Criminal Minds season 12: Can we have more of Paget Brewster’s Emily Prentiss?

Consider this Criminal Minds season 12 article to be an extension of everything that we wrote last night, which was in turn a story all about characters who need to be considered for a lengthy serialized arc, similar to the one that we are seeing Spencer Reid be involved in at the moment.

This time around, the main point of discussion is one Emily Prentiss … and ONLY one Emily Prentiss. She’s one of the series’ strongest characters, and in turn, she’s also one of the best. She’s got a robust history, a great performer in Paget Brewster behind the role, and she’s the sort of leader that other crime series need.

Now that we’ve got all of that out on the table, it’s time to ask another question: Why aren’t we getting more from her? When is her big personal story coming? She’s smart, she’s capable, and she’s been great ever since her return. Unfortunately, we haven’t had too many cases where she’s placed at the center of everything.

Consider this piece a way to speculate over what the show may have planned.

Focusing on the introduction

This is a possibility that does make a certain degree of sense. Criminal Minds is a show that is, at the moment, working on getting the kinks worked out. You’ve reintroduced Emily Prentiss and then added Stephen Walker and Luke Alvez to the mix in less than a year. Therefore, there may be a sentiment where you want to focus on some of the established characters from the past few years while giving everyone else somewhat of a slow burn. What this achieves is that you make the loyal viewers feel as though it’s still very much the same show and that not everything is changing for them too quickly.

 Something major is planned for the finale

We’d love for this to be the case. since her taking over as Director of the BAU was one of the major plot points and driving forces early in the season. Since the writers had to plan at the last minute following Thomas Gibson’s exit in the early going, they may not have had time to break a big Emily Prentiss story. That may be different by the time that we roll around to the finale. Everyone may have a little more time, and there could be an attempt or two in order to embrace that.

Some other Emily Prentiss ideas

How about focusing more on her personal life? It’s something that we heard a little bit about at the time she came over, but there could be a use in getting some more information and intel on it now. Also, we’d love to see if something from her overseas work reentered the picture, and this provided a challenge that she was forced to deal with all over again. That’s the thing about this show more so than almost any other — it does not disclose much in terms of the off hours of work, vacations, or any sort of previous jobs. This leads to an almost-limitless field of possibilities.

To read more from that aforementioned Criminal Minds season 12 story yesterday, be sure to head over here.

What do you want to see from Emily Prentiss moving further into this season, and potentially next? Sound off in the comments below! (Photo: CBS.)