you know, i was writing a full on post about this because i am so goddamn tired of seeing people whining about this in the tags, but now i'm just going to go work off of this because it was pretty close to what i was already working on.
here are the episodes that heavily feature foyet:
nameless faceless 5x01 (92)
that's a 17 episode span. despite that, they don't mention foyet between 4x18 and when he comes back in 4x26; that's EIGHT episodes of the SEVENTEEN episode span where literally nothing happens. for almost half of the foyet arc, the team "goes back to normal" until foyet attacks hotch. why? because they have no new evidence, just like they currently have no new evidence on the replicator.
(and let me remind you, they DID leave it on a cliffhanger between 4x26 and 5x01; can you imagine waiting all fucking summer to find out if hotch was dead or not? like wow, i can't ok, i would have just died or something idek)
and then yes, they reference him lightly between 5x01 and 5x08 (outfoxed) and then it's resolved in 5x09 (100).
in season 8, you've got this replicator arc AND a new agent introduce (who hasn't even had an episode centered around her and won't until episode twenty-fucking-two) AND reid's love interest AND reid's grief AND garcia/kevin stuff AND we're going to hear more about morgan's abuse (bc fuckin erica and co can't like scale it back and focus on a few huge things), so they're kind of juggling a lot of things
BUT here's a list of episodes that heavily feature/mention the replicator (and i may be missing some):
perenials 8x11 (more of a mention, but this is when hotch reveals to the team what's happening)
that's quite a lot of time for someone whose face we haven't even seen, especially while juggling all that, don't you think?
he's been called a "season long unsub" for a reason. please think about what "season long" means.
he's been called a "mystery unsub" for a reason. please think about how mysteries work.
no one is pretending like it didn't happen; they are putting it aside so they can work on cases that have actual evidence. even strauss said it best:
"how many times have you told me that sometimes the best thing to do is wait? each crime teaches you something new? [...] you're not learning anything new. all you're doing is working yourselves to death and ignoring the cases that need your attention."
