Criminal Minds 7.11 “True Genius” Review

“Do you ever wonder if you lived up to expectations?”

Criminal Minds starts the New Year with an episode that featured a new twist on an infamous case and a main character going through an existential crisis thanks to a milestone birthday. There were parallels between both storylines that explored what happens when a child prodigy grows up and doesn’t feel as extraordinary as an adult.

The infamous case that is being emulated is the notorious Zodiac killings that originally occurred in the San Francisco area between 1968 and 1969, with the killer corresponding with the police and press until 1974 (head here for more information). The Zodiac killings are one of America’s most chronicled unsolved crimes and the writers used this to momentarily suggest that the Zodiac killer had actually returned. It is not surprising to see that the real Zodiac was not the perpetrator of these new murders, but it is in fact the work of someone new. The surprise turned out not to be why the new killer was recreating the Zodiac crimes, but what had occurred between the two former chess prodigies when they were teenagers.

By reigniting the crime that had been a shared obsession as children Caleb (Jeff Newburg) believed that he would be able to reignite his friendship with Harvey (Finn Wittrock) as the pair had since drifted away from each other. This all took a more sinister and surprising turn when it was revealed that they had killed a boy when they were 15 and had never been caught for the crime. Harvey, it turns out was the dominant of the pair and had been the one to instigate this murder. That crime had been ‘perfect’ as they had gotten away with it and Caleb believed his new spree would also fall into the same category. This of course was not the case as Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) figured out the code and the motivation for Caleb’s actions, including what happened with the little boy they murdered. This is why you never suggest that Reid is “not as clever as you think you are.”

The case neatly tied in with Reid’s own worries about not living up to the high expectations from being so special and gifted as a child. In a touching conversation with Prentiss (Paget Brewster), Reid admits that he has fallen short of his aspirations; he thought by the age of 25 he would have found the cure for schizophrenia. When he was a child he was told he could do anything and he is afraid that he has let himself down with his career choices and he doesn’t know why he is in the FBI. This doubt is the opposite of the certainty he has at the first crime scene as he intuitively knows that this isn’t the work of the original Zodiac killer. His intuition is feeding into his work, yet he lacks this strong clarity about his own choices.

Reid resolves some of these issues by the end of the episode and it was good to see the return to of his close friendship with Prentiss, which was fractured by her faking her own death. Prentiss both gives him good advice and teases him about his worries, what any good friend would do. She also makes sure he gets the 30th birthday party he deserves, albeit at work but at least there is both cake and presents and Reid seems content with the work he is doing for the BAU. He realises that there is something incredibly right about being in this job and doing this work that does help people. This storyline also allows Gubler to shine with some terrific material, particularly with his scenes with Brewster.

Were you glad to see a Reid centric episode? What did you think of the Criminal Minds version of the Zodiac killer? Let us know your thoughts about this episode in the comments below.