Criminal Minds Season 2 sorta-kinda-meta. Maybe.

[siggen1]

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.

Comments

[seraphina_snape]

Re: Hotch trusting women:
I think that's just Prentiss projecting. She thinks he doesn't trust her, she's a woman, and she hasn't seen any evidence to the contrary (ie Hotch placing complete faith in a woman). She's been there for a few weeks now and probably figures the team had time getting used to her, and that at least Hotch would have read her file and would know what to expect from her (both in a positive and negative way). He has no reason to distrust her personally, so she thinks it's not specifically her he distrusts but it's a gender thing. It's a convenient assumption.

I have a feeling Gideon has more trouble adjusting to new people than Hotch does, which is relatively surprising for a profiler.Um, why is it surprising for a profiler? Because he has to deal with new people all the time because of his job? Sorry, but Prentiss coming into the team is not the same as doing a psychological analysis on someone he meets, talks to and forgets (or at least stores away somewhere in his brain) by the time they have a new case.

[siggen1]

I think I might have expressed myself clumsily. What I mean is that I don't really see why Hotch should be more willing to give her a chance than Gideon. But then again I might be wrong.

[seraphina_snape]

Oh. Well.

I think that's because he is ultimately the official leader of the team (at least that's what I think). He doesn't have to be friendly with his team, but it sure helps.

Or, who knows, maybe he did read her file and was secretly impressed by something that made him decide to give her a chance. *shrugs*

~ sera

[slash_girl]

She does belong on the team.

She deserved to jump ahead of whoever else was on the waiting list? She deserved to get in there without Hotch and Gideon even being told and given the consideration of interviewing her. I disagree. Especially, as JJ said to her in Revelations: "You came off a desk job?" That would imply that she was not doing active investigations. Someone on a desk job deserves a position on the BAU (an elite and plum assignment) over someone who's active in the field? You have a strange definition of "deserve".

Maybe that was the role Hotch took on - giving her a chance.Hotch, bless his soul, is, deep down a company man. He's had no choice but to accept her onto the team; he could try and fight her appointment, but he knows how the power works in Washington and at the FBI. It would be useless and a waste of energy. How convenient was it at the end of The Last Word that she knew when they were flying in (Hotch himself is suspicious of that) and how convenient was it that she had that file that he hadn't received

[siggen1]

I don't think I said anything about "deserve". I said that she's on the team and I voiced the humble opinion that she now belongs on the team - she has proved, I think, that she can do the job. The way she got on the team is weird, and as I said, it's probably a story for another time. But I didn't say anythin about deserving. Deserving or not, she's on the team now.

Maybe I'm wrong, these are just my thoughts. And I agree that the "BAU is a family"-theory works way better in your version.

[slash_girl]

Say that she belongs there is akin to saying she deserves the position. But I shall rephrase, you have as strange sense of what it means to "belong."

Elle wasn't on the team in the very beginning either. She earned her way onto the team--proved to Gideon and Hotch that she could do the work and do it well. Prentiss didn't do that. She cheated her way in...so it's going to be more incumbent on her to prove herself and it's going to be a hell of a lot harder to do so because of the way she came onto the team. And while the others, outside of Hotch and Gideon don't know the circumstances of her arrival they take their cues, initially, from Hotch and Gideon. Yes, they'll use their own judgement of her and what she does, too, but they'd look to the "adults" for guidance initially, consciously or not.

Maybe I'm wrong, these are just my thoughts. And I agree that the "BAU is a family"-theory works way better in your version.Well, until we get further along with Prentiss' story we have no way of knowing exactly what's right or wrong...all

[siggen1]

I'm not going to say that Emily doesn't belong on the team, because she knows what she's doing - she's good at what she does. The way she got there was obviously rigged somehow - but she is, as far as I can see, a good profiler.

Maybe I like Prentiss because I couldn't stand Elle. She was all right sometimes, but generally? When I'd gotten over the slow sort of shock, and the initial sense of loss, I was glad to see her go.

[yumekodragonfly]

With Emily, I reacted the same way I did with Kate vs. Ziva on NCIS.

First I hated the new girl, couldn't stand her. Then, slowly, I accepted her. Then I started to absolutely love her.

And somewhere along the line the new girl made me realize I never liked the old girl all that much.

I think the only reason I really didn't like Emily (and Ziva) was because she was introduced as someone you weren't supposed to like. Both of them made quite the forceful, pushy entrance, which just felt wrong, so it took some time to get to tolerate and like the characters.

At least, it's been that way for me. Now, I just love Emily. She's cute and fun and she's struggling. I like that.

[authenticity]

I personally do not expect her to be like Elle at all - and I agree with you in that those who expect her to be exactly like her will be very disappointed.

I have different reasons for not liking her. I think I see large part of myself in her that I don't like... someone who can 'compartmentalize' better than most people, someone who wishes they had more confidence in theirself, who has a hard time getting really close to people. That could be a large part of my own... discontent towards her.

But mostly, I think that, like Hotch, I don't trust her. At all. I truly belive that there is something about her that we don't know yet. Ultimitely, I think that it's how easy you believe you can trust someone.

She has yet to show real weakness (which I believe we will see this season or next season), which is something I admire. I will probably end up becoming attached to her in the future. But for now, I'll keep my distance.

Thanks for posting this, by the way. It's good discussion. :)

[siggen1]

You don't trust Hotch?

[authenticity]

Heh. I said it in a confusing way.
I meant, that I don't trust Emily, like Hotch doesn't trust Emily.

[nebula99]

I am disliking her less as the weeks go by.

Part of my problem was that Elle was written out in such a crap way and that the team didn't seem like it was missing anybody during the time that Elle was gone and before Prentiss came.

And she is such a cold fish, it is hard to get to know anything about her.

I guess that whole "Wow, she speaks arabic" episode just didn't help.

I would like to see her relax a bit more and maybe take Reid to task if he is snarky to her again - at least it would show her as becoming one of the team, rather than tiptoing around, hoping they will accept her.

[siggen1]

I agree that it was weird how they didn't seem to miss anyone, but I kinda liked the way she was written out. I don't know, it seemed kinda plausible.