Imagine babysitting your cousin’s child, only to find that one night while the kid was with you, they’re abducted while under your watch. Terrifying, right? And so sets up the stage for last night’s Criminal Minds episode. The episode was a classic child abduction storyline, with a dramatic twist that we’ve come to know and love about CM. This ep wasn’t by any means as gory or graphic when it came to images as we often see on the show, but it definitely touched on some very delicate subjects.
The episode told the story of 4-year-old Gabby who was being left with her mom Kate’s cousin Sue, after Kate won a weeklong Caribbean cruise from a raffle. Things are great with the babysitter and Gabby – that is, until Sue decides to go to a liquor store to get some essentials late at night. (Silly Sue, don’t you know only BAD things happen after dusk?!) Within the four minutes she was in there shopping, someone had already abducted the child. It’s a mother’s worst nightmare! The team tries to solve the problem as quickly as possible, as abductions and their repercussions occur quite rapidly. First the father is suspected of finding her a few days before and eventually killed her. But as the BAU investigated, it turns out it was the babysitter herself who gave away Gabby! She did it to hold it over Kate, whom she was insanely jealous of. Don’t mess with the BAU!
Although this episode didn’t have that overall feeling of intensity as it could have, there were a lot of great things about it. First of all, The Bold and the Beautiful‘s Ashley Jones makes a guest appearance as Kate, Gabby’s mom. She does an incredible job being a serious, protective mom but it’s also not too mushy. The one thing that was great about last night was seeing Sue go from 0 to 60 when it came time to show people her true colors. Watching her emotions and mental state go downhill so rapidly was, for lack of better words, incredible.
While the ending was meant to be a happy ending with Gabby and Kate being reunited, it also showed two children who were abducted but had to be placed in a foster home. They made it a point to mention that while these kids were lucky, there’s so many out there that we don’t know about, which left us with a bad taste in our mouth.
Other thoughts on the episode:
– Was it just me or did Sue look like a very, very angry Kendall Jenner?
– Although it touched on some very delicate subjects, this episode was very tame in regards to the sometimes-graphic images we usually see on Criminal Minds.
– I know this ep revolves around a child abduction, but does JJ always have to be referenced whenever the case has anything remotely to do with a mother? It’s like, “The unsub has a mother and I’m a mother!” Or We GET it, JJ is a mother.
– As much as I dug this episode, I couldn’t help but think that CM is getting a little too soft when it comes to storyline. I want more meat, less fluff.
[Photo via Robert Voets/CBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved]
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