“Show me your favorite episode of 'Criminal Minds,'” my best friend suggested back in August, as we hung out one final time before I would leave for college.
By this point in our epic sleepover, it was around three in the morning, and we were messing around on Netflix. We ended up watching some "Criminal Minds," which led to her request that I show her my favorite episode.
I’ve grown up with "Criminal Minds." As it begins its 12th season this week, I can recall catching glimpses of it when I was younger and my mom would watch it at night. I even remember witnessing Agent Penelope Garcia’s shooting back in season three; I promptly turned my face away from the TV when I realized she was about to be shot. Now, looking back on the history of the show, I feel as if I’ve grown up with it.
I didn’t really get into the show until my sophomore year of high school. It’s one of those things I refer to as my instantaneous obsession, where, for whatever reason, a certain show or movie suddenly grabs my complete attention and love. I become invested in the characters and their corresponding plotlines. (This is how I got into the Marvel movie franchise, the game Undertale, and most recently "Steven Universe.")
I fell in love with the characters of "Criminal Minds." Strangely enough, it is thanks to them that I’m a writer in the present day. I’ve mentioned before that writing fanfiction was the start of my journey; it was, specifically, "Criminal Minds" fanfiction (which I’ve since erased from the Internet because my writing then was just…meh.)
Now, back to the request that I reveal my “favorite” episode of "Criminal Minds," my process for selecting an episode revolved around the same point my "Criminal Minds" fanfiction did: Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss.
In short, Emily Prentiss has been my favorite character on the show for a long time now. Before I got heavily invested in it, I would half-heartedly say Penelope Garcia or Spencer Reid were my favorite characters—not unpopular choices—but it was very much a surface level appreciation of them, because of their personalities and how they interacted with other people on the team.
Once I really understood Emily Prentiss, though, everything changed. Played by Paget Brewster, Emily viewed the Behavioral Analysis Unit team not as her coworkers but her family, meaning she would protect them at all costs. On top of that, she’s witty, dry-humored, very driven, and selfless to the point of sacrificing herself for the others (which leads to her “fake death” in season six). She owns a black cat named Sergio. She can speak at least five languages. She was goth during her senior year of high school.
It’s these details strung together that complete Emily’s character and make her self-sacrifice that much more significant.
Her complicated past involving international criminals is what leads to her “demise” in the season six episode “Lauren”, which ended up being the episode I picked as my favorite. In reality, there are many other episodes I particularly love from the series, but because I could only choose one to show to someone who wasn’t familiar with the show, I wanted to share what made Emily Prentiss a true blessing to her teammates.
In “Lauren”, Emily runs away from her team at the BAU to confront her past demons alone, as she fears allowing her teammates to get involved would endanger them. It is this selflessness, however foolish and reckless, that led to Emily capturing my heart. I’m a sucker for characters who act out of the dangerously selfless love they have for others around them and eventually learn how loved they themselves are by those they’re trying to protect.
“Lauren” ultimately ends with Emily “dying”, from the perspective of the other main characters, but Emily returns in the following season. Her actions lead the others through all kinds of emotional ups and downs as they grieve her, then celebrate her, then grieve her again, as Emily leaves the FBI to work for Interpol in London at the end of season seven. Her inconsistency forces her friends to develop emotionally as they all struggle, the young Spencer Reid taking the longest. When confronted about his lingering anger and hurt, Emily reminds Spencer that while he had to go through the pain of losing her, she had to navigate her way through the pain of losing her six closest friends.
Emily has been gone from the main cast for four years now, but guest-starred in the 200th episode back in 2013. As season twelve begins, however, I can truly look forward to this next year, as Paget Brewster has returned to the show, allowing Emily Prentiss to become a series regular once again.
There has been a lot of drama surrounding "Criminal Minds" as of late. One of the main characters since the beginning, Agent Derek Morgan, played by Shemar Moore, departed the show last season, written off with a happy retirement to care for his wife and newborn baby. Over the summer, the actor Thomas Gibson, infamous for the character Aaron “Hotch” Hotchner who led the team for the entirety of the show up to this point, made headlines after he had a confrontation with a writer for the show that led to his firing. It’s hard to imagine "Criminal Minds" without these two leading characters; I’ve seen several Tumblr users declare war and boycotts on the show especially because of Hotch’s exclusion.
But it’s okay. Emily’s back to kick some serious ass, and her return has tipped the scale of the female to male character ratio: for the first time ever, "Criminal Minds" features more female characters than male.
So, bring it, season 12; even if you’re missing Hotch and Morgan, I’m not fazed, because Emily Prentiss is back, and that’s really all I need in my life right now.
