Criminal Minds/WMG

Prentiss is now possessed by a demon

The same demon possessed the four other victims and caused the "poison gas" death of the Spanish priest. This will eventually lead to a cross-over with Ghost Whisperer and/or Medium.

Why would the other four victims want to gas the priest of a Spanish miracle shrine? Simple: they are demon-possessed and didn't want any godly miracles happening.

Right now the demon is seriously depowered after possessing four people and being exorcised four times. The worst it can currently do to Prentiss is give her a nosebleed, but given enough time she'll be vomiting up pea soup like nobody's business.

Hotch was raped by Foyet

He's a Complete Monster so it wouldn't be a stretch. The references to the knife being a substitute because Foyet's impotent, and Foyet questioning that and claiming that his actions will 'change the way you profile.' Then Foyet wondering if Hotch wants him to be 'gentle' with his wife... like Foyet was with him.

• You'd think that, if that happened, this show of all shows would have said it... on top of Foyet's clear focus on teenage women... somehow I suspect that most proponents of this theory are Yaoi Fangirls.

Reid is a magical creature of some kind

In the episode "52 Pickup", Reid impresses the lady bartender with his magic trick, and ends up leaving his business card behind her barrette. Thing is, though, you never see his hands go anywhere near her head. The only way it could have gotten into her hair is if it was teleported in. He cultivates talent in sleight-of-hand tricks to hide his real abilities.

• As an extension of this, the people around him are able to sense that something is "off" about him, which is why he gets attacked so much more often than the other characters.

The whole show is just Reid hallucinating due to schizophrenia

The whole TV series is what Reid's schizophrenic hallucinations consist of, and the team are figments of his imagination to form the familial roles that had been absent for most of his life.

• Alternatively, the BAU does exist, and he was once part of it. The grating effects of his childhood and his job broke him, and he quickly spiraled out of control, possibly becoming an Unsub. The team tracks him down and he gets put away, but the old Spencer never comes back. He remains stuck in his imagination, believing that he is still part of the BAU.

Reid and Sheldon Cooper know each other

They're both around the same age, both started college at around the same age, and both went to Caltech, where they were both active in the same department (mathematics).

Criminal Minds and The Big Bang Theory are parallel universes, and Reid and Sheldon are parallel entities

They also have the exact same IQ (187). Both claim eidetic memory, both are socially awkward, both are the most popular character on their respective shows, and they even look vaguely similar. Think about it.

The couple in "Mosley Lane" are Evil Twins of Ellie and Carl Fredricksen.

Both are older couples that consist of strong-willed, red-haired women who can't have children and milder-mannered men with lighter hair; they wear retro-style clothes, and live in pleasant-looking, yellow houses, and both "get" children later in life. The difference, of course, is that Ellie wasn't a complete psycho with access to a crematorium.

Prentiss is gay.

It would explain quite a bit.

• • This troper doesn't know what it explains, but he likes how you think.
    • Seconded.
  • Gay? Ha-ha, no. She's attracted to women, sure, but that's because she's straight. She's a straight Female to Male Transexual. She just hasn't come to terms with it enough to transition yet.
    • Funny idea, but no. If you'd ever had experienced an untreated male transsexual, you'd see that you would more easily confuse such a person with a young, underdeveloped male than a female, somewhat tomboyish, badass woman. They often run into minor problems when it comes to agesensitive tasks, like buying alcohol, because of that.
  • Hey, am I the only one who remembers that she got pregnant? If she had sex enough times to get pregnant, she would most likely be straight. Also, I'm not sure so you can call me out on this, I'm pretty sure that she's dated during the series.

The Riddler is Spencer's Evil Twin.

They are both physically attractive geniuses, and Reid was able to solve all those Riddler-like riddles sent to them by the Unsub who thought he was the Fischer King.

To drive the point home, when Reid hurt his leg, he went from crutches to a cane; the resemblance was striking.

Strike that; Reid is too young for them to be twins ... maybe Spencer is his son?

Reid is the Riddler's AU counterpoint

But Reid's been wearing some Joker-esque clothes lately. Besides, the fandom wants Dexter as the Riddler... And now we'll never know since neither The Joker nor The Riddler is going to be in The Dark Knight Rises.

Gideon did kill himself at the end of "Doubt."

All of that "driving off into the sunset without knowing where he's going" stuff was just a metaphor.

Let's face it: we all know that the writers were building toward that, perhaps from Gideon's first appearance, which showed him recovering from a job-induced nervous breakdown. He came back to work before he was ready. He, perhaps more than anyone else on the team, took every case personally and sucked all the sadness down into somewhere deep inside himself. He coped by clinging desperately to his safe spaces (the cabin, his apartment, the relationship with Sarah that he didn't let anyone else see) until each one was violated by his job in the most gruesome way possible. There's a reason we spend the whole episode of "Doubt" thinking, "oh, shit, Reid is going to walk into that cabin in the last scene and find Gideon dead": from the way the writers had built up Gideon's character, it was the possibility that made the most sense, the natural conclusion.

Sure, it's implied that Gideon specifically chose not to kill himself because he knew that if he did, then Reid would be the one who found him. But that's the way suicide works sometimes. There's usually someone left alive who's going to be hurt, but the suicidal person just can't find the strength to worry about them anymore.

If this is true, then it makes Reid's angry reaction to Gideon's letter and Prentiss' equally angry response to his reaction (as opposed to, say, her being upset about the letter herself) more understandable. And it explains all of those sideways "do you want to end up like Gideon?" comments that keep popping up in later seasons.

• • [[spoiler: Josssed. At the end of season 7, the bus is coming back.

• • • Proved false. http://www.spoilertv.com/2011/10/criminal-minds-gideon-is-back.html

At least one of the people rescued by the BAU in a previous episode will return as an UnSub in a later season.

Because fucked up, major traumatic events can apparently trigger people to start kidnapping/torturing/serial killin', and many of the survivors rescued by the BAU have just been through some seriously fucked up, majorly traumatic events similar to the ones the UnSubs that captured them originally went through.

Plus it would be one hell of a Player Punch to the BAU team, and the show seems fond of dishing those out to them.

• • Darrin Call from "Haunted" escaped from the clutches of a serial killer only to turn into a spree killer from the trauma, so there's already a sort of precedent for this sort of thing within the show itself.
  • It's surprising there hasn't been a Knife Nut and/or Crazy Survivalist by paranoia, look-at-me-funny-and-I'll-get-you Bobbi Baird yet, seeing as not only did she seem a little off when she was saved ("Looks like I had all the 'fun'"?) but the episode ended with musing on Not So Different.
  • To take it one step futher, this troper would love to see Elle return in this dramatic fashion, having gone totally bonkers since she left.
  • Or even Gideon, if they could get Mandy Patinkin back. Imagine that sort of frantic monologue he used to do sometimes if it were being delivered by an Unsub...

Garcia's boyfriend will go Axe Crazy at some point

He doesn't like the idea of her and Morgan sharing a room, and she sabotaged his job prospect that one time.

We haven't seen the last of that terrorist cell from "Lo-Fi" and "Mayhem"

The show, which is supposed to be about understanding why criminals do what they do, never even explained who the cell was trying to assassinate, let alone why. This is a clear lose end that they may want to tie up at a later date.

Criminal Minds is located in a parallel universe where the art and psychology of hunting serial killers is relatively unknown.

Thus, highly visible serial killers who surprisingly murder multiple people and get away with it for years without even being suspected.

The proof? A recent episode portrayed a serial killer in Southwest Virginia that had 22 young blond women killed in and around a town with a population of less than 20,000. In Real Life, that many murdered white women in a small town would have raised a red flag and would have gotten the suspect arrested in short order, especially when the suspect was shown not to be able to conceal his crimes.

Also, the police are surprisingly incompetent. They are unable to perform even basic investigations without the assistance of the BAU team. This has been shown often enough that it's likely to be a common occurrence.

Finally, even though the serial killers are aware of advances in information technology and sharing, DNA, and criminology, most serial killers -- even the most proficient and competent ones -- still dispose of bodies in manners reminiscent of the 1960-1970's.

Clearly, this show exists in another universe -- one where most civilians and normal cops avoid thinking about the sorts of trains of thought that serial killers have. What serial killers do is literally unthinkable to them -- there are no shows like Criminal Minds airing in the BAU's jurisdiction. Only specially qualified people can even see the patterns to catch them, and so the killers have had no need to "improve" the patterns.

Also, in the Criminal Minds universe, no cars have built-in phone systems.

There will be a Criminal Minds-Hawaii Five-O crossover episode.

Just picture it:

• Spencer Reid, Steve McGarrett, and Danny Williams in the Camaro, Danny complaining to Steve about his difficulties with Hawaiian pidgin, and then Reid jumps in with his trademark "Actually,..." and starts lecturing on linguistics.
• Kono giving Garcia surfing lessons.
• The possibilities are endless.

Prentiss will die in season six

• Pretty self-explanatory.
  • Spoilers may lend this one some credence. According to Joe Mantegna, Prentiss's exit episode is "going to make '100' look like child's play".
    • Nope. Prentiss is still alive, but she is in hiding in Europe, and with the exception of JJ and Hotch, the whole team thinks she's dead.
      • Aaaand she's back.

Prentiss was undercover as Doyle's girlfriend.

• In "Sense Memory", we see her being dragged into a car apparently against her will as MI-6 takes him into custody at the house, but we know she was Interpol at the time. McAllister tells her in "The Thirteenth Step" that Doyle's "coming for all of them". I think he found out his girlfriend was Interpol and was going to execute her, so MI-6 pulled her out before he could do the job. This may lead into the WMG above.
  • Whoever WMG'ed this was pretty exactly spot on.

JJ will get dumped into the Suspect Behavior spinoff

• This is pretty hopeful, because its completely stupid to not renew the contract for one of the most liked characters and then immediately hire a replacement (I hate the process more than Sever, at least she's trying). Much like how Garcia has become the internet connection for the new team, they'll include appearances by a former character as well. Come late season 1 - season 2 for SB JJ will be the new media liaison. Notably this WMG has lots of personal Just Bugs Me (on the new show Witiker and that brunette are ok, everyone else is blah).
  • Jossed. JJ's coming back to the original Criminal Minds and Suspect Behavior got canceled.

Hotchner is Batman

• He's a brilliant detective and profiler. He knows the rules and knows how to work around them. He even sounds and looks like a good Batman. He was fully prepared to beat the living daylights out of a murderous serial killer with whom he was locked in a room for 30 minutes with no weapons. He tricked an insane terrorist into giving up his anthrax and his freedom by having an Army officer seemingly contradict him.
  • Reid is Robin, Garcia is Oracle, Morgan is Nightwing, Prentiss is the Huntress...
  • Oh, and I forgot (same troper as first, btw), Hotchner has underwater bullets. 'Cuz he's Batman.

Seaver will dye her hair for next season

• The team needs a brunette female with JJ coming back, and she and JJ look a lot alike already.
  • OP here--I guess this has already been Jossed since Seaver is leaving the show next season.

Reid is actually psychic.

• Posted on behalf of my Dad, who refuses to believe anything else. I'm unsure of his reasoning, but it'd be pretty cool.

Reid is half Time Lord

This is why he's so smart. His father was a Time Lord but died in the war, his mother was heart broken so she never told Reid the truth.

• Similarly, he could be the twelfth incarnation of The Doctor himself. His mother? In fact an old companion that went crazy after she had to leave the Tardis, so he now feels responsible for her and so pretends she's his mother so he can justify being part of her life.
  • He could have a similar problem to Three, in that he's stuck on Earth, so is therefore trying to save humanity in a less time-travelly way.
• No, see his Dad was a Time-Lord and therefore died/ceased to exist during the Time War, but his mother wasn't so heartbroken that she never told him the truth. She did tell him the truth. That's right - his delusional, schizophrenic mother told him that his father was an alien Lord of Time who came from the future and fell in love with a Human, fathering a child before going off to fight a species of xenophobic squid-brains in man-sized flying-tanks before ceasing to have existed. See, that's the reason she went crazy. Her long life with her husband now conflicts with the memories she now has of him not existing. It doesn't help that in her memories of his non-existence, she suddenly recieved an immaculate conception.

The whole BAU is actually psychic.

The general population doesn't know real psychics exist. But the FBI does.

They sort out and track down the real ones, offering them positions in the Bureau. Some FBI units are composed entirely of psychics -- such as the BAU. Behavior analysis, while conceivably real on it's own, is just an elaborate cover story to Hand Wave why these agents are so good at understanding and finding serial killers.

• This actually fits with some of the scenes where they question people and seem to be looking at their memories.
  • So what, the BAU is a division of VASCU?...MUST WRITE CROSSOVER WITH NEW WORLD OF DARKNESS.

Reid is developing a split personaily

He's having headaches like Adam Jackson did, he had a tramatic childhood, has a tramatic job, feels a lot of sympathy for some of the Insane Equals Violent Unsubs and a family history of mental illness. He may become the heroic counterpart to Unsubs with disslocative identy disorder.

True Night will be the real Spin-off.

Suspect Behavior didn't last long, but something tells this troper that the Spin-Off train is far from derailed. Instead of doing it in the POV of the men that catch the criminals why not in the POV of one of the best Unsubs. I could see it now: Johnny McHale. After finally coming to terms with his fiance's murder, he gets released from the asylum. While spending it mostly on rebuilding his career. He feels the urge that he had during his PTSD and goes out to fight crime once again.