RoundTable Mondays: Jennifer Jareau
Nov. 21st, 2011 02:53 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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criminalxmindsThis week's RTM will be focused on Jennifer Jareau. Please do not use this discussion as an opportunity to bash JJ as a character, or each other. This also isn't the place to discuss other characters in depth. Stay on topic and discuss JJ, please.
If you are new to the fandom, or just would like a more comprehensive look at Jennifer Jareau, feel free to read on, and then share your thoughts on JJ in the comments!
Meta
Jennifer Jareau was born in the late 1970s, and was raised in East Allegheny, Pennsylvania (a neighborhood on Pittsburgh’s north side - population 2,635). JJ grew up collecting butterflies as a child. We assume she comes from a two-parent household. She has an aunt. JJ also had an older sister, who committed suicide in the late 1980s when JJ was eleven years old. She still has the necklace her sister gave her (“Risky Business“.) She also presumably has another older sibling. In “The Boogeyman“, JJ says she has an eight-year-old niece (born in the late 1990s, after JJ’s older sister’s death.) In the same episode, JJ reveals a fear of the woods...
She attended school in the East Allegheny school district in North Versailles, Pennsylvania. At East Allegheny High School, it’s assumed that JJ struggled academically. In the summers, JJ worked at a summer camp in a wooded area of Vermont. She had the night shift. She once told co-worker, Derek Morgan that she discovered the camp director, stabbed to death by the camp’s caretaker. She later reveals she doesn’t know why she’s afraid of the woods, she just is. JJ was captain of the varsity soccer team her senior year (around 1995-1996) and was awarded an athletic scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. She didn’t enjoy soccer because of the immense pressure put on her to win, but a scholarship was “the only way she was getting into college (“North Mammon”). (She also excels in playing darts - “The Big Game”) She attended Georgetown, as well. JJ had a difficult time figuring out her calling and didn’t know what she was going to do with her life until she heard her eventual co-worker, David Rossi, reading from his second book in the college campus library, during JJ’s senior year (“Zoe’s Reprise”.) The next fall, she applied to the FBI academy.
We first meet JJ as she is introducing herself to co-worker Elle Greenaway in “Compulsion” She tells Elle she is the unit liaison and that her door is always open but that it is mostly because she’s never in her office. She urges Elle to “call her on her cell” if she needs anything. JJ appears a little scattered or rushed in this introduction but in reality, her position is highly sought-after in the FBI. JJ’s interpersonal skills are through the roof. It’s her job (in seasons 1-5) to do triage, in a sense, and figure out where the greatest need is and whether or not it meets the criteria for the FBI to come and assist. JJ not only figures out which cases to take, but presents them to the team. She also is the connection between the FBI and the media. She keeps her cool under pressure and can stand her ground in the face of daunting questions from the press and public. In the early seasons, JJ could also be found helping deliver difficult news to families, offering to assist them in making arrangements, or actually staying at the house with them to manage an unruly media presence outside. JJ felt a lot of pressure, being responsible for which cases got taken and which were not. If the victims in certain cases are around JJ’s age and resemble her physically, she has a more difficult time on the scene (“Birthright”).
In “Riding the Lightening” JJ goes in to help Hotch get information out of serial killer, Jacob Dawes. It appears she does this of her own volition, even changing the part in her hair before she goes in. For the first time, we see that JJ has a fabulous poker face and is able to maintain an impressive calm and distance. We find out that “her friends call her JJ” and since Dawes is not her friend “he can call her Jennifer.” I took this as a humorous line the first time I saw it, but as the seasons progressed, it seems that it is more true that I previously believed. In “Outfoxed” Morgan refers to her as Jennifer (“Jennifer, call your contact,”) after he has been promoted to Unit Chief. And in “Proof” more recently, when Reid feels betrayed by her. A little thing, perhaps, but I find it so interesting.
Though in the background, and working primarily out of police stations or field offices, JJ is attentive to detail, and often provides and insight that turns the case in the direction it should be going. Whether it’s a postmark on an envelope (“Legacy?”) or the fact that trauma would manifest more clearly on the son of a serial killer than on a killer himself (“In Name and in Blood”). She does not hesitate to say what needs to be said, whether to the press, a victim, or bickering family members. She very rarely allows her emotions to interfere with her job. In addition to all of her interpersonal skills, JJ is skilled with her weapon In “The Last Word" JJ pulls her gun on a suspect for the first time, though she doesn’t fire. Later in Season 2, during “The Big Game,” JJ and Reid split up at the house of unsub, Tobias Hankel. JJ finds herself walking into a dark barn, where three dogs are waiting. JJ sees what remains of a woman the dogs tore apart, and is forced to shoot the dogs when they attack her. Later, in “Revelations” JJ to be first in shock and later quite vulnerable as she deals with the aftermath of her own attack and Reid’s kidnapping.
In Season 3’s “Penelope”, JJ is featured as the person who Morgan calls on to slip behind unsub Jason Clark Battle, who has gotten into the BAU and is holding a man hostage, after trying to kill Garcia. This unsub is the first person JJ has killed. Afterward, she is seen sitting off to the side and very self-contained. Garcia tells her she never wanted JJ to have to do that, but JJ says she never even blinked. That she’ll “do whatever she has to do to protect her family.” JJ also views missing children as her own/family as evidenced in “Seven Seconds.” It’s also made clear, though, that JJ has a hard time with personal relationships. During “In Heat” we see her pulling away from boyfriend, Will LaMontagne Jr. and attempting to hide their connection from her coworkers. When Will pushes the issue, JJ admits that she doesn’t want the team to know because if they know, then the relationship is real, and if it’s real then there is a true possibility that she could be hurt, and she “always runs from getting hurt.” But they reconcile, and in the following episode, we find out that JJ is pregnant. JJ and Will spend time figuring out logistics of balancing a baby with their work in the rest of Season 3.
Early in Season 4, JJ goes into labor while showing replacement agent Jordan Todd the ins and outs of her job as media liaison. We see the stacks of files in JJ’s office and get an inside view on how difficult it can be to decide where the team will go, and who needs them the most. She goes through fifteen hours of labor and gives birth to a son, named Henry (born in November, 2008). JJ asks Reid and Garcia to be Henry’s godparents. Near the end of Season 4, we see JJ struggle during a case involving anthrax. According to procedure, she cannot alert her family of danger and give herself an unfair advantage over everyone else who doesn’t know. Will takes Henry for a walk by a certain park every day and as it happens, that park has been targeted by the unsub with anthrax. By the end of the episode, JJ and Will talk on the phone and things seem fine. We never actually know if JJ has made the call to tell Will to keep Henry home, but actress AJ Cook, says that in her mind, and as a mother, JJ definitely made that call.
In Season 5, (“The Performer”) JJ visit’s the house of a young woman who is mentally ill, in order to question her about a current BAU case. JJ ends up being struck in the back of the head with a shovel by the unsub. The blow affects JJ’s vision and hearing, but somehow, she manages to get to her feet, and hit the unsub in the head before he kills JJ. She draws her gun and waits for backup. Later, on the jet, it’s clear JJ doesn’t like being fussed over, though she accepts ice, a blanket, and pain-killers. In “Risky Business” JJ takes a case to Hotch based on a gut feeling that something isn’t right. In Wyoming, at the same time on Friday nights, kids were hanging themselves. All of them didn’t exhibit any kind of red flags for suicide. Hotch trusts JJ’s feeling and the team takes the case. JJ’s insight from beginning to end is invaluable. She even realizes that a kid Garcia interviewed wasn’t the unsub but in fact, suicidal himself, having given Garcia one of his possessions when he left. At the end of the episode, JJ confides in Hotch that her sister committed suicide when JJ was eleven. She uses the moment to tell Hotch that grief does get better with time. That eventually, he will be able to think of his deceased ex-wife Haley, “and it won’t hurt.”
In Season 6, (“The Longest Night”) JJ has a central role. First, she gets access to the Emergency Alert System in LA and then, she is asked by Hotch to work as a hostage negotiator. She takes notes, and reads the files Garcia sends her on their latest unsub - The Prince of Darkness - then, she gets in contact via the EAS. She starts out nervously, but eventually finds her stride and ability to sympathize with the unsub - to a degree. She isn’t able to understand him killing people for all those years, and tells him “what a mother should tell” him, that he can’t take away his pain by hurting someone else. It’s a shining, brilliant moment for JJ. In “JJ” we find out that she has been offered a new job by the Pentagon and is being forced to take it. She gives a beautiful final speech about what she’s learned and the people she’s loved in her time at the BAU. In “Lauren”, three-fourths of the way through Season 6, JJ returns as a terrorism expert from the State Department, who is able to shed light on Emily’s background, when the latter goes missing and is later, presumed murdered by unsub Ian Doyle. JJ is instrumental in the cover-up that is needed to ensure Emily’s survival. She is forced to lie to her team, telling everyone but Hotch that Emily did not survive. She attends Emily’s funeral and lays flowers. She grieves. Somewhere between March and September, JJ traveled to Paris to meet Emily briefly and hand off passports and bank accounts in each to “keep her comfortable.” In the season 6 finale, JJ returns for a few moments at the end, telling Rossi, “I’m coming back.”
In Season 7, JJ is indeed back with the team, this time, as a profiler (despite her previous assertion in “North Mammon” that she preferred her job at the time, as media liaison.) She is seen out on the field with the team for the first time, in an equal capacity. She seems to relish her new role, asking Garcia and Morgan in “It Takes a Village” if they “need some fresh eyes?” looking quite excited. In this same episode, Ian Doyle’s son goes missing. Hotch makes a decision to bring Emily out of Witness Protection and though JJ is initially against this, she eventually agrees. Though JJ doesn’t speak about it, she stands with Hotch while he makes the announcement that Emily never really was dead. In my opinion, JJ says so much, simply by standing with him, while the rest sit. She implicates herself in the lie without saying anything at all. In “Proof” JJ deals with repercussions of lying to the team when Reid makes it clear he is upset with her for lying. It’s revealed that Reid has come to JJ crying for the last ten weeks, and she has said nothing to reassure him that Emily is, in fact, okay. JJ stands by the fact that she couldn’t say anything for Emily’s safety, but Reid is unmoved and even goes so far as to ask if JJ would allow him to take drugs again. She says he hasn’t. He counters that he’s thought about it. Though everything seems resolved at the end during a cooking lesson at Rossi’s, evidence possible tension remains during “Painless” when Reid asks JJ what kind of girl she was in high school. He suspects she was a mean girl and she says she was a nice girl, “even to guys like him.” In the same episode, JJ makes a discovery that changes the direction of the case they are working by realizing that all the victims were chosen by the principal to appear in front of the media after a high school shooting, ten years prior. It’s interesting to see her background as media liaison come out a little bit here. At the end of “Painless,” Emily reveals that while in Witness Protection, she passed the time by playing online Scrabble with JJ. In “From Childhood’s Hour” she interviews a young kidnapping victim about his time in the hands of an unsub. She phrases her questions gently and matter-of-factly. This also marks the second time in season 7 that she is partnered with Rossi in the field (the first is during “Dorado Falls.”) In “There’s No Place Like Home” it’s evidenced that JJ’s son Henry, (now three) is sick, and Will is asking why she won’t stay with him at home. She goes on the case anyway, in tornado-torn Kansas, and meanwhile, Henry has a febrile seizure. Because of the weather, JJ cannot get home as fast as she’d like, but she’s able to read Henry a bedtime story over the phone. In “Hope” JJ gives a cognitive interview to her friend and coworker, Garcia, further driving home the new aspects of her job.
JJ is my favorite character. I've been a fan of AJ Cook since Higher Ground, so I was super sad when I tuned into CM right around the time the news broke that she was off the show. While there was not much of her character to go off of in the early seasons, I love how competently JJ does the job. How she does have moments where she questions herself. How she keeps her emotions contained, because she has to.
My favorite JJ Moments:
- Playing cards with Jacob Dawes in Riding the Lightning. Incredibly brave and I love that she volunteered to do it.
- How fierce she is in North Mammon, standing by the girls and "profiling" them in her own way, based on her own knowledge, having been a high school athlete. And the way she can put the parents in their place. And how she talks to Polly at the end, about how she will "always have a mother who loves her that much."
- Going into the barn at the end of The Big Game. Shooting the dogs. So scary, and it was obvious how rattled she was. Love the terror when she actually comes face to face with the dogs and how she doesn't scream until they attack.
- Everything in Revelations. I love how she is actually crouching in the barn for who-knows-how long before Prentiss and Morgan find her. How well AJ plays the shock that JJ feels. Her face as she watches the light in the back of the ambulance. The dry wit when she tells Garcia, "Welcome to our nightmare." And of course, the whole mirror scene when she pulls her gun on Prentiss. I love how she 'self-hushes' (with a finger to her lips) when she is watching Reid being tortured. I love how she goes to such great lengths to contain her grief over what is happening. I love, "Can't you track him?!" and the desperate way the line is delivered. The conversation with Morgan where she basically begs him to blame her for what happened. Where she insists on Garcia showing her the latest video. I love how she reads the passage from the Bible, and how she is the first to name Hotch's worst quality. And of course, her hug, and apology to Reid at the end.
- How she is so there for Garcia in "Penelope."
- The total realism (to me it looked real) in the way JJ experienced contractions in Memoriam. The wincing. The breathing. They looked seriously painful.
- How she does not go down without a fight in The Performer and she doesn't like being fussed over.
- And everything JJ does in Risky Business. AJ's portrayal here was so raw and moving. It was the little things I noticed. The expressions on her face at certain moments. How she cannot bring herself to come into the bedroom of the victim. How the case obviously is hard for her but she insists on taking it anyway. I've seen all six seasons now, and this is the only episode to ever make me cry. Personal experience, to a degree, and I think AJ portrayed the sadness, shock, etc, beautifully. The quote at the end just did me in.
What is your favorite JJ episode?
Is there a part of JJ's life that you wish got more focus?
What is JJ's most striking character trait?
What is your favorite JJ scene?
What do you think makes JJ an integral part of the BAU?
For writers, how do you portray JJ? Are there aspects of her life that are not on the show that you incorporate into your fiction? Do you stick pretty close to what the show portrays with regard to her character?
For readers, how do you like your JJ portrayed? Calm and in control? Gentle and/or fiercely maternal? Do you prefer her in danger or saving the day?
What do you think makes JJ tick?
Feel free to add any other thoughts about JJ's character in this post, but keep it respectful, please. Disagreement is part of life, but don't put another person down to make your point.
If you are new to the fandom, or just would like a more comprehensive look at Jennifer Jareau, feel free to read on, and then share your thoughts on JJ in the comments!
Meta
Jennifer Jareau was born in the late 1970s, and was raised in East Allegheny, Pennsylvania (a neighborhood on Pittsburgh’s north side - population 2,635). JJ grew up collecting butterflies as a child. We assume she comes from a two-parent household. She has an aunt. JJ also had an older sister, who committed suicide in the late 1980s when JJ was eleven years old. She still has the necklace her sister gave her (“Risky Business“.) She also presumably has another older sibling. In “The Boogeyman“, JJ says she has an eight-year-old niece (born in the late 1990s, after JJ’s older sister’s death.) In the same episode, JJ reveals a fear of the woods...
She attended school in the East Allegheny school district in North Versailles, Pennsylvania. At East Allegheny High School, it’s assumed that JJ struggled academically. In the summers, JJ worked at a summer camp in a wooded area of Vermont. She had the night shift. She once told co-worker, Derek Morgan that she discovered the camp director, stabbed to death by the camp’s caretaker. She later reveals she doesn’t know why she’s afraid of the woods, she just is. JJ was captain of the varsity soccer team her senior year (around 1995-1996) and was awarded an athletic scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. She didn’t enjoy soccer because of the immense pressure put on her to win, but a scholarship was “the only way she was getting into college (“North Mammon”). (She also excels in playing darts - “The Big Game”) She attended Georgetown, as well. JJ had a difficult time figuring out her calling and didn’t know what she was going to do with her life until she heard her eventual co-worker, David Rossi, reading from his second book in the college campus library, during JJ’s senior year (“Zoe’s Reprise”.) The next fall, she applied to the FBI academy.
We first meet JJ as she is introducing herself to co-worker Elle Greenaway in “Compulsion” She tells Elle she is the unit liaison and that her door is always open but that it is mostly because she’s never in her office. She urges Elle to “call her on her cell” if she needs anything. JJ appears a little scattered or rushed in this introduction but in reality, her position is highly sought-after in the FBI. JJ’s interpersonal skills are through the roof. It’s her job (in seasons 1-5) to do triage, in a sense, and figure out where the greatest need is and whether or not it meets the criteria for the FBI to come and assist. JJ not only figures out which cases to take, but presents them to the team. She also is the connection between the FBI and the media. She keeps her cool under pressure and can stand her ground in the face of daunting questions from the press and public. In the early seasons, JJ could also be found helping deliver difficult news to families, offering to assist them in making arrangements, or actually staying at the house with them to manage an unruly media presence outside. JJ felt a lot of pressure, being responsible for which cases got taken and which were not. If the victims in certain cases are around JJ’s age and resemble her physically, she has a more difficult time on the scene (“Birthright”).
In “Riding the Lightening” JJ goes in to help Hotch get information out of serial killer, Jacob Dawes. It appears she does this of her own volition, even changing the part in her hair before she goes in. For the first time, we see that JJ has a fabulous poker face and is able to maintain an impressive calm and distance. We find out that “her friends call her JJ” and since Dawes is not her friend “he can call her Jennifer.” I took this as a humorous line the first time I saw it, but as the seasons progressed, it seems that it is more true that I previously believed. In “Outfoxed” Morgan refers to her as Jennifer (“Jennifer, call your contact,”) after he has been promoted to Unit Chief. And in “Proof” more recently, when Reid feels betrayed by her. A little thing, perhaps, but I find it so interesting.
Though in the background, and working primarily out of police stations or field offices, JJ is attentive to detail, and often provides and insight that turns the case in the direction it should be going. Whether it’s a postmark on an envelope (“Legacy?”) or the fact that trauma would manifest more clearly on the son of a serial killer than on a killer himself (“In Name and in Blood”). She does not hesitate to say what needs to be said, whether to the press, a victim, or bickering family members. She very rarely allows her emotions to interfere with her job. In addition to all of her interpersonal skills, JJ is skilled with her weapon In “The Last Word" JJ pulls her gun on a suspect for the first time, though she doesn’t fire. Later in Season 2, during “The Big Game,” JJ and Reid split up at the house of unsub, Tobias Hankel. JJ finds herself walking into a dark barn, where three dogs are waiting. JJ sees what remains of a woman the dogs tore apart, and is forced to shoot the dogs when they attack her. Later, in “Revelations” JJ to be first in shock and later quite vulnerable as she deals with the aftermath of her own attack and Reid’s kidnapping.
In Season 3’s “Penelope”, JJ is featured as the person who Morgan calls on to slip behind unsub Jason Clark Battle, who has gotten into the BAU and is holding a man hostage, after trying to kill Garcia. This unsub is the first person JJ has killed. Afterward, she is seen sitting off to the side and very self-contained. Garcia tells her she never wanted JJ to have to do that, but JJ says she never even blinked. That she’ll “do whatever she has to do to protect her family.” JJ also views missing children as her own/family as evidenced in “Seven Seconds.” It’s also made clear, though, that JJ has a hard time with personal relationships. During “In Heat” we see her pulling away from boyfriend, Will LaMontagne Jr. and attempting to hide their connection from her coworkers. When Will pushes the issue, JJ admits that she doesn’t want the team to know because if they know, then the relationship is real, and if it’s real then there is a true possibility that she could be hurt, and she “always runs from getting hurt.” But they reconcile, and in the following episode, we find out that JJ is pregnant. JJ and Will spend time figuring out logistics of balancing a baby with their work in the rest of Season 3.
Early in Season 4, JJ goes into labor while showing replacement agent Jordan Todd the ins and outs of her job as media liaison. We see the stacks of files in JJ’s office and get an inside view on how difficult it can be to decide where the team will go, and who needs them the most. She goes through fifteen hours of labor and gives birth to a son, named Henry (born in November, 2008). JJ asks Reid and Garcia to be Henry’s godparents. Near the end of Season 4, we see JJ struggle during a case involving anthrax. According to procedure, she cannot alert her family of danger and give herself an unfair advantage over everyone else who doesn’t know. Will takes Henry for a walk by a certain park every day and as it happens, that park has been targeted by the unsub with anthrax. By the end of the episode, JJ and Will talk on the phone and things seem fine. We never actually know if JJ has made the call to tell Will to keep Henry home, but actress AJ Cook, says that in her mind, and as a mother, JJ definitely made that call.
In Season 5, (“The Performer”) JJ visit’s the house of a young woman who is mentally ill, in order to question her about a current BAU case. JJ ends up being struck in the back of the head with a shovel by the unsub. The blow affects JJ’s vision and hearing, but somehow, she manages to get to her feet, and hit the unsub in the head before he kills JJ. She draws her gun and waits for backup. Later, on the jet, it’s clear JJ doesn’t like being fussed over, though she accepts ice, a blanket, and pain-killers. In “Risky Business” JJ takes a case to Hotch based on a gut feeling that something isn’t right. In Wyoming, at the same time on Friday nights, kids were hanging themselves. All of them didn’t exhibit any kind of red flags for suicide. Hotch trusts JJ’s feeling and the team takes the case. JJ’s insight from beginning to end is invaluable. She even realizes that a kid Garcia interviewed wasn’t the unsub but in fact, suicidal himself, having given Garcia one of his possessions when he left. At the end of the episode, JJ confides in Hotch that her sister committed suicide when JJ was eleven. She uses the moment to tell Hotch that grief does get better with time. That eventually, he will be able to think of his deceased ex-wife Haley, “and it won’t hurt.”
In Season 6, (“The Longest Night”) JJ has a central role. First, she gets access to the Emergency Alert System in LA and then, she is asked by Hotch to work as a hostage negotiator. She takes notes, and reads the files Garcia sends her on their latest unsub - The Prince of Darkness - then, she gets in contact via the EAS. She starts out nervously, but eventually finds her stride and ability to sympathize with the unsub - to a degree. She isn’t able to understand him killing people for all those years, and tells him “what a mother should tell” him, that he can’t take away his pain by hurting someone else. It’s a shining, brilliant moment for JJ. In “JJ” we find out that she has been offered a new job by the Pentagon and is being forced to take it. She gives a beautiful final speech about what she’s learned and the people she’s loved in her time at the BAU. In “Lauren”, three-fourths of the way through Season 6, JJ returns as a terrorism expert from the State Department, who is able to shed light on Emily’s background, when the latter goes missing and is later, presumed murdered by unsub Ian Doyle. JJ is instrumental in the cover-up that is needed to ensure Emily’s survival. She is forced to lie to her team, telling everyone but Hotch that Emily did not survive. She attends Emily’s funeral and lays flowers. She grieves. Somewhere between March and September, JJ traveled to Paris to meet Emily briefly and hand off passports and bank accounts in each to “keep her comfortable.” In the season 6 finale, JJ returns for a few moments at the end, telling Rossi, “I’m coming back.”
In Season 7, JJ is indeed back with the team, this time, as a profiler (despite her previous assertion in “North Mammon” that she preferred her job at the time, as media liaison.) She is seen out on the field with the team for the first time, in an equal capacity. She seems to relish her new role, asking Garcia and Morgan in “It Takes a Village” if they “need some fresh eyes?” looking quite excited. In this same episode, Ian Doyle’s son goes missing. Hotch makes a decision to bring Emily out of Witness Protection and though JJ is initially against this, she eventually agrees. Though JJ doesn’t speak about it, she stands with Hotch while he makes the announcement that Emily never really was dead. In my opinion, JJ says so much, simply by standing with him, while the rest sit. She implicates herself in the lie without saying anything at all. In “Proof” JJ deals with repercussions of lying to the team when Reid makes it clear he is upset with her for lying. It’s revealed that Reid has come to JJ crying for the last ten weeks, and she has said nothing to reassure him that Emily is, in fact, okay. JJ stands by the fact that she couldn’t say anything for Emily’s safety, but Reid is unmoved and even goes so far as to ask if JJ would allow him to take drugs again. She says he hasn’t. He counters that he’s thought about it. Though everything seems resolved at the end during a cooking lesson at Rossi’s, evidence possible tension remains during “Painless” when Reid asks JJ what kind of girl she was in high school. He suspects she was a mean girl and she says she was a nice girl, “even to guys like him.” In the same episode, JJ makes a discovery that changes the direction of the case they are working by realizing that all the victims were chosen by the principal to appear in front of the media after a high school shooting, ten years prior. It’s interesting to see her background as media liaison come out a little bit here. At the end of “Painless,” Emily reveals that while in Witness Protection, she passed the time by playing online Scrabble with JJ. In “From Childhood’s Hour” she interviews a young kidnapping victim about his time in the hands of an unsub. She phrases her questions gently and matter-of-factly. This also marks the second time in season 7 that she is partnered with Rossi in the field (the first is during “Dorado Falls.”) In “There’s No Place Like Home” it’s evidenced that JJ’s son Henry, (now three) is sick, and Will is asking why she won’t stay with him at home. She goes on the case anyway, in tornado-torn Kansas, and meanwhile, Henry has a febrile seizure. Because of the weather, JJ cannot get home as fast as she’d like, but she’s able to read Henry a bedtime story over the phone. In “Hope” JJ gives a cognitive interview to her friend and coworker, Garcia, further driving home the new aspects of her job.
JJ is my favorite character. I've been a fan of AJ Cook since Higher Ground, so I was super sad when I tuned into CM right around the time the news broke that she was off the show. While there was not much of her character to go off of in the early seasons, I love how competently JJ does the job. How she does have moments where she questions herself. How she keeps her emotions contained, because she has to.
My favorite JJ Moments:
- Playing cards with Jacob Dawes in Riding the Lightning. Incredibly brave and I love that she volunteered to do it.
- How fierce she is in North Mammon, standing by the girls and "profiling" them in her own way, based on her own knowledge, having been a high school athlete. And the way she can put the parents in their place. And how she talks to Polly at the end, about how she will "always have a mother who loves her that much."
- Going into the barn at the end of The Big Game. Shooting the dogs. So scary, and it was obvious how rattled she was. Love the terror when she actually comes face to face with the dogs and how she doesn't scream until they attack.
- Everything in Revelations. I love how she is actually crouching in the barn for who-knows-how long before Prentiss and Morgan find her. How well AJ plays the shock that JJ feels. Her face as she watches the light in the back of the ambulance. The dry wit when she tells Garcia, "Welcome to our nightmare." And of course, the whole mirror scene when she pulls her gun on Prentiss. I love how she 'self-hushes' (with a finger to her lips) when she is watching Reid being tortured. I love how she goes to such great lengths to contain her grief over what is happening. I love, "Can't you track him?!" and the desperate way the line is delivered. The conversation with Morgan where she basically begs him to blame her for what happened. Where she insists on Garcia showing her the latest video. I love how she reads the passage from the Bible, and how she is the first to name Hotch's worst quality. And of course, her hug, and apology to Reid at the end.
- How she is so there for Garcia in "Penelope."
- The total realism (to me it looked real) in the way JJ experienced contractions in Memoriam. The wincing. The breathing. They looked seriously painful.
- How she does not go down without a fight in The Performer and she doesn't like being fussed over.
- And everything JJ does in Risky Business. AJ's portrayal here was so raw and moving. It was the little things I noticed. The expressions on her face at certain moments. How she cannot bring herself to come into the bedroom of the victim. How the case obviously is hard for her but she insists on taking it anyway. I've seen all six seasons now, and this is the only episode to ever make me cry. Personal experience, to a degree, and I think AJ portrayed the sadness, shock, etc, beautifully. The quote at the end just did me in.
What is your favorite JJ episode?
Is there a part of JJ's life that you wish got more focus?
What is JJ's most striking character trait?
What is your favorite JJ scene?
What do you think makes JJ an integral part of the BAU?
For writers, how do you portray JJ? Are there aspects of her life that are not on the show that you incorporate into your fiction? Do you stick pretty close to what the show portrays with regard to her character?
For readers, how do you like your JJ portrayed? Calm and in control? Gentle and/or fiercely maternal? Do you prefer her in danger or saving the day?
What do you think makes JJ tick?
Feel free to add any other thoughts about JJ's character in this post, but keep it respectful, please. Disagreement is part of life, but don't put another person down to make your point.
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Date: Nov. 21st, 2011 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 21st, 2011 09:50 pm (UTC)I really wish the writers would give us more about her. I've loved her so far this season, because being out in the field and a profiler has finally really allowed her to shine. I want to know more about her past, though. All we really know is that she was a high school athlete. I want more, and although I could say that about every character besides Reid and Morgan (who we know the most about), it is especially true of her.
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 02:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 03:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 21st, 2011 10:05 pm (UTC)I think one of my favourite scenes is when she's the first one to follow Hotch's 'I have no sense of humour.', and with 'You're a bully.' at that. She states it like it's a fact he should have known, despite him, as Prentiss points out, not trusting women as much as he trusts men. Hotch is quite possibly my favourite character on CM, but I absolutely loved that scene. Morgan didn't even pipe up until JJ said that line, and when he did, he hedged ('You can be a drill-sergeant sometimes', not 'You're a drill-sergeant'). I also love that she gives as good as she gets, whether with nosy reporters or in fist fights. Beware the cute ones, indeed. I think the only scene with JJ I don't like is when she first meets Rossi, but that's more because I've always felt they could have dropped a hint the previous episode or something that he was such a major figure, and it felt like she turned into a teenage fan of a pop star. And to be fair, I thought that of everyone bar Hotch and Reid (he's always like that, so) when we first met Rossi.
The Lady 529
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 02:30 am (UTC)I love JJ's "You're a bully" line.
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Date: Nov. 21st, 2011 10:10 pm (UTC)I can understand why some people were concerned abut her turning profiler this season, but I feel it's been handled exceptionally well by the writers and it feels like a natural extension of her previous role. She's still the one interviewing the families and usually coordinating things from the local precinct - but she does get to go out in the field more as well. She's also essential in her role as "big sister" in the BAU family - a shoulder to cry on and the person to always reach out personally to the others and make sure they're okay.
I also love her killer manipulating skills and poker face which haven't come out yet this season. But when she starts manipulating people into telling her what she needs from and getting even the most reluctant cops to cooperate. I'm still not convinced that story she told Rossi about hearing him speak at Georgetown was real.
At the same time she isn't perfect and I like that her inexperience in actual profiling has shown in the past few episodes. She's also not perfect at handling every relationship, especially close personal ones.
Overall she feels like a real person not just a cookie cutter female character here to look pretty on screen. She's one of TV's best female characters (along with Emily and Garcia) and I love watching her kick ass and take names.
Oh, I think it should be mentioned she's at 1:1 bullets:kills ratio. Even when she's scared out of her mind she's a damn good shot!
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 02:52 am (UTC)She does have great manipulating skills! Ha! I love that you don't think her story to Rossi was genuine. I always assumed it to be true.
I also love that she isn't perfect and sometimes her emotions get in the way of her job. And sometimes she pushes those close to her away. Like you're saying, she's normal, and it's refreshing.
And, it's true. Pretty much, if she has to kill something or someone, she does. There's no guess work.
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Date: Nov. 21st, 2011 11:33 pm (UTC)Two scenes I interpreted differently from you, though. Both the stories from the summer camp in the woods and about the Rossi lecture influencing her career choice, she totally made up in my opinion. The first one I always assumed to be a ghost story to hoax Morgan and Reid and the second one I took as an attempt to comfort Rossi in a difficult situation for him. JJ’s always so determined that I have a hard time picturing her as not knowing what to do with her life after graduation. But I also think that she presented both stories totally convincingly with the poker face she usually reserves for the press.
JJ’s had many great scenes but two of my favorites you haven’t mentioned. One is from What Fresh Hell? where a reporter asks her for some information for old times’ sake and she pulls him close like she’s going to give him a piece of exclusive information only to tell him that he might want to reconsider his tie. The other one is actually from the end of Jones where she hands Will her card and tells him that “cell phones can be very good for your health”. It made so much sense to me when they brought back Will the moment they needed a father for JJ’s child since they had decided to incorporate AJ’s pregnancy into the show.
JJ’s come a long way since the beginning of the show, and while for some other characters their development might have been more obvious, JJ’s development has been more silent, steady and yet powerful which is very much in character for her. Your essay showed that quite nicely.
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 02:56 am (UTC)I believe I did specify that JJ told Morgan and Reid she was joking about her fear of the woods. However, I have always believed her talk with Rossi to be genuine. I could be wrong though. As others have said, she is very good at telling people what they need to hear!
I'm glad you appreciate JJ's slow and steady character growth. It's a good thing to recognize, because I tend to get impatient about her growth not being as overt as the other characters'. But it does have its positives, as well.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I really enjoyed reading them!
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 07:35 am (UTC)As for the Rossi thing? I think it was totally made up. But JJ is so good what what she does and how she reads people that she was totally believable. And maybe Rossi just really needed to believe her at that moment.
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 01:16 pm (UTC)I always figured her telling Rossi he helped her decide what she wanted to do in life was true. I've never actually heard (besides in this post) anyone assume she was just telling him what he wanted to hear. But it's interesting, and makes me consider other possibilities which is always good.
PS I love your icon!
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 04:29 pm (UTC)Yeah, I actually got that part of your comment, but to me your essay sounded like you believed the rest of the story to be true. Your comment below both confirmed that one for me and put it into perspective:
I always assumed the part about JJ working at a summer camp in the woods of Vermont and having the night shift were true, but the story of finding camp director stabbed was not.
My first impression was that you also believed the murder story to be true, just not the part about JJ's fears. But your second comment made your position so much clearer to me. Thanks. I had never even considered the possibility that the first part of her story, i.e. working at a summer camp, might have been true, but I can picture JJ as a girl-scouts' leader. Also, I'm totally with you in thinking that she knows perfectly well why she's afraid of the woods and that she just didn't want to say why, so she came up with her ghost story as a distraction.
As for the story that she told Rossi - I think that one is really open for interpretation, and maybe deliberately so. I was around in the fandom when that episode originally aired and I remember that the discussion was there already immediately after the episode, and it always remained inconclusive for me. The Georgetown part was often the subject of discussion and how it fit in with her formerly established education at Pittsburgh University. Of course she could have switched universities, possibly after getting her bachelor degree, and then had her master at Georgetown. On the other hand, our beloved show is somewhat notorious in mixing up their characters' timelines, so there's that.
Also, in that same context I never assumed that JJ struggled academically in High School. When she said that she would never have gotten to university except for the sports scholarship, I always assumed it was a financial issue. Though in hindsight, I can imagine that puberty wasn't easy for her after her sister's suicide, so maybe she did have some difficulties in school. Either way, she got her degree and a great job after that, so I guess it doesn't matter now, does it?
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 02:08 am (UTC)I am still waiting for CM to tap into some of that amazing acting skill AJ Cook has, shown in Higher Ground http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9VvpPExKZY
In Vanished http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwacjO9wJCc
And in Bringing Ashley Home (starting at 1:19)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5bBV6D8StE
It'd be such a shame for her not to have the chance to really show range on CM. I'm crossing my fingers...
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 07:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 01:18 pm (UTC)What impresses me about JJ
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 07:18 pm (UTC)Secret Agent Prentiss is actually more like Reid, the nerd.
I kinda like that, a lot. How much the show subverts superficial appearance and archtypes.
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Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 09:14 pm (UTC)Re: What impresses me about JJ
Date: Nov. 22nd, 2011 10:40 pm (UTC)Re: What impresses me about JJ
Date: Nov. 23rd, 2011 08:04 pm (UTC)Another example: Rossi and Morgan were both inner-city kids who grew up surrounded by gang crime--so who does the team's outlaw-offered-amnesty turn out to be? The whimsical retro-hippie who fears guns (except as stage props.)
And
Subversions
Date: Nov. 24th, 2011 02:31 am (UTC)Subversions are awesome!
I liked Haley's bit too, their marriage ended in divorce, not a law enforcement rarity, but it was clear they were still in love, and she kept sending Hotch videos of Jack post divorce, and encourages Hotch to visit no matter how weird the timing is.
Then there was Sarah and Gideon's romance scene in "Fisher King I", in which Gideon is super happy about /being old/ with her instead of saying trite lines like Young At Heart when she ask if her comment about Jazz makes her old. It's okay to be old when you are old ppl!
...and back to Subversions, oh JJ, how do I, okay, in "Riding the Lighting", the unsubs who preys on very young girls who are petite with blonde hair, sees JJ as a potential prey when she went in after letting her hair down, to get him off balance, the unsub sees this innocent schoolgirl who probably doesn't know how to fight, etc, etc. That's JJ's deceptive appearance most times, outside of her Take Charge Media Conferences, but ooooh, she is so NOT. JJ was a super competitive Alpha who got into college on a sports scholarship, she is like a female Hotch. Except, where Hotch's disguise was that of a prim and proper suit, a suit he started taking off, rolling up his sleeve in preparation for a death match with the unsub they were interviewing in "Damages"...JJ's disguise was that of an unworldly schoolgirl.
When I ship JJ and Emily, I ship JJEmily. Mmmmn, someone need to fill that vampire prompt, with JJ as the vampire because ha, this is why she looks so young, and Emily the goth would heart it:
cm-kink.livejournal.com/842.html?thread=208458#t208458
Re: What impresses me about JJ
Date: Nov. 25th, 2011 03:44 pm (UTC)Re: What impresses me about JJ
Date: Nov. 26th, 2011 01:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 25th, 2011 08:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Nov. 25th, 2011 03:45 pm (UTC)