#ldsk

Season 1, Episode 6 LDSK

Hotch helping Reid pass his gun exam... presumably.

The best way to look at how Reid views his own safety and his own determination to keep living his by looking at his body language when he is put in danger.

Above is a photo from the first time we see Reid’s life put in danger which is 1x06. In this scene Reid is timid, he scrambles to put his hands up before kneeling on the floor as he is told to do. He only lifts his head to look at Hotch or when the unsub is directly addressing him and he avoids eye contact when he can. He stays looking at the floor in the hopes that he will get out of this alive.

Then above we have 2x15, Revelations. Here, whilst Reid puts up more of a verbal fight, he is of course still begging for his life. He is begging for Tobias to front again and to not be given the drugs, he is crying which are all standard reactions to being in his situation.

Then we will fast forward to 4x03, when Prentiss and Reid are held hostage together. At this point, Reid has already been through a lot, but his self preservation is still very much there. He has more confidence now because he knows best how to navigate and manipulate these situations, but there are still moments where he shows timidness towards his captor because he is unsure what he will do next. He stumbles over his words at times and is hesitant.

This is a big time jump but to me it shows the most contrast and that is; Reid’s prison era in season 12! At the beginning he is weary and he begs for help where he can, but this is where he truly breaks and we see that in this photo. Here, he is no longer submissive to the people endangering him and in this photo he has just stabbed himself in order to get his biggest threat taken away. He is looking up with a smile on his face, he is no longer cowering or reacting to the pain, this man just stabbed himself and all he can do is look in the eyes of his biggest threat and grin.