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Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior Season 1 Episode 13

Death by a Thousand Cuts

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AIRED: May 25, 2011

8.0

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Episode Summary

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Cooper and the Red Cell team track a serial killer who is shooting people at random in crowded areas. Beth and Prophet go undercover, which puts Beth's life in danger when she is abducted.

Fan Episode Reviews (7)

FINISH what was STARTED!

10

By PrincessRoroD, May 13, 2012

FINISH what was STARTED!
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The plot is one that work perfectly for a full feature film the execution does not.

4.5

By angrodpallanen, Oct 27, 2011

The idea that there's a guy who forces random people to shoot other random people to save someone they love is fantastic. Well, if you like to see people tortured by Sophie's choices. But for a reasons unknown the writers behind this show choose to set it in such a way that the strong plot falls waist side to a team that isn't interesting and stories that aren't moving.

The history of the puppet master(s) was far from interesting. The point where the old lady talks about her son cutting himself is simply cringe worthy. It feels forced and unnecessary. This guy is obviously a loon, why bother giving that a emotional backstory?

Also Penelope is the best thing about the franchise but I won't ever get over the fact that she's the writers escape goat. They just want the audience to buy into whatever magic tricks she pulls out of her sleeve, how random and unbelievable they might be. I do however like the fact that the writers acknowledged the characters unique trades and didn't feel like they had to copy that for a different character for the same purpose.

The ending was both wonderful as it was horrible. There is absolutely zero excitement. There's no sense of the two leads having any romantic connection. I know Whittaker is a extraordinary actor but even he can't create chemistry from a formal conversation about promotion. Suddenly the female lead's life is in the balance and we are supposed to care? Nevertheless the fade to black was awesome and even though I could care less about who lives or dies, I still like the idea that the answer wasn't given to the audiences. I'm a cliffhanger junkie.

Waist of potential.moreless
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Don't watch; it's a trap!

1.0

By shlif1, Oct 27, 2011

How can they leave an almost canceled TV show with a cliffhanger ending? Poor form, folks. It reminds me of oh-so-many other TV shows where they just don't gave a damn about the audience. I already understood why they were canceling the show; it was very bad. But to pull a stunt like this – we know where the real criminal minds are - at CBS.

Okay, here's the obvious ending that I saw coming from twenty minutes earlier. (It was also obvious who the "puppet-master" was from the time he was interviewed, and especially once the gun dealer was murdered with a high-powered rifle and Beth taken.) Cooper fakes the shooting. 1) Cooper knocks the bad guy out making sure his face is bleeding.

2) He shoots off to the side, pretending to shoot at him.

3) He takes a photo of the "corpse," and mails it as instructed.

4) Bad guy still doesn't let Beth go, since she knows who he is. The rest of the first episode of the non-existent next season is taken up with chasing them down.

5) At the end, Beth (Janeane Garofulo) decides not to take up the new job offer at the FBI, but to become a stand-up comic instead.

How can they leave an almost canceled TV show with a cliffhanger ending? Poor form, folks. It reminds me of oh-so-many other TV shows where they just don't gave a damn about the audience. I already understood why they were canceling the show; it was very bad. But to pull a stunt like this – we know where the real criminal minds are - at CBS.

Okay, here's the obvious ending that I saw coming from twenty minutes earlier. (It was also obvious who the "puppet-master" was from the time he was interviewed, and especially once the gun dealer was murdered with a high-powered rifle and Beth taken.) Cooper fakes the shooting. 1) Cooper knocks the bad guy out making sure his face is bleeding.

2) He shoots off to the side, pretending to shoot at him.

3) He takes a photo of the "corpse," and mails it as instructed.

4) Bad guy still doesn't let Beth go, since she knows who he is. The rest of the first episode of the non-existent next season is taken up with chasing them down.

5) At the end, Beth (Janeane Garofulo) decides not to take up the new job offer at the FBI, but to become a stand-up comic instead.

This kind of crap is easy to write.moreless
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Crap Series Ending, but every episode should be this good

10

By bmoshier, Oct 27, 2011

While everyone CBS promo ad for this episode was for the "seasons one ending" and not "series ending," we know the series no longer exists. As such, this was a double edge sword.

If every episode had been this interesting, I suspect we'd be looking at a 22 or 24 episode first season, as well as a second season. As it is the ending is CRAP, plan and simple crap! I won't spoil it, but basically, it ended the series on a major cliff hanger and that IMHO is disrespectful by the network, the writers, the producers, and even the advertisers to the fans.

It is times like this and with Stargate Universe that encourages me to never ever get involved in a series till its 3rd or 4th season. After all with DVD sales, cable channels, etc you can get caught up. This is what I did with CSI:NY, only in the last two years did I start to watch it.

Recently, I decided to suspend this rule (I'd say break, but it was a suspension in consideration of dropping it). I guess, the suspension will end but not with the rule going away, but with it coming back enforce thanks to Syfy, CBS, and others.

There is always enough to watch and ways to catch up that didn't in the past. This concept of networks to quickly decide the fate of a series has major flaws in this high technology world and I suspect they don't even realize it.moreless
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I didn't know the series had been cancelled until I came on here, the final episode aired over here last night and I just had to come on here to share how bad it was...moreless

1.0

By Erica-1970, Oct 27, 2011

The 74-year-old grandfather was described as "someone who wouldn't be missed"...what??!

The woman who was 14 weeks pregnant already knew the sex of her baby...I do believe that's impossible... If they can't even get a simple thing like that right, how can we expect them to research and write interesting storylines right?

The Beth character was the worst one they could have abducted, I couldn't care less what happened to her, she was one of the most unlikable characters on the show. And that's saying something, as there were a lot to choose from! In 13 episodes none of the characters was developed, they all lacked personality (apart from Penelope of course) and were all interchangeable.

This show wasn't a patch on the original and I think the decision to cancel it was the right one. Never mind that it ended on a "cliffhanger", I had trouble staying awake till the end, I suppose that says it all...moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Forest Whitaker	Unit Chief Sam Cooper
Janeane Garofalo	SSA Beth Griffith
Michael Kelly	SSA John "Prophet" Sims
Beau Garrett	SSA Gina LaSalle
Matt Ryan	SSA Mick Rawson
Kirsten Vangsness	Analyst Penelope Garcia

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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French Stewart	Richard Stahl	Guest Star
Alan Smyth	Dale Dixon	Guest Star
Noah Khyle	Noah	Guest Star

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Episode Photos

Beth (Janeane Garafalo) on Criminal Mind...

© 2011 CBS Corporation
Cooper (Forest Whitaker), Mick (Matt Rya...

© 2011 CBS Corporation
Cooper (Forest Whitaker) and Mick (Matt ...

© 2011 CBS Corporation
Gina (Beau Garrett) on Criminal Minds: S...

© 2011 CBS Corporation

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- Penelope states the unsub lost his fingers in a buzz saw accident when he was 12. The record she is reading shows his date of birth as Jan. 18, 1962. The medical record shows the accident was in 1999, so the unsub would have been 37, not 12, and it was a sabre saw, not a buzz saw, which are quite different.
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NOTES (2)
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- Original International Air Dates:
  United Kingdom: January 28, 2013 on Alibi/Alibi HD
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- This episode, and the series, ended with an unresolved cliffhanger.
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