Emily Prentiss
Encyclopedia
Emily Prentiss is a fictional character
on the CBS
crime drama
Criminal Minds
, portrayed by Paget Brewster
. Prentiss first appeared in "The Last Word" - episode nine of season two, replacing Agent Elle Greenaway
who had quit in "The Boogeyman". Her role in the show's sixth season was reduced, for what Brewster believed to be financial reasons, However, reports on May 28, 2011 at Deadline
confirmed that Brewster would be returning to her role for the show's seventh season.
While Prentiss's father has never been mentioned on the show, her mother, Elizabeth, is said to be a U.S. Ambassador who has been assigned to several countries, including Ukraine
. Prentiss first appeared in the Season 2 episode "The Last Word", replacing Agent Elle Greenaway in the BAU. Her appearance surprised both Agents Aaron Hotchner
and Jason Gideon
, as neither supervisor had signed off on the transfer. Hotchner was immediately suspicious of the new agent, but Prentiss, insisting that her mother had not pulled any strings for her to get the assignment, convinced him to let her join the team on a probationary basis, and eventually proved her competence and gained the team's trust.
Due to her mother's job as an Ambassador, Prentiss spent her childhood in numerous countries, including Ukraine, France
, Italy
, and the Middle East
. During her mother's diplomatic posting in Italy, Prentiss became pregnant at 15, which she still regretted. She is fluent in Arabic
Spanish, French and Italian
and has a fair knowledge of Russian
.
books. Over time she has also formed a close relationship with Agent Jennifer (JJ) Jareau
, and is often seen hanging out with Jareau and Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia
outside of work. Garcia had noted that after four years with the team, Prentiss was part of the “BAU Family”.
that a man named Ian Doyle has escaped from prison in North Korea
. Later, after returning home from work, Prentiss receives several hang-up calls on her cell phone from an unknown caller. Upon her return home on a subsequent night, she finds an anonymous gift on her doorstep, containing a single purple flower. She experiences a flashback to a past undercover job in Italy, during which she was acting as his girlfriend and surveiling Doyle. Recognizing that the gift of the purple flower means Doyle knows where she lives, Prentiss flees. In "Coda", Prentiss enlists two former Interpol colleagues in hunting Doyle. Tsia Mosely, one of her Interpol
colleagues, gets shot in the head by Doyle while visiting someone. At the end of that episode, Prentiss sneaks out of a meeting in order to save her BAU colleagues from Doyle.
At the beginning of the episode "Lauren", it is revealed that Prentiss had been a spy eight years previously, on a task force profiling terrorists; while undercover, she met Ian Doyle (an arms dealer) and became his lover. Her betrayal of Doyle led to his arrest and subsequent imprisonment, including time in a North Korean prison. Prentiss tracks down Doyle in Boston and tries to kill him, but he takes her hostage. Later, Rossi realized that she left their team meeting suddenly in order to protect them from Doyle as it was her Doyle was after. Hotch says they will treat Doyle as an unsub and Prentiss as his victim, and profile them just as they would in any other case. They eventually track them down to an abandoned building in Boston and arrive with a SWAT team. Prentiss reveals to Doyle that his son, who he believed had been killed, is alive, and that she staged photos of her executing the boy in order to get Doyle to break under interrogation in North Korea. The two start fighting, and Doyle stabs Prentiss in the abdomen with a stake; even though she is dying, she refuses to tell him where his son is hiding, and Doyle escapes shortly before Morgan reaches her. In the hospital, the BAU team is notified that Prentiss has died, and they attend her funeral. The last scene, however, reveals she is alive and in Paris, where JJ meets her and gives her an envelope with "passports from three different countries, and a bank account in each one to keep [her] comfortable."
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
crime drama
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
, portrayed by Paget Brewster
Paget Brewster
Paget Valerie Brewster is an American actress. She is currently known for playing Special Agent Emily Prentiss on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. In June 2010, it was said that her role on Criminal Minds would be reduced in the sixth season. In March 2011, Brewster's character left the series...
. Prentiss first appeared in "The Last Word" - episode nine of season two, replacing Agent Elle Greenaway
Elle Greenaway
Elle Greenaway is a fictional character from the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, portrayed by Lola Glaudini.-Background:Before joining the Behavioral Analysis Unit , Greenaway was assigned to the FBI's Seattle field office with a specialty in profiling sexual offenders, a skill that would prove to...
who had quit in "The Boogeyman". Her role in the show's sixth season was reduced, for what Brewster believed to be financial reasons, However, reports on May 28, 2011 at Deadline
Deadline.com
Deadline.com, part of Jay Penske's PMC, is an online magazine, founded and edited by Nikki Finke.-Publication:The site is updated several times a day, with the infotainment industry as its focus.-History:...
confirmed that Brewster would be returning to her role for the show's seventh season.
Background
Prentiss was born on October 12, 1970.While Prentiss's father has never been mentioned on the show, her mother, Elizabeth, is said to be a U.S. Ambassador who has been assigned to several countries, including Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. Prentiss first appeared in the Season 2 episode "The Last Word", replacing Agent Elle Greenaway in the BAU. Her appearance surprised both Agents Aaron Hotchner
Aaron Hotchner
Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner is a fictional character from the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, portrayed by Thomas Gibson. He is a Supervisory Special Agent within the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, and has appeared from the series' first episode, originally broadcast on September 22, 2005. Hotch begins...
and Jason Gideon
Jason Gideon
Jason Gideon is a fictional character on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, portrayed by Mandy Patinkin. Along with Agents Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss, he seemed to be the traditionally academic of the group...
, as neither supervisor had signed off on the transfer. Hotchner was immediately suspicious of the new agent, but Prentiss, insisting that her mother had not pulled any strings for her to get the assignment, convinced him to let her join the team on a probationary basis, and eventually proved her competence and gained the team's trust.
Due to her mother's job as an Ambassador, Prentiss spent her childhood in numerous countries, including Ukraine, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. During her mother's diplomatic posting in Italy, Prentiss became pregnant at 15, which she still regretted. She is fluent in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
Spanish, French and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
and has a fair knowledge of Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
Relationships with colleagues
Initially upon joining the BAU, Prentiss felt like an outsider, and often worried that people doubted her ability as a profiler. After Reid returned to work following his abduction by serial killer Tobias Hankel, Prentiss experienced a falling-out with the young agent due to his harsh behavior towards her (a function of the irritability resulting from Reid's use of narcotics to cope with his recent trauma). However, over time, the two agents eventually gained a mutual respect. For the most part, Prentiss has also developed friendly relationships with the other members of the BAU team. She immediately bonded with Agent Derek Morgan due to their mutual love of Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
books. Over time she has also formed a close relationship with Agent Jennifer (JJ) Jareau
Jennifer Jareau
Jennifer "JJ" Jareau is a fictional character from the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, portrayed by AJ Cook.- Back Story :During various episodes, JJ has described growing up in a very small town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She collected butterflies as a child, and also lost her sister to...
, and is often seen hanging out with Jareau and Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia
Penelope Garcia
Penelope Garcia is a fictional character on the CBS crime dramas Criminal Minds and its short-lived spin-off Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, portrayed by Kirsten Vangsness...
outside of work. Garcia had noted that after four years with the team, Prentiss was part of the “BAU Family”.
On the job
Prentiss is shown to be a competent agent who occasionally lets her emotions interfere with investigations.Ian Doyle and "Death"
Late in the sixth season, Agent Prentiss is notified by her former superiors at InterpolInterpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
that a man named Ian Doyle has escaped from prison in North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
. Later, after returning home from work, Prentiss receives several hang-up calls on her cell phone from an unknown caller. Upon her return home on a subsequent night, she finds an anonymous gift on her doorstep, containing a single purple flower. She experiences a flashback to a past undercover job in Italy, during which she was acting as his girlfriend and surveiling Doyle. Recognizing that the gift of the purple flower means Doyle knows where she lives, Prentiss flees. In "Coda", Prentiss enlists two former Interpol colleagues in hunting Doyle. Tsia Mosely, one of her Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
colleagues, gets shot in the head by Doyle while visiting someone. At the end of that episode, Prentiss sneaks out of a meeting in order to save her BAU colleagues from Doyle.
At the beginning of the episode "Lauren", it is revealed that Prentiss had been a spy eight years previously, on a task force profiling terrorists; while undercover, she met Ian Doyle (an arms dealer) and became his lover. Her betrayal of Doyle led to his arrest and subsequent imprisonment, including time in a North Korean prison. Prentiss tracks down Doyle in Boston and tries to kill him, but he takes her hostage. Later, Rossi realized that she left their team meeting suddenly in order to protect them from Doyle as it was her Doyle was after. Hotch says they will treat Doyle as an unsub and Prentiss as his victim, and profile them just as they would in any other case. They eventually track them down to an abandoned building in Boston and arrive with a SWAT team. Prentiss reveals to Doyle that his son, who he believed had been killed, is alive, and that she staged photos of her executing the boy in order to get Doyle to break under interrogation in North Korea. The two start fighting, and Doyle stabs Prentiss in the abdomen with a stake; even though she is dying, she refuses to tell him where his son is hiding, and Doyle escapes shortly before Morgan reaches her. In the hospital, the BAU team is notified that Prentiss has died, and they attend her funeral. The last scene, however, reveals she is alive and in Paris, where JJ meets her and gives her an envelope with "passports from three different countries, and a bank account in each one to keep [her] comfortable."