Omnivore
Criminal Minds was #2 in the 9:00 time slot, beaten by American Idol on Fox.
I liked this episode; I liked that it focused on Hotch without sacrificing the story about the case. Here’s what happened:
Hotch visits Boston to see Detective Shaughnessy, who was the lead detective on Hotch’s first BAU case ten years prior. Shaughnessy is on oxygen and sick. He tells Hotch that years ago, he made a deal with the Boston Reaper. He sent the BAU away and agreed to stop hunting the killer if the killer in turn stopped murdering people. And it worked. But the agreement was good as long as the detective was alive, and he was dying. The killer, he said, was watching and would begin again.
There is another Reaper murder - a couple actually - and Hotch gets the team on the case. Another couple is killed, this time by someone posing as a cop. The killer takes one thing from the victims and leaves one from another victim. The team goes over the case, focusing on the one survivor. A man was out with his younger girlfriend. She was killed and he was stabbed several times, yet lived. The team enlists the help of a journalist for the survivor’s address - this journalist has written about the case extensively and knows him. Hotch and Rossi go to see George, and you get the impression that he’s terrified of the Reaper. Yet he’s remained in Boston all of these years. Hotch gets a phone call at his hotel - it’s the Reaper, offering him the same deal as Shaughnessy. Except Hotch says he doesn’t make deals and hangs up.
Immediately after, the unsub boards a bus and kills the driver and passengers. He paints his signature, the Eye of Providence (the all seeing eye) on the bus. This devastates Hotch, who feels like it’s his fault. Next comes my favorite part of the show. Hotch gets very upset - tearing up. Rossi takes out his gun, and says Here use this then. He says that if Hotch takes on the responsibility and guilt for every crime, he’ll end up like Shaughnessy or Gideon. After this great speech, Hotch just replies, “Put your gun away. It’s a bit dramatic.” Rossi replies that his exes - all of them - thought was was very dramatic. I loved how they had a serious, dramatic speech followed by a moment of levity. It seemed very natural, and it fit Hotch’s personality perfectly. I think that Rossi is the only one who could’ve spoke to Hotch that way.
Ok, so, the team figures that the surviving victim has some significance to the killer because he had left George’s glasses at the scene of one of the new murders. My summaries sort of ramble along, don’t they? Anyway, they figure he might be in danger. The team splits up to look for him. At one location (apparently he had two or three addresses? Am I right? I had visitors over.), the team finds copious amounts of his blood. At another, Morgan is searching a house and all of a sudden a dark shape rushes him and they go through the window. It’s the Reaper, who takes Morgan’s credentials and leaves him with a bullet. He would have killed him but Morgan had been knocked out - the killer wouldn’t have had the fun of torturing him.
The team wonder why the Reaper was obsessed with George. They look into George’s girlfriend and find out she was a teaching assistant from Michigan. JJ points out that the Reaper had Shaughnessy post the ad in the Michigan paper. Emily says George’s girlfriend had only been in Boston for four weeks before she was killed. They think George lied to them about wanting to propose to her since they would have only just met. Hotch calls Garcia and asks her to look up George’s aliases. She sees that they all worked as teaching assistants. Garcia then finds one of the names was fired for sexual assault with one of his students. Hotch realizes George is the Reaper. They have Garcia triangulate Goerge’s position by tracking Roy’s incoming calls. Derek realizes the belongings left at the crime scenes all belonged to George.
The reporter meets George, who stops the pretense of being a victim. He’s mad at the reporter for not writing the story about Shaughnessy’s deal with the killer. He is going to shoot him when the team comes in. He’s arrested. Later we see the team returning to the BAU and George in jail. He cuts his arm and drinks the blood. Later, they find out he escaped. He was found vomiting blood and was taken to the infirmary where he escaped. He had plans for all the jails in the area, anticipating the day he’d be arrested.
I wonder if he’s going to pop back up in another season…that’d be interesting.
How’d you like “Omnivore” ? The title, by the way, refers to the type of killer. He didn’t discriminate when choosing victims. He killed men, women, young, old, making him an omnivore.
I know a few of you are excited about Alex O’Laughlin’s upcoming appearance on Criminal Minds. If you’re a fan of the Moonlight star, then you’ll be happy to hear he’s coming back to TV. According to TB Television, he is going to play a doctor in CBS’s new medical drama, Three Rivers. He’ll play Dr. Andy Yablonski, who is a workaholic. He is separated from his wife and lives in a hotel near the hospital. Carol Barbee, who wrote for Jericho, will be in charge of the scripts for Three Rivers. Curtis Hanson, who directed 8 Mile will be heading production. 
I’m not sure when this will air, but his episode of CM, “The Big Wheel,” will be on April 29. The photos of him in this episode are almost unrecognizable. It’s amazing. Here’s one from TB Television.
Nothing really new in Criminal Minds world, except a new episode for tomorrow. “Omnivore” deals with a killer form one of Hotch’s first cases. It sounds good. I will do live blogging again. This is fun - I go through CoverItLive.com and can basically provide up to the minute comments on the episode. But it’s also good for chatting. All you have to do is go to Watching Criminal Minds. I’ll have the post ready a few minutes before nine, and all you need to do is click “Play.” 
Off the set, Joe Mantegna is out on the town doing good and helping people. I don’t know when he has time to sleep what with working on CM, making movies, and doing charitable events. He was the host of the Shane’s Inspiration dinner on March 14. Shane’s Inspiration is a charity that seeks to eliminate the bias children with disabilities face. They help create accessible playgrounds and programs that help children of all abilities thrive. This organization was founded by Catherine Curry-Williams and Scott Williams, who lost their son, Shane, to spinal muscular atrophy when he was only a few weeks old.
Last night’s episode of Criminal Minds dealt with a rogue priest who was exorcising people, killing them in the process. Prentiss’s old friend, Matthew, was among the victims. I liked the focus on Emily because we haven’t seen much of her and it was good to get some insight into her character. It was also interesting to me that Rossi and she kind of teamed up, against Hotch’s orders too, to delve into the case. The interaction of the team members was good to see - espeically Morgan. I’ve read a lot of comments that Morgan was being “holier than thou” about the case, but I didn’t see that. I saw him being skeptical and objective…not a jerk. 
Finally! Some more Paget. In tonight’s episode, “Demonology,” Prentiss has some connection to a victim in a series of killings. According to FearNet, the killings or deaths occur during exorcisms. These kinds of episodes scare the crap out of me. When I was little, my mother (hi, Mom) wouldn’t allow us to watch The Exorcist or even read the book, so I have a Catholic fear of demons. We also weren’t allowed to have Ouji boards. Apparently, a priest is doing rogue exorcisms. I guess that there not as common in real life as they are on TV, and this guy is not going by the regulations that the Church sets out. So the question is: is he helping fight a demon or is he just plain crazy? Hmmmm. TV Guide did an interview with Paget regarding this episode and Alex O’laughlin’s upcoming episode. Here’s a clip, and for the rest, click 
Wow…and Hotch figures in because he stands up for her - I guess for using her position questionably. We’ll see! This sounds like a great episode! I can’t wait. 
Today, I got an email from a CM fan in the UK. She writes:
