Criminal Minds Season Finale

[osprey_archer]

Eh? No, doesn’t quite work from that angle either.

Criminal Minds does many, many things very well, but season finales are not one of them. This is better than Fisher King, Part 1, but really. Where did this Morgan come from? And for that matter, not-quite-Haley British special agent who “liaised” with Hotch?

On the subject of the car explosion: assuming someone actually dies, my money’s on Hotch or JJ.

JJ, because the baby storyline could go wrong in so many ways that killing her off would be easier than dealing with it, and the fact that she’s pregnant makes it extra sad.

Hotch, because he’s in a downward spiral so it would be totally tragic. Plus, everyone loves Hotch, so it would hurt horrendously, which I’m sure would fill the Criminal Minds writers with glee.

The others are as close to emotionally stable as Criminal Minds characters get, so killing them wouldn’t complete any kind of emotional arc. It would just feel pointless and cruel. Which doesn't mean the writer's won't do it. They'll just get less bang for their buck that way.

But if it’s Prentiss, I will cry.

Which means it's probably Prentiss.

Comments

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking it could be Reid simply because the writers have done so much to/with him already that he's not as interesting as the others anymore. I like Reid, don't get me wrong, but not nearly as much as I did first season.

JJ wouldn't be as big a loss to the function of the team (in the way that she's not one of the profilers), but the personal loss would be tremendous. And, of course, Hotch is the team's father figure, so it'd be interesting to see what they do without him.

I'm actually sort of hoping it's Reid because I still want to play with the others some more.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I suspect it won't be Reid just because he has such a strong fan base. The CM writers are gutsy, but killing Reid would be..well, there would be some extremely negative fan reaction.

But purely in story terms you're right. Any more back story and Reid will keel over from the weight, whereas most of the others have nooks and crannies left to be explored.

I think I like that rubric because it means that Hotch and Prentiss have to live, as they are still full of mystery.

So perhaps JJ or Morgan will die, because they have fairly full backstories? I suppose it could be Rossi but I don't think there's enough fan attachment for his death to really hurt, and CM writers, like serial killers, seem to enjoy making their viewers writhe.

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

Logically, I agree with you (of course). That doesn't stop me from wanting to keep everyone around though.

I haven't actually seen the episode yet, but I'm getting the impression there weren't really any clues dropped about who it could be. Yes/no?

Do you watch Bones at all? I only ask because I got the feeling that it had one of the whodunnit type plots where you draw the name out of the hat after a dozen different endings have been shot. I don't want to think that CM would be that tacky, but there's a little bit of charm to the idea that the writers are as much a victim of chance and circumstance as the character in question.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It's entirely possible that no one died. I'm not sure how anyone could live through being right on top of a car bomb, but this is TV, after all.

No clues as to who got bombed that I can remember, although there might have been something really subtle that I missed.

I don't watch Bones. As for the pulling the name out of the hat...I think the CM writers tend to plan things quite carefully...but there would be a little bit of charm into watching them spin out the consequences of a chance-selected teammate dying.

Perhaps even more than a little bit of charm. However, I think the actors might get irritated about being fired that way.

The problem with discussing TV shows artistically is that they're so controlled by non-artistic factors, which can be interesting in their own right but get in the way of things sometimes.