I Love Elle - Tumblr Posts

so. potentially slightly controversial opinion amongst elle fans: i really like her departure.

i think it's very thoughtfully written. the fatal flaw that contributes to her departure (her impulsivity) is shown and named in the very first episode. the trauma she suffers in the season one finale also contributes significantly, and i believe the implications i and others picked up on that there was something related to SA in her background were intentional, and even though we never got confirmation on that, elle does still express a specific hatred of sex offenders and briefly relates to the vigilante unsub in a real rain.

it makes sense. it's tragic, but it makes sense. elle has a special hatred for sex offenders. at the time of the episode, she's recently suffered a trauma wherein her home was invaded and she was, in a way, violated. (although no sexual assault happens, a man shooting a woman and then reaching into her wound, coupled with her later feeling that she can sometimes still feel his hand there, does have heavy and likely intentional imagery paralleling sexual assault). it's entirely plausible that a case concerning a man who is both a home invader and a rapist would push her to the edge.

i don't know how soon the writers knew lola glaudini would be leaving the show, but whether they knew late in season one and set up foreshadowing, or they knew later and referred to elle's previous statements, implied backstory, and canonical trauma in writing her departure, i think they did a really good job. a long-running show like criminal minds is pretty much guaranteed to have a lot of cast turnover and i wish it was this well-written more often.

if i could change one thing about the way elle's departure was written, i could have used a little more nuance, maybe changed the way some of the characters spoke about her, and referenced her more often later on. (when i say "the way some of the other characters spoke about her" i am not saying that i wish all the characters had gone "what elle did was fine. that rapist deserved to die." i wish we had gotten to see varied opinions amongst the team (without any of them being treated as having The Wrong Opinion) and that she had been discussed with more sympathy given the lead-up to her choices). referencing departed characters more often is something i wish was done in general. i wouldnt want it to be every episode, because that would be obnoxious, or even that often at all, but sometimes it feels like when the characters remember someone who left the team, it's because the writers remembered, if that makes sense?)