(Original written Sept 29)
Criminal minds is a well-known long-running TV show crime drama. I've enjoyed the show for years as I would catch an episode when I could.
However, I found this the other day in Season 15 Episode 4. I was surprised to realize that they actually mentioned targeted individuals and proceed to take the term and make a twisted little web of deception that of course ends up discrediting and vilifying that term, our community and the work that we do.
There's a link to a transcript of the script and a promo for the episode.
I've added my own transcript from viewing the episode and putting down the times that the dialogue occurs so readers can get to it quickly.
I'm sure a lot of people have access to the internet and a lot of ways to watch this episode on their own devices.
https://www.tvfanatic.com/gallery/shows/criminal-minds/episodes/saturday/
Transcript of Season 15 Episode 4 titled 'Saturdays'.
https://tvshowtranscripts.ourboard.org/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36810
My transcript with comments.
Season 15 episode 4 'Saturday':
@9:39 S15 E4-
Agent Prentiss gets served court summons by a fake delivery guy. Her former neighbor, Brian Garretty is suing her. Naming her and the government in a fifth amendment, civil rights violation- claims he's being watched.
@10:50 S15 E4-
She's going to call him into Quantico headquarters and try to talk him out of it.
@10:55 S15 E4-
Dave: "He sounds like a conspiracy theorist, and we need to be careful of how much oxygen we give those types."
@17:07 S15 E4-
Arrives at her office. Conversation with Garcia.
Garcia: "(are you distracted) ...because of that guy in your office?"
Prentiss inquires about Brian waiting in her office, asks about the object he's brought with him.
Garcia: "(it's) his own crime board, and it's complete with crazy-man string."
(So already there's a pre conception about this person even though Garcia or anyone else in office knows nothing about who or why he's there.)
Goes to her office, Brian is waiting at door.
Brian: "Long time no see. Please come into your FBI office".
He's defensive and feels he's been wronged or has been persecuted and she's to blame.
@22:37 S15 E4-
Brian is speaking with Prentiss about traffic cameras in public spaces in his local area and his belief that the local surveillance system is being used by the FBI to watch him.
Prentiss: "They are not pointed at you".
Brian: "and you know where else I found them? In my smart TV. So anytime I'm watching something my Smart TV is watching me?!..."
(Prentiss takes some sort of pill which implies to the viewer that the Prentiss character is being stressed by Brian's conversational content.)
Prentiss: "Yes there are cameras around you. They're around all of us, the FBI is not watching you with them."
Prentiss becomes somewhat docile when she stops trying to convince Brian he's not under FBI surveillance. She tells him she's meeting with him purely because she's concerned about his suing her.
(This makes no sense as in real life an FBI agent would probably turn it over to their attorney or someone of influence to deal with this issue. Why she would bother to meet with him especially in an FBI headquarters when he's already seemingly paranoid.
However, later it becomes obvious that in order to set up a situation where the characters can focus on the term Targeted Individual, a situation had to be written to create the opportunity to do this by one of the characters making contact with someone exhibiting this behavior then linking paranoid behaviors to that term.)
She then seems to become weak and upset then submits by asking him to sit down.
(Pretty uncharacteristic of someone who, after being served summons gloated to Dave about being able to handle this guy because she frequently talks guns out of the hands of psychopaths. Why would this guy intimidate her at all? The point is to make Brian's character appear worrisome, abnormal and off-putting to anyone normal in society. So if someone in authority is weakened or afraid of a goof like Brian then it must be his ideas/delusions are more dangerous than a psychopath with a gun... apparently.)
Prentiss then asks about Brian's wife as they were neighbors in the past.
He says that she left him.
She feigns sympathy for his loss and gives an awkward, strained compliment.
Brian's character appears clearly saddened by being reminded of his ex wife.
The script then changes abruptly with agent Prentiss, out of nowhere, asking him about a burning sensation and light suspense music begins in background as she does so.
@23:36 in S15 E4-
Prentiss: "Now this is going to be an odd question. Have you been feeling a weird, burning sensation, as though you're being heated from inside your body?"
Brian:"Yeah, like a county fair corn dog.
How do you know this?"
(Brian's response is very hokey, considering he's genuinely convinced he's being persecuted. I don't know of anyone that would refer to being burnt or other threat of bodily harm in such a way.)
Prentiss:"It's called Targeted Individuals.These are men and women who are convinced that they're being watched-all the time and it usually happens after a sudden emotional loss."
"I promise..you aren't"
(It's not clear if she means he isn't a TI, being watched or both.)
Brian then asks about agent Prentiss faking her own death which she did in another episode as part of a case.
He explains in 2010 she died- he watched them empty out her apartment then in 2016 she's "magically back at the FBI".
Agent Prentice tells him that it's complicated.
@29:48 S15 E4-
Brian gives Prentiss the choice of telling the truth now or in court.
Agent Tara Louis walks into office and apologizes for interrupting. Shes dressed in clothes too casual for work which is because its supposed to be her day off-thus the episode title 'Saturday'.
She's wearing a black off the rack t shirt that says 'make rock, not war' with a hand making the peace sign. Her hair is disheveled or it's a bad wig/extensions. When Brian notices her appearance his character is clearly smitten, interested and no longer concerned with being a victim of persecution.
Prentiss excuses herself, talks with Tara in hallway.
@30:22 S15 E4-
Prentiss: "He's dug in."
Tara Louis: "That's the problem with Targeted Individuals. You can't convince them their delusion isn't real, and the only strategy that works is just to indulge them until they're no longer a threat to themselves or others and....
Why are you looking at me like that?"
Prentiss then points out the way Brian responded to Tara's appearance to which Tara responds negatively.
(Representing Brian specifically and normal male sexuality generally, as a threat.)
Prentiss informs Tara she resembles his ex wife.
Tara makes fun of Brian.
Prentiss tells her it's her attitude that attracts him. Prentiss begs Tara to use this to their advantage to diffuse the lawsuit.
Lewis leaves Prentiss in hallway.
As agent Lewis enters Prentiss's office to talk to Brian she taps her sides and pockets very hard ensuring viewers notice.
She starts charming Brian and claims she's a higher up over Prentiss-the "woman behind the woman". She is seated close to Brian on the edge of the desk more like a lap dancer than a federal agent.
Background music begins indicating folly or amusement.
Lewis begins toying with Brian, indulging his fears and telling him he's indeed being watched not by FBI but other agencies which she allows Brian to mention as she strings him along.
She tells him to shhhh as she puts her hand to her lips.
Tara leads him further by mentioning the court case and he gets lead into coming up with the idea it would expose the wrong people because it's not the FBI.
Tara tells Brian he's a smart guy for figuring things out.
Lewis: "Let's you and I discuss next steps".
Brian is aroused and surprised by her attention as this ends the scene with what's clearly akin to sexual innuendo or can be imagined that way.
----
Brian never claimed to be a Targeted Individual. Prentiss informed him that he was a TI as well as she suggested the burning sensation which was information he did not volunteer originally.
Also, agent Lewis' character was never told that Brian had used any such language. She may have been informed of the situation of Prentiss being sued and he claiming to being watched by the FBI but nothing else. So why would she refer to the term 'Targeted Individual' and have a preconceived generalization?
In the real world people claiming they feel surveilled unjustly are thought of as simply paranoid. However, having a former neighbor who works for the FBI who you've witnessed fake their own death would make such a delusion or feeling of persecution more understandable perhaps along with the emotional loss of divorce.
The entire situation fabricated by the writers is ludicrous. So is making it appear as if people who become paranoid or fearful all now fall under a category known as 'Targeted Individuals' as long as they also experience a burning sensation. You could have a neurotic or paranoid on your hands with reflux or nerve pain! lol.
Either way diagnoses are best left to doctors not FBI agents especially ones who deal with their problems unprofessionally by acting like schoolgirls in a locker room plotting to embarrass the nerd who dares to bother the prom queens....or should I say washed up former models?
The compassionate thing to do would have been to inform him he's not being watched and perhaps he should talk to someone about losing his wife.
Why would this guy be so hated on sight by people who deal with extremely sick minds all day especially with a frivolous lawsuit? He's harmless.
Thus we are to assume anyone experiencing paranoia living in our modern day surveillance state is a 'Targeted Individual'?
The judgements made by Tara Lewis' character concerning TIs is also not credible or accurate.
Why would it be a wise strategy for law enforcement to indulge someone who's delusional and potentially "a threat to themselves or others"? How is anyone forming theories as Brian did be considered 'a danger to themselves or others?
If that were true on any given day half the country would be involuntary sectioned for observation and our economy would fall apart faster than it is now.
If you notice in this episode:
After Prentiss tells Brian he's a Targeted Individual, the show then cuts to the second of the three story lines going in the episode where Garcia is trying to help one of her tech students Elizabeth, who's being stalked by a dangerous cyber stalker.
@28:56 in S15 E4-
Garcia cries about how the internet is full of rape jokes and chat rooms full of racism and if you can't cope people harass her and call her fat.
She didn't even mention the creepier stuff on the internet like pedophilia or snuff films or stuff that you'd think an FBI agent would actually be hardens to forget about the crap that she actually did mention pretty snowflakeish for someone who's working with the FBI. Especially on the kind of murder cases and the kind of serial killers they frequently deal with on the show.
During Trump the public were slowly conditioned into the idea that conspiracy theorists were all MAGA Trump supporters following Q and it's all false information and fake news.
You can see that agenda being mapped out in this show and the transcript really does not examine this as well as watching the episode.
The idea that someone of Garcia's hacker level as well as her having colleagues or people she knows who are either law enforcement or hackers themselves help stop some guy halfway around the globe from threatening her life is again unrealistic.
It's interesting that Garcia has found that her own cyberstalker is based in Russia as the Russia connection alluded to with both Hillary Clinton and Trump and people of power hiring Russian trolls to harass people around that time period is beyond coincidence.
The remainder of S15 E4 focuses on Elizabeth's stalker. The guy turned out to be stalking her ex boyfriend but needed to hide in her apartment under the floor boards because she lived on the 1st floor and he on the 4th making phrogging in his apartment impossible (phrogging: term used to describe someone living in a home and stalking the occupants without their knowledge).
What needs to be noted is that the phrogger/cyber stalker turns out to have been Elizabeth's former neighbor. Brian was Prentiss's former neighbor.
Again the bizarre choices in writing of the part of this episode featuring Brian's character make sense as Brian was Prentiss's former neighbor and it seems the writers wanted to draw a subconscious parallel between the two.
In an another part of the episodes Garcia's student, Elizabeth cries and says shes afraid to leave her apartment or answer her door when this may reflect a targeted person's experiences.
-----
Years later people working on Criminal Minds show got exposed for sexual harassment.
The following links to articles may provide possible motive for such bad storylines. It could be just another case of having to pay the rent on some sort of corruption.
In the years since this episode was aired much has become easier to believe and corruption has become more evident to the public. People now have a strong example from Jeffery Epstein being exposed as well as #metoo.
https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/disney-cbs-sued-for-sexual-harassment-on-criminal-minds-set.html
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/criminal-minds-harassment-greg-st-johns-disney-cbs-sued-1234616246/
https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-10-criminal-minds-controversies
https://nypost.com/2016/08/16/the-long-troubled-history-of-criminal-minds/
https://www.avclub.com/on-set-altercations-and-a-moral-crisis-how-criminal-mi-1843712081
Mandy Patinkin leaves the show:
When Criminal Minds launched in 2005, Mandy Patinkin was the draw. But the former Chicago Hope star left the crime drama at the start of season three, citing “creative differences.” But in a 2012 interview with New York magazine, the actor revealed it was the personal toll the series took on him that led to his departure: “The biggest public mistake I ever made was that I chose to do Criminal Minds in the first place. I thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality.”
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