‘Criminal Minds’ season 12 spoilers: More on key Matthew Gray Gubler episode ‘Spencer’

Is Matthew Gray Gubler leaving “Criminal Minds“? This is a question that we’ve seen pondered over many places on the internet, and we do understand the paranoia given how beloved a character he is.

Yet, at the same exact time, there is no evidence to actually suggest he is going anywhere other than the character receiving some urgent news during the final episode of 2016, and the fact that there is an episode coming up entitled “Spencer.” When you think back at some of the other episodes titled in such a way — including “Penelope” and “Derek” — many of them have involved terrible things happened to those characters. In the case of the latter, it also set in motion the events leading up to his exit.

To date, details on Spencer are still relatively unclear, but Kirsten Vangsness (who co-wrote the episode with showrunner Erica Messer) made it clear to TVLine that assuming the worst when it comes to the end of Spencer on the show may not be the right move:

“I seem to co-write the episodes that change the course for people … That does not mean the ends of people, it just changes their course. So [Episode 13] is a course changer. It’s a course changer.”

Could this be the episode featuring the return of Jane Lynch to the series? That is something you do have to wonder about, given that it’s already been widely reported that she would be coming back as Reid’s mother. Given that her presence would be important for a “course changer,” this would be the sort of way in which we’d like to see the story go. So long as Gubler’s not going anywhere, we’ll be happy — it absolutely feels as though we’ve lost enough notable “Criminal Minds” cast members over the course of the past several weeks.

What do you want to see in the “Spencer” episode? Let us know some of your thoughts now in the comments, and head over here to get some additional news right now when it comes to “Criminal Minds.” (Photo: CBS.)