Criminal Minds/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Characters from Criminal Minds include:

The Current[when?] BAU Team

Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner (Thomas Gibson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

"Did you join a boy band?"

  • Death Glare: Look at the picture to the right. That's him on a good day.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Listening to Foyet psychologically torture his ex-wife and son, promising to kill them, hearing Haley shot over the phone, and finding her body in their old home. Hotch loses it and empties his gun into Foyet, then beats him to death with his own hands.
  • Family Versus Career: In season three, Haley makes him choose - her and Jack or the FBI. He chooses the FBI. In season five, after Haley is killed, he must choose between them again. FBI's still winning, though he does work out an arrangement with his sister-in-law to help raise Jack.
  • Hates Being Touched
  • Heterosexual Life Partners / Ho Yay: Hotch and Rossi, who are the only two team members to regularly call each other by their first names and have been very close friends for over fifteen years.
  • High School Sweethearts: Hotch and Haley married right out of high school. Apparently, it was love at first sight and Hotch joined a production of Pirates of Penzance as the "worst Fourth Pirate ever" to impress her.
  • Hot Dad
  • It's Personal: Any and all violence against children (especially physical child abuse) and cases that leave children without a father, not to mention his obsession with catching the Reaper. After the Reaper and the events of "100", we can add unsubs torturing their victims over the phone, and unsubs who use knives and sexual sadism against their victims.
  • Last-Name Basis: Except for Haley and Rossi, everyone calls him "Hotch".
  • The Leader: Type II.
  • Married to the Job: It leads to his divorce.
  • Papa Wolf: Do not mess with his team. It will end badly.
    • Furthermore, let the fate of George Foyet/The Reaper serve as a cautionary tale against attacking Hotchner's family.
  • Perpetual Frowner
  • Reasonable Authority Figure
  • Samaritan Syndrome: Hotch tends to think he can save everybody, and actually goes and tries. This is deconstructed in the series twice - first, in "Omnivore", when Rossi gives him a verbal smackdown ("That isn't your conscience talking, Aaron, it's your ego."); and second, in "Hopeless", when he, along with Rossi and Prentiss, leave the group of UnSubs to their intended Suicide by Cop, knowing he can do nothing to stop local law enforcement from enacting revenge.
    • The unsub of Scared To Death lampshades this.
  • Second Love: Has this with Beth in season 7.
  • Team Mom
  • The Chains of Commanding
  • The Profiler: Along with the rest of the team.
  • The Stoic: Usually.
    • Not So Stoic: "Mayhem", "Outfoxed", and especially "100".
    • In Season 7, he's largely gotten over Haley's death and has started dating. He now appears more often in casual clothing, smiles and laughs more, and everyone (especially Rossi) is absolutely delighted to see this.
  • What Could Have Been: Before Thomas Gibson was cast, Hotch was originally written as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Mormon.
  • When He Smiles: They are few and rare (and occur mainly around his young son), but when they appear, they are stunning.

David Rossi (Joe Mantegna)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Amicably Divorced: Above and beyond this with first ex-wife Carolyn, implied to be this with his two other ex-wives as well.
  • Agent Scully
  • Badass Beard: Even grows one. In his first appearance, "About Face", he's clean-shaven and a total jerkass. In the next episode, "Identity", he seems to have taken Hotch's advice to heart along with growing his goatee.
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Break the Haughty: "Damaged" does a number on him in season three; "Epilogue" does a worse one in season seven.
  • Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: On the rare occasion when a situation requires both him and Hotch to throw their weight around, Rossi is Sergeant Rough.
  • Casanova: Largely in backstory. Apparently, Rossi is the reason behind the Bureau's "no-fraternization" policy.
  • The Chessmaster: His hostage-negotiation in "Minimal Loss" and interrogations in "Masterpiece" and "Zoe's Reprise" teach us that you do not want to try and out-maneuver David Rossi.
  • Cool Old Guy: Knows enough about Grand Theft Auto to identify characters from it, claims he's played video games, and explains Twitter to Reid.
    • He's also seen playing video games with Ashley at the end of "Coda".
    • Helps Hotch coach Jack's soccer team. It's really kind of adorable.
  • Deal with the Devil: In "Profiling 101" Rossi makes a deal with the Unsub. The Unsub is off death row and he will give Rossi the name and location of the body of one of his victims. But, it had to be on a special day of the Unsub's choosing. He chose Rossi's birthday.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Famed in Story: When Manilow's not in town.
  • First-Name Basis: Hotch is the only one to regularly call him "Dave". Op Oo Likewise, he's one of the three people who ever call Hotch "Aaron". Rossi also calls Strauss by her first name ("Erin"), usually to piss her off.
  • Guile Hero
  • Heterosexual Life Partners / Ho Yay: Rossi and Hotch, who are the only two team members to regularly call each other by their first names and have been very close friends for over fifteen years.
  • Honorary Uncle: Jack calls Rossi "Uncle Dave" at least once.
  • It's Personal: The Galen case ("Damaged"), the Butcher case ("Remembrances of the Past"), idol worship/emulation, especially directed toward him ("Limelight", "Zoe's Reprise"), and religion ("Demonology", "Public Enemy").
  • Jerkass: Depending on the writer. Moreso in season three, but there have been episodes in season five where writers of various episodes have him lapsing back into his Jerkass-y ways.
    • Jerkass Facade: Rossi comes off as an egotistical bastard when he first shows up, baiting UnSubs and insulting a lot of people's intelligence. Turns out he's just kind of crap at this whole "team" thing, and once he realizes that these people have his back ("Damaged", most notably), he's a lot more open and caring toward them.
  • Large Ham: Can pull it off when needed, usually in the course of distracting the press (as seen in "The Performer" and "Painless").
  • Lying to the Perp: Rossi's a master at this - see "Masterpiece" and "Reckoner" for particularly spectacular examples.
    • Arguably, "Reckoner" deconstructed this, as Rossi tells the somewhat Sympathetic Murderer that he slept with his wife, multiple times, and the unsub dies without learning that it was a lie, which just adds an extra tinge of tragedy to an already fairly brutal episode.
  • Married to the Job: Rossi, in his own words, is "more married to this team than I have been to three wives."
  • The McCoy: Usually playing this role to Reid's Spock and Morgan or Hotch's Kirk.
  • The Mentor: To Seaver.
  • New Old Flame: It takes until season 7, and it's in heartbreaking circumstances, but we do meet the first ex-Mrs. Rossi, Carolyn.
  • Papa Wolf: It takes a bit for him to warm up to the team, but by "Masterpiece", he'll destroy you if you touch his team.
  • Parental Substitute: For Ashley Seaver. Ironically, Rossi captured her real father, a notorious serial killer.
  • Real Men Cook: Turns out to be an excellent cook, especially Italian food.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Acts as the de facto leader when Hotch isn't around; especially when compared with Erin Strauss.
  • Retired Badass: Before he returns to the Bureau. He's not so much retired anymore.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: He does this often. In "Hit", when the FBI Director orders Strauss to sacrifice the unsubs' hostages in order to take them down, the team immediately protests. Strauss asks them if they plan on defying the Director. Rossi's response is simply "Yes."
  • Team Dad
  • The Consigliere: Mostly to Hotch, but as of S5, to Morgan as well.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Out-gambits Henry Grace fairly magnificently in "Masterpiece".

Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Bald of Awesome
  • Bald Black Leader Guy: Briefly in Season Five.
  • Berserk Button: Touch his "baby girl" Garcia, and you are going to wish for death. Also, does not deal well with sexual abuse cases - it's kind of close to home.
  • Big Brother Instinct: He will put your head on a pike if you DARE to touch a single hair of his surrogate little brother Spencer Reid.
    • Or anyone else on the team, actually.
  • Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Averted and subverted with Garcia - she's not technically his "love interest" and he doesn't have a problem at all sexualizing her.
  • Clear Their Name: In "25 to Life", when a man Morgan profiled as a rehabilitated offender is suspected of murder.
    • Morgan himself in "Profiler, Profiled", when he is suspected of a series of murders in his old neighborhood.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Watch "Profiler, Profiled" and all of Morgan's issues with authority figures and sexual abuse make sense. Then take a look at "Big Sea" and "The Company" and get a look into how fractured the stalking and disappearance of his cousin Cindy caused the family to be.
  • Fair Cop: Literally. Morgan used to be a cop before he joined the BAU.
  • Genius Bruiser
  • Handsome Lech: The playful, mostly-directed-toward-Garcia kind.
    • He's mostly smooth with ladies he seriously wants to date, and turns on a more over the top 'lech' attitude with Garcia, older women and/or bums...and it's ADORABLE.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: With Reid. Although the fandom prefers to forget the "Heterosexual" part.
  • It's Personal: Sexual abuse cases ("Profiler, Profiled"), racism ("Fear and Loathing", among others), and violence against cops ("Brothers in Arms"). He's also had the Prince of Darkness ("Our Darkest Hour"/"The Longest Night"), the Reaper ("Omnivore", "Faceless, Nameless"), clearing the name of Don Sanderson ("25 to Life"), and his cousin's disappearance in "Big Sea" and "The Company".
    • He spends almost every waking moment after Prentiss's "death" hunting down Ian Doyle, culminating in going off-grid.
  • Mr. Fanservice: Particularly apparent in "I Love You, Tommy Brown," where he steps out of a shower dripping wet with a loving pan up his body.
  • No One Gets Left Behind: He does this for Prentiss in "Lauren".
  • Parental Substitute: For Ellie Spicer.
  • Platonic Life Partners: With Garcia. No one messes with his "Baby Girl".
  • Raised by Dudes: Inverted, with interesting consequences. All of the relatives we've ever met of his are female (his mother, his three sisters, his aunt, his cousin), which reinforces why Morgan treats the women in his life (especially Garcia) so well.
  • Sexual Abuse As Backstory: Painfully revealed in "Profiler Profiled".
  • The Nicknamer: Can fall into this when talking to Reid ('Kid', 'Pretty Boy', 'Genius') or Garcia (too many to list).
    • His favorite by far is "Babygirl".
  • To Know Him I Must Become Him: Fun drinking game in the first couple seasons - count the number of times Morgan says "I'm the UnSub".
  • Urban Legend Love Life
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Not Morgan himself, but his work specialising in obsessional crimes. The fact that he has this specialty hasn't come up in ages, even in episodes such as "The Big Wheel" where the crimes clearly are obsessional.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Blows Lucy away without a second thought.
  • Would Hurt a Child: If that child were a killer, or so he claims to a teenage unsub in "Exit Wounds." Fortunately, the unsub ultimately surrenders voluntarily.
  • You Called Me "X" - It Must Be Serious: After being promoted to Unit Chief in Season Five:

Morgan: Thanks Babygi- Agent Garcia.

Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

"Never wage a practical joke war against an MIT graduate, because we have a history of going nuclear."

  • Bishonen: It's the literal translation of one of Morgan's nicknames for him, "pretty boy".
  • Break the Cutie: So many times. It seems the writers like to torture him, lock him up, drug him, infect him with anthrax, tie him up...
    • Prentiss' supposed death could count as well. How did he spend the time while she was away? At JJ's house, crying, and almost relapsing on Dilaudid.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Reid does this to his own father in 4x7 "In Memoriam", and then to the unsub's father in "The Uncanny Valley".
    • Inverted in 4x20 "Conflicted", when he interrupts Adam/Amanda Jackson's murderous version of this.
  • Cannot Tell a Joke: Spencer tells hilarious jokes ... if you're a genius speed-reading polymath with an eidetic memory. Otherwise, not so much.
    • He seemed pretty surprised when the villain from "Masterpiece" actually understands a joke he told a university class.
  • The Cast Showoff: The magic tricks.
  • Child Prodigy: Graduated from high school at 12, had two BAs by 16, has an IQ of 187 and an eidetic memory.
  • Clueless Chick Magnet: Poor guy doesn't realize that when beautiful movie stars kiss him it's because he's a babe, not because of 'transference'.

Prentiss (after interviewing the homeless for information): How'd you guys do?
Hotch: Well, Reid got propositioned by every prostitute we talked to...

  • Dark and Troubled Past: Poor kid. Mommy's schizophrenic and Dad abandoned everyone. Biggest brain in the room and usually the one targeted physically by the serial killers.
  • Disappeared Dad: First with his own father, and then with his father figure, Gideon.
  • Fan Wank: In an in-universe example, Reid has a tendency to bore his colleagues with rants about the specs of the Death Star, whether Bill and Ted is a ripoff of Doctor Who, and the nature and frequency of science errors in the original Star Trek: The Original Series.
  • Flanderization: We all know that athletics are not Reid's strong suit, but failing EVERYTHING involving physical exertion (marksmanship, physical training, the obstacle course, Hogan's Alley, etc) at the Academy? It's a little extreme and it begs the question of how he not only passed the Academy, but continues to pass his field qualifications.
  • Geek Physiques: The skinny kind. Probably as a result of Forgets to Eat.
  • Genius' Sweet Tooth: If there's junk food around, Reid will find it.
  • Good with Numbers
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: Definitely shows signs of this with Morgan.
  • Hidden Depths: Who'd have pegged Reid as a basketball coach in high school?!
  • Hollywood Nerd
  • In-Series Nickname: "Spence" from JJ, "Kid" and "Pretty Boy" from Morgan, and countless ones from Garcia, 'Gorgeous Grey Matter' being a notable example.
  • Insufferable Genius: Unlike most versions, this comes not from arrogance (He's quite humble) but simply his habit of outshining others with his knowledge, making Them look bad by comparison (Which is very unintentional and simply a habit of his).
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Reid's school experience - "Being the smartest kid in class is like being the only kid in class."
  • I'm Taking Him Home With Me: He does tend to engender this type of response in some people.
  • James Bondage: Definitely. The most danger-prone agent out of the bunch. Enough said.
  • Mr. Fanservice
    • Keeping with this: Nerds Are Sexy. Lila Archer (1x18 "Somebody's Watching"), Austin (4x9 "52 Pickup"), and various prostitutes (c.f. 2x22 "Legacy" and 4x7 "In Memoriam") seem to think so.
  • Must Have Caffeine: Everyone in the BAU appears to like coffee, but Reid's is the only one to have a big point made of it. Probably because of all of the sugar he takes with it.
  • Near-Death Experience: Tells the team in "Epilogue" that when he was dying in Tobias Hankel's shed, he felt a warmth and saw white lights.
  • Nerd Glasses: Wears these from time to time.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: The member of the team most likely to inform you of the Squickiest thing the unsub might do. Like eat human eyeballs.
  • No Social Skills: He's VERY awkward around people other than the team.

Reid: I was able to differentiate between two distinct voices, two authors. I found various idiosyncratic words, phrases, punctuation and orthography within the blog. Entries consistent with each separate person, words like soda and pop. One guy uses dashes while the other guy uses ellipses. *chuckles*
Detective Linden: ... where'd you find this kid?
Rossi: He was left in a basket on the steps of the FBI.

  • Not That Kind of Doctor: Gideon always introduces him as "Dr. Reid" and Hotch does occasionally, leaving Reid to explain that he hasn't been to medical school, but does have three PhDs.
    • Note that this doesn't stop him from trying to use his title of "Doctor" to approve himself for active duty in Season 5 when he disagreed with the notion of taking time off to let his leg fully heal.
  • Older Than They Look: Post 'boy band' haircut, he manages to look about 12, despite the actor being 29 at the time.
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Oh god. So much.
  • One of Us: Really into Doctor Who and magic, not so much modern pop culture.
  • Photographic Memory: His eidetic memory has been proven to be imperfect - for example, his memories from his very young childhood are murky at best - but, generally, it's reliable.
  • Prank Date: Was victim to this in high school. It was... brutal, to say the least.
  • The Prankster: Do not try and prank an MIT grad, Morgan. Giving Reid's number to a bunch of press leads to a hilarious return-serve of Reid hijacking all of Morgan's electronic equipment (iPod, cell phone, etc) and programming them to play a looped message of him screaming.
  • Pretty Boy: Hoo boy. In the words of Shemar Moore (the actor who plays Morgan), 'Matthew's so pretty he's almost a girl.'
    • It's also his nickname.
    • Well he was a fashion model...
  • Primal Fear: It's revealed in The Boogeyman that he's scared of the dark.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: Switches from a pistol to a revolver as his sidearm in Season 4.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He uses so many SAT words that it's not even funny.
  • Smart People Play Chess: Inverted and subverted; Reid plays, but is constantly beaten by Gideon, and Prentiss out-thinks him in 2x10 "Lessons Learned."
    • Additionally, in "The Uncanny Valley," it's implied that he stopped playing against people after Gideon left, while playing out every possible game with himself. Until the end of the episode, anyway.
  • Snark Knight: Turns into this towards JJ after he finds out that JJ lied to him about Prentiss' death.
  • Someday This Will Come in Handy: Reid has so much apparently useless knowledge that it is, in fact, ridiculous. By contrast, his knowledge of pop culture varies: he knows Siouxsie and the Banshees but not Twilight or Lady Gaga. (Note that both Twilight and Gaga are newer than Siouxsie and the Banshees, so it may be that his knowledge of pop culture is simply limited to a certain period of time.)
    • And some of it does come in handy, such as in "Plain Sight", where he recognises the literature that the unsub writes quotes from at the crime scenes.
    • Lampshaded by Morgan in "True Night"

Reid: You should have listened to me.
Morgan: It wouldn't have saved that much time, Reid, let it go.
Reid: The interchange between the 405 and the 101 freeways is consistently rated the worst interchange in the entire world.
Morgan: Why do you know that?
Reid: The government report.
Morgan: So what?
Reid: So you work for the government, you don't read the reports?
Morgan: On traffic patterns in a city 2,500 miles from where I live?
Reid: 2,295 miles.
Morgan: Do not make me smack you in front of all these people.

  • The Spock: An interesting take on this trope. He's usually the most logical team member and the one to come up with the most effective plans. Though he is still not even close to handling cases unemotionally.
  • Team Pet
  • Teens Are Monsters: Holy shit his classmates in his Backstory. See Prank Date above, and keep in mind he would've been at most twelve.
  • The Smart Guy: Three Ph Ds, one of them in engineering, check. Difficulty with guns (at least, in "LDSK"), check. Prefers to talk people down rather than risk shoot-outs, check. Badass Bookworm, check.
  • Took a Level in Badass: A few over the course of the show, but a spectacular one in "It Takes a Village".

Interviewer: Now, calm down, Agent--
Reid: This is calm and it's Doctor.

  • Tropaholics Anonymous: In 3x16 "Elephant's Memory," he's seen attending a meeting of "Beltway Clean Cops" to cope with the Dilaudid addiction he developed in season two.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: He is not happy to learn that the fact that Prentiss' death was faked was intentionally hidden from him.

Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vagsness)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Badass Boast: In a slightly nerdy way whenever she answers the phone to the team, for example she's announced herself "the fountain of all knowledge" on one occasion. Also see the quote under Beware the Nice Ones, she could absolutely do that. There's also her CMOA at the end of "The Internet Is Forever".
  • Beware the Nice Ones:

"Girlfriend? Kevin, if you come within 100 feet of Agent Rossi, I will unleash an unrecoverable virus onto your personal computer system that will reduce your electronic world into something between a Commodore 64, and a block of government cheese... call me later!"

Garcia: I don't believe in guns!
Morgan: (shoves one her hands) Believe me, they are very real!

  • Expy: Garcia shares a lot of personality traits with Abby Sciuto, though their precise roles are different. Both shows are on CBS.
    • Funnily enough, this is likely a complete coincidence; Garcia's character was originally going to be a chubby, middle-aged Latino man. Then they met Kirsten Vangsness.
  • Feminine Women Can Cook: Subverted in "Proof". Garcia can bake, but apparently lacks most cooking skills. Rossi ends up teaching her.
  • Geeky Turn On: How she first meets Kevin.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: She, Prentiss, and JJ are all extremely close - Garcia is even godmother to JJ's son Henry.
  • In-Series Nickname: So, so many from Morgan.
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl
  • Meganekko: When she's wearing her glasses.
  • Mission Control
  • Multicolored Hair: With more colors than a cotton candy machine. Garcia digs the Manic Panic.
  • Ms. Fanservice: She's quite well-built, to say the least, and several of her outfits, particularly the dress she wore to JJ's wedding, seem designed to show it off.
  • Near-Death Experience: In "Penelope", she tells Morgan, Emily, and Reid that she heard the David Bowie song "Heroes" while she was coding in the ambulance, which makes her wonder if David Bowie is God.
  • Oh Crap: When she gets a call from Morgan she usually answers in a very flirty way, which leads to these moments when he replies "You're on speakerphone".
    • The crowner has to be Garcia's expression in "In Name and Blood":

Garcia: Talk dirty to me.
Strauss: This is Section Chief Strauss.

  • One of Us: So much that Garcia is the online fandom's spirit animal. Internet nerdery, quoting classic movies, loves comic books and other assorted media.
    • Interestingly enough, "The Internet Is Forever" implies she's not a fan of social networking sites.
  • Platonic Life Partners: With Morgan, her "sweet prince" and other assorted nicknames.
  • Playful Hacker: One of the most dangerous in the world, actually.
  • Promotion to Opening Titles: From season 2 onwards.
  • Recruiting the Criminal: After she got caught hacking the FBI's database, the choice was pretty much "join the Bureau or we put you in jail".
  • The Heart: She and JJ tend to share this role between them.
  • The Nicknamer; You could count on one hand the number of time she refers to anyone she's talking to by their real name. Made all the more impressive in that she comes up with a new one every time.
    • In fact, this is such an important character trait, that when Reid calls her after he's been infected with anthrax, he can tell how upset she is by the fact that she calls him "Reid".
  • Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Averted in that any time Garcia takes a role other than computer-related analysis, there's always a good reason and she goes back to technical analyst when it's finished (ex: doing some profiling during "House on Fire" at Hotch's request; becoming the interim media liaison when JJ leaves because she wants to help out).

Jennifer "JJ" Jareau (A.J. Cook)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Action Mom
  • Beware the Nice Ones: "Revelations" and kill-shots to three rabid dogs. "Penelope" and one beautiful headshot through a plate-glass window. "The Performer" and a shovel to the back of an UnSub's head. Do not fuck with JJ.
  • Dead Big Sister: "Risky Business" tells us JJ's older sister committed suicide when she was 11.
  • Character Development: JJ's original role on the team was to manipulate the media (and through them the bad guys) as well as deal with people the team came into contact with. Starting at the end of season five her role noticeably expanded until her temporary departure part way through Season 6. As of Season 7's "Proof" she's out pounding the pavement with Reid as well checking out body dumps and talking profiler-speak to the locals with Rossi.
  • Deadpan Snarker: JJ seems to have absorbed best-bud Emily's penchant for sawdust-dry wit in season 7.
  • Fair Cop
  • Happily Married: In Season 3's "Lo-Fi", Will LaMontagne tells the team that he's asked JJ to marry him. They are shown living together during Season 7, with Will taking care of Henry while JJ is chasing a serial killer in Tornado Alley, but not officially married until the season 7 finale.
  • Hot Mom
  • It's Personal: Small-town violence ("North Mammon", "Risky Business"), stalking ("The Crossing"), and suicide ("Risky Business").
  • Mama Bear: DO NOT threaten her kid when she's around, she WILL kick your ass, as a thrillseeking bank robber/terrorist found out in the season seven finale.
  • Put on a Bus: Thanks to Executive Meddling, she left in Season 6's "J.J.", accompanied by loads of Reality Subtext.
  • Screwed by the Network: See Put on a Bus. And the bitch of it is that in the episode directly preceding her exit, "The Longest Night", A.J. Cook does some of the best work of her career.
    • She was even more screwed than usual: Cook wasn't let go because of ratings or a dispute with the cast or crew; she was let go because CBS was pinching pennies to make a spinoff (which failed) and was too cheap to renew her contract.
  • The Danza: Subverted. Although A.J. Cook jokes that the character was named JJ so she'd be able to remember it (being a blonde), the producers swear they came up with the name before Cook was cast.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Four over the course of the show.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Will and Henry seem to appear and disappear in continuity Depending on the Writer.

Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Action Girl
  • Agent Mulder: Especially in "Demonology", where she's the one to bring up the exorcism angle.
  • Big Sister Mentor: Towards Ashley Seaver.
  • Boobs of Steel: She's not as busty as Garcia, but each one is still roughly the size of her head. Fittingly, the episode that shows this off most, "Lauren," is also when she's at her most Badass.
  • Brainy Brunette
  • Break the Cutie: All through her story arc involving Ian Doyle. Also, the writers sometimes seem committed to literally breaking her, ad she is the team member most likely to have to endure a savage beating.
  • Commuting on a Bus: Luckily, only for part of season 6.
  • Cool Big Sis: To Reid, especially after her return from the dead.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Druggie friends, a neglectful mother, disappeared father, and an abortion at fifteen. Not to mention her time as an undercover operative tracking terrorists for Interpol.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Probably the preeminent snarker amongst the cast.
  • Death Faked for You
  • Disappeared Dad: We know a lot about Prentiss's mother, the Ambassador, but her father is never mentioned.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
  • Fair Cop: Most of the time, but especially when she's undercover in "52 Pickup".
  • Faking the Dead
  • Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Subverted. We find out in "Demonology" that Prentiss got pregnant in Rome when she was 15, and had an abortion. While she does show regret that she endured that time in her life without much in the way of support, she is never shown to be "damaged" in any way from the decision. Rather, it is the reaction of the Catholic church and the ignorance of her mother that is the problem.
  • Goth: In high school.
  • Heroic Sacrifice. Subverted. With the exception of JJ and Hotch, the whole BAU team thinks Prentiss died from her encounter with Doyle, and there is a funeral. At the end of "Lauren" however, it is clear that Prentiss is in fact still alive, but in Witness Protection.
  • Honor Before Reason: Some of her behavior in "Valhalla" and "Lauren".
  • Hot Chick in a Badass Suit
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: In "Lauren", she tells Morgan, "Let me go", which prompts a No One Gets Left Behind response from him.
  • It's Personal: Politics ("Honor Among Thieves") and violence against women (especially rapes, as in "Slave of Duty"). "The Thirteenth Step" starts the Ian Doyle arc, which is played out until "It Takes a Village".
  • I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: Prentiss's Goth look in high school is played for laughs:

Prentiss: What'd you do to it?
Garcia: Do?
Prentiss: You obviously photoshopped it or something. I mean, that hair!
Garcia: Oh no, Pussycat, that's all you. Garfield High, class of '89.
Prentiss: You really didn't change anything?
Garcia: I hacked it as is. You trying to tell me you seriously don't remember rocking that look?
Reid: Perhaps your lack of recognition stems from a disassociative fugue suffered in adolescence. Like, say, at a Siouxsie and the Banshees concert?

  • Near-Death Experience: Reveals in "Epilogue" that when she coded in the ambulance in "Lauren", all she felt was cold and darkness. Being a very lapsed Catholic, she says she desperately wants to change.
  • Older Than They Look: According to her fake tombstone, she's in her forties, and Prentiss is actually a year younger than the actress who plays her.
  • One of Us: Reads comic books, makes Star Trek references, and digs Vonnegut.
  • Parental Substitute: To Declan Doyle, though not at all in the way his father intended.
  • Parenthetical Swearing: Usually directed toward Strauss. Only Prentiss can make the address "ma'am" sound like "fuck you, you soulless bitch".
    • She also gives Hotch a rather icy "sir" in "Sex, Birth, Death" when he touches a raw nerve by accusing her of playing political games.
    • And her response of "And also with you" (to unsub Father Paul's condescending "May God's love be with you") is delivered in a tone that sounds more like a spit to the face.
  • Put on a Bus: But it's a happy ending for her as she's now head of British Interpol!
  • Ship Tease: For a series that is strictly No Hugging, No Kissing among the main cast, she gets quite a bit with both Reid and Morgan
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Her response to going "undercover" in "52 Pickup".
  • Took a Level in Badass: Sure, we always knew Prentiss was badass, but in her Doyle story arc she suddenly becomes a superspy when she turns out to have been an undercover operative for Interpol; over the course of her final episodes she winds up going rogue, staring at the door all night with her gun out, tossing grenades into unsubs' cars and spraying them with machine-gun fire, and shooting hood rats in the ear. To say nothing of her badass change in wardrobe at the end of "Valhalla".
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The scarification shamrock inflicted by Doyle seems to have magically disappeared.
  • When You Coming Home Mom: While it's never really confirmed, Emily Prentiss does not have a good relationship with her mother, and has implied numerous times that Ambassador Prentiss was neglectful toward her (most notably in "Honor Amongst Thieves", when she's surprised the Ambassador would go to her, and in "Demonology", when she says her mother "would have killed" her if she'd found out Emily was pregnant and had an abortion).
    • It really doesn't get much more neglectful than failing to attend your own daughter's funeral.

Former BAU Members

Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Elle Greenaway (Lola Glaudini)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Jordan Todd (Meta Golding)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Heroic BSOD: Her arc on the show is basically her descent into this.
  • Morality Pet: Serves as one to remind the audience (and the team) that most people find what the BAU does to be a horrible job and cannot cope with the constant mental trauma.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Not that Meta Golding was unattractive before, but going undercover in "52 Pickup" gives her a chance to look extremely pretty.
  • Skewed Priorities: In "52 Pickup", Jordan lies to the mother of a victim, telling her that her own sister was killed and her mother wouldn't help the police, pressuring the mother into letting the sister of the victim talk to the FBI. Hotch calls her out on it and delivers a blistering verbal smackdown. She gets herself back on track by teaming up with Prentiss to go undercover and catch the UnSub.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For JJ, while she was on maternity leave.
  • The Heart
  • Temporary Substitute

Ashley Seaver (Rachel Nichols)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:


Other Characters

Haley Hotchner (Meredith Monroe)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Jack Hotchner (Cade Owens)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Detective Will LaMontagne (Josh Stewart)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Ascended Extra: Originally only meant to appear in "Jones," when A.J. Cook became pregnant, the writers had to create a love interest for her quickly, and remembering her chemistry with Will, brought him back to be her mate.
  • The Big Easy
  • A Day in the Limelight: While "Hit" and "Run" don't focus entirely on him, he plays a huge role in the story and we learn a lot about him.
  • Fair Cop
  • Happily Married: Maybe not married, but certainly living with JJ, and it's kind of adorable. They are as of "Run".
  • Hot Dad
  • Like Father, Like Son: His father was also a detective.
  • Married to the Job: Averted. He was perfectly willing to give it up to be closer to JJ and the baby.
    • Season seven shows that he is now working as a detective in Washington.
  • Put on a Bus: A longer and more frequent one than JJ.
  • That One Case: In "Jones".

Kevin Lynch (Nicholas Brendon)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Section Chief Erin Strauss (Jayne Atkinson)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Diana Reid (Jane Lynch)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Carolyn Baker Rossi (Isabella Hoffman)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Notable Unsubs

Karl Arnold, the Fox (Neal Jones)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Karl Arnold: It's great to see you squirm, Agent Hotchner!

Randall Garner, the Fisher King (Charles Haid)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Frank Breitkopf (Keith Carradine)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • And I Must Scream: Puts his victims in this state via drug that leaves them paralyzed, but fully conscious as he slowly vivisects them... in a room with a mirrored ceiling.
  • Calling Card: Taking a right rib bone. And making wind chimes out of them.
  • Driven to Suicide: In No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank, he jumps in front of a train when he is cornered by the FBI.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Subverted. While he kept his mother's body in a pristine apartment, and surrounded it with flowers, it's heavily implied that she was his first victim.
  • Evil Genius
  • Faux Affably Evil: He's polite and soft-spoken, but he's not a nice person at all.
  • Final Boss: Of Season 2.
  • First-Name Basis: He always calls Gideon by his first name.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Loves giving these to Gideon.
  • It Got Worse: Word for word in "No Way Out", as the team and police uncover more of his MO.
  • It's Personal: Killed Gideon's old flame, then started targeting people he had saved in the past.
  • Knife Nut
  • Lack of Empathy
  • Meaningful Name: Points out that his name is derived from a type of spear and Gideon shares his with a Greek Hero and a biblical figure.
  • Mommy Issues: His mother was a prostitute, who he witnessed perform and have performed on her every indignity imaginable.
  • Morality Pet: Jane.
  • Not So Stoic: The ever so brief look he gives when Gideon mentions they've learned who his mother is, and what his childhood was really like.
  • Recurring Character: In Season 2
  • Self-Made Orphan: In No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank, the team discovers his mother's corpse in his apartment and it is implied that he killed her.
  • Serial Killer: That goes without saying but Frank took it to a whole new level. He's killed 166 people all over the United States for at least thirty years, though it should be noted he's nothing compared to Billy Flynn and a few Real Life Serial Killers.
  • Smug Snake: The poster boy. He manages to make sitting in a cafe, drinking his coffee look arrogant.
  • The Sociopath: He feels no remorse for the people he kills and is incapable of empathy.
  • Son of a Whore
  • Start of Darkness: "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank".
  • That One Case: For Gideon, apparently even before "No Way Out".
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Espouses a belief akin to this before killing himself and Jane.
  • What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Can't feel it, but wants to.
  • Wicked Cultured: Enjoys classical music, ornothology, literature and has an interest in mythology. He'd be interesting to spend time with if You could get past the whole "Cuts people open" aspect of his personality.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Well, not directly...
  • Worthy Opponent: Sees Gideon as one of the few people who deserves to catch him.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Pulled off successfully in "No Way Out", but he's Out-Gambitted in "No Way Out II".

Charles Holcombe (Tahmus Rounds)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Death Course: The way he has modified the meat plant his family owned.
  • Evil Counterpart: To detective McGee. Both suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder, both have lost their own father and both are focused on street people.
  • Hope Spot / I Lied: He offered his victims a way out, only to knock them down with gas if they managed to reach the exit.
  • Jerkass: Is profiled as one and it helps turn his Only Friend against him.
  • Judge, Jury, and Executioner

Maggie: I don't have any diseases. I just went to the clinic. I'm clean.
Charles: You don't even know the meaning of the word. You've been judged and sentenced to death.

Stanley Howard (Michael O'Keefe)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Stanley Howard: I think your greatest fear is that you can't save everyone.

Tobias Hankel/Charles/Raphael (James van der Beek)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Deputy Jason Clark Battle (Bailey Chase)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Jonny McHale aka True Night (Frankie Muniz)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Owen Savage (Cody Kasch)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Henry Grace (Jason Alexander)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Awesome By Analysis: Deliberately plays on this, hoping that the team will figure out his pattern without him giving too obvious hints or clues, so that they will walk into his trap and, further, so that he can get Off on a Technicality when Rossi doesn't have any evidence that doesn't sound like a Bat Deduction.
  • Batman Gambit: Draws attention to his own crimes and goads Rossi into staying behind to interview him in order to trick the rest of the team into walking into his Death Trap, while only giving very vague clues to this end so that they have to get themselves killed by their own work and he can reasonably plead coincidence and lack of evidence. He's Out-Gambitted by Rossi who realises what's going on and pulls one of his own to get an Engineered Public Confession.
  • Criminal Mind Games
  • Crazy Prepared: His plan hinges largely on Reid picking up on his verbal clues and the unusual pattern to his murders, and he knows that Reid alone is smart enough to do it because said pattern and clues are very unusual and rooted in advanced mathematics.
  • Dirty Coward: Always attacks his victims from behind, both because he's a pretty small guy and because women intimidate him. Rossi calls him out on it after he attacks him too; Rossi knew he would do it and knew he would wait for Rossi's back to be turned.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Murders several women just because they reminded him of the fiancee` who dumped him years ago. And plans on killing the entire team to get back at Rossi...for exposing his brother as a Serial Killer.
  • Engineered Public Confession
  • Evil Genius
  • The Fettered: The team realises he didn't kill the family, even when it looked like he actually started to, because that would have messed up his "perfect" murder pattern.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Almost a whole episode of these, mostly directed at either Rossi or Reid.
  • In the Blood: Firmly believes this. Rossi calls it "junk science" and thinks he's just looking for excuses.
  • It's Personal: Blames Rossi for ruining his life...for capturing his Serial Killer older brother.
  • Loners Are Freaks: Mentioned as being a non-teaching professor, to the point where nobody on campus seems to know who he is. Justified in that everyone who he had been on normal terms with didn't want to know him after his brother was exposed as a homicidal maniac.
  • Off on a Technicality: Subverted. When he realises he has lost he tries to pull this off, since he disposed of all his bodies with sulphuric acid and, despite drawing attention to his own killings, the BAU had to simply guesstimate who they thought he might have killed by themselves, while the family he kidnapped never saw him and the team only saved them thanks to highly esoteric and very well hidden clues he left, that border on a Bat Deduction enough that he could plead lack of evidence. But circumstantial evidence along with his Engineered Public Confession are enough to put him away.
  • Revenge by Proxy: Wants to kill the rest of the team in order to hurt Rossi.
  • Smug Snake
  • Trauma Conga Line: His brother turned out to be a notorious Serial Killer, leading to his fiancee` dumping him and everyone he knows distancing themselves from him and his family, nearly ruining his career in the process, while the man who caught said brother went on to become a wealthy and bestselling non-fiction writer and he had nothing.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal: Rossi gives him an epic and pretty nasty one at the end, even resulting in a Villainous Breakdown.

Megan Kane (Brianna Brown)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

George Foyet, the Boston Reaper (C. Thomas Howell)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Hotch: If you touch her...
The Reaper: Be gentle? Like with you?

  • Would Hurt a Child: Hadn't Hotch stopped him, he would have probably tortured and then killed Jack.

Adam Jackson aka Amanda (Jackson Rathbone)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Vincent Rowlings (Alex O'Loughlin)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Stanley: I wish you were my dad.

The Turner Brothers (Garrett Dillahunt and Paul Rae)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Brains and Brawn: Mason is the brains, Lucas the brawn.
  • Drop the Hammer: Lucas's MO.
  • Dumb Muscle: The severely handicapped Lucas.
  • Evil Cripple: Mason, a quadriplegic barely kept alive by a ton a of machinery.
  • Evil Genius: Mason is very, very bright.
  • Expy: Mason is based heavily on Mason Verger from Hannibal. Both are sexual sadists (though the latter is a pedophile) who were crippled by a Serial Killer (albeit in very, very different circumstances, and unlike the Evil Genius Lecter the Man Child Lucas wasn't a killer at the time) and seek humiliating revenge on them (of very different sorts though). Both have farms with man-eating pigs, and are verbally and emotionally abusive to their carers- in the novel, Verger's carer is his sister, which only adds to the similarities. Most obviously, both are named Mason.
  • Fat Bastard: Lucas, although much more sympathetic than most.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: How Mason views his condition.
  • Final Boss: Of Season 4.
  • For Science!: How Mason tries rationalizing manipulating his mentally handicapped brother into killing the homeless for his experiments, saying that he is searching for a cure for his condition. Earns him a Shut UP, Hannibal from Rossi, who calls him out as just another sadistic bastard since his farm and equipment are no where near adequate for such a task, and he's arranged mirrors around the house in a way that lets him see his victims suffer from his bed.
  • Genius Cripple: Mason
  • Go Out with a Smile: Mason, who lies back and smiles before he is shot.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Sorta. Lucas doesn't really seem to mind eating pigs that he's fed a ton of people to.
  • Karma Houdini: Lampshaded by Rossi, who says that selling the idea that a bed-ridden former doctor is really a manipulative homicidal maniac to a jury is going to be an uphill struggle, especially since Lucas actually did all the killings. One victim's brother solves the problem with a Vigilante Execution.
  • Kill the Poor: They prey on homeless people, prostitues and junkies on the premise that they're useless, and no one will miss them.
  • Lack of Empathy: Mason has no empathy for those they've killed, saying that they should be grateful that they can become a part of something greater than themselves. Subverted with Lucas, who starts empathising with the last victim after the police show up to the farm and he's forced to spend time with her in his old childhood hideaway.
  • Mad Doctor: Mason, with Lucas acting as his hands.
  • Mercy Kill: Mason's take on Lucas' death.
  • Missing White Woman Syndrome: Along with the "useless to society" thing, Mason presumably had Lucas target the homeless because he believed no one would really care or notice.
  • Motive Rant: Mason gives a pretty good one
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Lucas, implied to be extremely volatile even before Mason manipulated him into killing.
  • Serial Killers
  • Shout-Out: An Evil Cripple named Mason who lives in a pig farm. Subtle.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Lucas is a six and a half foot tall, three hundred pound Dumb Muscle Brute and Psychopathic Manchild with severe retardation and Autistic tendencies, who dresses in overalls, loves the farm, and doesn't seem to understand that he's killing actual people. Mason is a short, cold-blooded Evil Cripple and Evil Genius who attended med school, wanted to move away from home, and is fully aware of what they're doing, but just doesn't care.
  • Siblings in Crime
  • The Sociopath: Mason
  • Sympathetic Murderer: Adult Child Lucas, very much so. His brother Mason, not so much.
  • Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Robert Pickton, a farmer who killed primarily prostitutes, and disposed of the remains by feeding them to his pigs.
  • Vigilante Execution: Mason's death.

Boyd Schuller and Tony Mecacci (Lawrence Pressman and Tom Ohmer)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Samantha Malcolm (Jennifer Hasty)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Anita and Roger Roycewood (Beth Grant and Bud Cort)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Anita: Come on, you gotta be kid... BANG!

Billy Flynn, the Prince of Darkness (Tim Curry)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Raymond Donovan and Sydney Manning (Jonathan Tucker and Adrianne Palicki)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Ian Doyle, Valhalla (Timothy V. Murphy)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Big Bad: Of Season Six.
  • Boom! Headshot!: How most of his victims are disposed of, though he's not adverse to knives and poison.
  • The Dragon: A mook named Liam appears to fill this role.
  • It's Personal: Has quite the grudge against Emily, more so than anyone else he's after.
    • And with good reason, too. She went undercover as a fellow arms dealer, Doyle fell in love with her, proposed what amounted to marriage to her, and expressed a desire for children with her. After his arrest, he found out that she'd been a spy, and believed she was responsible for the death of his son, Declan.
    • And she was, though his death was actually faked. While trying to tell him this she accidentally makes it seem like she actually murdered the boy, which takes this trope Up to Eleven for about 5 seconds, when she explains he's still alive and she had him in hiding.
  • Monster Sob Story: Doyle was led to believe that his painfully adorable son had been executed, as a ploy to help the North Koreans break him.
  • Never Found the Body: A big question fans are all asking--what happened to Doyle and where did he disappear to? Is he dead, or did he escape?
    • As of "It Takes A Village," he's gone. Permanently.
  • Offscreen Villain Dark Matter
  • Revenge Before Reason: Doyle keeps threatening to kill Emily but takes so long to do it, he is thwarted--despite all outward appearances...
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Killing everyone responsible for putting him away, Emily included.
  • Stating the Simple Solution: Liam does this several times.
  • Tattooed Crook: A four-leaf clover on the wrists of him and his followers.
  • That One Case: For Prentiss.
  • Western Terrorists: Headed an offshoot of the IRA.
  • White Mask of Doom: Worn by him and his Mooks.

Lucy (Angela Sarafyan)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Ben "Cy" Bradstone (Andy Milder)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Hamilton Bartholomew aka The Piano Man (Jay Karnes)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Matthew Downs and the Face Cards (Evan Jones, Seth Laird, Tricia Helfer, and Josh Randall)

A description of the character goes here.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Abusive Grandfather: Implied for Izzy. His name was Henry and he had blond hair, so Izzy takes her rage at him out on JJ's son.
  • Bald of Evil: Oliver, and Chris has a buzz-cut, as well.
  • Designated Girl Fight: JJ vs Izzy, probably surpassed only by Hotch vs. Foyet as the most epic fight the series has had so far.
  • Femme Fatale: Izzy is an archetypical one. She even wears black leather.
  • Final Boss: Of Season Seven.
  • Four Bad Band:
  • For the Evulz: The only reason Matthew and Izzy do all the terrible things they do is that it gets them high, essentially.
  • Harmful to Minors: Izzy does not seem to like children; she shot one at one of her previous robberies, shot a father in front of his daughter in the robbery the episode focuses on, and psychologically screws with poor little Henry LaMontagne.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: All things considered, the Strattons are kind of pathetic, and their caring for each other makes it difficult to properly hate them.
  • It's All About Me: Matthew, whose entire motivation is that he was kicked out of the Marines for being a jackass and feels like the world owes him somehow.
  • Lack of Empathy: Izzy; it's implied all the empathy was beaten, or possibly even molested, out of her by her grandfather. Matthew too, with no known Freudian Excuse.
  • Malevolent Masked Men: And, as Izzy would probably be quick to remind you, one woman.
  • Mauve Shirt: Oliver, who dies less than halfway into the first episode of the two-parter.
  • Morality Pet: The Stratton brothers to each other.
  • Outlaw Couple: Matthew and Izzy
  • The Sociopath: Matthew, who does and orders others to do terrible things while smugly grinning all the while. Izzy has shades of this, too; her favorite method of killing people is shooting them in the stomach, as that's the slowest and most painful place to bleed out from.
  • Sociopathic Soldier: Izzy and Matthew are both disgraced ex-military.
  • Theme Naming: They're the Face Cards: Chris the King, Izzy the Queen, and Oliver the Jack, plus mastermind Matthew, who doesn't take part in the robberies.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Matthew pretends to be a hostage.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Izzy does this to Chris. It's not entirely clear whether this killed him, but she shot him non-fatally in the chest and then abandoned him where he'd have no medical care, so it seems likely.
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