Season 3 Episode 20 : Aired May 21, 2008

On the most recent episode of “Criminal Minds” the team is called to New York by one of their FBI brethren. The local police are not very happy with the prospect of the FBI intruding on their most recent case.

After dealing with the Son of Sam case one of the detectives feels very touchy because he thinks that the FBI team will come is as cold outsiders instead of caring for each of the victims and cases. But the team quickly dispels this fear.

The case involves the continuing string of seemingly random murders located on subway platforms. The hooded suspect, showing his knowledge of police tactics and the location of cameras that could essentially identify him, has eluded capture as yet. They simply have to watch and wait. But the problem is the intense network of subway platforms that the suspect could possibly hit. He does not stay within one area, and he does not target only one type of victim. Several times they are forced to watch as the suspect murders, with nothing they can do but try to get there in time. He continues to murder even though it is obvious that he knows he is being watched by the police as well as the FBI now. It is almost as if the suspect is taunting them. The murders are completely impersonal and cold-blooded. The hooded suspect simply walks up behind his chosen victim, kills them, and then quickly walks away. No one has been able to identify him although there are hundreds of people coming and going on the platform.

Then as the suspect seems to be getting increasingly bolder, there is a murder above ground, on a street corner. But this time there is some kind of calling card left, a tarot card of death. This gives the FBI team a false sense of knowing more about their suspect than they actually do. They will soon realize that they are not just looking at one suspect but a number of suspects. Now they have a whole new game because they may be dealing with some kind of gang or cult. Which makes it that much harder to narrow down their suspect base.

The team starts to catch up with these suspects, at least in part. They see one suspect fleeing the scene of the most recent crime and are in hot pursuit when the suspect calmly stops and waits for them to catch up. They cannot figure out why he has stopped. But as they get closer the suspect fires on them and in the process gets himself shot. In sacrificing himself for the group, they seem to be saying “we are not afraid to die and you won’t stop us.” Now the team has to add in a whole new element to their profile. During the middle of all this chaos you have Morgan going up against the lead FBI investigator because she is basically ignoring any solutions he has that may help. He later apologizes to her for his attitude because he finds out that she is worried that she will lose her job to him and that was why she was being so cold. Then you also have the team finding out about J.J.’s pregnancy.

What a packed full episode this was, with a real twist at the end. As they are all getting in their vehicles to head to get some rest, one of the vehicles explodes. The problem is you don’t know which one it is or who’s in it because, as usual, they are driving the same type of black S.U.V. It leaves everyone wondering until next season, who dies and what happens next. Now that’s what I call a cliffhanger.

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