Badass Beard: Only in "It Takes a Village". The fandom consensus seems to be that he should grow it back.
Apparently others associated with the show liked it, too: a brief clip of the Badass Beard is shown in the Season 7 opening credits.
Badass Bookworm: Collected coins as a kid, grew up to be a prosecutor, then took an apparent level in badass and joined SWAT and then the elite unit of the BAU at the Bureau.
Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: On the rare occasion when a situation requires both him and Rossi to throw their weight around, Hotch is Captain Smooth.
Death Glare: Look at the picture to the right. That's him on a good day.
Despair Event Horizon: Listening to Foyet psychologically torture his ex-wife and son, promising to kill them, hearing Haley shot over the phone, and finding her body in their old home. Hotch loses it and empties his gun into Foyet, then beats him to death with his own hands.
Family Versus Career: In season three, Haley makes him choose - her and Jack or the FBI. He chooses the FBI. In season five, after Haley is killed, he must choose between them again. FBI's still winning, though he does work out an arrangement with his sister-in-law to help raise Jack.
Good Is Not Soft: He's a very nice and pleasant guy, off the job and sometimes when on, but he never hesitates to pull the trigger to stop someone. That said, he does try to reason with them when he can.
Heterosexual Life Partners / Ho Yay: Hotch and Rossi, who are the only two team members to regularly call each other by their first names and have been very close friends for over fifteen years. Rossi is also able to consistently get a smile from Hotch, and Hotch has been known to joke with and confide in Rossi, something he almost never does with the rest of the team. To top it all off, in "The Pact", Hotch actually calls Rossi sexy, if a bit indirectly:
Garcia(In reference to Rossi giving away his vacation days.) Altruism is sexy.
Hotch: Yes it is.
High School Sweet Hearts: Hotch and Haley married right out of high school. Apparently, it was love at first sight and Hotch joined a production of Pirates of Penzance as the "worst Fourth Pirate ever" to impress her.
It's Personal: Any and all violence against children (especially physical child abuse) and cases that leave children without a father, not to mention his obsession with catching the Reaper. After the Reaper and the events of "100", we can add unsubs torturing their victims over the phone, and unsubs who use knives and sexual sadism against their victims.
Last Name Basis: Except for Haley and Rossi, everyone calls him "Hotch".
Samaritan Syndrome: Hotch tends to think he can save everybody, and actually goes and tries. This is deconstructed in the series twice - first, in "Omnivore", when Rossi gives him a verbal smackdown ("That isn't your conscience talking, Aaron, it's your ego."); and second, in "Hopeless", when he, along with Rossi and Prentiss, leave the group of UnSubs to their intended Suicide by Cop, knowing he can do nothing to stop local law enforcement from enacting revenge.
Not So Stoic: "Mayhem", "Outfoxed", and especially "100".
In Season 7, he's largely gotten over Haley's death and has started dating. He now appears more often in casual clothing, smiles and laughs more, and everyone (especially Rossi) is absolutely delighted to see this.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Given how many bad things have happened to him, its sometimes sad to see moments in early episodes when we see how happy his family made him.
What Could Have Been: Before Thomas Gibson was cast, Hotch was originally written as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Mormon.
When He Smiles: They are few and rare (and occur mainly around his young son), but when they appear, they are stunning.
David Rossi (Joe Mantegna)
Amicably Divorced: Above and beyond this with first ex-wife Carolyn, implied to be this with his two other ex-wives as well.
Badass Beard: Even grows one. In his first appearance, "About Face", he's clean-shaven and a total jerkass. In the next episode, "Identity", he seems to have taken Hotch's advice to heart along with growing his goatee.
Break the Haughty: "Damaged" does a number on him in season three; "Epilogue" does a worse one in season seven.
Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: On the rare occasion when a situation requires both him and Hotch to throw their weight around, Rossi is Sergeant Rough.
The Casanova: Largely in backstory. Apparently, Rossi is the reason behind the Bureau's "no-fraternization" policy.
The Chessmaster: His hostage-negotiation in "Minimal Loss" and interrogations in "Masterpiece" and "Zoe's Reprise" teach us that you do not want to try and out-maneuver David Rossi.
The Consigliere: Mostly to Hotch, but as of S5, to Morgan as well.
Cool Old Guy: Knows enough about Grand Theft Auto to identify characters from it, claims he's played video games, and explains Twitter to Reid.
He's also seen playing video games with Ashley at the end of "Coda".
Helps Hotch coach Jack's soccer team. It's really kind of adorable.
Counterpart Comparison: In "Unfinished Business", we meet Max Ryan, a retired FBI agent that is brash, jaded and doesn't work well in a team dynamic. Ryan is also a prolific writer, retiring to go on a book tour, only returning to duty for this episode because of unfinished business (hence the title). Years later, Rossi would debut and be almost the exact same character.
Deal with the Devil: In "Profiling 101" Rossi makes a deal with the Unsub. The Unsub is off death row and he will give Rossi the name and location of the body of one of his victims every year on a certain day. But it has to be on a special day of the Unsub's choosing. He chooses Rossi's birthday.
First Name Basis: Hotch is the only one to regularly call him "Dave". Likewise, he's one of the three people who ever call Hotch "Aaron". Rossi also calls Strauss by her first name ("Erin"), usually to piss her off.
Heterosexual Life Partners / Ho Yay: Rossi and Hotch, who are the only two team members to regularly call each other by their first names and have been very close friends for over fifteen years. Rossi is also able to consistently get a smile from Hotch, and Hotch has been known to joke with and confide in Rossi, something he almost never does with the rest of the team. To top it all off, in "The Pact", Hotch actually calls Rossi sexy, if a bit indirectly:
Garcia(In reference to Rossi giving away his vacation days.) Altruism is sexy.
Hotch: Yes it is.
Honorary Uncle: Jack calls Rossi "Uncle Dave" at least once.
It's Personal: The Galen case ("Damaged"), the Butcher case ("Remembrances of the Past"), idol worship/emulation, especially directed toward him ("Limelight", "Zoe's Reprise"), and religion ("Demonology", "Public Enemy").
Jerkass: Depending on the writer. Moreso in season three, but there have been episodes in season five where writers of various episodes have him lapsing back into his Jerkass-y ways.
Jerkass Façade: Rossi comes off as an egotistical bastard when he first shows up, baiting UnSubs and insulting a lot of people's intelligence. Turns out he's just kind of crap at this whole "team" thing, and once he realizes that these people have his back ("Damaged", most notably), he's a lot more open and caring toward them.
Large Ham: Can pull it off when needed, usually in the course of distracting the press (as seen in "The Performer" and "Painless").
Also when cooking
Lying to the Perp: Rossi's a master at this - see "Masterpiece" and "Reckoner" for particularly spectacular examples.
Arguably, "Reckoner" deconstructed this, as Rossi tells the somewhat Sympathetic Murderer that he slept with his wife, multiple times, and the unsub dies without learning that it was a lie, which just adds an extra tinge of tragedy to an already fairly brutal episode.
Married to the Job: Rossi, in his own words, is "more married to this team than I have been to three wives."
The McCoy: Usually playing this role to Reid's Spock and Morgan or Hotch's Kirk.
Retired Badass: Before he returns to the Bureau. He's not so much retired anymore.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: He does this often. In "Hit", when the FBI Director orders Strauss to sacrifice the unsubs' hostages in order to take them down, the team immediately protests. Strauss asks them if they plan on defying the Director. Rossi's response is simply "Yes."
Berserk Button: Touch his "baby girl" Garcia, and you are going to wish for death. Also, does not deal well with sexual abuse cases - it's kind of close to home.
Big Brother Instinct: He will put your head on a pike if you DARE to touch a single hair of his surrogate little brother Spencer Reid.
Or anyone else on the team, actually.
Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Averted and subverted with Garcia - she's not technically his "love interest" and he doesn't have a problem at all sexualizing her.
Clear Their Name: In "25 to Life", when a man Morgan profiled as a rehabilitated offender is suspected of murder.
Morgan himself in "Profiler, Profiled", when he is suspected of a series of murders in his old neighborhood.
Dark and Troubled Past: Watch "Profiler, Profiled" and all of Morgan's issues with authority figures and sexual abuse make sense. Then take a look at "Big Sea" and "The Company" and get a look into how fractured the stalking and disappearance of his cousin Cindy caused the family to be.
Fair Cop: Literally. Morgan used to be a cop before he joined the BAU.
Flanderization: In the first season- in particular the first half- Morgan dressed in suits and other professional attire and was known as an intellectual who just happened to be good at fighting. While his brain hasn't left him, his style of clothing (to a much more casual dress) and the pronouncement of his emotions suggest that the "fighter" part of his personna has shoved his brain to the back seat. See also What Happened to the Mouse? below for more.
Handsome Lech: The playful, mostly-directed-toward-Garcia kind.
He's mostly smooth with ladies he seriously wants to date, and turns on a more over the top 'lech' attitude with Garcia, older women and/or bums...and it's ADORABLE.
It's Personal: Sexual abuse cases ("Profiler, Profiled"), racism ("Fear and Loathing", among others), and violence against cops ("Brothers in Arms"). He's also had the Prince of Darkness ("Our Darkest Hour"/"The Longest Night"), the Reaper ("Omnivore", "Faceless, Nameless"), clearing the name of Don Sanderson ("25 to Life"), and his cousin's disappearance in "Big Sea" and "The Company".
He spends almost every waking moment after Prentiss's "death" hunting down Ian Doyle, culminating in going off-grid.
Mr. Fanservice: Particularly apparent in "Snake Eyes," where he steps out of a shower dripping wet with a loving pan up his body.
The Nicknamer: Can fall into this when talking to Reid ('Kid', 'Pretty Boy', 'Genius') or Garcia (too many to list).
Raised by Dudes: Inverted, with interesting consequences. All of the relatives we've ever met of his are female (his mother, his three sisters, his aunt, his cousin), which reinforces why Morgan treats the women in his life (especially Garcia) so well.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Not Morgan himself, but his work specialising in obsessional crimes. The fact that he has this specialty hasn't come up in ages, even in episodes such as "The Big Wheel" where the crimes clearly are obsessional.
Would Hurt a Child: If that child were a killer, or so he claims to a teenage unsub in "Exit Wounds." Fortunately, the unsub ultimately surrenders voluntarily.
Badass Bookworm: If the Boom, Headshot in "L.D.S.K." didn't convince you, his thirteen-minute-long profile from thin air to keep from being killed by Chester Hardwicke in "Damaged" might.
When Hotch compliments him on the headshot in "L.D.S.K." however, Reid blushes and admits he was actually aiming for the unsub's knee.
"Never wage a practical joke war against an MIT graduate, because we have a history of going nuclear."
Bishōnen: It's the literal translation of one of Morgan's nicknames for him, "pretty boy".
Break the Cutie: So many times. It seems the writers like to torture him, lock him up, drug him, infect him with anthrax, tie him up...
Prentiss' supposed death could count as well. How did he spend the time while she was away? At JJ's house, crying, and almost relapsing on Dilaudid.
He finally gets a girlfriend, a clever geneticist, but they only communicate via handwritten letters and payphones. When he finally sees her face-to-face, she's being held at gunpoint by a jealous woman, then she's killed in front of him by said jealous woman in a single-bullet murder-suicide. Ouch, writers. Ouch.
Calling the Old Man Out: Reid does this to his own father in 4x7 "In Memoriam", and then to the unsub's father in "The Uncanny Valley".
Inverted in 4x20 "Conflicted", when he interrupts Adam/Amanda Jackson's murderous version of this.
Cannot Tell a Joke: Spencer tells hilarious jokes ... if you're a genius speed-reading polymath with an eidetic memory. Otherwise, not so much.
He seemed pretty surprised when the villain from "Masterpiece" actually understands a joke he told a university class.
Child Prodigy: Graduated from high school at 12, had two BAs by 16, has an IQ of 187 and an eidetic memory.
Clueless Chick Magnet: Poor guy doesn't realize that when beautiful movie stars kiss him it's because he's a babe, not because of 'transference'.
Prentiss (after interviewing the homeless for information): How'd you guys do?
Hotch: Well, Reid got propositioned by every prostitute we talked to...
Also this (after Morgan teases him about "not being able to get a date"):
Reid: Do you think that [being interested in weird things] is why I can't get a date?
Elle: Have you ever asked a girl out?
Reid: No.
Elle: That's why you can't get a date.
Dark and Troubled Past: Poor kid. Mommy's schizophrenic and Dad abandoned everyone. Biggest brain in the room and usually the one targeted physically by the serial killers.
Disappeared Dad: First with his own father, and then with his father figure, Gideon.
Fan Wank: In an in-universe example, Reid has a tendency to bore his colleagues with rants about the specs of the Death Star, whether Bill & Ted is a ripoff of Doctor Who, and the nature and "surprising" infrequency of science errors in the original Star Trek.
Flanderization: We all know that athletics are not Reid's strong suit, but failing EVERYTHING involving physical exertion (marksmanship, physical training, the obstacle course, Hogan's Alley, etc) at the Academy? It's a little extreme and it begs the question of how he not only passed the Academy, but continues to pass his field qualifications.
In-Series Nickname: "Spence" from JJ, "Kid" and "Pretty Boy" from Morgan, and countless ones from Garcia, 'Gorgeous Grey Matter' being a notable example.
Insufferable Genius: Unlike most versions, this comes not from arrogance (because he's quite humble) but simply his habit of outshining others with his knowledge, making them look bad by comparison, and his Motor Mouth tendencies.
Prentiss: (After he puts together a star puzzle) There's a lot to hate about you Dr. Reid.
Rossi: Play poker with him sometime.
Morgan: Try playing chess with him.
Garcia: Or Go.
Intelligence Equals Isolation: Reid's school experience - "Being the smartest kid in class is like being the only kid in class."
Motor Mouth: Talks extremely fast, about virtually any subject down the the most pedantic minutiae. A fun drinking game is to count how often Reid is interrupted by an irritated teammate.
Keeping with this: Nerds Are Sexy. Lila Archer (1x18 "Somebody's Watching"), Austin (4x9 "52 Pickup"), and various prostitutes (c.f. 2x22 "Legacy" and 4x7 "In Memoriam") seem to think so.
Must Have Caffeine: Everyone in the BAU appears to like coffee, but Reid's is the only one to have a big point made of it. Probably because of all of the sugar he takes with it.
Near Death Experience: Tells the team in "Epilogue" that when he was dying in Tobias Hankel's shed, he felt a warmth and saw white lights.
Nice Guy: He might have No Social Skills, but Reid compensates by having ample amounts of compassion.
No Social Skills: He's VERY awkward around people other than the team.
Reid: I was able to differentiate between two distinct voices, two authors. I found various idiosyncratic words, phrases, punctuation and orthography within the blog. Entries consistent with each separate person, words like soda and pop. One guy uses dashes while the other guy uses ellipses. *chuckles*
Note that this doesn't stop him from trying to use his title of "Doctor" to approve himself for active duty in Season 5 when he disagreed with the notion of taking time off to let his leg fully heal.
Older Than They Look: Post 'boy band' haircut, he manages to look about 12, despite the actor being 29 at the time.
One of Us: Really into Doctor Who and magic, not so much modern pop culture.
He and Garcia even cosplay as Four and Eleven respectively while at a convention in "Hit/Run".
Photographic Memory: His eidetic memory has been proven to be imperfect - for example, his memories from his very young childhood are murky at best - but, generally, it's reliable.
Prank Date: Was victim to this in high school. It was... brutal, to say the least.
The Prankster: Do not try and prank an MIT grad, Morgan. Giving Reid's number to a bunch of press leads to a hilarious return-serve of Reid hijacking all of Morgan's electronic equipment (iPod, cell phone, etc) and programming them to play a looped message of him screaming.
Precision F-Strike: Reid easily having the cleanest mouth of the team, when he does swear, it means something.
Played for comedy in season 7.
Reid: Loner, invisible, boiling rage—son of a bitch!
And played for drama in season 8.
Reid: Maeve is somebody and this bitch is a nobody!
Pretty Boy: Hoo boy. In the words of Shemar Moore (the actor who plays Morgan), 'Matthew's so pretty he's almost a girl.' It's also his nickname. Unsurprising, given that he's a real-life Calvin Klein model.
Primal Fear: It's revealed in The Boogeyman that he's scared of the dark.
This is especially notable when you remember that when Reid was kidnapped by Tobias Henkel, he was forced to play Russian Roulette four times and survives, and later manages to get the same gun (still with only one bullet) away from him and kills him with one shot. It's quite possible he started carrying a revolver for this reason.
The Smart Guy: Three Ph Ds, one of them in engineering, check. Difficulty with guns (at least, in "LDSK"), check. Prefers to talk people down rather than risk shoot-outs, check. Badass Bookworm, check.
Smart People Play Chess: Inverted and subverted; Reid plays, but is constantly beaten by Gideon, and Prentiss out-thinks him in 2x10 "Lessons Learned."
Additionally, in "The Uncanny Valley," it's implied that he stopped playing against people after Gideon left, while playing out every possible game with himself. Until the end of the episode, anyway.
Snark Knight: Turns into this towards JJ after he finds out that JJ lied to him about Prentiss' death.
Someday This Will Come In Handy: Reid has so much apparently useless knowledge that it is, in fact, ridiculous. By contrast, his knowledge of pop culture varies: he knows Siouxsie and the Banshees but not Twilight or Lady Gaga.
And some of it does come in handy, such as in "Plain Sight", where he recognizes the literature that the unsub writes quotes from at the crime scenes.
Lampshaded by Morgan in "True Night"
Reid: You should have listened to me.
Morgan: It wouldn't have saved that much time, Reid, let it go.
Reid: The interchange between the 405 and the 101 freeways is consistently rated the worst interchange in the entire world.
Morgan:Why do you know that?
Reid: The government report.
Morgan: So what?
Reid: So you work for the government, you don't read the reports?
Morgan: On traffic patterns in a city 2,500 miles from where I live?
Reid: 2,295 miles.
Morgan: Do not make me smack you in front of all these people.
The Spock: An interesting take on this trope. He's usually the most logical team member and the one to come up with the most effective plans, but he's still not even close to handling cases unemotionally.
Tropaholics Anonymous: In 3x16 "Elephant's Memory," he's seen attending a meeting of "Beltway Clean Cops" to cope with the Dilaudid addiction he developed in season two.
What the Hell, Hero?: He is not happy to learn that the fact that Prentiss' death was faked was intentionally hidden from him.
Badass Boast: In a slightly nerdy way whenever she answers the phone to the team, for example she's announced herself "the fountain of all knowledge" on one occasion. Also see the quote under Beware the Nice Ones, she could absolutely do that. There's also her CMOA at the end of "The Internet Is Forever".
"Girlfriend? Kevin, if you come within 100 feet of Agent Rossi, I will unleash an unrecoverable virus onto your personal computer system that will reduce your electronic world into something between a Commodore 64, and a block of government cheese... call me later!"
Break the Cutie: Her shooting in "Lucky"/"Penelope", and the subsequent episodes that show her healing process - "House on Fire" and "Exit Wounds".
Characterization Marches On: She's nearly unrecognizable to what she would later become in the pilot, in which she's a Deadpan Snarker who dresses like a stereotypical "working stiff" and who actually easily gives up trying to hack something.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: one of the sweetest and most justified versions. After spending her days catching murderers, she volunteers one day a week to counsel the families of murder victims.
Depending on the Writer: Whether or not she's an only child. S2 says she has four brothers. S6 says she doesn't.
Mind you, she mentioned having a step-father, so both could be true at once.
It's funny how a character on a show about murders and such that a character can go from four brothers to none and instead of making a plot they just ignore it.
Doesn't Like Guns: In "Penelope", Morgan tries to give her one for protection.
Garcia: I don't believe in guns!
Morgan:(shoves one into her hands) Believe me, they are very real!
Expy: Garcia shares a lot of personality traits with Abby Sciuto, though their precise roles are different. Both shows are on CBS.
Funnily enough, this is likely a complete coincidence; Garcia's character was originally going to be a chubby, middle-aged Latino man. Then they met Kirsten Vangsness.
Fake Guest Star: In Season 1; they just didn't have the money to put her in the title credits. In fact, she is the only character to be Promoted To Opening Titles who was not a replacement for a departed character. She's credited with "Also Starring" from Episode 14.
Feminine Women Can Cook: Subverted in "Proof". Garcia can bake, but apparently lacks most cooking skills. Rossi ends up teaching her.
Magical Computer: Garcia can do things with computers that are flat out impossible and can deliver instant search results from Magical Databases that sometimes contain info that have absolutely no business being online. Months old surveillance footage, sealed court records, records that predate the digital age, etc. Nothing is off-limits or takes any real amount of time to sift through or cross-reference. On the other hand, this saves us from having to deal with months of subpoenas and dead end searches, so Tropes Are Not Bad.
Ms. Fanservice: She's quite well-built, to say the least, and several of her outfits, particularly the dress she wore to JJ's wedding, seem designed to show it off. Rather blatant in "Snake Eyes," which almost literally opens with a very good look down her nightshirt. May or may not be a coincidence that the same episode had the series' most blatant bit of male fanservice, as well.
Considering Garcia would be Hollywood Pudgy on most shows, it's refreshing to see her being treated as one of the most attractive characters on the show.
The Nicknamer; You could count on one hand the number of time she refers to anyone she's talking to by their real name. Made all the more impressive in that she comes up with a new one every time.
In fact, this is such an important character trait, that when Reid calls her after he's been infected with anthrax, he can tell how upset she is by the fact that she calls him "Reid".
Oh Crap: When she gets a call from Morgan she usually answers in a very flirty way, which leads to these moments when he replies "You're on speakerphone".
The crowner has to be Garcia's expression in "In Name and Blood":
Garcia: Talk dirty to me.
Strauss: This is Section Chief Strauss.
One of Us: So much that Garcia is the online fandom's spirit animal. Internet nerdery, quoting classic movies, loves comic books and other assorted media.
Interestingly enough, "The Internet Is Forever" implies she's not a fan of social networking sites.
Goes to a major convention with Reid in "Hit/Run", dressed as the Eleventh Doctor from Doctor Who.
Right Behind Me: How she meets Prentiss' replacement, complete with lampshading: "Oh god, I'm doing that thing where I'm talking and they're right behindme..."
Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Averted in that any time Garcia takes a role other than computer-related analysis, there's always a good reason and she goes back to technical analyst when it's finished (ex: doing some profiling during "House on Fire" at Hotch's request; becoming the interim media liaison when JJ leaves because she wants to help out).
Character Development: JJ's original role on the team was to manipulate the media (and through them the bad guys) as well as deal with people the team came into contact with. Starting at the end of season five her role noticeably expanded until her temporary departure part way through Season 6. As of Season 7's "Proof" she's out pounding the pavement with Reid as well checking out body dumps and talking profiler-speak to the locals with Rossi.
Part of this has to do with the fact that in Season 7, she has a different official job. The role of media liaison had already been filled when she returned to the team. The only way she could come back was to fill Prentiss' (then) vacated spot. (When Prentiss came back, she took Seaver's spot, and Seaver left). She's officially one of the profilers now. Hotch had suggested getting qualified for that role years before (back in something like Season 3), but she was happier as a media liaison at the time.
The Danza: Subverted. Although A.J. Cook jokes that the character was named JJ so she'd be able to remember it (being a blonde), the producers swear they came up with the name before Cook was cast.
Deadpan Snarker: JJ seems to have absorbed best-bud Emily's penchant for sawdust-dry wit in season 7.
Happily Married: In Season 3's "Lo-Fi", Will LaMontagne tells the team that he's asked JJ to marry him. They are shown living together during Season 7, with Will taking care of Henry while JJ is chasing a serial killer in Tornado Alley, but not officially married until the season 7 finale.
It's Personal: Small-town violence ("North Mammon", "Risky Business"), stalking ("The Crossing"), and suicide ("Risky Business").
Mama Bear: DO NOT threaten her kid when she's around, she WILL kick your ass, as a thrillseeking bank robber/terrorist found out in the season seven finale.
The Bus Came Back: In "Lauren" for one episode, then as of "Out of the Night", JJ is officially back.
Screwed by the Network: See Put on a Bus. And the bitch of it is that in the episode directly preceding her exit, "The Longest Night", A.J. Cook does some of the best work of her career.
She was even more screwed than usual: Cook wasn't let go because of ratings or a dispute with the cast or crew; she was let go because CBS was pinching pennies to make a spinoff (which failed) and was too cheap to renew her contract.
Cunning Linguist: It's her defining characteristic, and it's come in handy several times. The best instance of this was in "The Silencer", when her knowledge of sign language was instrumental in capturing the UnSub, who was deaf.
Dark and Troubled Past: One of the main subplots of the pilot episode is Hotch having to decide if Gideon is a risk in the field, due to an incident in Boston where he caused the deaths of six agents and his subsequent nervous breakdown.
Mysterious Past: A lot about him is never revealed. He has a son, but it's never made clear what his relationship with the mother was, and where literally every other main character has had their youth delved into at least a little, his remains a complete mystery.
Parental Substitute: The closest thing to a father Reid had, which made the abandonment all the more heartbreaking.
Real Life Writes the Plot: The reason Gideon disappears without a trace is because actor Mandy Patinkin couldn't take the constant emotional impact of the horrific cases on the show.
Sick Episode: In "Blood Hungry" he's stuck at headquarters due to a skydiving accident.
The Stoic: To a lesser degree than Hotch, but capable of keeping cool even when having a shotgun pointed at his face.
Groin Attack: How she gets the unsub from "Broken Mirror" to tell her where the girl he abducted is. When Reid wonders how she got him talking later on, Gideon suggests that its best not to think about it.
Heroic BSOD: Her arc on the show is basically her descent into this.
Morality Pet: Serves as one to remind the audience (and the team) that most people find what the BAU does to be a horrible job and cannot cope with the constant mental trauma.
She Cleans Up Nicely: Not that Meta Golding was unattractive before, but going undercover in "52 Pickup" gives her a chance to look extremely pretty.
Skewed Priorities: In "52 Pickup", Jordan lies to the mother of a victim, telling her that her own sister was killed and her mother wouldn't help the police, pressuring the mother into letting the sister of the victim talk to the FBI. Hotch calls her out on it and delivers a blistering verbal smackdown. She gets herself back on track by teaming up with Prentiss to go undercover and catch the UnSub.
Character Depth: Quite a bit. We learn a good deal about her in her introductory episode.
Creator's Pet: 1) Hated by most fans? Check. 2) Loved by the writers? It was clear that she was so wonderful exceptions had to be made for her despite her never appearing to do anything right in the field. 3) Put into big scenes for no reason? Rossi, arrogant and one of the founders of the BAU comes to her for advise and makes it clear only she can solve the problem in Lauren. 4) Talked up by the other characters? Oh so much.
Expy: Ashley is very similar to Rebecca Locke from The Inside, another young profiler played by Rachel Nichols. Substitute "my daddy was a serial killer and I have issues" for "I was kidnapped by a serial killer and I have issues".
Fan Nickname: Agent Mary Sue, by the disgruntled fans.
Boobs of Steel: She's not as busty as Garcia, but each one is still roughly the size of her head. Fittingly, the episode that shows this off most, "Lauren," is also when she's at her most Badass.
Break the Cutie: All through her story arc involving Ian Doyle. Also, the writers sometimes seem committed to literally breaking her, as she is the team member most likely to have to endure a savage beating.
Cool Big Sis: To Reid, especially after her return from the dead.
Dark and Troubled Past: Druggie friends, a neglectful mother, disappeared father, and an abortion at fifteen. Not to mention her time as an undercover operative tracking terrorists for Interpol.
Deadpan Snarker: Probably the preeminent snarker amongst the cast.
Expy: Well, she's not an expy, but she did inspire the BBC to create Rachel Shelley, a pretty clear-cut Expy of her, on Casualty (played by Yvonne Rippon).
Fair Cop: Most of the time, but especially when she's undercover in "52 Pickup".
Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Subverted. We find out in "Demonology" that Prentiss got pregnant in Rome when she was 15, and had an abortion. While she does show regret that she endured that time in her life without much in the way of support, she is never shown to be "damaged" in any way from the decision. Rather, it is the reaction of the Catholic church and the ignorance of her mother that is the problem.
Heroic Sacrifice. Subverted. With the exception of JJ and Hotch, the whole BAU team thinks Prentiss died from her encounter with Doyle, and there is a funeral. At the end of "Lauren" however, it is clear that Prentiss is in fact still alive, but in Witness Protection.
It's Personal: Politics ("Honor Among Thieves") and violence against women (especially rapes, as in "Slave of Duty"). "The Thirteenth Step" starts the Ian Doyle arc, which is played out until "It Takes a Village".
Prentiss: You obviously photoshopped it or something. I mean, that hair!
Garcia: Oh no, Pussycat, that's all you. Garfield High, class of '89.
Prentiss: You really didn't change anything?
Garcia: I hacked it as is. You trying to tell me you seriously don't remember rocking that look?
Reid: Perhaps your lack of recognition stems from a disassociative fugue suffered in adolescence. Like, say, at a Siouxsie and the Banshees concert?
Near Death Experience: Reveals in "Epilogue" that when she coded in the ambulance in "Lauren", all she felt was cold and darkness. Being a very lapsed Catholic, she says she desperately wants to change.
Older Than They Look: According to her fake tombstone, she's in her forties, and Prentiss is actually a year younger than the actress who plays her.
One of Us: Reads comic books, makes Star Trek references, and digs Vonnegut.
Parental Substitute: To Declan Doyle, though not at all in the way his father intended.
Parenthetical Swearing: Usually directed toward Strauss. Only Prentiss can make the address "ma'am" sound like "fuck you, you soulless bitch".
She also gives Hotch a rather icy "sir" in "Sex, Birth, Death" when he touches a raw nerve by accusing her of playing political games.
And her response of "And also with you" (to unsub Father Paul's condescending "May God's love be with you") is delivered in a tone that sounds more like a spit to the face.
Put on a Bus: But it's a happy ending for her as she's now the head an Interpol team.
Ship Tease: For a series that is strictly No Hugging, No Kissing among the main cast, she gets quite a bit with Reid, Hotch, and Morgan.
Sugar and Ice Personality: Cold and sarcastic towards most people and prefers living alone with her cat to an unsatisfying love life, but definitively caring toward the rest of the team.
Took a Level in Badass: Sure, we always knew Prentiss was badass, but in her Doyle story arc she suddenly becomes a superspy when she turns out to have been an undercover operative for Interpol; over the course of her final episodes she winds up going rogue, staring at the door all night with her gun out, tossing grenades into unsubs' cars and spraying them with machine-gun fire, and shooting hood rats in the ear. To say nothing of her badass change in wardrobe at the end of "Valhalla".
What Happened to the Mouse?: The scarification shamrock inflicted by Doyle seems to have magically disappeared.
When You Coming Home Mom: While it's never really confirmed, Emily Prentiss does not have a good relationship with her mother, and has implied numerous times that Ambassador Prentiss was neglectful toward her (most notably in "Honor Amongst Thieves", when she's surprised the Ambassador would go to her, and in "Demonology", when she says her mother "would have killed" her if she'd found out Emily was pregnant and had an abortion).
It really doesn't get much more neglectful than failing to attend your own daughter's funeral.
Raised By Aunt: Hotch makes a deal with Jessica, Haley's sister, that she will help him raise Jack. We have yet to see any ramifications of this.
Detective Will LaMontagne (Josh Stewart)
Ascended Extra: Originally only meant to appear in "Jones," when A.J. Cook became pregnant, the writers had to create a love interest for her quickly, and remembering her chemistry with Will, brought him back to be her mate.
Put on a Bus: He and Garcia break up after she turns down his proposal of marriage; while he probably hasn't actually gone anywhere, it's still unlikely we'll be seeing him again.
Eleventh Hour Ranger: Joins the team in "Penelope", when Garcia is in the hospital, then again in "100" to help catch the Reaper, and again in "Hit/Run" to run backup for Garcia during the bank takeover. He comes back for "The Wheels On The Bus..." to assist in tracking the disappeared bus.
Depending on the Writer: In her first appearances, she's trying to be a manipulative bitch. Then it look like she is A Tyrant Taking The Helm. In her next appearance, she becomes a Bait-and-Switch Tyrant and gets a few Pet the Dog moments. Then she's back to the Obstructive Bureaucrat boss who does things over the team's objections. Now she's politicking while still giving the team a chance to do things their way, and at times seems to be trying to make up for previous jerkish behavior.
Genre Savvy: In "It Takes a Village", she knows as soon as Emily asks for permission to trade Ian Doyle for Declan that the BAU's already set the plan into motion.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She comes off as a politically-minded Obstructive Bureaucrat, but there are a great number of instances where it's clear that she's actually just trying to help/protect the team.
Pet the Dog: Surprisingly, in "100", after spending the entire episode investigating the events around Haley Brooks Hotchner's death and Hotch going off the rails, interrogating the team and trying to pin the blame on Hotch, she's in tears after Hotch's testimony, and refuses to pursue the matter any further.
Broken Bird: Severe paranoid schizophrenic who had to be committed to a sanitarium by her then-eighteen year old son. Has just as brilliant a mind as Spencer, under the delusions and medication.
Conspiracy Theorist: Of the "government is watching me and my son works with fascists" variety.
Cool Teacher: Was once a university professor, before the schizophrenia.
Mama Bear: The Instincts/In memoriam two-parter makes it very clear that she would never let anything hurt her son. Or have him stay in a mental institution for longer than a one night visit.
You Are Too Late: Knowing that Rossi won't help her in taking her own life, she takes a fatal dosage of pills and makes sure he doesn't find out until it's too late.
Hypocrite: Hates abusive husbands despite keeping his own family terrified of Him.
In-Series Nickname: A curious example. He's known as The Fox, but the BAU didn't use that nickname before Outfoxed. Until that episode, it was All There in the Manual.
Knight Templar: He thought that not only he had to punish families he saw as dysfunctional, but also that he had to show the father what happens when "the head of household isn't strong".
Manipulative Bastard: He exploited his position as family therapist for his criminal schemes.
Master of Disguise: He's the only UnSub whose identity is know by the BAU in advance, but the local authorities need help catching them because he keeps changing his appearance.
Mommy Issues: He hated her for cheating on his dad, and ended up killing her when they were in a car accident together by drowning her in a pool of water that formed inside the car.
Villainous Breakdown: He starts out luring his victims with a ruse, staging romantic dinners with them, then torturing and drowning them, but eventually devolves to simply abducting and killing them immediately as the BAU closes in on him.
Wicked Cultured: As seen when he discusses the qualities of fine Scotch whiskey over a gourmet steak dinner with one of his victims.
Even Evil Has Standards: He made sure his victims were unrepentant criminals, and while he shot Elle, he stated he derived no pleasure from it, claiming it was out of necessity, and "barbaric" and "dishonorable".
Evil Cripple: Burned over ninety-percent of his body
Fairy Tale Motifs: He's the Fisher King, his surviving daughter is the grail, and the BAU are the Knights of the Round Table.
Fiction 500: The never explicitly state how wealthy he is, but it is quite apparent that money is no object to him.
And I Must Scream: Puts his victims in this state via drug that leaves them paralyzed, but fully conscious as he slowly vivisects them... in a room with a mirrored ceiling.
Archenemy: Fixates on Gideon as one. It quickly becomes mutual.
Calling Card: Taking a right rib bone and making wind chimes out of them.
Depraved Bisexual: Downplayed. He doesn't care what gender his victims are and seems to have or at least really want to be in love with Jane. He also thinks Morgan's pretty: "If I had your looks, do you know how much easier my life would be?" "Beauty can cover a multitude of sins, but underneath we all look exactly the same."
Driven to Suicide: In No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank, he jumps in front of a train when he is cornered by the FBI.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Subverted. While he kept his mother's body in a pristine apartment, and surrounded it with flowers, it's heavily implied that she was his first victim.
Self-Made Orphan: In "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank", the team discovers his mother's corpse in his apartment and it's implied that he killed her.
Serial Killer: That goes without saying but Frank took it to a whole new level. He's killed at least 166 people all over the United States for at least thirty years, though it should be noted he's nothing compared to Billy Flynn and a few Real LifeSerial Killers.
Wicked Cultured: Enjoys classical music, ornothology, literature, names and has an interest in mythology. He'd be interesting to spend time with if you could get past the whole "Cuts people open" aspect of his personality.
Worthy Opponent: Sees Gideon as one of the few people who deserves to catch him.
Tobias Hankel/Charles Hankel/Raphael (James van der Beek)
Abusive Dad: His father is a contender for worst parent in the entire series. The Charles personality is modeled after him, and compulsively abuses anyone who comes into his power.
Archangel Raphael: The Raphael personality believes himself to be the angel in question.
Archenemy: Fans tend to see him as Reid's and not without reason. While he doesn't have the arc that Frank, The Boston Reaper, or Ian Doyle recieve, no other UnSub has ever had this sort of impact on Reid. Between traumatising him, getting him addicted to dilaudid, and making DID his personal Berserk Button, Tobias is still with Reid seasons later.
Death Course: The way he has modified the meatpacking plant his family owned. His maze includes such disturbing features as gas vents and vicious dogs to keep victims moving, identical rooms and dead ends to keep victims confused, a room with the floor covered with broken glass, and a room with parts of his previous victims suspended by chains from the ceiling.
Evil Counterpart: To Detective McGee. Both suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder, both have lost their own father and both are focused on street people.
The Faceless: His face is always hidden behind a surgical mask, and isn't shown until after the police gun him down to stop him from killing his latest victim.
Hope Spot / I Lied: He offered his victims a way out, only to knock them down with gas if they managed to reach the exit.
Jerkass: Is profiled as one and it helps turn his Only Friend against him.
Missing White Woman Syndrome: Nobody seems to notice his kidnappings since nobody notices his victims in the first place. Lampshaded by Hotch, as these exchanges illustrate:
Hotch: What do you think happened to them, Captain?
Capt. Wright: I told you, I don't think anything happened to them.
Hotch: Oh, that's right. You think they all got houses and jobs.
Hotch: What if they were cheerleaders?
Capt. Wright: Excuse me?
Hotch: Or teachers, or mothers? How did you put it, "Can bums even be missing?" Well, sir, they can. They can be hurt, they can be scared, and they can be killed.
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Inspired by H. H. Holmes, a serial killer in 1890s Chicago who built a fake hotel riddled with booby traps to torture and kill unwitting guests and staff.
Ironic Echo: He repeats his Catch Phrase (this time in an affirmative way, referring to himself) before facing his worst fear, which is the loss of control.
Cute and Psycho: Part of his background. He was institutionalized when he was only seven years old, after taking a bite out of his nine-month-old sister.
Demonic Possession: Part of his delusion is that he believes he is possessed by a flesh-eating demon.
Fat Bastard: As a teenager at the mental hospital, due to the harsh side effects of the antipsychotics he was on.
I'm a Humanitarian: His homemade cookbook includes recipes with such charming names as "Kobe Girl Steak" and "Skewered She".
Eat the Rich: Started out by targeting prostitutes and junkies, but moved up to more well-off women because his first targets "tasted funny."
Eats Babies: His first victim was his infant sister.
The Secret of Long Pork Pies: His day job is running a BBQ restaurant, and considering the "secret ingredient" in the chili he served to the search party, it's a good bet that some of his customers got a lot more than they paid for...
Number of the Beast: Each of his three names starts with 'F', the sixth letter of the alphabet. Additionally, his names have an average of six letters each.
Religion of Evil: His belief system is based on Satanism, but it's all part of his delusion. The BAU classify Ferell as an "Adaptive Satanist", a serial killer who rationalizes his murderous urges by blaming them on outside forces. To quote Rossi, "He doesn't kill because he believes in Satan, he believes in Satan because he kills."
Revolvers Are Just Better: Uses a large caliber revolver. When Morgan notes the unusual nature of it, Reid muses that it's because it ensures he wont leave bullet casings at a crime scene.
A gun shop owner comments that revolvers don't hold many bullets, but he counters that's irrelevant if you don't miss.
Suicide by Cop/Taking You with Me: Once he realizes his number's up, the only thing he wants to do is take as many FBI down with him as possible. The only casualty is him, as he didn't count on JJ gunning him down from behind.
Break the Haughty: His preferred victims are women with influential, high-paying jobs, but since he's a misogynist who expects women to be submissive, he's the only one who sees these women as "haughty", and is trying to break them for that reason. Otherwise, no evidence is given that any of his victims were any more stuck up than their male counterparts. The only one who comes close is Agent Morris, who is egotistical and trying to use his case to gain personal fame, but he gets arrested before he can follow through on her.
Creepy Crossdresser: Acts out "rehearsal fantasies", wherein he wears the clothes of his victims while listening to recordings of their torture and pleasuring himself, so he can relive their pain while preparing to take his next victim.
Evil Counterpart: To Agent Morris. Both of them are using his crimes to make names for themselves and become famous.
Narcissist: He intentionally stopped paying the rent on his storage unit so the authorities would find his writings because he not only wanted them to know he existed (he'd been killing for six years straight without anyone noticing), he wanted them to be able to chart his entire killing spree from beginning to end. The attention his case attracts feeds his ego and allows him to relive his murders in a new way.
Abusive Father: His father resented him since he had had to leave the Army to take care of his son.
A Date with Rosie Palms: Three of his victims were the guys who had filmed him when he masturbated in the shower room as initiation and posted it on the schools social network from which it presumably reached the Internet.
Ambiguous Disorder: Reid realises Owen has a undiagnosed learning disabiltiy but is otherwise pretty smart while looking through his schoolwork and grades.
Kick the Dog: When he stabbed Ike Stratman, though it was to avoid being discovered, and he clearly showed remorse.
Missing Mom: She died in a drunk driving accident.
Awesome by Analysis: Deliberately plays on this, hoping that the team will figure out his pattern without him giving too obvious hints or clues, so that they will walk into his trap and, further, so that he can get Off on a Technicality when Rossi doesn't have any evidence that doesn't sound like a Bat Deduction.
Batman Gambit: Draws attention to his own crimes and goads Rossi into staying behind to interview him in order to trick the rest of the team into walking into his Death Trap, while only giving very vague clues to this end so that they have to get themselves killed by their own work and he can reasonably plead coincidence and lack of evidence. He's Out-Gambitted by Rossi who realises what's going on and pulls one of his own to get an Engineered Public Confession.
Breaking Speech: A whole episode of these, mostly directed at either Rossi or Reid.
Dirty Coward: Always attacks his victims from behind, both because he's a pretty small guy and because women intimidate him. Rossi calls him out on it after he attacks him too; Rossi knew he would do it and knew he would wait for Rossi's back to be turned.
Disproportionate Retribution: Murders several women just because they reminded him of the fiancee` who dumped him years ago. And plans on killing the entire team to get back at Rossi...for exposing his brother as a Serial Killer.
Exact Words: Kidnaps a teacher and four students, and then tells the BAU that in 9 hours 5 people will be dead. The exact wording is used twice. First when he reveals that the traps will kill someone every 2 hours (except not), pointing out that he didn't say they'd all die in hours. The second is when it's revealed the 5 man BAU team are the targets, as he never said the 5 hostages would die
The Fettered: The team realises he didn't kill the teacher and kids, even when it looked like he actually started to, because that would have messed up his "perfect" murder pattern.
Insufferable Genius: He's clearly smart and incredibly full of himself. But he isn't quite as smart as he thinks.
In the Blood: Firmly believes this. Rossi calls it "junk science" and thinks he's just looking for excuses.
Loners Are Freaks: Mentioned as being a non-teaching professor, to the point where nobody on campus seems to know who he is. Justified in that everyone who he had been on normal terms with didn't want to know him after his brother was exposed as a homicidal maniac.
Off on a Technicality: Subverted. When he realises he has lost he tries to pull this off, since he disposed of all his bodies with sulphuric acid and, despite drawing attention to his own killings, the BAU had to simply guesstimate who they thought he might have killed by themselves, while the family he kidnapped never saw him and the team only saved them thanks to highly esoteric and very well hidden clues he left, that border on a Bat Deduction enough that he could plead lack of evidence. But circumstantial evidence along with his Engineered Public Confession are enough to put him away.
Revenge by Proxy: Wants to kill the rest of the team in order to hurt Rossi.
Trauma Conga Line: His brother turned out to be a notorious Serial Killer, leading to his fiancee` dumping him and everyone he knows distancing themselves from him and his family, nearly ruining his career in the process, while the man who caught said brother went on to become a wealthy and bestselling non-fiction writer and he had nothing.
Norman Hill, the Road Warrior (Mitch Pileggi)
Adult Fear: Watched his youngest daughter die violently right in front of him.
Going Postal: Subverted. It looks like he's about to when his much-younger supervisor asks him about some overdue paperwork, but he decides against it when the supervisor says he actually likes him as a person, and is just worried that the higher-ups will look for any excuse to fire him due to cutbacks.
I Just Want to Be Special: Feeling unappreciated at work and at home led him to create the Road Warrior persona.
Daddy's Girl: Averted. Her father is an abusive and violent man, who nevertheless tries to use this trope to get what he wants from her. He fails.
Dating Catwoman / Foe Yay: YMMW, but her interaction with Hotch implies she sees herself this way. Her reaction to Trent claiming that the FBI was in the pocket of the Execs she was exposing with her murders made her feel like Hotch was no better than the people she was trying to hurt. though her mind changed when Hotch stayed with her when she died.
Dominatrix: Some of her clients wanted her to play this role.
Go Out with a Smile: More or less. She has finally managed to indirectly destroy her father's career and is relieved to be with Hotch, who she considers "the first man she'd met who didn't let her down".
High-Class Call Girl: Though not for money. She wanted to punish the men on her list.
Kick the Dog: When she shot Trent Rabner, a childless widower who had always been faithful to his wife until the end.
George Foyet, The Boston Reaper (C. Thomas Howell)
Abusive Father: Plus neglectful mother equals screwed up kid. It's implied, or at least believed by Hotch, that he sabotaged their car, leading to the accident that killed them.
Archenemy: To Hotch, whom he fixates on as his "nemesis."
Calling Card: The Eye of Providence and/or the word FATE; also had a habit of taking something from his victims and leaving the object at the scene of the next murder.
Disc One Final Boss: In Seasons 4 & 5, where Final Boss credits are taken by Mason Turner and Billy Flynn respectively.
Ephebophile: Rossi profiles him as one, due to the disproportionate amount of time he spends with his female victims (knifed anywhere from ten to sixty-seven times) as opposed to his male victims (all simply shot, except for Hotch).
Evil Cripple: To a degree. The damage he inflicted on himself requires a massive cocktail of drugs to be administered daily if he doesn't want his organs to start shutting down.
Evil Orphan: Adopted by a wealthy family after his parents died. It didn't improve him.
Faux Affably Evil: He often gains people's trust by pretending to be polite and friendly and even tells Hotch how he's going to kill his family in the same tone
Fingore: Takes delight in cutting off a man's fingers.
It's All About Me: Believes that Hotch has no right to hunt him down (despite his being a Serial Killer) and goes out of his way to blame Hotch for his problems.
No Kill Like Overkill: His young female victims were stabbed an excessive number of times (one had somewhere in the range of sixty stab wounds). The entire bus massacre scene in "Omnivore".
Recurring Character: Shows up in "Omnivore", "...And Back", "Nameless/Faceless", "Outfoxed", and "100".
Would Hurt a Child: If Hotch hadn't stopped him, he would have probably tortured and then killed Jack.
Adam Jackson aka Amanda (Jackson Rathbone)
Asshole Victims: His prefered victims were jerkasses who reminded him of his stepfather. At least one cheated on his girlfriend with no remorse and they all tended to treat women badly. One even shoved him to the ground when Adam tried to stand up for a girl he was bothering.
Beware the Nice Ones: Adam is, on his own, a pretty nice and likeable guy. But when he snaps, he goes into full berserker rage.
Bishōnen: Notice that it plays an important role in his murders.
Lack of Empathy: Danny has far more attachment to his models than he does to his dog, his brother, or even his parents. He's also incapable of real emotion in general, though he can fake it.
Manipulative Bastard: Fooled his parents into believing he was sorry as a way to avoid punishment.
Expy: Mason is based heavily on Mason Verger from Hannibal. Both are sexual sadists (though the latter is a pedophile) who were crippled by a Serial Killer (albeit in very, very different circumstances, and unlike the Evil Genius Lecter the Man Child Lucas wasn't a killer at the time) and seek humiliating revenge on them (of very different sorts though). Both have farms with man-eating pigs, and are verbally and emotionally abusive to their carers- in the novel, Verger's carer is his sister, which only adds to the similarities. Most obviously, both are named Mason.
The Turner Brothers as a unit also have some similarities with Charles Holcombe, and his right-hand man, Steven, from Season 2. Both are serial killer teams who prey on the poor, perform surgical experiments on their victims, and believe that the homeless have no value to society. In each case one partner is also manipulating the other.
Extreme Doormat: Lucas' low IQ, poor social skills, and the guilt he feels over his brother's injuries makes him one wherever Mason is concerned.
Fat Bastard: Lucas, although much more sympathetic than most.
For Science!: How Mason tries rationalizing manipulating his mentally handicapped brother into killing the homeless for his experiments, saying that he is searching for a cure for his condition. Earns him a Shut Up, Hannibal! from Rossi, who calls him out as just another sadistic bastard since his farm and equipment are no where near adequate for such a task, and he's arranged mirrors around the house in a way that lets him see his victims suffer from his bed.
I'm a Humanitarian: Sorta. Lucas doesn't really seem to mind eating pigs that he's fed a ton of people to.
It's All About Me: Mason doesn't give a good goddamn about anyone but himself, even willing to let the FBI kill Lucas, whom he sees as expendable.
Karma Houdini: Lampshaded by Rossi, who says that selling the idea that a bed-ridden former doctor is really a manipulative homicidal maniac to a jury is going to be an uphill struggle, especially since Lucas actually did all the killings. One victim's brother solves the problem with a Vigilante Execution.
Kill the Poor: They prey on homeless people, prostitues and junkies on the premise that they're useless, and no one will miss them.
Lack of Empathy: Mason has no empathy for those they've killed, saying that they should be grateful that they can become a part of something greater than themselves. Subverted with Lucas, who starts empathising with the last victim after the police show up to the farm and he's forced to spend time with her in his old childhood hideaway.
Mad Doctor: Mason, with Lucas acting as his hands. He's conducting extremely primitive stem cell experiments.
Missing White Woman Syndrome: Along with the "useless to society" thing, Mason presumably had Lucas target the homeless because he believed no one would really care or notice.
Sibling Yin-Yang: Lucas is a six and a half foot tall, three hundred pound Dumb MuscleBrute and Psychopathic Manchild with severe retardation and Autistic tendencies, who dresses in overalls, loves the farm, and doesn't seem to understand that he's killing actual people. Mason is a short, cold-blooded Evil Cripple and Evil Genius who attended med school, wanted to move away from home, and is fully aware of what they're doing, but just doesn't care.
Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Robert Pickton, a Canadian farmer who killed primarily prostitutes, and disposed of the remains by feeding them to his pigs.
Hanging Judge: Schuller. He could have been it even before his wife's death, if you consider that the victims on his list were supposed to be the worst criminals that had got away when he was in charge.
Karma Houdini: Played with. Schuller dies, but he accomplishes everything he set out to do, and goes out the way he wanted to, making him arguably this. Mecacci, meanwhile, is one of the countable-on-one-hand number of unsubs to elude the FBI completely... but in literally the last couple seconds of the episode, he's gunned down by the surrogate son of a man he recently murdered.
Abusive Parents: Her father used to molest her as a child. To keep her from telling what he had done, he coached her on what to say, making her get electro shock therapy if she ever got the story wrong, which permantly warped her mind.
Accidental Murder: She doesn't want her victims to die. Instead, she does her best to keep them alive, even if the state of paralysis in which they are inevitably leads to their death.
And I Must Scream: She uses injections to paralyze her victims so she can dress them up and have tea parties with them.
No Social Skills: Part of her profile. She's skilled enough to lure her next victim into her van, but generally she behaves in a clumsy and paranoid way.
Woman Child: The way she acts and moves puts you in the mind of a five year old. She even has tea parties with her "dolls". Also, when one of her victims dies, she leaves the body in places crowded by children, like parks or carnivals.
Anita and Roger Roycewood (Beth Grant and Bud Cort)
A God Am I: "I decide who dies, but mostly, I decide who lives. I'm like... God."
All There in the Manual: His name was revealed prior to "The Longest Night", on the "Our Darkest Hour" cast pages of sites like imdb or TV.com
Archenemy: The fandom tends to see him as Morgan's, for obvious reasons. Between his prominence in the show, his humiliation of Morgan in their first encounter, and the way that his murder of Detective Spicer and kidnapping of Ellie turn the entire thing personal there really isn't a better candidate for the title.
Morgan himself describes him this way- toward the end of "The Longest Night", when arguing with Hotch about going in to the house Flynn had just broken into, Morgan reasons with Hotch by telling him, "you had Foyet, this one's mine!"
Book Dumb: Billy's uneducated and can't spell, but he's smart enough to leave no evidence at his crime scenes, and has been getting away with home invasion, serial rape and murder since 1984.
Evil Makes You Ugly: Between the drug abuse, the late nights, and high-risk lifestyle, bad food, and constantly being on the run from the cops, Billy's a wreck, with bad posture, terrible teeth and breath, a distinctly unhealthy looking body, and baggy, bloodshot eyes.
Evil Mentor: To Ellie Spicer, teaching her how to lie, steal, and kill with the best of them.
Evil Old Folks: Chronologically he's only in his mid-fifties, but looks a lot older thanks to two decades of smoking meth and not sleeping.
Expy: Of Frank. Both are prolific serial killers, who travel from location to location, have been active for decades, have killed more victims than anyone else appearing in the show, serve as That One Case for one of the agents (and the Final Boss of a season), have one person they can empathise with, and got their start because of their prostitute mothers. Since their modus operandi, appearance, and presentation are radically different, with Frank being a smarter-than-thou Smug Snake with a professorial air, and Billy an uneducated, meth-addicted thug this is harder to notice than you'd think.
The Family That Slays Together: Since Detective Spicer only had a kid because he allowed him to live years earlier, Flynn developed a kind of "grandfather delusion" towards Spicer's daughter, who he tries to make his sidekick.
Mercy Kill: Over the years he eventually came to rationalize his mother's murder as this. However, he's fully aware that this version is a post-rationalization, and actually questions whether he made it up to make himself feel better, showing a level of self-reflectiveness which is really unusual for the murderers on the show.
Mommy Issues: His mother was a hooker; she made him watch, and later pimped him out to paedophilic clients.
Parental Substitute: Wants to be a grandparental substitute for Ellie. She's not interested.
Pet the Dog: His release of Ellie. Even before that, his treatment of her is surprisingly gentle, given who and what he is. As Billy himself notes, "I was nice to you."
Serial Killer: Up to Eleven, in all likelihood having in the neighborhood of four hundred victims. For the curious, this likely makes him (within the context of the show, of course) either the most- or second-most prolific murderer in human history.
Slasher Smile: It's Tim Curry. Were you expecting any other kind?
Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Played with. If his victims have children, he'll leave them alive, but witnessing their parents' murders will inevitably traumatize them.
Lee Mullens and Colby Bachner (Daniel J. Travanti and Josh Braaten)
Abandoned Mine: His hideout, which gives him a secluded place to imprison his victims as well as shelter during the winter.
An Axe to Grind: Used one to mark trees near his dump sites.
Beard of Evil: Though he shaves it off after he successfully escapes.
Evil Cripple: Has a degenerative joint disease, which gives him a bad limp.
Fat Bastard: Though it's more accurately "Stocky Bastard", since aside from his limp, he's still fit enough to easily navigate the wooded terrain.
The Hermit: Abandoned civilization for the woods along the Appalachian Trail to make it easier for him to hunt children (the Trail is a popular family camping destination) and harder for law enforcement to find him (since he knows the terrain better than they do, and nobody expects a child abductor to be operating out in the wilderness).
Karma Houdini: One of the only unsubs to elude the BAU and the only unsub to get away completely scot-free (at least until Season 8).
Boom, Headshot: How Ray and Syd dispose of each other's pedophile fathers.
Dark Action Girl: Syd gets her Dark Action Girl on when she and Ray shoot up the AlAnon meeting; the expression on her face is particularly telling.
Death Glare: Syd gives her father a pretty epic one when she realizes he has another young daughter, about the same age Syd was when he was abusing her.
Destructive Romance: What their relationship really is as shown whenever they get into an argument or any issues between them come up.
The Dog Bites Back: Their ultimate motive is doing this to their fathers.
Mr. Fanservice: Ray has a Shirtless Scene after the opening titles. Also, while filming their activities, Syd takes a shot of his rear.
Ms. Fanservice: An intriguing amount of shots seem to be dedicated to Syd's rack and rump.
Murder the Hypotenuse: The team profile Syd as having done this to Ray's ex, given that she died of a heroin overdose which she didn't use but Syd did.
Pet the Dog: Syd's Pet the Dog is a direct reversal of Ray's Kick the Dog: she genuinely loves her sister and reassures her that everything will be okay, even as Ray is threatening to shoot her in the head.
Tropaholics Anonymous: Met via an AlAnon meeting. Ray is later seen attending a meeting... which he and Syd promptly shoot up after the organizer irritates Ray.
Your Cheating Heart: Syd screws a guy in a parking lot for twenty bucks while Ray is in an Al-Anon meeting, then gets Ray to murder him by claiming the guy got fresh with her.
Ian Doyle, Valhalla (Timothy V. Murphy)
Archenemy: Doyle is to Prentiss as The Reaper is to Hotch.
Boom, Headshot: How most of his victims are disposed of, though he's not adverse to knives and poison.
The Dragon: A mook named Liam appears to fill this role.
Has A Type: Brunettes, Possibly with a ruthless streak considering Emily in her Lauren Reynold's persona and Chole Donaghy.
It's Personal: Has quite the grudge against Emily, more so than anyone else he's after.
And with good reason, too. She went undercover as a fellow arms dealer, Doyle fell in love with her, proposed what amounted to marriage to her, and expressed a desire for children with her. After his arrest, he found out that she'd been a spy, and believed she was responsible for the death of his son, Declan.
And she was, though his death was actually faked. While trying to tell him this she accidentally makes it seem like she actually murdered the boy, which takes this trope Up to Eleven for about 5 seconds, when she explains he's still alive and she had him in hiding.
Monster Sob Story: Doyle was led to believe that his painfully adorable son had been executed, as a ploy to help the North Koreans break him.
Never Found the Body: A big question fans are all asking—what happened to Doyle and where did he disappear to? Is he dead, or did he escape?
As of "It Takes A Village," he's gone. Permanently.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Pretends to be a victim in order to win the trust of the other girls. This both gets her off, and helps her prevent possible escape attempts.
Only in It for the Money: Lucy gives a speech to Renee wherein she claims this is why she does what she does, but given the obvious pleasure she gets from it, she's either lying or not very self-aware.
Russian Roulette: Was going to play a game of it with Renee before the arrival of the agents.
Sex Slave: Makes a living out of selling women as them.
Smug Snake: Not nearly as smart as she thinks she is.
The Sociopath: She even pretends to be a kidnapped victim to enjoy every moment of the actual victims' suffering.
Taking You with Me: It's possible that she was trying this when she attempts to shoot Rossi. She was in the middle of an active crime scene, surrounded by federal and local law enforcement agents. There was absolutely no chance of her shooting Rossi and getting away, but she still gave it her best attempt.
Tiny Tyrannical Girl: The team were orginally expecting the leader of the human trafficking ring to be a very big man and yet she manages to have total control over her employees.
Foil: Her desire for revenge on Doyle and the irrationality she displays in trying to get it, more or less mirrors Doyle's desire for revenge on Prentiss.
Revenge: Wants revenge on Doyle for preventing her from aborting a child she didn't want to have then chaining her to a bed for seven months, forcing her to carry Declan to term and give brith to him.
Cain and Abel: Hates his brother Matt—for no good reason, other than marrying the girl he was infatuated with—and plans to kill him one day, hopefully after raping his wife and daughter.
The Pig Pen: Doesn't bathe, brush his teeth, or otherwise take care of himself.
Psychopathic Manchild: He giggles like a kid at a carnival while he tortures his victims with sulfuric acid.
The Resenter: Towards his brother Matt, who isn't handicapped, was popular at school, and got the girl Cy was obsessed with.
Serial Killer: Differently from Samantha Malcolm (whose brain damage was one of the causes of her delusions), he's actually a serial killer who just happens to have brain damage.
Sibling Triangle: His crush on his sister-in-law, Lyla, leads to a very sick one.
Isn't It Ironic: Why did Regina know he was lying when he said that he learned the song so that he could sing it to propose to his wife? Because the song was "Total Eclipse of the Heart".
Oh Crap: When he realizes that Regina Lampert has recognized him.
The Alcoholic: Donald. This is what also caused the car accident that paralysed his son from the waist down.
The Family That Slays Together: More specifically, Jeffery does the slaying and his parents clean up after him. They become this after Donald kills Jeffery's last victim who survived via blunt force trauma to the head.
Badass: Briefly towards the end of the episode. He manages to hold his own against Hotch with a fire poker.
Burn the Witch!: Believes he's on a mission to kill the Brides of Satan.
Disney Villain Death: Ends up falling down a well while fighting Hotchner. Also doubles as a Karmic Death, since he'd used that same well to torture his victims.
Incest Is Relative: He has a kind of romantic attraction to his sister. He arranges a "Prom" for her after not allowing her to go to the prom that her school is holding. He also kisses her quite passionately when the BAU team are heading towards his residence.
In the Blood: His mother had the same delousions and his sister eventually believes she's one of the devils wives.
Knight Templar Big Brother: He keeps his sister almost completely isolated from society, believing that she will immediately be judged for her birth defect, and that allowing her to go off on her own will make her vulnerable to Satan's temptations.
And I Must Scream: Removed the reproductive systems of some of his later victims while they were alive and after starving them for days.
Cute and Psycho: When he was 15 years old. He snapped after a bully tormented him and stabbed him to death.
Evil Laugh: In a flashback sequence after he's done cutting up one of his victims and turns the TV on to see a news broadcast of Rossi being interviewd about him at one of his dump sites.
Harmful to Minors: Izzy does not seem to like children; she shot one at one of her previous robberies, shot a father in front of his daughter in the robbery the episode focuses on, and psychologically screws with poor little Henry LaMontagne.
Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: All things considered, the Strattons are kind of pathetic, and their caring for each other makes it difficult to properly hate them.
It's All About Me: Matthew, whose entire motivation is that he was kicked out of the Marines for being a jackass and feels like the world owes him somehow.
Lack of Empathy: Izzy; it's implied all the empathy was beaten, or possibly even molested, out of her by her grandfather. Matthew too, with no known Freudian Excuse.
Malevolent Masked Men: And, as Izzy would probably be quick to remind you, one woman.
Mauve Shirt: Oliver, who dies less than halfway into the first episode of the two-parter.
Morality Pet: The Stratton brothers to each other.
The Sociopath: Matthew, who does and orders others to do terrible things while smugly grinning all the while. Izzy has shades of this, too; her favorite method of killing people is shooting them in the stomach, as that's the slowest and most painful place to bleed out from. In-show, Izzy is one of the few characters to actually be profiled as a straight-up psychopath, possessing no empathy, extreme rage, and poor impulse control, beneath a facade of intelligence and charm.
Theme Naming: They're the Face Cards: Chris the King, Izzy the Queen, and Oliver the Jack, plus mastermind Matthew, who doesn't take part in the robberies.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Izzy does this to Chris. It's not entirely clear whether this killed him, but she shot him non-fatally in the chest and then abandoned him where he'd have no medical care, so it seems likely.
The Chessmaster: Has a chess theme going on with his love of the word "Zugzwang"; manipulated the Unsub of Carbon Copy to kill and implicate himself as the Replicator to throw the BAU off his trail
Jack the Ripoff: His MO is to kill his victims in the exact same way as Unsubs the BAU dealt with earlier; so far, he has only replicated killers from Season Eight
