In tonight’s episode, “All That Remains”, the team looks into the disappearance of two teenage girls who went missing in the same way their mother did a year before. Tonight’s Criminal Minds has plenty of star-power behind the scenes, as it is the first episode directed by cast member Thomas Gibson, with show-runner Erica Messer pulling double-duty as the episode’s writer. Read on to find out what the minds behind Criminal Minds have in-store for us this week.
Mother and Daughters Vanish
Exactly one year after his wife’s disappearance, a man reports that his two daughters are also MIA. The team takes notice because the man uses the same phrasing in both 911 calls and the disappearances happened one year apart. The father and potential suspect, Bruce Morrison, claims to have lost time before both disappearances and the agents think his alcohol abuse is to blame. Alas, it is much more complicated than that.
Johnny Has Arrived
During the search for the missing girls, the youngest daughter’s body is found and Bruce is still the prime suspect. After the agents confront Bruce with evidence that he might have hurt his daughters during a drunken rage, Bruce has a very strange reaction. As it turns out, Bruce ‘goes into hiding’ and his alter emerges.
This alter, Johnny, is incredibly violent and admits to ‘teaching’ the girls ‘a lesson’. Though the agents are not able to positively diagnose Bruce with Dissociative Identity Disorder, there is enough evidence to point to that conclusion. The agents suspect Bruce’s alter of committing these crimes and when his eldest daughter Sera is found, her story confirms that belief. Or does it?
An Unpleasant Twist
JJ bonds with Sera and takes her home after she tells the police everything she knows. Yet Sera’s behavior sets off warning bells for JJ, who is concerned that Sera has not mentioned her deceased sister. With the team’s help, JJ realizes that Sera is the true Unsub and Sera catches JJ combing the house for evidence. Sera plans to kill JJ and blame it on post-traumatic stress, but Morgan plays into Sera’s act and is able to arrest her before JJ gets hurt. Bruce is released after the team uncovers proof that Sera is responsible for both murders.
Team Trauma
During the course of the investigation, JJ mentions her sister’s death and Blake is clearly unaware of it. I think this is only the second time JJ has mentioned her sister on-screen, the first back in season 5 when she told Hotch that her sister took her own life when JJ was just 11. JJ’s thoughts about her sister in this episode were a nice call-back to that earlier revelation, especially her subtle reaction to Sera’s age in the first scene, as JJ’s sister was 17 when she died.
But JJ is not the only team member whose memory could have been triggered by this case. I was surprised we did not see a reaction from Reid when Sera was holding JJ at gun-point. After all, Reid just lost Maeve in a similar situation and it would have made sense for him to have some sort of reaction to JJ’s life being in danger. I have no doubt that the writers will deal with Reid’s grief later this season but I think this would have been the perfect opportunity to touch on that just a bit.
Were you surprised by Reid’s non-reaction to that moment? Were you impressed that the show brought up JJ’s sister again? And what were your thoughts on this week’s case? Did you peg Sera as the Unsub? Hit the comments section and let us know.
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(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
