‘Criminal Minds’ season 12, episode 11 review: Matthew Gray Gubler, Jane Lynch return for powerful story

It’s only been a few episodes since we had the chance to see Matthew Gray Gubler appear on “Criminal Minds” — for Jane Lynch, it’s been considerably longer. Diana’s been spending much of her time getting treatment for her Alzheimer’s at a special clinic, but when she was forced to depart. In turn, this put Reid in a tricky situation, since he had to find a new way in order to better administer her care. Luckily, the BAU was kind enough to allow Spencer to spend some time with her until he found a way to help her further.

For Reid, he seemed to find some caretakers who were willing to help. This was good for him in terms of his career, but nothing could help some of the emotional pain that he went through. At one point in the episode, his mother was able to recount specific memories and things that even he did not know; then next, she would not even remember who he was.

The writers did a good job of portraying someone struggling with this disease; meanwhile, Gubler and Lynch were fantastic in their portrayal, and you almost felt like their chemistry was such of two people who’d been working together constantly for years. It was a story of the love he had for his mother, and also his struggles to contain his own feelings about what she was going through. This was very much beautifully done.

The UnSub – This one was pretty gruesome, mostly because you had a guy who was forcing many of his victims into unspeakable acts such as taking their own lives. He also felt the need to punish them — even though the majority of them were very good people. There  were a few interesting twists in the case, including Prentiss working to make some key deductions to pinpoint his location and possible victims. His latest major capture at the end of the episode was a working looking to volunteer for the homeless.

Interesting, it was Reid while away who figured out what exactly the UnSub was trying to do: Send people deserving of a happy afterlife in the opposite direction. Eventually, the team was able to get the job done.

Overall – The biggest challenge for the case of the week this time was that it was forced to go up against one of the best Spencer Reid stories in quite some time. After watching what was going on with Reid and Diana, the other storyline had to try to keep up. Luckily, we saw the show do a very wise thing in connecting the two at various points, and continue to draw these characters together.

In addition to seeing Reid reflecting on his life in the closing minutes, the other moment of great emotion (at least for us) was seeing JJ express her own concerns about Spencer and if he would be okay. If JJ’s worried, don’t we all have reasons to worry? There is a long road ahead for Spencer, and we better be prepared for tears along the way. Grade: A-.

Next week – There isn’t too much available about the story just yet, but we can tell you that the episode is entitled “A Good Husband.” Also, you can head over here to read our full preview both for this episode and “Spencer,” the big installment of the show that is coming up the following week. (Photo: CBS.)