To the fellow Montanians complaining about the fact that this is "not Montana" they sure are glorifying the area in which they live. This looks like the majority of all Montana it may not be filmed in Montana but is very close and the mentality is spot on if you go anywhere outside of what is considered "city". Either the people who are claiming this is not realistic are blinded by rose colored glasses or they haven't spent much time out with the extremely disturbing rural, small minded, shanty house, militia freaks. I lived in Montana for over 20 years as somebody who's not quite white and it is very bleak and disturbing any time you step off a well worn path. Sometimes you don't even have to leave main stream social interactions to see the horrors. As for the show this episode was interesting not the best but not the worst.
7 Reviews
Good but not perfect
lottiemarshalllm19 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I really enjoyed the scene of the JJ and Morgan at the bar because I thought I brought pretty good tension and just made for a good scene.
I like getting to learn more about Rossi and his past especially his involvement with Ruby Ridge and how it affected his interactions with the locals.
I also really like the The plot line of where the subordinate of the two killers Took on the persona of the dominant after his death.
The reasons I didn't get a higher rating is because I think the taking over the persona was introduced kind of late and could've been explored a lot better than it was. And I felt like most of the team was pretty left out of this episode except for Rossi and Morgan. And I thought exploring the torture room was pretty disturbing even for criminal minds.
Overall a pretty good episode with some good twists that could've been explored a little bit more.
I like getting to learn more about Rossi and his past especially his involvement with Ruby Ridge and how it affected his interactions with the locals.
I also really like the The plot line of where the subordinate of the two killers Took on the persona of the dominant after his death.
The reasons I didn't get a higher rating is because I think the taking over the persona was introduced kind of late and could've been explored a lot better than it was. And I felt like most of the team was pretty left out of this episode except for Rossi and Morgan. And I thought exploring the torture room was pretty disturbing even for criminal minds.
Overall a pretty good episode with some good twists that could've been explored a little bit more.
For prime-period 'Criminal Minds', this felt a bit bland
TheLittleSongbird25 November 2016
Not a bad episode by all means, but although there were decent but uneven episodes like "Birthright" and "3rd Life" "Identity" for me is Season 3 (which saw some outstanding episodes like "Elephant's Memory", "Lo-Fi" and "Seven Seconds") at its weakest and blandest.
Certainly a lesser episode of when 'Criminal Minds' was in its prime (a lot of Season 1 but especially seasons 2-5, although 5 had a few disappointing episodes) is better than lesser episodes of when the show became particularly hit and miss from Season 6 onwards, particularly Seasons 9 and 11 (their lesser episodes being among the show's worst episodes).
There is certainly enough to make it watchable. "Identity" starts off very tense with an exciting police chase that ends on a quite shocking note. It also has a climax just as suspenseful and exciting, on first viewing it was a little strange but on a further couple of viewings (done to give the episode a fairer assessment) it is the episode's most memorable scene.
"Identity" is a great looking episode. The scenery is simply amazing and like a character of its own, while it's beautifully and atmospherically shot and crisply edited. The music is moody and haunting, and, though Joe Mantegna was still settling into the character of Rossi and isn't looking comfortable just yet, the acting is fine. There are a couple of nice character moments, namely the scene in the bar with Morgan and JJ, when Prentiss, Morgan and Reid were snooping around Rossi's office and in particular Reid questioning the science of the Death Star. The whole stuff with the community was intriguing, and the comment directed towards Reid about looking like a pipe with legs was a funny moment.
Against all this, some of the script is weak, with not enough interaction with the team (when there was some it was great) or profiling, which played second fiddle to a potentially creepy but rather oddly executed concept with the surviving unsub. A shame, considering that both are such a huge part of the show's appeal. There are some nice scenes, but the rest of the episode is a bit bland. This is due to a rather tired and sometimes pedestrian-in-pace story based around an unsub relationship and dynamic not at all unfamiliar to 'Criminal Minds' already (some of those cases a short time ago and a few in a very short time from one another) and with not an awful lot interesting.
Rossi's character hasn't yet settled in after his understandably shaky introduction in the patchy but still good "About Face", which benefited from a case that served the episode and show well. His more old-school and less intuitive approach at this point (it was with "Damaged", with a more personal side to him, when he properly became easier to like and more interesting) takes getting used to and he doesn't feel like an interesting or likable character yet (things he would be later on, and he along with Reid is ironically one of the main reasons why I still stuck with Season 11), rather stiff and not easy to warm to. Personally didn't find the unsub that menacing or memorable either.
Overall, a bit bland but not a bad episode. 6/10 Bethany Cox
Certainly a lesser episode of when 'Criminal Minds' was in its prime (a lot of Season 1 but especially seasons 2-5, although 5 had a few disappointing episodes) is better than lesser episodes of when the show became particularly hit and miss from Season 6 onwards, particularly Seasons 9 and 11 (their lesser episodes being among the show's worst episodes).
There is certainly enough to make it watchable. "Identity" starts off very tense with an exciting police chase that ends on a quite shocking note. It also has a climax just as suspenseful and exciting, on first viewing it was a little strange but on a further couple of viewings (done to give the episode a fairer assessment) it is the episode's most memorable scene.
"Identity" is a great looking episode. The scenery is simply amazing and like a character of its own, while it's beautifully and atmospherically shot and crisply edited. The music is moody and haunting, and, though Joe Mantegna was still settling into the character of Rossi and isn't looking comfortable just yet, the acting is fine. There are a couple of nice character moments, namely the scene in the bar with Morgan and JJ, when Prentiss, Morgan and Reid were snooping around Rossi's office and in particular Reid questioning the science of the Death Star. The whole stuff with the community was intriguing, and the comment directed towards Reid about looking like a pipe with legs was a funny moment.
Against all this, some of the script is weak, with not enough interaction with the team (when there was some it was great) or profiling, which played second fiddle to a potentially creepy but rather oddly executed concept with the surviving unsub. A shame, considering that both are such a huge part of the show's appeal. There are some nice scenes, but the rest of the episode is a bit bland. This is due to a rather tired and sometimes pedestrian-in-pace story based around an unsub relationship and dynamic not at all unfamiliar to 'Criminal Minds' already (some of those cases a short time ago and a few in a very short time from one another) and with not an awful lot interesting.
Rossi's character hasn't yet settled in after his understandably shaky introduction in the patchy but still good "About Face", which benefited from a case that served the episode and show well. His more old-school and less intuitive approach at this point (it was with "Damaged", with a more personal side to him, when he properly became easier to like and more interesting) takes getting used to and he doesn't feel like an interesting or likable character yet (things he would be later on, and he along with Reid is ironically one of the main reasons why I still stuck with Season 11), rather stiff and not easy to warm to. Personally didn't find the unsub that menacing or memorable either.
Overall, a bit bland but not a bad episode. 6/10 Bethany Cox
Meh, okay but not great
jendarden14 December 2019
Still, I almost have to leave a comment for those reviewers who live in/near Great Falls or are at least familiar with the area. The comments were surprisingly alike, that it's not Great Falls nor Montana represented well. Believe me, they do the same thing with Virginia. Even though Quantico is in Virginia and any "local" scenes look pretty hip and cultured, episodes that take place in Virginia make it look like everyone lives in the sticks and are happy to have running water or some such. God help West Virginia...enough said.
Ummm...no
Dextrousleftie5 June 2015
I live in Montana, and first of all that's not Montana. Second of all, we're not all a bunch of hillbillies and hicks. We might sometimes be about thirty years behind technology-wise, but we don't all hole up in bunkers clutching our guns and waiting for the government to try to invade. That would be Texas! :P Joke. This episode was laughable from the perspective of a Montana resident. The only thing they got right was the Montana State Troopers' uniforms. Looks like they shot it in the mountains of California or maybe Nevada, certainly not up near Great Falls. And the Old West look of the grocery store - I laughed so hard! We have lots of old buildings here, but few of them look like that. Most of ours are heavy brick or stone because of the cold weather. We're not exactly the Wild Wild West like the Southwestern states are. Or we don't exactly look like it, anyway. They didn't even try to make it look like Montana. We just don't have sagebrush and sand everywhere, especially not up near Great Falls which is up by the Canadian border. And the aggressive stances of the 'locals' didn't fit, either. Montana people are actually pretty polite, even the gun toting ones. Fail.
Not Montana
ssowens-3591131 May 2019
Not Great Falls
ghcheese7 May 2019
I lived in Great Falls. Not in the mountains. Not that small. Actually pretty big. As far as the militia. I've met them. They suck. Their idiots. And there's not that many of them. This episode makes it look like Great Falls is a bunch of low life idiots. It's not. There's only a few. And that grocery store. Where the heck is that. Not even in Montana I bet. At the beginning of the show. That tunnel the car went through. That's California. Same tunnel used in many TV shows.
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