Criminal Minds Fans Have A Problem With This Overused Trope In The Show

In Season 8, fridging is trotted out again. During the early episodes of the season, Spencer Reid began communicating with a woman named Maeve (Beth Riesgraf), who is mostly homebound due to someone stalking her. As their phone relationship continues, Reid begins to fall in love with Maeve despite never meeting in person. Shortly after they finally meet face to face, Maeve is abducted and killed by her stalker, leaving Reid inconsolable. Much like with Rossi, the fridging here is done to provide an emotional arc for Reid, an arc that could have derived from something other than killing his love interest.

In the Reddit post, u/roselighters admits that while the fridging on "Criminal Minds" is not a deal-breaker, the repeated use of the trope is bothersome. For a rather small team, the majority of the BAU's men have had a love interest killed solely to give the men a challenging heartbreak to overcome, and those women deserved better.