Review: 3x15 A Higher Power

yay! i'm on time this week :)

okay, so you know the drill... thar be spoilers ahead, y'all. and i apologize for the length... i tried something new... listen and write... so things are a little more deconstructed. dunno if this style will last.




Well. and Well again. I'm tempted to subtitle this episode, "The Ballad of Doubting Derek" because boy, howdy, was he ever the sour note for the team this week.

Yes, yes, I know, there's always got to be someone who plays Devil's Advocate, but sheesh, D-Man, d'ya think you could give it up once there's a preponderance of evidence??

okay, open on: Gabrielle the Bar-er-Renee O'Connor yammering away on a cell phone (now, all you Xenites out there... how freaking STRANGE was that? Gabrielle + Cell phone = a total whut? moment. ) it's dark, it's stormy, it's the beginning to an uber fic! um, okay... getting back on track...

the line, "you know Paul, his glass is always full" perfect, flat affect delivery... she's absolutely resigned to the fact that her husband is drowning his sorrows in a glass. in fact, i'd almost think she didn't give a damn.

the power goes out, and the angsty-faced ms. o'connor heads upstairs seeking her tv hubby so he can fix the power... which has conveniently gone out.

only to discover him lying in a full tub of water, clutching a space heater like a favorite stuffed toy.

yummy visuals, there art department. not so much on the gory side, but waaaaaaaaaaaaay up there on the creepy, with an extra dose of ick thrown in.

i totally gotta give Renee props for this role... she plays the, "shaking hand reaching out only to realize, mebbe i shouldn't touch that there 'lectrified water" perfectly. and her yell of pain, hopelessness, grief, fear, etc... no screaming mimis here... just pure broken-heartedness. yeah, i wanted her Uber Xena in Shining Armor to walk in about then...

next day, Paul's bro, who just happens to be a cop, whips out his cell and drops a dime on JJ. and like that, the team is looking at this as a new case.

Captain Broody has to run off to talk with his son (admirable, yes... very admirable. but oh, the angst. "i've lost her but i'm not gonna lose him" oy, somebody get me a kleenex!)

leaving Team BAU in the hands of New Spirit Captain Rossi...

we hear about how the team's help has been requested regarding a case where a fire that killed 14 children, and subsequently, five people related to those children committed suicide.

and Doubting Derek steps in with the ten thousand dollar question, "Why do they need our help?"

when the others proffer the beginning stages of evidence, his disbelief on ramps up, instigating Subtext Moment Number One: Emily to the Rescue! She jumps immediately to JJ's defense by performing her own version of the Doubting Thomas... "wait a second, FIVE suicides in the SAME neighborhood within months?" oh yes, lay it on, Emily... because that IS highly suspect, and the others chime right in with facts relating to suicide and tragedy... but Derek's still on the "Not My Problem" bandwagon... Dude, what have you got against Pittsburgh?

But, Captain Rossi's on the program, he's a team player now, so they're off to find the bad guy...

On the plane, Doubting Derek is doing the laid back version of a "but daddy would never let us do it" while the rest of the team continues to pepper him with statistics and reasons why they should (better than, c'mon, it'll be fun)

i am very interested by the placement of the team... derek, emily, spencer and rossi are all grouped in a fourplex of chairs, while jj is behind and slightly offside to them... a little out of focus, a little removed... like perhaps she's got something... weighing heavily on her mind? but even still, she chimes in ...

and i love the framing of her with Emily... that's almost Subtext Moment Number Two right there... all the times we see them in frame together, as an incidental thing, rather than "oh, this is because they're working this angle together" ...

Derek finally jumps on board, a little... and the team comes up with the fact that the UnSub is probably an Angel of Death.

arriving at the precinct... they're met by Ronnie Baleman, the brother of the space heater hugger... the rest of his department isn't so hot to see the team, but Baleman could care less... He's a Man with a Mission... the team splits into two, with Reid and JJ staying at the precinct to go over the victim files with Baleman and Prentiss, Rossi and Morgan heading out to talk to Gabrielle - Renee's character... and look over the scene.

Reid is getting a little more smooth with handling people... Coming up with the "help with the files" line is something i'd expect from JJ... perhaps she's been coaching little brother Spencer? :)

(out of the blue comment: are Fringy Bangs the "IN" thing? because Renee has them too, although for her, the style is just reminiscent of 1st season Gabrielle...)

Renee's character is firmly convinced (as her brother in law) that her husband didn't commit suicide and readily gives the team permission to look around the house... Rossi stays behind to question her and Renee does a great job of playing a woman on a hair's edge of falling to pieces... no more flat affect here... she's a sand grain away from going bonkers.

back at the precinct, reid, jj and the cop are building profiles of the victims to see if they committed suicide or something else...

Prentiss and Morgan head upstairs to the bathroom and Emily notes that there's no "GFI" on the 110 outlet... and her stance? very military parade rest-ish... she forgot to put on gloves and obviously doesn't want to contaminate the scene... good acting by paget... anyway, derek notes that there's a GFI in the kitchen ... and that he puts them in all his properties (woo D-Man's a landlord! bet he's a good one, too)

Emily's very interested, and amused by the image of LandLord Morgan... yet another piece to the puzzle of her teammate.
and she's impressed by his total... four properties. the man's doing very well for himself, yep yep.

Detective Baleman wants to inform the media as soon as the profiles prove that the suicides weren't suicides, but Reid and JJ are hesitant, because they need absolute proof, though once he's gone, JJ agrees with the detective... they should tell the town.

Next, we have the cutest baby ever and a very happy mommy... and then someone comes over for a "bag" and then time passes and the kid's stuck in his highchair all day... as the camera pulls away we get the very disturbing image of the crying baby, and mommy's body swinging from the rafters in the room next door...

next day, outside the house, emily's having a bit of a problem with the scene... which I'll interpret as Subtext Moment Number Three: who else but the partner would be the first to know about JJ's happy news?

Emily and Derek talk, with Doubting Derek still not quite on board with the whole, UnSub thing.

i LOVE the absolute certainty with which Emily says, "Fight" when Derek asks, "there's a bad guy in the house, what do you do to protect your child?" no blinking, no second thoughts... Emily would take on Godzilla to save her child.

Emily starts to list the reasons why the woman wouldn't commit suicide with her child in the other room... we flash over to JJ and Rossi working out the specifics... and Rossi orders JJ to work with Emily to inform the other parents of the kids who died in the fire...

With all of Emily's evidence, Derek wants to be convinced...

Rossi and Reid work out things, and figure out that "they all let him (the UnSub) in"

and Emily figures out that "he" (the UnSub) drugs them and calls Garcia...

"It's Emily the Strange and Great, what can I do for you?" (love that, in fact, i LOVE all of the Garcia/Prentiss interaction in this ep)

Prentiss asks Garcia to look for something that can incapacitate without killing and wouldn't show up in a tox screen

JJ and Reid work over the forensic analysis of the suicides, and figure out that they're not suicides... and JJ tells the cop that the media's been notified.

Hotch arrives, they bring him up to date on the murders... and away from the other cops, they give the profile, because the UnSub might be a cop

I have to give Doubting Derek props... when it comes time to deliver on the profile, he doesn't flinch and chimes right in... even though he's not fully on board.

next, we're at an AA meeting with a man who lost his son in the fire... and of course, you can guess that his life ends because the UnSub decides its time for this guy (who is finally on the road to getting over his grief) to die.

Subtext Moments Four - at least Seven happen while Emily and JJ talk to the families of the kids who died in the fire... the eyeshagging, the tender expressions and then the coup de grace, with the last couple and the woman who wouldn't hold her own child... the looks they share are eyeshagging to the extreme. they need a room, stat!

Garcia turns up a class of drugs - paralytics - that vanish from the body after a couple of hours... and that the drugs can be gotten online. The horror of it all? The victims saw their deaths coming. and Doubting Derek starts to get on board.

The UnSub gives a rambling, "this man is on the crazy train, and it's picking up speed" type of good bye to his latest victim... when the team gets there, they find a puncture would on the vic and Doubting Derek is no more... he's on board and full steam ahead.

Reid notices that all the notes have the same tone... and realizes that they are amends... part of a program in a self help group... reference, perhaps, to his own troubles with drugs...

and back with Garcia, they find out that there's 91 different AA meetings in the greater Pittsburgh area... and 11 various meetings in smaller area where the fire happened... they gather the troops and go out to talk to the people at the meetings... and at first they seem to be getting nowhere, but things start to come out and finally, someone talks about a man who spoke of his brother's suicide...

back at the precinct, the team works it out... and in an overlay set, we hear the story about a pair of brothers... and one boy was being molested by his father while the other pretended to be asleep... and the boy who was being molested eventually committed suicide... and the other brother found him. (the narrative gets a little fuzzy around here... i *think* that the brother who was being molested actually was the one who did not kill himself while the one who wasn't, did... but as i said, it was a little fuzzy)

from this story, they have enough info for garcia to find the UnSub... and Emily delivers another great line, "I love you Penelope Garcia" to which Garcia responds, "Get in line" *sigh* happy smile. last week, we got great JJ/Garcia interaction, this week, Emily/Garcia (friendshippy, relationshippy, however you wanna see it :)

this gives me hope for some Emily/JJ shippy stuff in the future :) (please? the hand holding in Penelope was ever so long ago... maybe a hug? like when JJ announces, 'oh by the way, i'm preggers'?)

aaaaaaaaaaaaand of the team goes to get the bad guy.

and we get the Hot Moment of the Ep. bangs, or no bangs, Page does Ponytail+Kevlar+Gun very, very, extremely very well. (and for the MiS fans... did she not totally look like Ashurst's big sister, or what?)

we also get another Subtext Moment in the form of "every where JJ goes, there Emily follows"

the guy is defintely the UnSub, and his next target is the mom who wouldn't hold her kid... so they go to find her...

the culmination of the ep... the UnSub gets the woman in her car, alone... and is about to shoot her, but she's not as helpless as she appears... she floors the gas, rams the car into a very large dumpster... knocking the UnSub out.

(I have to say, much as I liked Renee's character, I would have loved to see her in the Laurie Ann role)

the arrests are made, and as Laurie Ann, highly flat affect waits for her husband, Emily comes over and tells her that she's going to be okay... I like this moment... Emily's trying so hard to reach her... and maybe, just by a fraction, she does... we'll never know.

The cop thanks them for coming, but they tell him that his brother really did commit suicide... he refused to believe them.

Paget delivers the ending monologue.

Rossi and Hotch talk about Hotch's son, Jack... very nice moment...

and then Derek and Emily talk about things... Emily's stlil doubting (as we've seen before) if they're doing any good... and Derek tells her the reason he has properties is if he's not kicking down doors, he's smashing down walls and that makes him feel like he's doing something for the better (okay... whatever) but that seems to help Emily (creation from destruction, i suppose)

while this ep wasn't heavy on the big subtext, there was lots of little moments. and of course, we takes 'em where we can gets 'em.

rating? 4/5 stars. the case, the acting... it was all on par with what we've come to love about this show.

next week? reid-o-rama. i'm glad i like the guy, else i might be a little irked at all the attention he gets. unlike say, Joxer, he's interesting.

tune in next week for more Squeezing the Subtext :)

so what'd everyone else think?