I got the email and will check it out! Thanks for enabling my addiction!

bt mentioning his favorite (so far) ep as LDSK made me look at my favorite eps. I think my favorite S1 ep is Derailed, with LDSK being a close second and Riding the Lightning third. S2 is Revelations, followed closely by Ashes and Dust and North Mammon (and Sex, Birth, Death an Honorable Mention). S3 is Seven Seconds, then Elephant's Memory, Penelope, and Tabula Rasa.

For me, S4 is my favorite in the number of really strong eps. Instincts/Memoriam are tied for first, then Minimal Loss, Normal, and Amplification gets the Honorable Mention.

S5 I haven't seen often enough (yet), so I'll reserve judgment there. But, I do love both Uncanny Valley and 100, as well as The Internet Is Forever.

Season 1:

• The Tribe
• LDSK
• Riding The Lightning

Season 2:

• Empty Planet
• Lessons Learned
• Ashes & Dust

Season 3:

• Seven Seconds
• Lucky/Penelope (cheating, I know)
• Tabula Rasa

Season 4:

• Mayhem
• Minimal Loss
• To Hell...And Back

Season 5:

• 100
• Uncanny Valley
• Exit Wounds

I feel bad for leaving out Profiler, Profiled and Revelations, but I pretty much stand by those choices (they're in airing order, not preference order (except for The Tribe, which is just the best)).

My list is definitely biased in favor of Reid (as if you didn't notice!), otherwise I would definitely have put The Tribe higher up on my list. I think the Hotch/Blackwolf vs. Mansonesque Family showdown at the end is my favorite action sequence in the entire series.

ETA: For me, as much as I love the Reid monologue at the end of Derailed, that ep is all about the unsub. Ted Bryar is so well portrayed, and so pathetic for all that he is "whacked out of his mind" (as the drunk kid says), that he steals the entire show.

Blackwolf is my favourite local LEO, I think. The LA guy played by Ian Anthony Dale is second, and Gina Torres is third.

"The Tribe" has one of my favorite Reid scenes - When Reid can't help answering the questions Blackwolf (as teacher) is asking the class until Hotch has to say: Reid, is your name Samuel?

Rang so many bells.

I don't know. Maybe, it just seemed like Gideon was written as being awesome, someone that even other good profilers held their breath around, and Patinkin played him without a shred of humility. Even when he was angsting about his mistakes and people who died, he always seemed self-involved to me. Like, "This was a terrible tragedy! See how badly it's affected me?!" He was so sensitive and emotionally fragile, but at the same time came off like a total narcissist. Just found him a very unlikeable character.

Yeah, I can see that. I've been a bit "Bwuh?" already that Reid went from being able to pick an unsub's favoured style of playing Go (not just aggressor, but extreme aggressor, which is an aggressor who drinks Pepsi Max) from a single board position, to learning that he's apparently never beaten Gideon at chess. Because he doesn't think outside the box!

I will note, though, that I thought it was hilarious that Gideon picked the footpath killer, obviously enough for the killer to notice, and yet still decided that his best plan was to turn his back and walk out instead of pulling a gun on him.

Because he doesn't think outside the box!

He gets dinged with that in poker too, I think. Doesn't Emily beat him in S5?

He seems to have a few gaps in his skills. Like chop sticks.

Well, I have seen Uncanny Valley, and I will be back for more. Good Reid episode.

Sometimes the writers will have gaps in his skills/education for comic effect that don't make any sense, like in the episode with the "vampires" where Reid doesn't know what Twilight is. I think that it would have been funnier if he had read all of the books just because he's Reid, or maybe that he had some obscure knowledge about the book or the author, but no idea of the culture phenomenon.