Criminal Minds 7x06: Epilogue

Original Air Date: 2 November 2011

Storyline: he BAU is called to the Angeles National Forest in California after bodies mysteriously turn up in the mountain lakes there. Meanwhile, Rossi must make a difficult decision regarding his ex-wife, Carolyn.Best Quote:

Morgan: What's really going on?
Rossi: Look, it was a late night with Ringo and not enough coffee. I mean, the guy's a world-class drummer, but don't think I didn't wipe the floor with him in "Rock Band."
JJ: All right, what do you think?
Prentiss: He could be telling the truth. I only played him to the easy level.
Reid: I can't tell.
Rossi: And you never will.

Intro: "To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable." Erich Fromm. (Rossi)Outro: "The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it." Mary Catherine Bateson. (Rossi)Reid's Facts: Angeles National Forest is 1,016 square miles of terrain, ranging in elevation from 1,200 to 10,064 feet.Review: I'm a skeptic. As Reid said, "There's no quantifiable proof that God exists". I don't believe in the afterlife or in anything else that cannot be proven empirically. Which is why I wasn't all that excited about the theme of this episode. Or more specifically, about the connection to the different events in Rossi, Reid and Prentiss' lives. I'm getting bored when it so happens that case relates to a specific event in one of the investigators' lives, and this is not the only crime procedural to try to pull that off. Thankfully, despite the cliche in all of this, Criminal Minds is one of the best shows of the genre and the writing is so good that I can forgive bringing not one, but three members of the team into all this supernatural stuff.

The case itself - though following a theme that's been overdone in television and film - is actually quite original. I don't remember hearing about a serial killer who revived his victims to find out if they'd seen "the other side" before now. The murders played on people's curiosity about what happens after we die: it's something humanity has not come to terms with and I think everyone, even the most skeptical persons, like me, have some hope that death is not the end. If the case were separated from the personal, the message would have been more powerful (for me, at least); I've never been a fan of mixing the two elements, as the chances of a law enforcement agent having to investigate a situation so comparable with his own life are quite slim and it makes things barely believable. I would have actually enjoyed it more if the case would have arrived after the death of Rossi's wife; this way, Carolyn's story wouldn't have ended after just two episodes and we would have had the chance to see Rossi's reactions in the aftermath as well. Of course, no one is saying that can't be happening still, I was just offering what would have been a better scenario from my point of view.
Rossi has been probably the most enigmatic character so far. I admit, I wasn't happy when Mandy Patinkin left the show, I loved Gideon and his amazing relationship with Reid, but over the years Rossi has grown to me and I've always wanted to see more about his personal life. Of course, this wasn't my idea... introducing a dying ex-wife is never something fun, but I welcomed the insight into what he might have been like as a husband. The story was heartbreaking, and not necessarily because of Carolyn's suicide, but because of Rossi's determination not to let her go so easily. Carolyn's words to him gave me goosebumps: "You spout all that profiling talk, but, really, the best way to get to know someone is to marry them. You are the best man I've ever known." The revelation that the'd had a child, who had died just after birth, was yet another clue into Rossi's past, and I loved the closing scene, through its simplicity: he has a glass of champagne next to Carolyn and James' graves.
I cannot get past the dryness of Prentiss' reaction to Rossi's confession about what his ex-wife wanted him to do. I love her to death, but I swear, sometimes she can't - for the love of me! - convey emotion. Another thing I wasn't too crazy about was not seeing enough of Reid, but I couldn't help myself but chuckle when he couldn't stay away from that map. Ever since I've seen a parody on Reid's love for the maps (somewhere on Tumblr I think), I find myself hunting for those moments each episode. And the best - humorous - moment of the week has to be Garcia's Star Wars reference and her "Faster than a Hotch rocket" line. Hotch was the only one she hadn't dared to make jokes with in the past and it's hilarious to see his reactions whenever she says something inappropriate to him.  Criminal Minds 7x05: From Childhood's Hour Back to Season 7