Criminal Minds Season 19 Episode 5 Delivers a Powerful Hour for Luke

The case of the week on Criminal Minds Season 19 Episode 5 packs a powerful punch when it comes to grief.

For once, the episode mostly stayed on the case, and it was a wonderful hour to give Luke more depth and character.

When it did go back to Voit, it was done in a way that expertly pushes the season arc forward, and reminds us of just how knowledgeable he is — and it’s about damn time!

Luke Handles a Case Through His Grief

Criminal Minds has never shied away from showing team members working while they’re grieving, but it’s rare that we see them take on such a personal case.

They certainly have had to do it, including when it came to one of their own — Gideon — but it’s not common, and we’ve not had to see Luke go through it.

I’ve always felt like Luke has been the character with little development, and it’s usually because his storylines have focused more on relationships.

There’s been the odd mention of his past with the Army and how that affected him, but I’ve always felt cheated in some aspects, because there’s a lot to get into.

While Criminal Minds Season 19 Episode 5 doesn’t fully make up for it, the hour still offers a powerful look at grief.

Luke is only just coming off the loss of Roxy, and that was a heartbreaking moment for him and us! It’s the only time I’ve been able to respect the decision to kill the dog, because of what it would mean for Luke.

Now he has to deal with the loss of his friend, a friend who was going through his own mental health struggles but was trying his hardest to make it through them.

While Luke is desperate to prove that Tom didn’t take his own life, it feels like he’s just not ready to face the truth.

It’s easy to see in episodes like those during Chicago PD Season 12, with the emotional Trudy hour, that we don’t always want to admit how much pain the people we love are in.

Now, I will admit that at the beginning of the episode, I’d guessed who the real killer was, but that was purely due to Nicholas Gonzalez’s performance. There are always certain actors you expect to take on huge roles when they’re just guest-starring.

But for a brief moment, I wondered if Criminal Minds: Evolution was going to go down that road of suicide, but there was always something at the back of my mind that felt it wouldn’t have been right for the story.

Deep down, I knew that Tom had been killed, and it wasn’t by the man holding the gun. There was something bigger going on.

My big gripe about this entire case of the week was how, at the start, nobody even thought to ask if the trainee holding the gun knew he had live rounds or not.

There were all these questions about what he did and why he constantly repeated, “I had the shot. I took the shot.” Yet, nobody thought to ask the most basic of them all while trying to work out if it was murder or accidental.

When it came to the training officers arresting him, I could just about understand it. They were in shock at Tom being killed.

However, nobody in the BAU thought to ask it until well into the questioning period?

They just jumped straight to assuming this guy knew there were live rounds in the gun, and it felt like a rookie mistake in questioning.

For a while, I felt like I was going to be watching in the way I sat throughout Season 4 of The Last Kingdom, asking where Uhtred’s other son was (if you know, you know).

The case itself was rectified, and it offered a wonderful hour for Luke to work through grief rather than bottling it all up, and I have enjoyed seeing so much of Penelope, JJ, and Luke helping each other on personal levels this season.

Rossi Finally Gets a Bigger Role

Has anyone else felt like Rossi’s role with the BAU has been sidelined considerably throughout the last couple of seasons?

Criminal Minds Season 19 Episode 5 finally gave him more to do.

Sure, it’s still with the Voit arc, but he had a chance to show that he knows what he’s talking about.

Do I need to see more of Brian? No. This idiotic, sexist pest is just becoming an annoyance now. It’s not cute, and it’s not funny.

However, having Rossi shut him down did make me chuckle. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed about his character, being as blunt as possible when it’s needed.

And in all of this, we get to see him be almost a step ahead of Voit.

Rossi knows he needs to go on Brian’s podcast when the new fanmail comes in. Sure, Voit knew it as well, but Rossi was the first to say it.

It felt like, for a moment, things were back in the BAU’s hands. That they were no longer a step behind Voit.

Rossi was the one who told Brian why he had to stick to the script, and he was the one who tried to keep Voit’s sitting in on the podcast a secret.

Voit didn’t say the world. It was all in Rossi’s hands, and it felt refreshing.

Only for a moment, but it was there. It offers hope that they can get back ahead with all these UnSubs in the future.

In the end, it was for nothing.

Brian went off script and said the words The Fan wanted to hear rather than anything Rossi, Prentiss, or anyone else wanted him to say.

In a way, I wish we hadn’t known that Connor Storrie’s appearance on Criminal Minds had been upped to four episodes, as it would have made that cliffhanger much harder to bear.

Of course, I’m glad that we do know he’s coming back, but from a thriller point of view, part of me would have loved to be sat with not knowing if Lance had been killed or not.

Storrie did it again with very little material, as well. He put his heart into his facial expressions and the way his voice changed, showing the fear he felt deep down. 

Now, I can’t wait to see what’s to come in his next two episodes.

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Independent journalism thrives when we and you, as readers, work together, so drop us a comment and share what’s on your mind. Plus, let’s revel in Storrie’s performance, the added depth for Luke’s character, and even the Voit storyline — or just let me know what you didn’t like!