Background
Criminal Minds is an American police procedural television program that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. The show differs from many procedural dramas by
focusing on the criminal rather than the crime itself. The show is produced by The Mark Gordon Company in association with CBS Television Studios (originally Paramount Network
Television then CBS Paramount Network Television) and ABC Studios (originally Touchstone Television).
CBS announced in October 2009 that Legacy Interactive will develop a video game based on the show. The game will require players to examine crime scenes for clues to help
solve murder mysteries. The interactive puzzle game was released in 2012 but did not feature any of the voices of the show's cast nor were the cast involved with the
project.
On March 14, 2012, CBS renewed Criminal Minds for an eighth season, which premiered on September 26, 2012.
When the series premiered in 2005, it featured FBI Agents Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson), and the rest of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU).
For season one, that team is composed of Agents Elle Greenaway (Lola Glaudini), Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), Jennifer "JJ" Jareau (A.J.
Cook), and Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness). During season one, Vangsness was not in the regular cast, appearing instead as a guest star.
Casting has been volatile. In season two (2006-07), Greenaway leaves after episode six and is replaced in episode nine by Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), the daughter of an
ambassador (Kate Jackson). In season three (2007-08), Gideon departs after episode two and is replaced several episodes later by David Rossi (Joe Mantegna), a former FBI agent
and best-selling author. In season six (2010-11), JJ leaves after episode two and is replaced by Ashley Seaver (Rachel Nichols). Later in season six, Prentiss leaves the show;
and Cook returns, as a special guest star, to participate in Prentiss' final episode.
For season seven (2011-12), Cook had signed a two-year contract to return as a series regular at the end of season six and for the beginning of season seven. Brewster also
returned as a series regular for season seven. In May 2011, CBS chose not to pick up Nichols' contract for a season two. Moore's and Gibson's contracts were both renewed. Paget
Brewster left the show after season seven, and it was later revealed that Jeanne Tripplehorn would join as the cast as Brewster's replacement.
Main Characters
Aaron Hotchner (portrayed by Thomas Gibson) is the unit chief of the BAU team. He is a former prosecutor and was originally assigned to the FBI Field Office
in Seattle. He is one of the most experienced agents in the BAU. He struggles to balance the demands of his job with his family life, but his wife Haley divorces him in season
three. In the season five episode "100", Haley is killed by a fugitive serial killer named George Foyet, also known as "The Reaper", whom Hotchner fights him and beats him to
death. He also has a son named Jack, and a brother named Sean, who appears one time in the first season. After Haley is murdered, he receives sole custody of Jack. Haley's
sister, Jessica, helps him with taking care of Jack.
Derek Morgan (portrayed by Shemar Moore), a supervisory special agent (and served as interim unit chief for SSA Hotchner), is a confident, assertive, and
often hot-tempered character. Raised by his mother Fran, along with his two sisters, Sarah and Desiree, Derek was a troubled Chicago youth headed for juvenile delinquency. He
was rescued and mentored by a man who is later arrested for child molestation; Morgan had been one of his victims. After developing an interest in football, he attended
Northwestern University on a scholarship. After a football injury left him unable to play football, he joined the Chicago Police Department's bomb squad, then moved to the BAU.
He has a special relationship with technical analyst Penelope Garcia, and the two have a unique shorthand and banter. In season seven's "It Takes a Village," Morgan shows
complete hatred towards Ian Doyle for killing Prentiss, but when Prentiss returns, he has mixed feelings.
Jason Gideon (portrayed by Mandy Patinkin) is a senior supervisory special agent and is widely known as the BAU's best profiler. After a series of
emotionally taxing cases, and the murder of his friend Sarah in his own house by a fugitive serial killer, he begins to feel burned out. The last straw occurs when Hotchner is
suspended for two weeks by the team's boss—an action for which Gideon feels responsible. He retreats to his cabin and leaves a letter for Reid, who he knows will be the one to
come looking for him. When Reid arrives at the cabin, it is empty except for the letter and Gideon's badge and firearm. Gideon is last seen remarking to a Nevada diner waitress
that he does not know where he is going or how he will know when he gets there, leaving the diner and driving off.
David Rossi (portrayed by Joe Mantegna) is a senior supervisory special agent and is a highly experienced profiler who once worked the BAU in its origins,
then took early retirement to write books and go on lecture tours about criminal analysis, until volunteering to return shortly after SSA Jason Gideon's departure. He has been
married three times. In the season seven episode "From Childhood's Hour," Rossi reconnects with his first wife, Carolyn, who has shocking news for him. It is revealed that she
came to him because she was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and she wanted him to help her "leave this world the way she is, not what she is going to become." In the
next episode "Epilogue", Carolyn dies of a drug overdose.
Jennifer "JJ" Jareau (portrayed by AJ Cook), is a supervisory special agent. In seasons one through five, she served as the communications liaison to local
police agencies. She is dating (and later marries) William LaMontagne, a New Orleans police officer, and the two have a son together, Henry. At the beginning of season six,
Jareau is forced to take a promotion to the Pentagon, causing her departure from the team, although Unit Chief Hotchner expressed his hope that she will return to the BAU in the future. JJ returned in the episode "Lauren" to assist the team in finding SSA Emily Prentiss. In the season six finale "Supply and Demand", JJ meets with SSA David Rossi,
informing him that she is returning to the BAU. JJ is now a legitimate profiler, thus her brief departure lead to technical analyst Penelope Garcia taking over as liaison.
Elle Greenaway (portrayed by Lola Glaudini) is a supervisory special agent. Greenaway is assigned to the FBI Field Office in Seattle, Washington, and
assigned to the BAU as an expert in sexual offense crimes. Greenaway suffers extreme emotional trauma after being shot by an unidentified subject in the season one cliffhanger.
In the opening episode of season two she survives and returns to duty, sooner than SSA Jason Gideon and Aaron Hotchner would like to see. Several episodes later, while alone on
stakeout of a suspected serial rapist, she shoots the man in cold blood. The local police deem it self-defense, but Gideon and Hotchner question her ability as a profiler after
this. She resigns, turning her badge and her gun in to Hotchner, with the declaration that this is "not an admission of guilt."
Emily Prentiss (portrayed by Paget Brewster) is a supervisory special agent. She is the daughter of Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss. After SSA Elle Greenaway
leaves the BAU, Prentiss shows up with papers assigning her to the BAU. Emily is also fluent in some languages, such as Arabic and Spanish, and has a working knowledge in
Italian, but it is revealed that Emily has lost comprehension of her other known language, Russian. She is apparently killed while being held hostage by Ian Doyle in the season
six episode "Lauren," but in the last scene of the episode it is suggested that she survived her encounter with Doyle. In the season seven premiere "It Takes a Village" she
returns alive and well, and it is shown that she loves children.
Dr. Spencer Reid (portrayed by Matthew Gray Gubler), is a supervisory special agent. He is a genius who graduated from a Las Vegas public high school at age
12, and holds PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering, as well as BAs in Psychology and Sociology, and, as of season four, is working on a BA in Philosophy. It has been
revealed that he has an IQ of 187, can read 20,000 words per minute, and has an eidetic memory. Most of the members on the team are intimidated by his profound knowledge. He is
habitually introduced as "Dr. Reid", in contrast to the other agents' introductions as "Supervisory Special Agent". The purpose of this, as explained by Hotchner in the pilot
episode, is to create a respectable first impression of Reid, deflecting judgments about his age. His mother suffers from schizophrenia, and is currently committed to a mental
institution. Reid is also the godfather of fellow SSA Jennifer Jareau's son Henry.
Penelope Garcia (portrayed by Kirsten Vangsness) is the team's technical analyst. She joined the Bureau after bringing attention upon herself by illegally
accessing some of their equipment; she is offered a job in lieu of a jail sentence. She usually supports the team from her computer lab at Quantico, but occasionally joins them
on location when her skills can be used in the field. She is a leader in a support group for those who have lost someone in their lives. Her parents were killed by a drunk
driver when they were out looking for her when she was a teen and had missed her curfew. She enjoys a flirtatious relationship with SSA Derek Morgan, often engaging in comical
banter of a sexually suggestive nature when he calls in for information. She was once shot and almost killed by an unsub who lured her on a date. Garcia is also the godmother of SSA Jennifer Jareau's son Henry.
Ashley Seaver (portrayed by Rachel Nichols) is an FBI cadet training at the FBI Academy in Quantico. She shadowed the BAU to help with the investigation into murders in a gated community. She was chosen for her unique background; her father, Charles Beauchamp, was a horrific serial killer known as the "Redmond Ripper", who murdered
dozens of women before being caught by the BAU, incidentally. At first, Hotchner was going to make her a special, one-time consultant to the BAU, but Rossi allowed her to finish her remedial training with the team, under the supervision of SSA Prentiss. In "... With Friends Like These", she graduated from the Academy and had been added to the team as a
"probationary agent". In the season seven premiere it is revealed that Seaver transferred to the Domestic Trafficking Task Force, which is led by Andi Swann.
Dr. Alex Blake (portrayed by Jeanne Tripplehorn) is an FBI Linguistics expert and professor at Georgetown University who joins the BAU after SSA Emily
Prentiss transfers to London's Interpol office. She makes her debut in the season eight premiere "The Silencer".
