Wednesday night brought us the 2 hour-long special premieres of one of TV’s longest-running dramas, “Criminal Minds.”
The special included season fifteen episode one ‘Under the Skin’ and episode two ‘Awakenings’.
The first episode is set almost six months after the season fourteen finale. Matt’s wife, Kristy, is heavily pregnant with their fifth child, Reid and JJ are still confused about the feelings they hold for one another, and Rossi is struggling to let go of the Everett Lynch case.
This episode follows a string of strange deaths in which the assailant (or UnSub) cuts a layer of skin from the chests of young men and keeps the skin as a trophy. Rossi so caught up in the Lynch case, believes this is his work. But this isn’t the case. It turns out to be the coroner, Dr. Sebastian Hurst, who is creating a new chest to replace his disfigured one. In the end, Rossi confronts and arrests Hurst who confesses to helping Lynch ‘find a good lawyer’.
Throughout the episode, we also see a lot of unresolved tension and meaningful glances between JJ and Reid. Season 14 ended with JJ confessing her love for Reid, despite the fact that she is happily married with two children. The first episode doesn’t give us any kind of conclusion for the JJ/Reid romance.
The episode ends in typical Criminal Minds fashion, with a cliffhanger. Rossi, Reid, JJ, Alvez, and Simmons all head to the District Attorney’s Office in hopes of confronting Everett Lynch and his daughter, Grace. JJ ends up finding them in an underground carpark and believes she’s disarmed them, that is until Grace shoots her in the chest leaving her struggling to breathe and coughing up blood.
The next episode, season 15 episode 1 ‘Awakenings’, begins where it left off, with JJ alone and dying and Lynch and his daughter on the run. Reid is the one that finds JJ and helps her while the other focus their attention on Lynch.
While in the hospital we get to see some pretty raw and emotional moments between Reid and JJ’s husband, Will. But in the end, JJ explains to Reid that she’ll always love him but that Will and her children made her who she is, and she loves them too. This seems to resolve all their problems and they go back to being just friends.
Afterward, Spencer rushes to his mother’s aid after he receives several calls from the facility looking after her. But once he gets there his mother, Diana (former “Glee” star, Jane Lynch), is fine. Well, better than fine, she seems to be back to normal. Her doctor explains that it’s only temporary and that afterward, she’ll just get worse. Diana views this as precious time, and after a heart to heart with his mother about JJ and other things the pair have a game of chess before Reid heads back home.
Meanwhile, all the pieces of the Everett Lynch case seem to fall into place. The BAU follows Grace’s trail but is slightly surprised when they find her body later on. That’s when they realize her mother, Roberta, is the key to finding Lynch. But Lynch is still on the run even once the second episode comes to a close.
Overall, both episodes were jam-packed with love and drama and near-death experiences as well as the tying up of a few loose endings and cliffhangers. But it was a great start to the final season.
“Criminal Minds” continues with season 15 episode 3 ‘Spectator Slowing’ airing on Wednesday night.
Written by Brooke Belli
