The midseason premiere of Season 11 of the American police procedural drama TV series “Criminal Minds” returned to CBS on January 13 with its 11th episode titled ‘Entropy” and it finally put a truly satisfying end to the ‘The Dirty Dozen’ story arc that began at the start of the season.
It can be recalled that at the start of Season 11 of “Criminal Minds” the producers and showrunner revealed that the season will give a pretty significant focus on ‘The Dirty Dozen.’
Given how “Criminal Minds” works out its every episode, there is always a closure at the end. So when fans learned about ‘The Dirty Dozen’ plot, they thought that it will just be a few appearances for the group of hitmen in a couple of episodes.
However, it turns out that ‘The Dirty Dozen’ have had an extremely regular presence in Season 11 of “Criminal Minds” and the TV series has become somewhat serialized for the first time during its 11-year run, though in a very good and impressive way.
The midseason premiere of “Criminal Minds” is by far the very best episode of the season because it had excitement, tension, chess-like maneuverings, and twists littered throughout the story, cites TV Fanatic
A date with a murderer
The story of episode 11 focused basically on a date with a murderer and it took place in a restaurant with Dr. Spencer Reid, played by Matthew Gray Gubler, sharing a table with a Black Widow hit man, named Cat Adams, played by Aubrey Plaza.
The date is actually part of the plan of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) to take down The Dirty Dozen, notes the Christian Post.
The fall finale episode of “Criminal Minds” Season 11, titled “Future Perfect,” showed very little storyline progress about The Dirty Dozen except for featuring Penelope Garcia, played by Kirsten Simone Vangsness whiling her time away in the modified witness protection program by playing poker with David Rossi, played by Joe Mantegna.
The problem is, not even a game of poker with Rossi for fuzzy pencils and cigars can distract Garcia from why she is in the program.
Rossi tried to assure her that everything will be back to normal. Garcia also feels the same although she admit that she is scared that she would be stuck at the BAU like she is now because of the threat on her life.
Rossi also assured her that the BAU will take The Dirty Dozen down and that she can do her part by staying strong.
However, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel for Garcia on her quest to extinguish the threat from The Dirty Dozen suddenly loomed when Senior Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotch, played by Thomas Gibson, showed up in her quarters at the FBI.
She immediately sensed the urgency in Hotch’s voice that she came with him without even changing out of her pajamas. Apparently, it is about a major breakthrough on The Dirty Dozen case and that the BAU may have found a way to bring the whole network down.
No ordinary first date
While viewers were initially lead to believe that Dr. Reid and Cat were having their first date as a result of their online chat, it becomes clear later on that it was no ordinary first date.
Reid was actually playing the part of a married man, and that the date was actually a negotiation. He was commissioning Cat to kill his pregnant wife.
Before Reid’s date with Cat, the BAU team had apprehended two of the four hitmen, as well as the IT genius nicknamed Snowman, whom they had forced to act as their technology specialist and organizer.
Aubrey Plaza as Cat Adams was superb as she walked into their trap willingly, exuding the notion that she had the upper hand in the negotiation.