Paused The Episode To Do This So Watch It Immediately Contradict Me Lmfao - Tumblr Posts

so. this scene is cute, but it's weird that hotch didn't assign reid the journals in the first place. there's potentially a woman still alive somewhere and there are potentially clues to where she is in the journals. even though the unsub is dead, speed is still very important. they have no idea if she's somewhere inherently dangerous, if exposure is a risk, if she has access to food and water (which she probably doesn't), etc. so obviously i had to make it make sense in my head or i'll explode.

they're reading the journals of a man who's been abducting and killing women unnoticed for ten years. who knows the kinds of things he's written in there. yes, reid is the best person practically to read the journals because he can get through them the fastest, but he's alsothe worst person emotionally because he'll remember every (possibly depraved) word for the rest of his life (ignoring the fact that that's very much not how eidetic memories work irl. you can accuse cm of being a lot of things but true to life is not one of them <3).

(that's obviously not to say that it wouldn't affect any other member of the team. but there's a difference between "this is going to haunt me" and "I Physically Can't Forget This")

i don't think this is a conscious decision on hotch's part—again, there's very much a time crunch, and if he did think about it consciously, i think he would value potentially saving a woman's life over potentially making reid remember fucked up stuff forever. that's not to knock hotch—imo that's the correct if unpleasant decision and hotch is very good at making those even if he hates himself for making them every time. but maybe subconsciously this is why he tried to keep reid away from the journals.

(sidenote: i know this is not the intent. i just like to overthink shit that doesn't matter <3)

so. this scene is cute, but it's weird that hotch didn't assign reid the journals in the first place. there's potentially a woman still alive somewhere and there are potentially clues to where she is in the journals. even though the unsub is dead, speed is still very important. they have no idea if she's somewhere inherently dangerous, if exposure is a risk, if she has access to food and water (which she probably doesn't), etc. so obviously i had to make it make sense in my head or i'll explode.

they're reading the journals of a man who's been abducting and killing women unnoticed for ten years. who knows the kinds of things he's written in there. yes, reid is the best person practically to read the journals because he can get through them the fastest, but he's alsothe worst person emotionally because he'll remember every (possibly depraved) word for the rest of his life (ignoring the fact that that's very much not how eidetic memories work irl. you can accuse cm of being a lot of things but true to life is not one of them <3).

(that's obviously not to say that it wouldn't affect any other member of the team. but there's a difference between "this is going to haunt me" and "I Physically Can't Forget This")

i don't think this is a conscious decision on hotch's part—again, there's very much a time crunch, and if he did think about it consciously, i think he would value potentially saving a woman's life over potentially making reid remember fucked up stuff forever. that's not to knock hotch—imo that's the correct if unpleasant decision and hotch is very good at making those even if he hates himself for making them every time. but maybe subconsciously this is why he tried to keep reid away from the journals.

(sidenote: i know this is not the intent. i just like to overthink shit that doesn't matter <3)