The Criminal Minds Scene That Fans Can't Stop Rewatching
When fans talk about their favorite Criminal Minds moments, there's always a wide range of potential nominees in the mix. It could be the episode during which a group of search party volunteers were served chili where the main ingredient is the missing person they were looking for. Or it could be the time the team tracked an unsub who used mind control to make people believe a demonic entity named Mr. Scratch was forcing them to kill their family members. There's also the possibility that they'll recall an epic Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) comeback that has become one of the show's most memorable quotes.
Or, it's possible that when thinking of the best Criminal Minds scene, fans pick a moment that took place during one of the Behavioral Analysis Unit's ladies' nights. There's one particular scene from the show's second season that finds JJ Jareau (A.J. Cook), Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), and Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) having a few beers and causing some mischief at a local bar. It's a silly moment in the midst of an otherwise dark episode, which is perhaps why fans on Reddit recently had a blast reliving the scene. Here's what they had to say about this crowd-pleasing Criminal Minds moment.
Why fans love this Criminal Minds scene
The scene fans are getting hype for occurred on the season 2 episode "Open Season." Before the team heads off to Idaho to investigate a case involving people who hunt other humans for sport, the ladies are at their favorite watering hole, sipping on a few beers. While Penelope and JJ are holding down their table, Emily picks up a guy at the bar and brings him back to flirt. However, it soon becomes clear she actually has an ulterior motive.
Brad (Richard Kuegeman) claims to be an FBI agent, but he's actually just pretending to be one in order to pick up chicks. After toying with him a bit, the women flash their own FBI badges and their victim silently slips away in shame. After he does, Penelope congratulates Emily on her find by saying, "Lady, you are officially in my top eight and I am so blogging about this later." (We regret to tell you that if you understood any part of that remark, you're officially old.)
On a Reddit thread dedicated to the scene, fans were living for the whole interaction. User u/isabel_cg97 celebrated the moment of levity by saying, "I love whenever we get to see them chilling together outside of work and just having a good time."
Fellow Redditor u/thedeep-researcher agreed, writing, "I've never wanted to [be] friends with a group of girls so damn badly." Meanwhile, u/ HAG4_WATER_CREMATION wanted to make sure everyone took note of a very important detail: "JJ's early 2000s hair is everything! These three gals together are the real holy trinity."
To pay tribute to the victim of the BAU ladies' teasing, u/Joemaster99 simply wrote, "Brad.EXE has [stopped] working."
The women of Criminal Minds are thick as thieves on and off camera
If, like those fans on Reddit, you love to see the women of Criminal Minds off the clock and having fun together, then it should thrill you to learn that in this particular instance, art imitates life. Cook, Vangsness, and Brewster — as well as Aisha Tyler, who joined the show as Dr. Tara Lewis in the 11th season — are also friends in the real world. And as they've shared in interviews, meeting up for a girls-only hang is a regular occurrence.
Brewster spoke about her friendships with her co-stars during a 2016 interview with fan site Criminal Minds Fans. She revealed that she's pals with most of her cast mates, but that she "always hung out with all of the ladies the most."
For Brewster, it all started when she joined Criminal Minds in the second season. She thought she might get a frosty reception for being "the new chick," but her experience was the complete opposite. "AJ and Kirsten walked up to me [after the first table read] and said 'Hey, do you want to hang out, we could have brunch...?'" said Brewster. "I almost started crying because they were so welcoming and supportive."
Vangsness confirmed Brewster's assessment during an appearance on the podcast Really Famous with Kara Mayer Robinson. She revealed, "The four girls that are on the show, we have a thing called Hot Tub Wine Machine, where we just drink white wine ... I make a cheese plate, we order sushi, and then we get in the hot tub for hours and just talk. And we're thick as thieves."
Considering how much viewers love to see the characters they play on TV hanging out, if the stars released even a few minutes of one of those Hot Tub Wine Machine nights, it would probably crash the Criminal Minds subreddit.