Criminal Minds is getting up there in years, but has remarkably been able to create big TV moments for fans despite its age. Recently, we saw Spencer Reid have another crazy love interest, and now we’ve just learned that Emily Prentiss will finally be making her big return to Criminal Minds later this season. I’ll give you a second to let that sink in before I start making woo noises louder than that guy during the Super Bowl. You ready? “Woooooooooooooooooooo.”
In what is definitely the best news TV fans have gotten today and probably the best news we’ve heard all week, TV Line has learned that Paget Brewster’s schedule has opened up to allow her to appear on an upcoming episode of Criminal Minds. We don’t have an exact date for when the Season 11 episode will air, but we do know it will happen this spring. Agent Emily Prentiss is currently working with Interpol, and in the episodes she’ll enlist the help of her old gang to track an “elusive serial killer.” I mean, what else would they be helping her with?
Back in August, we learned that Paget Brewster had been slated to return to Criminal Minds this fall. The series desperately needed women this fall after A.J. Cook left for a real-life and onscreen pregnancy leave and Jennifer Love Hewitt left because she was real-life pregnant, as well. The show actually called Brewster and she was game, but then the new comedy Grandfathered was picked up by Fox and the filming schedules just could not be worked out.
We’re not totally complaining, a. because we dig Grandfathered and b. because Criminal Minds ended up signing on Aisha Tyler after Paget Brewster said no. Still, fans have been clamoring for the return of fan-favorite character Agent Emily Prentiss basically since she left the series. Ok, we know she popped up briefly for the 200th episode, but that feels like so long ago. Her return to Criminal Minds should be like the crème de la crème of all guest stints. Tops, basically. And even if you weren’t a huge fan of her character, it should be nice for Criminal Minds to step back a bit from the norm and do a reunion sort of episode.
This is especially big news, considering Paget Brewster has been open about her dislike of the CBS heads during the time her tenure was ending on Criminal Minds. It's nice to see she still thinks her former TV family is cool enough to return to a network she formerly was not jazzed about. We’ll let you know as soon as Paget Brewster’s big appearance has a premiere date. In the meantime, Criminal Minds has some other big guest starring names coming up, including Danny Glover, who is expected to appear in the March 2 episode as Agent Morgan’s father. You can catch new episodes of CBS’ long-running drama on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET.
