It tolls for thee

That was Cynthia Gibb, who got her start on _Fame_ and did quite a good job as Rose in the Bette Midler version of _Gypsy_.

Yes, it was. Not too shabby, I thought. It takes a certain amount of charisma and oomph to stand up to Thomas Gibson in full-on Monster Mode.

I'm not crazy about raising this issue, for a couple of reasons, but I think it needs to be raised. So here goes.

One or two comments by Reid or Rossi didn't do much to undermine two key elements of this story: (a.) all of the Romani depicted were roving, murdering, thieving monsters, (b.) this was not just one or two aberrant individuals but, as we see in the final scenes, a whole Romani subculture or roving, murdering, thieving monsters.

I really don't think this is an instance of cultural appropriation or anything which can be described in neutral academic terms. I think this is a blood libel against Romani.

Maybe in Part 2 (if there is one) or in a sequel down the road we will find out that these guys are somehow not real Romani, or a token good Romani will show up. I don't think that changes what this episode is, and I think it may be the most racist piece of network television I've ever seen.

I'm with James on this one, though you acknowledge that the episode isn't "always entirely clear what they think they’re saying and about whom they are saying it" -- so this is not meant as a criticism of your review.

The problem for me is crystalized by the fact that though Rossi and Reid state that this isn't real Romani culture, elsewhere in the episode, the characters are easily identified by others as "foreign," as though they really _are_ ethnically Romani. I'm thinking of the conversation with the trailer park manager, where there are no leads until Morgan says "The family we're talking about is Eastern European." That's when they become identifiable to the trailer park manager, and to me it cancels out the statements made by Rossi and Reid. They may be perverting Romani culture, as Reid says, but they're still Eastern Europeans, i.e. Others, who are responsible for the perversion. Hotch says, when he's briefing the team before the second abduction, "We believe that they're of Romanian descent."

And later, as they're examining the wreckage of the burnt RV, Rossi says "A lot of the Romani make their living as petty thieves" -- I read that as a general statement about Romani culture, not in reference to the specific warping of the culture by this group of unsubs.

When it comes down to it, if it's a question of Evil Romani Culture or Evil Romanian Descendendants Perverting Romani Culture, there's not much to be happy about.

Heh. As you say, a lot of the interaction between the team was really great. I'm sorry the episode was so awful in other ways; but I'm writing to CBS and the writers about that.

elsewhere in the episode, the characters are easily identified by others as "foreign," as though they really _are_ ethnically Romani

I found it really strange (and squick-inducing) how heavily they leaned on that point throughout the episode, because that family didn't look more ethnically *anything* than most American descendants of early-twentieth-century immigrants do. (And the second family they showed at the end showed no family resemblance at all...) Which, of course, makes sense, since it didn't seem like they were targeting girls of any particular ethnic background, either. Not just a plot hole, but a plot hole of racism fail.

Yes. I totally agree about the squickworthiness, and the confusion, which is why it's the first point in my review.

Really uncomfortable stuff.

(Also, I have a feeling both the squick and the plot holes come from somebody being way too clever for their britches, and then trying to patch it later so it wasn't so offensive, and failing.

Really, they should have just yanked the whole purposeless Romani subplot out of the episode and found some sensible non-CSI means of identifying the criminals. Clever A plots whodunnits are not your strong point, Criminal Minds.)

Clever A plots whodunnits are not your strong point, Criminal Minds.

Yeah, that.

OTOH, I have noticed that as a general rule, they tend to pay less attention to the Gaping Plot Holes the more important the emotional arc beats are in any given episode. Which makes me sad for Hotch.

Yeah. And Prentiss.

I wish there'd been an opportunity for the team to interview an actual Romani, which would have hit harder what I think they were trying to do: that this is an insular self-propagating cult based, not on being Romani, but on role-playing Romani culture.

One of the things I like about Criminal Minds is that the profilers aren't always right. They circle in on the facts, correcting and improving their first deductions. They believed they were looking for an Eastern European family based on the Romanian endearment the kidnapped girl heard. It led them a little further into the investigation.

But they were wrong; it was pretty clear the family wasn't Romanian. The person who used the Romanian word was the mother, a kidnap victim herself, who must have learned it as part of her absorption into the family. And the ultimate reveal tells us that this pattern, this self-isolating cult, appeared in the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century. The UNSUBS may have taught some Romanian to their children, generation after generation, but after a hundred years in the United States, they're not Romanian immigrants.

I'd say, far from talking about aliens among us, this episode comes back to one of CM's favorite topics: what happens when loyalty to family, to place, to the past, becomes ingrown and toxic?

Emma,

I'd say that's probably the intent, in the end, but I felt like the script was muddled enough that none of that was clear. On the second watch, as I said, I was less "Oh please tell me you didn't just say that!" but I still felt like they fell down on the job a little.

They have some author points with me for having handled touchy subjects much better in the past, it's true. I just wish they'd done as well this time.

Agreed. They planted the information...but they never brought it forward and put it together. And they could have--they might have given a revised profile, or even said the realization out loud. Because what was going on was more complicated and twisted even than they originally believed, and I think the characters would have acknowledged that when they found out.

I call it a mostly well-crafted episode with a large oozing gremlin in the middle. *g* But oh, Tim Matheson's direction was fabulous. I hope he comes back.

Romani are not Romanian. They are not even Eastern European, although some of them have indeed picked up a lot of the culture they lived in. A lot of Roma in Italy are recent immigrants from the ex-Yugoslavjia (were a substantial, and very persecuted, group of Italian-speaking Roma already lived), and most of the ones I met were Sinti, who do not call themselves Roma at all.

The various people that were called "gypsies" do not have a collective name. A lot of them call themselves "Roma", which has nothing to do with Romania but is the plural of "rom", which means "men".

I have no idea which groups have made it over the sea to the USA, apart from the Travellers, who have a similar culture but apparently a completely different ethnic origin.

Certainly the "Romanians" of this episode didn't sound foreign AT ALL. It beats me how the caravan site woman could tell that they were Eastern Europeans, since they spoke unaccented American and looked completely American white (since they have been breeding with locals for a century...)

And yes, this episode was blood libel and the worst piece of racist shit I've seen on a screen in a long, long time. And very poorly researched too.

After being told about this episode by (non)-Romani friends, I got the chance to see the second half of it on satellite last night.

Generally, Criminal Minds is breathtaking, as far as I'm concerned, both in terms of the cases themselves and, as others have said, the changing dynamics between the members of the team and their own strengths and weaknesses.

Like I said, I only saw the second half so I've no idea what was said initially about what Romani people do or don't do ...that would, obviously, been helpful.

I'm half Romani myself ('Romani' is the catch-all phrase for all ethnic Gypsies; 'Roma' applies to one of the main nations/tribes) and all I can say is that, well, firstly it would be great if just once there could be a pop-culture incident or representation of ordinary Romani people who behave in an ordinary fashion (as the majority of us ..there are always some bad apples and oddballs, after all) versus the Criminal Minds version (jeez) or even the House episode a few years back (which wasn't too bad, really; it reinforced a bit of the hippie sub-culture that fake-Gypsies revel in but ultimately was handled with compassion)
...in other words, there's probably never going to be an 'ordinary' Romani character any time soon--a Romani doctor or lawyer or car mechanic or etc. ..of course, that wouldn't be useful, plot-wise, regardless, because where would all the issues be? I gather there'd be no point.

Anyway, in terms of Gypsy 101,
Romania is a country; Romani is an ethnic group, and while Romani people do live in Romania, the names are completely incidental.
There is a high population of Romani people in Eastern Europe who were displaced after World War II (the original Romani inhabitants were killed off and there was a niche to be filled) - however, there are Romani people, in various groups, from the Middle East to Western Countries everywhere.
Travellers, or nomadic 'local' cultures (the Irish Travellers, the Dutch boat people, etc.) are not Romani; indeed, they're a chosen lifestyle.
So far as the Romani go, and while I acknowledge I'm missing about sixty subgroups, there are the Roma, the Sinti, the Kale, the Romanichals, the Manouche, and a bunch of people I owe an apology to. 'Roma', however, has become a catch-all for any ethnic Gypsy; it is not a shortened version of 'Romani'--they're a nation in their own right. All of us are Romani, but the Roma are their own group.

As for blood purity, there are some elders, mainly in Western Europe, who disown family members who marry non-Romani individuals (although that is increasingly rare and will undoubtedly die out within the next few decades) but nobody has stolen, or murdered for, 'breeders'.
I am not aware of any Romani serial killers either.

Nobody got upset when my mother married my father. From the photos, I believe everyone got along and there were no fires or maimings and everyone left the reception with the same number of extremities they'd gone in with.

Also, the 'Romani' family in the show did not look or act remotely Romani. Of course, there are many mixed people, and in any family group who's mixed, you'll naturally find some people who favor one side of the family and some people who favor others. The fact that these people were consistently white didn't validate their claim.

I'm not going to say that we don't have our fair share of bad apples and start throwing up a thousand years worth of persecution (the Holocaust, really, does need addressing at some point) to prove that we're entirely perfect, but this episode was particularly worrying, disclaimers (that I missed) or no disclaimers.

The situation is bad enough without this kind of 'help' from a popular t.v. series.
I used to be very concerned with educating people about our culture and heritage, as most of the information available is wildly out of date, inaccurate, or just plain foolish, but I'd long given up, because no matter how much effort we put in, it was easy for a lot of people to buy a book and a big skirt and start proclaiming their exoticism and begin reinforcing the bad stereotypes about us.

For those of you who've been discussing it, I'm grateful. There's been so much that has gone wrong in terms of Romani perceptions ...it's nice to find out that there are some going right.

Courtney @14, thank you so much for your comments and outreach.

At one point in the episode, they do say, more or less, "these are not real Romani," but it gets buried very fast. Generally not their best work, and seriously problematic in its handling.