Arghh OK I want to like JJ but it's just... things she does rub me the wrong way, especially since Reid is my favourite character (so I also may be biased, I'm aware of that). Really not hating her (since I realise this got long), I like her usually but I want to rant about these specific situations.
So ignoring the later season stuff cause that's just complicated for the sake of it (cough season 15 cough) I have 2 main things that make me dislike her
1. Is obviously the whole Emily thing. Like I 100% get why she didn't tell him. She had her reasons, I respect them, but I also don't get it?
Like two things, first of all, Ian Doyle is not that good. He thinks Emily is dead for starters, so it's not like he's actively trying to find her, nor is he coming after the team. He doesn't have a spy inside the FBI nor can he hack their phones or bug their apartments. There is no way, if JJ and Hotch had told the others, that Doyle could possibly find out, cause it's not like they were gonna yell about it! It's not like Doyle is watching them carefully to see if they're faking their grief beyond the initial death anyway. There is no real way Doyle could have found out honestly.
And the second thing, is that there is a thin line between strong and cold. And I'm probably biased cause of how much I love Reid, but here's the thing - this is the first person close to him who has died. He's got abandonment issues galore and finally someone is just gone, no chance of them coming back, and it breaks him - and JJ sees that! He comes to her house crying for weeks, she must have seen how depressed he was, he starts practicing at the shooting range as a distraction and she might not see it but he considers taking drugs again. How can she look at one of her best friends going through all of this, and lie to his face by pretending she's grieving too when in reality she's playing online scrabble with Emily!?!
Also her response when he mentions that he considered dilaudid is so off, she says "but you didn't, though" because she's protecting her own guilt - her best friend has just admitted he almost relapsed in part because of her actions, but she is checking he didn't actually so she doesn't have to feel guilty about it. I might be reading into that but idk.
Also a little off topic but in general I think they didn't fully consider the implications of what Emily, JJ and Hotch (another thing being that Hotch gets no flack for his part in it, which is also a problem) did to the rest and just went 'well they're happy she's back and that's what matters' - one of the things Emily says to Reid is imo super insensitive, she says "You mourned the loss of a friend. I mourned the loss of six. This whole thing gave me an ulcer, please don't give me another one." And I just feel like that's not helpful at all. Like she didn't mourn 6 friends, she missed them because she couldn't see them for a few months. And she got an ulcer, Spencer almost relapsed, it's just not comparable and I don't know why Reid takes that so well
ANYWAY cause I'm trying not to rant too much, the other specific thing is a comparison between JJ and Emily right - so in Sense Memory, Emily is currently sweeping her apartment, paranoid about Doyle coming to kill her, gets a call from Reid rambling about going to a 5 and a half hour long Russian movie right in the middle of what she's doing and she says "Thank you. For being you. It's what I love about you."
And then a lot later, JJ is (I think she had a panic attack flashback) grieving over the loss of her baby, and Reid is trying to help her, and she says "Stop! Just stop being… you!"
Idk it's really minor but I just don't think JJ appreciates Reid as much for himself, you know? Idk I'm really not trying to hate or be controversial lol, just my thoughts and I'm happy to debate. Or be corrected, I haven't watched the episodes in a bit though this is based on notes I made while watching them the last time.
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