FBI Season 8 Episode 18 was tough to get through.
A serial killer who stabbed a woman in the heart too many times for the ME to count, a survivor from 20 years ago, and a pattern of mothers and children killed violently was almost too much to handle.
I never enjoyed Criminal Minds because of these types of graphic cases, and I barely tolerated it on FBI, especially because there didn’t seem to be a deeper point to the story other than how horrible the violence was.
Peter and Maggie’s Conflict Made FBI Season 8 Episode 18 Somewhat Bearable
Peter believed that his profile from 20 years ago was correct, that he had already arrested the “Ripper,” and that this killer had to be a copycat, and he didn’t want to consider the possibility that he was wrong.
His rigid insistence that he’d been right and that Maggie was seeing something that didn’t exist was annoying for all the right reasons.
It made sense that Peter’s ego was hurt — after all, he’d spent the last twenty years thinking he’d caught a violent killer, and he didn’t want to think about the possibility that he’d been wrong and that these new victims had died because he hadn’t gotten it right.
Yet his dismissal of Maggie was beyond frustrating. She almost always knows what she’s talking about and had strong evidence that the killer was still at large, at least until they got deep enough into the investigation to realize it was a copycat with a strong connection to the case.
It was disappointing that FBI Season 8 Episode 18 decided to go for the twist that the only surviving victim was the new killer.
This particular trope gets used a lot on Dick Wolf procedurals. Victims become perpetrators throughout all of his shows, and it often is because the trauma activated something terrible that was latent in the person.
It happens so often that I felt like I should have figured out who the killer was the first time that he appeared on-screen as a witness.
I completely missed it, so I can give the writers credit for properly misdirecting me.
Still, the twist was underwhelming because it had been done so many times before, and the fact that the guy was having a kid of his own didn’t seem like a strong enough trigger to turn him into a killer.
The Interrogation Scenes Gave Us Something More Meaty Than All This Violence
Maggie did especially good work with both suspects she worked with.
Of course, the first guy gave a completely false confession because he believed that’s what everyone wanted to hear.
Still, it took a while to get to that point, and Maggie had to play mind games to get him to open up to her at all. Then she did it all over again when it came to getting the real killer to confess.
By the way, did anyone not see it coming when Scola left Eva alone with creepy guy #1 in order to answer the phone?
That was such a horror movie moment. It was too obvious that FBI Season 8 Episode 18 was going to put Eva in some sort of danger from the second she was left alone in that disquieting situation.
Unlike most horror movie victims, though, Eva paid close attention, and she and Scola worked together to subdue the man after he attacked her. That act of violence was about as brazen as it was stupid, and I’m still not sure what he did it for.
Still, it was refreshing to have a woman like Eva stand up to a would-be attacker. Too often, women on these shows are turned into passive victims.
Did you like the sequence with Eva or did it feel gratitutious to you?
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For that matter, I loved that Maggie told the ME that she was fine with working on this case despite what happened to her sister.
To be clear: there’s nothing wrong with needing to step away from certain traumatic situations. However, Maggie’s response wasn’t false bravado; she sincerely wanted to move forward from her sister’s death and get justice for other victims.
After everything she’s been through it would be easy for Maggie to get lost in her trauma, but right now she’s not doing that.
It’s a big — and positive — change from a few weeks ago when she was questioning whether she wanted to stay in the FBI after what had happened to Erin.
Still, FBI Season 8 Episode 18 Could Have Got The Point Across Without So Much Violence
Serial killer stories are almost always extremely violent, and this one was no exception.
The violence probably wasn’t any worse than the normal shootouts on this procedural, but the dark opening scenes and the disturbing details of the murders made it harder to take.
Plus, here on Long Island, we are being inundated with news stories about the alleged Gilgo Beach killer, and this story seemed like more of the same.
What did you think? Was the level of violence too much, or was it necessary for this story?
Hit the comments with your thoughts, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so they can join the conversation.
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