The Criminal Minds reboot has yet to premiere, but it has already retconned the show's finale. Wrapping up its 15-year run on CBS in 2020, Paramount+ didn't waste time setting its plan in motion to bring back the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) on the small screen. It encountered some hiccups along the way, but the Criminal Minds reboot is officially moving forward with a 10-episode order which will see the profilers hunt down a network on UnSubs.
Despite being called a reboot, the Paramount+ project is really more of a continuation of the show. Effectively, it is Criminal Minds season 16 with some minor changes. For starters, instead of devoting one episode to tackle a single case, the BAU will spend one whole season hunting down an UnSub and their s. Secondly, it will be available on a streaming service instead of being a traditional network show. Other than these, everything stays the same, with the core Criminal Minds cast all confirmed to return except for Daniel Henney who is busy with Amazon's Wheel of Time, and Matthew Gray Gubler, who won't reprise Spencer Reid after deciding to sit out the show and explore other opportunities.
With the Criminal Minds reboot functioning as a natural extension of its CBS' run, it should uphold the show's 15-year continuity, but that isn't the case. While there's limited information about the show at this point, the project is already confirmed to retcon the Criminal Minds season 15 finale. In the series capper, Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) revealed that she accepted a different job, causing her to leave the BAU after 15 years of being its tech specialist. Despite being a massive loss to the team, everyone was ive of her decision, especially since she found a job that wouldn't subject her to the regular horrors of hunting down serial killers. When Criminal Minds season 16 kicks off, however, Penelope will be back with the BAU, since Vangsness is among the confirmed actors to return for the Paramount+ revival.
Why Criminal Minds' BAU Needs Penelope
Each member of the BAU team has been carefully handpicked for their expertise and chemistry with the team. While she doesn't have the traditional FBI training that her colleagues have, Garcia is the most important BAU member because no one else can do her job. The team relies heavily on her ability to dig things up online to help the profilers learn about their UnSubs. The fact that she is one of the most veteran of the squad alongside Reid and Jennifer Jarreau (AJ Cook), being in Criminal Mind season its first season makes her essentially indispensable. Since the BAU kept functioning even after the series wrapped up its CBS run, it's curious how they fared without the help of Garcia.
How Garcia ends up back with the FBI for Criminal Minds season 16 is unknown. It's possible that BAU chief Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) recruited her after learning about their new case. There's also a chance that Garcia returned even before the events of the Criminal Minds reboot start. Since she doesn't do well with change, and she loves working with the profilers, she could have realized that she would rather be with her old team. Whatever the case may be, the important thing is that she is back with them.
