'Criminal Minds' has always been one of my most-watched shows and was a personal favourite for a while. Seasons 1-5 was its best period, Season 4 was especially great. It did get hit and miss from Season 6 onwards, with a mix of good and more episodes and disappointing and less episodes. Season 11 was, apart from about 5 episodes, pretty weak. Season 12 was inconsistent but generally an improvement, its weakest episodes nowhere near as bad as the low-points of Seasons 6, 9 and especially 11.
Season 13 so far has not been too bad at all, pretty good even actually. It is already so much better than Season 11, which started off well actually but quickly went downhill, and has generally settled quicker than Season 12. As far as the previous Season 13 episodes go, only "Submerged" properly underwhelmed. There aren't any classics yet, but most episodes up to this point were decent to very good and only "Annihilator" has been a low point.
"Last Gasp" is a long way from being one of the best episodes of 'Criminal Minds', or even of Season 13. It is however a vastly superior episode to "Annhilator" and corrects most of the faults that episode had.
The case is much better, while extremely weird in places and some of the episode overall is a bit jumpy structurally it is compelling and suspenseful. The unsub is much more interesting and memorable, evoking quite a lot of creepiness, much more presence and a suitably warped back-story. There is far more team work and team interaction, even with the situation the team are in, and there is more of how they solved the case.
Visually, "Last Gasp" is stylish and atmospheric. The music is eerie and not intrusive. The writing is tauter and more thought-provoking, not the sloppy and unbalanced writing seen in "Annhilator". Adam Rodriguez proves himself to be no slouch in the director's chair, doing his best in not making the offbeat nature of the case easy to follow and not too bizarre.
Acting from regulars and support is very good. Really liked the writing for the regular characters, JJ is suitably badass and is proving herself to be a good leader and it's not too much of "the JJ show", and their stories aren't too soapy.
Barnes still gets on my nerves though, easily the worst thing to happen to the show in a while. There are all the things that made her such a bad character in "Annihilator" (annoying, cold fish, no warmth or personality, too domineering, not good at her job, her facepalm-inducing remarks, deja vu conflict) and we can now add here unprofessionalism to the list.
The episode can be jumpy at times structurally, while the team solve the case too quickly and too conveniently and the denouement is fairly rushed.
While the unsub makes an impression, it would have been even better if his motivations were more consistent and made more sense, a bit strange and all over the place at times.
Overall, decent and a big improvement but could have been better. 6/10 Bethany Cox