Criminal Minds is a long-running procedural that fans can’t get enough of. But what happened to every main character after the original show’s ending?
Viewers were shocked when it was announced that Criminal Minds was canceled and ending after its 15th season. The series has been on the air since 2005 and amassed a devoted fanbase over the nearly 20 years it was on television. With only ten episodes to conclude the series, the creative team behind Criminal Minds had to balance an entertaining and familiar series for fans while also concluding the persona; storylines centered around the main characters.
It wasn’t known to the Criminal Minds team at the time, but the series would not end with Season 15. The series became a streaming success during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period. The reinvigorated interest in the series promoted a revival titled Criminal Minds: Evolution, which serves as the 16th season of the series. With a 17th season on the horizon, it can be helpful to check in on where the original series finale left the members of the BAU before the time jump to Criminal Minds: Evolution.
SSA Dr. Spencer Reid Continues His BAU Journey
SSA Dr. Spencer Reid is one of the most popular characters in Criminal Minds and has appeared in all 15 seasons of the original series. Reid is known as a ‘boy genius,’ as his team often refers to him. With a 187-point IQ and an eidetic memory, Reid’s intellect gives his team an edge over the psychopaths they hunt.
In Season 15, Reid began the season trying to establish some normalcy from recent traumas he’s endured in past seasons, including kidnapping and being framed for murder and temporarily imprisoned. Reid strikes up a romance that is cut short by the return of a familiar foe, hitwoman Cat Adams. She reignites their cat-and-mouse game from jail. Reid manages to outsmart his rival but only has a few episodes of normalcy before suffering a traumatic brain injury from an explosion. Reid hallucinates and sees characters such as his ex, Maeve. Reid is found unconscious at his apartment and taken to the hospital, where he recovers and rejoins the team for the final celebration scene.
SSA Luke Alvez Takes a Personal Risk
Luke Alvez brought grit to the team when he joined in Season 12. His specialty is hunting fugitives, and he brought the skills from that with him when he was recruited for the BAU. He picked up profiling with ease and has been a great addition to the latter seasons of Criminal Minds.
During Season 15, Episode 5, “Ghost,” Luke and SSA Matthew Simmons are kidnapped by an UNSUB from their past who leads a criminal motorcycle gang. Together, they must use manipulation to turn the UNSUB and his gang against him so they have a chance at survival. They escape with their lives, and their brotherly bond is further cemented. At the end of the season, Luke decides to set his sights on his frenemy, Penelope Garcia. He asks her on a date, and the season ends with that marked on their shared calendar.
Unit Chief Emily Prentiss Steps Up Professionally
SSA Emily Prentiss worked hard for her place in the BAU the moment her feet landed in the bullpen. She knew she would face speculation that her politically connected family was what got her the position instead of her skills. As a result, Prentiss worked twice as hard and has never taken her feet off the gas.
Season 15 sees Prentiss as the Unit Chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, trying to maintain a long-distance relationship with her equally busy boyfriend, Special Agent Mendoza, who runs the Denver Field Office. Prentiss navigates this rocky emotional terrain successfully and soon learns she is shortlisted for the position of FBI Director, which could pull her away from the team permanently. In the end, she does not get the position after the Chameleon kills his mother and six SWAT officers in an explosion that blows back onto her. She ends Season 15 as the Unit Chief, the same role she began with, and plans to look for property in Denver for when she visits Agent Mendoza.
SSA Jennifer Jareau Stays With Her Team
SSA Jennifer ‘JJ’ Jareau began her FBI career as a Media Liaison. She evolved into a brilliant profiler and one of the longest-serving members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit team. JJ has valuable insight not only into the human mind but also into how the media plays a role in the cases they solve. This allows her to use it to the team’s advantage and put pressure on killers in a unique way.
JJ has an eventful 15th season in Criminal Minds. She suffers a severe gunshot wound at the hands of The Chameleon’s daughter and luckily survives. She then must wrestle with a new job opportunity to run the New Orleans Field Office. In the end, she decides to stay in DC with her BAU teammates, with whom she has spent many years.
SSA Matthew ‘Matt’ Simmons Continues to Grow With His New Team
SSA Matthew ‘Matt’ Simmons had a winding path in the FBI that led him from hunting criminals in foreign countries to profiling them stateside with the BAU team. Simmons was a protagonist in the short-lived spinoff Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. When the spinoff ended, his character was revived and added to the roster of the main Criminal Minds team.
Season 15 sees Matt expanding his family even further, and his wife gives birth to a daughter named partly after SSA David Rossi, a mentor figure to Matt. Simmons also has a harrowing experience where he and SSA Luke Alvez are kidnapped by a dangerous UNSUB whom they both pursued at one point in their careers. Luckily, the team comes for them, and they escape the dangerous killer and his gang. Simmons ends Season 15 enjoying his new home at the BAU.
SSA Dr. Tara Lewis Stays on With the BAU
SSA Dr. Tara Lewis is a forensic psychologist who brings her years of experience interviewing and studying serial killers to the BAU when she joins in Season 11. She does a fantastic job of bridging the clinical approach with the field approach required to be a successful profiler on the team. Lewis is extra motivated to prevent the damage these killers enact instead of studying it after the fact as she had been in her clinical work.
Season 15 sees Lewis working alongside the team to catch the dangerous serial killer, The Chameleon, and put an end to the case once and for all. Lewis tirelessly works with her team to achieve this goal. At the end of the series, she is seen celebrating with them after the case is finally over.
SSA David Rossi is Relentless in His Pursuit of a Predatory Serial Killer
SSA David Rossi is the most experienced member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit because he is one of the founders of it. Rossi founded the Unit with SSA Jason Gideon decades prior. In Season 3, he returned to the unit after years away to solve a cold case from his past. After he lets his team in after stonewalling them, he decides to stick around and made the series better as a result.
Season 15 is one of the most challenging for David Rossi. After almost dying at the hands of The Chameleon, Rossi gets tunnel vision and relentlessly pursues the killer and almost dies again in the process. Rossi and the BAU emerge victorious in the end, and he has the team over to his mansion for a celebration.
Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia Says Goodbye to Her Team
Technical Analyst and hacker extraordinaire Penelope Garcia is the light in a very dark series. Penelope has been with the team from the beginning and uses her computer genius to masterfully hunt down information on victims and their killers. Penelope was a notorious hacker before being arrested by the FBI and recruited by them instead of being imprisoned. She’s known for her brightly colored clothes and upbeat personality.
Season 15 sees Garcia make a big change in her work life. After 15 years, she decides to leave the FBI and take a position at an independent institution where she can still use her technological prowess to bring positive change. The team throws her a farewell party where she accepts a date invitation from Luke Alvez. The final scene of Season 15 is her cleaning out her office and delivering the episode’s signature ending quotation.
