It's not a rough day until a serial killer tries to get you.

[a_blackpanther]

This is the discussion post for Episode 7x14 - "Closing Time". Watch out for SPOILERS in the comments.

Comments

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

Just a few comments:

I'm not that crazy about Beth, but it's nice to see Hotch with a little more relaxed affect at work - "Wouldn't want her to be bored" LOL.

Jeeze, Hotch - you and Emily need to practice how to tell someone their fiance's been murdered. Interview her, THEN break the news? Cold much?

I know it was to set up the hand-to-hand, but surely JJ knows that you never, ever lay down your weapon. And you need to yell "FBI!" louder so your partners will hear you.

I knew they were going to give JJ a little action sequence, but it didn't make much sense to have her initiate it. It would have been much more in character for the unsub to attack her for some reason and her to lose her weapon and have to defend herself. The was it was done just seemed forced.

I'm trying to keep the thought at bay, but I keep getting the feeling that the Season 6 fuckery and its aftermath have permanently hobbled what was once a brilliant show.

[maskerad.livejournal.com]

I was also a bit confused when she just jumped on the unsub. I mean, they have dealt with unsubs like this before, and this is the first time a character has to go in a fight to get the weapon out of the killers hands. It would have been fun if he attacked her (and it would have made more sens too).
But I'm still happy she got to kick ass, it's the first time we see her take down an unsub like that.

[cammieluvr.livejournal.com]

It seems like she just put down her weapon and like jumped on him, with no real sense of escalation of the situation. And yeah, there have been a handful of eps this season that have given me hope, but I think Season 6 definitely took its toll on this show :(

[scotchsour.livejournal.com]

I think the problem with the last group of episodes and what I think they messed up later on in the years is the flip of unsub first and investigation last. Early, they used to tell stories where we didn't know the unsub and we would find out with the team but these days it's a formula: Crime committed, known unsub, team gets case and try to figure out what we already know. It's getting boring.

Edit: And making basic procedure mistakes that even us noobies wouldn't do without a little research. I am sorry but there is no way in hell you going to get me to like Garcia's episode, that was all kinds of procedural wrong.

[nwjarvis.livejournal.com]

You know, I think maybe that's a result of Erica M. running the show. It's like they decide what they want to see a character do, then they bend procedure to make that happen - like Garcia's episode, like JJ's fight scene. I could be wrong, but I think ex-cop Ed B. would never have gone along with such glaring out-of-policy happenings.

And it's not like it would be hard to fix. Would it be so difficult have put JJ in a situation where she was jumped at close quarters, lost her weapon, and had to take him hand-to-hand? It's been a while since I saw the Garcia ep, but couldn't someone in the writer's room have come up with a way to put er into a position where she had to do the negotiating?

When a character does something out of their normal 'character', the narrative needs to "corner" them into doing it; for example, Hotch didn't beat Foyet to death just because he could - the story forced him into a kill-or-be-killed situation.

If the narrative doesn't force the issue, the character just comes across as having acted foolishly; and IMO that's just lazy writing.