“Farewell” - A Slight Fix to the Finale Episode
(Because I see your critiques and I hear you, and I’m here to make that change for you!)
We’re at Rossi’s party. Most everything happens as it was written, including the Garvez moment, but Rossi is still retiring as well. We toast Penelope first, and then we finish a toast to David Rossi, who feels he can finally retire to the peace and happiness he is owed. As he finishes, Emily awkwardly steps up.
“I don’t mean to steal the show, but I wanted all of you to hear first. I just got a call this morning - they’ve asked me to be the Director of the FBI.”
Everyone shouts, and she’s wrapped in hugs and congratulations. She grins - she’s making history, and she’s so proud of herself. “Plus, she adds, “not flying across the country means I’ll have a little more time to visit Andrew.” Mendoza smiles, and takes her hand. As the congratulations settle down, she says, “This of course means that we’ll need a new unit chief for the BAU. And if she’ll have it, I want JJ to be the one to take the wheel.”
JJ is delighted and surprised. “I…” she looks at Will, who just nods, smiling. He’s happy for her. “Yes. Yes, of course.”
“Well if we’re announcing things,” Reid interrupts. “I’ve… I’ve had a lot of time to think. And I think that I want to start teaching full-time. Not immediately. Maybe wait a few months to help with the transition - school wouldn’t start until the fall, after all - but Blake put me in touch with Georgetown and they’ve offered me a position. If that’s… okay?”
“Spence, that’s more than okay,” JJ says. Reid exhales. He doesn’t have to worry about disappointing them.
“We’re happy for you man,” Luke tells him. The party continues. There’s dancing and laughter and fun and toasts.
-
When we fast forward it is in snippets. We watch Penelope clear out her office and say farewell. Luke walks her to the elevator and kisses her cheek. Lily Kershaw’s “Soft Dark Nothing” begins to play. [Good night, goodbye, good luck, don’t cry] Then we jump and Rossi and Krystall are packing for a vacation. She asks him if he misses it already, and he says for once, he doesn’t mind the quiet. [It’s the edge of it all / it’s the edge of it all]
Another skip, and Reid is sitting in a park that looks like the one from his dream, but this time he’s with Max. She asks him how he’s feeling about leaving the BAU, and he says that it’s time for him to find out who he is outside of the job. To be himself. She responds, “To be nobody but yourself means to fight the hardest battle which anybody can fight.” He stares at her, and she clarifies, “It’s e.e. cummings. The poet?”
“I know.” Reid is a bit stunned. The conversation is so familiar. “You know cummings?”
Max laughs. “I like more than just art. cummings is good, but I think nobody quite compares to Pablo Neruda.” Her words remind him that she isn’t Maeve. She’s different - and that’s not a bad thing. Maeve is his past. Max is his future.
“Better than Poe?” Reid asks
“Oh, for sure!” she responds. He disagrees, and they playfully tease each other. He’s found that passion again. He’s letting himself live fully. When they stop for a moment, he leans in to kiss her. She kisses him back. [All my friends at the edge of the world / I hope to see you again / it’s the end of our time / it’s the end of our time]
-
We jump again and Emily is adjusting her new nameplate in the Director’s office. She takes a deep breath, and looks out the window at Washington D.C. It’s a big change. An agent steps into the room.
“Director Prentiss? The press conference will begin in fifteen minutes.” She thanks the agent, and when she’s alone once more, she picks up the phone and dials a number. JJ answers it.
“Everything okay, Emily?” she asks.
“Yeah,” she answers. “Just… wanted to say thank you. For everything.” So much is meant in those words. For being a friend, for saving her life, for standing by her. [Oh how little did we know/we had such a long way to go]
JJ is emotional too. “Always,” she answers. “You’re gonna be great.”
“So are you,” Prentiss replies. “Go get ‘em, Unit Chief Jareau.” [When you sleep tonight you’ll be in my dreams]
And that’s exactly what JJ does. She hangs up the phone in her office, grabs a file, and walks into the roundtable room. Luke, Matt, and Tara are all there, as are three new agents - two profilers and a media liaison. They’re young, diverse, and wide-eyed. There’s also a new technical analyst, one of the techies we saw at Garcia’s workshop [Soft dark kind of love / soft dark nothing comforting me]
“We’ve got a case,” JJ announces. “It’s urgent, so we’ll debrief on the jet. But I know that this is the first day we’re all together as a team, and I want to do this right. So welcome to the BAU. We save lives, yes. But we look out for each other here. You’ll have to make a lot of decisions in the field, and it won’t always be easy. There’s going to be plenty of time to learn along the way. But the only thing you have to remember is that no matter what, we’re a family first. And everything we do, we do like a family. If you hold onto that, you’ll be okay. Now.” She takes a deep breath, and we pan out of the roundtable one last time. “Wheels up in thirty.”
They file out of the room and the camera moves slowly to a table at the back of the room. There’s a few different photos and we see them pan over, each of the agents that has been on the show included. We stop on a shot of the BAU we said goodbye to - Luke, Tara, Reid, Prentiss, Rossi, JJ, Simmons, and Garcia - at the farewell party. And we fade to black. [The earth went quiet and the air went still / I feel you know more than I ever will]
Oh my god. Yes.
