As a WMG subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- It is almost certainly not him.
Why would the other four victims want to gas the priest of a Spanish miracle shrine? Simple: they are demon-possessed and didn't want any godly miracles happening.
Right now the demon is seriously depowered after possessing four people and being exorcised four times. The worst it can currently do to Prentiss is give her a nosebleed, but given enough time she'll be vomiting up pea soup like nobody's business.
In the episode Demonology Prentiss hugs John Cooley who is supposedly possessed and a conduit (which is a demon that is contagious to possess you) Plus at the end she has a nose bleed.
- You'd think that, if that happened, this show of all shows would have said it... on top of Foyet's clear focus on teenage women... somehow I suspect that most proponents of this theory are Yaoi Fangirls.
- This show glosses over rape all the time, though. We didn't find out that the Fox molested his child victims until four years after his original episode. We still don't know for sure what the mother in Moseley Lane had in mind when she had the girl sit on the bed with her, but that scene was right after one in which someone mentioned that kidnappers who go after that age group for sexual reasons have a lot of crossover between genders. We aren't ever explicitly told why the guy from "What Fresh Hell" was keeping Billie in his attic. And so on. We know that Hotch remembers what happened, and we know that he's pretending that he doesn't — the idea that something worse than stabbing went on is fairly plausible, although it's deliberately left ambiguous.
- Re: teenage girls, remember "Conflicted," which may have been the last time this show dealt with male-male rape? They went out of their way to say that in that kind of situation, sexual orientation isn't important — it's all about power and domination, two things that Foyet is interested in even more than he's interested in teenage girls.
- Considering that Foyet challenged Hotch's sense of control in every way possible, rape- being the ultimate loss of control- is a real possibility.
- Not really a wild guess in my book. After what OP described and quotes like "Relax, it'll go in easier" even my 60+ year old dad interpreted it like that.
- Definitely a possibility, I really wouldn't put it past Foyet, especially with his obsession over Hotch. Frankly, annoying that it's dismissed by the first commenter as being a product of yaoi fangirls. That's sort of insulting and more than a little disturbing that you'd think yaoi fangirls would create this theory of rape purely because they want to see some guy-on-guy action. Glad other people brought up several valid points.
- As an extension of this, the people around him are able to sense that something is "off" about him, which is why he gets attacked so much more often than the other characters.
- Alternatively, the BAU does exist, and he was once part of it. The grating effects of his childhood and his job broke him, and he quickly spiraled out of control, possibly becoming an Unsub. The team tracks him down and he gets put away, but the old Spencer never comes back. He remains stuck in his imagination, believing that he is still part of the BAU.
- Someone just wrote this into a BAU case fanfic
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- This troper doesn't know what it explains, but he likes how you think.
- Seconded.
- Gay? Nope, Prentiss is straight. He's a straight trans man, and as such, likes sex with women. He just doesn't want to transition, either because he doesn't want to go through the pharmaceutical and surgical transition, or because he doesn't think much of the FBI's view of open transexuals, whether as an organization or as a group of individuals.
- Hey, am I the only one who remembers that she got pregnant? If she had sex enough times to get pregnant, she would most likely be straight. Also, I'm not sure so you can call me out on this, I'm pretty sure that she's dated during the series.
- Well, yes and no. She was fifteen at the time, and when she described it, the only thing she said about it was that she had sex because she was so desperate to fit in and be popular. Not exactly the kind of thing you can achieve by having sex with girls (when you're fifteen, anyway).
- Just saying, she could also be bisexual, which would incorporate both the idea that she likes women and the idea that she's definitely had sex with men and dated them. Ain't no reason she can't like both.
- In S14 she's dating a man. She's probably at least Bi, maybe Pan, or possibly even Ace but heteromantic, biromantic, panromantic, etc. (Or, she could still be very deep in the closet, in denial, etc.)
- This troper doesn't know what it explains, but he likes how you think.
To drive the point home, when Reid hurt his leg, he went from crutches to a cane; the resemblance was striking.
Strike that; Reid is too young for them to be twins ... maybe Spencer is his son?
The Riddler's voice actor is Matthew Gray Gubler, actor for Spencer Reid.
Let's face it: we all know that the writers were building toward that, perhaps from Gideon's first appearance, which showed him recovering from a job-induced nervous breakdown. He came back to work before he was ready. He, perhaps more than anyone else on the team, took every case personally and sucked all the sadness down into somewhere deep inside himself. He coped by clinging desperately to his safe spaces (the cabin, his apartment, the relationship with Sarah that he didn't let anyone else see) until each one was violated by his job in the most gruesome way possible. There's a reason we spend the whole episode of "Doubt" thinking, "oh, shit, Reid is going to walk into that cabin in the last scene and find Gideon dead": from the way the writers had built up Gideon's character, it was the possibility that made the most sense, the natural conclusion.
Sure, it's implied that Gideon specifically chose not to kill himself because he knew that if he did, then Reid would be the one who found him. But that's the way suicide works sometimes. There's usually someone left alive who's going to be hurt, but the suicidal person just can't find the strength to worry about them anymore.
If this is true, then it makes Reid's angry reaction to Gideon's letter and Prentiss' equally angry response to his reaction (as opposed to, say, her being upset about the letter herself) more understandable. And it explains all of those sideways "do you want to end up like Gideon?" comments that keep popping up in later seasons.
- Seeing the original draft of the episode did intent for Gideon to commit suicide. The parallels are not surprising. The only reason they omitted it was due to Mandy Patinkin's refusal.
- Jossed. At the end of season 7, the bus is coming back.
- Jossed: Gideon never really "came back", but he did not die until he was murdered off-screen by an unsub in season 10.
Plus it would be one hell of a Player Punch to the BAU team, and the show seems fond of dishing those out to them.
- Darrin Call from "Haunted" escaped from the clutches of a serial killer only to turn into a spree killer from the trauma, so there's already a sort of precedent for this sort of thing within the show itself.
- It's surprising there hasn't been a Crazy Survivalist by paranoia, look-at-me-funny-and-I'll-get-you Bobbi Baird yet, seeing as not only did she seem a little off when she was saved ("Looks like I had all the 'fun'"?) but the episode ended with musing on not being so different.
- To take it one step further, this troper would love to see Elle return in this dramatic fashion, having gone totally bonkers since she left.
- Or even Gideon, if they could get Mandy Patinkin back. Imagine that sort of frantic monologue he used to do sometimes if it were being delivered by an Unsub...
- Lara from Heathridge manor could definitely make a reappearance as an Unsub considering how dangerous her mother and older brother were when they thought they were doing the right thing.
- Confirmed as of s12e20. Lindsey Vaughn, a victim they rescued back in Season 3, is the person who framed Reid.
- S14 E1 "300": The cult from S4 E3's "Minimal Loss" reappears and kidnaps Reid and Garcia.
- S14 E10 "Flesh and Blood": The current unsub is the son who helped his father catch women from S3 E2 "In Name and Blood" who had contact with Prentiss.
- Alternatively, Garcia and/or any other person with the BAU team might be a feedee/feeder who simply doesn't indulge. In the case of feeders, they might never have dated anyone (as far as we know, anyway) that would be happy about gaining weight, and in the case of feedees, they simply can't gain much weight while they still need to pass the FBI physical evaluations every so often.
- In "Amplification" they cryptically say that there are many terrorist threats that have been thwarted since 9/11 and the public doesn't even know about them. We can assume that dealing with the cell was assigned to other people and the BAU was no longer needed.
Thus, highly visible serial killers who surprisingly murder multiple people and get away with it for years without even being suspected.
The proof? A recent episode portrayed a serial killer in Southwest Virginia that had 22 young blond women killed in and around a town with a population of less than 20,000. In Real Life, that many murdered white women in a small town would have raised a red flag and would have gotten the suspect arrested in short order, especially when the suspect was shown not to be able to conceal his crimes.
Also, the police are surprisingly incompetent. They are unable to perform even basic investigations without the assistance of the BAU team. This has been shown often enough that it's likely to be a common occurrence.
Finally, even though the serial killers are aware of advances in information technology and sharing, DNA, and criminology, most serial killers — even the most proficient and competent ones — still dispose of bodies in manners reminiscent of the 1960-1970's.
Clearly, this show exists in another universe — one where most civilians and normal cops avoid thinking about the sorts of trains of thought that serial killers have. What serial killers do is literally unthinkable to them — there are no shows like Criminal Minds airing in the BAU's jurisdiction. Only specially qualified people can even see the patterns to catch them, and so the killers have had no need to "improve" the patterns.
Also, in the Criminal Minds universe, no cars have built-in phone systems.
- Spencer Reid, Steve McGarrett, and Danny Williams in the Camaro, Danny complaining to Steve about his difficulties with Hawaiian pidgin, and then Reid jumps in with his trademark "Actually,..." and starts lecturing on linguistics.
- Kono giving Garcia surfing lessons.
- The possibilities are endless.
- There must, must, must be a scene where Spencer and Max nerd out over something together, if only because it would cause this troper (and perhaps many others) to die a happy death of Cuteness Overload. There is just too much Squee potential there for anyone with a Geeky Turn-On or two.
- Pretty self-explanatory.
- Spoilers may lend this one some credence. According to Joe Mantegna, Prentiss's exit episode is "going to make '100' look like child's play".
- Nope. Prentiss is still alive, but she is in hiding in Europe, and with the exception of JJ and Hotch, the whole team thinks she's dead.
- Aaaand she's back.
- Spoilers may lend this one some credence. According to Joe Mantegna, Prentiss's exit episode is "going to make '100' look like child's play".
- In "Sense Memory", we see her being dragged into a car apparently against her will as MI-6 takes him into custody at the house, but we know she was Interpol at the time. McAllister tells her in "The Thirteenth Step" that Doyle's "coming for all of them". I think he found out his girlfriend was Interpol and was going to execute her, so MI-6 pulled her out before he could do the job. This may lead into the WMG above.
- Whoever WMG'ed this was pretty exactly spot on.
- This is pretty hopeful, because its completely stupid to not renew the contract for one of the most liked characters and then immediately hire a replacement (I hate the process more than Sever, at least she's trying). Much like how Garcia has become the internet connection for the new team, they'll include appearances by a former character as well. Come late season 1 - season 2 for SB JJ will be the new media liaison. Notably this WMG has lots of personal Just Bugs Me (on the new show Witiker and that brunette are ok, everyone else is blah).
- Jossed. JJ's coming back to the original Criminal Minds and Suspect Behavior got canceled.
- He's a brilliant detective and profiler. He knows the rules and knows how to work around them. He even sounds and looks like a good Batman. He was fully prepared to beat the living daylights out of a murderous serial killer with whom he was locked in a room for 30 minutes with no weapons. He tricked an insane terrorist into giving up his anthrax and his freedom by having an Army officer seemingly contradict him.
- Reid is Robin, Garcia is Oracle, Morgan is Nightwing, Prentiss is the Huntress...
- Oh, and I forgot (same troper as first, btw), Hotchner has underwater bullets. 'Cuz he's Batman.
- He's the leader of the group and the moral compass. He also has the looks.
- The whole group is the Justice League: Prentiss is Wonder Woman, Garcia is Oracle, Reid is The Flash and Morgan is the Stewart Green Lantern. Also, Strauss is Amanda Waller.
- By process of elimination, that would make Rossi Batman...
- The whole group is the Justice League: Prentiss is Wonder Woman, Garcia is Oracle, Reid is The Flash and Morgan is the Stewart Green Lantern. Also, Strauss is Amanda Waller.
- The team needs a brunette female with JJ coming back, and she and JJ look a lot alike already.
- OP here—I guess this has already been Jossed since Seaver is leaving the show next season.
- Posted on behalf of my Dad, who refuses to believe anything else. I'm unsure of his reasoning, but it'd be pretty cool.
- the episode "Corazon" actually hints that this might true.
- Similarly, he could be the twelfth incarnation of The Doctor himself. His mother? In fact an old companion that went crazy after she had to leave the Tardis, so he now feels responsible for her and so pretends she's his mother so he can justify being part of her life.
- He could have a similar problem to Three, in that he's stuck on Earth, so is therefore trying to save humanity in a less time-travelly way.
- No, see his Dad was a Time-Lord and therefore died/ceased to exist during the Time War, but his mother wasn't so heartbroken that she never told him the truth. She did tell him the truth. That's right - his delusional, schizophrenic mother told him that his father was an alien Lord of Time who came from the future and fell in love with a Human, fathering a child before going off to fight a species of xenophobic squid-brains in man-sized flying-tanks before ceasing to have existed. See, that's the reason she went crazy. Her long life with her husband now conflicts with the memories she now has of him not existing. It doesn't help that in her memories of his non-existence, she suddenly received an immaculate conception.
They sort out and track down the real ones, offering them positions in the Bureau. Some FBI units are composed entirely of psychics — such as the BAU. Behavior analysis, while conceivably real on it's own, is just an elaborate cover story to Hand Wave why these agents are so good at understanding and finding serial killers.
- This actually fits with some of the scenes where they question people and seem to be looking at their memories.
- This is actually hinted to be the case for Reid in the episode "Corazon". It also makes Rossi's dislike of psychics in the episode "cold comfort" really, really funny.
- So what, the BAU is a division of VASCU?...MUST WRITE CROSSOVER WITH NEW WORLD OF DARKNESS.
- This is actually hinted to be the case for Reid in the episode "Corazon". It also makes Rossi's dislike of psychics in the episode "cold comfort" really, really funny.
that she's "already in a relationship" and "eventually, we will see that person". Why would she keep the gender ambiguous if it wasn't going to be a boyfriend? It could easily be her wife too, Erica did say "in a relationship", not married or dating.- She wears a gold band on the ring finger of her left hand.
- Alex Blake is married to a man. Could still have a wife or girlfriend, too, but we've never met them if she does.
As for why she's being confined... If she's related, it could just be that the stalker is a controlling person (very often the case in obsessive personalty types like stalkers) and wants someone to control/dominate whenever he isn't doing his copycat murders. She's shown skill with mental diagnosis, so maybe she's a therapist of some sort whom the Unsub attached to. Either way, she has knowledge of this guy's activities, and he's keeping her to prevent her from talking. The fact that she's alive might support the familial angle, since even murderers sometimes have trouble killing those close to the family.
- Addendum in light of new episode: Perhaps her stalker is the same one as the BAU's stalker.
- Both points Jossed.
- Jossed. Maeve was real. Unfortunately, so was her murderer.
First off, let's go back to the first line the Replicator delivers in his arc, to Reid.Zugzwang.As Reid helpfully defines, Zugzwang is a chess term when a player realizes he will inevitably be mated (and further, that any move made by that player would be detrimental to them; the only good move would be not to move, which is not possible in chess) Now, as it stands, as explained by Hotchner, he sent it as a method of saying the game has changed (and a further, deeper meaning that the BAU will only make things worse, not better; they ruined Bidwell's life beforehand, and their arrest of him lead to his suicide;) however, there is something important about this being directed at Reid.
Who was the person who consistently beat Reid in Chess, and was basically Reid's only chess partner up until he left?
Right.Secondly, though this is a bit more meta: They mentioned Gideon for the first time in a while in Carbon Copy. For some reason, the writers want Gideon to be in our heads.
Third, the bloody picture of Hotch. I realize this one is a massive stretch, but perhaps it is a call back to the college girl in Doubt, who smeared out the victims' faces with blood; her suicide was the straw that broke the camel's back for Gideon.
Now, JJ was sent flowers with the same phrase; I am sure there is some significance here I am missing, but I am fairly sure it connects to the Fisher King's butterfly that was sent to JJ (hell, the Replicator in general is a pretty similar type to the Fisher King)
I admit there is not a lot of evidence here, but I am fairly certain there is some connection between the Replicator and Gideon. I think the major theme and motivation for the Replicator's obsession, regardless of there being connection or not, will be the BAU doing more harm than good, which is part of why Gideon decided to leave.
I admit him being the Replicator is very unlikely, but I figured I might as well go audacious as possible.
Oh, yeah, and the music playing in the room they found; that instantly reminded of Gideon's music.
- I've been thinking that from the start, but especially now with the chess references and the first mention of Gideon in something like five years I'm convinced there's a connection. The only problem with it being Gideon himself is it doesn't seem too likely Mandy Patinkin would return to the series. My guess is it will be a son or ex-wife of Gideon's, someone close to him who felt neglected next to Gideon's job and wants revenge on the BAU.
- Jossed. The Replicator neither was Gideon nor killed Gideon.
In Season 1, she says her last name is her step-father's name and it's mentioned early on that she has 4 brothers. In later seasons, we learn her parents died when she was 18 and they say she's an only child. It's possible that her father re-married first, possibly when Garcia was very young, and her brothers are half and step-brothers, and they drifted apart as she became a teenager, to the point that when her mother met another man, Garcia and him became very close, and he replaced her bio-dad as her father figure and she changed her last name. When her mother and step-father died, neither her father or her brothers reached out to her, eventually leading her to consider herself an only child.
- According to 13x20, all of Garcia's brother's are revealed to be actually her stepbrothers she gain after her mother remarried so her being a only child probably only holds true when her mother was still married to her biological father and she is still close to at least one of her stepbrothers.
- I was under the impression that this is canon. In "Broken Mirror", the Unsub calls him autistic, and no one ever comments that, which I think is because everyone was already aware. He's also the one who manages to understand the autistic child in "Coda".
