Tonight on Criminal Minds: The Team Goes Back to College (Sneak Peek)

This is the penultimate episode of Criminal Minds before the bumper 2-hour season finale next week and we will see the team going back to college and a case that has spanned nearly 20 years. This is also the case the introduced Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and Hotch (Thomas Gibson) so expect some flashback fun.

The whole team are giving a lecture about the science of criminal profiling and they look back on particular case that has been part of Rossi's life for nearly two decades. This episode will explore the criminal mind and also the mind of a profiler as this case still haunts Rossi and Hotch today.

The serial killer in this case is on death row but he still has some secrets; including other victims that they never found and now they are being taunted with this information. This sounds like it will be a rather intriguing episode that shows that even the criminals they catch still haunt them. Getting to see a younger Hotch and Rossi should also be fun as origin and flashback stories often are.

Prior to tonight's episode there has been no indication as to how they will be writing Prentiss (Paget Brewster) out of the show. Last week Prentiss successfully purchased a house which would suggest that she is staying, but as we unfortunately know this will not be the case and Prentiss will be departing after next week's finale. Any thoughts on how they will have Prentiss leave the team?

There is still no confirmation that Matthew Gray Gubler will be returning for season 8 as he has yet to sign a new contract. Executive producer Erica Messer spoke to TVLine about this situation and was rather positive about Gubler's return saying "All signs point to yes. He's such a staple of the show. He really loves to play his sweet, vulnerable, smart Reid." and "If Matthew was going in that direction [leaving the show], I think he's the kind of guy who would have said so." Hopefully Messer is correct with this assessment as it would be hard to imagine the show without Gubler.

Are you looking forward to going 'back to school' tonight on Criminal Minds?