Criminal Minds has always had a way of incorporating fear, shock and feel-good moments into an hour-long episode. The season finale “Red Light” officially ended Reid’s prison drama. He faced off with Cat Adams and dealt with her on a psychological level. He not only helped the team figure out where his mother was being held, but he also faced some of his own emotional struggles.
The secret that Cat was trying to get Reid to admit to is that the two of them deserved each other. She believed that Reid enjoyed poisoning the prisoners and that he was on his way to becoming a psychopath. Spencer worried about the type of person he was as well, but Jennifer put those fears to rest. Maybe Spencer can start moving beyond prison life and heal from all of the trauma that has happened this season.
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As soon as the team retrieved Spencer’s mother, Derek Morgan appeared. Shemar Moore’s guest appearance was for the fans as well as a way to answer some questions. Shemar Moore left Criminal Minds and is cast on another CBS show. It looks like he will not be coming back on a permanent basis. The writers chose not to kill him off and instead turned him into a civilian. This decision has created a few plot holes. Criminal Minds relies on the relationships between the team members. Derek and Spencer have had a close relationship throughout the show. From the story’s standpoint, it made sense to bring him back as a guest during the Spencer storyline. Derek asked Penelope why nobody had told him that Spencer was in prison, answering why he hadn’t been there earlier.
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Derek came back to warn the team about a trap that could be from Mr. Scratch. After spending most of the season suspecting that Scratch was the one who put Reid in prison, it is nice to finally have some new evidence of him. Mr. Scratch has been hanging around for a while now. He has laid various traps for the team, but they have not even gotten close to recapturing him. Maybe that will finally happen in season 13.
Season 12 left us with a pretty big cliffhanger. The entire team, with the exception of Penelope and Spencer, ended up in a major car accident. We know it was a trap, but was it actually laid by Mr. Scratch this time? Are there going to be any casualties? This cliffhanger did not feel quite as devastating as the car bomb that ended season 3 of Criminal Minds, but it does raise some questions. With so many character changes made in the last couple of seasons, will the writers kill someone else off?
What did you think of the Criminal Minds season finale? Do you think a member of the team will die? Will Morgan return as a guest star in season 13 as well? Leave your comments below!
Criminal Minds airs Wednesdays at 9/8c. Follow our Criminal Minds Facebook page to keep up with the latest show news.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
