Profiler's fathers, a piece of the puzzle?

Has anyone else noticed the lack of influence of fathers among the profilers? Emily apparently has a father but we know nothing about him. (granted they were working on a case but she never asked her mother where her father was or how he was in "Honor among thieves.") Reid's father left. Hotch's father died. Morgan's father died. Elle's father died. (and they were all quite young when they lost their fathers) Garcia's father - she said Garcia was her step-father's name. And we don't know about J.J. or Gideon.

Would this be a normal statistic for this many people to not have a father figure growing up? Or is this a comment on society today?

Do you think that could be a possible factor in why a person could choose a profession like the FBI or am I just reading way too much into it?

It was just a thought.....

Definitely, four dead fathers of a total of eight it´s statistically improbable. Above all if another one is left

I think that people do go into a profession like the FBI just for the reason usually it could be because one of their parents were murdered and they want justice they don't usually go in just cause their parents died, it's just uncommon. But I will say that most people do go into the FBI becuase of it. Others just want to catch the little bastards before they hurt anyone else.

It's an interesting point...and I hope more people will come to this thread to discuss the concept!

Shawn....where are you? Calling Shawn! I know on a different forum you made a comment on having a theory that J.J.'s parents are dead, but I didn't catch what that theory really is (just your comment that in the last episode when J.J. was trying to talk the sheriff through breaking the news that his son had died she made a comment which made you think your theory might be right.) Wheeew! That was a long explanation.....to basically explain nothing except you have a theory!

I'd love to hear more about that and why.

Heya-

Ok- it's a long percolating theory of mine, one I'm currently turning into fic.

Anyway- here it is in a nutshell-(and it's long so bear with me)

We've heard details about everyone on the team's parents EXCEPT JJ.

Gideon- Frank mentioned his folks in NO WAY OUT. Sure, we didn't get details, but they were mentioned. And Gideon seemed to have no reaction to it.

Hotch - We know his father is dead, whether of cancer or a heart attack, we can't be sure because it's changed from THE TRIBE to ASHES AND DUST. We know that Hotch's mother was an active part of his life and upbringing.

Garcia - No idea as far as her real father, but she was raised by a step-father, even took his last name. We know that she has four brothers.

Reid - We know the most about him. Mom in an asylum, dad walked out, single child.

Morgan - Dad died in the line of duty, mom raised him and his sisters.

Prentiss- I think her dad was mentioned, but we know her mom is an Ambassador. She's likely an only child. It's never been specifically said, but it seems obvious.

Elle - Dad died in the line of duty, raised by mom.

JJ - All we know of her family is that she has an aunt and an eight year old niece, which means that she has at least one sibling.

Ok- that's what we know of their families, now of their reasons for joining the FBI:

Reid, Garcia: Likely recruited
Morgan: Joined because of what Carl did to him
Hotch: A former DA, I tend to believe his reasons that he told JJ about why he joined
Prentiss: Wanted to break away from her mother's influence would be my guess
Gideon: My guess is recruited like Reid and Garcia, but he's been with the FBI so long that why he joined in the first place might no matter any longer.
JJ: Not a clue.

What we do know is that not one of our people seems to have a violent crime in their past.

Now my evidence- admittedly not as solid as I'd like - but interesting(I think):

(1) In NORTH MAMMON - her aunt gives Polly's mom a picture of JJ with two soccer friends. The picture is strange because how many aunts would have a photo like that. Sure, when I was in HS, I have my softball pics to fam and friends - but the singles. Because my friends? They didn't know them and they didn't care about them. That kind of photo is one that a mother would have. Or someone who might have been playing mom.

(2) By her own admission, JJ's not an academic. She said that soccer was her only way out of a small town. Which means that it's not likely she was recruited like Reid and Garcia would have been. It means she would have had to have chosen to go down the FBI path. What makes a college athlete decide to go into government police work? Something has to trigger that and I don't think it's idolization of Dana Scully.

(3) We know next to nothing about JJ. That suggests to me that what we'll eventually find out will be explosive and fascinating.

(4) Finally - the scene in OPEN SEASON - when Alex's father says "don't you understand, he's all I've got"(or something like that) - JJ looks down and away. It goes beyond empathy. We've seen her empathize several times with victims and survivors - her eyes never leave their face. They absolutely did here. That seemed like a very persona moment.

Anyway, that's what I got.

Ooo...wow...yummy!

This is precisely the sort of analysis I was looking for!

*devours it happily*

Thank you, Shawn, for sharing and thank you to ILtS for bringing her/him in to share her/his theory!

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing......hopefully some day we'll find out how close you are.

Wow, very smart and in depth. Thanks for all that info.

Suffering characterizes heros
It wouldn't have had the same emotional impact if all characters have had happy family^^

I would like to see a meeting between Reid and his father

I would love to see if Reid has anything to do with his father anymore. In Revelations he says he has a father and a mother so I assume he's still alive. That would be very interesting.

I wonder too about Gideon's relationship with his father. In Fisher King he talks about going to see Nellie Fox (baseball card guy) a lot, I wonder if he went to the games with his father. And I wish that they would tell us more about his son. It's interesting that he's a father figure to Reid but his own son doesn't seem to have anything to do with him. (I wonder if his son just always felt like he was too busy at work to be a father) Gideon also talked about the movie reels he got from his grandfather and the greatest gift he gave him was laughter so it sounds like he was close to him anyway. We've never been given any reason to think there were family problems of any kind with Gideon the way they've sort of hinted at that with everyone else.

Outside of the obvious fact that there were enough problems for him to get a divorce.

~)~

On a side note, has anyone noticed whether or not Mandy remembers to take off his wedding ring? I ask that, because I've noticed several times on House that Hugh Laurie either doesn't take his off or switches hands, so I wondered if there was the same thing with Mandy.

I was thinking family problems while growing up...relationship problems with his parents. We know he's had some problems with his son. And we don't know for sure that he is divorced. His wife could have died......he has only said he isn't married.....not why he isn't married so he could be a widower.

I never thought about that being Mandy's own wedding ring....I just know as Gideon he wears the mysterious rings.

Didn't they have Gideon having a conversation with his wife in the original pilot script? I guess they could have changed their minds and decided she was dead instead of course...

I don't know.....I've never heard about that. The fact that he does still wear a wedding ring makes me think it's more likely that she died than they got a divorce though. Maybe he's been married twice before and that's why he wears two wedding rings.

Yeah...wasn't it a "pillowtalk" convo, or am I thinking of a convo between the Hotchners?

If I remember rightly he called her from the plane, its been ages since I read it so I can't remember what it was about but you could be right! I think her name was Karen, that's about all I can remember...

I haven't seen the whole series - missed almost the whole firsth season - but if you allow me some expeculation:
I'm about to say JJ had a nice daddy she was close to - she just seems the type - that I believe is still alive. as for Gideon, his is probably dead by now, but normally the grumpy boss is the one with daddy issues, so i'd say he had a nice relatioship with him, That may change once I see his son, but by now...

I'm going to have to rewatch "secrets and lies" from Season 1. I don't really remember what Gideon said but I remember thinking he made a comment that made me think that was why he didn't seem very close to his family.

Where did you read the original pilot script?