The Criminal Minds Plot Holes That Fans Can't Stand
Whether it's a narrative shredding detail or a simple case of a confusing backstory, there are few shows that haven't had at least a handful of plot holes throughout their history. That is especially true for a long-running juggernaut like "Criminal Minds." The grisly crime procedural aired for a staggering 15 seasons on CBS and consequently had more than its fair share of accuracy issues.
As they've done before with shows like "NCIS" and "The Big Bang Theory," Reddit users have taken to the boards to discuss the "Criminal Minds" plot holes that bug them the most. Many of their selections aren't necessarily issues that ruin the narrative of the show, but rather, ones that make it hard to track the histories of their favorite characters. Each example does show, however, that even with 324 episodes to contend with, it's hard to slip details past the encyclopedic minds of the series' fans.
These are some of the fan choices for the most obnoxious "Criminal Minds" plot holes.
Garcia's confusing beginnings with the BAU
To start off the discussion on a Reddit thread titled "What is the one CM plot hole that drives you crazy?" user u/yates9987 provided a few of their own suggestions. One was the following: "The two separate flashbacks of Garcia and Morgan meeting ..."
In the Season 3 episode "Tabula Rasa," viewers get a quick flashback to one of Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) and Derek Morgan's (Shemar Moore) first encounters. The scene shows Morgan spotting Garcia from across the office and saying to Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), "Hey what's that new tech girl's name?" Reid incorrectly says it's "Gomez," which Morgan tries to use before calling out, "Hey, baby girl," when he doesn't get a response.
As u/yates9987 points out, that whole scenario (including the alleged origins of Morgan's nickname for Garcia) was undermined by yet another flashback in the Season 9 episode "The Black Queen." This one reveals that before she was helping the FBI catch some of the most horrific murderers in America, Garcia was a mastermind criminal hacker complete with black hair and an attitude toward authority that could best be described as "disagreeable."
In that flashback, Garcia is basically entrapped into joining the BAU with the threat of jail time and Morgan is one of the first agents that she meets. Not only does this not jive with the idea of Morgan calling her "that new tech girl" as though he'd only heard about her via an HR email when he should be well aware that she's actually a high-profile vigilante hacker, but Garcia's general look and demeanor between the two versions are wildly different. This one seems like a case of the writers deciding on a different backstory long after they'd already partially introduced one.
Fans aren't buying JJ's Pentagon promotion
In Season 6 of "Criminal Minds," communications liaison JJ Jareau's (A. J. Cook) skills land her on the radar of the Pentagon, and thanks to some institutional pressure, she ends up accepting a job offer from them and temporarily leaving the BAU. It's a storyline that feels a bit forced and that's likely because the narrative coincided with Cook's absence after she left the show during Season 6. Of course, fans saw right through that narrative ruse.
User u/balck_mist replied to the plot holes thread and wrote, "JJs wannabe Emily arc. Her work at the 'pentagon' makes no sense ..." User u/lokiartichokie was in agreement. "That whole plot line really bugs me too," they wrote. They questioned the idea that JJ "was soooo impressive with her communications liaison skills that the state department just HAD to have her."
User u/lokiartichokie also called baloney on the series' attempts to later work in a storyline involving JJ being sent to Afghanistan while she was working for the Pentagon. "Like obviously the writers were not thinking of the whole Middle East part when they wrote her off because she was being fired," said u/lokiartichokie. "But I'm a firm believer in that they should work with what they've already written ... don't just ignore what happened before because you want to do this other thing now."
Morgan's resume is too padded to be believed
Similar to his baby girl Garcia, Morgan's backstory has come under scrutiny by "Criminal Minds" fans on Reddit. The show gives us lots of information about what Morgan was up to before joining the BAU and it's all very impressive. In fact, he has so many top-notch credentials that some fans think the writers overdid it a bit when filling out his resume.
"I swore it was mentioned that Morgan went to law school, but I dont think the timeline fits," wrote u/pendletonskyforce. They continued on to clarify, "because it was also mentioned he was former Chicago PD, which means he would have joined them at age 25 at the earliest. So when did he join the FBI and then the BAU?"
As a few other users pointed out, Morgan's resume just has too many diverse, high-skill positions and achievements for it to be believable. While nobody is questioning his capabilities, fans do question how he was able to do all of these things before joining the BAU in his early 30s.
As user u/imsurroundedby-idiot put it, "Yea dereks backstory is strange. On top of being chicago PD he supposedly was an expert on obsessional crimes, bombs, and also did 18 months undercover before joining BAU."
None of it quite works out but, then again, these little slip-ups clearly weren't enough to keep fans from tuning into "Criminal Minds."