CM 2x17 "Distress"
I like a sympathetic unsub. The war vet with PTSD is a well-covered trope for the genre, and they didn't do anything startlingly new with it, but I thought it was a nicely put together episode.
I liked the parallel between the uprooting of Houston's poor for gentrification with the kind of breaking point stress you get in a war zone and I liked that they didn't push the point, just let it make itself. The other parallel with Reid's own PTSD was also nicely underplayed (more on that later).
I also enjoyed the kind of solid legwork they put into the investigation and that it was legwork and careful profile building rather than brilliant insight that ultimately gave them their guy and also the best way to bring him in.
I was particularly pleased that the local cop in this instance, while grateful for the help was like: okay, I know you want to bring your guy in gently, but please not at the expense of any more of my people. They had to convince him that the grid search would likely cause more deaths before he agreed to it.
I was pretty invested in them getting the unsub home safely, so I was sad to see him killed, but by TV rules of justice, he pretty much had to die because he'd killed innocent people.
Did anyone else get the wierd feeling that they'd cut out a subplot about what had upset the guy in the first place? I got the definite vibe of a potential affair or something between the wife and the best friend in the first scene with the two of them and wonder if that was an earlier idea for the trigger, later written out. I'm speculating because it felt like a big loose end there -- the guy was upset when he called his wife and said they had to talk, but no one had any idea of why and it was never resolved. Anyway, no big deal, just something that stuck in my head.
The only thing I *didn't* like in the ep was this week's banter between Morgan and Garcia. I watched it a couple of times, because usually that's a high point for me, and I wasn't sure what bugged me at first, but it was the exchange that went IIRC:
G: Are you lonely in the Lone Star state? And are you wearing chaps?
M: Only in your dreams, Garcia.
G: Not only in my dreams. I have photoshop.
M: Hey! Behave!
(they talk about the case)
M: And I don't want to ever find photoshopped pictures of me.
G: Oh, you'll never find them...
So, on this surface this isn't too different from the usual flirtation but there were two things about it that pinged me. One is that I think photoshopping a co-worker into chaps is crossing a line, and while Penelope may have just been saying that, she definitely has the experitise to do it (and hide it) and the kind of fantasy life (like her fantasy RPG) that would have room for that and so even as a joke, it's kind of edged. And the other thing that pinged was that Morgan pretty clearly didn't like the idea. He ultimately laughed it off, but his reaction said two things to me: one, that *he* felt she'd crossed a line in their flirting and two, that the flirting isn't as two way as I'd been hoping. I mean if he was into the idea, why not play with it? Why not ask why she bothered to put clothes on him at all or something? But he set some pretty clear boundaries there and Garcia didn't seem to notice. It just made me uncomfortable.
And okay, now to my favorite storyline, the Spencer unravels plot continues. Last week we got to see him struggling. This week we're locked out of his POV completely -- we only get to see what the team is seeing. And there is no question they are seeing it. Look at the reaction shots when he comes in late. Gideon, Hotch and Morgan all definitely register his lateness and linger. Prentiss is very sensitive to his odd behaviour -- as an outsider, obviously, she'd be concerned about someone not wanting to work with her, or stepping on toes.
Prentiss and JJ both obviously notice when he freaks about the noise. And Prentiss actually has him yell at her -- which, I have no question she will tell either Hotch or Morgan about later on.
Reid himself is doing a lovely job of falling apart while still doing his job. Hmm -- "can't stand loud noises, can't be in crowds, dissociates to deal with the trauma." I'm glad they didn't give him the last line of the profile -- it would have been a bit much, but I was happy that he got to describe his own PTSD for those playing along at home.. He was also scratching nervously at his face and neck, which I thought was a nice touch, because.... {{{{{{spencer}}}}}}}.
The upcoming episode looks *excellent* and the title "Jones" presents many possible story directions.
I would also like to point you to an excellent post-Revelations fic
Two Pair of Aces by Bear who I'm very excited to see writing in this fandom.
Also, question, go check out criminalxminds -- does it do the same job as cm_squee? Do any of you post over there? Am I just duplicating a resource with this comm?