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Criminal Minds Season 5 Episode 23

Our Darkest Hour

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AIRED: May 26, 2010

8.6

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Episode Summary

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The BAU faces one of its most difficult cases when a serial killer is lured out of hiding after a series of rolling blackouts in Los Angeles give him the opportunity to pursue his victims in the darkness.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (21)

Worst ep ever

1.5

By VidyaSukumar, Dec 26, 2011

I don't leave reviews normally... i usually just enjoy the show and don't criticise... but lack of logic on a show which got me seeing it in the first place with ep's with logic irritates me... Spicer's memory... Morgan and Spicer going out there alone... all of this is sad... i mean this is a season ender... please... hope it gets better
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a serial killer comes out of nowhere and continues killing with no known M.O. that anyone can remember. It's seems that the writers are stretching the imagination with this episode.

3.0

By vore01, Dec 24, 2011

I used to be a fan of this show. It's seems now all the writers want to do is is offer up gratuitous violence week by week with very little in the way of real mystery writing. And now the current fad is offering up the violence using children as key characters in the storyline. I love a good mystery as well as the next person but this last episode just went over the line for me. It's no wonder Mandy Potemkin left the show.

This is all I want to say about this show but I had a minimum of words to use...lolmoreless
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Best Ever!

10

By Jchap217, Dec 21, 2011

I am an avid cm fan, and I thought this was one of the best shows they ever did. It was the most disturbing one I've seen, making it great television. I don't like those shows where you know what's gonna happen, the bad guys get caught, people are saved, good guys win.

This episode was shocking as the girl's dad was actually killed; didn't see that one coming. The "night stalker" was ruthless and the emotions the show brought out in seeing all the death, dispare, and wonder is a rarity in television shows today. I'm just surprised so many people weren't happy with it. I thought it was brilliant. Way to go, cm!moreless
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Weak. Totally against the spirit of the show.

1.5

By tvskeptic, Oct 31, 2011

Weak. Totally against the spirit of the show. Suddenly Morgan forgets how to enter a room with an unsub on the premises? Which leads to the rest of the travesty.

The bad guys neverwin on this show (even though you know that innocent people will get killed, obviously). Even though you know he will eventually be caught, killing Spicer, having Morgan tied up and helpless and getting away with the girl, equals him winning. Writers, stop trying to end every season with a shocker, because you really blew this one. You made it very hard to even care about what happened in the next episode, which is a terrible way to start a new season.moreless
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Anti-climatic at best. Expected so much more from Criminal Minds.

4.0

By Celectialdreams, Sep 18, 2011

I wasn't monitoring the episodes at the time, and was actually suprised to see the words "to be continued" at the end of this episode. It was only then that it hit me. "Wait. Was this the season finale?"

It was dissapointing and a touch mundane for a Criminal Minds finale. I had distincly remembered the previous two episodes being especially entertaining and would have had high hopes for the finale, had I known that "Our Darkest Hour" was going to be it.

They played it relatively "safe" by keeping the focus off of the team throughout the episode, and the agents themselves seemed to serve as nothing more than a backdrop for Detective Spicer (Eric Close) and Detective Kurzbard (Robert Davi). The plot was ho-hum and even the unsub's tendencies weren't as interesting as in previous episodes, let alone finales.

Even Tim Curry as the unsub wasn't enough to make this episode stand out.

When it comes to the end of a season, you're really expecting them to go out with a bang, if for no other reason than to keep you watching next season. This episode fell flat of any expectation I had for an episode of this otherwise intreaging and gripping show.

Bottom line: Boring and dissapointing.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Thomas Gibson	Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner
Joe Mantegna	Senior SSA David Rossi
Matthew Gray Gubler	SSA Dr. Spencer Reid
Shemar Moore	SSA Derek Morgan
Paget Brewster	SSA Emily Prentiss
A.J. Cook	SSA Jennifer "JJ" Jareau

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Robert Davi	Det. Adam Kurzbard	Guest Star
Eric Close	Det. Matt Spicer	Guest Star
Tim Curry	Billy Flynn	Guest Star

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Episode Photos

Agent Morgan (Shemar Moore) works with L...

© 2010 CBS Corporation
Agent Prentiss (Paget Brewster) works wi...

© 2010 CBS Corporation
Agent Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) works w...

© 2010 CBS Corporation
Agents Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) and Ross...

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (1)
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- Morgan: Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, "And out of the darkness came the hands that reach thro' nature, moulding men."
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NOTES (1)
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- The song heard in the opening of this episode is "I'm Your Man" by Leonard Cohen. Also heard in this episode was "Everybody Knows" by Leonard Cohen.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Reid references Richard Ramírez in this episode. Dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the media prior to his capture, Ramírez is an American serial killer, sex offender and burglar who is awaiting execution on death row at San Quentin State Prison. Following his arrest, sensationalist reporting of his apparent interest in the occult and Satanism was common. His image appears in the opening title sequence of the show.
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