Alex Blake: Words Are Her Bag

[Mislav]

Fellow Alex fan here. I really liked her dynamic with Reid and Rossi, and the fact that the writers didn't really provide her with the ordinary relationship/marriage life (Kate, Tara... ugh). I also liked how they centered season eight finale around her, in a way that was at least somewhat realistic, without making it a soapy story about an underdeveloped character related to her (again, Kate... well, and Meg. Ugh). And her acting performances were amazing. The way she left was really painful but, sadly, pretty realistic. I also enjoyed seeing forensic linguistic being explored more.

This is the idea that I have, about a possible "Alex comeback" episode. I also posted it in "Criminal Minds Fanfiction" thread.

The basic premise: The team has to reflect upon their past experiences and race against time after their former colleague, Alex Blake, goes missing.

The unsub(s): Heather Bell. She was raised in a poor family: both of her parents were alcoholics and they would abuse her, and her younger brother (to whom she was very close with) often: mostly emotionally, but sometimes physically too. She had a juvenile record for petty theft and vandalism. When Heather was fifteen, in 1985, her brother was diagnosed with leucemia. 

Sometime later, Heather abducted the fifteen year old girl from a near by town, Mandy Dillon, demanding two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in a ransom note left at the abduction sight. She kept Mandy in an abandoned house near her [Heather's] home. While in Heather's captivity, Mandy had an epileptic seizure and died. 

Heather managed to collect the ransom ( that she later used to pay for her brother's treatment, lying to her parents that she "found it") and she dumped Mandy's body in a river, where it was discovered a week later. The case remained unsolved. 

(Just for clarification, she threw the body in the river located in the same town where Mandy lived, to set the investigators off the track. Sometime later, for the same purpose, she wrote a taunting letter about her crime, mailing it to the local precinct and several newspapers. She sent the letter from that town too.)

Alex first heard about the case while on academy, when she was specializing herself in a field of forensic linguistic. The case really intrigued her and she even wrote a few college papers about it.

Heather grew up to be a successful novelist, mostly writing mystery and romance novels. Alex eventually happened to read a few of Heather's books: she came to see many similarities with Heather's writing style and the one in the letters relating to Mandy's abduction. The short bio in the end also mentioned the town where Heather had grew up in, the one located close to the one where Mandy Dillon had lived.

After doing a long Internet search on Mandy, Alex managed to find out that Mandy's brother was diagnosed with in 1985 and managed to make a full recovery by 1990. She also found a few photograph of Mandy from 1985, and deduce that she looked pretty similar to the description provided by the witness (now dead), who saw a young girl lurking around Mandy's house at the approximate time of the abduction.

Alex sympathized with Heather, since her [Alex's] own son had died from cancer. Not to mention, Heather was married with children of her own, had been just fifteen at the time, and apparently hadn't re offended since, and was still close with her younger brother, and outside some circumstancial and behavioral evidence, the case seemed pretty thin. Alex reached out to Heather, trying to convince her to turn herself in, but Heather decided to murder her. 

Heather stalked Alex for a while, getting to know her habits, and found out that Alex's husband, James, was on a trip, and was supposed to come back in a few days.

Heather abducted Alex, holding her captive in her [Heather's] summer house. She planned to keep Alex alive until James was back in town: that way, she could murder Alex and frame James, and somehow estage that Alex took off on her own, for some reason, a few days prior. Heather abducted Alex as soon as possible (before James returned, rather than just murder her once he was back) because she didn't want to risk Alex sharing her discovery with anyone.

Of course, the team ends up finding Alex just in time :)

Real life inspiration: none really, I just want to see Alex back :) 

A flashback scene with Reid attending her lectures before she joined the BAU would be nice, especially if she would mention that case.

[Guesswht]

Still missing her awfully. An Alex Blake mention would be nice in an upcoming episode, but sadly, that's not gonna happen. I "love" how she didn't even score a mention last year. They act like she never existed. The truth is: CM would still have amazing ratings if she stayed. Everything started going downhill in s10.

 

I like Tara very much, but i really wish Jeanne stayed. The team didn't seem like a 'family' last year.. this year it's kinda better and ratings are starting to get better every week.. but so much damage was done to the show in s10. I'm wondering if showrunners, writers etc. realized what a mistake it was to treat Jeanne the way they did. No, i really don't think they'll ever realize this ;(

[Mislav]

Your idea just gave me my own idea. If I wrote a fic containing Alex coming back on the team because she recognises a police sketch as a former student would you consider that stealing?

Not at all! I would really like to read that!

[Mislav]

Still missing her awfully. An Alex Blake mention would be nice in an upcoming episode, but sadly, that's not gonna happen. I "love" how she didn't even score a mention last year. They act like she never existed. The truth is: CM would still have amazing ratings if she stayed. Everything started going downhill in s10.

I like Tara very much, but i really wish Jeanne stayed. The team didn't seem like a 'family' last year.. this year it's kinda better and ratings are starting to get better every week.. but so much damage was done to the show in s10. I'm wondering if showrunners, writers etc. realized what a mistake it was to treat Jeanne the way they did. No, i really don't think they'll ever realize this ;(

I agree completely! I've read lots of comments about how better season ten was in comparison to seasons eight and nine (mostly on IMDb)... I'm like, really? It has been the worst! Barely any profile work at all, jumping from one deduction to another in a warp speed, appailing lack of Reid, re-does of the episodes from previous seasons, barely any appearences of Savannah, Henry, Jake, etc., new character that had nothing remarkable about her (they didn't even explore her specialization in undercover opetations) and had a finale centered around her and another character related to her, that has had even less character development! They killed off GIDEON! Not even "Mr. Scratch" justifies that mess of the season. It almost felt like a complete re-boot, much like "The Mentalist" after Red John arc. They barely even mention Emily anymore, let alone Alex. It is like the previous eight or nine seasons didn't happen. They stopped caring about the characters. Aaaaargh!

I got carried away, sorry.

[Guesswht]

I agree completely! I've read lots of comments about how better season ten was in comparison to seasons eight and nine (mostly on IMDb)... I'm like, really? It has been the worst! Barely any profile work at all, jumping from one deduction to another in a warp speed, appailing lack of Reid, re-does of the episodes from previous seasons, barely any appearences of Savannah, Henry, Jake, etc., new character that had nothing remarkable about her (they didn't even explore her specialization in undercover opetations) and had a finale centered around her and another character related to her, that has had even less character development! They killed off GIDEON! Not even "Mr. Scratch" justifies that mess of the season. It almost felt like a complete re-boot, much like "The Mentalist" after Red John arc. They barely even mention Emily anymore, let alone Alex. It is like the previous eight or nine seasons didn't happen. They stopped caring about the characters. Aaaaargh!

I got carried away, sorry.

""appailing lack of Reid, barely any appearences of Savannah, Henry, Jake, etc., new character that had nothing remarkable about her (they didn't even explore her specialization in undercover opetations) and had a finale centered around her and another character related to her""

Thank you...!

[Hotchgirl18]

She's my favorite female agent! 

[Blackbird999999lol]

She should've stayed for season 10.  I remember after her last ever episode aired MGG posted a pic with her and he wrote 'Jeanne forever'. I could feel his pain through the words he wrote. Joe said they were very sad to lose her... everyone in the cast was heartbroken to lose her.

I wish they would mention her once in awhile. But that's probably not gonna happen. They left Derek Morgan in the dust like what happened to Savannah and baby Hank Spencer Morgan... Sadly, I don't think Alex Blake will be mentioned ever again.

[secnarf]

28 minutes ago, Blackbird999999lol said:

She should've stayed for season 10.  I remember after her last ever episode aired MGG posted a pic with her and he wrote 'Jeanne forever'. I could feel his pain through the words he wrote. Joe said they were very sad to lose her... everyone in the cast was heartbroken to lose her.

I wish they would mention her once in awhile. But that's probably not gonna happen. They left Derek Morgan in the dust like what happened to Savannah and baby Hank Spencer Morgan... Sadly, I don't think Alex Blake will be mentioned ever again.

I think that's a running pattern on this show. For better or for worse, they tend not to 'dwell on the past' and tend to avoid mentioning previous cast members, even in places where it might be appropriate.

[Hotchgirl18]

On 3/3/2017 at 5:37 PM, secnarf said:

I think that's a running pattern on this show. For better or for worse, they tend not to 'dwell on the past' and tend to avoid mentioning previous cast members, even in places where it might be appropriate.

What's wrong with saying, "I met up with Hank, Morgan, and Savannah." Or, " Reid had lunch with Blake yesterday. " I loved Blake. Wish she could've stayed. 

[secnarf]

32 minutes ago, Hotchgirl18 said:

What's wrong with saying, "I met up with Hank, Morgan, and Savannah." Or, " Reid had lunch with Blake yesterday. " I loved Blake. Wish she could've stayed. 

I don't think anything is wrong with it. However, TPTB seem to want to leave the past in the past.

[Hotchgirl18]

8 minutes ago, secnarf said:

I don't think anything is wrong with it. However, TPTB seem to want to leave the past in the past.

Still. A little mention wouldn't hurt once or twice.