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| “ | One of the last things I said before he shot me was everything happens for a reason. Derek, if I lose faith in that then nothing in my life makes sense. | „ |
| ~ Garcia during a crisis of faith |
Penelope Garcia is one of the main protagonists of the TV series Criminal Minds. She is the eccentric, technologically gifted who works as Technical Analyst for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit.
Character Overview[]
Garcia is from San Francisco, California. Her mother and stepfather were killed by a drunk driver when she was 18, and she now helps counsel the families of murder victims in her spare time. Garcia has stated that after her parents died, she dropped out of Caltech and went "underground" but continued to teach herself computer coding. She had been placed on one of the FBI's hacker lists (she was one of a small handful of extremely useful or dangerous hackers in the world), and they recruited her from there. It has also been mentioned, when she was not allowed to travel with the team to Langley, that she was on the CIA's "lists" as well.
Garcia is into online games, specifically MMOGs, as she was once seen playing a game about Camelot on the BAU network, constantly virtually meeting with "Sir Kneighf", an online alter ego who turns out to be Randall Garner, who is keeping a young woman prisoner while sending the team several clues that, with tremendous help from Reid, they use to catch him and save the woman. Garner hacked into Garcia's computer and accessed files about the BAU, then used the personal information to find out their whereabouts so he could send the clues there. At the end of the Season 6 episode "Compromising Positions", Hotch comments that Garcia submitted her handwritten resume on pink stationery when she applied for a job at the FBI.
The Season 9 episode "The Black Queen" reveals that Garcia was arrested by the FBI after she hacked into the computer systems of a cosmetics company, prompted by outrage over its use of animals in product testing. Special Supervisory Agent Aaron Hotchner offered her a choice of facing prosecution or joining the BAU to help track down serial killers; when she reacted with disdain, he noted her scrupulous morality in choosing targets. She accepted the job and hand-wrote a résumé for Hotchner to give to the FBI's human resources department, using the aforementioned pink stationery that she had in her purse.
Criminal Minds []
Garcia is unabashedly emotional, which sometimes makes her job with the BAU more difficult. She has broken down, crying several times while listening to and watching terrifying things in her office as she analyzes them for the team. However, according to Hotchner, she "fills her office with figurines and color to remind herself to smile as the horror fills her screens". Garcia is, on the whole, an optimist. She has managed to remain so, even though the job occasionally requires her to dig into people's secret lives, to "find the god-awful thing that happened to them that made them do the god-awful thing to someone else". Many team members have commented in various ways, that her optimism is an aid to them, that (as Hotchner said) they would never want her to change.
Garcia was once shot by a man with whom she had just gone on a date, but survived when the bullet missed her heart and ricocheted into her abdomen. The attacker (who turned out to be a type of serial killer known as a 'hero homicide') was later killed. After this incident, her fellow agent and best friend Derek Morgan insisted she keep a gun; however, it is never shown whether she took this advice. She was romantically involved with fellow FBI Technical Analyst Kevin Lynch.
Garcia seems to have been the one most hurt by Media Liaison Jennifer Jareau transferring out of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. In the Season 6 episode "Compromising Positions", Garcia volunteered to replace Jareau as their new Media Liaison, but soon discovered that she was not suited for the job. She returned to her analyst duties after the case was closed, but was given the option to travel to crime scenes with the team as needed.
She was also emotional in the episode "Lauren" when Agent Emily Prentiss is stabbed by her nemesis, Ian Doyle. Jareau joins the team waiting in the hospital lounge for results to inform them that Prentiss "never made it off the table". In "Hanley Waters", she is interviewed by Hotchner about Prentiss' "apparent death" and says she wants to talk about the times when Prentiss made her happy instead of about her being gone.
Garcia is extremely and emotionally excited when she learns that Prentiss is alive and shocked when she returns. She is also quick to forgive her, Jareau, and Hotchner for the deception. It is also revealed that she has been taking care of Emily's cat, Sergio, and when Emily inquires about him, Garcia promptly demands visitation rights.
Garcia is afraid of losing a partner, as she risked her career by taking down a federal website to stop her boyfriend, Kevin Lynch, from being transferred out of country for a job, though after she accidentally let a detail slip while talking to him, he was annoyed slightly, but happy for the action on her part. Details about why her parents died in a car accident are revealed in season 7 when Garcia is overseeing a support group and sharing her loss, telling the group they died looking for Garcia after she didn't return home by curfew.
Her moment of truth came in the 9th season episode "Demons" when she was forced to shoot an assassin sent to kill Agent Spencer Reid by a corrupt sheriffs deputy. Reid had been in a hospital after being shot in the previous episode. In an attempt to get some closure, she communicates with the man she shot while he's on death row and later goes to his execution.
Garcia is extremely close to Jareau and Prentiss. They have occasional "Girls Nights Out" which last till early morning. Garcia is godmother of both Jareau's sons and Morgan's son as well. After Morgan's departure and the addition of Luke Alvez to the BAU, Garcia becomes uncharacteristically distant and withdrawn from him, frequently calling him 'Newbie.' Later, Alvez and she find some common ground after she discovers that Roxie, who she assumed was Luke's girlfriend, is actually his dog. In the season twelve finale, Morgan returned after Peter Lewis tried to coax out the team and asked Garcia to cut him some slack, despite her reluctance.
In season 13, Garcia ends up going to the field with Simmons to track down serial killer Peter Lewis. She also showed that she had not yet been able to overcome the trauma from her shooting. Morgan ended up coming back to give her emotional support. Penelope searches for a new apartment soon after stating that her neighbor practice Kung Fu naked and there are things she can't forget.
She also had to break into the encounter with Luke and his ex-girlfriend Lisa. Penelope got the case responsible for putting the team back together after the separation imposed by Linda Barnes. She helped Special Supervisory Agent David Rossi interrogate her stepdaughter Portia's ex-fiancé.
In the episode "All You Can Eat" she returns to California to testify at the parole hearing of the man who killed her parents. At first, she wants to make sure he stays in prison, but after a particularly emotional case, she decides to forgive him and does not oppose his release.
Garcia is kidnapped by the cult of Benjamin Merva in the final episode of the season. She and Reid are held hostage by the killers, but with the help of Reid, Penelope manages to escape, running over Mary Meadows and going to the BAU.
She reveals to Agent Luke Alvez in the episode "Saturday" that she has a Russian stalker during a stalking case involving one of her students at a Hacker Workshop at BAU headquarters.
In episode 9 of season 15, Garcia reveals that she is considering accepting a job offer at an independent institution. She says it would be a good change. In the final episode, the team celebrates her departure and Luke invites her to dinner during her team's farewell party.
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior[]
The character of Garcia also appeared in the spin-off Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior as a series regular.
Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders[]
Garcia also appears in the spin-off Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.
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 Heroes
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Behavioral Analysis Unit San Francisco BAU International Response Team Other Members of the FBI Police Victims Others | ||