Criminal Minds52 Pickup
Original Air Date: 26 Nov 2008
JD - TwoCents Reviewer
JD@thetwocentscorp.com
Oh, it's a story told throughout the ages: Girl goes to bar. Girl meets boy wearing a fedora. Mister Casablanca flirts.Girl has a few too many drinks. Girl takes boy home... Boy guts girl and makes her clean up her own blood as she dies a slow painful death. Very, very romantic. This is the kind of guy you want to call the next day, if it weren't for that you'd be dead. This felt-capped fellow is, apparently, a little more Freddie Kreuger than Indiana Jones.
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[photo: CBS.com]
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Oh, it's a story told throughout the ages: Girl goes to bar. Girl meets boy wearing a fedora. Mister Casablanca flirts. Girl has a few too many drinks. Girl takes boy home... Boy guts girl and makes her clean up her own blood as she dies a slow painful death. Very, very romantic. This is the kind of guy you want to call the next day, if it weren't for that you'd be dead. This felt-capped fellow is, apparently, a little more Freddie Kreuger than Indiana Jones.
ReplyDeleteAre you already sick of my fixation on the fedora? I'll try to move on, but I make no promises.
52 Pickup takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, where, well, that exact thing I just described happens to a young girl at the very beginning of the episode. gent Todd, seen finally actually doing her job (well, JJ's job, anyway), is briefing the team on the case. The victim was gutted, though she wasn't actually killed for another four hours. She was also found with bleach, ammonia, and trash bags in a triangular pattern near her body. Todd has found two prior cases that fit the same signature, and in all cases, the women were found with bleach and ammonia under their fingernails. The only problem is that the victimology in the previous cases and this one is drastically different. He's gone from killing prostitutes to socialites, and now the team has to figure out why.
Oh yeah, and Reid, always the mood lifter, tells the team during the briefing that people can actually survive after they're gutted for days... I think I'm going to start wearing body armor.
The team flies their way to Georgia with the plan to start building two profiles, one for the first murders, and one for the latest one. As soon as they get there, however, they hit a road block. The family of the victim has stopped cooperating. And here we go, Agent Todd snaps into action and... lies to the family to get the team in the door. Hotch? Is not happy. Morgan tells Todd it's an eleven on Hotch's one to ten scale of screw ups. I think Morgan was being generous.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team is trying to profile the first murders, trying to figure out how their freak turned chic, when they come across ads classes on picking up women. Right along side of ads for, ah, the very accommodating sort of women the unsub was killing the first time around.
And then, we find a new body. This one has fallen out of a building from the eighth floor. Um, what?
There was no cleaning. The unsub just ran, his cleaning supplies left scattered. Hotch and Prentiss decide that the unsub not getting his kill will make him try again quickly. And they now have a race for time. Reid finds out the unsub was wearing sunglasses, and thinks he knows what's up with all the above the neck accessories. And the team zeros in on The Viper, a misogynistic scumbag that leads a 'how to pick up chicks' seminar. He just happens to be all about the crazy head gear too--hey, it gets a guy noticed, you know?--and teaches men to hunt women like prey in the local clubs.
He's very obviously just as much a keeper as our unsub... And lucky Prentiss gets to go flirt with him to try and figure him out.
This was a fun episode to watch unfold, with a lot of lighter moments. The Viper was every smart girl's nightmare, but fun to watch swagger anyway. The little shared compliment between Hotch and Garcia was a lovely touch, and I enjoyed the talk he and Prentiss had regarding Todd. Prentiss has been there. She knows what Hotch's scrutiny is like. Of course, while I loved that moment, I have to admit that Prentiss in the actual club talking to Viper just made me cringe. If she had done the girly hair flip one more time, she would have been out of my will. No joke.
The best, however, was probably Morgan teaching Reid how to handle himself around the women at the clubs, how to get their attention. Reid, apparently, has game. Silly, geek-boy game, but still...
I think the world has stopped turning.
I'm not entirely sure I trust Todd yet, though, in spite of how it all turned out. It feels like a pretty big gaffe, and one that most people with, you know, decency wouldn't try to pull around the family of a girl who'd just been brutally murdered. What do you guys think?
I also have to admit that the ending, sort of broke my heart just a little. Not just because of Reid's special delivery, either. I swear. No, really. (Though, the people at Criminal Minds should probably be made aware the fangirl collective is rabid, and they do bite.) But really, what they found in the back room of the unsub's house tugged my heart in all the worst ways.
So what I've learned this week? Stay away from men in inappropriate head wear. Seriously, if you see a guy in an aviator cap or a viking helmet walk into a bar, I would go the other way. Otherwise, you're probably safe... Okay, maybe not, but it's a start.
What did you guys think? Give me your two cents!
I thought we already learned that about viking helmets from Flavor Flav!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this episode. I've been enjoying the Pick Up Artist on VH1, so it was fun to see this episode of "Criminal Minds style Pick Up Artist." I know which contestant won't be getting a medallion in jail!
The strategies and techniques that these pick up artists use are really interesting. But the scene where Viper is giving his lecture made me see a different side. A very unsettling side...
About Prentiss, I really hope that's not how she normally would do her makeup when she goes out. It was bad. But I guess that's probably how a cop trying to look slutty would look!
As for Todd, I'm not sure how I feel about her either. I could see the lying-to-get-the-job-done thing as not a problem on other cop shows though. The Mentalist does stuff like that. The guys on Numb3rs would probably do it and pat each other on the back!
Flavor Flav! Ahaha! Yes, I should add clock necklaces to the list of 'Things Every Girl Should Watch Out For That Should Be Obvious Warning Signs, But Apparently Are Not To Everyone'.
ReplyDeleteI did find the whole class part creepy too! I was actually watching one of these guys who teaches a class like that on youtube recently (the link popped up on my gmail; I couldn't keep my fingers from clicking out of curiosity. I just wish I could remember the guy's name). It was a similar sort of thing (having the gimmick to get in the door, so to speak; a hint at the alpha male thing), without the blatant 'women are prey' angle, but I found it unsettling too.
But I guess that's probably how a cop trying to look slutty would look!
The dress looked great, but everything above the neck was so bad. So, so, bad. I actually feel a little sad for Paget that it was committed to film. We DO see Prentiss at the bar with the team in season two, though, and she looked good then, so I'm just going to keep telling myself that look was all for Viper. Crazy hat, meet clown make-up.
Okay, that was, perhaps, really harsh. I'm mostly kidding. It wasn't quite THAT bad.
I could see the lying-to-get-the-job-done thing as not a problem on other cop shows though.
So can I, but I guess I judge "my" team members by Hotch's standards now. Plus, I can also see doing that with people who "deserve" it, but I think it's kind of more seedy with grieving family members.
I loved the insight we got into the various relationships in the team. This relationship gave us little moments with Hotch & Garcia, Prentiss & Todd, Morgan & Reid, Hotch & Prentiss... The personal relationships and the fantastic way this team functions is what has brought me back over and over to this show, and this was a great episode for that.
ReplyDeletePlus I have to admit, I really loved the scene where Hotch chewed out Todd. He's such an unflappable guy that I love watching him yell at someone for any reason. :D
The Hotchalanche was great - and truly deserved.
ReplyDeleteAnd the murders gave me the shudders. EW.
Carfinel -
ReplyDeleteI'm still not feeling Todd much (at this point, I'm a little "sink or swim!" about her), but yes, seeing those little private moments between the rest of the team were great this episode. I think that's actually the main reason this episode really works for me.
He's such an unflappable guy that I love watching him yell at someone for any reason. :D
I couldn't agree more! I kept feeling like Todd looked like she was going to laugh, though. All I could think was, "Oh, he's going to go all 'The Tribe' on you any second if you don't stop."
Okay, he really wouldn't have, but he needs to do that to some unsubs again real soon. :D
Anon -
ReplyDeleteWell, I would say those murders were anyone's worst nightmare (seriously gutted for four hours before you're generously allowed to die?!), except that pretty much anything on this show is my worst nightmare.
The Hotchalanche was great - and truly deserved.
Yes! And I absolutely love that term, by the way. :)
loved the 'reid pick up' part, you got to.
ReplyDeleteTodd... well, her career in the BAU really isn't seeing a very bright future.
and i loved the part where reid was demonstrating viper's techniques during the briefing. not a fan of Todd, so it was really funny to me.