Last season's finale asked some hard questions of Criminal Minds characters: how is Hotch dealing with his divorce, how is JJ going to deal with having a baby, how interested in his career is Morgan?

It answered some, and left the job of profiling a terrorist cell as a blank canvass that everyone's issues were painted across.  The power of the case at hand was just as intriguing as the individual decisions each character was making because both the case and the decisions asked one real question: can a person really understand and predict another person's actions?

The season opener didn't live up to the potential of the finale.  Instead it traipsed into 24 territory with the initial crimes merely being a cover for the real crime, which was a cover for the other real crime, which was...  Well, in 24 that Russian doll goes on for 24 episodes.  In Criminal Minds it only lasted for 45 minutes.

For me, the attraction of Criminal Minds is smart people being smart.  I honestly don't think that any other show on TV features intelligence the way that Criminal Minds does.  Instead of rewarding bravery and action, Criminal Minds demands that its characters act as smart as they're supposed to be.  

So, when the show throws its own intelligence out the window for no reason, it hurts to watch.  Two members of the cell were allowed to commit suicide while the team pointed guns at them.  I cannot believe that profilers wouldn't realize having a live member of the cell was more important than a dead one.

The overly complicated plot was beyond a stretch of belief.  Instead of grounding itself in something more interesting – what would a home-grown terrorist cell believe? – the show had an existential crisis.  It tried to become the action show that it's never been, and lost focus on the fascination we all have with human nature.

Hotch and Kate's SUV was blown up in order to get them taken to a nearby hospital where... someone with Secret Service protection (the show is vague on who) is being operated on, so that they drive in a bomb that will blow up the empty hospital.

Strangely, I could have seen a terrorist cell wanting to blow up a fully occupied hospital.  That would inspire fear.  However, going after a specific target isn't the act of a terrorist cell, it's the act of an assassin.  It was just too pat, because too many things didn't fit.

Why all the killings before they blew up the car? Why didn't they just have someone hide the bomb before the Secret Service guys showed up?  Why did they want to kill that specific person?

If the season finale last season left us with heaps of good questions, the season ender left us with questions that usually Criminal Minds is too smart for.  I can only hope that by next episode they'll have hit their groove again and will be back to trying to understand people instead of random acts of plot.

Otherwise I might have to call in Jack Bauer to do some ass kicking.