Criminal Minds - I started watching the episode from a couple weeks ago which started with some guys watching a home movie of them beating people to death.

I stopped watching a few minutes in, because I was finding it too upsetting. Is the whole episode like that, or do I just need to skip the first scene?

The episode as a whole is pretty upsetting Ouise, although it does have character points for Hotch and Morgan. But the crimes continue to be brutal and the criminals especially reprehensible.

It is the episode that has conflict between Hotch and Morgan and starts another arc for Morgan if you want to watch with your eyes half closed and your finger on fast-forward.

I'd also like to know Hotch's timeline - he married his high school sweetheart, right? And they're in their late-30s/early 40s now, right? Why did they wait so long to have a baby? Not that there aren't any good reasons for that.

I'd guess that he kept promising that his work life would settle down later, so he could be more available at home, but it never did (and it never will).

I expect that they didn't plan the pregnancy. I see Hotch as a guy who said "when I'm a supervisor, I'll be home more", "when I'm a team lead, I'll be home more", but then got a job where he was never home anyway. He was a prosecutor before that, a desk job, but he was probably still always at the office.

Apparently the writers had a timeline in mind for Hotch and then they cast the older Thomas Gibson and they never really ironed out the scripts. So the numbers don't add up right.

We know she had a rebellion against religion in her teen years and an abortion--that's not nothing.

I didn't know that. I think there's still a season I haven't seen much of. Goody.

Yeah, I can see Hotch as a guy who kept promising things that didn't happen, and feeling guilty about it, and making more promises because he wanted it to be true, and then when they had the baby and he still wasn't home much, Haley had enough.

Being a woman who focuses too much time on work and has no intention of having a child, I need to find me a guy like Hotch.

Being a woman who focuses too much time on work and has no intention of having a child, I need to find me a guy like Hotch.

yes. A guy like Hotch would be good for me. But I want a Morgan. Mmmmm, smoking hot, carries a gun, and emotionally unavailable. Yeah, that's my guy.

I think there's still a season I haven't seen much of. Goody.

Demonology, from last season, I think. Kinda confusing ending.

I don't have much sympathy for Haley. Part of it's not her fault--we see so many wives of law enforcement officers who can't handle that their husbands are LEOs and leave because of it. Nice to see on White Collar a wife who looks like she's in it for the long haul, but then again, it seems contingent on it being low-danger. I know it can't be easy, but for at least some of them a high-stressed husband was part of the deal.

Haley fell in love with Aaron in high school, so that doesn't apply, but he had a high-stress high-demand job from a long time ago. Leaving him while he was off on a gig was just cold, and I think it was no way to handle that. Asking someone to choose between saving the innocent and being home more for his family should be a hard choice. But they too often make the wives shrewish about it, and I don't like it.

It is the episode that has conflict between Hotch and Morgan and starts another arc for Morgan if you want to watch with your eyes half closed and your finger on fast-forward.

Thanks, ita. I may try this.

Part of it's not her fault--we see so many wives of law enforcement officers who can't handle that their husbands are LEOs and leave because of it.

I think that it's not that they can't handle that their husbands are LEOs, but that the job takes priority over them. I think that it would be just as much of an issue if their husbands were high powered finance guys or lawyers that were never home, always on the road closing deals or trying cases or whatever.