7x11, “True Genius”
Anonymous request
I love how personally Reid takes this case, how he starts to feel like this is a personal challenge for him to crack. Because that kind of self-isolation in the face of the team dynamic is something this show has shown us again and again is the wrong kind of avenue to go down. Think Gideon and his downward spiral, Hotch and his dangerous obsession with Foyet after he’s been stabbed and Haley has been targeted, Rossi and his general early reluctance to involve the team initially in his profiling and later in his personal work-related demons, Morgan’s fear of opening his past up to his colleagues even though it might make the difference in the accusations leveled against him, Reid’s struggle with addiction and PTSD, Prentiss’ determination to keep her past from her team in order to keep them from harm versus the way he’s finally brought down. (Note: These are all very different things and deserve separate analysis; I’m just pointing out that we have seen many of these characters attempt to struggle with something alone at a cost.) Think too of the way Garcia trusting her team allows them the resources to identify her shooter, the way Prentiss reaches out to her team in the wake of her friend’s death in Demonology. This is a show that tells us again and again that the team trumps, that they work better as a whole than their (often broken) parts do alone.I admit I sort of hated the easy closure in this episode that they gave to Reid’s multi-ep questioning of whether he belonged with the team (one because I felt like it was cheap writing, and two because I was hoping they’d do more with Reid’s building disillusionment) but honestly? There is something “incredibly right” about them being all together — the show tells us this over and over. Alone, they may flounder; together, more often than not they figure it out. I feel like it’s true to Reid’s character that he would externalize the frustration he’s been feeling and project it onto this case, to feel like it’s a personal challenge for him to fix, to solve, especially after this letter and his current frame of mind.
But then there’s Prentiss, so beautifully done (except for the glaring fact that at this point we still, still don’t have her personal trauma explored), tactfully pointing out that self-centrism and pulling away from the team. He’s focusing on himself, and she reminds him that he’s not alone, that he’s a member of an elite team filled with brilliant minds who each have their own advantages and skills. She pulls him out of what could easily become a single-minded quest, and while he is the one who makes the next leap in logic that allows them to ultimately identify the unsub, it’s her reminder of the equal playing field that allows it to happen.
Reid’s the smartest kid in class, in some ways, but he’s not the only kid in class. That’s the lesson we’re told again and again on this show — different characters, same outcome. They’re stronger as a whole. Reid is reminded of it in this episode, in season seven; we’ve been reminded of it from the beginning.
Everything you say is true and dammit you should be writing this show.
(Source: criminalmindscaps)
