User Reviews

This is one of the better episodes. It has a killer (eh-heh?) of a concept that should not be spoiled before watching and *could* have been a classic were it not for a few fatal flaws. It's well acted, technically and suspense-wise well constructed, but when the flaws are in the script, those people cannot make them disappear, no matter how talented they are.

The first problem: the little girl is left alive, because of the argument that the killers don't kill little girls. Not very wise to leave a *witness* alive, when the killers are revealed to be intelligent persons who have managed to avoid the law a *long* time. These characters are too wise and too *mentally deranged* to make such a civilized decision. It's not in their character! Leaving the little girl alive affects everything that happens thereafter, so it's impact on the episode is a fatal one.

Second problem: Not as big as the first one, but c'mon, isn't that end way, way clichéd? And why make the agents aware of the twist? It would have worked better had only *the audience* been let in on it. Now the agents know, but the possibilities of a sequel are quite unlikely, since the element of surprise is ruined and we'd only have a lame retread of this episode to look forward to. Argh! Still, 7/10, not bad.

By the time, Season 4, Episode 13, came Criminal Minds was way different than the series that came out in 2005. No more, FBI Agents Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) and Elle Greenaway (Lola Glaudini). At less, the series got a get replacement by Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss. It's almost like the two female characters mere well into one. In season three (2007–08), Mandy Patinkin chose to leave the show, because he was deeply disturbed by the content depicted in the show and replace by Joe Mantegna as David Rossi. Indeed, this episode is one of the most disturbing episodes of the series, but the whole BAU is the ones that catch them while the local police are nearly useless pattern had become a bit overused running gag by now. The episode is about a travelling nomadic Romani family that is kidnapping 10 year old girls so that the family, 10 year old son, can kill their parents, and force the girl into their rituals cult. This episode had me, scare right from the start, and I really got into the episode. First off, the actors that portray the family are very good at playing sinister villains here. I have to give props to the actress playing the mother, Cynthia Gibb. She did very well, in the last bit of the episode. Too bad, they look nothing like Romani. I think a lot of people might get offended, because of the negative portrayal of the Romani people. At first, I thought this ritual was just made up for the show, but surprising after doing some research. I indeed see that bride kidnapping is once a traditional Romani practice. History kinda doesn't lie about that as there is a proved cases of such acts being committed everywhere. The practices of bride kidnapping and child marriage are not universally accepted throughout Romani culture, so don't think that every Romani is evil, like that. Some Romani women and men seek to eliminate such customs, but there are some, that still does it. Also not all Romani are thefts, so don't think, if they are always shoplifting at every store. I do have suspense disbelief in a few things, they call facts here. I dislike how the murders is so common that a murder map can be made reaching 100 years. If in real life, it's more like 1 every 20 to 40 years. Plus, Romani bride kidnapping mostly happens in Europe. It's nearly never happens in United States, and rarely happens in the Deep South since most Romani families tend to live in Oregon. Most of these Romani bride kidnapping crimes are not even that plausible as half of the stories are just racist ghost stories that all Gypsies stealing children in the night to scare people. Such stories cause a lot of good Romani to be killed in genocides or in ethic cleansing over the centuries due to this harsh stereotypes. Other things to nitpick is the CSI-level techno-fantasy on how quickly they find who the murderers by using DNA. The only problem is that the girl was kidnapped in 1972 and been missing ever since wouldn't had a DNA record because forensic DNA only started being done in the late 80s, early 90s. Also the profiling is useless in this episode. Their entire profile was based on the idea that a social group who believes in rigid tradition would be as unable to deviate from it as a serial killer. Which, let's say it one more time, equates religion and tradition with severe mental illness. I think a lot of people would disagree with that. Most of the main characters returns for this episode like Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) and Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler). One character that was missing is Communications Liaison Jennifer Jareau (A. J. Cook). The reason for this Jennifer Jareau was on maternity leave since finding out that she's pregnant in Season 3, Episode 18 'The Crossing". The real reason is that Cook and her boyfriend was expecting their first child. So, her character was missing from late 2008 through early 2009. She was replaced by Jordan Todd (portrayed by Meta Golding). She was alright, but way overacting in emotion part. This was Todd last episode, as JJ return the next episode. I love how Emily was able to connect with the children. It was a great scene. I love Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) in the good cop/ bad cop scene. Hotch is channeling his childhood abuse in this episode. Remind me of the Season 1, Episode 6 'L.D.S.K.' where he go all angry! There was great usage of the camera tricks that I love so much. I love "the danger is still out there" type ending as I used to live in the area of Alabama where most of the story takes place at the time, this episode aired. Overall: While the episode is an extremely negative toward Romani. It was indeed a good watch. I just wouldn't take it all for truth.