I actually thought it was a very typical CM maneuver. Humanizing the unsubs this way is not rare for this show at all. There's been a large number of cases where the killers had a tragic past and you couldn't help but feel some sympathy for them. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but there was nothing unexpected about it, IMO. It's actually one of the reasons this show is so good. It doesn't give the audience a flat stereotyped bad guy and a flat stereotyped innocent victim.