By the time I saw this episode, I started on Season 7 and I know about Prentiss's James Bond days.
Anyone here saw it during the first run though? How weirder was Aaron and Emily's reunion now? He sees the little girl of an old boss (What is she doing here?), she says she's been working in the Midwest in a way that implies she was some sheltered admin clerk, but BAM, she was actually Secret Agent Prentiss! Did she just come into BAU straight from The Cold?
On the introductory crime scenes, two things I like very much
1) Gore aversion: The killer strikes but we don't see the what he sees...
Start to Corpse is averted too (where the very present of a corpse is required to 'kick start' the story): The chase begins without the gore, the fact that we knew bad things happened to the women without seeing it, is scary enough, because
2) Both women were given screentime to established with the viewers that they are people, not just fodder for the unsubs. Contrast to to "Remembrance for Things Past" (or as I remember it "Targeted Demographic: Ageing Serial Sex Killers"), where, other than the parents, who was important to the unsub as the target of the phone message, we never saw the victims through anyone's eyes but the unsubs. (and the family can't be counted actually, because they weren't on screen together). Considering Disposable Sex Worker trope, I especially adore the people responsible for the episode, that when we see the second victim, like the first one, we see her as a mother with her kids.
ETA: ...and Emily waiting in Aaron's office in the end, she wasn't desperate to prove herself, she knows what she can do, she was desperate to get back into The Game.