JMO

I think I'm with you, Revolver. (I just this second realized the significance of the name---yes, I can be slow on the uptake). I like each of the new team members, including Walker, whose name I have finally memorized. Tara took me a while, but I'm on board now. But there are just too many of them, coming on too quickly. If this is supposed to prepare us for a team turnover, I wish they would send all the newbies to work the case of the week, and leave the old team to deal with Reid and Scratch.

Well, I don't know that Reid is quite ready yet. Maybe one day. I also don't think anyone can fill Hotch's shoes. and I don't think Emily was meant to. Every new leader puts their own imprint on the group they lead. She will do her thing, just as Hotch did his. I know you're still in school, but once you have a long term job (guessing you might have held a job or two already?), you'll see how things can change, and be different, but not better or worse. It's only human to compare, and plenty of people don't choose to adapt (so they move on), but most people focus on their own work, and keep doing what they're good at doing. I think we're seeing that with the BAU. Even if I don't recognize half of them.

It might be more similar for you in those times when Reid is intense and angry (eg, Uncanny Valley). It may be harder for you to see when he is 'intent' and 'intense', such as when he makes a breakthrough or gets excited about an idea. Both men are intense, but different things bring it on, and the expressions are different, because their personalities differ so much. This entire conversation is making me miss the Hotch/Reid interaction. This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I could see Hotch grooming Reid for a leadership position. I think Hotch respected Reid in a way that neither Gideon (who I think used him) nor Rossi (who is amused by him) would even consider.

Actually, I love French Toast. I didn't really see the exchange between Morgan and Hotch as 'telling off'. I saw it more as Hotch pushing Morgan in a direction, and telling him what it was going to take for him to be a true leader. That's tough love mentoring.

Agreed. And I think the fact that he is knowingly putting himself in danger, for a good cause, rather than becoming the hapless victim, is what will preserve him through this. When it looked like he might be traumatized just for being there, I was worried about how he would come out the other side. Now I know---he'll be battered and bruised, but still Reid.

I think Hotch pointed out the difference between them in 'Mayhem', when he said that Morgan doesn't trust his colleagues as much as he would need to, to be a leader. He has more confidence in himself, and has trouble delegating, when it comes to the big things. Ironically, that kind of personality trait is as likely to be born of insecurity than anything else. Morgan had a need to prove to himself, over and over, that he was bigger and stronger than the bad guy, especially after his history with Carl Buford. I think Hotch had more than a hint of a dark side. He was definitely stoic, and most often quiet. But he could erupt, and I like to think that his eruptions bothered him. What is it called when he does that? A 'Hotchalanche'? In the early seasons, before Hotch was repeatedly traumatized, he had a sense of humor, which made only rare (and very welcome) appearances in later seasons, and he was a considerably 'lighter' character. It wasn't surprising that the loss of his family changed him, but I did miss that aspect of his personality.

Intra/post-ep 12X16, Assistance is Futile https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12410319/1/Broken-Promises

This is my fear, that Morgan will swoop in, with much focus, to save the day, and we'll end up in Rossi's backyard once again. I love the Morgan/Reid relationship, and I wouldn't mind seeing Derek show up soon to visit Reid and maybe run some intel from whatever position he now holds. I also wouldn't mind having him appear for just a cameo, at the end. But if the team needs Morgan to get their work done for them, they're in trouble, because Morgan isn't available next season.

I can agree with you on that.

Ah, okay, it was Erica. I am the holder of the apparently unpopular opinion that she does not 'lie', but simply 'spins'. So I agree that she would not have described it as a Reid story, if it had not been intended as such from the very beginning.

Don't think so. I don't doubt that we would have had a Hotch arc, and that his would have been the big story. But I believe it was MGG who said that this particular story line was discussed, for Reid, during the filming of last season's Derek Morgan goodbye episodes. Do I have that wrong? I just don't know that it was intended to be during this season, or maybe it was just not intended to be this long.

HG--which part are you referring to? What (or who) should have been Hotch?

I guess my point is that we actually knew nothing of her preferences as a sports spectator----and now we do. Maybe some day we'll find out her favorite work of art, or piece of music, and that will be news to us, too. Personally, I like learning new things about the characters. I would agree that I don't appreciate contradictions to what has come before. But, in this case, nothing has come before.

To belabor the point, can you help me remember the episodes where JJ's sporting interests were mentioned? The only one I can remember is the one where she said she'd had a soccer scholarship to college---i think it was North Mammon.

I don't know if she likes Mozart, either. Why can't she make a revelation about her preferences?

I can only comment on the Reid-related portions of the episode. The scenes with JJ were a relief. At least someone is prioritizing Reid! But there had to be at least two more scenes worth of material to cover---like an update on what the team was currently doing to help him, and Reid informing JJ that he’s not in protective custody. MGG broke my heart portraying Reid trying not to cry. I appreciated that so much of each scene was delivered through body language, from the time they first spotted each other, through JJ’s breaking down at the end. More, please. I agree with those who think Reid purposely made himself a target. It came right on the heels of ‘I don’t know prison, but I do know how to stop a psychopath’. Although I hate the thought of Reid getting hurt, now I know that he won’t actually be a victim in the process. Yes, he’ll be the guy with the injuries, and you can only have so much bravery when the foe is upon you, so I’m sure he’ll be frightened in the moment. But he’s taking charge. We’ve seen him put himself at risk to save the underdog before. He’s just doing what he always does. I still don’t quite know what to make of Calvin Shaw, but I think he’s only on for three or four episodes, so I guess we’ll find out soon. That final scene with Rossi was emblematic of the bizarre decision not to portray the team working on Reid’s case. It was obviously an indulgence between JM and VW, both from Chicago. I don’t begrudge the ‘W’ or the nod to the Cubs, but it should have been done in some other context. Really, Rossi doesn’t know what’s bothering JJ? Really, he wants to reference something that took more than a century to inspire her about getting her best friend out of prison? Really?! An aside re: JJ and sports. It was Gideon who said she liked football, not JJ. That was when he turned his comped tickets into a makeshift birthday present for Reid and decided to play matchmaker. All we know is that she played soccer. Hockey is quite popular in Pennsylvania, where there are several pro teams. So, if she says she likes hockey, I believe her. EM has pointed out that they’ve never done a long arc like this before. I think their inexperience is showing in the pacing of the Reid story, in the dribbling out of details, and in their struggling to find balance between the arc and the case of the week. They would have been much better off making this a three or four episode arc, fully devoted to Reid and Scratch.

I'm curious as to how people think Spencer will change. Will he be wary, and cowed? Will he be angry, and aggressive? Will he be more sympathetic of criminals, or less? Spiffy or scruffy? Any thoughts?

I think Paget, and thereby Emily, had a hard time finding her footing with this return. She was asked to play a role that was both familiar, and yet different, without having been through an on-screen and in-character transition. But I saw the real Emily again during her scenes with Reid at the US jail----maybe Collision Course? (For me, one of the down sides of this long arc is that I can't differentiate the episodes, since I pay absolutely no attention to the case of the week). I wish they would abandon doing other cases, or at least show Emily overseeing their working the Scratch case on the side. I think Paget is ready to bring it.

If you are referring to world peace, I'm right there with you, Hotchgirl!

Not to me. Serial killers are probably not in the open population. Even if they were, Reid has been omitted from the take down so many times that most of them have never seen him.

One more. Can't last a full week without a fix. Post-ep 12X15, Alpha Male. This one is Letters. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12399360/1/Letters

I'm probably one of the few people who did not like that Tabula Rasa courtroom scene. To me, that was bully Hotch, and I was surprised the judge didn't call him out for it. It might have felt good, but it was just a pissing contest. Sorry--wrong thread!

Reid has always done best one on one. You put him in the middle of any crowd, and he's off kilter. Add to that the shock of being unexpectedly transferred to federal prison, on top of the shock of the entire situation in the first place, and you have someone not operating on all of his usual cylinders. Given time, he'll probably get there. He might already have begun studying his fellow prisoners while he was in the yard, and even in the cot area, but that was aborted when they fell upon him.. I don't think profiling was going to help him in the situation he was in with the attempted assault. He might have wanted to try talking down the thug with the knife, but he certainly wasn't going to do it with his mouth full of dirty sock. Once he gets his footing, I think we'll see him pull out some of his bag of tricks. I do think he will profile Shaw---I think he will have to. For all we know, he may find a way to gain some points with his fellow inmates through magic!

Post-ep 12X15, Alpha Male https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12391886/1/Three-Sixty

I truly wish it didn't look like Reid was going to be in prison for the rest of the season. I get that it would be anticlimactic to (presumably) get him released and then have a couple of pedestrian cases to close out the season, but they could have easily avoided that problem by not putting him away so early.