* 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.
** Perhaps it's just to show how excited he is to have a girlfriend. The show's portrayed him as being pretty childlike in some aspects of his personality, despite his intellect.
* Why does Reid carry a revolver when everybody else carries Glocks? Aren't semi-automatic pistols standard issue in law enforcement? And if it was established that Reid is a terrible shot, then why would they give him a weapon with more recoil, less bullets in a chamber, a more complex reload and much slower rate of fire?
** CharacterDevelopment and RuleOfCool. He's definitely improved shooting-wise since that early season one episode. Heck, he's even been the first one to enter a house after the door gets kicked down.
* In "Tabula Rasa", in flashback, Morgan asks Reid what Garcia's name is. Reid says "Gomez, I think". Reid's supposed to have an eidetic memory! I know it applies more to stuff that he reads, not hears, but he presumably only heard it a little while ago. Was he intentionally screwing with Morgan? Because that doesn't seem like the sort of thing he would do.
** Maybe was only verbally told and didn't hear clearly? Ehh-hh.
** He was probably just screwing with Morgan, or being snarky, since both García and Gómez are ''last'' names, and mistaking them for first names would be more than out of character for him.
** Given that Reid's eidetic memory is visual and not verbal/aural (he can easily remember word-for word things he's read but has to think about things he's only had read to him), probably he heard her name when she was introduced to him, but it didn't stick; he just remembered that it was a Spanish surname.
** They pick on each other all the time. He was probably screwing with him.
** Could be someone else confused Garcia's name when they told him, thus he was reiterating their uncertainty.
** Eidetic memory is not perfect recall; it's the ability to re-examine remembered sensory data and pick up new information from it, and that sensory data doesn't last forever. Realistically, if Reid hasn't heard her name used by someone who knows it in the last 20 minutes or so, his eidetic memory has nothing to work with. He also has a good memory for words (i.e. being able to recite entire books) but that's more likely to be conscious memorisation, which he may not have used with Garcia's name. (Not the the show gives any credence to the difference between eidetic memory and perfect recall, but they *are* different.)
*** 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.
** Could also be that Reid just didn't care to remember Garcia's name- his delivery sounded very nonchalant.
* Ryan, the main unsub in "3rd Life", was said to be 28... this just seems way too damn old, considering how everyone calls him "a kid" and "a boy", and nobody found it odd how he was always hanging out with high schoolers (the victim, also a high schooler, apparently had a crush on him as well). Reid even calls him a kid in "Elephant's Memory", even though Ryan was older than he was (Reid mentions he had just turned 27 in "Masterpiece", a season later).
** I will give you the first part, that does seem odd. But as for Reid calling someone older than him a "kid", it may not be that strange. From my own experience, I graduated from high school and college early, and have a habit of doing this myself... it's a side effect of spending most of your time around people who are far older than you, you tend to feel more assimilated with them, than with others around your own age.
*** Don't forget that Reid is talking to other LEOs who are much older than him, so he's probably trying to relate to their perception. Also, Reid himself has always been called "a kid" by almost everyone, so it's not unreasonable for him to call Ryan a "kid" too because they're in the same age group (late twenties).
* For "Lucky," since Penelope Garcia is the Techno Queen, you would think that she would have done a background check on her beau [[spoiler: *cough*shooter*cough*]], but no, she ignores Morgan's warnings and goes off to the date anyway. Idiot Ball, or a case of Lapsed character judgement? You decide.
** 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.
** [[HumansAreStupid Long live denial!]]
*** And for at least some of them, the fact that the body will be found is part of their deal. It wouldn't feel right for them otherwise.
** DNA, like fingerprints, only work if they already exist in a database, so the killer would have to get caught in order for the DNA to matter. Given privacy laws, the only database it can draw from are those who have already been arrested once before.
*** 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.
** Sadly, this is TruthInTelevision. While murder rates may be low, that low rate still translates into tens of thousands of murders each year. At any given time there are 20-50 serial killers working in the US alone, and that number doesn't take into account the spree killers that make up the majority of Criminal Minds cases.
** Keep in mind a number of their cases do not fall into the "serial killer" category. They deal with rape, abduction and a slew of other cases. None of those are accounted for in the criminal statistic.
*** And also, their jumping on top of a case that shows certain trends helps them stop a killer from progressing far enough to gain notoriety as a serial killer.
* In the same episode, Hotch tells Morgan and Prentiss to assist Garcia. Morgan asks Hotch in manner that suggested he was annoyed about it why that is necessary. After Hotch explains, Morgan goes into Garcia's office, gives a rather fake "pep talk" and then leaves WITHOUT HELPING HER! Morgan's attitude and actions were inconsistent w/ his previous actions and really seemed to undercut the believability of his and Garcia's friendship.
** 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.
* In "Seven Seconds", when the team is looking for a little girl in the mall, a search dog is brought to help find her. The dog picks up her scent, but loses it the moment it smells food from the restaurant. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these dogs trained to stay "focused" and follow the scent no matter what, and in real life the dog would keep going until it would have eventually located the girl?
** Yes and no. Yes they are trained to stay focused, but in a mall filled with people and food they can be easily distracted. It's not the ideal environment for them by a long shot.
*** Dogs also have layered senses of smell. Overwhelming a dog with certain smells/stimulus triggers more of their instinctive nature than their training. Even the most trained dogs can become distracted by something that is evolution and patterned in their genes.
*** It would make a difference, also, if food scent were on the girl's clothing. If she ate something, and spilled a little on her clothes, then ketchup, or something, might be part of what the dogs think of as her scent. Also, if she went into a food place, as opposed to just passing one, it might be harder to keep track of her scent.
* In Supply and Demand, the season six finale, it's revealed that [[spoiler:JJ's coming back.]] Earlier in the episode, it's revealed that the FBI's going to have budget cuts. So, if they're having budget cuts, how do they have the money to hire [[spoiler:JJ?]]
** JJ isn't a profiler. She gets paid from a different source from the one from which the profilers are paid. She went on maternity leave, and returned to the FBI, she didn't quit. Her intention had been to return to a slot without so much travel, but she changed her mind, and went back to her old team. Whether JJ returned, or someone took her place, the team needed someone in her support position.
** They're letting go of Seaver. Sad thing is, the actress, Rachel Nichols, found out via the internet, so they didn't even have the decency to let her know that she's being let go before the entire world knew.
*** But they didn't know that when the episode was being filmed. [[{{WMG}} Or have they been planning on getting rid of Seaver ever since then?]]
*** Likely the latter. JJ's departure drew a fair bit of ire, to the point you notice the double meaning in the case's dialogue. It was no secret this was a network discussion and even the writers were irritated. Unfortunately, it meant Seaver was a {{Scrappy}} the moment she stepped on scene.
* 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.
** Well, the series is filmed in California. And it could be a mess up with the props people, or the just didn't care.
** Vehicles with California plates aren't exactly an uncommon sight in Oregon.
* How did Foyet know which page in Hotch's address book to take? [[spoiler: Hayley is listed by her maiden name]] and Hotch doesn't really seem the type to put smiley faces next to the people who would be convenient targets if a serial killer happened to be looking for one, so how did he know her significance?
** 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.
** The better question is why Hotch needed to keep their contact information in an address book at all. They were living in the same house that they used to share! For crying out loud, when he told the team, they never asked for an address -- they just said "get to Hotch's old house." Although I guess I could see Hotch being so compulsive that he'd have to fill out every space in his address book...
* The episode "North Mammon" has never really sat right with me. I can sit through basically every episode without flinching at all the horrible things they show, but it really perturbed me that none of the agents expressed any anger or disgust at what Brooke did to Kelly. Obviously they were all put into a difficult position, but I think it could have been inferred that had the girls not chosen someone, the unsub would have just let them go. I can't really accept what Brooke said about not having a choice as an excuse, either. Kelly never even touched the hammers, she was essentially all talk and no action, trying to convince Polly that they should choose Brooke. Brooke, on the other hand, attacked with no noticeable hesitation. I just wish someone would have said something about the fact that she did have a choice, and the one she made resulted in the death of an innocent person.
** 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.
* In "Mayhem" the [[spoiler: terrorist cell's plan is to set off a bomb in an ambulance to kill someone protected by the secret service. But the bomb doesn't seem large enough, especially since it would be in the underground concrete parking garage while the target was being airlifted off the roof. Were they planning to bring down the entire building?]]
* In "Outfoxed," Prentiss and Hotchner interview the Fox in prison and, in order to garner more information, Prentiss flirts with him and feigns attraction. She later expressed disgust at herself for having to behave like that, saying that she had never done that before. In her story arc in the sixth season, though, it is revealed that she essentially faked an entire romantic relationship for years with Doyle, so she had obviously done it quite successfully before. Prentiss has a reputation on the show for being exceptionally cool and level-headed, so it's a bit confusing that she would be affected by something that didn't seem to faze her with Doyle.
** FridgeBrilliance? This troper takes Prentiss' comment in ''Outfoxed'' as her still feeling guilt or regret over leading Doyle on the way she did, and she's now developed a distaste for such tactics. Notice that, even though she was disgusted by the idea, she still did it well. And she couldn't have very well just up and told Hotch "Yeah, I did this before to catch an arms dealer when I was a superspy, and I hated it then too!" That... probably wouldn't have flown.
* In "Painless", how did the truth about what happened during the bombing never come out? Even if the 'Top Ten Survivors' clique all stuck to the story, why didn't ''other'' survivors come forward and reveal [[spoiler:how the one guy was taking credit for the eventual Unsub's actions]]?
** The whole episode is an obvious lift from UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}, and the explanation may be a reference to [[spoiler:Cassie Bernall (I am spoilering this in reference to the question.) For years, the famous 'she said yes' account was attributed to her, and the survivor who actually had the exchange with Klebold, Valeen Schnurr, was denigrated for suggesting that some wires were crossed in the telling of the story. The whole issue is well-explained in the book 'Columbine'.]] Clearly, if a similar situation happened in real life, and none of the survivors could corroborate the story, it could easily happen in the world of fiction.
** As Reid is fond of saying, memories are like puzzles, not like paintings -- it's very easy, especially if you're confused and frightened, to put a bunch of real pieces together in the wrong order and create a false memory. That's what happened in the real life example above -- it wasn't that people had fuzzy memories, it's that they were 100% SURE that the memories that they had were correct -- but they couldn't have been, based on objectively confirmable things like placement and timing that people pieced together later.
* In "Internet is Forever" Reid states that he doesn't even have an email account. As a socially awkward child genius he must be from the internets! Sure he can't be Garcia, but no email account?
** Especially valid considering how hard it is to get along professionally without email these days. That's never sat right with me, either.
*** You could take it to mean he only has a professional email, rather than having a personal email, as well. Obviously, you wouldn't be sending your social networking updates to your work email.
**** Hmmm. Good point! Thank you.
** Actually, they did establish Reid has an unusual dislike of technology. When Garcia bought the team iPads, she didn't get Reid one, saying something to the effect she knew he preferred paper. Not to mention, this is a guy who reads classic literature in its original language.
* In Safe Haven, Jeremy was supposedly one of twins and absorbed his brother in the womb. If the pregnancy was advanced enough for the mother to know she was having twins, is that even possible? One mostly-developed twin could die, certainly, but how could it just disappear?
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_twin Is is possible.]]
* The ending of "Machismo" (1x19) bothered me quite a bit. Hotch asks if the women who castrated the unsub would be charged, the Mexican cop asks "With what? They were only protecting their homes." Which... doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm not denying that a group of women who were raped did not deserve justice, and hell, attacking the unsub probably prevented another murder. But it's not that they incapacitated him, it's they ''cut off his penis'', and were treated as if this was not only perfectly acceptable, but also somewhat heroic.
** DoubleStandard.
** What? It was a rescue! He was actively trying to kill someone when they attacked him, and he was armed. They were going to have to incapacitate him in order to stop him. Yes, they picked a way to do it that was particularly bloody, but it's not like they just grabbed him off the street while he was minding his own business. They weren't arrested for the same reason that nobody arrested that mob of Angelenos who came after the Prince of Darkness with baseball bats in "The Longest Night."
* In "The Fisher King", we see Greenaway come home and sit down on her couch, then get attacked by the Unsub who was waiting inside. Given that the door she enters through was nearly all ''glass panels'', wasn't she kind of asking for such a thing to happen? You'd think a female agent who lives alone, and knows just how many violent sickos are out there, would make sure her residence was a lot more secure than that.
** Also in "The Fisher King," was it ever explained where the Unsub got his hacking skills from? He seemed like an insane old man to me, but he was savvy enough to penetrate a government database, and even when Garcia went after him she only got back what he wanted her to.
* When (if at all, according to rumours) do you think Rosie Marcel is set to appear on the show? To quote a Holby fansite, she was supposed to appear mid-2013, but there isn't any confirmation of it.
* 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"
* At the end of "Demonology," why don't they arrest Father Silvano? His DiplomaticImpunity has been revoked and they just caught him committing, at the very least, breaking and entering and assault (and maybe attempted murder, if they want to press it), but they just pack him off to Italy and hope somebody locks him up for something there.
** 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.