‘Criminal Minds’ season 12 debate: Should Mr. Scratch be the Big Bad all season?

Through the first part of “Criminal Minds,” we’ve seen Mr. Scratch prove himself to be the most dangerous of adversaries within this world. We first met the character, otherwise known as Peter Lewis, seasons ago, but it is really now that this is a character starting to come more into his own as a force to be reckoned with. Since his escape from prison he’s led the BAU on a wild goose chase, and he’s still out there even after what happened to Dr. Tara Lewis and her brother.

What arguably is the biggest impact of the character onscreen is that he is the villain responsible for taking Aaron Hotchner away from the team, as he is in witness protection somewhere trying to keep his family safe. Sure, as a writer who studies the show away from all of that, we’re very much aware of the fact that there is a whole lot more that went on with that. Still, we’re supposed to take the show at face value and they want us to think that Mr. Scratch is a nasty individual and one of the people responsible for taking Hotch away.

Now, the question we ponder over is this: Do you keep Peter Lewis around for the remainder of the season? Is he a worthy enough adversary that you continue to feature him a great deal? As of right now, we’d argue yes for the simple reason that there’s nobody else within the world of the show that can really touch him in terms of impact. Obviously, you don’t need to have a guy like him around for the remainder of the entire series, but giving the BAU a consistent threat to tackle for the entirety of a year is far from a bad thing. It also makes what Hotch went through worth it so much more impactful. If this was a character captured tomorrow, it suddenly wouldn’t look as though it was all that important that he went into hiding.

If you do want to see Mr. Scratch still around as the Big Bad for the entirety of this season, we want to know in the comments!

Interested in securing some other news regarding “Criminal Minds”? Then be sure to head over to the link here, where you can see a preview for ‘Scarecrow,” the next all-new episode of the show! (Photo: CBS.)