TV Death Toll: Who on ‘Criminal Minds’ season 12 could be in danger?
The 12th season of “Criminal Minds” is in production, and we already know based on some preliminary reports out there that this has the potential to be one of the more dangerous seasons to date. How else would you describe it, given such a big part of the story revolves around the escape of previously convicted UnSubs? We know what these people are capable of, and we also know that they have vendettas with the BAU.
In theory, you can argue in this edition of our TV Death Toll series that anyone among the BAU is in danger of dying on the upcoming season, whether it be Hotch, Garcia, JJ, Rossi, or anyone else. Yet, at the same time, would the show really make such a shocking move? That’s something of a little more interest to us than speculating what character could die over the course of the coming season.
Let’s just assume for a moment that every actor on the show plans to stay around for a long time. So long as that’s the case, we don’t see the show killing anyone off. You have to remember that for many longtime viewers, the team members are family. Losing one of them would be devastating, and given how grim this show can be sometimes when you are reminded of the danger that is out there in this world, you want to have a little bit of hope. You want to hope that these people could be okay.
Even in the case of Derek Morgan, the show chose not to kill him off even though Shemar Moore was leaving the series. Why? They wanted you to believe that he was off to have a happy life. As violent as “Criminal Minds” can be, we think at its heart it recognizes the main characters as heroes and wants to see them treated as such.
As a matter of fact, the only way we could see the show eliminating someone in the core cast is if the actor was leaving the show and either requested it or had no plans to ever return, and the writers needed to find a way to explain that absence onscreen. Sure, we think killing someone off would be a moment that would bring a lot of attention to the show, but would it really be worth all of the bluster? We don’t think so. It would draw a lot of attention only to upset fans down the road that this given character was given such an ending. We don’t see anyone making that move unless they have to.
Do you think anyone in the BAU is in danger of dying in season 12? Let us know in the comments below.