Excellent review.
What really bothered me about this episode was Lindsay carrying the idiot ball throughout the whole thing. I took the comment about not being aware of what could happen to be not only about the greater population, but about herself as well and that really bugged me. She survived a random mass murder and became a friggin' CSI. If anyone would understand the randomness and suddeness of violence she would. Maybe it's just that AB's delivery was off and that's why it seemed odd, but I noticed it being more of a huge error on the writers' part to have Lindsay be the character to talk about that.
Also, I understand that Mac would remember a case like Michael's. Here in MN we have the Jacob Wetterling case that everyone is aware of and countless law enforcement personnel have worked on. But when it was revealed that Mac went and visited the family on several occasions after Michael escaped and Michael incorporated his badge number into his art it just went too far into "Here's another case that's got a personal connection to Mac." They should've just left it as he remembered the case because it was such a big one.
I loved John Laroquette facing off with Gary, but I too hope that more is revealed about him in the rest of his arc.