‘Criminal Minds’ season 9 spoilers: Get ready for Garcia flashbacks galore

In some ways,  “Criminal Minds” season 9 is going to feel like the year of the flashback at times. Not only are we going to see looks back into the early days of JJ and Hotch, but we are specifically going to have a story that features a much deeper look into who a certain Penelope Garcia was long before we even met her.

Speaking to TVLine in a new interview, executive producer Erica Messer confirms that the character’s life in 2004, back when she first met Hotch, will be further explored. Not only that, but we will have an opportunity to see a certain man that was very involved in her life in that time. She has clearly moved on in the near-decade since, but we do always like getting this sort of backstory. If there is any chance almost a decade into a show to find out something that we did not know previously, then we take this as something that is much appreciated.

Messer also talks about an interesting arrival for the show this season in new character Matt Cruz, who has an interesting relationship with JJ that they will be touching on further in the show’s upcoming 200th episode:

“People will wonder, ‘Did they have an affair? What’s going on?’ And all of that will pay off in our 200th episode, when we deal with the time JJ was away [during Season 6].” 

“Criminal Minds,” it is safe to say, is not going to be spending much time at all dwelling on what happened with the Replicator. While we may not be able to say much about the overall story for the season yet, this is something that spoilers about the show is clearly supporting.

Take a look here if you want to get a first look at the September 25 premiere, including a pretty funny shot of AJ Cook.

Photo: CBS