Original Air Date: 12 October 2011
In real life, College Boards may release past AP exams, but never the exam taker's name.
Best Quote:
JJ: No!
Reid: Valedictorian, soccer scholarship, corn-fed but still a size zero. I think that you might've been a mean girl.
JJ: I was actually one of the nice girls, even to guys like you.
Reid: Guys like me? I'll have you know that my social standing started improving once I started winning at basketball.
JJ: OK, you played basketball?
Reid: I didn't say I played basketball, I coached basketball. I broke down the opposing team's shooting strategy.
JJ: Is that why Morgan kicked you out of the pool last week?
Reid: Yeah, it took him three rounds 'til he realized I was hustling him.
Intro: "You may leave school, but it never leaves you." Andy Partridge. (Reid)Outro: "Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding." Kahlil Gibran. (Hotch)Reid's Facts: I might know why. This unsub doesn't feel pain. There's a medical condition called pain asymbolia, where patients register harmful stimuli without being bothered by it. They've been documented holding their hand over an open flame because their brain doesn't send pain signals to the central nervous system.Review: It's clear that this season is bringing in more and more the personal lives of the characters and, while I was afraid this would take away the focus from the procedural, the two aspects fit very well together so far. The case was interesting and the feud between Morgan and Reid, as well as the plotline surrounding Hotch and his son made "Painless" all the more enjoyable.
Although they had profiled that the bomber had a partner, they'd never found him, and now someone is seemingly trying to finish up Randy Slade's mission and kill the people who had been on his list but survived, starting with the school principal.
Maybe the story was not original, we've definitely seen school bombings not only on TV, but also very often in real life, but including pain asymbolia was a novelty. We're sure to learn a lot of new things when we have a sexy geek to explain them to us!
Speaking of which, the highlight of the evening was, without any doubt, Reid and Morgan's feud. I knew the minute he told JJ that he hustled Morgan at pool that he will get his revenge, and giving Reid's phone number to the hungry reporters was a very ingenious ploy. I don't think I've heard Spence cuss before, but it cracked me up to hear him finally snap at the reporters with a "Hi. This is Dr. Spencer Reid. I actually can come to the phone right now... with a very special message... your mother is...", only to figure out seconds afterwards that the incessant phone calls he received were Morgan's doing. Reid's payback - prefaced by a whispered "I will crush you" under the mused eyes of Rossi, who was a witness to their whole war - was also hilarious, it must be really annoying to hear his "dulcet" little girl screams blasting from your MP3 player and your phone.
Do I need any more reasons to simply adore Dr. Reid? I hope it's not the end of the prank war, this has the makings of becoming epic.
Bringing Jack back was another nice touch. We see so much of Hotchner at work, where he's essentially extremely professional and doesn't engage in personal comments like the others, that sometimes we need to be reminded that he's also a single father trying to raise his son as well as he can. I will agree with Emily, hearing that Jack was trying to solve the bullying problem by inviting the kid who is mean to him over and try to make friends with him "is the sweetest and saddest thing I've heard."
Rossi's verbal sparring with the teenager boy and Emily's online Scrabble with Cheeto Breath girl were nice touches as well. I'd love to see more of JJ's personal life, we were left with that clue that her marriage was not all that good and I'd actually be sad if that were true, as she's the only one having a functional family life at this point.Criminal Minds 7x03: Dorado Falls Back to Season 7
