Criminal Minds season 13, episode 5 review: Shemar Moore, Jamie Kennedy return

It’s a pretty safe assumption that most Criminal Minds fans out there have missed Shemar Moore on the show. Not only do we miss his banter with Garcia (who has become kinda cranky and negative since he left), but with a show as dark as this, he always brought out this really nice aura of lightness to everyone around him (us included). He brought a special balance to the cast that this show has been lacking since his departure. We’re not saying that everyone is negative, but the remaining cast is is fairly serious (as they should be), so having a character like Morgan on the show helped pull us out of a hole when it got too disturbing. Needless to say, we are so very excited for his return tonight and he’s not the only one we are excited to see returning…

We are also seeing the return of Jamie Kennedy’s character of Floyd Feylinn Ferell (who we last saw on season 3) and with his resurgence it makes sense that Morgan would come back as well to make sure that Garcia is okay since she was shot around the same time that case was going on. With an Unsub trolling around with Floyd’s MO it’s bringing up a lot of bad memories for Garcia, but with one visit from Morgan (and an adorable video from his kid to Garcia) she’s feeling a lot better.

Floyd is a particularly gruesome UnSub who has a desire for eating human flesh, although he has remained steadfast in his innocence and his lawyer is pushing a serious “Floyd was set up by another killer” scenario. The last time we saw Floyd he was institutionalized for his crimes (allegedly killing at least ten people and even feeding one of his victims to a search party), but he’s been allowed out for family visits on the notion that this is a mental health issue and not a criminal case.

The BAU is not convinced that Floyd is reformed (or about his lawyer’s impostor theory), so they are monitoring him. Although he still has some – shall we say – unusual religious habits, he’s claiming that he is on his medication and doing well. As they dig further into Floyd they start to wonder if they’ve been wrong about him all along and that maybe there is another killer out there. Of course how disappointing would it be if Floyd wasn’t behind it all?

They eventually learn that Floyd has been training someone else to use his MO and start killing again and once they catch Floyd’s patsy he gives a confession (before killing himself) that will get absolve Floyd of all these crimes as well as all past crimes. Just as Floyd is getting his release papers, the BAU team brings in a search warrant to have an x-ray on Floyd’s stomach in order to get the evidence they need to put him away for good.

CarterMatt’s overall thoughts

As much as we loved having Shemar Moore back (and we really did love having him back!) the star of tonight’s episode for us was Jamie Kennedy – he stole the show. Ever since the Mr Scratch story got tied up in the first episode this season we’ve had a few UnSubs that just weren’t that compelling, but with the return of Floyd tonight we were drawn back in. Kennedy is one of the best character actors out there and by that we mean he really morphs into whoever he is playing, not just with his acting, but also with his physical appearance – something very few actors can pull off the way that Kennedy does.

What did you think of tonight’s episode of Criminal Minds and were you excited to see Moore and Kennedy back on the show? Leave us a comment in the box below with your thoughts. If you are looking for more scoop on what’s coming up next time on Criminal Minds then head on over to the link here and check out a preview.

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