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The Company; s7 ep20
Topic Started: Apr 12 2012, 03:47 AM (330 Views)
suceress
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Season 7 Episode 20

Title: The Company

Director: Nelson McCormick

Writer: Breen Frazier

Airdate: April 11, 2012

Synopsis: When Morgan’s sister sees a woman who looks like their presumed-dead cousin, Cindi, it forces Morgan to confront a lie he told his family last year to provide closure and compels the BAU to reopen the case of her disappearance.

Guest stars: Shanola Hampton, Chad L. Coleman, Erica Gimpel, and Denise Dowse

(I know this one already aired and I'm late posting this).
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suceress
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I admit that I cringed when I read that this one would be another Morgan-centric one. It wasn't bad though. I will have to find a way to watch it all the way through since I had to feed my dogs, cats, and mother and kept missing parts.

I wonder if people are going to complain about the brainwashing thing. I watched a documentary about the actual case on which this was based.

Basically there was a sick twisted sadistic guy who used to beat his wife. He picked a wife who had been abused by her own parents so she didn't know any different. He used to tie her up and whip her. Eventually she couldn't take it anymore and he found himself attracted to a teenage girl. They came up with an agreement that he could do all of the painful torture things to the girl and only have sex with the wife. The wife thought she loved the guy and didn't want to be tortured anymore so she agreed. She even participated in some of the torture. The guy would whip the new girl and then have sex with his wife (in front of the girl). The girl was locked in a box and not allowed out for days. He started brainwashing her and convincing her that there was some company that was watching over and that they would kill her and her family if she disobeyed him or tried to run away. It took him a couple of years to get her to break and between the sensory deprivation of being locked in the box and constant physical torture, she finally believed him and signed the slave contract. He had so much control over her that he let her visit her family and she was so afraid of the Company that she didn't let them get a single hint that something was wrong. She also had stockholm syndrome so badly that she thought she loved the guy. His control was so strong the girl was able to get a job and help support the family and nobody knew what was going on at the home. His big mistake was that he broke his promise to his wife and started raping the girl. He was so pleased with himself for his level of control that he wanted to have more slaves and he was actually planning to kidnap more women to have as sex slaves. When his wife realized this, she was angry that he had broken his promise and finally told the girl the truth. The girl left and called the guy to tell him that she wasn't putting up with his lies anymore and was leaving him. He reportedly cried in dismay. Then the wife went to the police to tell them everything. They thought she was off her rocker and didn't believe her until they contacted the girl and found out it was true. The creep tried to destroy the evidence (like the contract) but he had been so arrogant he had taken photos of the contract and it was still on the film. The police were able to find photos of the girl trussed up and injured and the contract and everything they needed to arrest him. The prosecution's biggest challenge was making the jury understand how the victim could have been so brainwashed that she went along with everything and didn't try to escape. They were successful an the guy was convicted.

Back to the episode, I wish there had been more Reid but I understand why there wasn't. Reid didn't talk at superspeed which was a plus. I actually liked that Garcia stopped being sympathetic and gave the lecture to Morgan about it not being all about him-- which is ironic because the episode was all about him.

I wish we had seen his mother.

I sort of got the feeling that the writer listened to fans talking about learning little things from the characters through the case so I liked that we learned about Hotch eating oatmeal and orange juice for breakfast. I had pegged him as a cereal guy. In fact, I could have sworn they showed him giving Jack cereal before... When he was still married I always figured he ate bacon eggs and toast.

I thought the JJ and Prentiss chatting thing worked out well and added some lightness to the episode. Although I do think that it was a bit odd for her to be revealing personal details of her life in front of a suspect.
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Lola
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I think I've watched the same documentary as Su. The documentary creeped me so much it affected how I "felt" this episode. I don't think I would have liked it even this much if I hadn't seen the documentary. True, it wasn't as bad I thought for a Morgan episode (what a horrible thing to say but I know we all just looove Reid :D ). But it wasn't thrilling either. Intriguingly, profiling the victim more than the unsub.
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BABruin
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Sorry, not a Morgan fan so I had a hard time even concentrating on watching this one. Plus I was deeply distracted by how my Giants baseball game was rapidly devolving into ugliness where even an apocalypse would have mercifully ended that game!Plus my fave pitcher cut his hair!!! :gah:
so no more mgghair in baseball!!! :cry:
Anyhoo, it was just an OK episode. JJ and Emily acted toooo fake in the interrogation room. it looked too obvious that they were just setting him up.
I hope there will be a bit more Reid before the season ends!! pleeeeease??? begging
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Mirri
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I didn't like the cousin story line from last year's episode The Big Sea so not surprisingly I didn't like the continuation of it in this episode all that much either. I liked J.J. and Prentiss with the unsub and Garcia giving Morgan a much deserved, IMO, scolding. I usually like Morgan but l do not like Morgan centric episodes, especially angry Morgan centric episodes.
Not enough Reid, and again the boy was in a scene or 2 where he didn't even have a line. I'm guessing that MGG was probably doing post work on Heathbridge Manor so I guess it is understandable this time.
What was Garcia doing in Chicago at the end. She was in Quantico the whole episode and then all of a sudden she was at the police station. I read someone elsewhere online said that they did some spinorama camera thingy and that they were actually back in Quantico but after rewinding it a few times it still looked like the police station in Chicago to me.
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suceress
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I just went to the chat with Breen Frazier. He actually admitted that Reid has been getting the short end of the stick the back half of the season. He said that the only defense was for the episodes where Matthew was working on Heathridge Manor. He did say there would be good Reid stories in season 8 and they would try to show us less of the unsub. He gave very thoughtful and detailed answers.

Apparently 12 minutes had to be cut from the episode and he sort of gave us details of what was cut. He likes writing for Reid and I think he felt he couldn't say more, but I think it is the producers who aren't interested in Reid.

He said not to get too attached to Hotch's brother (but he could have been joking).

Breen did say that they were still in Chicago. Garcia hopped a flight and flew out to see him.

The bad news is that they are planning to hire a new female next year to replace Prentiss. :-(

With the current writers that means they will cut Reid's time to give an introduction and exposition about the new team member rather than keep it subtle as they did with Prentiss joining.

We are getting a Rossi-centric episode soon.

The good news is that Matthew will be doing behind-the-scenes audio commentary for Heathridge Manor on the DVDs.
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BABruin
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YAY for the commentary for H. Manor. It'll be hilalrious, I'm sure!!! :run red: :run red:
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Mirri
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The chat report is up. Bleh to Prentiss being replaced. I've always found that the cast is too big, especially the past 3 or 4 years where the guest cast have been taking up more of the focus. My guess is that the replacement is going to be someone younger. I'm waiting to see Profiler 101. Writer Virgil Williams tweeted something to a guest cast that makes me think he at least wants her to come back.
I so hope what Breen said about season 8 being less unsub focused is true. I'll believe it though when I see it. Ever since I started watching CM in season 4 what TPTB say will happen is rarely what does happen.
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suceress
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Erica Messer claims she begged Paget to stay and Matthew said he was trying to convince Paget to come back. At least Prentiss won't be replaced right away.

The cast really is pretty large as it is. It was originally smaller until they made Kirsten full time. I think after that they felt obligated to ensure Garcia had something to do in every episode. The function of her character is such that it guarantees she will get screentime and some useful contribution in every single episode. I actually came up with a list of things describing the function of each character.


Garcia presents the cases to the team and is the one who does the info dump from the computer. She is constantly being called and asked to look things up, and they usually try to throw in a "clever" line for her when answering or giving out information.

Hotch is the team leader so he is the one who will say "wheels up", give instructions on who is doing what, and is often the first one to speak when delivering the profile. Now that JJ is no longer the liaison, he is the one who seems to be coordinating with the police now. He also participates in the raids/apprehensions most of the time now.

Morgan is the muscle and almost always participates in the raids/apprehension. He will either be in a vehicle on the way or actually at the scene with gun drawn. He is more likely to go out in the field to crime scenes during an investigation. I would say that most of the time when it comes to interacting with Garcia, he is the one to do so. He is also usually active in delivering the profile.

Rossi is not quite as defined. He often participates in visiting the crime scenes, interviewing people, and apprehension/raids. He also often participates in the presenting of the profile.

Prentiss also usually participates in crime scene visits, car ride discussions, raids, and delivering the profile. Additionally, when they need someone to translate Spanish or something, she usually handles that. She sometimes conducts the cognitive memory retrieval type interviews. These interviews and language things are not needed in every episode.

JJ has less to do these days since Garcia now presents the case. They have to give her some token lines to participate in the profile. She does seem to often participate in the delivery of the profile and speaking to family members of victims. She also now almost always participates in the raids/apprehensions. Since she is now a profiler and her role is less defined, I think the writers sometimes have trouble balancing between giving lines/interactions to her or to Prentiss or to Reid. They sometimes have to give her some insights that I think other characters would have had just to give her something to do. I sort of wish they would go back to having her liaise with the police to give her some consistency. It wouldn't mean a change in jobs, it would just be something else she could do. I can see them saying she doesn't have time to analyze the cases and present them since she has a son, but it would be nicer if she was doing that instead of Garcia. If Garcia can have two jobs, why can't JJ?

Reid spouts off statistics and stuff the writers got from the wikipedia. He usually spends a lot of time at the station in front of a board with writing and sometimes works with maps. He does the geographic profiling and graphology. Although lately those have not been used. I can't remember if he even participates in the delivery of the profile in every episode now. I seem to recall that he didn't in at least a few episodes. He also does not always go out to the crime scenes, nor does he always participate in the raids/apprehension. They don't always need the infodump or statistics from him so I think the writers struggle to actually find a contribution for him to make now that they are showing so much unsub rather than showing us the team doing the profiling. I know I am probably biased bc Reid is my favorite character, but I think because his niche is either not often used or somewhat inconsistent (with him disappearing at the end of many episodes) that he is not getting to contribute as much as the other team members.

I know the formula can get boring, but I think the writers need to sit down and make sure they actually do give something for each character in every episode, but they don't seem to be able to do that as well.

Oh, and Breen said the first part of the season was light on Morgan.. shyeah.. right. Morgan has had more focus so far than any other character. Out of 20 episodes he has been highly featured in 11 and has been involved int he raids in every single one IIRC. Reid has not.
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