Criminal Minds 7x09: Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Original Air Date: 7 December 2011

Storyline: The BAU team looks into the real reasons behind an apparent mass suicide of a small group of youths at a military academy. Also, Hotch and Morgan butt heads when a team member could be in jeopardy.Trivia: When guest star Mitchel Blackfield was being auditioned for the role of Bailey Shelton, director Charlie Haid thought Mitchel would be perfect for the role if he'd cut his Justin Bieber-style hair. Blackfield happily agreed to change to a military school cut.

As Josh is walking in the woods, he cites parts of "We Shall Fight on the Beaches" by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on June 4, 1940. He says: "We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

Best Quote:

Reid: A man like Massey sets rules but is the first to break them. He's left alone to run this kids lives but nobody questions him. 
Garcia: Man, it sounds so sad and scary when you put it like that. 
Reid: His policies are a combination of many other philosophies but I'm not sure where his actual leadership lies. 
Garcia: I believe that it does. Lie, that is. It's a joke. 
Reid: Oh, good joke.

Intro: "Things do not change. We change." Henry David Thoreau. (Morgan)Outro: "Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance." Jean de La Fontaine. (Morgan)Reid's Facts: You know, older buildings like this emit a low enough frequency that you can't consciously hear. Because the sensory overload can't be explained, it wreaks havoc with your emotions, inducing fear, panic and dread, hence the feeling of being haunted.

Review: Once every blue moon, Criminal Minds' showrunners bring an episode that makes me wonder if I'm watching a completely different show. with "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy", the pace is all wrong, the profiling is missing depth and there's a side story that has nothing to do with the plot and is just thrown into the mix without any regard to continuity or character development. I'm all for personalizing it and have greatly enjoyed the look into the team's personal lives, but I don't see the need of doing the same thing with Strauss, whose character serves only the purpose of the administrator.

I won't go any deeper into Strauss' issue, since there's nothing much to say. One thing I would is that I don't really like Morgan as Hotch's number two - never have and never will. He probably ranks last in my list of favorites from this show. Also, Strauss was bringing interesting angles at times, so I'm definitely bummed to see her make such a lame exit.
Moving on to the case of the week, it touched a theme I'm not particularly fond about. I believe military schools are barbaric and serve no real purpose, and I'm not even going to go into my opinion over the American army. But I could get over this if the editing had been better; it's a big thing for someone so into flashbacks as myself to say including such flashbacks into this week's episode was a bad idea. The good part was not knowing who the UnSub was from the beginning - that was a nice change compared to most of this show's episodes. Keeping the viewer guessing is one of the secrets of a good crime procedural.
Before I move on to the bits I liked, I have to complain again about pairing up Reid and the maps. Is there no one else in that team who could do geographical profiling? But back to the good things, there were two moments in particular I found fun and welcomed them between all those gory ones: the exchange between Garcia and Reid regarding otherworldly events and Rossi's commentary on not being affected by poison ivy: "I'm Italian. It knows better."Criminal Minds 7x08: Hope Back to Season 7