Criminal Minds season 15 spotlight: The future for Matt Simmons

While Daniel Henney may be a relative newcomer within the flagship Criminal Minds as Matt Simmons, at least in comparison to people like Garcia and Reid, he’s a dedicated part of the family at this point. He brings a lot of intelligence and physicality to the BAU and already has shown himself to be a valuable, consistent asset. He’s tough when he needs to be and vulnerable when that suits him, and there’s something also quite sweet about seeing his home life away from the team. Simmons and JJ are the only parents with young children in the team, so there’s a certain humanity that comes with getting to see them back at home around the people that they love.

So as we move forward into season 15, what more story is there to tell for Simmons — whether it be with his family or his place within the BAU? Within this week’s spotlight, we’re going to profile this further. After you read this piece, we highly suggest that you check out the video below with more thoughts on the recent finale — on the other side of watching this, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube. There’s also a Criminal Minds playlist that is absolutely worth your time.

1. See Simmons become a father — again! – We learned at the end of this past season that he and Kristy were expecting another baby, and we’re expecting throughout this final chapter an opportunity to see him enter another exciting phase of his life. We get to see Simmons as a dad here and there, both on this show and on Beyond Borders, but we imagine that as you expand your family, life becomes increasingly demanding and stressful. Will he be able to continue keeping it together?

2. The state of his relationships at the BAU – for most of the past couple of seasons, Matt’s been more or less the new guy — even if he already has FBI experience under his belt already. Now, he’s more than just an agent to these people — he’s a friend and a part of the greater BAU family. We had a nice family moment in Rossi’s wedding, but we’d like to see him having some fun with another character or two in his off hours.

3. Explore more of his heritage – When we spoke to Henney for last season, he made it clear that he’d welcome the opportunity to speak a little bit more Korean as his character and also showcase even more of his background. Even if you don’t have him traveling the world like we saw over on Beyond Borders, could you bring more of the world to him — or at least give him an opportunity to utilize some of his language skills? The more that you can show off every wrinkle to what makes someone great, the better off it will be for the sake of the show.

4. Have him take the lead on a specific UnSub – We know that there are only ten episodes in the final season and because of that, there’s not much time to really give anyone spotlight missions. We’re not sure there will be any “name episodes” in here at all. Yet, we’d like for there to be one episode in the final season where Simmons ends up being the main person running point on a case — maybe the UnSub comes from a place he has experience with, or maybe they’re targeting him in a specific capacity.

We don’t need to venture too far into broken-record territory, but the theme for the final season remains this in our eyes: Give the actors great material, even if that means making their characters feel a little pain. We remain optimistic that they’ll be able to dust themselves off and rise above by the end of the season. Criminal Minds, despite the awfulness of the crimes and the darkness within the tone, is sometimes still a story of optimism. It’s a celebration of heroes like Matt Simmons and the work that they do stop the most terrifying of criminals.

For another Criminal Minds spotlight…

Head over here to get some of our thoughts on Garcia and her future!

What do you want to see from Simmons on Criminal Minds season 15? Be sure to share right now in the comments. (Photo: CBS.)