calling for season 2 spoilers

[steff3.livejournal.com]

Hey-I am new to the fandom and really am fond of spencer reid! I know the gist of what happened during season 2 and am currently watching season 3 and 4 after skipping most of the episodes after revelations and the picking up on the season finale. I find that I have a squick about seeing spencer behaving unlike himself or being embarrassed on his behalf because I like him so much. Its a bit weird as I could normally pick any other character having a breakdown of sorts and casually sit back and watch but even seeing clips on youtube of that period is too much to handle for me.As a substitute I have been reading been reading fanfic and thinking back to the conversation on the phone between gideon and hotch about Reid's 'issues'.So my questions are:

How much did the team individually and collectively know about his drug use and PSTD issues?
How nasty was Reid to Emily?(This is always brought up in fic and I wouldn't know otherwise)
Touchy,irritable and late to meetings-what was his behaviour really like?
Did hotch and giceon or emily talk to him after his changed behaviour ?
How addicted was he or how bad did it get?
I've heard the storyline ended too fast and not enough of it was shown? True or not?

Sorry for the inquisition-just give me your opinion=Thanx

Comments

[doesnotsway.livejournal.com]

- I think only Gideon really knew.
- He just snapped at her a lot in one episode, I think. It might have led up to one really nasty comment, but I can't remember.
- That was about it?
- Just Gideon, I'm pretty sure. The others might have made a comment or two.
- I don't think he was addicted, really. I only really remember him talking some once in a bathroom. I think he kept them and thought about taking them, but didn't really?
- I think they planned on making it more involved, but they didn't like the way they were writing it or something, so they just cut it out, which was for the best, IMO.

[beatriceeagle.livejournal.com]

I think that most of the team suspected Reid was having drug problems, although Prentiss, Gideon, and Morgan were the ones who were most consistently shown to have their eyes on him. Everyone knew he was experiencing PTSD, because he wasn't subtle about it.

Reid was only really nasty to Emily in one episode, but I think it was meant to be indicative of a longer phase. Basically, she gets too close (calls him out on some obviously strange and inappropriate behavior) and he responds by effectively telling her she isn't really part of the team. It's her weak spot, and he knows it.

Very touchy, very irritable, consistently late throughout several episodes.

In order: Morgan talked to him, then Emily, then Gideon. None of them totally got through, although the focus shifted after the episode with Gideon's talk.

We didn't know he was addicted at the time. (Well, okay, we did, but they never explicitly stated.) My guess is that it probably got fairly bad before he finally kicked it.

The storyline never ended! We're still getting references to it in season 4. It just stopped being an "every episode is about this" kind of thing after a few episodes. Reid's behavior never quite returns to what it was.

By the way, you can probably pick up at episode 19 of season 2--in fact, I highly recommend you watch that one. There's only one real Reid moment, and it's an excellent episode, and after that, he's less obviously in crisis.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

1. Individually--Prentiss indicated to Gideon that she knew Reid was having addiction problems as well as PTSD, and he indicated that he was already aware of it; Hotch says something in 'In Name and Blood' that shows he's at least aware of the possibility tbhat Reid is an addict (and given that it's Hotch, that's really plausible-deniability for pretty darned sure); Morgan, JJ and Garcia seem well aware of the PTSD but less so regarding the addiction; Rossi, hard to tell, but probably not very aware on either front, at least initially.

2. He was moderately bratty a couple of times (at least one of which was at least partly him using Prentiss as a means of being rude to Hotch by proxy), and snottily rude on one occasion when she rightly, and not obnoxiously, called him on being utterly unprofessional while dealing with the public and he had no comeback.

3. Touchy, irritable and on two notable occasions late to meetings/AWOL pretty much covers it.

4.Prentiss and Gideon tried (Gideon managed to have a conversation about it, but it was singularly ineffective, and Gideon knew it).

5. Hard to say, as the question is never explicitly addressed, even in 'Elephant's Memory'. It may never have been a physiological addiction, but more a psychological question - cravings, feeling out of control etc, which he had to find a way to deal with. It may equally have been a full-blown physiological addiction.

6. It played out over about a year, both in real time and in in-show time, and for most of the time it was just a running background note, like Hotch's various states of dishevelment in S3. I thought it was given a very effective treatment, and just about the perfect amount of time and attention.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I agree with what calanthe_b and beatriceeagle said--the plotline still gets occasional references, but it's been mostly background and handled as a subplot in the way CM does subplots--they kind of show you the effects and occasional high points, and leave the rest to the viewer's imagination. (Like JJ's relationship with Will, Hotch's divorce, Garcia's relationship with Kevin, Morgan's struggles with intimacy and Emily's with loneliness, and so on.)

Prentiss bulldogged Reid on the issue for a while without ever making what she was talking about explicit (as shown in two episodes) and tried to get Gideon to intervene, and the reason is I think revealed in the S4 episode in which we find out about her friend Matthew (coincidence of names? Or broad hint?); Gideon confronted him and extracted a promise that Reid wouldn't let it affect his work--but nothing else. Late in S3, we see Reid looking for help, and in that same episode we see him trusting Emily again. Since then, their friendship seems to be in pretty good repair.

My personal feeling is that Reid went after Emily so viciously because she was trying to intervene in his addiction at a time when he didn't want the help.

Hotch quite obviously knew what was going on (He mentions it to both Prentiss and Gideon, in terms that allow a certain amount of plausible deniability.) and by S4 it's evident that the team knew Hankel drugged Reid (as well they should, because there'd be no way for him to conceal that).

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

the reason is I think revealed in the S4 episode in which we find out about her friend Matthew (coincidence of names? Or broad hint?)

I had forgotten about that! And yes, I think the name there is definitely that thing we don't believe in...

And, I might say, the whole thing is an object lesson to too many other shows in how to do a retcon (or retconnish thing, anyway) well.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Strong suggestion that Emily maybe once had a few experimental tendencies of her own... based on how the parents responded, anyway.

[calanthe-b.livejournal.com]

Indeed. 'I did a lot of things,' isn't that what she says?

[a_blackpanther]

The show never gets quite as bad as fanfic and it's a really interesting development for Reid. I would recommend seeing all eps anyway because these moments where Reid isn't really himself are really short, and those are some really good eps.

[pixiedivision.livejournal.com]

I would watch revelations though, that ep was awful.
Gube s horrible when he's trying to cry.

[pixiedivision.livejournal.com]

* wouldnt

[ramsara.livejournal.com]

I think you should just get a hold of Season 2 and watch it! It's in my oppinion the best one so far. :D But maybe that's because I'm a major Gideonnerd and there was a lot of focus on him towards the end.

[pixiedivision.livejournal.com]

I thought season 4 was the best, loads of reid scenes mwehehehehe