The Playboy Club got cancelled after a mere two shows back in October. The cutthroat response to a highly-anticipated show, like Playboy, further proved that networks aren’t playing around these days, not at all. So, when a show makes it to episode 150, there is definitely cause for celebration. Criminals Minds will reach this coveted milestone tonight with “Unknown Subject.” The Subject may be unknown but what is clear is that A.J. Cook (JJ) is definitely crucial to the show. Her fans made this evident last year by lobbying for her return to the series; her short sabbatical obviously didn’t take. We talked with Cook about tonight’s episode featuring a “top-shelf creepy” unsub, the “Piano Man.”

How are you today?
So far so good. Just dropped my son off at school and I’ve been flirting with the women of Criminal Minds via text all morning…love letters back and forth that started last night [laughs].

Congrats on 150 episodes, what does this mean for a modern day network show?
It’s bananas…everyday I just sort of think, how did I get here? It’s so great to be on a show and get to 100, let alone 150. So, we feel pretty lucky and we’re definitely not taking it for granted.

Tells us about tonight, we get to see the “Piano Man” return to assault his previous victims?
Ahhh, the “Piano Man.” Well, we have some great guest stars per usual because our casting is incredible and this killer comes back, and we are not sure if it’s a copy cat or what’s going on…then there’s the personal stuff, which I really love. Prentiss is trying to come to terms with what had happened and all that.

Jay Karnes, (The Shield, Burn Notice), plays the “Piano Man.” What kind of creepiness did he add?
Yes, [he is] incredibly creepy…I think it is going to be top shelf creepy [laughs]. Someone called the “Piano Man,” it’s like “Ohhh, there’s just something pretty creepy there.” …We always do a read-through for every episode, that’s your first glimpse into what these actors are going to do with these characters. You can always get a sense and I think my hair was standing up for that read-through because he plays it so soft spoken and on the DL, there’s just something more creepy about that…Oh, yeah but there’s also the thing of is he the serial killer, so there’s a very interesting switch up in this episode. I think the audience is going to be like, “Huh, yeah, was not expecting that.” There’s quite a huge twist in this, where I can’t even hint at it because it would just ruin everything, but things completely sort of twist for a second and you’re like “What! Shut the front door. Really?”

I always like to find where these names come from, is the “Piano Man” maybe a tribute to Billy Joel or just a coincidence?
(Laughs) I don’t know if we got the copyright, there’s a lot of music in this episode. I’m actually not too sure what songs we got clearance on.

What kind of unsubs can we look forward to the rest of the season – tough to top this one?
Well, we will, we always do [laughs]. We keep cranking out the psycho serial killers. We have some copycat killers coming up, there’s an interesting Dean Cain episode coming up that with gambling and gambling gone wrong…And you know what? We are going to see some really great happy moments too, which the show is really in need of [laughs]…and there’s going to be some really great stuff coming up for Garcia and Morgan…and for my character JJ, we are going to see her a little rough and tumble…we are going to see her get into a pretty ugly fight. That’s coming up in a couple weeks, so prepare to see a bloody JJ.

You left and came back on the show, fans were zealous about your return. How does it feel to have such a strong fan base?
Words really can’t describe the whole thing from being let go to the fans fighting, all of it was just surreal and looking back on it, it’s sort of like, “Wow, did that ever happen?” Just because you can’t write that stuff. The fans were just so incredible and made me feel loved and appreciated as an actor because I love JJ and loved playing that character. I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into her, and to know the fans appreciated that and saw that, wow man! They fought and they fought and they fought. They know I love them and appreciate them.

Source: Hollywood