Penelope Garcia

Penelope Garcia
'Criminal Minds' character
File:Pgarcia.jpg Kirsten Vangsness as Penelope Garcia
First appearance	"Extreme Aggressor"
Created by	Jeff Davis
Portrayed by	Kirsten Vangsness
Other Appearances	Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior
In-universe information
Occupation	FBI Technical Analyst Co-Communications Liaison
Family	Unnamed mother (deceased) Unnamed father (deceased) Unnamed stepfather 4 unnamed brothers Henry (godson, via JJ)
Spouse	Kevin Lynch (boyfriend)
Children	none

Penelope Garcia (played by Kirsten Vangsness) is a fictional character on the TV series Criminal Minds. She is the Computer Technician of the Behavioral Analysis Unit which the show centers on. She is flamboyant, fun-loving, and provides the rest of the team with comic relief. She is very confident in her abilities of finding answers, and often answers her office phone with a pompous, yet joking, attitude (answering with 'The Office of Unmitigated Superiority', or similar names). This self-confidence is fed by Morgan, who often initiates flirtatious banter, which Garcia seems to enjoy. However, sometimes this banter gets her into some awkward situations, such as when she opens up a phone conversation with a funny yet relatively inappropriate comment, thinking it was Morgan, when it actually turns out to be Gideon or on speakerphone with the entire team surrounding the phone. Although they haven't pursued a romantic relationship, Garcia did show mild jealousy at the sight of Morgan dancing with two other women. She also started to cry twice when she thought Morgan had been killed.

Life before the BAU

Her parents died in an auto accident due to a drunk driver when she was eighteen, and she now helps counsel the families of murder victims in her spare time. Garcia has stated that after her parents died, she dropped out of Caltech and went "underground" but continued to teach herself computer coding. She had been placed on one of the FBI's hacker lists (she was one of a small handful of extremely useful or dangerous hackers in the world), and they recruited her from there.^E309 It has also been mentioned, when she was not allowed to travel with the team to Langley, that she was on the CIA's "lists" as well.^E121 JJ joked that Garcia belonged to that list when she (unsuccessfully) tried to hack the CIA for information on Princess Diana's death and other government conspiracies (Namely, Prince William's phone number). Penelope is into online games, specifically MMOGs, as she was once seen playing a game about Camelot on the BAU network, constantly virtually meeting with "Sir Kneighf", and online alter ego who turns out to be Randall Garner, who is keeping a young woman prisoner while sending the team several clues that, with tremendous help from Reid, they use to catch him and save the woman. .^E122 Garner hacked into Garcia's computer and accessed files about the BAU, which he then used the personal information to find out their whereabouts so he could send the clues there.

Criminal Minds

Garcia is unabashedly an emotional being, which sometimes makes her job with the BAU more difficult. She has broken down crying several times while listening to and watching terrifying things in her office to analyze them for the team. However, according to Agent Hotchner, she "fills her office with figurines and color to remind herself to smile as the horror fills her screens." Garcia is, on the whole, an optimist. She has managed to remain so, even though the job occasionally requires her to dig into people's secret lives, to "find the godawful thing that happened to them that made them do the godawful thing to someone else."^E419 Many team members have commented in various ways, that her optimism is an aid to them, that (as Hotch said) they would never want her to change. Garcia was once shot by a man with whom she had just gone on a date, but she survived the gunshot when the bullet missed her heart and ricocheted into her stomach. They eventually catch the assassin.^E308 After this incident, Morgan insisted she keep a gun, however, it is never shown if she ever took this advice. (Garcia: "I don't believe in guns!" Morgan: "Believe me, Baby Girl, they're real.") She is currently romantically involved with fellow FBI Technical Analyst Kevin Lynch (played by Nicholas Brendon).

Garcia was hurt the most by JJ transferring out of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, and in "Compromising Positions"(Season 6 Episode 4), Garcia opted to replace JJ as their new Media Liaison.

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior

It was understood that Garcia will also appear on the Criminal Minds spin-off: Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior.

External links

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