Matthew Gray Gubler takes center stage in this Reid-centric episode. Once considered a boy wonder, the years are adding up. It's a bittersweet birthday he tries to ignore, suspending reality by leaving it unannounced. What distinguished Reid as a youth doesn't seem so rare at thirty, especially as a psychopathic genius taunts that he's not as smart as he thinks he is. As the case mirrors a high stakes chess game, Reid searches for the culprit as well as a renewed sense of personal validation.
Eerily written, "True Genius" plays upon the echoes of the past, demonstrating just how easily the innocent can become pawns in the hands of the criminally insane. Distant deeds, good and evil, unearth a reluctance to set aside the notoriety of youth for both hunter and hunted. For the prey, it's much more than escaping a present danger. It's the past that threatens to overtake, precluding safe passage into the future.
Guest star, Jeff Newburg, delivers an unsettlingly layered performance as the brilliantly disturbed Caleb, drawing sympathy and repulsion in turns. The way Newburg's Caleb gets under one's skin is reminiscent of the creep-factor Michael Emerson elicited when he turned a guest shot into a series regular role on LOST. Perhaps the unresolved nature of Caleb's fate could likewise lead to a CRIMINAL MINDS recurrence that only a true genius could devise.