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I think rossi's drive with reid went better than he thought would.

this is really the first scene where we see a mentor-mentee dynamic developing between rossi and reid, and i think it probably happened on the drive up to philadelphia (a drive that would have taken about three hours according to google maps).

rossi's line in the second gif is especially telling for two reasons. first, he's giving reid advice on how to present evidence to a court, positioning himself as a mentor figure. (to my understanding, court testimony is most of what the real-life bau does. a lot more court testimony and long-distance consultations and lot less fieldwork). second, he says when. to me, this is rossi accepting reid as a Real FBI Agent for the first time. to him, reid testifying in front of a courtroom as to the psychology of an unsub is an inevitability. (which, again, i know in real life would be a given, as that would be the majority of his job. but cm appears to take place in a parallel universe where the bau's job description is Yes.)

and then reid responds to this by adding on more information. im not 100% sure he was originally going to say that—there's a pause between the end of his first line and the beginning of rossi's, so it's not as if rossi interrupted him, and he stammers a little in the beginning, as if he's nervous and adding more info in an attempt to impress rossi, or the hypothetical judge. ("see! i can do it!")

and rossi compliments him on it, and reid smiles. partially because he has daddy issues, partially because rossi is one of his heroes, and partially because this is the beginning of their dynamic.

anyway. now im wondering what that drive was like, if it appears to have (at least slightly) changed rossi's opinion of reid. sound off.

happier with these gifs, so feel free to critique. i know the subtitles are hard to read when they're against the white paper, sorry! should have made them darker.