History Headscratchers / Criminalminds

* This is a really minor thing, but the episode ''Roadkill'' was set in Oregon. The UNSUB has to keep replacing his front bumper and license plate because he's killing people with his car. We see this again and again, and, appropriately, he always replaces Oregon plates. Rossi and Morgan find his discards... and they're California plates.

* How did Samantha Malcolm, the UnSub of 'Uncanny Valley' get a stun-gun? She's a woman known to be mentally disturbed and legally incompetent in a state that has restrictions on the item in question. You need a permit to own one.

* In "Divining Rod," a serial killer is executed at the beginning of the episode, and quotes from ''1,001 Nights'' before he dies. The team later finds a letter among his "fan" letters that contains this quote, which his wife says he enjoyed having her read to him. The letter leads the team to the UnSub, who supposedly sent it to the killer when he was in prison. However, at the close of the episode, the executed killer's wife asks the UnSub if he is familiar with ''1,001 Nights,'' and he says "No." Is this just a mistake on the part of the writers, or is something else going on? who really wrote the letter? and if the UnSub didn't write it, what was his connection to it?

* Perhaps I am mistaken here but, is it not against procedure, and in fact a security to provided detailed information about an ongoing case? If so, Reid does precisely this in God Complex when talking to his new girlfriend.

** Could also be that Reid just didn't care to remember Garcia's name- his delivery sounded very nonchalant.

** I'd say lapsed character judgement. It's been a while, so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't she incredibly flattered/astonished when he asks her out? Which means that she would probably be able to completely ignore whatever her gut/friends/personal experience and training tells her because she so desperately wants to believe that he is just a nice guy who happens to like her. I think just about anyone in her situtation would do the same; denial is a human trait.
** Not to mention she was insulted by Morgan's immediate suspicion - understandably so. When Morgan's first reaction to "A guy actually likes me" is "Wait - something's not right", it makes sense that Penelope gets a bit hot-headed.
* Given that the show portrays most of its killers being of above average to genius levels of intelligence and knowing of advances in DNA technology,information sharing and data mining as well as criminology,why would the majority of them use body disposal methods from the 1960's-1970's? Leaving multiple bodies out in the open to be quickly discovered is almost a sure-fire way to be detected and caught and yet most of these killers still shown to be doing it on this program.

*** Let's also not forget that combing DNA evidence is time consuming- given the nature of the program, it wouldn't be time efficient to catch a spree killer in this manner since the killer could have claimed even more victims while the team is waiting for DNA results to come in.
* Why aren't any of the BAU members amazed by the staggering number of serial killers that they have faced/arrested/killed throughout the series' run? Given that two shows were about terrorists,one show was them assisting in Guantanamo interrogation and one was about CIA mole hunt,they have encountered more than 100 killers in the history of the show. And no one is shown being amazed (or even mildly surprised) by this number.

** I think he was overestermating Garica then again Garica's provide time and time again that she can pull this thing out of the bag plus the rest of the team needed his help more. Also assiting her could have given her the impresion that he thought that she couldn't handle it.

** Foyet CrazyPrepared he would have reserched everything about Hotch and fouud out her madien name that way and when he didn't find her under H he would have looked under B.

** It seemed that the inference was the exact opposite. Had they not chosen a girl to kill, someone that twisted would not have let them go - he would rather let them starve and wallow in their own waste than see that happen, and it seemed that this was the implication. While I don't think that their reaction was entirely unrealistic, I do think that Brooke and Kelly may have acted and intended to act (respectively) very hastily. But if I had to venture a guess as to why the team really isn't that appalled, I'd say that, firstly, it's because it's not the worst they've seen. They already know what people are capable of, and they've become somewhat, although not entirely, inured to it. Secondly, they felt that it was important to place the blame on the mastermind, not the pawns. In the end, though, I really think that it's because they're used to this madness.
** Ok, this is to the original poster. I do think Brooke had a choice. What I also think is that Brooke felt she had no choice .In a situation like that, you don't think rationally. It seems like Brooke knew Kelly was going to kill her at the beginning. She probably heard some of what Kelly said. Now imagine this: You're locked in a cellar with no food or water, you're also diabetic and don't have your medicine. You hear about your friend's plan to kill you. When you hear her yell to the abductor you guys made your choice, how are you going to think? Brooke acted on impulse-be killed or kill. She didn't want to die. Now I have another thing that bugs me...How come Kelly talking about killing Brooke is justified. You may not have been paying attention when during the episode, but Kelly was ACTUALLY going to kill Brooke. She wasn't just all talk and no action, she was trying to talk Polly ((Who was going to at first, but then backed down when he threw the hammers down.) into killing Brooke. Brooke acted fast upon this. Like I said, you can't rationally think about things in this type of situation.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_twin Is is possible.]]

* In ''The Silencer'': why didn't John Myers just '''write''' what his problem is? We know he's intelligent, well read, so why didn't he just write on a piece of paper "My defective earing implant is making every sound a torture, I need to be put in a place without noise"? I can understand why he never tried to tell his mother since she was probably just looking for excuses to abuse him, but he must have had teachers, neighbours, and after that the jail personel must know this since they provided him books: someone should have at some point said "Maybe he does not speak because he's deaf and/or mute but he writes so I'll try that way to communicate"

* In "Demonology" what exactly is going on with John Cooley? He tells Prentiss that Matthew's father told him of Matthew's death but later the man in question says he hasn't spoken to or seen John in years,this is never explained. Later the priest targets him but he doesn't seem to have any of the problems the other two did nor does he seem to be connected to the other priest's death as the other two are,so why target him? Further what does Prentiss's nosebleed at the end mean?
* In the season 9 Openers, at the end, the mother tries to pass off her surviving twin as the one not proven to be the one who committed several murders - gambling that they can pass off the murders the two twins did on the dead one. When its pointed out that Fingerprints can tell them apart, Hotch says a good lawyer could explain around those. Besides this being a dubious statement Hotch then decides to go for a gamble having the twin's estrange schizophrenic dad identify the surviving twin, hoping this will trigger the twin to give himself away (as Estranged parents with severe delusions are weaker evidence than even fingerprints are). It works and the Wallace gives himself away when his father names him. But, why was that even necessary? Wallace was a fry cook suffering from Psychosis. His brother's a junior associate in a law firm, and while a psychopath too, isn't suffering from delusions. There's no way Wallace could've passed for Jesse for any length of time. Just have him name his adoptive family members' name and birthday, ask him some law question, ask him his bar liscence number or the color of the walls of his own office - or just wait for him to start showing signs of his psychosis. There's literally no way the subterfuge was ever going to work. Why does the episode makes such a big point of it?

* In season 1 it was mentioned that Hotch's father developed heart problems and later died of a heart attack. HOWEVER some seasons later Hotch tells a man with terminal cancer that his(Hotch's)own father had died of cancer when he was a teenager. Um...did someone rewrite Hotch's history or did the writers just forget what they had already established about Hotch's family?

* I love Garcia and her individuality is to be applauded but...how does she get away with dressing like she does while working for the FBI? Judging by the other characters they seem to have a dress code in place at Quantico and yet no one ever scolds her for not looking professional?
** Kevin's style isn't that much more formal, also it's established that she was forced to join the FBI in order to avoid more serious repercussions. Seems like the Bureau are aware that these people are going to be locked in their own offices all day and wouldn't really need to deal with the cameras or public very often. When her role becomes more encompassing - when she takes over JJ's work for example - she DID try to change how she dressed, but this seemed to have a detrimental effect.

* In "Blood Relations" The FBI empty their weapons at a man who is supposedly underwater - despite one thing you are taught in gun safety is to not shoot at hard surfaces such as water. They don't wait for him to resurface, or form any sort of search party. They just presume that he's dead because they shot thirty bullets into the pond. Even if shooting at the water was assumed safe, emptying their weapons seems like a bad idea given that if they miss, he could resurface.

* A minor thing but in Seven Seconds what happened to Jeremy after his parents were arrested? His aunt and uncle don't seem all that concerned about him(justified as they were focused on Katie)but did they take him in later? Or did they abandon him to foster care due to what his parents did?
* Another minor thing but in Mosley Lane it's revealed that the oldest kidnap victim(a teenage boy who been held by the kidnappers since he was a young child)had helped kidnap more kids(by driving the get away car I think). I have always wondered was he charged(by the police) for his role in the crimes?

* In the episode Cradle To Grave when the team arrive at the unsub's house it's revealed that one of the captive women had already given birth to a boy(now about four or five years old). Why then did the unsubs continue abducting and impregnating women if the female unsub already had her Micheal?
** The female [=UnSub=] had ''very'' specific criteria for whether or not she considered a baby to be "Michael", and if the baby doesn't meet ''all'' of them, the male [=UnSub=] kills the mother and puts the baby up for adoption. I can't remember exactly why the baby you're referring to was rejected by them, but I think its because he had brown hair and Michael had blonde hair.
*** OP here. The little boy was living with them and was in fact named Micheal(the name of the unsub's stillborn son)meaning he wasn't rejected(also the babies they gave up for adoption were all girls)indicating that the Unsub's "goal" had already been fulfilled yet they kept kidnapping and impregnating women which is what puzzles me. Then again the female unsub was nuts,so maybe I'm looking for logic where there isn't any.

*** Its made pretty clear that no one outside him and Samantha knew about the torture.
*** [OP] I understand about the torture, but there's still an official record showing that he ''was known'' to have used electroshock on his daughter. How was he not questioned ''in detail'' about why he used that form of therapy? [[spoiler: the second she goes through her little mantra like she did with Reid, another therapist would've immediately realised what he did.]]

* In "Divining Rod," a serial killer is executed at the beginning of the episode, and quotes from ''1,001 Nights'' before he dies. The team later finds a letter among his "fan" letters that contains this quote, which his wife says he enjoyed having her read to him. The letter leads the team to the UnSub, who supposedly sent it to the killer when he was in prison. However, at the close of the episode, the executed killer's wife asks the UnSub if he is familiar with ''1,001 Nights,'' and he says "No." Is this just a mistake on the part of the writers, or is something else going on? who really wrote the letter? and if the UnSub didn't write it, what was his connection to it?

*** [OP] I understand about the torture, but there's still an official record showing that he ''was known'' to have used electroshock on his daughter. How was he not questioned ''in detail'' about why he used that form of therapy? [[spoiler: the second she goes through her little mantra like she did with Reid, another therapist would've immediately realised what he did.]]

*** [OP] I understand about the torture, but there's still an official record showing that he ''was known'' to have used electroshock on his daughter. How was he not questioned ''in detail'' about why he used that form of therapy? [[spoiler: the second she goes through her little mantra like she did with Reid, another therapist would've immediately realised what he did.]]

** For Hotch, I had always assumed that his biological father died of a heart attack. His mother remarried and had Sean (he seems a great deal younger than Hotch). So his step-father and Sean's biological father was the lawyer they both looked up to, and he was the one who died of cancer. Seemed logical to me, but no in-universe proof to that theory.

*** It's also visual. A person with eidetic memory can use it to remember people's name by picturing them spelled over an image of the person, but it's a conscious act. Eidetic memory isn't absolute, either. You can have degrees of it.

*** Its made pretty clear that no one outside him and Samantha knew about the torture.

** How was her father not brought before some sort of review board due to giving his daughter electroshock therapy to treat the death of her mother? [[spoiler: I know he was molesting her but that was still a flimsy excuse.]] As Reid himself said, 'There are literally hundreds of therapies to help children cope with the loss of a loved one, electroshock is not one of them'.

* In the episode Cradle To Grave when the team arrive at the unsub's house it's revealed that one of the captive women had already given birth to a boy(now about four or five years old).Why then did the unsubs continue abducting and impregnating women if the female unsub already had her Micheal?

*** OP here. The little boy was living with them and was in fact named Micheal(the name of the unsub's stillborn son)meaning he wasn't rejected(also the babies they gave up for adoption were all girls)indicating that the Unsub's "goal" had already been fulfilled yet they kept kidnapping and impregnating women which is what puzzles me. Then again the female unsub was nuts,so maybe I'm looking for logic where there isn't any.

** The female [=UnSub=] had ''very'' specific criteria for whether or not she considered a baby to be "Michael", and if the baby doesn't meet ''all'' of them, the male [=UnSub=] kills the mother and puts the baby up for adoption. I can't remember exactly why the baby you're referring to was rejected by them, but I think its because he had brown hair and Michael had blonde hair.

* In the episode Cradle To Grave when the team arrive at the unsub's house it's revealed that one of the captive women had already given birth to a boy(now about four or five years old).Why then did the unsubs continue abducting and impregnating women if the female unsub already had her Micheal?

* Another minor thing but in Mosley Lane it's revealed that the oldest kidnap victim(a teenage boy who been held by the kidnappers since he was a young child)had helped the kidnap more kids(by driving the get away car I think). I have always wondered was he charged(by the police) for his role in the crimes?

* In Safe Haven why doesn't anyone ever get upset with Jeremy's mother? She was clearly the cause of Jeremy's problems. She clearly favors her daughter over Jeremy and why? Because he absorbed his twin while in the womb and somehow this makes Jeremy evil and a murderer before he was even born? Someone please explain this woman's logic to me. Anywho because of this favors her daughter and eventually abandons Jeremy at a hospital two states away because she can't take his behavior anymore-behavior she arguably instigated by not being a mother to her son. To top it off she ends the episode by screaming that Jeremy was a muderous monster before birth and she hated him even then-right to Jeremy's face! Later all the team can talk about is what a little devil Jeremy is when in the past they have at least acknowleged that Unsubs who were abused are also victims but Jeremy gets none of this! WHY?!

* A minor thing but in Seven Seconds what happened to Jeremy after his parents were arrested? His aunt and uncle don't seem all that concerned about him(justified as they were focused on Katie)but did they take him in later? Or did they abandon him to foster care due to what his parents did?

* The whole ending for Demonology bothered me to no end. In a show that at least tries to pretend some semblance of realism trying to do something that might hint at there being real demons or whatever seems fairly jarring not to mention the fact that it would actually justify the murdering priest.

* In "Blood Relations" The FBI empty their weapons at a man who is supposedly underwater - despite one thing you are taught in gun safety is to not shoot at hard surfaces such as water. They don't wait for him to resurface, or form any sort of search party. They just presume that he's dead because they shot thirty bullets into the pond. Even if shooting at the water was assumed safe, emptying their weapons seems like a bad idea given that if they miss, he could resurface.

** The Vatican may have set specific terms under which they'd help get his DiplomaticImmunity revoked. Sending him back to Rome for his punishment was probably one of those terms, allowing the Church to avoid a public scandal.

* In "Risky Business", several teens' strangulation deaths were initially assumed to be suicides, but later were revealed to be accidental self-asphyxiations during a "choking game" they'd been playing online. The game was set up by an online serial killer who required them to record their self-choking via webcam, ostensibly to prove how long they'd done it and score points in a contest. Presumably that means that all the "suicides" would've been recording their own choking sessions, and the ones who died couldn't turn their webcams ''off'' if they were busy choking to death, so why didn't the parents or sheriff notice that they were all recording themselves when they died?

* I have a very ... unpleasant question about "A Shade of Gray." It's mentioned that the body of the little boy matches the other victims ... who were raped. Which makes sense ... until you find out that he was actually murdered by his older brother and the sheriff helped the parents fake the crime scene to protect the older son. If the little boy wasn't raped you'd have thought the medical examiner would have pointed that out. So ... [[FridgeHorror did the sheriff use something to sodomize the little boy's body to match the other murders?]] {{Squick}}!

* I love Garcia and her individuality is to be applauded but...how does she get away with dressing like she does while working for the FBI? Judging by the other characters they seem to have a dress code in place at Quantico and yet no one ever scolds her for not looking professional?

* In season 1 it was mentioned that Hotch's father developed heart problems and later died of a heart attack. HOWEVER some seasons later Hotch tells a man with terminal cancer that his(Hotch's)own father had died of cancer when he was a teenager. Um...did someone rewrite Hotch's history or did the writers just forget what they had already established about Hotch's family?