(S02E20) When this episode started off, I have to be honest - I was bored to death. It was slow, the case didn't feel like something the team would normally take on, and I honestly didn't care too much for the mommy/daughter issues between Prentiss and her mother (played by Kate Jackson). Those sentiments remained for the majority of the episode. But in true Criminal Minds fashion, things changed and the final minutes of the show were just as good as any previous episode. Kudos to the writers for turning around a rather lackluster episode in its ending moments.Focusing on Russian immigrants in Baltimore, the case was a straight up kidnapping (with a twist of course). See what I mean when I said it doesn't seem like something the team would take on? Credit that to Prentiss' mother and her diplomatic influence. A man has been kidnapped and ransom has been asked for. Seems pretty standard. Throw in a creepy Russian mob boss (played wonderfully by Elya Baskin), some severed fingers and ears, and the case got a little more interesting.
A lot of cool scenes ended up making this episode for me though. I loved the exchange between Lysowsky and Gideon at the Little Kiev Restaurant. Reminded me a lot of the season premiere of The Sopranos from last Sunday. Every line was loaded and the entire conversation was incredibly tense. Scenes like that are always good to me though because you get to see Gideon do what he does best and pick someone apart just by talking to them.
I also loved the development from Morgan. He was completely fooled by Natalya, the daughter. He seemed really shaken that he had fallen for her plan. The twist with her being involved was well done though. I really didn't see that coming. I actually thought we were going to find out that Prentiss' mother was somehow tied into the kidnapping.
In the end, I was pleased. It got quite better in the final minutes as Lysowsky broke down and admitted his son was a bit of a loose cannon. Had the episode not ended the way it did, I would have gladly rated this installment a 1. But given the twist in the final minutes, I'll bump it to a 3.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-12-2007 @ 2:02PM
Hugeliver said...
Wow. Kate Jackson looked HORRIBLE. Any more weight loss and she'd be two dimensional. PLUS, how tight is that face lift?
Next episode I'm going to drink every time Reid says "Man"
What's up, man?
Don't let it bother you, man.
What the hell was THAT?
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4-12-2007 @ 2:12PM
Marjorie said...
I agree, but I really disliked this episode all the way through. I guessed the daughter was involved as soon as she told Morgan her sob story, well, I even suspected as soon as Gideon said she was tough at the start.
The whole episode was about family issues, the bad guy trying to let his son do his thing, was particularly hard to believe, since otherwise he was a stone cold killer.
As far as Prentiss goes, I have not warmed up to her and her mom was not a sympathetic character either. (and how much plastic surgery has poor Kate had anyway??) The whole 'why are you interrogating me, mom' this was just overdone and embarrasing.
The Gideon/mobster conversation was the best part, they were tense, macho and understood each other perfectly and while Gideon would not have chosen to kill the players, I could see that he understood that the mobster would chose that. The line "There are no problems, just death" was cool in a totally evil way.
Baltimore agent guy was as irritating as the last time. He talks in declarative sentences and, while he had a huge collection of Russian Mob details, he was wrong about everything else. The other people terrorized by the Natalia and Mobster Son, were NOT criminals and he never seemed to check that out.
Sigh, my least liked episode from all so far....
I think a 3 is fair.
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4-12-2007 @ 2:42PM
Jimmy said...
I was bored with this episode from start to finish. I found nothing compelling in the main storyline and the acting was really bad. The worst of the bunch had to be Olga Sosnovska, who is normally quite good. She did some of her best work on MI-5 (Spooks in the UK), but even when she cried it seemed forced in this episode. The only saving grace for this episode was Kate Jackson as Prentiss' mother. Maybe I'm showing my age, but whenever I see Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, or Cheryl Ladd (all of whom still look fracking great!) I remember the good ol' days as a kid sitting in front of the TV watching the Aaron Spelling block of television. Let's see more of her; she and Paget Brewster had excellent chemistry together as mother and daughter.
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4-12-2007 @ 3:12PM
TomB said...
Really Hugeliver?
I though Kate Jackson looked GREAT!! It was nice to see her in a role where she isn't super-duper nice.
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4-12-2007 @ 8:45PM
Jae said...
That was a pretty bad episode. I didn't warm to the Prentiss thing. The Little Keiv parts were good. I knew Natalya was in on it from the beginning. As for Reid and saying "man," I think he was trying to fit in a little bit by acting more like Morgan. Saying "man" doesn't really work for him though because it doesn't suit his character. I think that the writers are trying to show him searching a little more for his sense of self by having him experiment with what works for him or doesn't, after everything that has happened to him. We weren't meant to like it when he said "man" because he wasn't being him.
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4-12-2007 @ 11:25PM
Dan Chichian said...
If memory serves, Kate Jackson had cancer recently and I imagine if not the disease than the treatment is what the weight loss was all about. Then again she was never heavy to start with.
I agree the episode was kind of a let down. I had thought from the promo (I know never trust the promo monkeys) that JJ was to play a more integral part and she was what in two scenes?
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4-15-2007 @ 11:11PM
SweetieDarling said...
Actually I believe you are thinking of Farah Fawcett. While Kate is a 2 time cancer survivor, she's been cancer free since 1989.
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4-19-2007 @ 6:31PM
RedPen said...
Not the greatest episode they've had, but not bad. Kidnappings can take all sorts of turns, and the FBI does have jurisdiction in most cases (Lindbergh Law). The little clash of the Titans between Gideon and Lysowsky was probably the highlight of the ep.
I'm just not a Prentiss fan, and all the posturing with her mother gave me nothing new to improve that opinion. We still know next to nothing about this agent, and it's making me a little nuts.
And when exactly are we going to find out what's going on with Reid?
My biggest complaint about this season is that they've sent us on too many tension-coasters... too many ups and downs to keep it all straight.
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