ET exclusively debuts a first look from Wednesday's new episode.
Has Reid finally found his person?
Criminal Minds airs two episodes this week and in the first hour, titled "Date Night," Rachael Leigh Cook returns as Maxine, the woman Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) serendipitously met at the park in the episode, "Saturday," after being advised that he should go meet someone outside of the BAU. The two immediately hit it off.
In ET's exclusive sneak peek from the upcoming episode, Reid invites Maxine over to his apartment before their planned coffee (their third!) but the fact that he very clearly cleaned every nook and cranny of his place before she arrived causes some concern on her end.
"You, uh, you cleaned... We're just getting coffee. Why did you bleach your apartment?" Maxine says, a little wary of Reid going out of his way to make sure his apartment was spotless.
Of course, Reid had a very Reid-like answer.
"Even though it's our third coffee date, you wanted to see my apartment which initially I thought was kind of odd but then I was the one who actually said you should meet me at my apartment and then I realized I have not had company in four years so I should probably open up a window. Air out the place," he adorably replied.
Maxine pauses for a second before asking him a serious question, one she meant to ask earlier: "Are you OK with this? Taking things slow?"
Reid stutters a little before assuring her that he's fine with going at a snail's pace, even though his facial expression may say otherwise.
"Good, because whenever I've taken things... fast, I've been disappointed," she says honestly. Watch ET's exclusive clip above to see Reid's response.
Criminal Minds showrunner Erica Messer spoke to ET in January following the final season premiere, where she previewed the aftermath of JJ's (A.J. Cook) messy love confession to Reid turning out to be a false one and how Reid will handle that truth moving forward.
"What makes him happy, when he talks about happiness, it's always involving work. JJ said this and like, 'OK, who are you without these people around you? Who are you when you're walking in a park and you interact with a stranger?'" Messer said of Reid possibly moving on.. "Within that, he meets somebody who makes him happy and makes him smile. JJ recognizes that in him and says, 'You need to chase that. That thing that's making you feel so happy right now, you need to explore that further.' And it's her realizing, 'I want that for him as much as he wants that for me.'"
Criminal Minds airs back-to-back episodes on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
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