Criminal Minds Season 13: The BAU Faces Another Shake Up
01/24/2018 | By Mace Parker
*WARNING* THIS ARTICLE MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Last night's episode of Criminal Minds threw the audience in to shock after the episode ended in a twist that no one saw coming! Earlier this week we reported that JJ (A.J. Cook) might end up being forced off the team again after she received a worrying email from Assistant Director Linda Barnes (Kim Rhodes) requesting they meet and the last time she got an email like that from a person like Barnes, she was taken off the team. But boy were we wrong! JJ isn't the BAU agent who should've been worried. JJ spent the entire episode worried about her meeting with Barnes and it doesn't help that Barnes was the one responsible for decommissioning Simmons' old unit, and he can't offer up any comforting words for JJ. Prentiss does after the case is over, assuring JJ that she shouldn't be worried, "not as long as I'm charge." Well...Prentiss spoke too soon. When JJ goes upstairs for the meeting, Barnes greets her by telling her that effective immediately, Prentiss is on administrative leave pending internal review and JJ is the acting unit chief for the BAU. So what has Prentiss done that has gotten her suspended??! You may remember last year when the team was in Mexico trying to get Reid out of prison that Prentiss deleted the vital recording of Reid's cognitive interview, a choice that may come back to haunt her. In an interview last year, Showrunner Erica Messer teased that this "decision" may come back and haunt her: Does that mean Prentiss' (Paget Brewster) lie about the recording will come back to haunt her? Messer: It does. I feel like she would do anything in her power at that moment to get him out of that Mexican prison. He was going to get transferred to a really bad place. I'm cheering her on when she says, "I never recorded it." I'm like, "Yeah, you tell him!" [Laughs] But that's also technically not OK. It's that fuzzy gray area of, what would you do? I think we all think we would play it on the up and up, but the reality is a lot messier. Does she actually delete it eventually or is it still on her phone? Messer: You'll have to wait and see! And Prentiss has broken a few more rules when trying to get Reid out of prison like putting out a fake AMBER alert for Lindsey Vaughn that also may come back to haunt her. So there may actually be a few valid reasons as to why Prentiss has been suspended. But this also just might be a ploy by Barnes to get to the top of the Bureau. Simmons described Barnes as a political animal. If Prentiss is sullied with some kind of reprimand, does that serve to mar whoever appointed her chief, creating a space further up the ladder for Barnes? Could be, although that seems a stretch. Or maybe Barnes is in the pocket of someone with whom the BAU has crossed paths. Still, I can't imagine such a person could afford whatever inducement Barnes would require. So what is Barnes' plan? Why is Prentiss being suspended? Who knows? Either way Prentiss is in trouble and no doubt the team will be dragged into it too. We are just going to have to wait til next week to see the fallout of Assistant Director Barnes' decision. You can checkout the promo for next week's episode below. And if the promo for next week's episode is anything to go by, the next episode is the one that could tear the team apart. (Also next week's episode is the final episode until Wednesday, March 7 as Criminal Minds will be taking a break during the Olympics in February). Catch the fourteenth episode of Criminal Minds Season 13 on Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 10/9c on CBS
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