(no subject)
Been trying to post this post for the entire past hour. SO INCREDIBLY PISSED AND FRUSTRATED WITH LJ ISSUES RIGHT NOW. GRRRRR!!!!! THIS SUCKS STINKY CHEESEBALLS.
Criminal Minds tonight:
Scoring Kimberly Williams as the guest-star -- not bad at all! I'm surprised she was available/interested considering I thought she was tied up with her other show Lie to Me.
She's rocking the role so far.
BTW - Hotch acting as the official assessor of his team's grief over losing Prentiss is... hmm. I remember when Elle went off the rails she was ordered to undergo an outside psyche eval. Ordered and enforced by Hotch -- she had to pass that eval before she could be reactivated as an agent. Of course the circumstances were different -- Hotch knew Elle was guilty of vigilante murder and this was a way of forcing the issue. His team now is grieving, and he knows the truth that Emily is still alive. Still... Hotch dear -- you are an awesome boss. But I think you are too close to the issue yourself to be the most help to your team here.
He may or may not be a better choice than Strauss -- but there may have been an acceptable compromise. I dunno.
It's fascinating peeking at the various reactions of the team.
Morgan -- the anger.
Garcia -- the denial. Can we talk about how she made me smile?
Reid -- Bargaining with a twist. It's not fair. The scales should balance out, and they don't. If we can't keep our own people safe, then what's the point? (It's poignantly ironic that this massive lie he believes in is being perpetuated to keep her safe -- Hotch keeping his promise, protecting Emily's life, but it's hurting the other members of their family.)
Rosse -- Depression. I've come to realize... I'm more married to this team than I was to three ex-wifes.
It's interesting -- every single one of these evals highlights emotions that are hinted at existing in Hotch, either by his inferences, his line of questioning, his silence, his loss of eye contact, and the reminder of his own losses. Yes, he knows that Emily is alive. But he's got to be angry at having to lie to his team about it. He's got to be in a certain amount of denial at how he's handling things. He's struck a Devil's Bargain -- trading his team's pain for Emily's safety. Depression? Well, Rossi reminded us that Hotch has so very much to be depressed about - he's been through hell this whole past year. Losing Haley to an unsub targetting him, becoming a single father to Jack, now this.
Unsub: I just need to talk. She can't get to Acceptance without working through her own stages of anger, denial, depression, bargaining.
Morgan to Hotch: We come in here and talk to you. Where do you go?
Acceptance. We finally got to see some solid profiling skills being put to use when Hotch talked down Shelly. That was a nice, tense scene where we weren't sure if Hotch was going to be able to get through to her or not. We got to see those negotiating skills we've had referenced in the past put to good use, and Hotch was able to use the personal without Making It Personal -- his focus was where it was supposed to be, stopping further tragedy from happening. But there was a shadow over that. Everyone else got to let out a little of that inner pressure -- the guilt, the anger, the confusion and denial and not wanting to accept the changes within the team that have happened. Except Hotch.
Where do you go, indeed? No, he doesn't have to grieve Emily. He gets to feel the guilt of knowledge, the guilt of feeling like even saving Emily is still failing his team, because of the hurt they are suffering as a consequence.
I worry for this man. I think it would be easy to write off Hotch's mostly nonverbal responses to his team's expressions in their evals as being ineffectual and inappropriate that he was the one handling that particular duty. I agree -- but not because I think he did a crap job. Now that we've got the whole episode under our belt, I can see that he gave each person what they needed -- the freedom to express themselves. There was no wrong answer/response that they gave. The point was getting some honesty, that release valve to express themselves. It is my impression he succeeded with each of them.
Back to Morgan's question: where do you go? They have started dealing with their grief. Has Hotch started dealing with his guilt?
Criminal Minds tonight:
Scoring Kimberly Williams as the guest-star -- not bad at all! I'm surprised she was available/interested considering I thought she was tied up with her other show Lie to Me.
She's rocking the role so far.
BTW - Hotch acting as the official assessor of his team's grief over losing Prentiss is... hmm. I remember when Elle went off the rails she was ordered to undergo an outside psyche eval. Ordered and enforced by Hotch -- she had to pass that eval before she could be reactivated as an agent. Of course the circumstances were different -- Hotch knew Elle was guilty of vigilante murder and this was a way of forcing the issue. His team now is grieving, and he knows the truth that Emily is still alive. Still... Hotch dear -- you are an awesome boss. But I think you are too close to the issue yourself to be the most help to your team here.
He may or may not be a better choice than Strauss -- but there may have been an acceptable compromise. I dunno.
It's fascinating peeking at the various reactions of the team.
Morgan -- the anger.
Garcia -- the denial. Can we talk about how she made me smile?
Reid -- Bargaining with a twist. It's not fair. The scales should balance out, and they don't. If we can't keep our own people safe, then what's the point? (It's poignantly ironic that this massive lie he believes in is being perpetuated to keep her safe -- Hotch keeping his promise, protecting Emily's life, but it's hurting the other members of their family.)
Rosse -- Depression. I've come to realize... I'm more married to this team than I was to three ex-wifes.
It's interesting -- every single one of these evals highlights emotions that are hinted at existing in Hotch, either by his inferences, his line of questioning, his silence, his loss of eye contact, and the reminder of his own losses. Yes, he knows that Emily is alive. But he's got to be angry at having to lie to his team about it. He's got to be in a certain amount of denial at how he's handling things. He's struck a Devil's Bargain -- trading his team's pain for Emily's safety. Depression? Well, Rossi reminded us that Hotch has so very much to be depressed about - he's been through hell this whole past year. Losing Haley to an unsub targetting him, becoming a single father to Jack, now this.
Unsub: I just need to talk. She can't get to Acceptance without working through her own stages of anger, denial, depression, bargaining.
Morgan to Hotch: We come in here and talk to you. Where do you go?
Acceptance. We finally got to see some solid profiling skills being put to use when Hotch talked down Shelly. That was a nice, tense scene where we weren't sure if Hotch was going to be able to get through to her or not. We got to see those negotiating skills we've had referenced in the past put to good use, and Hotch was able to use the personal without Making It Personal -- his focus was where it was supposed to be, stopping further tragedy from happening. But there was a shadow over that. Everyone else got to let out a little of that inner pressure -- the guilt, the anger, the confusion and denial and not wanting to accept the changes within the team that have happened. Except Hotch.
Where do you go, indeed? No, he doesn't have to grieve Emily. He gets to feel the guilt of knowledge, the guilt of feeling like even saving Emily is still failing his team, because of the hurt they are suffering as a consequence.
I worry for this man. I think it would be easy to write off Hotch's mostly nonverbal responses to his team's expressions in their evals as being ineffectual and inappropriate that he was the one handling that particular duty. I agree -- but not because I think he did a crap job. Now that we've got the whole episode under our belt, I can see that he gave each person what they needed -- the freedom to express themselves. There was no wrong answer/response that they gave. The point was getting some honesty, that release valve to express themselves. It is my impression he succeeded with each of them.
Back to Morgan's question: where do you go? They have started dealing with their grief. Has Hotch started dealing with his guilt?