Recap / Criminal Minds S 15 E 6 Date Night

Date Night

Cat Adams is back. Still in prison, but back to not letting that stop her kidnapping and murdering people. She wants to go on a date with Reid in exchange for not having her new girlfriend murder a man and his adult daughter.

Tropes

• Artistic License – Gun Safety: Firing blanks at a man from a couple feet away like Juliet does to Maxine's father should not have left him completely unharmed, but it does.
• Bait-and-Switch: Cat asks who Max is gonna trust, "the lying, cheating, violent psychopath – or me?"
• Big Damn Kiss: Twice with Reid: first with Cat, then with Max.
• Book Ends: For Cat's character. She first appeared in an episode where she was on a date with Reid. This is her last episode – and she goes on a date with Reid.
• Call-Back:
  • When Reid takes Maxine to his apartment, he mentions that he hasn't had company there in four years, when he took his team there in season eleven, not counting when his mother lived there in season twelve.
  • Cat still gives hints in the form of chromosome references.
  • Reid shows Max his apartment a few hours before she is brought there to listen to Cat telling her about the time he threw her against a wall while she was pregnant, which he is still ashamed of.
  • Reid asks Cat about her pregnancy at the skating ring. She brings it up again later in front of Max.
  • The last time Reid failed to kiss a dangerous criminal with enough passion to suit the dangerous criminal in front of his girlfriend, the girlfriend died, so he makes sure to kiss Cat as passionately as requested – and it ends up being in front of his girlfriend.
• Depraved Bisexual:
  • Cat has criminal girlfriends, but also has a big crush on Reid.
  • Cat's girlfriend went to prison for a boyfriend once, and now she's bitter.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Zig-zagged. Cat still doesn't feel bad about getting Lindsay to violate Reid, but the episode plays it as his feelings of being violated are legit. She also claims it couldn't have happened because the drugs he was on would have made it impossible for him to get it up, but all that really proves is what we already knew, that he couldn't have been an unwitting sperm donor for Cat.
  • Max gets pissed off at Cat when learning about it.
    Maxine: She did WHAT to him in Mexico?!
  • Later he admits that he is in fact attracted to Cat.
• Evil Is Petty: The payoff of Cat's latest elaborate hostage plan? Ruining Reid's new relationship.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Reid is afraid to tell Max about Cat. Cat is not afraid to tell Max about Reid.
• Guilt Complex: Cat appeals to Reid's by accusing him of ruining her "last meal", which was the date.
• Hollywood Blanks: Juliet fires these into Maxine's father's chest from maybe two feet's distance. Naturally, it is as though no one ever fired anything at him.
• Literal-Minded: Cat instructs Reid to balance on his roller skates by looking up instead of at the floor. He obeys by looking at the ceiling.
• Once More, with Clarity: The team sans Reid made a plan involving Max.
• Pun: Cat asks that the FBI let "Juliet exit stage right".
• The Reveal: The brief scene in Saturday where we met Michelle may be too forgettable to realize that that's not Cat's father and sister – they're Maxine's.
• Too Clever by Half: Cat's frequent usage of misdirection and manipulation catches up to her - the BAU figure that she has another goal in mind and deduce what her real endgame is early. Once they do, she is very quickly Out-Gambitted.
• Shout-Out:
  • Cat compares her date with Reid to Heaven's Gate.
  • Max draws a paralell between Cat and Mean Girls.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Maxine turns out to be fairly good at this.

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