Criminal Minds - Season 9, Episode 4 'To Bear Witness' [Recap + Review]

Well, well, well. This episode of Season 9 of Criminal Minds featured a whole lot of JJ & new section chief weirdness. Oh, and there was some guy who liked to give people lobotomies. No biggie. The episode opened with JJ sprinting across a park with a guy who will moments later be announced as the new section chief. Awkward. At the end of the episode it was slightly revealed that there may be some sort of case that connects them, but it's still a bit of a mystery.

Obviously, when questioned by her fellow co-workers whether she knew Cruz (Section chief) she 'had to' lie and tell them she had only heard of him. And the plot thickens. Meanwhile in the episode, some German psychopath has been performing lobotomies on a couple of people. A guy (who is later revealed to be named Sam) had 'escaped' from the Unsub and is now in the hospital. Morgan tries to communicate with Sam to find out where he was held and if there was anyone else with him. This is especially difficult because Sam is unable to talk or pretty much communicate in any other form apart from eye blinking. Super. Morgan however, manages to get Sam to spell out his name and then asks him if there was anyone else there and they spell out his female companions name - except the drowsiness of Sam means that he blinks in the wrong space, and instead of spelling out 'Dana' (who is the actual woman's name) he spells out 'Dani.' Easy mistake. 

Meanwhile, the Unsub has installed a neuro eye cam into Sam and is recording the whole thing, which he posts on the internet. Tech-savvy Garcia tries to pin point the location, but struggles with the multiple cell tower signals. The team manage to figure out that the connection is Germany - and that the victims are students. They profile the suspect as someone who wants others to feel how he feels (isolated, alone, like no one will listen) and try to go from there. Eventually, after much research, Garcia manages to uncover 'Dana' (instead of Dani) and says that she has a brother who she was distanced from because apparently he's unstable. 

They conclude that this is a very, VERY extreme case of sibling rivalry and that Dana's brother, Anton, wants to get back at his sister because he didn't get enough attention from their parents. Oh for the love of God. I think someone should probably have told him to get over it long ago. But anyway, the team are on the case and they see through a neuro eye cam implanted in Dana, that the Unsub, now named Anton, has taken her outside to a white van. Garcia pinpoints the exact cell-tower and they rush on over. They find Dana in the van, as safe as she possibly can be - and then find Anton in the basement of a building and arrest him. They take Anton back to base and he shares a frosty encounter with his father who tries to have him extradited, but Cruz says hell no. Ok, we're paraphrasing a little. But he still says no. In the ride back with the team I was half expecting Anton to flip out and crash the car or something but alas, no. 

The episode ends with JJ and Cruz having an awkward conversation together which is made even more awkward when Rossi waltzes over and interrupts the whole thing. Cruz says goodnight and leaves, leaving JJ and Rossi to enter the lift, and he asks her if everything is okay. Of course, she replies with yes and the episode ends on uneasy terms. Overall, the episode was pretty entertaining and featured some cute genius moments from Reid, a lot of JJ (which we're not complaining about) and Rossi, whose facial expression at the end was priceless. 

In this episode, Anton was played by David Anders, who you may know from Heroes, Once Upon a Time or Alias. It was rather nice seeing him play the role, and he certainly had that kind of creepy stare and wayward thinking that makes some of the Criminal Minds serial killers more memorable. The next episode in the line-up is 'Route 66' and apparently we'll see Hotch receiving visions of Hayley and George Foyet. From the promotional photos, it's looking like a winner. 

Reviewed by Mel.