Criminal Minds - Season 8

On February 15, 2012, Deadline Hollywood reported that Paget Brewster (Emily Prentiss) would leave the show once season seven was over. All other main cast members had secured deals for the season.[2] On June 13, 2012, CBS announced that Jeanne Tripplehorn would join the cast of the show.[3]

Criminal Minds - Season 8

In the fourth episode, Reid got a girlfriend named Maeve Donovan. Unfortunately, she was killed by her stalker in the early half of the season, and the later half was spent with Reid recovering from those traumatic events.

Thomas Gibson and A.J. Cook hinted that "a strange criminal" would be stalking the BAU throughout the entire season. Later on, Erica Messer confirmed that fact, explaining that for the first time, they will be able to feature a season-long unsub, something producers have wanted to do for a while but had never gotten approval on until now. She has also added that "...this guy is replicating crimes we've solved. [...] We'll probably see him five or six times [throughout the season]." The stalker first appeared in the end of "The Silencer" and was prominent for a total of eight episodes.

The airdate of the episode "Brothers Hotchner" was changed, and it aired just before the season finale as a two-hour episode, just like last season's "Hit" and "Run". In the episode, the stalker's identity was revealed, and they lost one of their own.

Since 2005, the agents of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) have been delving into the psyche of gruesome serial killers on the CBS procedural Criminal Minds, while in the process, finding love, losing loved ones, and exploring their own past traumas. Though the original series ended after a highly successful 15-season run, it didn't take long for the BAU to make its return. In late 2022, a new installment, Criminal Minds: Evolution, launched on Paramount+ and reunited members of the unit to take down a network of serial killers formed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Criminal Minds did a lot of cast shuffling during its run, but those changes derailed season six's storytelling. It began with the abrupt exit of beloved character Jennifer "JJ" Jureau (A.J. Cook) who was forcefully sent to a new post at the Pentagon and was followed up later in the season by the exit of Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster). The announced exits, particularly Cook's, angered fans, which made new hire Agent Ashley Seaver (Rachel Nichols, who had the daunting role of stepping in for them) a hard one to integrate into the fold. To add even more chaos, Cook returned to help the team save Prentiss for her exit and then returned to the team full time for the following season.

The show passed up the opportunity to celebrate JJ's talents during her maternity leave (a result of Cook's actual pregnancy) in season four, opting for a weak arc featuring Meta Golding as her temporary replacement and doing it after this highly criticized exit only inflamed an already angry fanbase. Prentiss' exit arc offers a fascinating look into her past that involved a classified case, international criminal Ian Doyle (Timothy V. Murphy), and ended with the agent faking her own death after fighting for her life when Doyle kidnapped her.

Even though it is the best part of the uneven season, the shuffling and extended arc meant Agent Seaver didn't have much room on the show. The newly-minted BAU team member starts the season as the daughter of a serial killer who was at the FBI academy that helped the team on a case. Even as a recurring player, she could've brought such an interesting perspective but that experience is only utilized in one episode before she joined the BAU. Instead, she becomes not-JJ and the Criminal Minds team churns out an installment known more for casting changes than anything else.

Criminal Minds is a show that works well when its team gels, which was not the case in season 10. Agent Kate Callahan (Jennifer Love Hewitt) makes for a solid new hire, but the loss of Alex Blake (Jeanne Tripplehorn), who left after two seasons, is still felt because the magic of the team was not at its strongest in this configuration. Kate is an undercover agent who isn't utilized much outside of a fairly powerful season-long arc about a sophisticated network of human traffickers that involves her niece Meg. In the end, the one arc could have been fulfilled by a recurring character as Hewitt's real-life pregnancy mirrored Kate's exit after one season.

Still, there are a handful of standout moments and episodes during this uneven season. For instance, season 10 features the backdoor pilot of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders that welcomes a new team working internationally and includes SSA Matthew Simmons (Daniel Henney), who later joined the flagship series, the introduction of recurring villain Mr. Scratch in the season's best episode, and a touching callback to Hotch's late wife when the veteran agent helps his father-in-law deal with her death.

What turned out to be Criminal Minds' penultimate season feels like it was preparing for the end by tapping into the show's history. Season 14 starts big with episode 300 where Garcia and Agent Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) have been kidnapped by a cult led by a serial killer. It turns out the case connected to one from season four where the BAU comes across Benjamin Cyrus' (Luke Perry) cult.

In another standout episode that taps into Criminal Minds' past, a child that Prentiss saved in season three but doesn't stay in touch with gets manipulated into committing a series of murders in a very personal episode centering the veteran team member. We also finally get some answers about JJ's sister who died as a child when the team gets sent to her hometown.

However, a shocking confession from JJ about loving Reid is what really hurts the season. The story around the pair of old friends and longtime teammates is well-positioned to be a will-they-won't-they romance except for Criminal Minds' infantilization of Reid. He's everyone's little brother and they all take care of him, and that includes JJ, who chose Reid to be the godfather of her child. Reid's season 12 prison arc makes him him grow up, but we didn't see much change within the team's dynamic. JJ's declaration goes against the history of the long-running show, split fans, and is something Criminal Minds thankfully moves away from early in the following season.

Season 13 ends with a big episode featuring a complicated case about a disgraced FBI agent, one potential serial killer, and a surprising twist about a cult leader. Unfortunately, this huge case comes out of nowhere and is incredibly complicated, which makes the finale feel overstuffed. While there are some good to great narratives pieces, the season overall is certainly not one of Criminal Minds' strongest.

The ninth season of Criminal Minds marks a big year for SSA Jureau. Quickly after Matteo Cruz (Esai Morales) takes over as BAU Section Chief after Erin Strauss was killed, we discover that he has a past with JJ that they both actively keep secret. It turns out their classified past together concerns the mission JJ was part of when she left the team (during Cook's season six absence when her contract was not renewed) and the focal point of the 200th episode of the show.

The grueling hour sees JJ and Matteo tortured by a terrorist they were hunting and a friend that betrayed them in order to get access to a database called "Integrity." The hour is the season's best and it reveals what JJ did during her time away, provides an opportunity for Cook to shine as an actress and features an appearance by Emily Prentiss.

The problem with season nine, however, is that outside of JJ's mystery arc (and another great episode about Garcia's past as a hacker titled "The Black Queen"), there isn't much else to it. Erin Strauss a big part of the show but her successor Cruz doesn't do much of anything as Section Chief that doesn't involve JJ. In addition, the season's cases are far from Criminal Minds' most compelling.

The final season of Criminal Minds (before the announcement of its revival) is a shortened yet intentional one that celebrates the long-running series. There is a powerful episode that centers around a past case where newer BAU team members Luke Alvez (Adam Rodriguez) and Matt Simmons worked together before joining the unit and another titled "Saturday" featuring a day off for the team where Garcia tries to help a woman being stalked.

While this would be the original series' swan song, between Gibson's firing and Shemar Moore's commitment to fellow CBS drama SWAT, season 15 doesn't have that many returning stars - although Jane Lynch does appear as Reid's mother Dr. Diana Reid.

Criminal Minds wraps up its run with an arc about Rossi's adversary The Chameleon that focuses on the BAU's brilliant insights about the minds of humanity's worst, the element that made the show stand out at the start. The choice to wrap up the show with Garcia's sendoff is one that closes a huge chapter for the BAU while making it clear the team will continue to fight the worst of the worst. To have the heart of the team say goodbye is a powerful way to wrap things up as the agents each enter their own next chapters.

The "Dirty Dozen" storyline in season 11 puts Garcia in the spotlight, giving Criminal Minds one of its best villains, and sets up a fantastic exit arc for SSA Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) when the team comes up against a contractor killer who gives Morgan the clue of the hitman network that comprises "The Dirty Dozen." What the team believes to be 12 targets of some kind actually only concerns one person: Garcia.

As mentioned, season 11 also wraps up Moore's time on the show as SSA Morgan. Chazz Montolo (Lance Henriksen), the father of the hitman who kicks off The Dirty Dozen arc, blames Morgan for his son's death, so he pursues him in several ways. First, he has a team of mercenaries kidnap and torture Derek in an episode that features Donald Glover as Derek's father in hallucinations in his altered state. Montolo then has a pregnant Savannah (Morgan's fiancé played by Rochelle Aytes) shot and after Morgan takes him down he opts for a life away from the FBI with his new family. 041b061a72