Criminal Minds

I won't make a summary of this episode as many others did and so did tv.com.

I will directly talk about what I thought of the episode.



Elle went crazzy and let her emotions take the "better" of her. You'd think that a profiler with great knowledge of the human mind and behavior would fake better her emotions after killing the serial rapist. She doesn't event pretend to be shocked, she act stuborn, defensive and aggressive as well. Even a student profiler would have a field trip with her acting like that. And yet the FBI investigation let her go and only the 2 "senior" profilers know that she is guilty.



Even worse than that is the fact that the Behavior Analysis Unit sends a woman attacked in her own home, and scared to even go back inside, to act as bait and wait there as a rapist is coming to attack her... Is this remotely smart? Is she the only female FBI agent, or police officer over 35 ? What made her the logical choice there? Because I sure do not see anything that would justify such a choice.



And about that investigation for the "incident". Aside from the fact that her behavior was a clear give away. How could they miss all the clues ? Did they give the job to a rookie? Weren't they rather efficient up till now?

She acted emotional before when working on the case, she even broke her cover and rushed at him with a gun to arrest him and cause the operation to fail.

And yet they do not find strange that she went alone, without partner, to "talk" to him in a dark parking, and that it ended with a dead body? Where was his weapon he suposedly "drew at her"? Why would he even draw it at her when he was just released anyway? There were so many things wrong with the shooting, like the first shot was fired at him when he was turning at her, it should have hit him on the side, you don't get shot on the side first if you are facing your target. What about the fact that there is blood on both of his hands? You don't put the hand holding the gun on your wound... usually that hand would fall along the body while the other hand reach for the wound.

Anyway I'm glad Elle is soon to be gone because I never really liked her. But I'm sad it was done so sloppily.

After three episodes of Elle's attack barely being mentioned, it came out loud and claer in this episode, when Elle is sent undercover as the next victim of a serial rapist.



I thought the episode was great! The fact that they discovered that there must be more victims than those who came forward was interesting,



I also enjoyed Elle Greenaway in this episode, as she experiences the full effects of her PTSD. It causes to do something wrong, even though it was for all the right reasons! I personally think she did the right thing. The guy was evil.



Definitely a terrific episode! This one may go on to become significant, as the character of Elle develops. This episode was highlly unpredictable, and very enjoyable, all the way until the last moment! Keep it up,Criminal Minds, and I strongly recommend this epsode!

Criminal minds



Serial rapist. Women in their 30’s, he waits for them to come home.

The team is on their way to Dayton, Ohio.

Woman/victim comes home and plays her answering machine : “I think we’re ready to meet”. Eeks !!



He is a power reassurance rapist ( more on that later).

But what made him go from teenage high school students to 30-year-old women, what made him go off-script ?



The team arrive at the police office where Maggie Callahan awaits them. Very eager profiler wannabe police lady. Gideon reassures her by saying she doesn’t have to step down.



They go talk to the latest victim. So right, way too many people touching, looking and talking. But they’re right, they do need all the info they can get. And it’s quite some info, somehow the unsub knew about the woman’s favourite place ( Positano in Italy), the only alcoholic beverage she drinks ( white wine) and her favourite singer ( Al Green).

They also visit one of the previous victims on campus ( Cheryl?).

Was there anyone who always was quiet yet seemed a little too close ? Anyone who is suddenly not around anymore? And in this case the unsub also knew something that raises the question of how well he knew his victims ( stalking??) or where he got the info from.

Anyway, her parents dog name is Dexter...and yes, it might be a good idea to talk to a woman about all this some time.



The unsub sounded more nervous in real life than he did on the answering machine tapes ( they can be rehearsed ).

He thinks of this as dates. ( Can someone please tell that woman she indeed did nothing to make this happen).



Elle forgets her glasses in the car, Reid instantly notices she’s staying behind. And he also knows why she is so hesitant to go back to the car alone ( she just pretends to be all touch and not caring and I’ll be fine). But Elle says no thanks.



Everyone is in their hotel room ( working.. not sleeping ! I thought that was pretty funny considering they went there to get some rest). The very eager lady policewoman actually took a room on the hall, even though she lives 4 blocks away. I really had my doubts about her ! But to her credit she does come up with some valid suggestions : only 20% of all rapes are reported, there might be more. And something must have happened that made the unsub change victims.



Reid goes check on Elle ( good !! ) he’s really trying, but she’s not really ( or.. really not ? ). She does talk a little to him, she felt the shooters hand in her wound when he used her blood to write on the wall ( shudder !!) Reid tries a “he’s dead, you won”.

But Elle just raises her glass – well, here’s to winning…



Now some explaining on what kind of rapist he is.

Power reassurance - he targets specific victims, and usually has a job with access. Cable guy. He fantazises that he’s in a relationship with them.

Power assertive rapist on the other hand humiliates his victims.

And a sexual sadist / anger attacks at random and is brutal.



They talk a little about how the unsub is between 20 and 40, and probably has a job that deviates from the standard sex-role models.

And we get a look at the “wall of fame” of the unsub. Eager police lady ( wish I’d paid a little more attention and knew her name ;) ) finds a suicide on campus that fits perfectly with the time the unsub changes.

Turns out the girl indeed was raped, and got pregnant. Since she was katholic she chose the sin of suicide over the sin of abortion. Her dad never told her mom there indeed was a note that explained it all, but he does hand it to the team for investigation.

The unsub must have known she was pregnant ( because that’s the reason he changed), meaning he still watched his previous victims ( again : eeks).



The pregnancy is an important hint though, because the common link between some victims is that they were trying to get pregnant. And the questionnaires ( with the personal info) from the fertility clinic are all handled by Firsthand Media… bingo.

He first targeted katholic high school girls because he knew it was very unlikely they would abort…but when the girl committed suicide he switched, figuring his new victims were trying to get pregnant anyway, so he was helping them.



Elle is having flashbacks…but no one seems to worried about her ( apart from maybe Reid ?)



LOL at Morgan talking to Garcia “It’s a work call”;)

By going through all the fertility questionnaires of women in the region they find 1 possible next victim.

And they send Elle to go in, wired.. Do you think she’s ready ( Hell no!!)

And then Elle takes justice into her own hands and shoots the guy dead after making sure it really is the unsub. Exit Elle.

She has become one of “them” , on of those the team track down and put behind bars. She can not stay….even though it’s said to be self defence, Gideon knows, Reid /Morgan.. everyone probably knows.

While more focused on one character (Elle) than I'd normally like an episode to be, this episode is brilliant in how it portrays Elle's decline throughout the episode, right to the point where she shoots the unsub in cold blood after she makes a mistake that allows him to go free.



This episode was also well handled in that it doesn't become too dark- a great moment between Morgan and Garcia ("It was a work call" Morgan attempts to explain to the baffled people around him) allows some of the tension of the episode to be released without cheapening the overall effect of the culmination of Elle's time on the series.



Reid was also well portrayed in this episode as the only team member who tried to get Elle to open up, and I can see that the knowledge that he failed, especially when combined with the events of the end of the episode might be influential on future plotlines.



Finally, the only negative thing about this episode was the detective, who was a bit too over eager for my liking.

Thank you ! I was hoping something darker for this show (yes, I know "How much darker can it get ?") ! When I was watching it, I was thinking "God, if these guys (the writers) got balls they would do something hardcore with the Elle caracter...and they did ! I was so surprised and so happy with this end !



I wasn't a big Elle fan from the begining of the show (even hope she'll died for the season finale, sorry), but now, she's darker, and she's ON !



Now, we're talkin' ! Bring it up the next episode ! We're on the move people !

This episode allows us to see Elle’s wounds – the deep emotional and psychological wounds, not the physical wounds – that have not been healed since the Fisher King shot her. Through the comments of the rapist’s victims, Elle tells the team what is happening in her own mind – the sorrow, the pain and the utter frustration in not being able to do anything about it. Alicia Jordan verbalizes Elle’s own feelings when she tells the team, and the viewers, “Every time I think it’s over someone else wants to photograph me, or touch me or ask me to relive it.” How many times has Elle had to relive her shooting? Every time she looks at a victim’s file? Every time one of her team members asks her how she is? Every time she sees the scar on her chest? She hasn’t healed.



Cheryl Cosgrove, the college victim, also helps explain Elle’s turmoil. The rapist waited inside her dorm room – the place she felt safe. The Fisher King waited for Elle inside her own home. “The police all act like because he didn’t kill you, he didn’t somehow end your life.” Even Reid, the most sympathetic of all of Elle’s colleagues, doesn’t understand that just because Elle lived, and her physical scars have healed, doesn’t mean that her life hasn’t been irrevocably changed. The scene between the two is heart-wrenching, as Reid tries to overcome the differences between them in maturity and life experience to allow her to give voice to what is going on inside.



Unfortunately, Elle has not overcome her suffering. Given more time, and greater assistance, she may have, but instead she’s forced to play the victim again, and she is broken by it. Her knee-jerk reaction to being threatened inside “her home” undoes her – and undoes the case against Lee. Her violent outburst in the station against Hotch is so realistic that it is painful to watch – the anger and frustration she feels just flies out of her as she blames him for her injuries. Clearly, Elle has a long way to go on the road to recovery.



For Elle, recovery gets farther away as the episode goes on. She desperately needs to control the world around her so that she can never be a victim again. That is what leads to Lee’s shooting. As long as all the blame is on others – Lee, Hotch - and she is not able to openly admit that she has a problem, she can’t recover. She continues to be a victim.



While some of the scenes struggled, the overall impact of this episode was strong. Hotch (and the director) calls attention to the diversity of the BAU team, especially in each one’s method of dealing with the terrible things he or she sees on the cases. The plane scene and the beautifully fluid shots of the team in their hotel rooms emphasize this. The CM writers again deal with rape victims in a humane and thoughtful manner – allowing the BAU and the victims to help the audience understand the horrific impact of this crime. No ending quote tells us that this story – Elle’s story – even more, the victims’ story - isn’t over.

This episode "Aftermath" is a very, very important episode of the season.

To fully understand what happens we must rewind to previous episodes... The first of these episodes take place roughly 4 months after Elle was shot. The three episodes between "The Fisher King Part II" and "Aftermath" were of especially heinous crimes. In "P911" we see a child being put up for 'auction' in a child-porn ring; "The Perfect Storm" deals with horrible rape,torture then murder; and we deal with a sexual preditor in "Psychodrama".



Now keeping this and the fact that Elle came back to work earlier than suggested we can take a look at her mental state. She had been working very hard in all the cases [that I mentioned above]. Although all the cases were particularly difficult for everyone, it is really no surprise that this case is the one that finally set her off. In this episode women are raped in their homes. Just like Elle, it shows that we are not always safe in the place where we want to feel the safest. Elle goes undercover to try and catch this man. While she is sitting in "her" house she begins to have flashbacks of when she was shot. She turns on the radio (the song Faith, Hope, Love by Starsailor comes on) to try and shut out the real world - she cannot stop the flashbacks and decides to take action into her own hands (lyrics for the song : "got to learn to stand on my own two feet") by the end of the episode she takes it further and shots and kills the man who had been set free.

Obviously this episode is absolutely essential when it comes to Elle's character development, but it also shows more of Reid's character. He tries to help Elle the best he knows how. As I have previously stated this episode is absolutely pivotal to character growth.

Very personal episode for Elle and a very powerful ending that had me on the edge of my seat. From the past episodes I thought Elle was getting over the events that happened to her in The Fisher King but being put back in the field for this episode seemed to get the best of her emotions. I like the writing, but I think they need to expand on it. I was a little unsure about the decision to keep her alive after the Season One finale but I think this might be the nail in her coffin as far as this show goes. Theres no way a group of some of the best Criminal Minds investigators wont be able to tell that she is lying to them in the next episode. And for a series that prides itself on standalone episodes, this seems to be one dominant and interesting long term storyarch to follow. The rest of the episode was also good. I liked the case in this episode and how the BAu went about finding the pieces to make them all fit together. It had a bit of a slow start but once the team started in on the case I thought that it got a lot better and quickly became the best written piece of the season so far.

Oh.. it does not start half as promising as it ends - a town is hit by rapist who change his style and BAU has to figure out why and how is behind. This seems to be too much for Greenaway's already stretched nerves and when they send her undercover - it all just explodes.



I totally love the way they managed to built Greenaway's path to the point she draws that gun and shots. It was so logically built, with such an empathic.. putting her to have a drink with Raid and accusing of him profiling her.. and the look on Gideon's mind in the end - the way he probably profiled her and got the truth... even if she is going to be free, walking out..

I love this episode. Elle is very ah-mazing she did a excellent job in my books. I watch this episode alot, but Hotchner shouldnt have immediatly jumped to saying Do you think Elle is ready like he could have chose someone else intead of her.Like JJ or the female agent helping them like Elle just got shot awhile back he should have gave her more time. But if she did not go undercover like that the episode would probally have been dull.So good job to the writer for making this episode and well done to the cast for excellent work

Several young girls who are students at the Holy Trinity College have been raped by a power reassurance rapist, one a week for several weeks. Suddenly, the rapist changes his choice of victim from young girls to women in their mid to late thirties. The question is why?



Gideon and the team are baffled as to why the rapist, who leaves voice mail messages on answering machines for his victims as though they were intimates, sudddenly changes his type of victim completely. When it is revealed that one of the teenage girls became pregnant after her attack and chose suicide rather than abortion, the profilers quickly realise that the rapist has changed his pattern because his child was 'murdered' and so, he is now targeting older women who are more likely to want families and the news that he works for a company who processes information forms from a fertility clinic helps the team narrow their suspect pool considerably.



When the rapist is captured, he unfortunately lawyers up before he confesses but the team have a plan, a ridiculous decision in fact given recent history, to set Elle up undercover as a potential victim. It was certainly no surprise to any of the viewers when Elle cracked under the pressure and shot the rapist, claiming self defence when it was obviously a clear case of murder. Anyway, that was how it went down and as we see Elle continually flash back to the events of 'The Fisher King' we know that she won't be on the job much longer.



All that aside, an excellent episode and a vital one to watch.

Someone wanted out of the show. It's a shame that the writers had to destroy a good character such as "Elle". Now Elle is as bad as the criminals they hunt - what a pity. I do belive we have seen Elle's replacement. My money is on the female police detective. Let's hope she keeps her sanity longer than Elle did.

For gosh sakes, they are supposed to be the best of BEHAVIOUR SPECIALISTS. Why could they NOT SEE it as a very bad idea to allow Elle to act as bait? Very frustrating to have to sit and watch, as we could predict just what would happen. So much for the team\\\'s wonderful analysis skills! Another show loses credibility. I have not heard that she will be leaving the show. I cannot accept that they could keep Elle as a character. The concept of the show is great but this ruins it for me. If you have to eliminate a main character, don\\\'t ruin the show doing it.

As a matter of fact I still am not sure if I do believe it! One must walk a very fine line when attempting to assist a friend or co-worker during such terrible times. During the show I found myself wondering if Elle had been raped before; not realizing that her "rape" just came in a different form. Once again these, characters and actors,do a terrific job of making us feel the pain and anxiety that comes with their job. Living inside of the head of such low lifes that they must deal with has horrible drawbacks. That being said; what the hell was Elle thinking?!! You can't just murder someone and expect us to just take a step back and accept it. Cover up, you can't cover this up, ethics will not allow it! You all do remember what ethics are don't you? Don't get me wrong; I do feel pain for her BUT there is noway that she continues as an agent any longer. A mental patient maybe but not a viable agent.SHAKESPEAR once said...... never mind I don't do Shakespear....

This was quite the fasinating episode. The setup gave the BAU team a complicated case to solve. It was also fasinating that none of the team, with the exception of Reid, realized just how "wonked-out" Elle still was from having been shot. The scene where Reid came to Elle's hotel room to offer support and try to get her to open up was very well done. For all of Reid's somewhat imept ways with people, he really notices what is going on with the others he works with. In light of what happens later in the episode, its too bad Elle didn't open up to him more than she did. I can't help but wonder if the actress playhing Callahan (Dahlia Salem) was set up in this episode to eventually take Elle's place. Gideon seemed quite admiring of her abilities and dedication to the job. I thought she was quite on the pushy side and somewhat strident, but if she does join the team maybe some of this would be toned down.

Can't imagine that Elle will get away with shooting the bad guy as she did. Guess we will see.

does anyone think that the female police officer introduced in this episode will replace Elle? I think that Elle\'s shooting of the unsub was unprofessional, and shows that Elle still has many unresolved issues with the trauma she faced awhile back. I find it hard to believe that the rest of the team does not see the obvious distress that Elle still faces.

This episode sees the team deal with a serial rapist who's pattern of attack has suddenly changed although I believe the case was a sideline to the story of Elle's character. Still traumatised by her shooting she becomes too involved in the case to fulfil her duties as an agent and her actions lose the team's chance to apprehend the rapist. In her anger she reveals her own resentment towards Hotch for failing to protect her and takes it upon herself to confront the suspected rapist. Elle has drawn parallels to her own attack throughout the case now, she empathises with the girls at a level beyond her duty and when she unlawfully shoots the unsub its as if she is exacting revenge on her own attacker. The end of the episode shows the incident being explained away as self defence with Gideon and Hotch looking doubtful at the explanation.

This episode is well written and nicely paves the way for Elle's character to exit the show whether it be fallout from her actions in an unsuccessful cover up or her choice to quit following her mental demise due to the trauma of her attack. This has a much better impact than the easy way out of killing a character off.

The BAU team get a tip in which a serial rapists has been raping poor young women and then stopped for six weeks only to rape again. And that Elle almost as the victim but also nearly shot the guy. As she is in some hot water. Very good show and hope that Elle doesn't lose her job over doing her job.

Ok I justed loved this episode. There's a fine line and all that. Elle is in a load of trouble now. Never thought she'd shoot the guy. Not that I blame her but he was unarmed.



The ramifications of the shooting are going to be widespread. How can a group of top notched profilers miss that one of thier own was drowning? The flashback sequences were well done and not overdone. This was definitly a great episode.



The other characters were great also. I loved the scene between Reed and Elle. Penelope Cruz was funny as always and her scenes with Morgan are always fun.



All in all an amazing good episode.