Criminal Minds/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Why does Reid carry a revolver when everybody else carries Glocks? Aren't semi-automatic pistols standard issue in law enforcement? And if it was established that Reid is a terrible shot, then why would they give him a weapon with more recoil, less bullets in a chamber, a more complex reload and much slower rate of fire?
    • Character Development and Rule of Cool. He's definitely improved shooting-wise since that early season one episode. Heck, he's even been the first one to enter a house after the door gets kicked down.
    • Additionally, there is a reason to give your worst marksman a weapon with lower ammo capacity and slower rate of fire -- it reduces the odds that he'll hit somebody else by accident. Remember, every shot that misses its target still hits something. Also, given Reid's role on the team he shouldn't be shooting anyway except in a last-ditch self-defense situation, and those tend to occur at point-blank range. Which means if he's not killing the bad guy with the first six shots, he won't have time to reload anyway. IOW, all the reasons that the standard police detective issue used to be the snubnose revolver.
  • In "Tabula Rasa", in flashback, Morgan asks Reid what Garcia's name is. Reid says "Gomez, I think". Reid's supposed to have an eidetic memory! I know it applies more to stuff that he reads, not hears, but he presumably only heard it a little while ago. Was he intentionally screwing with Morgan? Because that doesn't seem like the sort of thing he would do.
    • Maybe was only verbally told and didn't hear clearly? Ehh-hh.
    • He was probably just screwing with Morgan, or being snarky, since both García and Gómez are last names, and mistaking them for first names would be more than out of character for him.
    • Given that Reid's eidetic memory is visual and not verbal/aural (he can easily remember word-for word things he's read but has to think about things he's only had read to him), probably he heard her name when she was introduced to him, but it didn't stick; he just remembered that it was a Spanish surname.
    • They pick on each other all the time. He was probably screwing with him.
  • Ryan, the main unsub in "3rd Life", was said to be 28... this just seems way too damn old, considering how everyone calls him "a kid" and "a boy", and nobody found it odd how he was always hanging out with high schoolers (the victim, also a high schooler, apparently had a crush on him as well). Reid even calls him a kid in "Elephant's Memory", even though Ryan was older than he was (Reid mentions he had just turned 27 in "Masterpiece", a season later).
    • I will give you the first part, that does seem odd. But as for Reid calling someone older than him a "kid", it may not be that strange. From my own experience, I graduated from high school and college early, and have a habit of doing this myself... it's a side effect of spending most of your time around people who are far older than you, you tend to feel more assimilated with them, than with others around your own age.
      • Don't forget that Reid is talking to other LE Os who are much older than him, so he's probably trying to relate to their perception. Also, Reid himself has always been called "a kid" by almost everyone, so it's not unreasonable for him to call Ryan a "kid" too because they're in the same age group (late twenties).
  • For "Lucky," since Penelope Garcia is the Techno Queen, you would think that she would have done a background check on her beau *cough*shooter*cough*, but no, she ignores Morgan's warnings and goes off to the date anyway. Idiot Ball, or a case of Lapsed character judgement? You decide.
    • I'd say lapsed character judgement. It's been a while, so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't she incredibly flattered/astonished when he asks her out? Which means that she would probably be able to completely ignore whatever her gut/friends/personal experience and training tells her because she so desperately wants to believe that he is just a nice guy who happens to like her. I think just about anyone in her situtation would do the same; denial is a human trait.
  • Given that the show portrays most of its killers being of above average to genius levels of intelligence and knowing of advances in DNA technology,information sharing and data mining as well as criminology,why would the majority of them use body disposal methods from the 1960's-1970's? Leaving multiple bodies out in the open to be quickly discovered is almost a sure-fire way to be detected and caught and yet most of these killers still shown to be doing it on this program.
    • Long live denial!
      • And for at least some of them, the fact that the body will be found is part of their deal. It wouldn't feel right for them otherwise.
  • Why aren't any of the BAU members amazed by the staggering number of serial killers that they have faced/arrested/killed throughout the series' run? Given that two shows were about terrorists,one show was them assisting in Guantanamo interrogation and one was about CIA mole hunt,they have encountered more than 100 killers in the history of the show. And no one is shown being amazed (or even mildly surprised) by this number.
    • Sadly, this is Truth in Television. While murder rates may be low, that low rate still translates into tens of thousands of murders each year. At any given time there are 20-50 serial killers working in the US alone, and that number doesn't take into account the spree killers that make up the majority of Criminal Minds cases.
  • In the same episode, Hotch tells Morgan and Prentiss to assist Garcia. Morgan asks Hotch in manner that suggested he was annoyed about it why that is necessary. After Hotch explains, Morgan goes into Garcia's office, gives a rather fake "pep talk" and then leaves WITHOUT HELPING HER! Morgan's attitude and actions were inconsistent w/ his previous actions and really seemed to undercut the believability of his and Garcia's friendship.
    • I think he was overestermating Garica then again Garica's provide time and time again that she can pull this thing out of the bag plus the rest of the team needed his help more. Also assiting her could have given her the impresion that he thought that she couldn't handle it.
  • In "Seven Seconds", when the team is looking for a little girl in the mall, a search dog is brought to help find her. The dog picks up her scent, but loses it the moment it smells food from the restaurant. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these dogs trained to stay "focused" and follow the scent no matter what, and in real life the dog would keep going until it would have eventually located the girl?
    • Yes and no. Yes they are trained to stay focused, but in a mall filled with people and food they can be easily distracted. It's not the ideal environment for them by a long shot.
      • Dogs also have layered senses of smell. Overwhelming a dog with certain smells/stimulus triggers more of their instinctive nature than their training. Even the most trained dogs can become distracted by something that is evolution and patterned in their genes.
  • In Supply and Demand, the season six finale, it's revealed that JJ's coming back. Earlier in the episode, it's revealed that the FBI's going to have budget cuts. So, if they're having budget cuts, how do they have the money to hire JJ?
  • This is a really minor thing, but the episode Roadkill was set in Oregon. The UNSUB has to keep replacing his front bumper and license plate because he's killing people with his car. We see this again and again, and, appropriately, he always replaces Oregon plates. Rossi and Morgan find his discards... and they're California plates.
    • Well, the series is filmed in California. And it could be a mess up with the props people, or the just didn't care.
  • How did Foyet know which page in Hotch's address book to take? Hayley is listed by her maiden name and Hotch doesn't really seem the type to put smiley faces next to the people who would be convenient targets if a serial killer happened to be looking for one, so how did he know her significance?
    • Foyet Crazy Prepared he would have reserched everything about Hotch and fouud out her madien name that way and when he didn't find her under H he would have looked under B.
  • The episode "North Mammon" has never really sat right with me. I can sit through basically every episode without flinching at all the horrible things they show, but it really perturbed me that none of the agents expressed any anger or disgust at what Brooke did to Kelly. Obviously they were all put into a difficult position, but I think it could have been inferred that had the girls not chosen someone, the unsub would have just let them go. I can't really accept what Brooke said about not having a choice as an excuse, either. Kelly never even touched the hammers, she was essentially all talk and no action, trying to convince Polly that they should choose Brooke. Brooke, on the other hand, attacked with no noticeable hesitation. I just wish someone would have said something about the fact that she did have a choice, and the one she made resulted in the death of an innocent person.
    • It seemed that the inference was the exact opposite. Had they not chosen a girl to kill, someone that twisted would not have let them go - he would rather let them starve and wallow in their own waste than see that happen, and it seemed that this was the implication. While I don't think that their reaction was entirely unrealistic, I do think that Brooke and Kelly may have acted and intended to act (respectively) very hastily. But if I had to venture a guess as to why the team really isn't that appalled, I'd say that, firstly, it's because it's not the worst they've seen. They already know what people are capable of, and they've become somewhat, although not entirely, inured to it. Secondly, they felt that it was important to place the blame on the mastermind, not the pawns. In the end, though, I really think that it's because they're used to this madness.
    • Ok, this is to the original poster. I do think Brooke had a choice. What I also think is that Brooke felt she had no choice .In a situation like that, you don't think rationally. It seems like Brooke knew Kelly was going to kill her at the beginning. She probably heard some of what Kelly said. Now imagine this: You're locked in a cellar with no food or water, you're also diabetic and don't have your medicine. You hear about your friend's plan to kill you. When you hear her yell to the abductor you guys made your choice, how are you going to think? Brooke acted on impulse-be killed or kill. She didn't want to die. Now I have another thing that bugs me...How come Kelly talking about killing Brooke is justified. You may not have been paying attention when during the episode, but Kelly was ACTUALLY going to kill Brooke. She wasn't just all talk and no action, she was trying to talk Polly ((Who was going to at first, but then backed down when he threw the hammers down.) into killing Brooke. Brooke acted fast upon this. Like I said, you can't rationally think about things in this type of situation.
  • In "Mayhem" the terrorist cell's plan is to set off a bomb in an ambulance to kill someone protected by the secret service. But the bomb doesn't seem large enough, especially since it would be in the underground concrete parking garage while the target was being airlifted off the roof. Were they planning to bring down the entire building?
  • In "Outfoxed," Prentiss and Hotchner interview the Fox in prison and, in order to garner more information, Prentiss flirts with him and feigns attraction. She later expressed disgust at herself for having to behave like that, saying that she had never done that before. In her story arc in the sixth season, though, it is revealed that she essentially faked an entire romantic relationship for years with Doyle, so she had obviously done it quite successfully before. Prentiss has a reputation on the show for being exceptionally cool and level-headed, so it's a bit confusing that she would be affected by something that didn't seem to faze her with Doyle.
    • Fridge Brilliance? This troper takes Prentiss' comment in Outfoxed as her still feeling guilt or regret over leading Doyle on the way she did, and she's now developed a distaste for such tactics. Notice that, even though she was disgusted by the idea, she still did it well. And she couldn't have very well just up and told Hotch "Yeah, I did this before to catch an arms dealer when I was a superspy, and I hated it then too!" That... probably wouldn't have flown.
  • In "Painless", how did the truth about what happened during the bombing never come out? Even if the 'Top Ten Survivors' clique all stuck to the story, why didn't other survivors come forward and reveal how the one guy was taking credit for the eventual Unsub's actions?
    • The whole episode is an obvious lift from Columbine, and the explanation may be a reference to Cassie Bernall (I am spoilering this in reference to the question.) For years, the famous 'she said yes' account was attributed to her, and the survivor who actually had the exchange with Klebold, Valeen Schnurr, was denigrated for suggesting that some wires were crossed in the telling of the story. The whole issue is well-explained in the book 'Columbine'. Clearly, if a similar situation happened in real life, and none of the survivors could corroborate the story, it could easily happen in the world of fiction.
  • In "Internet is Forever" Reid states that he doesn't even have an email account. As a socially awkward child genius he must be from the internets! Sure he can't be Garcia, but no email account?
    • Especially valid considering how hard it is to get along professionally without email these days. That's never sat right with me, either.
      • You could take it to mean he only has a professional email, rather than having a personal email, as well. Obviously, you wouldn't be sending your social networking updates to your work email.
        • Hmmm. Good point! Thank you.
  • In Safe Haven, Jeremy was supposedly one of twins and absorbed his brother in the womb. If the pregnancy was advanced enough for the mother to know she was having twins, is that even possible? One mostly-developed twin could die, certainly, but how could it just disappear?
  • The ending of "Machismo" (1x19) bothered me quite a bit. Hotch asks if the women who castrated the unsub would be charged, the Mexican cop asks "With what? They were only protecting their homes." Which... doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm not denying that a group of women who were raped did not deserve justice, and hell, attacking the unsub probably prevented another murder. But it's not that they incapacitated him, it's they cut off his penis, and were treated as if this was not only perfectly acceptable, but also somewhat heroic.
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