"Criminal Minds" Subtext Season 3, No.4-5

***
No.4) Episode 3x04 Children of the Dark
Whoa. Okay the subtext isn’t just sizzling, it’s burning down the house.

The entire episode is filled with looks between the two, the type of looks that are so easy to turn into something more than just exchange of eye-contact. (Side note; no straight woman should do as much raking with her eyes as JJ does of Emily.)


[Here's looking at you kid.]

Then there’s a nice little scene where Emily once again is edging around the body contact as she tries to reassure JJ.


[Can I touch you there?]

But the real money shot is in this exchange;

JJ (talking about Emily taking care of an orphaned kid) -“I think it’s a good idea though.”
Emily - “What’s that?”
JJ - “You.” Pregnant pause. “Kids.” Another even more pregnant pause. “I can see it.”
Emily -“Yeah?”
JJ nods and has once again her finger in her mouth (something about Emily sure seems to bring out the oral in JJ). Followed by a shot of Emily holding eye contact a little longer than propriety would allow, before looking away with a small smile and a contemplative look on her face.

During the interaction Emily is somewhat distant and emotionally detached (oh how I love my Ubers), but JJ has no shame in her body, she’s freakin’ ogling. Honestly the best way that I can describe the way she’s looking at Emily is sultry, and this during a discussion about children. This is really difficult to interpret as anything but lesbian overtones, I mean this is not the type of interaction you have with someone you do not have a sexual interest in. When I discuss children with my friends we make cracks about “laughing all the way to the sperm-bank”, I do not put my fingers in my mouth and offer them a coy smile. I don’t know about you, but that’s just not how we roll.

On the meaning of lip touching see the following blog;
http://www.blog.sethroberts.net/2008/06/19/why-do-we-touch-our-mouths-so-much-continued/

In short; Lip-touching = release of a small amount of pleasure = miniature orgasm in disguise. I can buy that interpretation, though from now on I’ll probably be touching my lips at the most inappropriate of times.

An alternative interpretation of lip touching, is that it is a form of reassurance. We reassure ourselves that we are still there physical and actually existing. It’s a way of warding off nervousness and gaining some confidence that stems from that first lip/nipple comfort we got from our mothers as newborns (though personally I consider lip/nipple comfort a more general concept enjoyed by a large number of homosexual women and straight men, not just infants).

Now pick whichever theory you fancy or make up your own interpretation.

If you want to see the “You...Kids" - scene and lip touching for yourself, click the link;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbLfrvA8fEg

No.5) Episode 3x05 Seven Seconds
Touch-down, we have touching. Short brief, but first time Emily initiates touching. She puts her hand on JJ’s back as she informs them of a new turn in the case.

Then there was JJ’s line, in response to whether or not she had children; “Not yet”. Which in itself means nothing, but in relation to last weeks subtextual solicitation shoots my eyebrow into my hairline. Clearly JJ is a woman who knows what she wants.

*Bonus Subtext*
(Episode 3x06 About Face)
Subtext can be found in the most unlikely of places. At the end of the episode we have a scene were Hotchner and Rossi (the new (old) guy on the team) are looking at each other while music plays over the clip. The lyrics playing at the time is “I’m going home to the place where I belong, where your love has always been enough for me”. They look at each other intently, then Hotchner pats Rossi on the arm and they get into the car, leaving the rest of the team behind. In the light of Hotchner's recently failed marriage (which Rossi confronts him about) this could definitely be built into a little alternative story if one wanted to.


[I can't help the way I hold you]

***


(enhanced screencaps from Oracle of Quantico)