Last Wednesday Criminal Minds delivered the series’ most awaited 150th episode, which was very appropriately called “Unknown Subject” (or in Criminal Minds language, UnSub). In this episode, the team rushed to capture a serial rapist known as “The Piano Man”, who would be attacking his prior victims once again. Also, the plot behind SSA Emily Prentiss’s fake death was revisited as we are given an insight on how Prentiss has been dealing with the side effects of that traumatic experience.
There was a feeling of eerie foreboding from the opening scene, in which one of the rapist’s victims frantically attempts to ward off the effects of a date rape drug – thus effectively conveying the terror at being raped by the same offender a second time. Later on, the rape survivors’ statements to Prentiss (Paget Brewster) and JJ (A.J. Cook) were both sad and poignant, as it portrayed their hopeless attempt to rebuild their lives and their ultimate burden of having to relive their trauma just when they might have felt safer.
The violent and unbalaced nature of the case is successfully mingled with Agent Prentiss’s battle against her own scars. At the beginning of the episode we find out Prentiss has been facing therapy sections, and though she gets full clearance to do her job, we are left with a sense that her “healing” has barely scratched the surface – which is confirmed by Agent Hotchner’s (Thomas Gibson) remarks on the therapist’s report.
The most “buzzed” jet-plane scene between Hotch and Prentiss featured a very frank talk about how Prentiss’s captivity and near death experience may affect her professional performance – which, in a way, was a point previously made by Agent Morgan (Shemar Moore) in Dorado Falls. But while Morgan focused on getting Prentiss physically conditioned by submitting her to re-certification training, Hotch was concerned about Prentiss trying to “overcompensate” the pain that her demise had caused in her friends, instead of actually dealing with the psychological damage that invariably results from trauma.
The theme of dealing with the consequences of trauma was illustrated on the case at hand in its most twisted form, when one of the victims believes to have recognized “The Piano Man”, and plots for payback as she takes her alleged agressor into hostage. Actress Dina Meyer seemed to be totally in her element as the vengeful and haunted Regina, who tried to overcome her pain by mentally and physically turning the tables on the “Piano Man”. Their cat and mouse game was riveting and involving, as the narrating structure of the episode kept us in the dark about the true identity of the rapist. Was the man in Regina’s house guilty or innocent? The question was not answered until the very end.
Along with the writing full of plot twists, it’s also worth mentioning the great interactions among the team as a way of balancing the dark mood of the story, as well as the use of a great selection of famous 1980′s pop songs both as part of the unsub’s signature and as means of facilitating the team’s profiling work.
The final confrontation between Prentiss and Regina brought to the forefront just how damaged Prentiss was from her horrific experiences, cracking in her outer shell to the vulnerable woman underneath. The viewer could finally see that she was on the right track to healing, and not just putting a brave face on things. All in all, a very strong and well-played episode, certainly one of the best episodes of the current season.
Criminal Minds returns on Feb. 8 with all-new episode 13 – “Snake Eyes”. Until we meet again, tell us what you thought of “Unknown Subject” in the comments box.
