‘Criminal Minds’ season 11, episode 16 review: Did Derek Morgan die or was he rescued?

The last episode of “Criminal Minds” left us with Derek on his way home to “have a talk” with Savannah when he got drugged and attacked by a group of men. How much trouble is he really in? Probably quite a bit, but he was at least able to tell Savannah to call Hotch before they smashed his phone to pieces.

Hotch is thinking that the men that attacked Derek might be part of some blow back from taking down the network of hit-men from earlier in the season, because who ever has been planning this attack on him has been planning this for months and when they dig deeper into the evidence, they see that this could’ve been organized by a group of men that were rejected by the SAS.

Derek has been brought to an undisclosed location and is being tortured, and as much as he tries to disassociate himself in his mind to make it through the situation, he is having trouble. Eventually he is able to focus on something in his mind that even the best torture can’t take away from him – his father. Why is his dad coming to him at this time? He’s there to help him make sense of this situation and survive it.

We learned a lot about Derek tonight as he thinks about the day his father was killed in the line of duty and how he watched it happen as a ten year old boy. He also has memories of abuse that he faced as a young boy from a trusted man in the community. Facing his anger towards his father dying helps him gather the strength to escape his restraints, and kill most of his captors, but he’s so weak from the torture that he collapses on the ground. He quickly realizes that he’s in the middle of no where and that there is no where to go, but the pain of what they did to him is making it hard for him to concentrate. He sees one of his captors on a cell phone, but before he can get to it, the guy swallows a piece of it and Derek has to kill him, cut him open and fish it out.

Once Derek gets the phone together, he’s distressed to find it’s password protected, but he hits redial and Garcia can get a hit on where he is – unfortunately so does the clean up crew on the other end and he is closer then the team. While he’s waiting for his team to show up, he recalls his conversation with Savannah and realizes that she’s pregnant and if he doesn’t kill the man that has just come in the door, then he will never get home to her. The team finds Morgan and he’s barely alive, so they rush to give him medial assistance, but he flatlines. Is Derek going to die? Of course not! Derek’s father gives him the strength to push through giving up and he makes it through.

We have been worried about Derek dying in tonight’s episode for weeks now since the title of this episode is called “Derek”, but we ended up with Derek alive and one heck of an intense episode! We haven’t had a lot of a focus on Derek this season, and we are fully aware that we can’t have all Derek all the time, but tonight’s episode reminded us of just how talented Shemar Moore really is. Yes, he can be cool and confident, but tonight he pushed the envelope and we were honestly worried for him. Instead, he’s going to be a father and has asked Savannah to marry him! Episode grade: A

What did you think of tonight’s episode of “Criminal Minds”? Leave us a comment below and share your thoughts. If you want more scoop on “Criminal Minds” then head on over to the link here and let us be your guide. Also, if you want more great TV news sent your way then be sure to sign up for our weekly CarterMatt newsletter. It comes out every weekend and in addition to getting the top stories of the week, our subscribers also get some first look scoop before it hits the site. (Photo: CBS)