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Episode Summary

After a man kidnaps three teenaged girls in Pennsylvania and locks them in a cellar, he tells them only two of them will live and they must choose which one will die. The BAU takes the case when the mother of one of the girls travels to Quantico to ask JJ to intercede with the FBI on the girls' behalf.moreless
8.8
out of 10
EPISODE RATING: Great
372 votes
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Rate It
  • The most psychologically scarring episode yet.

    10
    "Perfect"
    Episodes like this are why I watch Criminal Minds. In this episode the unsub is a psychological sadist set on destroying the town that turned it's back on him. JJ finally gets a chance to shine as her public relations background is put to the test trying to keep the residents of a small Tennessee town focused on helping the investigators rather than lashing out at eachother.

    As time wears on the residents move from being unwilling to discuss anything about eachother with the BAU, to lashing out accusations at one another. In the end the BAU is not able to catch the unsub before the deed is done, and the victim who died may well be the lucky one.moreless

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    1 0
  • Exactly how did the BAU help local law enforcement in this episode?

    7.5
    "Good"
    I get it, the writers wanted to expand JJ's character and give a female character some screen time - but couldn't they have done that AND write a good episode? The motivation for the BAU to even get involved in this case was laughable. What possible use can they be when the whole idea of profiling is to start with enough data - basically enough victims - to understand the particular mentality of the criminal? The episode proved the point when the BAU was totally ineffectual in finding these girls before the inevitable happened. And the criminal? Couldn't really be considered a serial criminal since this was his first crime, could he? It wasn't even a challenge to catch him as he knew he would be identified as soon as the girls were found - and cleverly hid at the crime scene! Please. By all means give JJ more of a job, but don't sacrifice plot development to do it.moreless

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    2 2
  • Three friends are kidnapped and locked in a small room, from where only two will emerge... And they have to decide which. The team had a rather minor participation, and there's no real "happy ending".moreless

    8.8
    "Great"
    First off, the premise for this episode sounded interesting, and in relation to the storyline itself I can't say I was disappointed. I did like that J.J. got to have more screen time, and a better participation during the ep. Loved her comment at the end, where she says she doesn't want to be a profiler. LOL. Anyways, it was another one of those episodes where the teams was playing catch-up for most of the hour (up to last minutes and still they were too late), so it just kindda leaves that feeling of something missing. Something that was rather disturbing about this episode was the dilemma the victims faced, and how they reacted, bc in reality no one likes to think what they'd do in such a situation, and it's weird when we see the "victims" in the situation turning on each other. Well, overall good episode, but a bit lacking in the team's investigative ability... Granted, they can't win them all.moreless

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    2 0
  • Three best friends were kidnapped and forced to decide which two of them walks out of alive.

    8.5
    "Great"
    Here are my views on this episode-

    - We found out that Brooke's daddy is having an affair with a married man and they rendeavouz at least once a month at a local motel. Totally unexpected, kinda sick really. - never expected the Garbage Man to be the killer. That shows you that you cannot trust anyone, not even your next door neighbour.

    - I liked how JJ showed a lot of spunk in this case maybe coz she feels that she can relate to the abducted girls.

    - The twist at the end, when they showed two girls coming out of the cellar all wrapped up in a blanket, with blood on Polly's face and the other girl's identity a mystery until they finally revealed that it was Brooke. Totally did not expect that Kelly would be killed by Brooke in the end.

    Overall, this episode was kinda draggy .. but the twists at the end made up for it.moreless

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    1 0
  • Review

    8.8
    "Great"
    I would have liked the episode a lot better had the BAu actually done something in the episode. I liked the ability to profile the guy without ever knowing who he was to the end of the episode but the ending just didn't leave me satisfied. The killer gets what he wants, which is never a problem for me if the episode is written that way. However, why would the guy be the one to find the Soccer Jerseys in the trash. That makes no sense. Let me call the cops to try and throw them off, maybe, but they weren't making much progess anyway. I liked the episode overall, just not the way the writers handeled the endgame. I thought it would have been better to have them find the mans house via some random way and have all the three girls live instead of only letting two come out alive. I dont feel as if I got anything out of the epsiode - which is odd considering I loved the first 30 minutes of it and I'm giving it a decently high rating of 8.8. Dunno, thought the writing could have been a bit better for the endgame.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • Kelly's mother says "low breeding always shows through" in reference to Brooke and Polly. Ironically, it is Kelly who has condemned Brooke to die long before their situation became dire enough to force them to choose and actively tried to convince Polly to turn on Brooke. Edit
    • In the episode, it was noted the State Championship game was November 3rd. In Pennsylvania, high school football state championships do not occur until the second weekend in December. Edit
    • Per closed captioning the original end quote was from George Eliot: "There are many victories worse than defeat." Edit
  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • The song heard when the girls are talking in the car at the beginning of the episode is "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall. Edit
    • This is the first episode in which Lola Glaudini's name did not appear in the opening credits. Her image also had been removed from the main cast photo shown at the end credits. Edit
  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Hotchner: What's all of that?
      JJ: New cases. I got to figure out where we're going to next.
      Hotchner: Hey, wait a minute. We're the profilers. I thought we made those decisions.
      JJ: Sure you do.

      Edit
    • Morgan: You don't believe these girls are really missing?
      Sgt. Sikes: It's just not the kind of thing that happens around here, you know?
      Gideon: You'd be surprised how often we hear that.

      Edit
    • Chief Yates: Listen, these people...they're my friends. They're my neighbors, good people. I don't want anybody assuming that they're involved.
      Hotcher: We just got here. We're not assuming anything.

      Edit
  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Reid: John Jamelske built a concrete dungeon under a suburban home. In 2003, 67-year-old John Jamelske was tried for kidnapping five young women, physically abusing them, and holding them as sex slaves in a dungeon he had built under his home near Syracuse. During this trial, Jamelske tried to blame his actions on Viagra. He also claimed to have taken good care of the girls and had meaningful relationships with them, but the victims' statements contradicted this, and he is currently serving an 18-year sentence. Edit
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