with his mom, removing his cuffs and leaving him alone in there. During the entire walk down, Shaw’s words echo through Reid’s head, and it’s a pretty nervewracking, tense sequence. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going to happen, and braced myself for the worst.

Thankfully, I needn’t have worried, because a short time later, a familiar face comes to the door. It’s JJ, and she’s got an actual smile on her face and tears – happy tears – in her eyes. She then says the four words Reid and the fandom have longed to hear for months now: “We’re taking you home.”

Yes. At long last, everyone, REID IS FREE! And he doesn’t even have to go through a trial! The look of sheer relief on Reid’s face at this joyous news just says it all, and he and JJ proceed to share a truly heartwarming, lovely hug. Things get even better when Reid leaves the prison (in a very handsome suit, no less! No more prison garb!) and sees Garcia waiting for him. They too share a big ol’ hug, and it’s all so sweet and wonderful and everyone’s crying tears of joy and man, I love these characters.

I especially appreciated that JJ was the one to come get Reid out of prison, given she was so deeply affected by Reid’s situation. It was a nice way to bring the interaction between them throughout this story arc full circle, and yet I also hope that it leads to more good moments with them as Reid works on readjusting to his old life. As for Reid’s moment with Garcia? Well, I’ve always adored the friendship between those two, and I think this is a great example of how these past few seasons seem to be deepening their friendship even more. They’ve gone to ComiCons together, Garcia saved Reid’s life in “Demons”, Reid saved hers in “Entropy”, and now she’s there to welcome him back home.

As for Shaw? Oh, I am pleased to say things do not end well for him at all. While Reid’s being sprung by JJ, Luke meets up with Shaw to gloat about stopping all of his scheming and shady business with the drugs, and saving Reid from any more of his torment. Shaw tries to match Luke’s cockiness – as far as he’s concerned, he’s still got his powerful position in prison. He’ll be back to his old ways in no time.

Not so fast, though. Luke’s decided to make it so Shaw gets transferred to a prison in Michigan instead. Remember when Luke revealed that he knew about Shaw having a son after murdering Elena, and threatened that he could take away his access to his son? Well, Luke’s made good on that threat, as this transfer guarantees Shaw won’t have any further contact with his child. And to further add insult to injury, the prison Shaw’s going to also holds members of that Russian family mob he was trying to take down at one point.

Oops.

The look of shock on Shaw’s face at this news is priceless, as is the smug, utterly gleeful expression Luke gives him in turn. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: do NOT get on Luke Alvez’ bad side. He will cut you.

Also, Emily calls the judge later that evening to thank her for hearing her out as she plead her case, and she also takes a minute to apologize for her attitude during the meeting. Luckily, the judge is very understanding and sympathetic, which begs the question, where was this compassion when she was presiding over Reid’s bail hearing months ago? If she hadn’t been all, “It’s six pm and I want to go home!”, maybe Reid could’ve been spared a lot of this mess.

But eh, once again, gift horses and all, and it is great that she was much more accommodating this time around. I will say, however, that the way the camera seemed to kinda linger on the judge after her phone call with Emily had me briefly fearing that was a hint that this whole thing with Reid wasn’t going to wrap up quite as neatly as we thought. But to be fair, this whole prison arc did a frighteningly good job of making practically everyone the team interacted with seem distrustful and suspicious, so maybe that’s just my general wariness talking.

A Blast From the Past:

So Reid’s got one big threat out of his hair, which is great, but unfortunately he doesn’t have the time to catch his breath, nor celebrate his reunion with his friends. His main focus now is, of course, finding his mom, and he rejoins his teammates (and boy, is that scene a welcome sight for sore eyes) to start planning how to do just that. Reid wants to go to his apartment to see if he can find any clues as to where Lindsay might be holding his mom, but the problem is, he’s yet to be officially reinstated to the team, so he can’t investigate as an agent. He is, however, a resident. All he has to do is claim he’s returning home to collect a few things, and that can allow him to do a covert search along the way. This team and their sneaky plots, I tell ya.

Once Reid returns home, he immediately goes to look through his mom’s scrapbook. His time in prison apparently hasn’t impacted his eidetic memory one bit, as he points out to JJ that some of the photos have been moved around. Hm. He then discovers a cryptic message written on the back of one of the photos: “XX-XY”. Since “XX” is the genetic term used for female chromosomes, and “XY” for male, he believes this is Lindsay’s way of acknowledging she’s working with Scratch.

With these clues, the rest of the team head out to a house in the D.C. area that Lindsay’s been operating out of, and where they believe she may have taken Diana. Sadly, once they get there, they discover Diana and Lindsay are nowhere to be found. They do, however, come across an unknown man and woman looking very confused and scared. The couple nod to a phone nearby, telling the team it’s for the FBI. Emily picks it up, and a familiar face pops up on the screen: Cat Adams.

Yeah. That Cat Adams. The woman we met in last season’s “Entropy”. She was part of the Dirty Dozen gang the team hunted last season, her role being that of a hit woman who was hired by men to take out their wives. Unfortunately for the men, she also had a tendency to kill them, too, as a means of unleashing her rage over unresolved issues with her dad. Reid managed to take her down during a very tense faux dinner date, and judging from the video message Cat sends the team, she’s still in prison to this day.

But this raises some notable questions: How in the world is she involved in this whole crazy mess? How does she know Lindsay? And perhaps most importantly...how the heck is she taking cell phone selfies from behind bars?

Well, Cat’s involvement happens to answer one pressing question for the team, in regards to Scratch’s involvement. Turns out he had absolutely zero involvement in this entire Reid saga. It was all Cat’s doing instead. No joke. She confesses in the video that she was pretending to be Scratch the entire time, fooling the entire team and sending them all on one heck of a wild goose chase for months. And she was so angry with Reid for putting her in prison that she decided to punish him by putting him in jail in turn, which...damn. Talk about ruthless. The twists and turns, they just keep on coming, and my head is literally spinning at this point as I’m trying to keep up with it all.

Cat then makes her demands in the video clip, and they’re crystal clear: if Reid wants to save his mom’s life, he needs to talk to her, as they still have “unfinished business” to deal with. Reid has no choice but to agree to her request, and he flies out to the prison where she’s being held to get the information he needs.

Problem is, the team’s not entirely on board with this plan. Reid’s state of mind is still rather fragile, and they fear he might not be able to be as quick on his feet with Cat as he was before. And given he’d literally just been released from prison, they’re also not sure it’s fair or wise to send him back in there. Sure, he’d be going in to interview an unsub this time, instead of as an inmate, but still, the wounds are raw. Add in the fact that he’s stressed out with worry about his mom and it really wouldn’t take much for this plan to fall apart, and fast. And honestly, I can’t exactly say I disagree with the team’s concerns. Reid’s desperation has been leading him to make some questionable choices lately, after all.

“If we lose Diana, we lose Reid from this team forever.”

Remember how I said earlier that Emily was out of patience, though? Yeah, she doesn’t shy away from reminding us of that fact here again. She is hellbent on sticking with this plan, and will not hear any other suggestions. She has confidence that Reid can handle this, and reminds the team that JJ will be accompanying him and backing him up. So if anything does go wrong, at least he won’t be alone, and somebody else will be there to take over. And while he’s busy with his half of the plan, she and the team will work on finding any other possible leads to help him out and try and nab Lindsay.

Emily then goes into one heck of an inspiring speech, and I’m just going to quote it here, because it’s a thing of beauty:

“This is what we’re gonna do. We are going to take one moment. One moment of quiet, one moment of despair, one moment of doubt, one moment of hope that Reid is strong enough for this.” *Pause* “Did you all take your moment? Good. Now shut it out. Shut everything out. Because nothing else matters except for her.”

And as she finishes up, we cut to Reid and JJ making their way down the hall to see Cat. With JJ reassuring him that she’ll be by his side, they make their way into the room, and she lingers in the back as Reid steps up to confront Cat, hoping to finally get all the answers he needs to save his mom.

Then the words “To be continued” appear on the screen, because as we all know, these writers are cruel. But at the same time, taking a break is okay, because I imagine many of us need a moment to try and collect our jumbled thoughts.

First things first, I’m just going to say again how much I LOVE seeing yet another example of the team going to any lengths possible to help each other. The hugs and being there to take Reid home, Emily pulling no punches as she tries to defend Reid’s innocence, the team using any and all connections they have...it was all so heartwarming and touching, and something Reid needed to see. He’s going to have a long road ahead as he tries to recover from all he’s been through, but hopefully these reminders of his friends’ love and support can help make that recovery a little easier.

I also greatly enjoyed Emily kicking butt and taking names all throughout this episode. The last time we saw her this fierce and determined was in “Spencer”, and then as Reid’s situation got worse and worse, it seemed to knock the wind out of her sails a little. So it was refreshing to see her properly motivated again, and taking risks. Granted, I can’t help worrying her risks are going to come back to bite her in the finale – remember, nobody knows yet about her withholding that interview with Reid she recorded in Mexico – but Emily wouldn’t be Emily if she didn’t take dramatic risks to help her friends. Her behavior this episode is totally in keeping with her character, and it got Reid out of prison, so I won’t complain.

I’m also not complaining about the lack of a trial. I can see why some might feel cheated that we didn’t get one, especially given they spent half the season building everything up to prepare for a trial. But it also would’ve been rather anti-climatic, because we would’ve expected a “not guilty” verdict. There’s no way the show would’ve had Reid be found guilty and force him to stay in jail when season thirteen started – I think they were well aware, when prepping this arc, that fans would’ve rioted if they’d done that. I also think that if the show had planned for a trial, they would’ve had Fiona showing up in every episode and being a lot more active than she turned out to be.

As for the case, I’m very intrigued about this entire setup. Again, I can see why some fans might be a bit disappointed that Scratch wasn’t part of the whole prison storyline, but honestly, I like the idea of a female unsub tag team. There’s something especially exciting about a wild child like Lindsay hooking up with somebody as cunning as Cat – I can totally see why they’d be drawn to each other. And I like the idea of Lindsay coming back in general. Yeah, her appearance seems rather out of nowhere, but how many times have fans said, “Hey, I wonder what happened to so and so from x case?” I like the idea of the show throwing back to their early days like this, and answering that question for us.

The fact that Lindsay wasn’t even an unsub when we first met her really adds to the shocking nature of her crimes here. We would expect this kind of behavior from certain notable unsubs the team’s encountered over the years, so it wouldn’t be much of a shock to have them be involved. But a victim snapping and turning violent is an interesting twist. How many times have we looked at certain victims after a case and thought, “Yeah, I don’t know if they’ll ever be able to fully come back from that.” Considering the trauma of witnessing the death of her friend in such a violent way and the chaotic, dangerous life she had to live because of her dad, the fact she became a criminal isn’t too surprising. In fact, it actually makes me feel just the slightest twinge of sympathy for her.

That said, I also appreciate that they had Cat involved in all of this because up to this point, it was hard to see why Lindsay would’ve wanted to target Reid on her own, since all he’d tried to do in “3rd Life” was save her life. Having her be manipulated by somebody who does have a legitimate reason to target him, and who knows about Reid’s struggles with his mom, no less, makes a heck of a lot more sense. Plus, I freaking loved the interaction between Reid and Cat in “Entropy”, and I’m quite excited to see Gubler and Plaza playing off each other once again.

But now I find myself wondering what sort of unfinished business Cat has with Reid. It can’t relate to her father, I don’t think, since that was settled in “Entropy”. And it’s safe to say she’s going to cruelly taunt Reid about his mom to get under his skin. Since she was involved with the Dirty Dozen, my guess is this unfinished business is tied to that whole storyline somehow. Especially given Morgan’s appearance in the finale – he was targeted by that gang shortly before he left the team, and even after all was said and done, it still felt like there were some loose ends dangling with that group.

And despite the fact that Scratch wasn’t involved in everything that happened to Reid, the fact remains he’s still out there, he did threaten other members of the team earlier in the season, and Cat’s been studying his methods the entire time. Does this mean she might have information about any other schemes Scratch is planning? Something else that might put the team at risk? Does she know his exact whereabouts, and is withholding that information in order to get something out of Reid?

Heck, could Scratch be dead? And if so, did Cat kill him? Is she planning to carry on his legacy? If he is still alive, does he know that Cat’s been imitating him? Will that draw him out of hiding and make him try to take her out so he can regain control? And what would all of this mean for Lindsay, who, as of now, is looking like a mere pawn in Cat and/or Scratch’s little game. Will one or both of them get rid of her when she proves no longer useful? And if so, what does that mean for Diana’s chances of survival?

Speaking of Diana, this is my last opportunity this season to express once more my hope that she makes it out of this whole mess alive. I’m hoping that Emily pointedly stating that losing Diana would mean losing Reid is the show’s way of reassuring us that they won’t be that cruel to take his mom away given all he’s already been through. But considering this is the same show that had him witness the brutal murder of his girlfriend, infected him with anthrax, gave him a drug addiction (and had him forcibly drugged by an unsub twice, no less), and had him getting shot god knows how many times, well...suffice to say I’m not holding my breath that they’ll give him a break here. We shall see, I guess.

I’m also sad that Cassie died. We only got to know her for a couple episodes, sure, but she seemed very dedicated to her job and clearly cared about wanting to help Reid’s mom. She was a perfect example of being at the wrong place at the most wrong time imaginable, and that really sucks.

Finally, I can’t help but worry that Shaw’s taunts will come back to haunt Reid somehow in the finale. The episode just made way too big a deal out of Reid thinking about those threats, to where it felt like some heavy duty foreshadowing. Add in the fact that some of the prison guards’ treatment of Reid has seemed rather questionable and it has me wondering if they were in on whatever schemes Shaw had going, and might try and carry out whatever attacks Shaw had planned before his transfer.

Also, keep in mind that Scratch orchestrated a massive prison break across multiple jails last season. Since Cat’s been emulating Scratch’s crimes thus far, perhaps she’s planning on doing something similar here, and enlisted the help of the guards at the prison where Reid was held. And if she feels her plans have been foiled, well, there’s no telling what she might ask other criminals to do to Reid. Heck, perhaps she was in league with the guards to see to it they made Reid’s time in prison a living hell, as part of her retaliation against him.

I just get the sense this whole prison thing will come back to bite Reid somehow in the finale. If nothing else, I think his contaminating the drugs could pose a problem for him. I’m glad the show finally addressed that particular issue this episode, and Reid telling Malcolm he was glad he was all right seems to indicate Reid hadn’t intended to poison the other prisoners. It looks like he simply want to ruin the batch of drugs. But it was still an incredibly risky and dangerous move on Reid’s part, and I won’t be surprised if somebody tries to punish him for that somehow.

Luckily, we’re just a few short hours away from the finale, so we’ll hopefully be getting most, if not all, of our answers to these questions and speculations very soon. And Morgan’s coming back to help the team as well, so that’s something else to look forward to as well!

What did you think of the episode? How thrilled were you to see Reid FINALLY getting released from prison? Do you think Emily going above the higher ups’ heads will come back to bite her in the finale? Were you surprised by Reid’s actions with that shiv? Do you think Shaw’s threats will come back into play in the finale somehow? Were you shocked by the twist with Cat Adams being the mastermind? And were you equally as surprised to learn just how violent Lindsay became over the past few years? What are your hopes and fears for the season finale? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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