CM 6.02, "JJ": "They can't just take you away..."

[bibliothekara]

So, it's 10:05 EST, and I've been bawling for the past 10 minutes over a television show. And despite what people who shall remain my mother might say, I don't do this all that often. But like most people in this episode, I must defer to the power of forces greater than myself. Like the CM writing staff and cast.


First of all: Ahahaha. Strauss is back in Bitch-On-Wheels unabashed villain form. Most excellent. And we find out that Jennifer Jareau is a 21st-century-ancestress of Will Riker. I mean, who wants to be the captain of some DOD mundanity, when you can be integral mother-superior-can'tdo-without-her of the BAU/Enterprise? Seriously?

And of course Hotch went above Strauss's head to keep her (after he cleared it with JJ of course.) Because over 6 years, the man has transformed from Picard into Kirk. Or maybe Sisko, even. Out there on his little space-station, with his Watch full of waifs and strays. "Waifs and strays, because no normal people would be coppers." /world-bleed

GOD DAMN IT, CASTING DEPARTMENT. I HAD TOTALLY CAST MICHAEL WELCH AS TEENAGE JACK HOTCHNER IN THE DRAGON 'VERSE. WHY MUST YOU HARSH MY BUZZ BY CASTING HIM AS AN UNSUB?

Yes, I get that having the Mantegna/Welch/Marquette Joan of Arcadia reunion was irresistible. And the two of them did a really interesting Leopold and Loeb double act. BUT STILL.

At the beginning of the episode, I was prepared to be cynical about it, declare it a rip-off of the Natalee Hollaway case. However, the fact that 75% of the episode took place in the interrogation room won it a lot of points. And everyone got in on the fun. Emily, obviously showing off her boobies, and then doing some Emmy level acting. Morgan and Rossi, who bring out the absolute worst in each other, and occasionally that's good. Reid, calibrating the "I can totally pass" and "I can kill you with my brain" sides of his personality with ease. And Hotch orchestrating it all, eyebrow cocked.

And Jennifer Jareau walking the line in between, as she always has, but for the last time. She's got the hardest job, and they all know it. Because the team can afford to be themselves, let their freak flags fly because they mostly deal with serial killers and rapists and abnormality of every stripe. But she has to deal with the workaday world, and look normal while this craziness goes on in the next room. Even more than that, she has to deal with the moms and dads who want so much to appear normal while the internal chaos threatens to consume them.

After all that, how hard can dealing with the DOD and the US Congress actually be?

We know can she can do it. We know she'll clean that office up right quick. That's not the point. As the woman herself says, "There's things we don't want to do, but we have to; people we don't want to leave, that we have to learn to do without."

And we can; hell, if Katie Joyce can hang on to a buoy in the middle of an ocean for three days, we can at least try, right?

Hotch. Oh Hotch. Who can't leave, who probably won't ever leave, but obviously the constant that was JJ was primary in his calculation. And even more than that, he feels like he's failed, that he could have kept this family, another family, together if he tried hard enough. The handshake and the "I'll miss you" was so quintessentially Hotch, because if he hugged her, he would have completely lost it.

The team. Who will lose her together, as a family. Rossi, who started the episode *gettting* it, ending it that way. Oh Grumpy Badger. Emily...[redacted for Paget-related wibbling]. Morgan being angry, wanting to do something, punch a wall. And Reid, who always has words or statistics, reduced to the 8 year old who who doesn't understand why his friend is moving away.

And if I wasn't crying before, there's Penelope. Kirsten Vangsness does not play fair at all. She goes on my list of people who can make me cry at the drop of a hat. This is why JJ didn't tell her, because hell hath no force of nature like Penelope Garcia when you hurt her, or take something from her. She's a little bit like Neal Caffrey, in her way; this family has taught her to work within rules, but when what she loves is threatened, the rules go out the window.

Change comes, and we can love the good things it brings us, while hurting like hell at what we leave behind.

"The only thing you can trust is the ground beneath you. Until one day, it shifts."

Comments

[bessemerprocess]

Dude, your review made me cry AGAIN. JJ and Hotch and the end killed me so hard. And I'm just here, crying over tv.

[bibliothekara]

My work here is done?

I wanted everybody to hug, because that's just the way I am. But saving it for Penelope was worth it. And the way Thomas played it was almost worse/better, in a way. For some reason it reminded me of Charlie and Casey on SportsNight. He shakes her hand, and then doesn't talk to anybody, and probably goes home to hold Jack tight while watching DVDs on the couch.

[bessemerprocess]

I really wanted to hug everyone. Also, oddly enough, you are the second person I've seen to bring up Sports Night in relation to this episode.

Hotch is still not alright, and JJ has been an anchor for him. Reid already has all those abandonment issues. Morgan probably earned himself an even worse case of PTSD last episode. Garcia just BROKE ME. And Emily's "No" also killed me dead. MY TEAM. I already miss you.