‘Criminal Minds’ season 12, episode 9 preview: Is a key Spencer episode (and Jane Lynch) coming soon?

Tonight, “Criminal Minds” gave you a story that brought many things to the table, but one of the biggest ones was that Reid needed to take some time off in order to attend to his mother’s situation.

So where does this leave Matthew Gray Gubler moving forward this season? We know that he is not leaving the show, so there is no need to worry about that. It’s possible that he could be gone for another episode or two similar to last season, but there is nothing confirmed about that at the moment. Hopefully, he will be sticking around — we do know that we could potentially be following him along on his journey this time around more so than we did when he had his season 11 hiatus.

How can we assume that? Earlier this year, it was reported that Jane Lynch was going to be reprising her role as Reid’s mother, something that has not been done in-the-flesh for a rather long time. We admire the show for sticking with her and not recasting the character, given the sole fact that she is amazing in the role and nobody else could’ve matched it. She was booked for many years on “Glee” and then “Angel from Hell,” but she is available now in a way that she has not been previously.

As for when the show looks to be back, early details suggest that it will be airing on Wednesday, January 4. Hopefully, CBS will have a little more insight on that in the coming weeks. We cannot say for sure whether or not this will be the episode featuring Lynch, but just know that this is something that will be coming up on the road moving forward. If you watch this show for powerful, emotional scenes, then this story, whenever it airs, is going to be right up your alley.

The one last thing we’ll say is that the title for the January 4 return is “Profiling 202.” Maybe we’ll see more of Damon Gupton after his debut tonight — we certainly hope so.

For more news on “Criminal Minds,” be sure to head over here to read out most-recent episode review! (Photo: CBS.)