CM rewatch: Extreme Aggressor

[chocolate_death]

Rewatching the pilot episode with the commentary track off, because comparing notes with amy494walker.

Quotes used:
For Heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself. ~William Heirens, The Lipstick Killer
The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. ~Joseph Conrad
Try again. Fail again. Fail better. ~Samuel Beckett
Try not. Do or do not. ~Yoda, but misquoted (actual quote: "Do or do not. There is no try.")
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you will see. ~Winston Churchill
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks into you. ~Frederich Nietzsche

• keeping in mind the pilot episodes are usually the sales pitch to networks, and may end up having things that differ from the rest of the show once the series gets picked up for a season
• loved the overhead pan shot from the ceiling; I do remember the commentary making note of that, cuz it leaves us all wondering who would be the focus, and then it locates and moves in on the girl
• I also recall they filmed in Vancouver, and just their luck there was no rain so they had to make some (some shots have dry windows/car, other shots have beads of rain
• so we saw the unsub fairly quickly into the episode, but his identity is concealed.
• a minute later, and she realises that he's up to no good
• Sergio and Gideon comes up as name choices! Her reaction to Sergio, his reaction to Gideon.
• cute Hotch/Haley moment while he assembles the crib
• fax machine kind of spoils their romantic mood
• bedroom looks like a hotel room; fax machine's on a console table, maybe in a hallway/home office?
• Morgan with the ladies- trainees/cadets, playing drinking trivia game
• cadets fawning over the idea that Morgan worked with the 'famous Gideon' and asked about Boston
• Morgan's reaction and his reply: "I was supposed to be." Possible guilt for not making it there? As in survivor's guilt?
• Gideon in his natural habitat- teaching cadets at the Academy- watching the hand gestures and the tone of voice he uses with the students
• defining what the term UnSub is (iirc, commentary made mention that they had to keep bringing it up for the season to get people used to the terminology); giving the profile of The Footpath Killer
• commentary also made mention of how they coloured Mandy's head to hide the bald spot; he didn't like it, so they didn't do it for the rest of the show
• I never did get why they have Reid's hair gelled so immaculately, but his shirt wasn't tucked in.
• UnSub used William Heirens' words in the email virus on the girl's work computer
• Morgan's doubtful of Gideon; "They want you back in the saddle. You ready?"
• Reid mentions that Gideon was on medical leave, which was cut short by this case in Seattle. Also calls Gideon 'Boss'
• Director or someone under the director gives Hotch orders to evaluate Gideon and his fitness to return to his previous duties- but didn't they give him a psych eval for that? Also why someone on the team and not the section chief (aside from the obvious that they hadn't casted anyone in that role yet)? "Field assessment" on Gideon falls to Hotch's duty somehow? (26:29 into the episode)
• Ooooh, shipper moment: Reid waited for Hotch at the entrance to the jet.
• perfecting the profile on the jet; somehow they had Morgan ask the obvious questions and had Gideon correct him. "stabbed then strangled?" "other way around."
• we get to see what happened to the girl
• apparently, it's really creepy to watch the unsub clip her nails (according to the commentary)
• Morgan brings up issues about Gideon's PTSD, the hypervigilance-- more clues that Gideon's damaged goods
• Hotch thinks "everything's okay" because it's been 6 months since what went down in Boston (Adrian Bale, which we find out in another episode- Won't Get Fooled Again)
• team introductions to the Seattle field office; Morgan's specialty is obsessional crimes; Gideon corrects Hotch with the use of Doctor Reid, and Hotch adds "our expert on, well, everything"
• Hotch also cracks a joke which reveals that he had been with the Seattle field office for 2yrs
• criminal record or watching crime dramas as knowledge base for the UnSub, nice point.
• unbiased perspective brought up by Hotch; he wants to make things fair, a trait we'll see time and time again
• awesome transition effects from office to murder site
• Morgan's peacoat!
• LEO and his awe for Gideon (recurring theme, apparently); Morgan is (again) less than impressed, also set the record straight on the cost of chasing down Adrian Bale- 6 agents lost their lives (again, possible survivor's guilt from Morgan?)
• the cinematographer must've liked Patinkin a lot too-- gave the appearance of a halo around his head in that shot
• ah, the throwaway one-time-occurance of "the Reid-effect" remark; Hotch grins after saying "it happens with children too"-- he cracked another joke!
• Reid spouting off relevant facts, like how animals can smell the hormonal changes in our body chemistry because of emotional stress-- I miss that Reid because he's not in s7; Hotch translating into layman's terms for victim's brother
• Reid finds a clue in the mail pile; H/R eyesex scene and also completed each other's sentence; also the angle of where they're standing does make Hotch appear taller than Reid (may also be because they want Hotch to look taller via lifts in the shoes and play up on Reid's youthfulness)
• Reid and his inability to remain still (will be a mild recurring theme throughout the early seasons of the show)
• Hotch/Reid/Morgan on one end of the room working on the profile while Gideon's over by the map and staring at it til he has an epiphany
• Morgan doubts the readiness to present the profile just because Gideon said so.
• somehow Hotch disappears off-camera or Morgan doesn't want to bring the doubts up at Hotch but doesn't mind him hearing him voice them to Reid.
• again, Gideon's in his natural habitat, lecturing to the LEOs; use of green-screen with the background overlay; thematic music used during profile presentation
• creepy shot of child future!unsub looking at Gideon
• bad lighting is bad for the other three guys, but more so for MGG (also didn't help that he had that medical condition where it was hard/painful to eat; mentioned in the interview on the Craig Ferguson show)
• hello there Elle bb
• what a ploy to get Richard Slessman arrested XD; showcases the lengths Elle would go through to get her man
• explanation about fire-setting history possibly in Slessman's history, citing other famous serial killer examples (Berkowitz)
• Elle prefers to be called by her first name after Gideon addresses her by her surname; also was considerate of Slessman's household-- "I don't send a SWAT team into a house with children."
•  Elle's background brought up by Gideon (that was mentioned by Hotch)- sex offender cases
• Morgan's joke "next time, show a little leg" gets a reaction out of Elle LOL. "the only time you're gonna see a little leg from me is when I'm about to kick your ass." (reminds me of that '20 words or less' ficlet I wrote with that pairing, and the throwing daggers I gave Elle)
• established fact: Morgan teaches hand-to-hand at Quantico
• there's an opening in the BAU, Elle's trait that we see again is her initiative to go after things she wants.
• errors in the profile? Missing pieces of the puzzle. They got only part of the profile right and are trying to solve the case.
• moment remembered from commentary-- they liked Elle going up the stairs to the attic, but changed the shot to that of the basement staircase, because the basement stairs looked better for the 'headed up to the attic' shot
• Slessman playing Go against himself; Reid proves it by spinning the board- interesting observation on his part. Also the style of play by Slessman gives us the title of the episode.
• Quote war between Gideon/Morgan shows the differences in... generational references? background? Gideon's unimpressed.
• Gideon spots the profiling book among Slessman's posessions ['Journal of Applied Criminal Psychology']; paused at the right time: 'Articles by: Special Agent Jason Donovan' can be seen; prop-making error mentioned in the commentary: lefthanded pages are blank. ooops.
• Gideon finds a newspaper article about himself and the Bale fiasco.
• Slessman playing mind games on Gideon about the death of his friend-- broken ribs while performing CPR. Possible that his death as well as the fiasco triggered the PTSD
• Hotch listening in on the interview/interrogation, looks troubled that Gideon may have been affected by what Slessman said.
• Hotch's trenchcoat!
• Gideon looks troubled after running off from being rattled by Slessman (he ran off after what Frank did to Sarah in No Way Out II)
• deflecting by addressing what Slessman said: "he said 'isn't she the girl'" the girl was mentioned in present tense cuz killers would accidentally refer to the victim in the past tense if the victims were already dead
• Hotch wasn't gonna let that derail what's on his mind. Also to the point, asking about the CPR on Gideon's friend. Not statistics, but how Gideon's doing, not buying the 'I'm fine' act.
• they figure out the missing piece to the puzzle is a second killer, using grandma Slessman to narrow suspect list to someone he knows
• Garcia bb! "Well, gorgeous, you've been rerouted to the office of Too Frickin' Bad." XD
• Morgan playing the 'I'm the UnSub' game
• he figures out insomniac!Slessman uses music to help sleep
• more H/R eyesex; Reid asks Hotch about what's going on with Gideon, Hotch says "don't worry about it" (again reassuring first Morgan, then Reid about Gideon)
• Reid's question about the higher ups being nervous about Gideon being in charge establishes that Gideon was the Unit Chief in the pilot (since changed for the rest of the series)
• the answer to why it's Doctor Reid-- "because he knows that people see you as a kid, and he wants to make sure that they respect you." Perhaps Gideon was looking out for Reid's best interests for altruistic purposes, but also as a way to stake a claim that Reid's his protégé.
• Gideon and Elle get news from Hotch that their suspect for Slessman's partner is dead. 
• they found the guard fits the profile of the dominant partner
• interrogation tactic with the boxes of 'Vogel's file' (reused in Profiler, Profiled)
• Reid fiddling again, with the CD after Slessman's room was torn apart; he shows up in the attic where Morgan is-- first appearing is the bent paper clip he's twirling in his fingers (#shameless hand porn), again he can't remain still
• discrepancy: Metallica CD in the laptop's drive isn't the same one that 'Enter Sandman' is on. Empty jewel case is for the CD though.
• Hotch trying to get Slessman to turn on Vogel
• Elle's hunch something's wrong; Gideon points out most used word in her file: "impatient" (which gets used in her breakdown on the William Lee case in The Aftermath)
• she gives Gideon the reasons to pull the car over, and since it made sense he agreed to it. Proving her profiling ability
• Reid notices the differences between camera stills of the victim; Morgan pinpoints the possible location to being on a boat that's moored
• Slessman finally believes that Vogel's gonna throw him under the bus and tells them where to find the girl
• Gideon displaying reckless behaviour by offering himself up as the target? Also, no bulletproof vest for him nor Elle!
• Gideon: "I think you're an absolute moron." (Mandy's demeanour seems to indicate that's how he feels about pretty much everyone else) He's also deliberately provoking Vogel, while Vogel's got the gun pointed at the girl's head. Profiling indicates that taking such a stance would be okay cuz there's no way Vogel would shoot the girl? Risqué move, Gideon
• Gideon tells Elle to look after the girl, who's hysterical; Elle comforts the girl
• Gideon has a good (small) moment with Heather, looked like the end of comforting her while she's on the stretcher about to be loaded up onto the ambulance.
• Eye-sex moment for Hotch/Morgan
• Of course Reid knows what the names mean in a baby name book. LOL
• Hotch asked for Morgan's opinion on Gideon; he was aware of his doubts about Gideon's capability to resume his duties in the field. "Gideon saved her life. That's good enough for me." Guess that makes Gideon a pass in Morgan's book.
• nice moment between Hotch and Gideon, also touches upon the horrors of their jobs affecting other areas of their lives-- name association being one of them.
• can't get much past other profilers (very common theme among fanfics where the relationship is being kept a secret =|)
• Gideon figures out the clerk's the Footpath Killer
• Lukas Haas! He notices Gideon's packing heat.
• a cliffy for the network execs cuz they might be interested enough to want to know what happens to Gideon and want to pick up the series?