Criminal Minds season 12: Joe Mantegna directs ‘True North’

Criminal Minds season 12 has delivered a number of episodes this year with a consistent thread to them — Reid’s prison situation, and the quest to see if there is a way to get him busted out of there. So far, that hasn’t been all that successful, but will it change by the time April rolls around? Anything’s possible.

What we do know is that the April 5 episode “True North” is the first time in a while that Criminal Minds has not issued any Reid-specific details in their official synopsis. This time around, they’re really not giving you all that much at all: “The BAU is called after three victims are found tied to stakes in the Arizona desert.” That’s all she wrote there. This feels like one of those synopses from the first half of the season. It’s possible Reid’s out by this time, it’s possible that someone over at CBS didn’t bother hashing out the rest of the details, and it’s also possible that this is just one of those episodes that focuses more on the UnSubs than it does any of the characters and Reid’s still in jail but not a part of this story. All of these theories are applicable in our book.

The bigger highlight aside from the synopsis here is that Joe Mantegna is once again in the director’s chair! This is the second time, following “Mirror Image,” that we’ve seen him take on that role. It is something that he’s doing more regularly these days, and we could see it becoming a tradition where he helms two episodes a season for the rest of the run. It’s hard to really have him do more than that given that he also has to continue performing on the show, and it adds so many hours to the day when you’re directing, in between shooting the show and then also working on some of the finer details behind the scenes and in post-production.

For some further news right now when it comes to Criminal Minds, just be sure to head over to the link here. There is a new episode airing tomorrow night on CBS, so be sure to come back to see some further news regarding what’s coming up!

What do you think is going on with Reid at this point, and are you happy to see Mantegna direction another episode? Be sure to share below! (Photo: CBS.)