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He's the one thing you can never take from us.
Maeve's last words in "Zugzwang"

Dr. Maeve Donovan was a recurring character who appeared as SSA Spencer Reid's girlfriend in Season Eight of Criminal Minds.

Background

Not much is known about Maeve, except that she worked as a geneticist and had an ex-fiancé named Robert "Bobby" Putnam. She viewed the MRI scans of Reid's brain when he started suffering from headaches since the events of Season Six. Maeve was also the focus of a dangerous stalker who had been following her around, prompting her to stay inside her house most of the time and keep the curtains drawn and the doors locked. She and Reid had been in contact with each other for six months during the events of Season Eight and the calls were intimate for some time. It also appears that Reid was fully aware of her stalker, which may have been why he spoke to her using a payphone. Although Reid offered once to help her, Maeve firmly denied his help, fearing the stalker would hurt him, even though she herself had no idea who her stalker was or if Reid was truly endangered.

Season Eight

God Complex

Throughout the entire episode, Maeve's face isn't seen, as it is shrouded in darkness caused by the drawn curtains. She calls Reid and they talk about his progress with his headaches and sleep deprivation. Reid then suggests that the two meet up personally, but she turns him down, fearing that her stalker will hurt Reid. Later on, Maeve proves to be a great source of help with the current case. By the end of the episode, Reid offers the BAU's assistance in tracking down her stalker, but once again, she turns down the offer. She then concludes their call by saying, "I love you." This statement surprises Reid, causing him when he nearly heads the wrong direction before realizing it.

The Lesson

When it becomes clear to her that her stalker has disappeared, Maeve informs Reid, and she then suggests that it is time for them to meet. Reid is reluctant because he fears she will disapprove of his appearance and their relationship will be ruined. By the end of the episode, Maeve's face is finally seen as she walks up to a restaurant where she plans to meet Reid. However, he calls her, warns her that he thinks her stalker might be inside, and tells her to leave. She does, just as Reid realizes that it was a false alarm, with the man coincidentally being Bobby. However, a waitress gives him a book, The Narrative of John Smith, which was sent by her. The book contained a handwritten quote by Thomas Merton: "Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone; we find it with another."

Murder-Suicide

Zugzwang

Maeve reappears in the episode, in which she is abducted by her stalker, revealed to be a woman named Diane Turner. She watches as Diane kills Bobby, and then taunts her, stating that she could not commit suicide as she hopes to personally see Reid arrest her. By the end of the episode, Diane kills herself and Maeve, despite Reid's efforts to rescue her. The episode ends with Reid sobbing before her body.

Alchemy

Maeve appears in a dream, in which she sits and talks to Reid in a coffee shop located in a library, and then asks him to dance with her, stating that she wants him to feel her before she becomes a memory. Reid obliges, and they dance before a curtain closes.

Season Nine

In The Blood

When Garcia hosts a Day of the Dead celebration, she asks everyone to bring a photo of a deceased love one for a shrine. Reid puts up a photo of Maeve along with one of inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla.

Season Twelve

Red Light

Maeve reappears in a vision of Reid's, following Cat Adams' claim that she arranged for Lindsey Vaughn to rape him in order to acquire his semen so that Cat could use it for self-impregnation. According to Cat, Lindsey accomplished this by convincing a drugged Reid that she was Maeve. It was later revealed that Cat was lying, and that her unborn baby was fathered by Lionel Wilkins instead.

Season Fifteen

And in the End...

Maeve returns as a vision in the series finale "And in the End..." in Season Fifteen after Reid suffers from a brain injury. Her primary role in Spencer's mind was convincing him to finally make a decision based not on what he thought others wanted but instead on what made him happy.

Maeve S15E10

Maeve in "And in the End..."

Notes

  • Maeve was not Reid's first potential love interest, as he had brief relationships with actress Lila Archer and art teacher Maxine Brenner; Reid also flirted with another woman, a bartender named Austin. However, she is the first to actually tell him "I love you".
  • Her relationship with Reid lasted for a total of ten months.
  • Her favorite author was Arthur Conan Doyle. ("The Lesson")
  • Her favorite poet was E.E. Cummings ("And in the End...")
  • She loved nineties rom-drams and rom-coms and her favorite was City of Angels. ("And in the End...)

Appearances

References

  1. The pseudonym she used in her letters to Reid, which is mentioned in Zugzwang
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