TV Friendships: Will ‘Criminal Minds’ season 12 bring the best for Reid, Garcia?

To say that this was a quiet offseason for “Criminal Minds” would be a downright lie. Just look at everything that has happened! At first we were thinking that we were getting exclusively good news over the course of the summer thanks to Paget Brewster’s return and the promotion of Aisha Tyler to series regular. Then, everything went down with Thomas Gibson, and in many ways we’re still reeling from that announcement.

Admittedly, we were planning at one point to make this TV Friendships article about Hotch when we were planning it out at the start of the month. That’s clearly changed, and it’s shifted our thinking as to what is one of the show’s most important bonds remaining. At present, there could be an extremely strong case to be made for Spencer Reid and Penelope Garcia, given their longtime status on the team, their intellect, and their roles at times as a beacon of hope in a fairly dark show.

Where they left off – The two did have their fair share of nice moments during season 11, but for the most part we’d say that the total group was more of the focus in the finale as “The Storm” let loose a series of past UnSubs into the world. This rattled the team, and probably does produce a certain degree of fear as they now have to pick up the pieces of what happened. If there was ever a time for the BAU to rely on one another, it’s now.

Where we go from here – With Hotch going, we want to see Garcia and Reid step up in a leadership role more than ever. The rest of the BAU is going to need them for advice, for inspiration, and even a smile here and there to handle the darkness. We want to see them on the forefront more, and as the anchors as two of the characters who have been there consistently longer than almost anyone else. For viewers, we may be looking towards them for some stability, and giving us some fun moments aside from the case where their quirky personalities shine will help to remind us that the show hasn’t changed as much as you would first assume.

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