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Emily Prentiss
![[Untitled]](http://image.wetpaint.com/image/1/Y6J7CKrU_CVknnxNCFTp3g979791/GW279H185 "[Untitled]")
Click EasyEdit to add information about Emily. Develop her backstory, talk about her relationships, her defining cases, and what makes her tick. > Start a discussion about Emily. Played by: Paget Brewster
NEW: Add photos of Prentiss in action here.
Rank: Supervisory Special Agent (SSA), Profiler
Vitals: Emily Prentiss is the daughter of Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss who was primarily posted at the United States Embassy in the Ukraine, but has also been posted in some positions in the Middle East. Prentiss apparently lived in Middle East some during her childhood, and she is fluent in Arabic, Spanish, Italian, and some Russian ("Honor Among Thieves" and "Catching Out"). She was placed on the Behavioral Analysis Unit by Section Chief Erin Strauss as a means to end SSA Hotchner's career, but quit instead of helping Strauss ("In Birth and Death") claiming she hates politics. Hotch recognized her on her first day at the BAU from one of his first commands where he set up security clearance for her mother and her employees. She graduated from Yale in 1993, and has been working for the FBI for around ten years, primarily in the Midwest until she joined the BAU--it is unknown what she did between the year she graduated with her undergraduate degree up until the time she joined the FBI.
Emily is a self-described nerd who feels like she can never date a guy for very long before he is either scared away by the job or her nerdiness. She reveals to Morgan that she loves to read Kurt Vonnegut, and he informs her that he does as well, the two of them discussing the Vonnegut book she buys at the end of a case ("Fear and Loathing"). In season three, she offers to become the guardian for a victim who lost her entire family, but the girl's aunt and uncle were located and agreed to let her live with them. In season four, when Jordan Todd - JJ's maternity leave replacement - feels like an outsider, Emily befriends her until JJ returns. Emily is also shown to have a very close friendship with Derek Morgan. She was born at 7:12 AM on October 12, 197- ("Cold Comfort").
Key episodes:
2x09, "The Last Word"
2x10, "Lessons Learned"
2x11, "Sex, Birth, Death"
2x16, "Fear and Loathing"
2x20, "Honor Among Thieves"
2x21, "Open Season"
2x23, "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank"
3x04, "Children of the Dark"
4x03, "Minimal Loss"
4x17, "Demonology"
Who is Prentiss? Discuss her character development by season.
| Season 1 | Prentiss did not appear until Season Two. |
| Season 2 | Episode 2x09 "The Last Word" This is the episode that the then-SA Emily Prentiss first appears on the show. She is the daughter of a high-powered diplomat, Ambassador Prentiss, whom Hotch worked with early on in his FBI career. For reasons which are unclear, she has paperwork to join the BAU, but neither Hotch nor Gideon was aware of it. Hotch is wary of her, but at the end of the episode, he reluctantly agrees to take her onto the team on a probational basis. Episode 2x10 "Lessons Learned" is Prentiss' first full episode. In it, we discover that she spent considerable time in the Middle East as a child, traveling with her parents, and is well-versed in the Arabic language and culture. This is the first episode where Prentiss really proves that she has potential as a profiler, picking up on the subtleties within the words and actions of their suspect. Episode 2x11 "Sex, Birth, Death" Hotch believes that Prentiss leaked details of their case to a congresswoman who worked with her mother, an accusation which she resents. It becomes fairly clear to Hotch and the viewers that Prentiss harbors a strong dislike of politics. This is also the first sign we've seen that Prentiss doesn't like her mother. Episode 2x13 "No Way Out" Prentiss clearly bonds with Jane, a mentally ill woman who the serial killer they're tracking seems to be obsessed with. No explanation is given for this bond. Episode 2x15 "Revelations" Both JJ - dealing with the trauma of Reid's abduction - and Hotch question how Prentiss can handle the horrors of their job so easily after working a desk job. Prentiss, clearly put out, responds that she "compartmentalizes better than most people." Episode 2x16 "Fear and Loathing" Prentiss and Morgan bond over their shared love of Kurt Vonnegut. Prentiss tries and fails to cheer Morgan up when the head detective on the case is shot. At the end of the episode she makes a potentially significant, though probably meaningless, slip of the tongue, saying she hasn't read Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night in, "Fif-- like, twelve years." Episode 2x17 "Distress" marks something of a breakdown of the Reid and Prentiss's friendship. Up until "Revelations," Reid had been friendly to Prentiss -- more-so than anyone else on the team. In "Distress," as a result of his own trauma and, to some extent, Prentiss' unwillingness to let his strange actions slide like the rest of the team, Reid snaps at her several times, and they spend the entire episode -- and some subsequent ones -- on uncomfortable terms. In this episode, we also find out that Prentiss speaks fluent Spanish. Episode 2x18 "Jones" Prentiss' relationship with Reid, and the team, progresses even further. When Reid misses a flight intentionally, Prentiss is tempted to express her doubts about him to Gideon, only to find that Gideon is having the same doubts. Episode 2x20 "Honor Among Thieves" is largely about Prentiss. Her mother comes to the BAU and asks that they take the case of a Russian man who has been kidnapped by the Russian mob, or so his family thinks. Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss used to work at the Ukrainian consulate, and Prentiss knows a good deal of Russian. Prentiss' relationship with her mother is clearly strained, from their interactions in the episode, and notably, her father is not mentioned. Prentiss states that she has never seen her mother with her guard down. Episode 2x21 "Open Season" is also somewhat Prentiss-based. In the opening scene, she, JJ, and Garcia trick a man who is pretending to be an FBI agent to pick up girls at a bar. At the end of the episode, it's clear that she identifies with the victim, Bobbi, who asks her how unsubs can act the way they do. Prentiss says that the UnSubs don't think like them, but later, on the plane, she confides to Morgan that they do. "What makes us different?" she asks Morgan. Episode 2x23 "No Way Out II: The Evolution of Frank" Jane, from Episode 2x13, returns, and once again, Prentiss's bond with her is clear. At the end of the episode, Erin Strauss, a Section Chief in the FBI, wants to get Hotch off the team. She tells Prentiss that she pulled strings to get her into the BAU, and that she can get her off the BAU if she doesn't spy on Hotch. We don't see Prentiss' response. |
| Season 3 | Episode 3x02 "In Birth and Death" Prentiss resigns, until Hotch tells her he knew that she didn't report negative info on him like Section Chief Erin Strauss had asked. He informs her that her resignation isn't in the system yet so they are bound to help the team in this case. Prentiss puts herself in harm's way when she knocks on the door of the UnSub's home and his son lets her in. She is armed with Morgan's gun and convinces the boy she knows the father and he invited her over. She finds out where the father is and goes into the room where he is holding his latest victim, the school nurse, hostage. He clubs Prentiss on the head with a piece of wood and hands his son the gun and tries to get is son to shoot Prentiss. Prentiss is disoriented but manages to send the signal out via her cell to the team to come in. She is okay and announces "is it wrong that I am happy to be back" to Hotch. She returns home and reflects from her window in her apartment. Episode 3x03 "Scared to Death" Prentiss chats with Reid about why Gideon left him the letter for his reasons for leaving. Reid was trying to understand it and Prentiss tells him the answer is in the letter and to reread it. This is one of the first moments where we see the relationship between Reid and Prentiss fixing itself since they had their falling out following "Revelations". Episode 3x04 "Children of the Dark" A teenage girl survives a brutal and fatal attack on the rest of her family, and Prentiss bonds with her after the girl says it's too late to be a good daughter now that her parents are dead. Feeling the girl has no family and nowhere to go, Prentiss offers to bring her home with her to live and take care of her but the girl's extended family comes forward, leaving Prentiss feeling a little lost. JJ tells her on the plane that she can see that she would make a good mother. Episode 3x05 "Seven Seconds" The BAU team races against the clock to find 6 year old Katie Jacobs who was kidnapped from a mall. Prentiss really steps up as she interviews Susan and Robert, the aunt and uncle of young Katie. After she and Hotch interrogate Robert, they discover he'd been molesting Katie. Hotch points out to Prentiss that the uncle showed no rage and the act of ripping off Katie's necklace had been done in rage. She thinks back to her conversation with Susan and realizes that she was behind Katie's disappearance. She interrogates her until she breaks, and then arrests her after Katie is found. |
| Season 4 | Episode 4x03 "Minimal Loss" Reid and Prentiss go undercover as child services employees to a ranch/cult where they are held captive. After a press leak that an FBI agent is in the compound, she willingly gives herself up as the agent and is subsequently beaten by the cult leader, Benjamin Cyrus. She endures the beatings and is able to get one of the women in the compound to confess that she made the initial call that brought them there. Prentiss also convinces the woman to get most of the remaining captives into the basement before the building was to be raided. In the end, Prentiss plays an intricate part in getting the case solved. Episode 4x09 "52 Pick-Up" Prentiss atracts a creepy 'how to get a date' guy named Viper. This episodes marks a clear connection of friendship between Emily and Jordan, JJ's temporary replacement, with Emily vouching for Jordan to Hotch. There is also a scene where she and Hotch are in the locker room and they talk about dates, him scrutinizing her. Mention is made of the rough reception the team (specifically Hotch) gave Emily when she first appeared on the team. Episode 4x17 "Demonology" We learn Emily was living in Rome when she was 15. She got pregnant, possibly by John Cooley, and had an abortion. She was religious at the time. She possibly speaks Italian, it is not quite clear. She seems to be pushed away by Hotch in this episode but accepted by Rossi and we see one of her first really defining moments. |
See Also: David Rossi | Aaron Hotchner | Derek Morgan | Spencer Reid | JJ Jareau | Penelope Garcia | Jason Gideon (Former) | Elle Greenaway (Former) |
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Keyword tags:
characters of Criminal Minds
criminal minds
Emily Prentiss
Prentiss
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| Passepartout | Prentiss lately has been showing more depth (page: 1 2) | 22 | Aug 29 2009, 2:15 AM EDT by epicCMlove | ||
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Thread started: Jan 10 2008, 7:13 PM EST
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I think that Emily has shown more depth to her character. As she started out like Rossis started out. Nobody liked her but she has shown more emotions I think. As well as a love for children. Wished that she could had taken that teenage girl home with her as I think she would had been a good mom. Thought she was just a one-dimensional character. But now, she is showing her emotions more.
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Keyword tags:
characters of Criminal Minds
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| gbraeme71 | Emily Prentiss | 2 | Mar 15 2009, 3:24 PM EDT by gbraeme71 | ||
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Thread started: Feb 8 2009, 1:50 PM EST
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Hi,
These last weeks, there was a debate with Emily's character, especially about the existence of secret. from the middle of 4th season and further to this news, a lot of scenarios came out (from the surprised existence of an hubby/boyfriend to less romantical link about relatives without forgetting the lesbian frame etween with JJ!) Whatever it is, I like more and more her character because deeper than we would have thought at the first sight! (hope we could see again Kate Jackson in her magistral Elisabeth Prentiss role -> I wonder what she could think about her daughter's new hairstyle?! <grin> Perso, I don't like it prefering the one used in the beginning of 3rd season and even the one used at the end of 2nd season! -> btw, Paget Brewster always comes back to the "classic" hairstyle at the end (cf Huff, Andy Richter, etc. ) Thanks to have read! :-D Anyway, we should find out more from March with an eipisode called " Demonology" (Synopsis:Agent Prentiss has a personal connection to one of the victims in a series of deaths with religious overtones.) -> THANKS to people who brought this info onthe list of episodes page! :-D |
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| gbraeme71 | Emily Prentiss character | 6 | Jan 22 2009, 1:55 PM EST by batgurl88 | ||
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Thread started: Jan 21 2009, 4:13 PM EST
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Hi, I'm a new user coming from France where Criminal Minds manages to reunite about 4/5 millions of viewers every weeks though the violent frame of each story.
I found out this show by accident, in searching how to spend a Monday evening and now, I can't imagine to miss any episode! :-D I've like Ellie's character frim 1st season and little part of the 2nd one but Emily Prentiss character brings much more emotions, especially in 3rd season (Paget Brewster made - and still makes - a great job) I read somewhere via an interview given by the director of the show that viewers were going to learn more on a couple of main characters (Jordan Todd and especially, Emily whose the secret was goign to be revealed...) Anyone knows more? In surfing on varied CM websites and especially on Fanfiction page, numerous refer to a lesbian relationships between JJ and Prentiss...why? I was totally surprised by that, not because it could be inapropriate but because through the episodes already watched, I saw nothing made me think this kind of situation or would I missed anything? Thanks for your comment and sorry for my English! |
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