TVSquad

(S02E05) This is the kind of episode that Criminal Minds needs to have every couple of weeks. It's fine to have some installments that are all about a case and only a case. But every now and then, we need the case to impact the team members somehow. Think Six Feet Under and how the opening death scene often related to the rest of the episode. If this show wants some serious longevity, like 5 or 6 seasons instead of 2 or 3, we need stuff to happen to our beloved BAU team.

Now we've known for a few weeks that Elle is being written out of the show and up until now, we've had no indication as to how that would be done. Well we do now and hats off to the writers for not taking the easy route and just killing her off or having her transfer. They've given Elle a really good final story-line and I'm looking forward to it's conclusion next week. At least I assume that next week is the conclusion... I wonder who her replacement will be?

There have been few single episodes of a show that have emotionally drained me as much as last week's Reckoning. I thought the first half was perfect, and the second was perfectly devastating. I love Kristin Kreuk, and Lana's character (a lot more than most), but if they could have left it with her dying, I think it would have shown some real cajones and really splintered Smallville from every other Superman mythos out there. The anger that Clark and Lex have towards each other would be tangible. They could have played with Johnathan struggling to do the right thing with his power, wanting to destroy the Luthor's, but still do the right thing. Don't get me wrong; last week's episode was great, and everyone's performances were perfect. I just think an even bigger change to the status quo would have been to let Lana die. So, on to this week's episode. Much like after any loss of a loved one, everyone seemed to just be going through the motions. It was an OK episode, but it could have happened two weeks ago and still been in place. On with the show!