While the BAU chases a pair of young lovers on an interstate killing spree, Prentiss is contacted by an old friend with some bad news.While the BAU chases a pair of young lovers on an interstate killing spree, Prentiss is contacted by an old friend with some bad news.While the BAU chases a pair of young lovers on an interstate killing spree, Prentiss is contacted by an old friend with some bad news.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA lot of key elements in the unsubs' backgrounds are similar to Oliver Stone's controversial Natural Born Killers (1994). The movie followed a murderous couple on a killing spree. One key element from the movie is Mallory attacking anyone that comes on to her in a sexual manner. Both elements are incorporated into the episode. And just like Mickey calling Mallory "Mal," Ray calls Sydney "Syd". The film Natural Born Killers is based loosely on Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate.
- GoofsThe Montana Record pulled up by Garcia shows that the female unsub was born in Oct. 1985 and was taken from her parents home by family services due to abuse in Aug. 2006 and placed in foster care the following day. (She would have been a 20 year old adult at the time, just 2 months shy of her 21st birthday.)
- Quotes
Emily Prentiss: [voiceover] William Glasser wrote, "What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today."
- ConnectionsReferences The Simpsons (1989)
Featured review
A step in the wrong direction for 'Criminal Minds'
Even though it became hit and miss in its later seasons, 'Criminal Minds' still is one of my favourite shows, and makes for compulsive viewing at its best.
"The Thirteenth Step" is very much to me a lesser 'Criminal Minds' episode, a contender for the weakest Season 6 episode as well.
As someone who always looks for good things in stuff she dislikes, "The Thirteenth Step" is not a complete travesty. The acting from the regular team is very good with no exceptions (good to not see useless and uninteresting Seaver, my opinion that is, in this episode), there are some stylish moments visually, some haunting and suitably explosive scoring and while it is predictable the scene with Prentiss at the end is quite tense and gives a sense of foreboding as to what would come later on in the season.
However, "The Thirteenth Step" is chiefly hurt by something that dooms other lacking 'Criminal Minds' episodes... it doesn't feel like 'Criminal Minds'. Profiling and psychology take a literal back-seat and we don't see anywhere near enough of the team or the great dynamic or little character moments that add so much to the show's appeal. Instead feeling like an attempt at imitating 'Natural Born Killers' or 'Bonnie and Clyde' but succeeding only as that, a bland and trying-and-failing-for-shock-value imitation with a gross overuse of tasteless and unneeded violence (tame compared to those two films, but too much even for an episode of 'Criminal Minds') and gratuitous and sleazy sex that constantly feels thrown in and misplaced.
As the team are not in it enough, you'd think that a good unsub would help lift it. "The Thirteenth Step" focuses on not one but two unsubs, for a vast majority of the running time, but very little is done to make them interesting or make them characters that one feels scared of or feels sorry for. They are just two people killing for the thrills and not much more, the twisted relationship is not twisted enough, the chemistry between them is bland and when it comes to the acting Jonathan Tucker underplays while Adrianne Palicki is the opposite.
Unfortunately a strong story is not present all that much either. The story meanders all over the place, with a lot of unexplained (missing an opportunity to explain Reid's headaches and hallucinations) and confused scenes that make the episode meandering, underdeveloped and incoherent, and no tension or suspense whatsoever and going overboard on the violence and sex doesn't help matters. The script goes through the motions emotionally and constantly has a sense of awkwardness. While there are some stylish moments, there are some very amateurish-looking and nausea-inducing moments too in the scenes involving the unsubs.
In summary, has moments but is a step in the wrong direction for such a great show overall. 'Criminal Minds' became hit and miss from mid-Season 6 onwards, and "The Thirteenth Steps" is one of the biggest missteps. 4/10 Bethany Cox
"The Thirteenth Step" is very much to me a lesser 'Criminal Minds' episode, a contender for the weakest Season 6 episode as well.
As someone who always looks for good things in stuff she dislikes, "The Thirteenth Step" is not a complete travesty. The acting from the regular team is very good with no exceptions (good to not see useless and uninteresting Seaver, my opinion that is, in this episode), there are some stylish moments visually, some haunting and suitably explosive scoring and while it is predictable the scene with Prentiss at the end is quite tense and gives a sense of foreboding as to what would come later on in the season.
However, "The Thirteenth Step" is chiefly hurt by something that dooms other lacking 'Criminal Minds' episodes... it doesn't feel like 'Criminal Minds'. Profiling and psychology take a literal back-seat and we don't see anywhere near enough of the team or the great dynamic or little character moments that add so much to the show's appeal. Instead feeling like an attempt at imitating 'Natural Born Killers' or 'Bonnie and Clyde' but succeeding only as that, a bland and trying-and-failing-for-shock-value imitation with a gross overuse of tasteless and unneeded violence (tame compared to those two films, but too much even for an episode of 'Criminal Minds') and gratuitous and sleazy sex that constantly feels thrown in and misplaced.
As the team are not in it enough, you'd think that a good unsub would help lift it. "The Thirteenth Step" focuses on not one but two unsubs, for a vast majority of the running time, but very little is done to make them interesting or make them characters that one feels scared of or feels sorry for. They are just two people killing for the thrills and not much more, the twisted relationship is not twisted enough, the chemistry between them is bland and when it comes to the acting Jonathan Tucker underplays while Adrianne Palicki is the opposite.
Unfortunately a strong story is not present all that much either. The story meanders all over the place, with a lot of unexplained (missing an opportunity to explain Reid's headaches and hallucinations) and confused scenes that make the episode meandering, underdeveloped and incoherent, and no tension or suspense whatsoever and going overboard on the violence and sex doesn't help matters. The script goes through the motions emotionally and constantly has a sense of awkwardness. While there are some stylish moments, there are some very amateurish-looking and nausea-inducing moments too in the scenes involving the unsubs.
In summary, has moments but is a step in the wrong direction for such a great show overall. 'Criminal Minds' became hit and miss from mid-Season 6 onwards, and "The Thirteenth Steps" is one of the biggest missteps. 4/10 Bethany Cox
helpful•185
- TheLittleSongbird
- Jul 15, 2016
Details
- Runtime42 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9 HD
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