guys you don't understand the way elle greenaway is genuinely such a compelling character oh my god. she worked in sex crimes before she transferred to the BAU, it's literally established from the get go that not only is she extremely caring but she's also got the determination and nerves of steel that set her apart. she's funny, she's badass, she's a bit mean, a bit insensitive sometimes, she's got issues with sometimes taking things a bit too far. she's a woman in a typically male field in the early 2000s. and then she gets shot in her own home and the person who shoots her then dips his finger into her wound and writes on the walls with her own blood. and she could have so many people to blame. she could blame gideon for breaking the rules in the first place just to taunt the guy out. she could blame hotch for making her go home, anderson for not staying with her. but she doesn't. she must hold an insane amount of frustration, fury, anger, resentment, fear and she must be exhausted. she survives. she comes back to work cause she can't spend another minute watching soap operas in her house. how must it have been living in that house, elle? watching tv as though her life didn't pretty much end. they should've realised something was wrong. people who get shot at their work don't tend to want to come back. they shouldn't be allowed to come back early, at least not without checking if they have a secure safety net, someone to talk to about these things. it's no wonder she cracked. their entire job is to read people and they couldn't see what was right in front of them. you mean you didn't think it was risky to make elle the decoy rape victim after she was so violated herself? after she had just told reid that she could sometimes feel his fingers still inside her? you think her coming for the guy wasn't extremely understandable? her rage. being a woman does things to you. being elle greenaway does worse. so she kills him. she let him go. it was her fault that she was too hasty, that she was panicking on the job, that she was too wrapped up in her own feelings to properly catch the guy and now? now he walks. or maybe it was gideon's fault for breaking the rules or hotch's for sending her home or godforsaken anderson for leaving her there. either way it's happened. and she has no other choice but to kill him, right then and there. she saved countless women from their fate. she saved countless women from her fate. and no man gets to tell her she did something wrong.
