Main Character
Name	Alex Blake
Gender	Female
Family	James Blake (husband)
Job	Profiler
Rank	Supervisory Special Agent
Specialty	Linguistics Expert
Status	Alive
Portrayed By	Jeanne Tripplehorn
First Appearance	The Silencer

Dr. Alex Blake is a seasoned FBI linguistics expert and professor at Georgetown who joins the BAU during the premiere episode of Season Eight after Emily Prentiss left the BAU for a post at Interpol.

BackgroundEdit

Not much is known yet about Blake's private life previous to her incorporation to the BAU except that she is married to a member of Doctors Without Borders, James, who is currently abroad, making said relationship a Skype one.

Blake is a Berkeley graduate with a double major. Recruited by the Bureau when she was only 24, she is a veteran FBI agent who made a name for herself by helping solve the Unabomber case, but has a rocky history with Strauss stemming from the Amerithrax case (the investigation of the post-9/11 anthrax attacks), in which Strauss let Blake take the blame when things went south over a linguistics flub and the wrong suspect was arrested^[1]. In fact, having been with the FBI since she was 24, Hotch and Rossi too have known her from her career in the Bureau.

At Georgetown, she teaches forensic linguistics to students that are apparently as intelligent as Spencer Reid. She and Reid have some history together since he makes appearances as a guest-lecturer in her classes.

PersonalityEdit

In The Silencer, Blake comes off as intelligent, with a mind possibly equal to that of Reid's. However, she is also somewhat rebellious, as evidenced when she finds that the BAU didn't do much in the initial investigation of The Silencer. Her primary motivation in rejoining the BAU after spending a leave as a forensic linguistics professor was to restore her reputation within the FBI after her downfall during the events of the Amerithrax case. As a result, she doesn't get along well with Strauss, although the two make amends in Carbon Copy. As her role in Season Eight progresses, she gets along well with the rest of the BAU.

Season EightEdit

In The Silencer, Blake resumes work with the BAU, specifically the team headed by Hotch and Rossi, helping them investigate a serial killer in Seattle, Washington, who was using his son to lure in his victims and, according to her, "made Ridgway look like a saint". Upon returning from Seattle, she meets Morgan and Garcia, who had just returned from their visit to Prentiss in England, and the latter has an embarrassing introductory moment with Blake. Blake then assists the team in their investigation of an escaped convict revealed to be the infamous serial killer "The Silencer". She and Reid work together in trying to deduce a meaning behind messages left behind by the unsub, and when the Silencer is properly identified and tracked down, Blake attempts to talk him down, communicating with him via sign language, as he is deaf. Her attempt to reach him is unsuccessful and he commits suicide. At the end of the episode, Blake and Garcia meet up and redo their introductions, starting a friendship.

In God Complex, she notices that Reid is acting strangely, and when he asks her to drop him off at a payphone, she does so and then asks him what is going on. Reid promptly tells her that he has started calling a woman named Maeve Donovan in a potential romantic relationship, and that he did not wish to tell this to anyone else. Blake promises not to tell anyone. By the end of the episode, Morgan tells Reid that he knows his secret, but from Garcia. Reid then thanks Blake while she is still sleeping. In The Good Earth, Blake assists in the current investigation and is able to successfully talk down the delusional unsub, allowing for an arrest. In Magnum Opus, she is able to deduce the motivation behind the unsub's killings and particularly embraces Reid's return to the BAU after a brief leave following Maeve's death. In Carbon Copy, she finally accepts an apology given by Strauss, who wanted to make amends following the Amerithrax case.

In #6, James makes a surprise visit to her home. He tries telling her something, but before he could complete his announcement, Blake receives a call from the BAU, and she is forced to leave and investigate a case. James approves, knowing that it is her job. By the end of the episode, she returns home, and James finally tells her that he had been offered a job as a professor at Harvard University, and that he agreed to take it if Blake came with him and took up a position as a linguistics professor. He then cites that the two had wanted to be a "real couple" again, and that this were their opportunity. However, Blake turns him down, saying that she was attached to her current job. Expecting that response, James agrees to the terms she offers, in which she would visit him on weekends and holidays. In Brothers Hotchner, she volunteers to drive Strauss back to her New York City hotel room after the team solves a case.

In the following episode, a serial killer and stalker known as the Replicator abducts and kills Strauss. The ensuing investigation reveals that the Replicator has a personal vendetta against Blake, since he had been copying unsubs the team apprehended following her induction into the BAU. As a result, they find the Replicator's first victim, a woman killed in the style of the serial killer she and the team captured in Seattle last year. They then identify the Replicator as John Curtis, a brilliant but reclusive FBI agent who investigated the Amerithrax case alongside Blake and Strauss; he was targeting the BAU because he too was set up for a fall by Strauss after the wrong arrest. As a result, Curtis had been severely demoted, and when Blake was able to rise back to the top by resuming work with the BAU, he became jealous and targeted the team, especially Blake. When the team heads over to a stretch of land owned by Curtis's family, the helicopter carrying her, Reid, and Hotch is hacked into by Curtis and crash-lands. Curtis then ambushes the passengers, knocking them out with knock-out gas and abducting Blake, taking her into a house rigged with multiple explosives. He places her on a seat specifically designed to trigger the countdown process, and when she regains consciousness, Curtis rants to her about the success she achieved while he continued to suffer from his demotion. He then leaves, just as the rest of the BAU, save for Rossi, who was forced to stay behind after a poisoning incident, burst in to rescue her. However, they are all trapped inside the room; Curtis's intention was to ultimately kill the team with the bombs. Garcia manages to counteract the countdown, giving Rossi (who went to the house on his own accord) enough time to rescue the trapped agents, including Blake. Rossi then traps Curtis inside the room, just before it explodes, presumably killing him. Blake later celebrates Strauss's life with the rest of the team.

Season NineEdit

To be added

NotesEdit

• She understands sign language ("The Silencer").

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ Possibly a reference to the incident with Dr. Steven Jay Hatfill, who was named as a "person of interest" in the case, but was eventually exonerated (though he was never actually arrested)