Criminal Minds Minicaps: Season 5

To begin, a brief but fairly comprehensive review of the character development of the first four years of this show:

Hotch, aka Aaron Hotchner. Grim, stone-faced leader. Weight of the world on his shoulders. Hates when people "misrepresent the bureau." Possibly abused as a child. Father died of cancer. Works obsessively, to the detriment of his personal life (he's divorced, with a young son he rarely sees) and his own health (ignoring doctor's orders after a serious injury almost left him deaf), indicating possible self-loathing. Failed to catch first unsub, the Boston Reaper, who apparently resurfaced and shot him at the end of last season.

Morgan, Derek. Cheerful, sexy action hero profiler. Definitely abused as a child. Mad at God. Cop father died in the line of duty. Either does or does not have "absolutely no idea what it's like to be in love with another man." Doesn't mind risking himself in heroic display, indicating possible self-loathing.

Rossi, David. Former hotshot profiler out of retirement. Affects not to get emotionally involved in work, but goes to great lengths to alleviate guilt e.g. by paying funeral expenses and following up anonymously (sometimes illegally) on old cases. Alternately kind and mind-gamey to his team members, keeping relationships from getting too close, indicating possible self-loathing.

Reid, Spencer (Dr.) Orchid-delicate profiler with enormous brain. Victim of childhood nerd-based beatings and humiliation. Has a schizophrenic mother and worries about developing schizophrenia himself someday. During childhood, emotionally distant father assisted in covering up the murder of a pedophilic murderer who had killed a neighborhood boy and approached Reid (according to his mother, though, Reid was never touched). In the service of his duties, has been held hostage, tortured, force-fed and subsequently addicted to dilaudid, and infected with anthrax. Attends "Clean Cops" 12-step program. Trust and faith in goodness of unsubs and victims with which he overidentifies (particularly smart, mentally ill young men) leads him to go into situations un- or poorly-armed, indicating possible self-loathing.

Prentiss, Emily. No-nonsense profiler. Eerily good at compartmentalizing. Worries about becoming too objective/inhuman. Briefly wanted to adopt a teenage girl. Had an abortion as a young teen. Childhood best friend became paranoid schizophrenic and died of a drug overdose. Grew up overseas with highly-ranked diplomat parents. Good at martial arts and taking punches in the service of duty. Once broke cover, inviting a savage beating, to protect Reid, indicating a protector/protectee chemistry which I wish they would explore more.

Garcia, Penelope. Funny, flirty computer/communications expert. Originally recruited to the BAU after a successful hacking career. Distant enough from the horrors of the job to still find them emotionally affecting. Volunteers to counsel families of victims in her spare time. Refuses to profile, even though she's capable of it, because she prefers to see the good in people. Possibly illegally sabotaged a foreign service job to keep her boyfriend Kevin at home.

JJ aka Jennifer Jareau. Good-with-people liaison. Newly married with a baby. Possibly had some trouble bonding with child, but feels strongly when children and families are involved in cases. Used to play soccer. That's about it, really.

5x1 Faceless, Nameless

Fresh off their trip to rural Ontario (they haven't slept; they still probably smell like pig farm), the gang is called to help a surgeon who's been receiving anonymous notes threatening his son. Fresh off Matthew Gray Gubler's ballroom dancing injury, Reid solves the whole case without getting up from the couch. Hotch turns up at a hospital with nothing but nine stab wounds and a creased photo of his wife and son. Convinced they're the Reaper's next target, Hotch arranges for Haley and Jack to go into witness protection, and silently angsts.

Character Arc: In a flashback, the Boston Reaper draws a knife from Hotch's gut and informs Hotch he's about to disprove the profiler-popular theory that only impotent killers stab. I think we have to count this as confirmed rape. (For those of you keeping score, we're up to a 50% male rape rate for applicable team members; surprisingly and somewhat pleasingly, Reid not among them!) Even more emotional and physical abuse for Hotch to repress!
JACK: Are you okay?
(Long pause)
HOTCH: ... I'm very proud of you.

5x2 Haunted

A violent psychopath turns out to be the son of a cold case kidnapper who trapped boys in cages twenty years ago.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Nothing much. Hotch goes into a dangerous situation, I-don't-care-if-I-live-or-die style, at the end, just to show us how messed up he is over the ongoing Boston Reaper situation.

Obnoxious Lack of a Character Arc: Prentiss gets a throwaway line about schizophrenic parents that should clearly be Reid's.

5x3 Reckoner

A rash of murders in Rossi's hometown on Long Island ends up involving mob guys who are either Italian or Irish or both, and a corrupt judge who is neither.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Rossi gives conflicting information as to whether he did or did not sleep with the perpetrator's wife.

5x4 Hopeless

A trio of builders kill the nouveau riche to protest gentrification.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Morgan makes an effort to keep a victim's sister informed about the crime, alarming Garcia, who gives him a talking-to. The show violates its "people who get too involved in the crime are the criminal" rule--and Yolsaffbridge's badass alternative "the woman will use the information to go vigilante" theory--by just having the lady and Morgan kind of be into each other.

5x5 Cradle to Grave

Killer couple makes women carry and deliver the husband's babies before killing them.

Character Arc (Such As There Is One): Morgan gets pissy when Hotch seems to be harder on him than ever before, and gives him all kinds of extra work. It turns out that Hotch wants to promote him to team leader before stepping down to regular team member, since higher-ups are concerned that his work is sucky now.

Lingering Questions: If the couple is trying to make up for a dead baby boy by producing new baby boys, why do the killers kill women after they have girls, but not after they have miscarriages? Why do they keep making more after they have one? How can Hotch promote someone to his own position?

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