The Uncanny Valley

Season 5, Episode 12, Aired
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The BAU is called to Atlantic City to profile a suspect with an unusual personal obsession who is abducting and killing a certain type of woman.
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Fan Episode Reviews (14)

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  • Wonderful

    10
    "Perfect"
    By MattCarter3, Jun 06, 2011
    I felt that as soon as I knew what this episode was about it was going to be good. It did not disappoint in the least.

    I find it very rare when I actually sympathize with the unsub, but I did. Her docile demeanor and overall pathetic childhood made me feel very sorry for the poor woman. It was not her fault anyways, nurture not nature drove her to kidnapping and manslaughter(I beleive that is correct as the deaths were unintentional). The make-up on the victims was almost eerie. They literally looked like dolls. I think this will go down as one of the best episodes of CM.moreless

  • Better than the previous episode with a Kathy Bates-esque female unsub who is clearly very disturbed. I actually felt a lot of sympathy for her and tried to ignore a few plot holes along the way whilst giving kudos to the makeup department!moreless

    7.0
    "Good"
    By Lady_Lancaster, Apr 22, 2011
    Atlantic City, New Jersey is where the BAU must head to solve their next case where two women have been found dead and made up to look like dolls - clothes, hair and makeup all very doll-like and childish.

    When we learn that the unsub is a female who is abducting these women, paralysing them, then dressing them up like dolls to re-create a childhood fantasy of happily playing with her toys, it is hard to feel anything but sympathy for her as we realise she is completely unstable and has suffered some kind of great trauma in her earlier years.

    Because I liked the episode, I'm going to try to ignore the glaring impossibility of someone untrained correctly repositioning an iv on the first attempt without any torniquet to find the vein and also the fact that a 'doll' who could barely move across the floor somehow hoisted herself back into a chair before the unsub returned.

    It was shocking to hear that the unsub's father had subjected her to ECT to cover up his molestation of her but not surprising as we knew that something pretty horrendous had happened to make the unsub behave the way she did.

    Overall, perhaps not technically correct in some areas but I enjoyed it all the same. Didn't enjoy Hotch's obvious emotional difficulties though, but, of course, this is necessary to show and quite in keeping with all that he has endured.moreless

  • Creepily Awesome or Awesomely Creepy!

    10
    "Perfect"
    By bookt111965, Apr 07, 2011
    This episode was disturbing on so many levels. It was an amazing script though. The unsubs story was so sad, and then to have her traumas translate onto so many others was really terrible, but unfortunately true so many times in life.

    The best thing about this one was that it was a 'Reid' episode. I do love Reid and this is the first episode to focus on him this season. This season has been amazing, but I missed the Reid eps.
    The only bad thing is when the show focuses on one of the characters the others aren't in it as much and I really do love all the characters on this show, Reid just happens to be my favorite.

    Kudos to Matthew Gray Gubler for getting to direct an upcoming episode. I'm excited for him and can't wait to see it.moreless

  • Pure excellence

    10
    "Perfect"
    By bellagirl_008, Apr 07, 2011
    A return to form for criminal minds, the long expected return to regular non character centric episodes, this episode was great with excellent proformances from everyone on the cast and i was pleased to see reid of his crutches and back to real work, the profiling and really getting inside the killers head is something i think we've been missing recently and i thought that that was actually one of this weeks strong points.

    The living dolls were to some it up creepy it really reminded me of something out of a horror film and i think it personally just made one the list as being my new least favourite way to die.moreless

  • Absolutely terrific and magnificent episode!

    10
    "Perfect"
    By amazing_race, Apr 07, 2011
    I thought this was a very unique and thoroughly enjoyable episode, and because it was so different to anything we have experiences in the past, I found it to be extremely interesting, and highly enjoyable.

    I thought the storyline was great and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I absolutely loved the idea behind the whole script. It was really well constructed, in my opinion.

    I also enjoyed the beginning and end, in which Reid was playing chess, and I found that to be an interesting way to start and finsih an episode.

    I would highly recommend this episode, as it is so unique and so incredible in many ways. There really is nothing wrong with it and in my opinion, it is flawless!moreless
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  • TRIVIA (1)

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    • The title of this episode refers to the hypothesis that holds when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, this resemblance causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's lifelikeness and explains why almost-human-looking robots scare people more than mechanical-looking robots.

  • QUOTES (3)

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    • Garcia: Oh my God, she was doomed. Like Emily Bronte doomed. Like Shakespeare doomed. Like red-shirted ensign in Star Trek doomed.

    • Reid: Isaac Asimov wrote, "In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate."

    • Reid: Mildred Lisette Norman wrote, "Anything you cannot relinquish, when it has outlived its usefulness, possesses you. And in this materialistic age, a great many of us are possessed by our possessions."

  • NOTES (1)

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  • ALLUSIONS (2)

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    • In the first part of this episode, Garcia makes a passing reference to Star Trek as an homage to guest star Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander William T. Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

    • Garcia's line about Emily Bronte, Shakespeare, and Star Trek alluded to the tragic plotlines of Wuthering Heights and other works of Bronte, the many tragedies of William Shakespeare, and the propensity for violent deaths among red-uniformed crew members in the original Star Trek series episodes.

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