‘Criminal Minds’ season 12 spoilers: First details on Paget Brewster’s big return

The third episode of “Criminal Minds” season 12 is coming up on Wednesday, October 12, and while typically we would not trumpet any third episode as anything spectacular, it’s different this time around. It’s the first episode without Thomas Gibson in the cast, and it is the first to feature Paget Brewster as a regular in years. While her precise role on the show as Emily moving forward is still not clear, it’s wonderful to have her back. Hopefully, her presence will offer up enough glorious “Criminal Minds” nostalgia to compensate for the loss of Gibson and Shemar Moore over the past year or so.

CBS has released the title (“Taboo”) and the synopsis for this episode (see below), though we’re not going to say that either is the most in-depth thing we’ve ever seen:

“The BAU welcomes back Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) as they are called upon to investigate the disappearance of three women.”

We figure that for the writers, this episode in particular has to be one of the most challenging ones that they’ve ever had to deal with in the room. They had to adjust on the fly to the exit of Gibson, and also the news that Brewster would be sticking around permanently. Hopefully, we’re going to have a chance to spend a little time dealing with the aftereffects of all the changes, even though we know that this is not a show that will necessarily slow things down forever when there are other cases to resolve.

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