Spencer Reid

Dr. Spencer Reid is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama ''Criminal Minds'', portrayed by Matthew Gray Gubler. Reid is a genius with an IQ of 187 and can read 20,000 words per minute with an eidetic memory. He is the youngest member of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), has three BAs and three PhDs (in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering), and specializes in statistics and geographic profiling.

Background

Spencer Reid was born on October 12, 1981, in Las Vegas to William Reid (Taylor Nichols), a lawyer, and Diana Reid (Jane Lynch), a former professor of 15th century literature. Diana has paranoid schizophrenia and went off her medication during her pregnancy with Spencer."Memoriam", season 4, episode 7 Reid and his mother have a very close relationship despite her condition.

Reid is a genius and autodidact. He has an IQ of 187,"Extreme Aggressor", season 1, episode 1 an eidetic memory, and can read 20,000 words per minute. He holds B.A.s in Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy. He also has Ph.D.s in Chemistry, Engineering, and Mathematics, obtained from Caltech.Brian Goodman), Riley's father, about the park incident. Diana then followed Jenkins and witnessed him beat Michaels to death with a baseball bat. When she approached him she slipped therefore getting blood on her clothes. In order to protect his wife, William burned Diana's clothes, which Spencer inadvertently witnessed. Jenkins avoided arrest because Michaels "disappeared", and as he had a criminal history as a sexual predator, the police didn't look very hard into the case. Years later, Reid starts having nightmares about the incident, initially leading him to believe his own father was Riley's killer. BAU Supervisory Special Agents David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) helped him investigate. After undergoing hypnotherapy to recover his memories, Reid mistakenly believes he saw his father burning his own bloody clothes, not Diana's. He pursues his father as a suspect, even after it becomes clear that Michaels is the more likely perpetrator. Michaels' body is found, and DNA confirms his killer was Lou Jenkins, who is arrested. While Reid is interviewing Jenkins, demanding to know how his father was involved, his parents interrupt and confess to their son the whole story.

When Reid was 10 years old, William abandoned the family. The Michaels incident had already started the rift, and as Diana's mental state continued to deteriorate, William left, refusing to take Spencer with him."Revelations", season 2, episode 15 He moved 10 miles away, and never contacted his son. Reid finds out his father's address from Jenkins 17 years later, as well as the fact that his father never changed jobs. William later states that the reason he never returned was because he was too ashamed, and felt too much time had passed for him to re-enter Reid's life, although he did keep electronic tabs on his son. When his father was leaving, young Spencer tried to convince him to stay by using a statistic that children of parents who remain together receive more education. This angered William: "We're not statistics." Reid states that one way he gets back at his father is to collect more educational degrees.

Due to his young age and genius IQ, Reid was a victim of severe bullying in high school. In "Elephant's Memory", he recounts one instance where he was stripped naked and tied to a goalpost in front of other students, remaining there for hours and when he got home his mother was having another schizophrenic episode and didn't notice he was late. In "L.D.S.K.", BAU Supervisory Agent Aaron Hotchner ( Thomas Gibson) is forced to kick Reid in order to allow him access to a gun in order to shoot a suspect. When Hotchner says he is sorry if he hurt him, Reid points out that he was a child prodigy in a Las Vegas public school - implying that he had suffered worse - and tells Hotchner, "You kick like a nine-year-old girl". Reid's social standing as a child increased when he started winning games as the coach of his high school's basketball team, using statistics to break down the opposing teams' shooting strategies."Painless", season 7, episode 4

At age 12, Reid graduated from high school. He attended Caltech, where he rode his bike to classes. He finished his undergraduate degree at 16, and received his first doctorate (in Mathematics) the following year. It has also been stated that he attended MIT, but episode writer Breen Frazier admitted the MIT line was a mistake, although it was never corrected onscreen. Yale University was Reid's "safety school". Between the ages of 17 and 21, he completed two more doctorates (Chemistry and Engineering), and two more bachelor's degrees (psychology and sociology).

When Reid was 18, he realized his mother's condition had deteriorated to the point where she could no longer take care of herself. He reluctantly had her committed to a psychiatric institution, Bennington Sanitarium. Diana still resides in the same institution, and Reid says that he sends her letters every day, in part because of the guilt he feels for not visiting her. He worries about the fact that his mother's illness can be passed on genetically; telling Morgan: "I know what it's like to be afraid of your own mind".

Currently, Reid resides in an apartment in the District of Columbia, possibly near the Van Ness-UDC Metro stop.

Gubler decided that Reid's middle name is Walter, but this was never mentioned in the show and is not canon. Nevertheless, Gubler tweeted, "in celebration of the first day back on CM season 8 I am inventing reid facts. Spencer Reid's middle name is Walter".

Personality

Although it is suggested by other people within and outside of the team that Reid is on the autism spectrum, it is never confirmed. He is socially awkward and has a hard time dealing with his emotions. He often fixates on things and misses social cues (for example, unknowingly changing the subject of a conversation). The Unknown Subject ("Unsub") in (Season 1, Episode 5) "Broken Mirror""Broken Mirror", season 1, episode 5 is the first person to mention this.

Reid is a technophobe, using neither email nor iPads. Gubler tweeted that Reid is also germaphobic. In general, Reid dislikes shaking hands, and becomes visibly uncomfortable when touched by strangers."Pleasure Is My Business", season 4, episode 16

Reid is a poor shot with his service pistol, as seen in "L.D.S.K." Upon failing his annual firearms qualification despite Hotchner's efforts to tutor him, he is relieved of his weapon and has to work unarmed during the team's newest case. Later, while being held at gunpoint by murderer Phillip Dowd (Timothy Omundson), Reid grabs Hotchner's backup Glock 26 pistol and kills Dowd with a headshot. He jokes to Hotchner afterward that he had been aiming for Dowd's leg, and Hotchner returns Reid's weapon and considers him to have qualified.

Reid carried a Glock handgun for the first three seasons but from season four and onward, he began carrying a Smith & Wesson Model 65 as he fares better using a revolver.

Reid is good at map reading and therefore does the geographic profiling and map-related activities for the team. He also has a talent with words and is the team's go-to linguistic profiler, as well as their unofficial discourse analyst. He is rarely seen behind the wheel – one time when Morgan hands him the keys, Agents Jennifer "JJ" Jareau ( A.J. Cook) and Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster) exchange horrified expressions – but in "Lo-Fi" he is seen getting into the driver's side of a vehicle and even driving that same vehicle in one scene, as well as driving to BAU Unit Chief Jason Gideon's (Mandy Patinkin) cabin in "In Name and Blood", and in "Nelson's Sparrow". However, he is usually seen as a backseat passenger during car scenes, and he commutes to work using the Metro,"Sex, Birth, Death", season 2, episode 11 and presumably the Virginia Railway Express.

Storylines

Behavioral Analysis Unit

Reid joined the FBI when he was 20 years old. While there was "no psychological exam or test the FBI could put in front of him he could not ace inside of an hour", he did struggle with the more physical aspects of his job, and ultimately received waivers for those requirements. Even after a year in the field, Reid still struggles to pass his firearm qualifications. He is often left behind during arrests, has never given chase, and jokes that it is Morgan's job to kick down the doors."Nameless, Faceless", season 5, episode 1 This does not bother the team, because while he has shown an ability to physically disarm suspects, his true talent is ''psychologically'' disarming them by forming airtight profiles.

Profiling is the only profession Reid ever considered, and he was groomed specifically for the BAU. Upon graduation from the academy, he was placed in the BAU at age 22, and given the title Supervisory Special Agent. His first case in the field was serial killer Brian Matloff (Eric Lange), the "Blue Ridge Strangler"."Tabula Rasa", season 3, episode 19

Gideon is Reid's closest confidant on the team during the first two seasons, and often serves as a mentor to Reid. Gideon's sudden departure from the FBI after a case gone wrong affects Reid deeply. Reid tries playing all possible chess moves in order to understand Gideon's motivations.

Reid is close to Jareau, Morgan, and Prentiss. Jareau asks him to be godfather to her newborn son Henry, and is one of the only two people on the team who calls him "Spence." It is implied in "Plain Sight" that Reid has a crush on Jareau, and Gideon even prods him to ask her out after giving him Washington Redskins football tickets for his birthday. No romance comes of it, but they do develop a close, sibling-like friendship. Reid is very protective of her, and often blames himself if she is injured, even if there was nothing he could have done to prevent it. In "Closing Time", after she is injured while arresting a suspect, Reid is seen counting her injuries as she sits in the ambulance and tells the paramedic that she should be going to get a CAT scan. Reid also has a brotherly friendship with Morgan. In season seven, he is comfortable enough to start a joke war with him, something that he probably would never do with anyone else, and he occasionally confides his secrets to Morgan. In the episode "Elephant's Memory", when approached by a fully armed suspect named Owen Savage ( Cody Kasch), whom Reid identifies with, Reid gives Prentiss his gun and trusts her enough to back him up and not shoot at Savage as he tries to talk him down. Although not shown, it is implied Reid and Prentiss spend time together outside of work, along with riding the train home together when they return from cases. Prentiss is the only one who has beat Reid at poker, even correcting his statistic about her particular poker move. Reid and Prentiss are held hostage by a cult led by Benjamin Cyrus (Luke Perry). Though he is not injured, Reid struggles with guilt over "allowing" Prentiss' beating at the hands of Cyrus in "Minimal Loss". Reid later becomes close to Special Agent Alex Blake (Jeanne Tripplehorn), seeing her as a maternal figure, and occasionally guest-lecturing in her forensic linguistics class.

Reid contracts anthrax during an outbreak in Maryland, and is later shot in the leg protecting a doctor whose life is being threatened. (In reality, Gubler had injured his knee and the show's writers had written Reid getting shot into the show to explain why he spent subsequent episodes with his leg in a cast and using crutches.)

During "Corazon", Reid begins to develop severe headaches and hallucinations. He goes to see a doctor in order to find out the source of his headaches, but the doctor says there is no physical cause, and they may be psychosomatic. Reid refuses to believe this, afraid that he may have the same illness as his mother. It is not mentioned again until "Coda", when he is seen once again wearing sunglasses and is carrying a book on migraines. In the same episode, Reid bonds with a young autistic boy, Sammy Sparks."Coda", season 6, episode 16 A cut line from the episode has David Rossi stating that Sammy and Reid are two of the most fascinating minds he has ever encountered. In the episode "Valhalla", Reid tells Prentiss about his headaches. By then, Reid has gone to several doctors, but no one has been able to diagnose what is wrong with him. He tells Prentiss that he has not told any of the team members because he is afraid that they will "make him feel like a baby."

In "Lauren", it is Reid and technical analyst Penelope Garcia ( Kirsten Vangsness) who react most strongly to the news of Prentiss' death (they are unaware that she faked her death in order to enter the Witness Protection Program). Reid's reaction is to run out of the room, and he ends up sobbing into Jareau's shoulder, telling her that he "never got a chance to say goodbye." In season seven, when Prentiss returns and Reid discovers Hotchner and Jareau knew she wasn't dead, he is upset, especially with Jareau. He tells her he feels betrayed because he came to her house "for 10 weeks in a row, crying over losing a friend" and "not once did you have the decency to tell me the truth." She doesn't say anything."Proof", season 7, episode 2

In "True Genius", Reid doubts his reasons for being in the BAU and wonders if he should be doing more with his intellect. This is provoked by a suspect sending him taunting messages and challenging Reid to find him. In this episode, he also reveals that the team missed his 30th birthday. At the end of the episode, the team throws him a mini birthday party to celebrate.

Drug Addiction

In (Season 2, Episode 15) "Revelations", Tobias Hankel (James Van Der Beek), a psychotic serial killer, kidnaps Reid, drugging and torturing him over the course of two days before he is rescued. Reid is so traumatized that he develops an addiction to the narcotic painkiller Dilaudid. While the BAU team members have their suspicions about his addiction, none of them confront him about it. An old friend of Reid's in New Orleans