‘Criminal Minds’ season 11, episode 5 review: Thomas Gibson as director in ‘The Night Watch’

We have had a few episodes in a row now on “Criminal Minds” season 11 where the focus of the episodes have been solely on the UnSub and we have barely had any backstory on our main cast. While we love this about the show, we would really like a little bit more on our main group. How about a Hotch episode?

Well, what we did have in the new episode Wednesday night was a story directed well by the man who plays Hotch in Thomas Gibson, so shouldn’t that count for something? We suppose so, since the majority of the episode did not give you much to cling to when it comes to a long-running story.

Instead, the primary arc of the case was about a killer in Detroit who was using local street art in order to orchestrate his schemes. The capture of children was involved, and this was about as emotional and terrible as you can expect from this show.

We did have at least something at the tail end of this story for fans of newcomer Tara Lewis, who was dealing with some personal struggle with Nicholas and sought out Rossi for a little bit of support. He of course offered it, and they shared some fundamental truths about their job. It leads them to become committed to a cause, but can you at times become so invested that you lose everything else in the process? Tara claimed that she made her decision for herself first and foremost, but it was hard not to feel for her in the closing seconds. She may be a hero to some, but her struggles are a reminder that she is still a person, and her choices do very much weigh on her. Episode grade: B-.

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