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The Divining Rod; s7 ep21; May 2, 2012
Topic Started: Apr 13 2012, 03:44 AM (375 Views)
suceress
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Season 7 Episode 21

Title: The Divining Rod

Director: Doug Aarniokoski

Writer: Bruce Zimmerman

Airdate: May 2, 2012

Synopsis: After a notorious serial killer is executed, a copycat begins murdering women in the same Oklahoma town and in the same fashion, and the BAU team must act fast before more victims are found. Also, Prentiss gets nervous at the thought of a major real estate purchase.

Guest stars: Mackenzie Astin
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BABruin
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So how come this sounds exactly like the Angelmaker episode???? I sure hope there's a different twist to this one. :unsure:
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suceress
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"True Genius" had a copycat killer as well.. and there was another one where the unsub took after his father and copycatted and the pregnant girlfriend murdered him I think... Then there was the one with the alzheimers guy who had been a serial killer...

So, copycats are not necessarily new-- but I guess they didn't have an original idea. Of course, they do have a lot of serial killers they go after so I guess they have to recycle some plots. I hope this one is good.
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I don't know if it was the writing or the directing or both, but this one was disappointing. The dialog and the feel seemed off to me. Yes, we didn't see the unsub right from the start, but I think we still saw too much gore-- more than necessary, and there was very little victimology. I don't remember the names of a single victim.

Something was off with the flow of this one. The thing with Prentiss buying a house seemed weird and out of place. Then the ending.. And wtf was with them interrupting Reid all the time? Prentiss didn't used to do that. Now Hotch is tapping him on the arm? WTF? Reid is refusing to shake hands now? Ugh.. He used to at least return a handshake so as not to be rude. Rossi went from hating computers and preferring paper to whining that he wants computers now..

Oh, and JJ is now smarter than Reid... That pissed me off so much. Why the hell do they have to dumb down Reid to make JJ look better?

Why the hell did the bad guy's wife have on Reid's sweater jacket? WTF?

I need to calm down before I comment further. This one had things that just really irritated me.
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BABruin
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Just about the only good thing I can say was that at least the unsub wasn't shown at the beginning and hogged up the screentime.
I agree that Reid was written as if he regressed back to how he was in season one with the refusal to shake hands and recitations of obscure facts. Very jarring and a disservice to Reid to write him that way. :dry: He kinda disappears at the end without contributing much to the profile. Yeah, it is also irritating to me to have JJ jump in and outprofile him.
The ending was an interesting twist which could explain why the wife didn't just yank the "wig" off as soon as she had a chance.
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I actually found it rather insulting for them to be questioning whether something was wrong with the wife because her husband turned out to be a psycho and then a guy became obsessed with her and started killing. Its not like she consciously knew--and she didn't even choose the second guy. I did think the conversation about ripping the wig off was realistic though.

I just kept feeling like the stuff with Prentiss buying a house seemed forced and sloppily tacked on.

I didn't mind that JJ recognized the heart, but to have Reid act so stupid about the hair thing. Reid is usually the first one to notice things like that. It would have been better if he'd just said "The hair looks freshly cut" (you can sort of tell when hair is freshly cut bc of the way the ends look) and he could have agreed with her. But noooo. JJ has to be a better profiler than Reid-- and she's better at fighting. New JJ is just so much more awesome than Reid... Ugh. Why the eff do they have to dumb him down to make her look better?

These writers are effing idiots!

And they had to have her show him up TWICE in one episode. Once was enough.

I wonder why they didn't have Reid reading the letters from the prisoners. That sort of thing is his area of expertise. Quite frankly, Reid didn't contribute anything useful at all to this case.

The handshake thing is not even a regression-- its a new creation. In the entire first 6 seasons Reid NEVER actually refused a handshake when someone extended a hand. He would usually wave before they could do so. If someone extended a hand he would shake it. So now all of a sudden he's refusing-- the only other time he did that was in "True Genius". It's like these writers haven't bothered to watch the first several seasons and don't know jack about the show or the characters.

The case part was actually interesting, but the profiling was still lacking and the new "badass" JJ and stupid Reid are bugging me.

I'm starting to wonder if Reid's sabbatical involved him having brain surgery and it lowered his IQ significantly-- and maybe affected his immune system so he's not wanting to expose himself to germs.
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Mirri
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Late to comment on this episode. I seem to be in the minority because overall I liked this episode. I agree the new Super Profiler J.J is irritating. What I also find irritating is that I can tell when Super Profiler J.J is going into Super Profiler mode. I don't know if it is the camera work or A.J's acting or a combination of the 2 but when I see it coming I start to cringe, it is so obvious. She might as well just twirl around and then miraculously come out wearing a Super Profiler costume just like the old Super Woman series from many years ago. Also irritated with the dumbing down of Reid and the interrupting scenes but I did like the case. The actress who played the wife did a great job. I really wish the writer of this episode had done a chat with Cm set report as I thought that the wife had somehow been involved with turning her husband and then the bus driver into psychotic murderers. Just the way she was talking about the letters and then telling Prentiss and Rossi that they can have them as she was just going to throw them out anyways, even though they were packed in moving boxes with tissue paper wrapped around them. Also the not pulling off the bloody wig at first opportunity and then she was so happy to visit the bus driver in prison.
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suceress
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Actually, I think not pulling the wig off was a smart thing. If she had pulled it off it might have offended him. Given that he had murdered several women, she might have thought that he would kill her if she showed any sign of rejection. I just took it as she was disgusted but was managing to control herself so as to not offend the guy and improve her chances of survival.

I was very distracted by her having Reid's sweater-jacket though.
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Mirri
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I agree pulling it off right away would have offended the bus driver. I meant pulling it off once he was apprehended and Rossi was taking her away.
I love that sweater on Reid. Saving money on the wardrobe budget.
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