photo: cbs
Public Enemy
Original Air Date: Feb 10, 2010
JD – Associate Staff Writer
jd@thetwocentscorp.com
Rossi, Rossi, Rossi. I love the name. I love the character. I love everything about him. And this episode was very welcome for a girl with that kind of love in her heart.
So we start with the red herring. This episode begins with a family running late to church, and when they went up for communion, I would have sworn we had another mass poisoning episode. That is, I thought that until a man at the back of the church started to pull on gloves. It’s such a classic diversion, and yet I fall for it every time! So, anyway, change of plans. No poison in the communion wine. Just the father of our little family having his throat slashed open before the church service is even over. Nice.
Enter the BAU team. JJ runs down the facts, as she is wont to do. Our victim in the church was the third in a string of murders in Providence, Rhode Island. He was a decorated war hero, but that wasn’t why he was targeted. All three victims were chosen for convenience, and the symbolism of the church played no part. The previous victims were found in a laundromat and the bathroom of a restaurant. The team decides that this may be the start of a spree, and they head to Rhode Island.
Once on the ground, Prentiss heads to the laundromat, while Rossi takes the church. At the station, Hotch and Reid tell the Cop of the Week that there’s really no way to tell where the unsub will strike next, but that it will probably get bloodier and more public, so they get Garcia on all the big public events going in Providence.
We get a quick glimpse of our unsub on the prowl at a bus station. He lights a cigarette, making the scar on his hand obvious, and saunters up to Could-Have-Been-Victim-Number-Four. She when a bus comes to pick her up, lucky thing, and we cut to JJ and Morgan at the widow’s house. While they get down to business interviewing the widow, we see Rossi at the church. This is, in my opinion, one of the creepiest scenes in the entire episode. As the widow is telling the story to JJ and Morgan, Rossi is acting it out. There was something about watching Rossi pretend to slit someone’s throat in a church that gave me chills. Was it just me?
Morgan works out from the widow’s story that their unsub is too patient to be psychotic, and he’s not going to go on a spree, and then we cut to Prentiss at the laundromat. She runs through the crime and the crime scene with the Cop of the Week, and just as she’s asking what the unsub must be figuratively attacking, Rossi comes in the door with an answer. That Rossi has amazing timing, doesn’t he?
So what is our unsub attacking? Long-established institutions in the city, but not, as Rossi says, out of a hatred of the city, but a desire to see the reactions of the community afterward. And now it’s time to give the profile.
I enjoyed this episode. I especially enjoyed it as a big Rossi fan. He really took charge this episode. He called all the shots. He figured out what the unsub was getting out of the murders. He told the cops to surround the fair. He’s the one that came up with the tactic that eventually caught their unsub. In short, he kicked some serious butt. I’ve been calling him ‘Bossy McBossypants’ ever since the episode ended, but that’s mostly just because it makes me giggle, not because I thought it was overdone. Hotch trusts Rossi and it’s shown on more than one occasion. I love that he had no issue with Rossi taking charge on this one.
I especially love that Rossi is the one that offers to look at the church, being as he’s the devout Catholic of the team. It shows his devotion to the church that he wants to be the one there, and as he says later to the priest, he never likes to see crime tape outside of a church. His faith played a huge part in this episode, from him wanting to see the church first to him doing what he could to console the priest that it wasn’t his fault for not seeing anything. “Let yourself off the hook, Father.” The First Communion card was a nice touch, and oh my God, so much money!
But then that’s Rossi, isn’t it?
One of my favorite parts of this episode wasn’t a Rossi moment, though, and it’s something that may have been easy to miss. Especially if you’re not as obsessive as me, or if you’ve never seen season one. On the jet on the flight back to Quantico, the team is discussing the case, and Hotch says, “There are lots of ways that sons defeat their fathers.” We know about Hotch’s abusive past, and that it’s one of the reasons Hotch does what he does (from Natural Born Killer in season one). This line along with Thomas Gibson’s delivery really hit me hard. What did you guys think? Did it strike you too, or did it slip past you?
Overall this episode was strong, and a Rossi fangirl’s dream. What did you guys think? Give me your two cents!
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TheTwoCents 
Yes it is a GREAT Rossi episode for a die-hard Rossi fan! We saw is skills,is knowledge and long experience.
Joe was awesome in this episodes as he always his!
He always is, yes! It’s funny how I’ve gone from disliking him his first few episodes to him being my favorite character on the show. Joe has done a great job of making Rossi the guy he is now.
Yeah, this is a great Rossi episode and I really liked him in the church. But what’s up with this season’s theme of killing parents in front of the kids — we had it this week in little girl in church, last week with son watching con man dad being shot, and then there’s Jack and Haley (yes, I know Jack didn’t “see” Haley die, but I think he likely heard the gun and he had to know SOMETHING happened as he was leaving the house).
Gibson’s delivery of the “There are lots of ways that sons defeat their fathers” was perfect. It can also be two-fold. We know that Hotch chose this as a way to defeat his father, but I think he also wonders how Jack will react to him in the future. There’s such a quiet determination with Hotch’s line there, which was awesome. It shows that he feels that he did, actually, defeat his father. Go Hotch!
I have to admit that I also loved Reid’s answer (“I just keep getting Ph.D’s”) since it implies that he’s still bitchy about his father (and Reid is another one who has every right to be bitchy about his father).
Wow… it looks like I started to ramble. Sorry!
No, ramble away! I’ve been known to do it myself.
I hadn’t noticed that theme before, but you’re right. It’s funny. In a strange way, obviously not in a ha ha way. Honestly, there are so many little nuances to this show, and I wonder if there is a theme to the season or if it has just happened that way. Do you think it’s intentional? Me, I’m still trying to figure out that promo where Reid is the only one without writing on his face.
There’s such a quiet determination with Hotch’s line there, which was awesome.
Yes, exactly. I missed the line the first time, since it was so subtle, but the second time I watched it, it was one of those moments when something so small makes a big impact.
I don’t know if it’s intentional (I’d like to think that it is, but it could just be the way the storylines have worked out). And I know that parents dying in front of children is not a new theme (there was the case that haunted Rossi for years and was the reason he came back to the BAU, for instance, and the one where the blind boy “saw” his mother killed (sorry, don’t know the episode names offhand)). But this idea of families surviving tragedies and children dealing with the aftermath of loss of their parents seems to be a recurring theme this season.
And Hotch. Oh Hotch. Yeah, the delivery of that line still gets to me. There seems to be so much that he’s overcome and now he has even more to deal with. *hugs Hotch, even though he would stoically ignore me*
I’d like to think that it is
I know there’s at least one other reviewer that I’ve read that seems to think every season has an overall theme. I’d sort of like to think that too, though sometimes I need to be beat over the head to see it.
Our show works in mysterious ways sometimes, doesn’t it? That’s part of what I love about it. When the writing is good, it’s stellar, and there is always so much hidden depth. Maybe this season is about loss of innocence? Not that that’s a new thing on our show. Every time there’s a child involved, there is innocence lost. It kills me that this time it included Hotch’s own son. That family has already been through so much. Poor kid. It’s a good thing he has such an amazingly strong dad to rely on.
*hugs Hotch, even though he would stoically ignore me*
LOL Yes! The one who needs the hugs the most is the least receptive. It’s just not fair. Maybe a few fans could hold him down while the rest of us make sure he gets enough hugs to make him all better. It’d be great if it worked that way, huh?
I think that the effects of violence and loss are themes running through the show as a whole. One thing I love about CM is the way that it refuses to gloss over the aftermath of violence and reminds us of the impact that is has on familes, friends and entire communities. And, of course, the team itself.
Nebula – Yes, you’re right. Especially with the team. With them we don’t just see the immediate after effects, but the long term one. I would like to see more of how Hotch is dealing with being a single parent, though.
I absolutely agree – this was a fantastic episode (and not just because it was a Rossi episode, though anytime we get one of those is a good episode for me). It just felt more cohesive, better plotted and acted, than last week’s. And a lot of little continuity nods – Hotch’s father issues, JJ’s history with small towns, Reid’s PhD’s, and, of course, Rossi’s Catholicism.
I admit, I was surprised to see Rossi front and center on this one. It’s not like he rarely takes charge, but this was almost Season Three Rossi (the “team? I don’t need no stinkin’ team!” Rossi). Though I’m also dying to find out what his deal is with absentee fathers, the military, and the church – we got our Prentiss backstory last season, and some JJ backstory this season… can we please have some Rossi backstory? “Reckoner” was a huge disappointment on that mark.
And Hotch. Oh, Hotch – team member I most want to give a hug and a warm blanket to. He just about broke my heart with that comment (not to mention the subtle shots of Hotch when they bring up children of sociopaths never being able to be normal).
Oh God, I think anything would be better than last week’s. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either, and I’d rather have something that I at least felt something about. My emotions last week were just completely muted.
Anyway, YES about the continuity. And it didn’t feel forced. A lot of times when writers bring up stuff from the character’s/show’s past, it just comes out all wrong. Almost like the writer is going “hey, look at me, I know this!” You know?
Though I’m also dying to find out what his deal is with absentee fathers, the military, and the church.
Reckoner was pretty disappointing to me too. But we DID find out what his connection with the military was in that episode. He was, according to that episode, recruited to the BAU out of the Marines. Of course, I have my own theories on the rest, but don’t we all?
What’s really weird was the patricide scene. The dude is shanking his dad and nobody bats an eye. Rather everyone is still moving in line to get their food.