It took *ten* months for the second part to air in Finland after the awesome finale to largely otherwise forgettable season 3. You see, the time-slot Crimanal Minds airs was first given to something I can't even remember and then to FlashForward for the remainder of those ten months. As the promo showing Hotch standing in shock near his car after its explosion started to air, fears of this one being another "The Fisher King: Part II" started to rear their ugly head. Who the frak green-lights a promo that shows who did *not* die, thus spoiling part of the episode? In the "Previously, in Criminal Minds" recap montage, we get, among the main plot progressions of the previous episode, part of the scene where Prentiss profiles Cooper, which, although necessary for those who missed the first part, also ruins a part of "Mayhem" for those who saw "Lo-Fi", where Cooper was wounded. It doesn't take decades' worth of watching TV to guess that this signposts that Cooper will pull through and Prentiss will visit him in the hospital.
The episode proper begins with the scene from the promo. Hotch is singed and suffering from hearing difficulties. A passer-by who identifies himself as Sam tries to help him help Kate, who has been thrown farther away and is seriously injured. Gosh, she might even die! One problem - it's hard to care about a character who was *introduced* only in the previous episode! Were it Rossi, Morgan, Prentiss (Oh no! Not Brown Eyes!) or even Hotch himself, we might care. Since Kate is half British, it's only appropriate to say that we couldn't give a toss whether she lives or dies.
Actual mayhem ensues as evacuation takes place and the first response teams are ordered to stay a safe distance away from Kate since Rossi's team thinks the terrorists are carrying out numerous bombings and will then use secondary attacks against the first response team because that's what they clearly were planning in the previous episode. Before any additional strikes are carried out, Garcia suddenly looses communications to the rest of the team. Nice surprise, which ups the tension.
Then comes the mistake. Garcia gets to watch surveillance footage of the explosion that took Hotch and Kate down. In "Lo-Fi" and the recap, we see the explosion with *no one* behind the car, making us assume that whoever's car it was, they were already inside. However, Garcia sees footage from a reverse angle that shows that Hotch was right beside the rear of the car and Kate was *directly behind the car* when it exploded. Oops! Continuity error! Deduct one point from the total rating.
Cleverly, Garcia reviews the footage *before* the explosion and finds footage of the placing of the bomb. Another footage handily reveals that the bomber started lurking about, waiting for the moment to remotely trigger the explosion. Morgan arrives and rushes to the aid of Hotch despite the protests of the man in charge. And just at *that* moment Garcia sees from the footage that after the explosion, the bomber walked towards Hotch, which means that he is Sam. That's two convenient coincides. And for some inexplicable reason, Garcia then manages to re-establish connections to Morgan! How? Obviously the terrorists somehow cut the connections on purpose. All this means Hotch doesn't have to make a Jack Bauer Decision: to help the victim (contrast Audrey with Kate) or chase the bad guy? Not that it matters either way. A paramedic with an overriding savior instinct (unlike his co-worker) arrives with an ambulance to take Kate to the hospital and the bomber commits suicide in the subway after giving his Obligatory Fanatic Martyr Speech. Sheesh, this episode is sliding downhill at an alarming rate.
When no other bombs go up, the paramedic's co-worker never shows up, and Rossi's team fails to connect the dots even though most clever viewers already have, the episode starts to look more and more like a new "The Fisher King: Part II".
Hotch takes the missing paramedic's place and drives the ambulance, but Secret Service is blocking his way. Cue a clichéd "Please let us in" speech and the stone-hearted Secret Service guy makes an exception. Not likely to happen in real life. Clever viewers have already deduced that someone of political importance must be in the hospital and therefore the actual target of the terrorists. Meanwhile, Rossi uses the magical Enhance Button trope (look it up) to zoom in on the footage of the bomber, revealing he used a cell phone to trigger the bomb at a precise moment, with the intent of only injuring Kate and Hotch. And finally the cleverest minds of FBI realize what's going on. A textbook predictable finale ensues, where there are no heroic sacrifices or anything other that would redeem this episode. Yes, there is the clichéd "He got out before it exploded" reveal. Yawn.
So, yet another episode that does not live up to the hair-raising tension of its superior predecessor. And there are more niggles. The subplot of FBI considering to replace Kate with Morgan is left unresolved, with Hotch saying to Morgan that the job is his, if he wants it, but we never hear Morgan neither accept nor reject the job (although the latter *seems* more likely since Morgan has stated he does not want it). JJ's relationship doesn't even get a mention after it was brought to the fore in the previous episode. Worst of all, nobody seems to care that even though it has been established that there are *many* members in this terrorist cell, only three have been found. Ah, there just wasn't enough running time... My vote is 4/10.
The episode proper begins with the scene from the promo. Hotch is singed and suffering from hearing difficulties. A passer-by who identifies himself as Sam tries to help him help Kate, who has been thrown farther away and is seriously injured. Gosh, she might even die! One problem - it's hard to care about a character who was *introduced* only in the previous episode! Were it Rossi, Morgan, Prentiss (Oh no! Not Brown Eyes!) or even Hotch himself, we might care. Since Kate is half British, it's only appropriate to say that we couldn't give a toss whether she lives or dies.
Actual mayhem ensues as evacuation takes place and the first response teams are ordered to stay a safe distance away from Kate since Rossi's team thinks the terrorists are carrying out numerous bombings and will then use secondary attacks against the first response team because that's what they clearly were planning in the previous episode. Before any additional strikes are carried out, Garcia suddenly looses communications to the rest of the team. Nice surprise, which ups the tension.
Then comes the mistake. Garcia gets to watch surveillance footage of the explosion that took Hotch and Kate down. In "Lo-Fi" and the recap, we see the explosion with *no one* behind the car, making us assume that whoever's car it was, they were already inside. However, Garcia sees footage from a reverse angle that shows that Hotch was right beside the rear of the car and Kate was *directly behind the car* when it exploded. Oops! Continuity error! Deduct one point from the total rating.
Cleverly, Garcia reviews the footage *before* the explosion and finds footage of the placing of the bomb. Another footage handily reveals that the bomber started lurking about, waiting for the moment to remotely trigger the explosion. Morgan arrives and rushes to the aid of Hotch despite the protests of the man in charge. And just at *that* moment Garcia sees from the footage that after the explosion, the bomber walked towards Hotch, which means that he is Sam. That's two convenient coincides. And for some inexplicable reason, Garcia then manages to re-establish connections to Morgan! How? Obviously the terrorists somehow cut the connections on purpose. All this means Hotch doesn't have to make a Jack Bauer Decision: to help the victim (contrast Audrey with Kate) or chase the bad guy? Not that it matters either way. A paramedic with an overriding savior instinct (unlike his co-worker) arrives with an ambulance to take Kate to the hospital and the bomber commits suicide in the subway after giving his Obligatory Fanatic Martyr Speech. Sheesh, this episode is sliding downhill at an alarming rate.
When no other bombs go up, the paramedic's co-worker never shows up, and Rossi's team fails to connect the dots even though most clever viewers already have, the episode starts to look more and more like a new "The Fisher King: Part II".
Hotch takes the missing paramedic's place and drives the ambulance, but Secret Service is blocking his way. Cue a clichéd "Please let us in" speech and the stone-hearted Secret Service guy makes an exception. Not likely to happen in real life. Clever viewers have already deduced that someone of political importance must be in the hospital and therefore the actual target of the terrorists. Meanwhile, Rossi uses the magical Enhance Button trope (look it up) to zoom in on the footage of the bomber, revealing he used a cell phone to trigger the bomb at a precise moment, with the intent of only injuring Kate and Hotch. And finally the cleverest minds of FBI realize what's going on. A textbook predictable finale ensues, where there are no heroic sacrifices or anything other that would redeem this episode. Yes, there is the clichéd "He got out before it exploded" reveal. Yawn.
So, yet another episode that does not live up to the hair-raising tension of its superior predecessor. And there are more niggles. The subplot of FBI considering to replace Kate with Morgan is left unresolved, with Hotch saying to Morgan that the job is his, if he wants it, but we never hear Morgan neither accept nor reject the job (although the latter *seems* more likely since Morgan has stated he does not want it). JJ's relationship doesn't even get a mention after it was brought to the fore in the previous episode. Worst of all, nobody seems to care that even though it has been established that there are *many* members in this terrorist cell, only three have been found. Ah, there just wasn't enough running time... My vote is 4/10.