Penelope Garcia

Penelope Garcia is the BAU's Technical Analyst and also the team's Media Liaison Officer since Jennifer Jareau's promotion to Supervisory Special Agent; the latter is a job that she formerly shared with Aaron Hotchner before his departure from the BAU.

Background
Garcia's parents died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver when she was eighteen. They were out looking for her, as she still hadn't come home by her curfew. She has stated that after her parents died, she dropped out of the California Institute of Technology, went "underground" but continued to teach herself computer coding, and became a Goth. She had been placed on one of the FBI's lists that concerned a small handful of extremely talented yet dangerous hackers in the world, and the FBI recruited her from there (Penelope). Prior to her recruitment, she was a vigilante hacker mentored by Shane Wyeth, who would hack into companies and other businesses whom she felt were engaged in criminal activities, which attracted the attention of the FBI. Her hacker nickname was "The Black Queen", likely due to her habit of dressing in black, Gothic clothing and makeup. She was arrested by the BAU in 2004 while they were investigating a case, and she was given a choice to either work for them as their Technical Analyst (as Hotch deduced a kind and loving nature from her cyber-protests) or serve jail time; she decided to accept the job. According to Shane, she did so because she wanted to do something more useful and noble than violating and vandalizing websites.

On Criminal Minds
In the episode "Sex, Birth, Death", she showed a fondness for Reid, offering to take him out on the town to distance himself from a subject. However, this was interrupted by the subject's attempted suicide.

In the episode "Lucky", Garcia was shot by a man she had just gone on a date with, but she survived the gunshot and later recovered.

In the episode "Penelope", Garcia is rushed to the hospital after the gunshot. She quickly recovers, but is attacked again after she is released from the hospital. The aggressor targeting her is revealed to be a sadistic cop with a "hero homicide complex", putting people in danger in order to save them for his own glory. She recovers from her attack and helps JJ kill the cop while he held an Internal Affairs agent hostage.

In the episode "100", Garcia is instrumental in narrowing down George Foyet's location, with the help of Kevin Lynch. She cross-referenced all of the medications that Foyet required and found out that he was back in the D.C. area. Reid would later discover his alias (Peter Rhea).

In the episode "Compromising Positions", she wishes to take on JJ's old job. Although Hotch is reluctant at first, he agrees. She changes her appearance in the process to look more professional. However, the pressure brought from juggling between the two jobs in the wake of the current case takes a toll on her mind, and she begins to stress out. At the end of the episode, Garcia agrees that she should remain as Technical Analyst.

In "The Black Queen", Garcia is forced to revisit her old past as a hacker after the BAU revisits a case on request by Shane Wyeth and his hacker group Star Chamber. As a result, she visits Shane at the Star Chamber headquarters, appealing to him by dressing up in her old clothing. He is able to give her some information, but winds up arguing with her and stating his disapproval of her new life. Later, Garcia confronts Shane online, where he reveals that he had been following her life ever since she joined up the BAU, consequently misinterpreting her relationship with Morgan as an actual romantic relationship. After Shane survives a near-fatal attack by the unsub, Garcia approaches him and reconciles with him.

In the episode "200", she assisted in the search for JJ (who went missing), by hacking into a database containing information relating to JJ's time at the U.S. State Department. Garcia also manages to deduce JJ's location after receiving a distress alarm triggered by JJ.

In the episode "Demons", she shot a nurse who was attempting to kill Reid while he was recovering in a Texas hospital after being shot in the neck by a suspect. During the shooting, she used Reid's own gun, which she quickly grabbed from an items bag.

In the episode "Burn", however, Garcia has been shown to be traumatized by her shooting the nurse. To get over her fears, she goes to visit him in Texas before he is about to be executed by the state for his crimes. However, before she leaves, Garcia gets into an argument with Morgan over the point of the trip. Upon visiting the convict, she learns he has no one who would watch his execution and still support him, then is requested by him to be the one to do so. After thinking it over, she does so, and is forced to watch as he is executed.

In Season Eleven, it is revealed that Garcia was listed as a target by a network of hitmen after she began investigating them in the deep web during a case. Her identity was unknown to the network, so they dubbed her as "The Dirty Dozen". This was unknown to the BAU until the events of "Target Rich". As a result, she was relocated into an old room in the BAU headquarters, but she continued her normal operations in assisting the BAU in cases. Garcia was finally able to come out of hiding when the BAU tracked down all of the members of the network and dismantled the organization in "Entropy".

Suspect Behavior
Garcia serves as Technical Analyst for Sam Cooper's team at the same time as for Hotch's.

On the Job
Garcia seems to share a playful, flirtatious relationship with Derek Morgan. When working together, they refer to each other by such names as "sweet cheeks" or "baby girl" (later revealed because the first day on the job, Morgan couldn't remember her name and shouted "baby girl" to get her attention). There hasn't been an actual romantic relationship, though Morgan seemed a little jealous when Garcia told him about a man she had met in a cafe. Garcia has also acted jealous, such as when Morgan decided to grab a drink with a civilian he and the BAU met on a case. It is clear that the two of them care very deeply for each other.

Some cases seem to eat away at Garcia, as she often gets nervous or upset when analyzing video or sound recordings of murders or other serious crimes. Often, she has to listen to and watch them over and over again.

Personal Life
"I'm not good at this part. Every time you guys go away, I know you're in all kinds of ginormous danger, and all I can do is sit here in my bubble, and I hope, and I pray and I will my babies to come back to me. I try to stay positive, but I don't know how to do this."

It has been mentioned that when Garcia was not allowed to travel with the team to Langley, she was on the CIA's "lists" as well (Secrets and Lies). JJ joked that Garcia belonged to that list when she unsuccessfully tried to hack the CIA for information on Princess Diana's death and other alleged government conspiracies (namely, she found Prince William's phone number, but couldn't find a pen to write it down before killing her computer).

Garcia is into online games, specifically MMORPGs, as she was once seen playing a game about Camelot on the BAU network, constantly virtually meeting with "Sir Kneighf", an online alter ego who turns out to be Randall Garner, who is keeping a young woman prisoner while sending the team several clues that, with tremendous help from Reid, they use to catch him and save the woman (The Fisher King, Part 1). Garner hacked into Garcia's computer and accessed files about the BAU, then used the personal information to find out their whereabouts so he could send the clues there. Hotch states at one point that when Garcia applied for her position, she submitted her resume on "pink, homemade stationery".

At the beginning of Season Three, she meets Kevin Lynch and eventually becomes romantically involved with him. In Season Seven, Kevin tried to propose to Garcia, but didn't get the chance to do so. Garcia later figured it out by hacking into his computer and finding out that he was looking for rings. As a result, she turns him down, and their relationship appears to have ended (I Love You, Tommy Brown). Garcia eventually becomes involved with an old flame, Sam.

Behind the Scenes
In the "Making Of" documentary for Season Three, Vangsness stated that Garcia's bullet injury was moved from her chest to her stomach between the episodes Lucky and Penelope since a chest injury would mean there would be a large scar on her chest for several following episodes that would require makeup and also meant that Garcia wouldn't be able to show any cleavage.