Emily Prentiss

Emily Prentiss
Criminal Minds character
Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss
First appearance	"The Last Word" 2x09, November 15, 2006
Created by	Edward Allen Bernero
Portrayed by	Paget Brewster
Information
Aliases	Lauren Reynolds
Occupation	Chief of the London Interpol Office (Former)
Title	FBI BAU Supervisory Special Agent FBI BAU Unit Chief
Family	Unnamed father Elizabeth Prentiss (mother)
Seasons	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14

Emily Prentiss is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, portrayed by Paget Brewster. Prentiss first appeared in "The Last Word" (episode nine of season two), replacing Agent Elle Greenaway, who had quit in "The Boogeyman". Her role in the show's sixth season was reduced,^[1] for what Brewster believed to be financial reasons.^[2] Brewster returned to her role for the show's seventh season.^[3] Her final episode as a main cast member was the May 16, 2012 episode "Run". Brewster reprised the role again in 2014 for the 200th episode. She returned as Prentiss following the departure of co-star Shemar Moore for the season 11 episode "Tribute".

Brewster returned as series regular in season 12. She was brought back soon after co-star Thomas Gibson had been dismissed from the show.^[4][5]

Background

Prentiss was born to her unnamed father and Elizabeth, a US Ambassador.^[6] Due to her mother's job postings, Prentiss spent her childhood in numerous places, including Ukraine, France, Italy, and various countries in the Middle East. Her father has never been referred to in any way.

She graduated from Chesapeake Bay University with a B.A. in Criminal Justice^[7] and then from Yale University before joining the FBI, and had worked for ten years before coming to the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). Prentiss is extremely well travelled due to her upbringing as an ambassador's daughter and her previous assignments while at Interpol. She is fluent in Arabic,^[8] Spanish, French,^[9] Italian,^[10] Russian, and Greek.^[11]

Prentiss first appeared in the season two episode "The Last Word". Her appearance surprised both SSA Aaron Hotchner and Jason Gideon, as neither supervisor had signed off on the transfer. Hotchner was immediately suspicious of the new agent, but Prentiss, insisting that her mother had not pulled any strings for her to get the assignment, convinced him to let her join the team on a probationary basis, and eventually proved her competence and gained the team's trust.

Prentiss was originally written as a lesbian and had a storyline where she woke up in bed next to a woman, which the creative team and Brewster were on board for, but CBS reportedly nixed the idea.^[12][13] In a 2016 interview, following Brewster's return to the show, she stated that she would still "be happy to play Emily as bisexual or gay."^[14]

Prentiss confided to David Rossi that she struggled to fit in as a teen, since she moved around so often, and would do "almost anything" to fit in. She told Rossi that during her mother's diplomatic posting in Italy, she got pregnant at 15 and had an abortion. She also states that the friend who accompanied her to the clinic "saved [her] life".^[10]

Relationships with colleagues

Paget Brewster (third from the right) filming in 2010

Initially upon joining the BAU, Prentiss feels like an outsider and often worries that people doubt her ability as a profiler. Over time, Prentiss proves herself through her sharp profiling skills, competence, and dedication to the work, gradually earning the trust and respect of her fellow BAU team members.

Prentiss has a good relationship with her supervisor Aaron Hotchner and establishes herself as one of the most reliable and capable agents on the BAU. Hotchner had previously worked as the Head of Security for Prentiss's Ambassador mother, Elizabeth Prentiss, but did not cross paths with Prentiss, because she was off to Yale. When she joins the BAU, they get off to a rocky start, but after a confrontation in his office about her feelings and opinions regarding politics and after she resigns instead of secretly feeding reports to Section Chief Erin Strauss, Hotchner begins to understand Prentiss and trust her more. Before leaving to be with the BAU on a case despite his suspension from the field, Hotchner stops by Prentiss's apartment to convince her to get on the plane with him to help their team catch the UNSUB.

In "52 Pickup", Hotchner is seen asking Prentiss for advice on how to deal with JJ's temporary substitute, Agent Jordan Todd, and acts on her suggestions, even giving Agent Todd another chance to prove herself.

For the most part, Prentiss has also developed friendly relationships with the other members of the BAU team.

Prentiss immediately bonds with Agent Derek Morgan due to their mutual love of Kurt Vonnegut books and they develop a close relationship. Their strong bond is most evident in the episodes leading up to and after Prentiss's death. Morgan is able to detect that Prentiss is worried about something and tries to get her to tell him what is bothering her. He also feels betrayed when Prentiss does not reveal the extent of her involvement with Doyle and the case and assumes she does not trust him enough. Rossi later tries to reason with him that Prentiss is merely trying to protect the BAU team. Morgan is also with Prentiss, holding her, when she is dying after being seriously injured by Doyle, and tells her that he understands what she did, and that she is brave, and he is proud of her. When he believes she has died, Morgan takes her death quite hard and expresses anger toward Doyle. When Emily returns to the BAU in season 7, Morgan shows concern for her safety and ability to protect herself in the field by making her sign up for re-certification.

Over time, she also forms a close relationship with Agent Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, especially when they are the only two female agents in the BAU in the field for several seasons. When Prentiss has to fake her death for the team's safety, JJ is the only one (aside from Hotchner) who knows the truth. JJ also flies to Paris and is involved in getting fake passports and setting up bank accounts for Prentiss to stay incognito. JJ expresses the most happiness when Prentiss came back from the dead and tells Prentiss how much she has missed her while she was gone. Prentiss later mentions to Hotchner that while she was away from the BAU and work, she played a lot of online Scrabble with someone with the online moniker "cheetobreath", implying it was JJ keeping her company. In the rare moments outside work, JJ and Prentiss have been seen having conversations about children and the men, or lack thereof, in Prentiss's life. Prentiss was also the first to congratulate JJ when she revealed she was pregnant with Henry.

After Spencer Reid returns to work following his abduction by serial killer Tobias Hankel, Prentiss experiences a falling out with the young agent due to his harsh behavior toward her (a function of the irritability resulting from Reid's use of narcotics to cope with his recent trauma). However, the agents eventually gain a mutual respect and even share light-hearted moments. Prentiss sometimes joins in with Morgan in good-natured teasing of Reid's genius. She also amazes Reid when she beats him at poker even though he is from Las Vegas and never loses. Another turning point in their relationship is when Prentiss and Reid are held captive by a cult group and Prentiss admits she is the FBI agent, causing her to suffer a beating from the cult leader. As a result, Reid feels guilty, but Prentiss reassures him everything is all right and that is not his fault. Prentiss is also the only one Reid tells about his recurring headaches. Reid is one of the most affected by Prentiss's death, sobbing on JJ's shoulder because he never got to say goodbye, and even thought about giving up since he felt the BAU had failed at protecting a member of their team. Later, when Prentiss comes back, Reid feels betrayed by Prentiss for not telling him the truth, but Prentiss confronts him and they eventually reconcile.

Prentiss is often seen hanging out with Jareau and Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia outside of work. Garcia looks up to Prentiss and never fails to vocalize her admiration, whether it is for Prentiss's fluency in Arabic, wit or the fact she took up salsa dancing classes. Garcia also notes that after four years with the team, Prentiss is a part of the “BAU family;” they hold a close friendship.

On the job

Prentiss is shown to be an extremely competent, level-headed agent. She is not as affected by the nightmares that come with the job and manages to keep her cool in hostile confrontations. She is also shown to put herself in the line of fire, for example, volunteering to enter into the unsub's house to rescue his young boy, and sacrifice herself for her teammates, as she did for Spencer Reid once in the season 4 episode, "Minimal Loss". She does not act rashly and there was only one rare occasion where she allowed her personal feelings interfere with investigations.^[10] It has been mentioned by Morgan that she has problems trusting others, preferring to handle things independently instead of asking others to help, but it was revealed that this reluctance is due to her long background as an undercover agent.

References

External links