The Paley Center - Fall TV Preview Parties 06.09.2011

1. Expect a different BAU. "It's a season where we get to explore our heroes a little bit more," showrunner Erica Messer said. "Every week we get to dive into what makes these bad guys tick, and this is the season where we want to explore all the layers that make up this team. We get started right away with Prentiss returning from the dead. ... This event has changed all of our characters' lives."


2. Things get hairy for Hotch. The Paley Center played a preview clip showing Unit Chief Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) sporting a full beard, at least temporarily, while he's out of the country. "Hotch, as you saw, was in Pakistan," confirmed Messer. "That was mainly because I saw this handsome devil with a beard and said, 'Can you keep that thing? We should write to it.'"


3. Morgan tracks down Prentiss' killer. "Morgan made it his life journey to get redemption for his friend," Shemar Moore said about his character, Special Supervisory Agent Derek Morgan. Messer added, "No matter what, he wasn't going to let Ian Doyle (Timothy V. Murphy) be out there in the world. ... Morgan's been looking for him. He did it in the traditional way that profilers do, by getting into the head of the bad guy. He realized that the whole thing that's keeping Ian Doyle going is that his son is still out there. Morgan and Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) begin digging around: Where would Doyle's son be? Where would Prentiss, our friend, have hidden him? So they're [also] profiling Prentiss."


4. Hotch + Morgan = Splitsville? Moore said, "There was a sense of betrayal from Hotch, even though that's his friend, that's his boss." Gibson added, "I think the theme of broken trust within a family will have a chance to play in various ways and various times in this season and maybe beyond."


5. JJ got a promotion. A.J. Cook's character Jennifer "JJ" Jareau was also written off the series, but was brought back after fan outcry. Not only was she part of the conspiracy hiding Prentiss' faked death, but she's also been busy with new duties. "JJ's been back for three-and-a-half months," said Messer. "She's been promoted to a profiler in that time. And we hear a little bit more about that in Episode 2."


6. Garcia will control the remote. Since JJ's now profiling, she won't introduce the cases. That duty falls to tech analyst Penelope Garcia, whom Vangsness said will be in the field, "at least in the round table room, at least holding that remote, explaining some stuff, which she does not enjoy doing. She likes being with them, but she does not enjoy the violence, so there's a lot of 'Here's the thing' [and] look away."


7. Dr. Reid will have family problems. "Reid had been dealing with his mom, which might have been something we lost in the premiere, but we touch on in Episode 2," Messer said. Matthew Gray Gubler, who wore two different socks (one pink, one blue-and-black striped) at the Paley Center event, couldn't reveal if his nerdy character's headaches would be addressed or if Reid would be getting a girlfriend. "I don't know, man," he said. "I'm always the last to know."


8. Rossi's first ex-wife could linger. As previously reported, Senior Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) will have to deal with his first ex-wife (Isabella Hoffman) when she comes to him for help. "It's kind of a two-part thing," said Mantegna. "We've established over the last few years that Rossi wasn't great at marriage. ... I thought if he were married three times to at least address a portion of that."


9. Ian Doyle will be back, briefly. "We see a wee bit of Ian Doyle [in Season 7]," Messer confirmed. "We're thinking that maybe [we should write that] he has an evil twin brother because [Murphy is] so great."

Once the dust that comes with pulling Prentiss “out of the grave” settles, CBS’ Criminal Minds will take a breath and use some of its seventh season to explore the more personal side of the hard-working BAU agents.

“Every time we can reveal another layer of one of our characters, all the better,” executive producer Erica Messer told TVLine Tuesday at a Paley Center event tributing the crime drama. “We study how everybody else ticks, how all the bad guys tick, and I want to be able to study our heroes, too. And this season, we’ve earned that. It’s seven years, so I think it’s time we get to do that.”

For one, A.J. Cook shared with us that we will revisit William LaMontagne Jr., the onetime New Orleans detective whom viewers first met in Season 2, and in Season 4 emerged as the father of JJ’s baby. Third Watch‘s Josh Stewart will again reprise the role.

“We’re going to see her baby’s daddy and her baby again, which my actual real-life son will be playing,” said Cook. “So it’ll be fun. We’re definitely going to see into her personal life and what’s been happening there.”