Criminal Minds

“3rd Life” helped propel CBS to a second place finish Wednesday night. CSI:NY also had a new episode. NBC was the top network, with new episodes of Deal or No Deal, which was more popular than CBS’s Power of Ten. The New York Times reports this morning that both CM and CSI:NY were tops in their timeslots. ABC was third, but had decent numbers for Wife Swap and Supernanny.

“3rd Life” was the first new episode we’ve seen in a few weeks and was much anticipated because of the guest appearance of Gina Mantegna. It was great to see a new episode, but it was disappointing in that that was one of the last new one for a while. I thought the episode was not one of the best CM has to offer. The whole plot twist with the witness protection thing was strange to me. I know it made sense because of the way they lived, how Lindsay was able to stay alive, and why her father faces no consequences for his actions. It just seemed kind of thrown in there. The character Gina Mantegna played also was odd to me. Again, this is because they were trying to show that she had a totally different view point than your average 15 year old, but it was still very strange seeing her. I know I have repeated the words Odd, Strange, and weird a lot, but that’s what this episode was for me. One bright spot was Spenser. I haven’t been loving his character much this season. Maybe that’s because they haven’t focused much on him personally, like they did last season. But two things stuck out in “3rd Life.” Just before the team finds out that Jack is in witness protection, they see that his buddy (aka a federal marshal) has a gun. Immediately, they all draw their guns. Spenser wasn’t hesitant at all. He looked like a real FBI agent. Not shaky or scared. Go, Spencer! The other was when Spenser happened to be the one to find Lindsay, Jack, and the kidnapper in the bathroom of the high school. He tries to talk Jack down from shooting the kid who took his daughter. Jack shoots him anyway. Spenser just looks shocked afterwards. During the whole scene he is very sure of himself, but after, he is just astonished. It made his character seem a little more grown up, like he could take care of himself and didn’t need the rest of the team to protect him.
Other than that, this was not one of my favorite episodes. Next week, “Limelight” will be on. The contents of a storage unit in Philadelphia are bought at an auction. Inside, there turns out to be evidence of a serial killer. The team must look at the items to profile the killer. A local agent becomes a focus of the investigation.

Trivia: The song that Katie is singing on her weblog and at the end of the episode is “Umbrella,” by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z. Here’s a Youtube of the song.