‘Criminal Minds’ season 9, episode 4 preview: Meet Mateo Cruz, and see JJ’s surprise

While most shows do not choose to have some sort of major change take place in the fourth episode of their season, “Criminal Minds” is trying its best to stand out from the norm and do something a little bit different here. What we have on Wednesday night is an hour that brings in a very important new character in Section Chief Mateo Cruz, and his past connection with another member of the BAU team will be what makes this scene interesting.

In the sneak peek video below, you can see Cruz arriving and subsequently addressing the team, saying that he is glad to be there and to also be a part of what they hope to do moving forward. He introduces himself politely, and then says a few nice things about a certain someone that he has heard a little bit about.

Then, things get interesting at the very end when JJ (AJ Cook) makes it very clear that she did not know he was coming. His response to that? That he was pretty sure that she appreciated a good surprise every now and then … though the surprise that we’re imagining here is not something involving him suddenly being her new boss.

We know that the story between these two traces back to when JJ was away from the team, and that will be explored in the 200th episode. But does anyone else sense some undertones here that the two had something that ended very badly? We don’t know if it was a relationship or just a friendship, but someone really needs to put some caution tape around the two of them so that we can figure it out. Luckily, the wait to that key episode is not that far away, and we will not be tormented too long at all.

What do you think about this video? Be sure to share below, and also take a look here for some more details about an upcoming episode that is going to be very critical for Hotch.

Photo: CBS