Criminal Minds (TV Series) The Replicator (2013) User Reviews

Season finale

[LoveIsAStateOfMind · 8/10 · 29 December 2015]

I know the fandom doesn't like Strauss but I honestly never minded her and thought she was okay as a boss. The Hotch/Strauss scene <3 <3. Sniff. Nice that Prentiss got a mention.

Oooh the Replicator reveal. Well, I thought it was handled well. Although I'm sorry that Strauss had to die, it was nice character work bringing her children and her alcoholism and Rossi into it. And Rossi turning psycho on Morgan was infinitely scary. I kind of think it lost me when he started taking control of the helicopter though.

Linking the Replicator with Blake's past …. Well, it obviously explains the Strauss/Blake hostility at the start of the season and develops Blake's background …. But I was kind of hoping for ….. something different? I don't know, maybe because this gives him twisted justification for doing this and I was hoping he was just a crazy psycho?

It was scary when the door shut, trapping the team in the room with a bomb about to go off, but I kind of think the Rossi rescue happened too quickly? Why not show us the team panicking about?? Obviously it was a decoy to the real tension of having Rossi/Replicator stuck in the room but there was just something gripping about having nearly everyone locked in, I kind of wish they played with that a bit more. And then Rossi managed to get out super quickly as well – why not increase the tension there a bit??

Okay, a SCARY amount of Criminal Minds episodes have the team at a funeral.

Lovely team moment at the end. Kind of bittersweet for JJ using her wedding venue? Mixed memories!

Overall a good episode but the second half could have been executed better?

My view

[falkenmac · 8/10 · 30 April 2024]

I don't understand all these negative reviews. If you don't like it, you don't like it. That doesn't mean that it is not a good episode. That's your opinion. Maybe all of you people who post negative comments can come up with your own ideas and show. I'm sure it would be amazing!!. Criminal minds is an awesome series, and I personally love it. I'm not concerned with the fact that you don't like it!. Look at it as a whole, and not as each individual episode. Bottom line, if you are not an actor or actress, and you have not been invited to work in any show, keep your opinions to yourself! I love the chemistry between the actors, and the plot. Also the directing.

OK

[Jackbv123 · 6/10 · 2 October 2019]

If you've read any of my reviews on episodes with the most notorious unsubs, you have seen that I hate what I call the "omnipotent criminal (unsub)". My biggest reason for that is because usually these unsubs are inexplicably godlike. With the Replicator, at least they made his "omnipotence" partially explicable. He is a wealthy insider, so he has access to things that outsiders don't have access to. His prowess is still a bit much, but with enough smoke and mirrors, it's not as outlandish. One objection is how he could have maintained his position for so long and have been so psychotic. People in those high profile positions go through regular psychological reviews and I think even lie detector tests that are quite invasive.

This unsub is definitely as psychotic as CM's worst unsubs. But after that, he is just boring. The story does give us pieces of the mystery unfolding in a suspenseful way.

While watching our heroes go through his house, my first thought was why the white collar agents rather than the SWAT people? (Actually, my mind often asks that when our heroes lead the charge into dangerous situations.) We see later that there are plenty of other agents of all types surrounding the place.

While Blake is the center of the unsub's attention, I am still not impressed with her contributions to crime solving. It's true, she does contribute emotionally, but not in any outstanding way.

Many episodes end with touching moments. Funerals often lead to team social gatherings to show that they are a Family. But I just couldn't get into memorializing Strauss. I never liked her. For one thing she was inconsistent and came off as weak at times.

Really...!?

[MrAtkin86 · 2/10 · 19 July 2020]

We follow what seems to be the most amazing unsub in C.M history all season, only to have a less than lackluster conclusion! It was as if thr wroters changed their minds on the story moments before filming. Nothing, other than having inside info" fit into the original layout for the replicator at all

A season finale that fizzles more than it enthrals

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 6 July 2016]

What a shame! "The Replicator" had the potential to be good, and could have been a great resolution to potentially one of 'Criminal Minds' better on-going story arcs. That is wasted by "The Replicator" being a contender for the worst of all the season finales.

It's not all bad. Joe Mantegna and Matthew Gray Gubler are particularly strong of the regulars, who are all dependably solid, while Jeanne Tripplehorn is easily the best of the Prentiss replacements (particularly love her chemistry with Reid on her two-season stint on the show). Jayne Atkinson is good in her final episode.

As ever with 'Criminal Minds', "The Replicator" is stylishly and atmospherically made, and decently directed. The music is suitably haunting and is not over-used, fitting well with the atmosphere and never distracting if not quite enhancing. The theme tune is still memorable, and the final scene is quite touching.

However, the story is the biggest let-down. Pace-wise it can really plod, and the psychological profiling and team dynamic while still present does play second fiddle to everything with Curtis and Strauss, which is not as interesting as it should be. The episode generally is lacking in tension, tautness or suspense, and it is dull, implausible (difficult to believe that The Replicator had the time to commit his crimes, and his reason/motivation seems rather extreme) and sometimes convoluted. The hugely disappointing execution of the story here is enough to bring the rating down three or four points.

Mark Hamill goes through the motions as Curtis in a performance that is not creepy enough, and neither evokes menace or dimension like the most memorable of unsubs. In the previous episodes covering this story arc, The Replicator had the potential to be as notorious and as formidable as the likes of George Foyet, Billy Flynn or Frank Breitkopf, but he isn't as memorable or believable here. The dialogue is not as tight, well-balanced and thought-provoking, instead it feels bland.

Overall, a contender for the weakest and biggest waste-of-potential season finales of 'Criminal Minds', fizzing more than it enthrals and ending on a whimper than a bang. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Lacklustre season finale

[ODDBear · 3/10 · 22 November 2014]

A real let down of a season finale in "Criminal Minds".

The Repclicator has been harassing the crack team of behavioral specialists all season long and here's where his modus operandi and identity is revealed.

NO SPOILER HERE - It's pretty cheap (and easily resolved!)

Spoiler ahead for those who've yet to view

• Turns out it's a disgruntled ex-employee in the bureau (a very weary looking Luke Sky...ahem; Mark Hamill) who got mistreated by Erin Strauss (Jane Atkinson) way back when and the episode starts with him disposing of her. Crackling opening in what turns into a very routine easy-to-spot villain and a speedy dispatching of (with a laugh out loud trick used by Rossi) followed by a cozy gathering of the team to close it off.

End of Spoiler

I keep sticking with "Criminal Minds" despite it's absurdities (mostly with the near supernatural deductive abilities of the team) and quite often the show manages to be both incredibly gruesome and suspenseful and, in fewer instances admittedly, even quite moving when showing a bit of the human factor with it's characters. The Eighth Season had a few very good episodes concerning Spencer (Gubler) and his doomed romance and even upped the ante in the "sickening" department with a few truly harrowing eps.

But always lurking behind the scenes was this "Replicator" who'd been shadowing the team and copying gruesome murders they'd already solved. You always knew it had to be someone with inside knowledge and the setup for the finale was quite good. Too bad the actual episode was so cut and dry and really had a silly resolution. Mark Hamill will always be fondly remembered by film lovers but he's really painful to look at and his performance here is so mundane it barely registers.

The Eighth Season finishes on a whimper :(

Amateurs

[poeboy_7 · 4/10 · 25 September 2020]

These guys know better than to handle unfamiliar items without gloves on. There's no excuse for them to make these rookie mistakes, especially when they're on high alert knowing their being hunted. It felt like it was written by a middle school kid with no knowledge of how a trained law enforcement agent would handle potential evidence or danger.