That didn't take long...the familiar letter returns, and what a tough one this one was to sit through.
Maybe it's just me, but I got some serious "100" vibes coming out this episode, in that both storylines featured an UnSub who targeted a team member specifically and sought to systematically destroy them. Both stories featured loved ones killed and loved ones saved, and both stories also featured the targeted member going rogue and at least cornering the UnSub and preventing their escape.
It was also supposed to pack a meaningful, emotional punch where we feel the pain of the team member who has now "lost everything" and is forced to regroup and pick up the pieces and move on when it feels impossible to do so.
Riveting stuff...except, in this episode, it just didn't work.
Truth is, for something like this to work, we really needed to have met the characters before, got to bond with them and eventually feel that connection to the characters. When it comes to Hotch, Haley and Jack, there was a lot more than just George Foyet with a handgun and Jack "working the case"- there was a whole plot about Hotch becoming a new dad and doing his best to wrestle his new responsibilities with his work responsibilities. As that plot developed, we found that Hotch wasn't particularly good at balancing work and family, and that eventually led to him divorcing Haley.
However, when Foyet came around, Hotch and Haley realized- too late- that they still loved each other, and they were determined to get through the terror so they could resume their happy relationship. Since this is Criminal Minds, that story was doomed to tragedy, one delivered by Foyet, albeit one with a small opening- at least Hotch saved Jack, meaning that while he can't rebuild the life he had with Haley, he can now focus on building a life with his son.
Why did that story work? Simply because the show displayed its patience and work hard to build that effective crescendo so when the hammer fell, it actually had the impact that it intended to.
They didn't try to shoehorn all that stuff into one clumsy episode for a character that's been hardly built up like Luke Alvez was, and therein lies the difference between "100" and "Luke".
I mean, let's be honest- as characters, there's not that much difference between Haley and Lisa and Jack and Phil (aside from their age). None of them have been developed particularly well and all served solely as "human plot devices" for the character whose plot they were servicing.
The only difference is that we got more than a bookend with Haley and Jack- we got actual stories with them and got to meet them a few times and hear their perspective that we actually got to know them.
Lisa and Phil? They're hardly ciphers amidst a rather faceless milieu of supporting characters, as, maddeningly, despite CM's insistence on expanding their main characters' personal lives, the show does little to make these adjunct characters mean something to us as an audience. Really, aside from Diana Reid and Rosalyn Jareau (both of whom we'd met in some capacity before Erica Messer), has there been anything memorable about the significant others, the families or the friends of our beloved heroes that have been introduced in the past seven years?
I struggle just thinking about it.
I could expend upon why, but this rant has gone on long enough, and I've already written before in other reviews about the sophomoric writing that is CM these days. It astounds me that the CM writers are considered Hollywood writers, because none of their writing could ever pass a high school course, let alone a Hollywood script. Too many times CM goes for the cheap- like a random death, stunt casting or over-the-top gore- to get its eyeballs, failing to realize that only works for so long.
We saw it with Phil- we hardly met him, but, he's dead, just so the show can have a cheap emotional moment. Oh well.
I will say this- Adam Rodriguez shined tonight. He really brought to the fore his acting range and delivered an A effort throughout. He was just let down by the writing and the tone of the piece, a episode that was so jarring that his performance got lost in all the muck.
A few other points to mention:
- S.W.A.T., the show Derek Morgan is now on (yeah yeah, I know- Shemar Moore's character there has a different name...but, c'mon...Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson might as well be Morgan with a thick beard), did this exact same episode in Season One, Episode 20, "Vendetta". Hondo went rogue to catch the kingpin of L.A.'s fentanyl trade because it got personal for him. He got called out for it and was even benched for it...but, get this, Hondo was actually a professional and took his punishment in stride, allowing his team to capture the kingpin instead of going rogue himself. It shouldn't feel refreshing to see law enforcement officers do as they're told, but it happens so infrequently in Hollywood that it does feel like a breath of fresh air when it does happen. That's how "Luke" should have played out.
- I like that Emily Prentiss grew a spine and laid down the law on the rogue Alvez, but she comes across as a complete hypocrite as a result. Where was the demotion, the desk duty and the tough talk when Matt defied orders and went rogue to save his wife in "Ex-Parte"? Why did Matt get a pass but Luke doesn't? Because only now the writers realize that having team members run amok like cowboys is contrary to good standards of policing?
- Gotta throw shade at Phil's death for another reason- all the victims murdered in this episode were men, and somehow no one seemed to realize it, least of all Luke. Good one writers- give Luke the Idiot Ball for five minutes just so he can't save his best friend. That should have been basic profiling- all the victims were male, so when Luke was thinking of the UnSub's next victim, it should have been Phil...but then we wouldn't have our "emotional moment".
- Oh, and I shudder to think that the show killed Phil out of a misguided sense of chivalry. "Kill the men because they don't matter- the woman is more important to Luke so she should live".
- Speaking of Lisa, I might have appreciated if she left Luke at the end of the episode. That might have given the episode a meaningful emotional punch, since Luke really would have lost everything. Yes, it's cruel but sometimes TV needs to remind its viewers that life is like that, and I think Luke really needs to rebuild his life.
- Finally, penciling in the UnSub was rather easy- Jeremy Grant laid it on thick as the sniper that he wanted to kill Edgar Ramos and was very upset that he couldn't. As soon as I knew Ramos wasn't the guy, I knew it had to be Grant.
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