This is gonna be a creepy one!

[a_blackpanther]

This is the discussion post for Episode 9x20 - "Blood Relations". Watch out for SPOILERS in the comments.

Comments

[ruralstar.livejournal.com]

I am curious to see if this episode lives up to the hype, and to MGG's creepy standards. Unfortunately, one of his episodes has the dubious honor of being included on my personal non-rewatch list. "Heathridge Manor" was admittedly creepy in direction but the story was just so ridiculous that the only way I can ever watch it again is with Matthew's commentary. Even then it's a chore. So here's hoping for the best tonight.

[dreamabella.livejournal.com]

I hope this one isn't gory.

[diemme.livejournal.com]

Wardrobe fail on Garcia this time.

So the unsub is Gollum?

[diemme.livejournal.com]

Yep, this is definitely on the no rewatch list.

[dreamabella.livejournal.com]

Same. Ugh.

[dreamabella.livejournal.com]

This episode was... I don't have words.

At least it wasn't as gory as other episodes have been.

[ruralstar.livejournal.com]

It's official, Gubler is certifiable. I've come to expect the weird when he directs. So far Lauren and Alchemy have been the most tame of the 7 under his belt. I actually thought the casting was excellent for Blood Relations. 'Golllum' as christened by others, had a great voice for his part. It wasn't hard to figure out that he was a child of incest...the story itself was predictable and yes I did laugh when Reid was telling the 'legend' I honestly don't think we were meant to take the episode too seriously. I was watching for creep factor and I got it. Barbed wire is certainly an imaginative weapon. It can do a lot of damage even when used appropriately. I will rewatch if only to study the camera work and shot choices. MGG seems to thrive when directing campy horror, which is how I viewed the episode. The one vote of sympathy goes to Jean Tripplehorn. Can you imagine the BTS discussion with MGG? "Now Jean your character is going to be pulled down into a swamp and half drowned. Are you game?" *snorts*

[diemme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think there will ever not be creepy when MGG is in charge. The presentation and look of the episode were great. It really had that old horror movie feel down to the unsub popping up again at the end.

[meepalicious.livejournal.com]

I am so glad I saw this comment before the end of the ep, or I would have screamed.

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

Also note the Hillbilly Cliche Bingo Card:

Clan feuding? Check.
Manufacture of controlled substances? Check (although the biofuel twist was a nice subversion.)
Simple piety? Check.
Inbreeding? Check.
Reluctance to cooperate with the government? Check.

[ruralstar.livejournal.com]

Hillbilly cliche bingo card! LMAO. You got that right.

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

And now we know why Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahassee Bridge: to get away from the Mountain Man!

And he's RIGHT THERE IN YOUR CLOSET AUGHHHH!

[ruralstar.livejournal.com]

LMAO.

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

Barbed wire is certainly an imaginative weapon. It can do a lot of damage even when used appropriately.

Another imaginative weapon: the bear trap as Redneck Flying Guillotine! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmdP1qTjGZY)

A point that no one, either in-story or here, seems to have commented upon so far: the guy who left the Confederate militia group adopted a stereotypically Jewish name--accompanied by conversion, I wonder?

[periantari.livejournal.com]

I don't really get the motive for the "Gollum" (haha!) character. So this didn't really close well, in my opinion... is this a to be continued? I didn't really find my questions answered about motive and the family tree confused me a bit.

[full-metal-ox.livejournal.com]

The problem, I think, is genre dissonance: Gubler clearly aspires to be a horror director--which requires a careful choice of scripts to overlap successfully with the police procedural format. The revelation that the Mountain Man is still at large ties into the classic horror trope in which the monster is still out there (AND COULD BE RIGHT THERE IN YOUR CLOSET BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!) (and will therefore be available for further installments of a lucrative movie franchise) ; I don't think the writers are going to follow this one any further.

This, of course, puts it at odds with the police procedural convention that the heroes will catch the bad guy and solve the problem--if not immediately, then over the course of a story arc. (A lot of CM episodes could be summarized as the BAU intervening to stop the horror movie; "Legacy", which deconstructs Saw, and "Reflections of Desire", a homage to Psycho, come to mind here.)