photo: cbs
Tribute
Original Air Date: Mar 30, 2016
Caitlin- Senior Staff Writer
caitlin@thetwocentscorp.com
Criminal Minds fans have, as a whole, had two thoughts this past week. One: “How are we going to get by without Derek Morgan?!”. Two: “PAGET BREWSTER!”. Yes, Emily Prentiss is returning to our screens for one week and one week only- and this time not to desperately save a kidnapped friend.
We open on Emily in a dream where she can’t save the victim of a serial killer she’s been chasing for ages. It should also be noted that she wakes from the nightmare next to a very attractive man she’s clearly dating. So not everything at Interpol is devastating tragedy- just this unsub is.
Coming home on the jet from another case, most of the team is busy missing Morgan, but Hotch is talking to Emily and being updated on her situation. Her killer has come to the States and she’s already on her way in herself, looking for her former team’s help in catching him. We immediately link him to a whole host of colorfully horrific serial killers who he’s trying to mimic by killing random individuals across three countries- Russia, England, and now America.
Tara is the first one to find Emily at the police station, but it’s not long before the whole team arrives for a joyful reunion. They launch immediately into the case, but still take time to talk about their recently departed colleague and pester Prentiss about her new beau. Rossi and JJ go with Emily to a scene where a young bartender was killed. While they speculate, we see a mysterious figure loading up a gun while, for some random reason, a nature documentary plays in the background.
While Garcia does her thing back at Quantico, we look into another murder, this one of a woman shot in her car. The team realizes there was another woman with her. The unsub, mirroring a famous crime, only shot this second victim in the leg, letting her live. When tracked down at a hospital, she reluctantly admits to meeting the man, named Mark, while hooking. A tip brings everyone to an abandoned warehouse, but Emily misses her man again, finding only two more bodies in his wake.
These victims were a couple with two young daughters, shot many times in what seems to be the unsub’s rage over their rich lifestyle. Our killer is escalating, and fast. Reid works out that he’ll being to Chicago, home of about 100 serial killers, next. Mark gets there by bus and seems to be trying to teach a young boy to follow in his footsteps the whole time. You’d think at some point the mother would notice- or at least be opposed to a strange man handing her child a bullet.
Did I mention that this episode gives us several extra big doses of angst- like learning that Emily blames herself for the death of a woman she encouraged to go undercover while following the case before? Like her talking to Rossi about the nightmare from the beginning of the episode? Oh, and best of all, her having that nightmare again, but this time with JJ in the role of the victim left choking to death on her own blood? Yep, that’s an image that will stay with you.
While our heroes make their way to Chicago, Mark is already there. He approaches students on a college campus, asking for the location of a girl’s dorm. That’s not a good sign at all. Especially once we learn he’s the kind of guy who thrives off risk, having intentionally taunted authorities before. Garcia identifies Mike by name just as he enters the dorm room of two girls who, after learning there was a serial killer on the loose, decided to leave their door wide open and unlocked. At least one alerted the FBI first.
By the time the team learns of this and gets to the campus, Mark has already taken another girl hostage before immediately killing her. The two roommates cower in terror as he debates which of them he will kill. He has one of them at gunpoint when the team arrives. Playing on his need for fame, Emily directs him to look outside at all the cops who have arrived just on his behalf. It’s the perfect tactic to get him into a window, where a sniper outside can kill him.
And, after all that, everyone gets to head back home to Quantico. Everyone including Emily, much to the joy of Garcia, who has been hanging around in Morgan’s office, tearfully mourning his absence. Everyone gets together to go out to dinner. It’s a wonderful scene, if a somewhat bittersweet one given that Morgan isn’t there, and it shows just how close everyone on this team will always be. Here’s to bringing back Emily- and all former cast members who can come- as often as possible.