I've always been of two minds about Elle's unraveling. On the one hand, I've never really liked her character, so I find it a fascinating storyline. This might be a weird thing to say, but I think if this was done to someone I truly cared about, I would've been furious rather than appreciative of the risk and daring of the writers. On the other hand, I don't think it's well done. I never entirely understood why she blamed Hotch for what happened, but I waved that concern away because she might just have needed someone to be angry at. But her actions, in this case, baffled me. I don't argue that the guy deserved it, but this woman is too intelligent not to understand how badly she fucked up. They had him. All she had to do was follow the plan - and, mind you, her reason for not following it doesn't track. Hotch wasn't the only one there, there was a whole fucking team. But you know what, it's trauma, and I can explain it to myself. I can't explain her being shocked about the guy not being arrested because of her actions. Nor do I feel comfortable with her being so blase about it, but re-watching these past two seasons I've realized that Elle never was very expressive. Anyways, as you can see, there are many things I have to "convince myself of" during this storyline, which is why I say it's not very well done, in my opinion. If I need to keep supplying hypotheses that explain my concerns away, then clearly something didn't work for me, and therefore, I didn't 100% buy the show's progression.
Review by Nitzan SchwarzVIP BlockedParentSpoilers2024-02-28T20:07:22Z
I've always been of two minds about Elle's unraveling. On the one hand, I've never really liked her character, so I find it a fascinating storyline. This might be a weird thing to say, but I think if this was done to someone I truly cared about, I would've been furious rather than appreciative of the risk and daring of the writers. On the other hand, I don't think it's well done. I never entirely understood why she blamed Hotch for what happened, but I waved that concern away because she might just have needed someone to be angry at. But her actions, in this case, baffled me. I don't argue that the guy deserved it, but this woman is too intelligent not to understand how badly she fucked up. They had him. All she had to do was follow the plan - and, mind you, her reason for not following it doesn't track. Hotch wasn't the only one there, there was a whole fucking team. But you know what, it's trauma, and I can explain it to myself. I can't explain her being shocked about the guy not being arrested because of her actions. Nor do I feel comfortable with her being so blase about it, but re-watching these past two seasons I've realized that Elle never was very expressive. Anyways, as you can see, there are many things I have to "convince myself of" during this storyline, which is why I say it's not very well done, in my opinion. If I need to keep supplying hypotheses that explain my concerns away, then clearly something didn't work for me, and therefore, I didn't 100% buy the show's progression.