It works better when I just make them have pr0n...
So, I was lazy on Wednesday night and fast-forwarded through all the unsub parts of Criminal Minds when I first watched the episode, and I just rewatched it all the way through and although I know there discussions of how the unsub was portrayed out there, my viewing was probably just enough informed by them that I'm unwilling to engage.
1. The HSK Database. When they first started talking about it and how they had put it together a few years back, I thought they were doing some awesome continuity thing that dated back to Frank and the way he managed to kill hundreds of women without being detected. But, as it turns out, the FBI has a Highway Serial Killer Initiative that includes a database. (It was apparently announced last spring which is pretty good timing which is probably where they brought in the idea.)
2. I thought Jody was a completely creepy little child. Even more so than some of the other ones they've had on there. I think part of it was being so coddled by her father - her demanding to see the queen over the radio at the end, and also the calm and cheerful description of the stories her father told her. I hope she gets years and years of therapy to counteract the conflicting messages that as the princess she can have whatever she wants when she wants it and that queens are disposable. Which brings me to....
3. How much mental illness was there in that family? Maybe none - my parents had a fire in their house that was an electrical problem and they weren't even home at the time, siblings wind up not speaking to each other for days/weeks/months/years at a time for all kinds of reasons, but this family? Controlling, sociopath father with anger management issues. Mother died in a fire. (Was it electrical? Burning cigarette? Why did the mother not get out? Was she drinking? Had taken a sleeping pill? Sacrificed herself to get Jody out?) And was she not in contact with her sister to the extent that the father didn't know about her? Didn't feel the need to tell her about her sister's death? The way JJ described the contact, this was the first the aunt was hearing of any of it. And yeah, if you're going to set up an exact mirror of Hotch's situation - child taken care of only by grace of the mother's sister - Hotch should probably actually appear in the episode as something other than a talking head.
4. Also, what I know about family law could probably fit in a thimble, but I don't think you can put a kid up for adoption over the protest of a natural parent that quickly. I mean, the court would never challenge a natural parent's right to raise their own child until someone made a complaint - which I think was the fact that Jody was missing so much school. But in a year since the fire? Yeah, lazy writing or other craziness going on.
5. Re: Lazy Writing. The person who wrote this ep was an uncredited assistant to Ed Bernero for two episodes back in season two. This is the first episode of anything she's written.
6. [Shipper Watch] I don't think Emily wants kids as much as she wants to fix young (especially teenage) girls who are effectively abandoned by their mothers. Just a thought. I did like Rossi announcing, "I'll call Emily," to the local LEO as soon as they realized the body wasn't Nancy Campbell.
7. Gabrielle Carteris, that shade of blonde is not your natural color and it is obvious. Let's try that again.
1. The HSK Database. When they first started talking about it and how they had put it together a few years back, I thought they were doing some awesome continuity thing that dated back to Frank and the way he managed to kill hundreds of women without being detected. But, as it turns out, the FBI has a Highway Serial Killer Initiative that includes a database. (It was apparently announced last spring which is pretty good timing which is probably where they brought in the idea.)
2. I thought Jody was a completely creepy little child. Even more so than some of the other ones they've had on there. I think part of it was being so coddled by her father - her demanding to see the queen over the radio at the end, and also the calm and cheerful description of the stories her father told her. I hope she gets years and years of therapy to counteract the conflicting messages that as the princess she can have whatever she wants when she wants it and that queens are disposable. Which brings me to....
3. How much mental illness was there in that family? Maybe none - my parents had a fire in their house that was an electrical problem and they weren't even home at the time, siblings wind up not speaking to each other for days/weeks/months/years at a time for all kinds of reasons, but this family? Controlling, sociopath father with anger management issues. Mother died in a fire. (Was it electrical? Burning cigarette? Why did the mother not get out? Was she drinking? Had taken a sleeping pill? Sacrificed herself to get Jody out?) And was she not in contact with her sister to the extent that the father didn't know about her? Didn't feel the need to tell her about her sister's death? The way JJ described the contact, this was the first the aunt was hearing of any of it. And yeah, if you're going to set up an exact mirror of Hotch's situation - child taken care of only by grace of the mother's sister - Hotch should probably actually appear in the episode as something other than a talking head.
4. Also, what I know about family law could probably fit in a thimble, but I don't think you can put a kid up for adoption over the protest of a natural parent that quickly. I mean, the court would never challenge a natural parent's right to raise their own child until someone made a complaint - which I think was the fact that Jody was missing so much school. But in a year since the fire? Yeah, lazy writing or other craziness going on.
5. Re: Lazy Writing. The person who wrote this ep was an uncredited assistant to Ed Bernero for two episodes back in season two. This is the first episode of anything she's written.
6. [Shipper Watch] I don't think Emily wants kids as much as she wants to fix young (especially teenage) girls who are effectively abandoned by their mothers. Just a thought. I did like Rossi announcing, "I'll call Emily," to the local LEO as soon as they realized the body wasn't Nancy Campbell.
7. Gabrielle Carteris, that shade of blonde is not your natural color and it is obvious. Let's try that again.