‘Criminal Minds’ season 12, episode 6 preview: Matthew Gray Gubler directs ‘Elliott’s Pond’

While Matthew Gray Gubler directs “Criminal Minds” often enough that we cannot exactly call this a rare occurrence anymore, we do still consider it a cause of celebration. One of the reasons why this show is enriching to its cast is that it offers them opportunities to flex other muscles. Gubler’s far from the only cast member to direct on the show; as a matter of fact, Joe Mantegna also has another episode coming up soon.

Next week’s episode is entitled “Elliott’s Pond,” and we’re somewhat wary of how to hype this one up. We do know that showrunner Erica Messer penned it, and given that the last time she wrote an episode directed by Gubler it was the departure of Derek Morgan from the show, we want to think that it’s a big one. However, it’s a little irresponsible to guarantee anything just based on creative talent alone … but we’re not going to deny that it’s interesting. If this was an episode to give us some sort of update on the state of Thomas Gibson’s Hotch, we certainly wouldn’t be mad. Just saying.

Synopsis – “When three children disappear while riding their bikes on the same path as a similar unsolved disappearance 30 years ago, the BAU team comes in to investigate.”

As expected, CBS is not giving you much of anything there … but did you really expect for them to? It’s not really their style to give away any character details in “Criminal Minds” synopses, even though it would sometimes be nice. Still, this is the sort of case that appeals to us as a “Criminal Minds” fan given that we do enjoy the stories that are of the cold-case variety and you can explore events that took place in different timelines.

Ultimately, the one last thing we’ll say about this potentially being a big episode is that it’s November sweeps. If there is a time to deliver on something big, isn’t it now?

More news – Head over here! After all, we’ll have a full review of the episode tonight there soon enough. (Photo: CBS.)