Criminal Minds season 13, episode 2 review: Was Spencer cleared for work?

The Criminal Minds season 13 premiere did not hold anything back to say the least. They killed off Stephen Walker as well as Mr. Scratch, they started to address Spencer’s PTSS from his time in prison and they also tied up Hotch’s story saying that he’s decided to become a full time father to Jack instead of returning to the team. We knew that once the show wrapped up the Mr. Scratch character that they were going to have to address Hotch not returning to the team, but we didn’t expect him to not return to work at all. He’s always been a character who’s life was the job, so this is a complete about face for him… but this is where we are. Tonight it almost feels like a reset button has been hit with the premiere, where some of the long-standing hanging threads have been tied up, so tonight we are excited to see what direction they take us in.

There’s a bit of a time jump after the premiere – 6 weeks to be exact. If you remember, the team was all put on mandatory leave after dealing with the last Mr. Scratch incident as well as the horrific car crash.

When we catch up with Spencer he is nearing the end of his testing/therapy to make sure he’s okay to go back to his job after everything that’s happened to him. Not only has he had to deal with what happened in prison, what happened with Cat Adams and what is happening with his mother, but also Stephen Walker’s death and Hotch being gone for good. It’s a heavy weight on him – for anyone really. In Spencer’s last therapy session he knows that the board is going to tell him whether or not he’s going to get reinstated. The good news is that he’s reinstated to go back to his job, the bad news is that there is a condition on it.

The condition Spencer has on his reinstatement is that for every 100 days he’s working on the field he has to take 30 days off, making him feel like this isn’t a full reinstatement, but Prentiss assures him that it is and that everyone needs time off in a job like this. She even made sure that he has something that makes him feel like he’s still working during that time by teaching classes. He tells her that he’s worried that if he’s on the field that he might take something too far, like that if he had found Mr. Scratch first that he is sure he would’ve killed him and slept like a baby, but Prentiss assures him that he will be okay.

When he is out in the field pursuing our Unsub and finds him with a scared young woman, his worries are put to the test. Did he kill the Unsub or was he able to control himself? He did a great job talking the Unsub down and no shots were fired at all.

CarterMatt’s over all thoughts

Last season Criminal Minds changed things up a bit and had an over all story arc with Spencer, moving away from their normal procedural content, but this episode brought us home again to the Criminal Minds TV comfort food many fans were missing. Yes, we had a little bit of personal story on what’s happening with Spencer moving forward with the team, but for the most part the episode was focused on the new Unsub of the week and the team coming together to catch him. It was nice to be brought back to the basics.

What did you think of Criminal Minds season 13 episode 2? Leave us your thoughts in the comment section below. If you want more scoop on Criminal Minds then head on over to the link here where you can check out a preview for the next new episode. Also be sure to join our CarterMatt Facebook group if you want to get some more Criminal Minds updates. (Photo: CBS)