Criminal Minds Season 2 sorta-kinda-meta. Maybe.
I'm re-watching Criminal Minds (And when I say Criminal Minds, I mean all of it), and while doing so, I've found myself increasingly annoyed at the people who have been, and are, hating on Emily Prentiss.
The way she entered the team was weird and indicates a story to be told later on, but she is right; She does belong on the team.
It's taken her some time to adapt and fit in - sure, it takes some time to get used to a new job and new people, especially in such a tight-knit team as the BAU. Elle was, in many ways, a female version of Morgan, and the two of them made for a fairly seamless team. Emily isn't that clear-cut yet, and I think that might be a good thing. However, in some ways she mirrors Hotch, with her proper suits and proper conduct. She's starting to connect with Morgan (especially through the Vonnegut-thing in Fear and Loathing), but it's not that "attached at the hip"-thing Elle had going with Morgan at times.
And yes, the fact that the episode where she joined the team was Lessons Learned, and she (in what would be described as typical Sue-ish fashion) spoke Arabic (which Hotch and Gideon should know that she does - it would probably be in her file), that was probably bad planning, but probably also a partially insightful attempt to foreshadow that Emily will be a useful part of the team, provided she is given the chance.
Maybe that was the role Hotch took on - giving her a chance. He doesn't fully trust Emily at first - that much becomes abundantly clear in the next episode (Sex, Birth, Death) - but he is willing to give her a chance, because she can be of help. Gideon doesn't trust her either (obviously, because he trusts noone), but he is less willing to give her a chance - I have a feeling Gideon has more trouble adjusting to new people than Hotch does, which is relatively surprising for a profiler.
I also think that in the "BAU is a family"-theory, the addition of Emily is in some ways more the addition of another adult, or at least an independent teen, than another kid. In the bar-scene in The Big Game, she's sitting, talking with Hotch and Haley, and is clearly more comfortable doing that than, I think, any of the others would be. She's such a different type, both from Elle and from the other "kids".
She is not perfect - far from it, I think - but she tries, and a lot of the time she succeeds, to fill the empty space in the team. She's not Elle, but more importantly: She's not trying to be! I think that's where a lot of fans have in one way or another gone wrong, in expecting Emily to be a new Elle.
For a bonus point, vaguely Emily-relevant: In Revelations, she says that Hotch doesn't trust women as much as men. In the rush of the moment, Hotch didn't argue - but when have we ever seen evidence that he doesn't trust women as much as men? He hasn't fully trusted Emily, that's true, but does he really have a trust-issue with any other women.
The way she entered the team was weird and indicates a story to be told later on, but she is right; She does belong on the team.
It's taken her some time to adapt and fit in - sure, it takes some time to get used to a new job and new people, especially in such a tight-knit team as the BAU. Elle was, in many ways, a female version of Morgan, and the two of them made for a fairly seamless team. Emily isn't that clear-cut yet, and I think that might be a good thing. However, in some ways she mirrors Hotch, with her proper suits and proper conduct. She's starting to connect with Morgan (especially through the Vonnegut-thing in Fear and Loathing), but it's not that "attached at the hip"-thing Elle had going with Morgan at times.
And yes, the fact that the episode where she joined the team was Lessons Learned, and she (in what would be described as typical Sue-ish fashion) spoke Arabic (which Hotch and Gideon should know that she does - it would probably be in her file), that was probably bad planning, but probably also a partially insightful attempt to foreshadow that Emily will be a useful part of the team, provided she is given the chance.
Maybe that was the role Hotch took on - giving her a chance. He doesn't fully trust Emily at first - that much becomes abundantly clear in the next episode (Sex, Birth, Death) - but he is willing to give her a chance, because she can be of help. Gideon doesn't trust her either (obviously, because he trusts noone), but he is less willing to give her a chance - I have a feeling Gideon has more trouble adjusting to new people than Hotch does, which is relatively surprising for a profiler.
I also think that in the "BAU is a family"-theory, the addition of Emily is in some ways more the addition of another adult, or at least an independent teen, than another kid. In the bar-scene in The Big Game, she's sitting, talking with Hotch and Haley, and is clearly more comfortable doing that than, I think, any of the others would be. She's such a different type, both from Elle and from the other "kids".
She is not perfect - far from it, I think - but she tries, and a lot of the time she succeeds, to fill the empty space in the team. She's not Elle, but more importantly: She's not trying to be! I think that's where a lot of fans have in one way or another gone wrong, in expecting Emily to be a new Elle.
For a bonus point, vaguely Emily-relevant: In Revelations, she says that Hotch doesn't trust women as much as men. In the rush of the moment, Hotch didn't argue - but when have we ever seen evidence that he doesn't trust women as much as men? He hasn't fully trusted Emily, that's true, but does he really have a trust-issue with any other women.