Criminal Minds -- The Vigilante

I have to admit when Rossi received a gun from his old war buddy, Harrison Scott, and he'd disappeared from the facility that Rossi had gotten him in to help him with his drinking and to get his life back on track, I thought maybe out unsub was Harrison Scott. It's actually turned out to be a man named Clifford Walsh.

Clifford is sitting in his car looking at a picture of his wife about to kill himself. He feels he failed her because the man who killed her in a home invasion robbery died before Clifford could kill him, himself. That's when he saw three punks trying to rob two old men who were playing checkers and The Vigilante was born.

He shoots two of the punks while the third gets away, but not for long. Clifford hunts him down and kills him. He also kills another man who snatched a woman's purse. Then he sees a woman's ex-husband beating her up and he shoots him dead.

The team is called in and they discover they have a bit of a problem on their hand. None of the victims want to help them catch The Vigilante. The woman was was saved from her ex-husband says that the police didn't do anything to protect her, but he did, so she hopes they don't catch him.

The team finally get a picture of him when he goes to a place where some small time Meth dealers are playing cards and guns them all down. It turns out that one of the dealers was connected to Howard Clark, the man who killed his wife and son.

Next on The Vigilantes hit list is a man named Hines, unfortunately he shoots the wrong Hines. He ends up shooting the brother of the man he was really after.

After hearing a bar patron say the parents are the ones responsible for the actions of their children, he goes after Howard Clark's mother. It seems his final act is kill her and then himself since he feels both of them were responsible for the death of his wife. Seems his son was Clark's accomplice for robbing his own home, but when Clark tried to rape his mother Clark killed him.

The team arrives in time to stop him from killing Helen Clark. They tell him he killed the wrong man, so he decides to spare Helen. But before they can disarm him, he shoots himself like as he planned at the beginning of the show.

Meanwhile Rossi was missing from this case as he went to save his old friend Harrison from himself. Rossi learned he had a deadline to get his friend back in the facility he had him in or he'd lose his place. He tracked him down and discovered Harrison left because he called up his son he hasn't spoken to in years and realized he had a grandson before Thomas hung up on him. So he came there to be close to him.

Rossi goes to the son's house and tries to get him to give his father another chance, but Thomas remembers all the chances he gave his father and how many chances his father blew. He doesn't want that in his son's life. Rossi urges Harrison to be patient. That it took him a long time to ruin his relationship with his son, so it could take a long while to repair it. Going back to the facility and getting his life together might prove to his son he changed.

Harrison gets a surprise as he's about to re-enter the facility and he sees his son standing there with his wife and son. Thomas lets Harrison meet his grandson and they shake hands.

Throughout this mission JJ has been lying to the team she was speaking to Will when it was actually Cruz. When the mission is over and JJ leaves the building she's about to contact Cruz on her cell phone when she's grabbed from behind and taken and her cell phone is left behind on the ground. So it appears the teams next mission will be to find JJ and learn what she and Cruz have been keeping from them.

I can understand the victims not being that cooperative in helping the police to find the Vigilante that saved them. Aside from getting the wrong Hines, all the people Clifford Walsh took out was vermin preying on innocent people. If Walsh hadn't been there to take them out, a lot of the victims could have been seriously harmed. That's why I didn't feel any kind of outrage over the crimes the unsub committed. In the first incident with the three punks harassing the two old men and the abusive husband I was rooting for him to take them out.

Unfortunately, while it might be nice having a vigilante take out the bad guys in the case of Clifford getting the wrong Hines' brother, an innocent person could get hurt. Our justice system is imperfect, but it's all we got. Maybe some day it'll be better.

In regards to the kidnapping of JJ, I'm not really that interested in it or this big secret she and Cruz have. It got dropped for too many episodes and it lost whatever momentum it might have. Unfortunately, it's JJ's turn to get the special treatment next episode. I have to admit I'm getting a bit tired of all the team episodes. A little goes a long way. One once and awhile is great, but they've kind of dominated this season. I suppose Blake will get one next after JJ's special episode.

I don't know, but for some reason this season has felt like the show is starting to run out of gas. A lot of the cases haven't been too enthralling. I know a lot of fans complained about some of the more gory cases, but those are actually the ones that illicit feeling from you. I almost feel like the show has tackled every kind of case they could and the ones they're tackling this season are rather mundane. Maybe the time has come for the show to consider it's time for it to end.