There are far better episodes of 'Criminal Minds' than "Devil's Night", but also far worse. Warts and all, to me "Devil's Night" was one of the better episodes of a very hit-and-miss season.
It starts off absolutely brilliantly, with a truly chilling and disturbing opening murder, the second murder featured in the episode not quite as much but still very close. The Hotch and Jack scenes were really sweet and touching. "Devil's Night" has the right creepy Halloween atmosphere.
An unrecognisable Leonard Roberts does a wonderful job as the heavily disfigured/burnt unsub, sending chills up the spine but at the same time while never condoning his actions there is a touch of sympathy for his situation and how he came to be that way. The makeup department similarly did wonders. The acting throughout is very good indeed, some of the team are underused though. Prentiss and Reid could have had more to do, while Morgan is basically background, registering only when he questions Hotch entering the building alone (although that didn't make sense for him to do that considering that Hotch has gone alone before and so has Morgan).
However, the actors cannot in any way be knocked. The production values as always are very high in quality, and the haunting music is never too intrusive or over the top. The writing is a vast majority of the time thought-provoking, there is enough to make the episode feel like a 'Criminal Minds' episode and have enough of what makes the show so great in the first place and the story is engrossing enough with good atmosphere.
On the other hand, "Devil's Night" is let down by a couple of unbelievable scenes. The main one being the outcome of Rossi's scene with the first victim's wife, it was very difficult to believe that she remembered that level of detail when there were several good reasons as to why they would not have registered or stood out. The other is the climax, that should have been intense and harrowing but felt like a very forced attempt at empathy and just went overboard on the absurdity factor.
Also did not buy the unsub's motivation for what made him start killing in such a brutal fashion and how he crumbled so much when told news that he should have been told much sooner. Lastly, do enjoy Ernie Hudson as an actor but this is an all too predictable role for him here and there is not much spark here.
In conclusion, a solid episode but a couple of unbelievable scenes mar it from being a great one. 7/10 Bethany Cox
